Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Cousinitinerary
I just had a 2.5 hour nap... My cousins from Montreal just left this morning, so for every night they were here, I've purposely lost sleep so I can be awake with them longer. Now that they're gone, I just took a long nap, and it was delicious. In my dreams, just like in real life, I was so sleepy; I was actually more sleepy in my dreams, so whenever I woke up I felt really sleepy so I went back to bed, haha.
So, going back a few weeks, on the evening of Friday, July 31st, we packed our tent and sleeping bags and we headed to Ajax to camp. Instead of the usual 60 people coming, it was a smaller event so only 25 people responded to the facebook event, and only 15 people total came, so it was much more intimate and casual. A bunch of pictures and 1 video are up on facebook, and 1 larger video is coming later.
Anyway, when we get back, our cousins (Khoi and Quyen) from Montreal are over. Apparently they arrived here on Saturday morning. Long story short, they were supposed to come and stay until Tuesday morning, but they were having so much fun, so they ended up staying until this morning. So instead of a three-day weekend in Toronto, they stayed for 12 days. Fun times.
During the time they were here, we watched four movies, we had (about) 7 magic drafts, and Vinh skipped 6 days of work. We played countless hours of 4-player magic games, Smash Bros, N+, and a bit of Pictionary and Balderdash. And of course, I had that party too, which was pretty amazing.
Party
Party was amazing. Well, I thought it was pretty good. Or maybe it's because I haven't had a party like this in a long time. In any case, I enjoyed it; having people over that I don't usually have over, all at the same time, and sometimes I even meet new people at these parties. I think it's one of the things I enjoy doing; I mix groups. That is, I have friends from all sorts of places, such as Duy's friends, highschool, and now this Len Duong camp, and my three group of friends don't really intersect much... so I enjoy putting them together and having new friendships form. Heehee.
Also, I like having girls come over =)
So yeah, the party had friends from those three groups, plus one friend from the Len Duong group, John, brought over 9 of his friends, so there were people I didn't know either. And they were nice enough to bring their own beer too, so that was cool. I kinda would've liked to drink more of the hard stuff though, but most of the night was drinking games and beers.
So, I was happy that a lot of people came, and surprised that some people came that I didn't expect to come, and of course, I was sad that some people that I thought would come didn't come. Is it weird that I'm especially sad that David didn't come? Although maybe Sad isn't the right word. It's more like... I think David was one of the four factors that encouraged me to have this party (the other three were me liking parties, me wanting to do something with my Len Duong people, and Eric who wanted me to have a party on a Friday).
So David really wanted me to have a party. So I imagined him talking to my new friends, making new friendships, playing games that aren't videogames or magic, sipping some Gin and Tonic and simply just socializing. And then I imagine him missing all that, and it makes me sad. Though it would've made me even more sad if Wen and Rhys did come =P
Anyway, so party was great. Spent the most on beer, and a bit on pizza. Liquor cabinet was mostly stocked before the party, just needed some Rum and Grey Goose. I also expected that mixed drinks will be a hit at this party, so I bought like, 15 bottles of pop and some juice, but only two cups of Gingerale were used up... so I overbought pop. Anyway, party cleanup went pretty smooth, because John and his 9 guests helped clean up before they left, so that was very nice of them. Pictures are up on facebook, video to come later.
Movies
Let's just type a bit about this, and not write a full-fledged review for each movie. While Khoi and Quyen were here, we watched four movies: Funny People, G-Force, The Proposal, and G. I. Joe.
I thought the beginning of Funny People was too sad, and the ending was too happy, but there were parts in the middle that I thought were pretty funny. I especially like the part when Ray Romano and Eminem were arguing, as well as Adam Sandler's main "girlfriend" was... talking crazy.... o_O... overall though, the movie was okay.
For a change of pace, we went to the 5-Drive-In theatre to watch G-Force and The Proposal. Vinh and Khoi sat inside the Mercedes while Quyen and I sat outside, with coats and a blanket in the nice summer breeze.
I loved G-Force, so it was kinda surprising when I went home and saw it received a 4.2/10 on IMDB. Looking back on it, I still think it was pretty good and overall it was a very fun movie, but I guess it would lose some points for unoriginality or whatever... but I liked it nonetheless.
The Proposal is a romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. All the girls seem to love Ryan Reynolds, and I see why.. hahaha. But back to topic, I think The Proposal was pretty good. Many laughs, good movie. Of course, I wouldn't normally purposely watch a romantic comedy, but I'd have to say I enjoyed this one. Ryan Reynolds is pretty cool, Betty White is always a fantastic actress, and overall movie was good.
