Since I realize that I won't have my pictures up on my website until the main page is done...although I do plan to get my photography section up first so that is some good news...I thought I would post up some of my favorite Disneyland photos. Thanks for your patience...trust me...it was well worth it.

*EDITED BECAUSE THAT ANIMATION WAS GETTING ME DIZZY. THE LINK IS STILL BELOW.

MAN...I AM ON A ROLL TONIGHT GETTING STUFF DONE. THE DISNEYLAND PICTURES ARE ALL FUCKING FINISHED. ALL 290 OF THEM. I thought I would finish up this animation because my porn subscription ran out...

http://www.mentalabstraction.com/Posts/test.gif

Okay real quick...I've been trying to catch up on some photos...and here is the group picture we had at Disneyland. Man..this could be a framed photo...in Jonathan and Bryant's living room...haha.

Okay here are some updates on the pokerchips. If you see anything wrong with the graphics let me know ASAP. I have until Monday to give her the final go-ahead.



And finally...what will Bryant bug me about now? Besides making something of my life?

Holy shit. Today was the absolute worst day in my life.

I think that Andy and I perfected the brownie recipe. All it takes is just some downtime from when you bake it and eat it.

Holy fuck.

I spent my entire shift in the office. With my boss laughing at me. Over the trash can. Dry heaving. I ate 3 1/2 at around 8ish last night. It is now 9:00 pm the next day and I am still FUCKED UP.

Moderation is the key. And for all that want to try these in the future...2 is probably max for myself. If you want to fly for the next 24 hours...eat 4.

STOP SPINNING.

Ok so I got this email from a woman from work who forwarded an email she got from her husband. I was laughing my ass off (maybe because I know her).

"I just cut the s%$# out of my hand on a glass in the kitchen - right to
the bone, gnarly - called the doctor's office, no doctor today, told the
nurse what happened, she says I'll have to go to urgent care on the other
side of town, that's a guaranteed 4 hour stop, f$%# that. So, I found the
tackle box and got out the lightest line in there (8 lb, 4 would have been
nicer) and Rambo'ed it myself. Kept bending needles, they must have
pointy ones at the e.r.!! After I got'r done, I loosened up the stitches
and walk outside and dumped a s%$#load of denatured alcohol on it,
screamed, and tightened 'em up. Mint, huh?

P.S. - That'll teach me to do the dishes, f%$#in dangerous job...... "

Interesting that my boss sent me this:
http://directory.help.com/classes/providers/cnet/homeentertainment/

May be interesting for those caring about their Home Theatre System. I haven't looked into it in too much detail, but could be interesting.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Responding to the comments:

Tony: First of all...they aren't OUR pictures. They are MY pictures. Maybe you should have brought your own camera sucka. Hardy har har har.

Kevin: Wait? Were you in any of the Xmas pictures? Perhaps if you didn't bring your stupid dog in my house I would want to work on these pictures...instead I have to delete the little runt out of my folders. That's what is taking so long. So there!

Bryant: Weren't those pictures supposed to be done 5 months ago? YOu mean you never got the email? Haha. But have no fear...I'm gonna work on some of them tonight. No seriously, I am.

Haha! Since Myspace decides to only let small as pictures on each profile because Myspace sucks I'm going to share the photos here in real quality. Also for the record I didn't do these solely for Myspace. Since I have no fucking photos of myself with this camera...I thought I might as well break out the lights, cardboard reflector and have at it.

Good Night and Good Luck definetely had an impact on these shots. So did The Ring obviously. Since I don't have my own site up just yet...I thought I'd share the HQ ones here. Hope the last one gives you nightmares. Who am I kidding. That picture sucks.

A scam or is this worth 20 bucks?

http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=802205

Holy jesus shit. Okay the chips are a little bit more than originally planned and I was just going to give away an extra 100 chips (10 sets of all 10 chips) but to make things interesting I'm thinking that instead...if you win a tournament you get a set of 5 chips. That way you need to win 2 to get the whole collection. I dunno. I still would like to give a set to each person who plays in our games regularly, but why not make them earn it a little bit?

