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I was supposed to go to Tokyo for the weekend because Jason, one of the Tokyopia guys is leaving Japan for Montreal soon, but unfortunately last Tuesday I got a pretty nasty heel spur, which I was hoping would heal up by Friday but never did. So I had to cancel my trip. I was really looking forward to seeing all the Tokyo people again, as well as playing some VF5R and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, but I guess that will have to wait for later...
Since I didn't go to Tokyo, the girlfriend came over and we headed to the hospital together... where they told me nothing new. I explained my regular workout routine (squats, running, biking, etc.) and it was basically a "yeah, don't work out so hard, and oh yeah, lose some weight." wtf, I am losing weight! I know the doctor doesn't know this but one might be able to figure out that I indeed may be losing weight if I'm doing squats, running and biking 3 - 4 times a freaking week. Sheesh.
Anyway, after taking some medicine and getting a lot of rest, my ankle was feeling a lot better on Sunday, so we went out to watch Hana Yori Dango Final. Yes... Hana Yori Dango. Okay, so I know it's kind of a girly show, but oddly enough I really like it. It was actually one of the first anime I watched at URanime when I went to Ryerson, so I'm kind of into the whole series. Plus, Mao Inoue is pretty cute too. That doesn't hurt things!
The movie itself was... alright, although I get the impression that they shot a lot of the scenes where they did because they knew they'd be raking in a lot of cash. I don't know many movies that get to film in Vegas, Hong Kong, Kyoto (specifically in freaking Kiyomizudera) and some tropical island whose name escapes me at this time... all in one movie. Oh yeah, Mao punched a fucking bear that was chasing her on the island.
Yeah... this girl here
Punched a bear like this
Right in the fucking kisser! Well.... at least she'll have a friend in Stephen Colbert!
Also, lawl @ Jun Matsumoto having to speak Engrish in this movie. That was pretty hilarious to me, although I guess others didn't really care. I also realized that I was wrong about Japanese audiences... they will laugh at stuff in movies... just not movies I find entertaining. :) When watching Hana Yori Dango there were a lot of people laughing around us, and maybe it's the exception to the rule but I guess because the movie is in their native language the jokes are actually funny to them. :P I just remember watching Sweeney Todd and realizing that I was the only one in the theatre laughing to the jokes in the songs... ah well, another lesson learned!
Went out with Stefan and the gf on Friday to a beer garden, and had way too much to eat and drink, but it was good! Got to watch some of the Dragons/Giants game as well since it was on the giant projector on the side of the building, haha. Stefan was drooooling over the Budweiser serving girl, and although I gotta admit she had a nice body, her face was not all that great. Too much make-up, but oh well. On Saturday, I went shopping with the gf... picked her up this make-up pouch because she really wanted it. She actually asked me to buy this when I head to Tokyo on Saturday because she didn't think she'd be able to find it in Osaka, but I searched online via mixi and a lot of girls were saying that they found the wicked sista brand in the Sony plaza, so we headed there. On Friday she went there with her mom and said she couldn't find the black one she wanted, but when we went back to the Sony plaza on Saturday, I searched for it while she was looking for make-up and... I found it. lol. Totally weird, but now I don't have to go shopping this weekend... I can now eat more at Barbacoa and play more VF5R! It's on like Donkey Kong!
As for me, I needed a new gym bag -- mine was getting old and crusty -- so I picked up this bad boy somewhere in Yodobashi. The polo shirt and the t-shirt I got at UNIQLO. I really loved Tekkon&Kinkreet so I just had to buy it. They also have the Metal Gear Solid 4 t-shirts on sale at UNIQLO but sadly, none of them really strike me as nice shirts. They seem awfully... plain and dull, which is odd considering the source. :P
On one hand, I am happy that DTFL was able to outlast the "giant" arcades of SHGL and the like. It's a testament to the dedication of the Toronto players and the management of the arcade. On the other hand, I'm sad to see the place that I would happily call a second home be shut down before I could give it a proper sendoff.
The SC guys and I always called it DTFL but the real name was Funland. Since elementary school I would always be at this arcade, playing Street Fighter, Virtua Fighter, Gauntlet, the Grid (Midway, Grid2.0 PLEASE), Spikeout, Virtua Cop or any other game they had. This was the only arcade where I saw F-Zero AX in the full deluxe cabinet too!