Saw G. I. Joe on Saturday with Ambrose, Ray, Alan, Alex, and Khoi and Quyen. I verbally said my opinions on the movie so many times already, but I'll write it here for the final time: I thought the action and special effects were excellent, but the acting was horrendous. Everytime Dennis Quaid or the bad guy opened their mouth, total crap came out. I liked how the movie had the occasional flashback so we can see that person's backstory, I think that was well-done... however, the Ninja's backstory was pure cliche and totally predictable. Even the acting of the white ninja (in the flashback) was horrendous, I mean, his face was so expected.... But overall, I enjoyed the movie. I would give it 8/10, but the acting was so bad that I'll give it 7/10. Surprisingly, Wayan's acting wasn't bad, at least compared to Dennis Quaid and the bad guys's acting.
While we're on topic, Ice Age 3 was great, especially the parts with the squirrel and the acorn. Didn't care much for Ice Age 2 and didn't care much for the squirrel scenes in that movie, but I enjoyed Ice Age 3. Now I've seen Harry Potter 1 and 6, but for the most part I understood what happened in 6. I think I liked it. I think. Yeah.
Magic
A short paragraph on Magic, since we did have (about) 7 drafts. We had:
1: M10 draft
2: Shards of Alara block + M10
3: Shards of Alara block minus Conflux
4: GuildPact Saviors draft
5: GuildPact Saviors Coldsnap backdraft
6: Shards of Alara "choose" draft
7: Leftover cards from #6 draft + 1 booster backdraft with Packwars Rule
8: Shards of Alara 4-player Packwar
Opened a lot of boosters, had a lot of fun. A lot of good multiplayer memories... which reminds me, I still have to photoshop a picture together...
Misc 1 of 5: Cineplex Scotia
I never told anyone this... but I really like the clip they show at the movies before they start the previews, which starts off with a movie reel barrelling down at you at high speed. Something from faraway comes, and then a little slow-mo bullet time where you see it's a movie reel. I don't care much for the part where it jumps through popcorn, but I love it at the end when the movie reel is spinning fast and slowly moving throgh space, and then it turns into the Scotiabank logo.
oh, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU0kenmcCyQ
Misc 2 of 5: Poker Chips
I'm a fan of poker chips, and I am working on a movement (in this house) to use poker chips as a counting thing in many games. I've done it once in Monopoly, and it has worked with GREAT success. Counting out 6 white chips to give to a player after landing on their Oriental Ave. is much easier than counting out 6 one-dollar bills. And now, I've applied it to Magic, where instead of having to mentally remember how much life you have, or to check the paper for each person's life totals, you can plainly see the chips in front of the player to see how much life each person has. Poker chips are AWESOME.
Misc 3 of 5: EB Games and Video Games
EB Games is having some offer now where you can trade in a next-gen game that's worth at least $8 to them, and you can get a free xbox (original, not 360). I think it's a totally amazing offer, although for us to use a second xbox isn't really great, but we're willing to give some away if people want them, hehe. You can also get Xbox 360's and PSP's and stuff, but it costs more games. Anyway, we still have unopened copies of Gears2 and COD5, which we bought at Christmas but haven't had the time to open them... so I'll just wait for COD6 and I'll return COD5 soon...
We don't play the Wii very often anymore, but I think it is just natural for us to get the Wii Motion Plus, and we might as well get Wii Sports Resort. I doubt buying this will increase our usage of the Wii that much, but we'll still buy it, hehe. So I'll try to trade in Gears2 and COD5 for Wii Sports Resort, and possibly a second Wii Motion Plus.
Shadow Complex comes to Xbox Live Arcade next week, and it looks like a game similar to Super Metroid, so I hope it is awesome.
Misc 4 of 5: Cake
So a few weeks ago (when we went camping) my sister finished another Wedding Cake, and whenever there's a Wedding Cake, there are leftover Cake pieces, so now we have TONS of leftover cake, and I find myself eating a lot of it, haha. Before I went to Waterloo, I found out I gained 10 pounds, and when I came back I lost those 10 pounds, but now I've probably gained them back... aww. You know it's bad when you eat cake even when you don't want it... like last night. Last night I just ate some cake even though I didn't want it... that's bad. But it's so good.
Misc 5 of 5: Future
This weekend, it's either a little stay in New York, or there's a Thoi Bao festival at Ontario Place on Sunday. Thoi Bao is the local Vietnamese Newspaper, so on top of going to Ontario Place, we would be going there to watch Vietnamese people perform dances and songs and skits and stuff. You're free to come along... well, not free, it's $25 to get into Ontario Place :P But if we're going to New York, then we're not going to the Festival.