Haha and Boaz and Rich and anyone other random fucker you bring into the game will never win so I don't have to worry about giving them chips. But if they do win...they get nothing of course. Haha.

Okay some tweaks and updates. First lemme address some of the comments for all.

Eecs - That fucking devil has made me the evil person I am today. I joke about killing babies with nothing but forks and toothpicks, but the rage is there all because of this devil. If you played the game you know that he dances and prances around your ass with no known pattern known to man. This made him impossible to kill every single time, you just had to hope you weren't in your boxers by the time you got to him or else you died. Then you had to hear that stupid map theme song. I can't think of another enemy besides the whole game of spelunker that pissed me off more. Therefore he gets in out of a weird sense of respect I have for this fucker. You were right about the colors. Check out the new proof sheet to see if they are more vibrant. I printed this out to make sure that the words were still visible which is why the outer ring might be a little dull...needed to be for readability.

Bryant - Wishes the triforce could be on a different chip. Wait till he sees the chocolates in person. He'll wish he could eat em up!

Steve - Hopefully I can get these ordered in the next couple of days unless someone sees something terribly wrong with the design or layout.

So here it is. The colors of the backs are redone. Kirby and Bomberman no longer sandbagging. (Haha...I was laughing when I read that comment by Jonathan). Take a look.

Sweet. Those look about ready for print, besides perhaps...

I really like how you added different colors to the backs. I would try to equalize the saturation of color in the circle portion with the words, because some seem much more subtle than others, making them look dull/grey.

I assume you really like all those characters. I was never into Ghosts'n'Goblins, so I would ax the devil guy. To me, that image is of too minor an aspect of the game, and lacks the charm that the others exude without effort or winged backs.

Is that really an 8-bit rendition of Kirby? The shading and pixel size look suspiciously fine compared to the rest. I get the feeling that puffy pink punk is sandbagging. With that infuriating smile and disturbing lone ear.

Tony makes a good point. I suggest you buy an extra 10,000 chips and sell many small "exclusive collector's edition" sets on eBay for profits that boggle the brain. Who takes copyright law seriously these days? Prudes, and people who are afraid of prison, that's who. Chickens. Yes.

Like em?

Yellow = Piss

Tony's comments don't mean anything because he doesn't know what he is talking about. I think he majored in soccer. Haha.

I tried to brighten the picture on the title, but it does distract. I will not know what goes here until I actually take pictures and choose something that I could bring out that doesn't go against the white font.

Fuck the color yellow. Asians are known as yellow people. I think we are done with the yellow. Haha.

Bryant - What do you mean by your comment? You mean you want blue on the right and left right? Well I'll do a mockup so you can see it, but I thought it was a little too plain. But again I'm the artist and I'm biased toward my opinion! Haha! So I'll post it soon so you can check it out.

Haha. I was gonna edit my original post so it looks like Andy pointed out all the things that I said not to worry about because he is an idiot. But I decided to give him some credit because he did say somethings that I had issues with also. Plus in my haste to get to sleep I decided to leave out all the things you shouldn't have to worry about in your critiques.

- Don't worry about the exclamation points. Hell...that isn't even what the welcome message is going to be. I was just filling it in to see the composition!!!!!!!!!!

- I haven't decided whether the main text in the middle window is going to be html based which is why it has such a hard edge to it. Perhaps inserting the text as graphics will help streamline the whole design?

- None of these pictures are of our food. I still need to go take the pictures that you see at every restaurant...you know like Carrows and their dessert items menu.

- That window on the bottom right I think will be to put up some messages like "buy gift certificates" or "buy a shirt" (which I don't even think we carry anymore haha) or "buy bottled our bottled sauce" blah blah blah.

- That isn't our logo either. I didn't feel like doing a good logo just yet because I am lazy.