While I was in high school I lived in Oakville so I could only visit this arcade once or twice a week, but as soon as I got into Ryerson I was practically living in DTFL. I spent soooo much time and money at this place that it was probably detrimental to my GPA, haha. I remember playing Soulcalibur 2 for so long that on exam days, I'd get to the arcade at noon, play till 2pm and then be like "oh crap guys, I got 5 minutes till my exam, I'll be right back!", head off to write my exam, and then come back to play for 2 more hours. It really was a funtastical time in my life.
DTFL got a ton of games in that most other arcades couldn't get at the time, including the aforementioned F-Zero. The operators were also nice enough to let us Soulcalibur players run tournaments there and video tape them... but more important that that... if I hadn't been at DTFL all those years, I wouldn't have met a lot of my friends who I still keep in contact with now. Guys like the Mystic brothers, Wen, Russell, Paul and so on are people that I'm proud to have met while battling it out in DTFL.
It's funny though... whenever I would come back to Toronto, I'd make plans with everyone, and the meeting place was always easy to choose; we'd always meet at Funland. Now... where the hell are we going to meet whenever I come back for a vacation...?
On June 23, 2004, I moved to Japan. It's been four long years since I lived in Toronto. Now the city that I warmly call my home is just another city that I visit every year. Even though I really enjoy living in Japan and I've made a lot of friends and settled into a job that I enjoy, living in a country so far away from my own, and so different from my own has made me appreciate Toronto, and Canada that much more. I'll be in Japan for the foreseeable future, and I really don't mind it because I love it here, but the day that I decide to move back to Canada permanently is the day I will wear the biggest shit-eating grin on my face. :)
Tiger winning the US Open in the playoff round is an epic victory, and I kind of regret not being able to watch it. It would have been a really, really great playoff round had Westwood not choked on the 18th hole during the final round too. Imagine a three-way tie going into the playoff round! Some people enjoy the fact that playoff rounds for the other majors are only 3 - 5 holes, but I actually like the 18-hole playoff round of the US Open. It's a bit more majestic in my opinion, having to go through the entire course once more in order to win. It's a real test of mental fortitude and makes the situation that much more tense. I don't think Tiger's win is on the same level as Yzerman playing on one leg for Team Canada in 2002, or Isiah Thomas playing on a fractured ankle in 88 against the Lakers... only because golf isn't as physically demanding on the legs as hockey or basketball are. Still, you could tell that Tiger was hurting after a lot of tee-off shots, so him coming back and forcing a playoff round, and then winning the whole thing is very impressive. It must be discouraging to other players though; most can't touch Tiger when he's healthy, and he still manages to win when he's injured! One thing that needs to stop are the douchebag fans who feel the need to shout and holler after every shot by Tiger. That shit is annoying as fuck, even just hearing it on TV. No wonder Tiger gets pissed at photographers and the crowd sometimes.
Even after saying I wasn't going to buy Metal Gear Solid 4 until a few months after release... I still bought it, heh. I'm at the end of Act 1 after about 4 hours of play. The game is definitely, definitely pretty, with a lot of awesome details and some great gameplay... when you're allowed to play, hah. I picked up the game on Sunday because GTA4 is just pissing me off and I doubt I'll finish the game at this point. I've finished GTA3, Vice City and San Andreas (played GTAI and II but never finished them) but GTA4 is a real letdown to me in every gameplay-related aspect, which I've talked about before. I still can't believe they're pulling the whole "you can't kill this guy till we say you can!" bullshit after all these years, and resetting stuff once the mission starts is just WACKY. You were totally allowed to set up your plan before starting a mission, but now you can't even do that! Call it naivety or whatever, but I figured we'd be rid of such silly concepts with this round of games, and especially in a sandbox game, where you are encouraged to do things the way you want to! Oh well, at least so far with MGS4, I'm allowed to play exactly how I want to, without the stupid BS of GTA, heh. I can live with the long cutscenes so long as the game is solid. Despite the length the quality of each scene is simply stunning, so I don't really mind watching them since they're so good. Although with all the tech speak that goes on, I really wish that English subtitles were in the Japanese version. I actually prefer the Japanese voices for Metal Gear but a lot of what goes on gets confusing when they delve into tech talk.
