Snowy and Chilly, Not Too Cold, Though

Like most mornings since fall/winter settled in, I woke up in my chilly bedroom. I’ve been hoping that by not turning the thermostat too high, I can save some money on heating costs. Or I could winter-proof the entire house or get a new, more efficient furnace, which in itself, may cost another fortune.

When I looked out the window, it was snowing, quite a lot actually. I wonder what kind of effect there would be on the plans of all the people trying to get home to celebrate Thanksgiving, especially those traveling by air.

As for our family, partitioned and stationed here, Kevin and I will celebrate Thanksgiving with turkey, gravy, mash potatoes, and the like. I picked Kevin up this afternoon, but not before I went to Best Buy to browse some electronics and to pick up rock salt at Home Depot. It was snowing quite a lot during that time. It seemed like a “white-out”; although not as severe, more like a “grey-out”.

I had a little slip up where my car lost a bit of traction during a stop at an intersection (it was a four-way stop). Luckily, the car didn’t skid too far out, plus, there weren’t any other vehicles at the intersection, so all was good. But it did serve as a reminder that with snow and stuff, I have to drive extra careful. Like braking early and softly prior to a stop, and maintaining a greater distance to the vehicle in front of mine. Not to mention, be more stringent with the speed limit.

After I picked up Kevin and arrived home, Kevin worked on the faulty light outside the garage, while I shoveled the sidewalk and some part of the driveway and sprinkled rock salt. It was quite a chore going in and out of the house, taking off and putting on my shoes, to get the tools Kevin needed. But it’s nice that he’s an expert when it comes to electrical work, and he fixed the light a-okay.

After that, we chatted a bit and played some Halo 2 online. There were of course some tools who couldn’t help but swear and put everybody down, thus ruining the experience. We left some “nice’ feedback for them. Kevin got a cool beat-down against a sword dude. I mean, how cool is that!? And we had quite some fun “teaming-up” in Rumble Training, as in me driving the Warthog, and him shooting everybody else.

After that, we had baked chicken drumsticks for dinner, with canned veggies, cheese and dinner rolls. I guess Kevin was a bit hungrier than I was; he finished his allotment of four dinner rolls. Me, I only had two; I guess the bowl of cereal before hand in the afternoon did have some effect on my tummy level.

After dinner, we cleaned up and decided on watching a DVD. His choice of the evening was either “A Time to Kill” or “The Mummy Returns”. I choose Mummy out of the two. It’s more action packed, with quite a few smart comedic moments. Plus, the romance in it ain’t that bad.

As for later, we did some household chores prior to bed. It’s nice that I can sleep in late tomorrow, but not the day after, though. It’s “Black Friday”, when stuff is dirt cheap, if you can grab it by waiting outside during the wee hours of morning. I have my eyes set on a 12-cup coffee maker selling for less than five buckos at Wal-Mart. There’s a cheap 1GB MP3 player at Best Buy, selling for only seventy something. I guess me and Kevin will have to schedule a bit on who wait where and when.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Hmm, at times, I wonder if I am truly a Harry Potter fan. I enjoy the franchise immensely. The world crafted by Rowling has a certain allure to it, and she definitely has a knack of the ole melodrama. But of all the six books published, I have only read one: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; however, of the four movies, I have seen them all, including the “Goblet” just this past weekend. I haven’t purchase that many related merchandise, but I’m tempted to buy the Harry Potter themed sets from Lego. So I guess, I’m just a fan, not a devotee.

As to why I have only read one book, instead of all six, is that I like to see the movies prior to reading the book. Too many times have I been scathed by book-to-movie adaptations which bordered on the silly and ridiculous. Case in point, “The Sum of All Fears”. The book was great, as all works of Clancy’s are IMHO. But the movie was horrendous. Not because of Ben Affleck, as much as I am tempted to say so, but because of the “creative license” they used. It was supposed to be about the Middle East, not post cold-war Europe; it was rogue Muslim factions that procured the weapon, not Fascists. And Dr. Ryan was already married with children, not just getting ready for engagement. All in all, it was a horrible movie, because I saw the book, I knew the book.

As to how this relates to Harry Potter. I told Kevin, who has read all six, that I won’t read the books until I have seen the movie first. That way, I won’t go into the theater with high expectations, only to be shattered by the constraints of the medium.

As for the movie itself, I can say I truly enjoyed it. The entire movie-going experience was great fun. From arriving an hour prior, waiting in line in the theater lobby with friends, straining our necks to see the various previews mounted on TVs high above; to getting numerous popcorn and drink refills (of course we had to, the combo cost a bundle), and to finally making it into the theater and getting awesome seats. The pre-movie experience was quite jovial.

The film was a blend of teenagers coming of age, true friendship of those established and new, plus big fire-breathing dragons, flying broomsticks, and “you-know-who”.

The movie had a dark tone to it; hardly were there bright shiny palettes of colors. If there were such, it was muted. From the beginning to the end, the movie gave a sense of foreboding that evil was lurking and that things for these young group of friends would not quite be the same.

