« April 2004 | Main | June 2004 »
I grew up in California, and so as far as I can remember, I've called fizzy drinks soda. I remember going to Georgia and hearing them use "Coke" as the blanket term for all fizzies, and hearing "pop" in the northwest.
So, as I say goodbye to university life until the next time I take a class, I wanted to point to the recent discovery of the oldest university in the world in the Library of Alexandria.
In taking a page out of real life, some game developers have been putting virtual drugs into their games -- they even have side effects, such as vomitting, nausea, even death. They've put in effects for addiction and withdrawl, add in some ways, these player character addictive elements are only adding to the online addiction of the game.
Are retail scores mainly scapegoating Shrek? Some financial analysts have said that the effect of rising gas prices have made a dent on the economy. I actually think that it's made much more an impact than we realize. Over the last couple of months, gas has risen pretty steadily, resulting in a net rise of about 30 cents per gallon. 30 cents per gallon doesn't sound like a whole lot, but the cummulated effect is substantial over time. I actually think it is due to gas prices, but not because people have less money -- 2 or 3 more dollars per week isn't going to change buying habits drastically. I believe that gas prices in the long run will remain high (and keep climbing) because until people commuting with their gas guzzling SUVs and solo driving, demand for oil rises. As more nations become industrialized, the need for oil rises, and so until another fuel source becomes utilized, it will remain this way.
I've never managed to finish this series (although many people have told me it's quite good). I probably should at one point or another, but I find it interesting that now movie studios have caught on to good books becoming successful movies -- no doubt thanks to the success of Harry Potter, LOTR and Shrek in film.
Does anyone use Netflix and have any comments on the service?
Update: A co-worker of mine pointed out the search field on the site, and also showed me Greencine which also provides the same kind of service, although Greencine does look like it carries a much larger selection of foreign flicks, including a section for Hong Kong films such as Steven Chow's God of Cookery and Comrades: Almost a Love Story.
I find that the problem with me is not in being able to stay awake -- I can usually stay awake without the aid of caffeinated beverages, but rather the problem of making effective use of time.
Although I do like fizzy drinks once in a while, I much prefer drinking tea and fresh juice to the canned and prepackaged beverages pumped with high fructose corn syrup.
I think that video games have become the main entertainment medium of choice for youths. The problem I see with this is that they are starting at such an early age, I have to wonder and worry about their exposure to games.
I also worry about how it will affect important skills such as literacy, language and imagination, because games are not yet an effective tool for teaching those skills. I had quite an imagination as a child, and I believe it was in no small part due to the influence of reading and playing with toys. Games, especially have always been a way of training kids, although this was supplanted at the start of the industrial revolution, when public schooling became the way to train children for factory life. If one examines the toys and games of those living on farms during the same era, one will find that the toys and games played train them for doing farm chores.
Count 'em: That's a total of 15 sushi plates + 1 order of soft shell crab, 1 order of baked scallops and one order of baked mussels.
Christine and I went to Sushi Maru tonight, a local sushi boat restaurant in San Jose that we frequent from time to time. At first they seated us at a table, and then moved us to the bar. So, we ordered most of the sushi by listing what we wanted, but when we moved, the server passed on our list to the sushi chef, so as soon as we finished off a sushi plate, another would show up.
Note: Shortly after this picture was taken, 2 cups of green tea ice cream arrived, courtesy of Christine's "superpower".
Analysts have been predicting for a while now that we'd be seeing $3 per gallon before summer. Gas prices, I've noticed, is a cyclical one that gradually inches upward.
The American lifestyle, it turns out is responsible for 45% of the world's gasoline consumption. Think about that for a moment -- out of all the industrialized countries in the world, America almost use more gasoline than the rest of the world combined. Despite our heavy use and our dependence on foreign oil, we still manage to retain some of the cheapest gasoline prices in the world.
The market for SUVs resides mainly in the U.S. Few countries have need for personal vehicles which are so bulky and consume so much gasoline.
What I also interesting about this was the colophon attached to the scroll, which is the oldest copyright notice I've ever seen: "Reverently [caused to be] made for universal free distribution by Wang Jie on behalf of his two parents on the 13th of the 4th moon of the 9th year of Xiantong [i.e. 11th May, AD 868]".
I do have to say I'm fairly impressed with the Bristish Library's Website, even if it is difficult to navigate at times.
You can also take a look at the Gutenberg Bible and Leonardo DaVinci's notebook.
Ring ring ring ring ... bananaphone!
Which, I suppose, is kinda of a followup to the equally strange badger badger badger badger mushrooooom!
Of course, this year, unlike other years, I'm not attending, and I'm actually glad. Although I do miss out on a free trip to LA, and having my meals comped for a few days, I won't miss everything else about E3, and I can sit here in front of the computer and read all the news about the games without needing to walk the convention hall, or be denied entry because I don't have a press pass. Coverage of the show has gotten to the point where I don't feel like I'm missing anything by not being there, which makes both my feet and my eardrums very happy.