Overall, the weekend was good! I had dinner with my beautiful lady on Friday in Shinsaibashi, and then she came over for dinner on Saturday. The next day I was supposed to go to the gym and she was supposed to come with me but we decided to head to a nearby batting cage instead. I still play softball on a monthly basis but I need to get adjusted to the slo-pitch style instead of the fast pitch that we were doing last year, so I had to find my stroke again. No, not that stroke, that stroke is perfectly fine and well-tuned! My girlfriend was all like "I'm pretty good at ping pong" so we played a few matches and wow... she's good! I was surprised and happy! She wooped me 15 - 3 in the first game but at least she let me get a few more points in the next two sets... even though she still beat me. :) Afterwards we headed down to Namba to watch the Pirates of the Dotombori, an improv comedy group made up of foreigners. Pretty good stuff although all of their concepts are taken from Whose Line Is It Anyway. Hey, if you're gonna copy something, I guess it's best to copy something awesome, eh?
transmission :: Classy, and as expected, Canadian.
[13 Jun 2008|01:39pm]
Boxing champion Steve Molitor says he isn't looking for new management and will stay in Canada after all.
Molitor (27-0) released a statement on Thursday in which he said will remain with promoter Allan Tremblay and manager James Jardine.
Last week, the International Boxing Federation super-bantamweight champion said he was being underpaid fighting in Canada and would seek new management in the United States. Reports said he was upset with the $175,000 he was offered for his next fight.
"Everyone makes mistakes and I have a made a monumental one," he said in the statement. "Bowing to the influence of people around me who had their own interests at heart, and deceived by the promise of mega-dollars that really were not there, I went down a path I should never have contemplated."
He said Tremblay and Jardine "were gracious enough to accept me back in the fold."
Molitor also apologized to TSN, which has televised his last four bouts, and to Casino Rama, where those fights were staged.
He is to fight again at Casino Rama on Aug. 29 against an opponent yet to be announced.
Molitor, a Sarnia, Ont., native, won the title in 2006 from Michael Hunter in England and has defended it four times, most recently with a 12-round unanimous decision over Fernando Beltran on April 5.
This is the type of stuff that the sports world needs. People who are talented, gifted and above all,mature. In an age where most athletes whine about being underpaid and go so far as to insult and point fingers at people other than themselves, this is a breath of fresh air. Kudos to Mr. Molitor for being the better man here... good to see that boxing hasn't knocked him silly!
As a child... Physical games: Tackle British Bulldog, Foot Hockey (basically soccer with a tennis ball lol), Red Rover, Dodgeball Video games: Punch-Out, Street Fighter, Blades of Steel, Final Fantasy
Now... Physical games: Volleyball, Hockey, Baseball Video games: Punch-Out, Street Fighter, Dead Rising, Persona
Huh, the more things change, the more things stay (relatively) the same...
After a wild honeymoon, We will settle down in Osaka in our fabulous House.
We will have 1 kid(s) together.
Our family will zoom around in a black bus.
I will spend my days as a dictator, and live happily ever after.
Shit I loved this as a kid, it was so awesome. I'm so glad that someone had the time to actually come up with a web-based application for it lol. No real life friends were used for the potential spouses, and no potential job positions were used for the jobs. :p That's how I roll!
Grand Theft Auto 4 I hate how GTA4 has eliminated the Taxi/Pizza Delivery/Ambulance missions entirely, and I also hate how you can now ride a taxi around town if you want to. It makes the city feel more alien (although I guess that might be what the developer was aiming for) instead of allowing you to gradually come to grips with the structure of the city. The taxi thing is the big kicker because now you don't even need to memorize the layout because you can just taxi yourself around. And the R3 missions helped a lot in remembering how to get around the city, so those two things together make it a pain in the ass to memorize anything.
I also hate how melee combat still sucks and although the gunplay has gotten significantly better over previous games, it's still not that great. You would think that with combat being such an integral part of the game that they'd make greater strides, but... they didn't. Melee combat in general are just horrid, and being a fan of close quarter combat, I'm really disappointed with this.
Saints Row might have a lot to do with my dissatisfaction with GTA4. I loved Saints Row and finished it in a month or so -- pretty quickly compared to the other GTA games that I finished (Vice City and SA, never finished 3) and all of the improvements SR made to the sandbox formula probably put a damper on GTA4 for me.
Still... GTA4's cinematics and overall story rock the ever living crap out of Saints Row, I'll admit that much. But I had a lot more fun with SR than I'm having with GTA4. I'm almost at the point where I just want to give up on the game and wait for Saints Row 2. Compared to past GTA games, the physics, production values and overall gameplay are much, much better... there just isn't a whole lot of interesting things to do in the game compared to Vice City and San Andreas. Speaking of those two games, I love them a lot more than the original GTA3 because of the setting. Vice City in the 80s and San Andreas in the 90s really gave those games a lot of personality that anyone who lived in the west during that time can relate to. With GTA4... it feels like a random city to me, and something that I can't connect with.