As for the acting, the three seemed to have a natural chemistry, and the actors, especially Radcliffe, whose acting was a bit force in the previous installments, was more “Harry Potter-esque” and natural. The thing that I worry about, is given the pace of shooting the films, the actors/actress may seem a bit out of place age-wise related to their roles.

The music was excellent, this time with a new composer, Patrick Doyle, at helm. The score didn’t deviate much from the previous as composed by John Williams, and I hardly noticed it, but it was there, providing the emotions of the film. I always think that films whose music I don’t deliberately notice, the more successful the music is.

As for the special effects, it merged seamless into the story telling. The creatures, effects, were natural, rarely (more like never) did I sense something was done, just for the sake of it. I felt at home in the world of Hogwarts, and the effects made it so.

“Goblet”, directed by Mike Newell, was a fast-paced, action-adventure film, hardly was there a moment that seemed dull. The golden egg scene with Harry and Myrtle was a bit slow for my taste, especially the bubbles, but everything else flowed smoothly and quickly. I would say (given that I haven’t read the book) I knew what happened, why and how, and was propelled at a speed where I could enjoy all the intricate details the movie had to offer, while not being bored to death in the process. The only thing I have to nit-pick about the ending was, how it ended. It just seemed so, rushed.

After the movie, Yu-ting went home as it was already quite late. Arthur, Becky and Tammy came over to my place for some cake and tea, where we chatted about the movie and various other topics. I feel a bit guilty for making Tammy stay up that late, for she had church in the morning at 08:30 sharp. As for myself, I slept soundly into noon.

P.S. We went to see the movie on Saturday night. The movie was schedule at 22:30, but we arrived quite earlier than that. I don’t recall the precise timing, but Kevin stated that we started waiting in line around 21:40.

I guess this is my attempt of curing the backlog I have piled up. This entry is for Saturday, November 19th, 2005.

Gloomy but 360

Like a certain friend said, maintaining a daily blog isn’t that easy. One has to have a certain propensity toward completely tasks at hand the day it happened, or more concisely, the day it’s due.

Let’s see how much of a back log I have already created. I missed last Thursday (11/17); Friday (11/18) I’ve wrote on the next day (11/19). As for the Sunday (11/20) and Monday (11/21), again, no entry. It seems I have “created” somewhat of a conundrum. Do I write of the past, or simply, let it go? I guess for the time being, I’ll simply catch up on what I can and leave the rest to my procrastinating self. Which can only mean…

The past few days the weather has been quite gloomy. It seems that either the sun doesn’t exist, or if it does, it only shines out grey rays. Regardless, today is a day worth remembering in video gaming history. Xbox 360 has launched, and despite the short supply, it seems (at least to me from what I gathered on various message boards), that it is something really neat. From its physical appearance, to its dashboard, and to the games, next-gen gaming is here, now. The power brick is huge by the way.

Thing that I have noticed regarding this launch is that bundles seem to have been forced upon buyers, again. I recall back in the days when I picked up my Xbox at EBGames that I too, had to buy a bundle. I remember getting DOA3 and Halo, as well as two controllers, plus of course, the console itself. I remember hefting that huge bag in the mall, getting some Chinese food to eat in the food court, and lugging the whole darn thing back to my place.

I can also remember the glee and excitement of opening the package, seeing my, yes, my Xbox for the first time. It was a mix feeling of “darn, I spent quite a bit of dough” and “it better be worth it”; and then I powered it up. It was worth it; when I put DOA3 into the console, the graphics were simply mind-blowing. I played through it a bit, but went for the main course. Little did I, or did the gaming community know that “Halo” would be the one game to rule them all. I played that game into the wee hours of the night, fully immersed in the universe that rocked my world.

Enough about old times, though. This time around, with Microsoft establishing itself as a player in the console market, not to mention the king of online console gaming. Picking up an Xbox 360 during the launch window isn’t as easy as was getting an Xbox, which was like basically going into the store two, three days after launch, and walking away with one. No line, no fuss.

Supply was short, possibly due to a worldwide launch. Or simply production hasn’t reached that critical point to meet the demand of such a enthusiastic base. There might be even the possibility of an artificial scarcity being created, to create hype and further entice potential customers; that Xbox 360, is the “it” thing. But I doubt the later. Regardless, lots of gamer won’t be getting it now, but later.

One search on Ebay provides the ridiculous notion of how badly people want one. Prices of auctions have reached thousands, and scams of all sorts are ever present. I guess this is a study of supply and demand, right here.

However, I won’t be picking one up anytime soon. Out of the two packages offered, Premium and Core, I will definitely choose the Premium (if it is still called that when I purchase mine), but the timing of such a buy would be after I major-pass all my preliminaries, when I can then fully enjoy such a purchase. Oh yeah, not to mention getting an HDTV. Hopefully, Halo 3 would be on the horizon, and there would be enough quality titles to tide my wait until that day.