(Photos and more in the extended entry)
Since I didn't want to pay $7 for parking, I parked at the base of the mountain and walked up using the trail. You can walk up the street too, but that's not recommended, since you're liable to get hit by a car. The sign lists the hours Hakone Gardens is open, and also posts a warning that poison oak exists on this trail. Having been years since I looked any kind of plant guide, I couldn't remember what poison oak looked like, and spent the length of the trail avoiding the touch of any plant.
The first structure I saw was the teahouse. Unfortunately, they were holding a bridal faire within the buildings, so I couldn't see the interior. One of the signs nearby says that the buildings here are reconstructions based on a 14th century tea trader's home in Japan.
The well is right next to the building. I'm not sure what function this building served, but it too was closed to the public today.
There's a gigantic koi pond within the garden, filled with koi, turtles and a couple of ducks. A couple of red dragonflies flittered across the pond, but my camera isn't quick enough to catch them in these shots.
It was quite hot and sunny, so a good number of koi stayed under the cool shade of the bridge.
Past the pond, is a little waterfall that feeds into the koi pond.
If you walk around, eventually you'll come to a walkway. Past this is the bamboo grove, but because they want to protect the young bamboo (they are quite fragile this time of year) they've closed off the grove temporarily.
This is a little area where they grow tea plants. These signs indicate what's been planted here.
A closeup of some flowers.
This is Big Basin Way in Saratoga. Unlike other main street shopping areas, Big Basin Way doesn't have a whole lot of retail shoppes. Most of the stores along this avenue are actually cafes or restaurants. It's also missing the one essential element of a thriving main street -- a good bookstore. Saratoga is one of the more affluent towns in the Bay Area, and I actually had to walk a bit to get a good shot of the street without a big SUV blocking the view.
This is "The Plumed Horse", one of the restaurants along the street. It seems to have some "Old World" charm to it. It reminds me of something I might see in jolly old England.
The Plumed Horse has one of these carousel-type horses on a pole outside the restaurant, but where are the plumes?
This is where I ended up eating lunch -- Masu Sushi. The restaurant is actually run by a Korean family, and they have another Masu Sushi in San Mateo, where I will occassionally go for lunch. Comparitively, this one is bigger and has much better layout and decor than the other one. Their selection of rolls is quite good, as is the variety of their fish.
Toro and a Grilled Eggplant roll, part of my lunch. I also had two other rolls -- the Crazy Roll (Shrimp Tempura with Crab on top) and the Vega-something Roll -- (Deep Fried Yam and Cucumber).
They have a great selection of vegetarian sushi and even have their vegetables on display. I have a good number of vegetarian friends, so it's always nice to find a Japanese restaurant that can cook more than just vegetable tempura for them.
Their fish selection is no less impressive. The chef said they have Toro on a regular basis (a sign of a good sushi restaurant) and as you can see from the toro pieces on my plate in the picture above, the slices were massive.
I had noticed a Tapioca Express sign driving onto the street, so I walked that way, only to find out that the place was still under construction. These bubble tea places seem to be springing up everywhere in the area lately, though I do have to wonder about the profitability in an area like this, where the residents are more older than your typical bubble tea crowd.
Since I couldn't find bubble tea, I went to the gelato place instead. It's vanilla bean for those who are curious.
This is small sidestreet. I'm not sure why, but I always find roads like this pleasing to me. The street seems to curve off to someplace hidden.
There's a hidden park right next to the parking lot. As I approach the bridge, I realize that this is a bridge over a small creek.
The creek as taken from the bridge.
The creek taken from under the bridge. Taken from this view, it seems like it'd be a nice place to sit underneath a tree and read nice book or write in a journal entry.
On the way back to my car, I noticed this sign. Hard to believe that from a simple toll booth so many towns would come and go. I don't really understand though how a toll-booth could have operated in the 1850s -- did they take tolls from people instead of from vehicles as we do now? Or did they charge tolls per horse?
I liked the slogan on the storefront -- "fine wine without the attitude". The font is really interesting too.
Next stop: Hakone Gardens
Of the three, Lakewood Center is the closest, about a 10 minute drive via surface streets, and when I was in high school, my friends and I practically lived there on the weekends. This is in part due to having 1) 2 excellent video game arcades (one of them having a huge number of head to head racing games), 2) 2 movie theaters, showing a total of 10 different movies, 3) a round table pizza with free refills on soda 4) 3 different bookstores (4 if you count the newstand which sold magazines and comic books) 5) 2 different music stores, 6) 3 different computer/video game stores , 7) more clothing stores than I could count, and 8) a bus route straight from the high school to the mall which was 50 cents. Basically, everything a high school student would want.
I would go to South Coast and Del Amo occassionally with my parents, and I always thought they made Lakewood look miniscule by comparisson. For the most part, Lakewood is a single story mall (They've since added a partial second floor, but it's not very much), while both South Coast and Del Amo are multiple level malls. I'm surprised that some of the other larger malls I grew up around like Los Cerritos (in my hometown) and Westminister Mall didn't make the list at all.