Virtua Fighter 5 I've barely touched the game in the past three weeks... don't get me wrong though, I still enjoy the game. I'm just too busy with other crap and honestly, I just want VF5R to come out so I get back on the saddle again. I think a lot of players are doing the same thing, although Monte still has the usual people there every time I stop by. I guess that's why they're the top tier players and I'm just a noob. :) I noticed immediately after the last Beat Tribe tournament that they put up the certificate on one of the machines. Pretty cool to see it whenever I go in there.
Persona 3 At the rate things are going, there's no way I'm gonna finish this game before Persona 4. I'm gonna have to buckle down and race to the end if I want to finish this title off. I got three more mainstory bosses to finish off before July 10th I guess.
To Buy List - Ninja Gaiden II: I'll probably get this on Thursday because Stanglehold is stupid and I hate it. - Metal Gear Solid 4: No, not getting this. I feel almost obligated to get it, and I don't really like that feeling. I really don't need this right now when I haven't finished GTA4 yet. I'll buy it in a few months, and fuck the haters who wanna give me shit for this. - Sengoku Basara X: I don't even know why I'm getting this. I think it's just for shits and giggles and to give the HRAP a workout. Also, I love the series, so this is my sick way of supporting it. Ergh. - Persona 4: This is really the only game I want right now. - God of War PSP: I'm only getting this because a friend of mine from the US wants the JPN version (he worked on the game) and said I can clear the game before sending it off... so it costs me nothing. :P
A man who claims to have had sex with 1,000 cars has defended his "romantic" feelings towards vehicles.
Edward Smith, who lives with his current "girlfriend" – a white Volkswagen Beetle named Vanilla, insisted that he was not "sick" and had no desire to change his ways.
"I appreciate beauty and I go a little bit beyond appreciating the beauty of a car only to the point of what I feel is an expression of love," he said.
"Maybe I'm a little bit off the wall but when I see movies like Herbie and Knight Rider, where cars become loveable, huggable characters it's just wonderful.
"I'm a romantic. I write poetry about cars, I sing to them and talk to them just like a girlfriend. I know what's in my heart and I have no desire to change."
He added: "I'm not sick and I don't want to hurt anyone, cars are just my preference."
Mr Smith, 57, first had sex with a car at the age of 15, and claims he has never been attracted to women or men.
But his wandering eye has spread beyond cars to other vehicles. He says that his most intense sexual experience was "making love" to the helicopter from 1980s TV hit Airwolf. As well as Vanilla, he regularly spends time with his other vehicles – a 1973 Opal GT, named Cinnamon, and 1993 Ford Ranger Splash, named Ginger. Before Vanilla, he had a five-year relationship with Victoria, a 1969 VW Beetle he bought from a family of Jehovah's Witnesses. But he confesses that many of the cars he has had sex with have belonged to strangers or car showrooms.
His last relationship with a woman was 12 years ago - and he could not bring himself to consummate it, although he did have sex with girls in his younger days. Mr Smith, from Washington state in the US, kept quiet about his secret fetish for years, but agreed to be interviewed as part of a channel Five documentary into “mechaphilia”. He is shown meeting other enthusiasts at a rally in California. Talking about how his unusual passion developed, Mr Smith said: "It's something that grew as a part of me when I was a kid and I could not shake it.
"I just loved cute cars right from the beginning, but over the years it got stronger once I got into my teenage years and was my first having sexual urges.
"When I turned 13 and the famous Corvette Stingray came about, that car was pure sex and just an incredible machine. I wanted it.
"I didn't fully understand it myself except that I know I'm not hurting anyone and I do not intend to."
He added: "There are moments way out in the middle of nowhere when I see a little car parked and I swear it needs loving.
"There have been certain cars that attracted me and I would wait until night time, creep up to them and just hug and kiss them.
"As far as women go, they never really interested me much. And I'm not gay.”
Mr Smith is now part of a global community of more than 500 “car lovers” brought together by internet forums.
Good times at the SF4 loketest this past weekend! I didn't make it out on Friday because I was with someone else, but after I hit the gym on Saturday, I headed over to Namba in the pouring rain to meet up with Stefan and Eddy, who came in all the way from Fukui just to play. Eddy's made the trip three times already, and each time it's always been great to see him and hang out with him. I think this time around, we didn't play as much mainly because for the Osaka players there wasn't too much that was new other than some character balance changes and whatnot. They also took off the 7 game win streak for the test, and that resulted in ARG (a top ST Vega player) racking up multiple 20 game streaks, and Umezono (good 3rd Strike Chun player) pulling off a 51 game streak. Doh. I guess taking that 7 game limit wasn't such a good idea after all. If you wanna know about stuff in more detail, check out the 5th Loketest thread on SRK.