On August 22nd, we're going to Jamaica!
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So, going back a few weeks, on the evening of Friday, July 31st, we packed our tent and sleeping bags and we headed to Ajax to camp. Instead of the usual 60 people coming, it was a smaller event so only 25 people responded to the facebook event, and only 15 people total came, so it was much more intimate and casual. A bunch of pictures and 1 video are up on facebook, and 1 larger video is coming later.
Anyway, when we get back, our cousins (Khoi and Quyen) from Montreal are over. Apparently they arrived here on Saturday morning. Long story short, they were supposed to come and stay until Tuesday morning, but they were having so much fun, so they ended up staying until this morning. So instead of a three-day weekend in Toronto, they stayed for 12 days. Fun times.
During the time they were here, we watched four movies, we had (about) 7 magic drafts, and Vinh skipped 6 days of work. We played countless hours of 4-player magic games, Smash Bros, N+, and a bit of Pictionary and Balderdash. And of course, I had that party too, which was pretty amazing.
Party
Party was amazing. Well, I thought it was pretty good. Or maybe it's because I haven't had a party like this in a long time. In any case, I enjoyed it; having people over that I don't usually have over, all at the same time, and sometimes I even meet new people at these parties. I think it's one of the things I enjoy doing; I mix groups. That is, I have friends from all sorts of places, such as Duy's friends, highschool, and now this Len Duong camp, and my three group of friends don't really intersect much... so I enjoy putting them together and having new friendships form. Heehee.
Also, I like having girls come over =)
So yeah, the party had friends from those three groups, plus one friend from the Len Duong group, John, brought over 9 of his friends, so there were people I didn't know either. And they were nice enough to bring their own beer too, so that was cool. I kinda would've liked to drink more of the hard stuff though, but most of the night was drinking games and beers.
So, I was happy that a lot of people came, and surprised that some people came that I didn't expect to come, and of course, I was sad that some people that I thought would come didn't come. Is it weird that I'm especially sad that David didn't come? Although maybe Sad isn't the right word. It's more like... I think David was one of the four factors that encouraged me to have this party (the other three were me liking parties, me wanting to do something with my Len Duong people, and Eric who wanted me to have a party on a Friday).
So David really wanted me to have a party. So I imagined him talking to my new friends, making new friendships, playing games that aren't videogames or magic, sipping some Gin and Tonic and simply just socializing. And then I imagine him missing all that, and it makes me sad. Though it would've made me even more sad if Wen and Rhys did come =P
Anyway, so party was great. Spent the most on beer, and a bit on pizza. Liquor cabinet was mostly stocked before the party, just needed some Rum and Grey Goose. I also expected that mixed drinks will be a hit at this party, so I bought like, 15 bottles of pop and some juice, but only two cups of Gingerale were used up... so I overbought pop. Anyway, party cleanup went pretty smooth, because John and his 9 guests helped clean up before they left, so that was very nice of them. Pictures are up on facebook, video to come later.
Movies
Let's just type a bit about this, and not write a full-fledged review for each movie. While Khoi and Quyen were here, we watched four movies: Funny People, G-Force, The Proposal, and G. I. Joe.
I thought the beginning of Funny People was too sad, and the ending was too happy, but there were parts in the middle that I thought were pretty funny. I especially like the part when Ray Romano and Eminem were arguing, as well as Adam Sandler's main "girlfriend" was... talking crazy.... o_O... overall though, the movie was okay.
For a change of pace, we went to the 5-Drive-In theatre to watch G-Force and The Proposal. Vinh and Khoi sat inside the Mercedes while Quyen and I sat outside, with coats and a blanket in the nice summer breeze.
I loved G-Force, so it was kinda surprising when I went home and saw it received a 4.2/10 on IMDB. Looking back on it, I still think it was pretty good and overall it was a very fun movie, but I guess it would lose some points for unoriginality or whatever... but I liked it nonetheless.
The Proposal is a romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. All the girls seem to love Ryan Reynolds, and I see why.. hahaha. But back to topic, I think The Proposal was pretty good. Many laughs, good movie. Of course, I wouldn't normally purposely watch a romantic comedy, but I'd have to say I enjoyed this one. Ryan Reynolds is pretty cool, Betty White is always a fantastic actress, and overall movie was good.