Sunday was more of the same, although I was supposed to have softball game in the morning, but due to the rain it was canceled... so I hit the gym again! The old man was there for the first time in two weeks! Apparently he went on vacation so that's why he was absent. When he didn't show up I actually got worried and thought that he had kicked the bucket, haha. I told him that and he's all like "wtf I'm not that old!" Still, good to have a bastard to kick my ass and make sure that I don't cheat on my workouts. Sunday was pretty crazy because a lot of people that I know showed up, even though I didn't mention to them that I was headed to the arcade, haha. I went with the usual SRK group there, and I invited one of my co-workers as well as Jessica to come by, but then another co-worker stopped by to say hello, then a mutual friend of Brian and I also stopped by to give me Pop-Tarts (Eddy did too! Thanks dude!) and then Stefan and Natalie also dropped by to say hi, saying "yeah, we knew you'd be here." Well, at least I'm not a hard man to get a hold of, right?
Overall, faaaan-freaking-tastic weekend! Can't wait till Wednesday!
Telling a friend that you have an upset stomach is apparently okay. Telling a friend that you think you may have athlete's foot is akin to a 40 year old man telling his friends that he's never had sex.
GGPO's Beta RC3 came out a bit ago, and instead of playing GTAIV like I said I would, I uh... played 3rd Strike whenever I had the time. Which turned out to only be a few hours, really. Did the gym on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and it felt pretty good. Although I'm kind of worried since the old man wasn't there, which was unusual. Two weeks and he's absent! I wonder if he kicked the bucket? Haha.
Anyway, GGPO is extremely nice now that Ponder has made the move to Adobe Air, which has made the front end extremely pretty, allowing for full user customization while still retaining the awesome netcode that GGPO is known for. I had a few games with soakrates, Tre and Takuan from GAF and it worked wonderfully for the most part. Of course, the cross-Pacific connection meant we had a ping of about 200 - 300, but it was still pretty good. The connection in Japan is obviously amazing. I haven't seen a ping over 50 when playing against a Japanese player yet, it's awesome. There are pings over that mark, but it's usually for the people that are AFK, and I assume that they're just downloading stuff while they're away. Anyway, it's pretty much like playing the game in arcade, minus the smoke and the uh, money. One thing I did miss is the stability that an arcade cabinet gives the user. I had to hook up my joystick to my laptop and place it on my lap while playing, which made it a bit awkward at times since the joystick would jerk around whenever I did something.
The rest of the weekend was good though. I bought this awesome t-shirt off of Meat Buns Inc., watched The Bucket List in Kyoto, and found it to be an awesome movie, although I think it would've been more interesting had Jack Nicholson played the calm, family man and Morgan Freeman played the loud, lonely crazy dude. IMO they were perfectly cast for their roles, but I wouldn't mind a change now and then. I didn't find the movie to be sad or depressing, yet the girls sitting next to me were just bawling their eyes out. Weird.
Tiger winning the US Open in the playoff round is an epic victory, and I kind of regret not being able to watch it. It would have been a really, really great playoff round had Westwood not choked on the 18th hole during the final round too. Imagine a three-way tie going into the playoff round! Some people enjoy the fact that playoff rounds for the other majors are only 3 - 5 holes, but I actually like the 18-hole playoff round of the US Open. It's a bit more majestic in my opinion, having to go through the entire course once more in order to win. It's a real test of mental fortitude and makes the situation that much more tense. I don't think Tiger's win is on the same level as Yzerman playing on one leg for Team Canada in 2002, or Isiah Thomas playing on a fractured ankle in 88 against the Lakers... only because golf isn't as physically demanding on the legs as hockey or basketball are. Still, you could tell that Tiger was hurting after a lot of tee-off shots, so him coming back and forcing a playoff round, and then winning the whole thing is very impressive. It must be discouraging to other players though; most can't touch Tiger when he's healthy, and he still manages to win when he's injured! One thing that needs to stop are the douchebag fans who feel the need to shout and holler after every shot by Tiger. That shit is annoying as fuck, even just hearing it on TV. No wonder Tiger gets pissed at photographers and the crowd sometimes.