Saw G. I. Joe on Saturday with Ambrose, Ray, Alan, Alex, and Khoi and Quyen. I verbally said my opinions on the movie so many times already, but I'll write it here for the final time: I thought the action and special effects were excellent, but the acting was horrendous. Everytime Dennis Quaid or the bad guy opened their mouth, total crap came out. I liked how the movie had the occasional flashback so we can see that person's backstory, I think that was well-done... however, the Ninja's backstory was pure cliche and totally predictable. Even the acting of the white ninja (in the flashback) was horrendous, I mean, his face was so expected.... But overall, I enjoyed the movie. I would give it 8/10, but the acting was so bad that I'll give it 7/10. Surprisingly, Wayan's acting wasn't bad, at least compared to Dennis Quaid and the bad guys's acting.
While we're on topic, Ice Age 3 was great, especially the parts with the squirrel and the acorn. Didn't care much for Ice Age 2 and didn't care much for the squirrel scenes in that movie, but I enjoyed Ice Age 3. Now I've seen Harry Potter 1 and 6, but for the most part I understood what happened in 6. I think I liked it. I think. Yeah.
Magic
A short paragraph on Magic, since we did have (about) 7 drafts. We had:
1: M10 draft
2: Shards of Alara block + M10
3: Shards of Alara block minus Conflux
4: GuildPact Saviors draft
5: GuildPact Saviors Coldsnap backdraft
6: Shards of Alara "choose" draft
7: Leftover cards from #6 draft + 1 booster backdraft with Packwars Rule
8: Shards of Alara 4-player Packwar
Opened a lot of boosters, had a lot of fun. A lot of good multiplayer memories... which reminds me, I still have to photoshop a picture together...
Misc 1 of 5: Cineplex Scotia
I never told anyone this... but I really like the clip they show at the movies before they start the previews, which starts off with a movie reel barrelling down at you at high speed. Something from faraway comes, and then a little slow-mo bullet time where you see it's a movie reel. I don't care much for the part where it jumps through popcorn, but I love it at the end when the movie reel is spinning fast and slowly moving throgh space, and then it turns into the Scotiabank logo.
oh, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VU0kenmcCyQ
Misc 2 of 5: Poker Chips
I'm a fan of poker chips, and I am working on a movement (in this house) to use poker chips as a counting thing in many games. I've done it once in Monopoly, and it has worked with GREAT success. Counting out 6 white chips to give to a player after landing on their Oriental Ave. is much easier than counting out 6 one-dollar bills. And now, I've applied it to Magic, where instead of having to mentally remember how much life you have, or to check the paper for each person's life totals, you can plainly see the chips in front of the player to see how much life each person has. Poker chips are AWESOME.
Misc 3 of 5: EB Games and Video Games
EB Games is having some offer now where you can trade in a next-gen game that's worth at least $8 to them, and you can get a free xbox (original, not 360). I think it's a totally amazing offer, although for us to use a second xbox isn't really great, but we're willing to give some away if people want them, hehe. You can also get Xbox 360's and PSP's and stuff, but it costs more games. Anyway, we still have unopened copies of Gears2 and COD5, which we bought at Christmas but haven't had the time to open them... so I'll just wait for COD6 and I'll return COD5 soon...
We don't play the Wii very often anymore, but I think it is just natural for us to get the Wii Motion Plus, and we might as well get Wii Sports Resort. I doubt buying this will increase our usage of the Wii that much, but we'll still buy it, hehe. So I'll try to trade in Gears2 and COD5 for Wii Sports Resort, and possibly a second Wii Motion Plus.
Shadow Complex comes to Xbox Live Arcade next week, and it looks like a game similar to Super Metroid, so I hope it is awesome.
Misc 4 of 5: Cake
So a few weeks ago (when we went camping) my sister finished another Wedding Cake, and whenever there's a Wedding Cake, there are leftover Cake pieces, so now we have TONS of leftover cake, and I find myself eating a lot of it, haha. Before I went to Waterloo, I found out I gained 10 pounds, and when I came back I lost those 10 pounds, but now I've probably gained them back... aww. You know it's bad when you eat cake even when you don't want it... like last night. Last night I just ate some cake even though I didn't want it... that's bad. But it's so good.
Misc 5 of 5: Future
This weekend, it's either a little stay in New York, or there's a Thoi Bao festival at Ontario Place on Sunday. Thoi Bao is the local Vietnamese Newspaper, so on top of going to Ontario Place, we would be going there to watch Vietnamese people perform dances and songs and skits and stuff. You're free to come along... well, not free, it's $25 to get into Ontario Place :P But if we're going to New York, then we're not going to the Festival.
On August 22nd, we're going to Jamaica!