Again the main thing I'm concerned about is the webpage itself. Perhaps it looks a little too modern or too should I say...sophisticated for the caliber of our restaurant. I mean our restaurant isn't a sit down and dine sort of place...well I guess it could be...I dunno. Keep the responses coming.

Okay so here is a quick design of the Tomo's website. My family gave me a menu and a bottle and said have at it. Unfortunately I don't get my own timeline so I can't take forever on this site. So I did this one in like two hours in photoshop from 4-6 am...so I'm tired and cranky. Lemme know any first impressions that you have. Complaints, compliments...anything is cool. ONLY SERIOUS CRITIQUES THOUGH so I can get this site rolling. Thanks!

I'm going to say this as simple as possible. This is about the custom chips and how Steve won't get off my nuts for ordering them...well here is the announcement...there are still certain things that must be met but here it is...

I am pretty sure that since I am a ChipTalk member that I can get these edge spot designs...these aren't the finalized ones but please take a look at what you can do. Color combos would be turned down at the time of order so pretty much anything right now is in the planning stages. Lemme see some mockups people! Fuck...I better get really cracking on these inlays before this offer goes away!

The Office is cool. However, ignore the message at the end, because no one is awesome here (myself included)

In case any of you were thinking, "you know what I want kids"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-982704336400793600

So in case any of you want to go to a game and feel the need for a formal invite, here is my schedule for the rest of the hockey season:

3/29: 915 PM against Charlie Brown (rink 1)
4/5: 615 PM against Tripods (rink 1)
4/12: 915 PM against Smell the Glove (rink 1)
4/19: 6:15 PM against Dolphina (rink 2)
4/26: 11:15 PM against ShotsAllAround (rink 1)

So 5 games into the season I finally scored my first goal, improvement is there every week, but I should have a lot more production. We'll see how the season goes, but thanks to all who have come out already to support the lowly Korean.

aight another video.

HOLY SHIT THIS IS FUCKING FUNNY.

OMFG.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6QXUXQ8miHs&search=juggernaut%20bitc

omg. oky seriously..these two videos had me cracking up for a LONG time. The second link had me CRYING from laughing so hard. I thought I was gonna piss my pants from how hard i was laughing.


http://www.break.com/index/snowboardhead19.html


http://www.break.com/index/bottlehead16.html

Thanks Jonathan for the research you put into this. Again I will say again that unless we want ceramic chips and/or want to buy thousands of chips...the four edgespots and the six edgespots are impossible. I've looked around a lot of reputable sights and no one does these kind of chips unless we want to go down in quality.

The other cool thing about buying from this company is that they did the Rounders movie so all their colors will be exactly the same as in the film. I see your point about the KGB chips being kind of worthless if we can't get the same edgespots, but I'm pretty sure waiting around for it is a mistake considering they already told me it is impossible.

So alas I think the three is our only choice. I should have my colors picked out...I like the ones you did except for the shit brown and yellow urine color. Also since you picked out 12 colors...1200 chips would be necessary. I'll sleep on this tonight and try to figure out what I wanna do...

Following our conversation the other day, here is someone's take on the worst video game box art.

I remember being confused by Phalanx and disgusted by Bust-A-Move. I do not, however, remember Bionic Granny.

Poker Chips

Ready-to-order simplicity



So at some point, realizing how heavy 1000+ chips would be, I thought storing them in two cases rather than one would be practical. This led to my idea of two complementary sets, which could be used individually, or combined when a higher total chip count would improve our lives and demeanors. The first set contains the traditional casino colors (blue/red/green/black/purple), with KGB’s spot colors where applicable, and the second set is a splendid-looking customized set (grey/orange/dk blue/brown/lt yellow). Note that the color schemes are visually similar for each chip value, for elegant symmetry and memorization convenience. The 300/100/100/50/50 count works for each 600-chip set, or 250/100/50/50/50 for matching 500-chip sets.

Note on the chip count: A single set of 500 or 600 is more than enough for all our home games; 1000+ chips could accurately be identified as overkill. While increasing the count of low-value chips allows everyone to have big stacks even when a lot of people are playing, it also reduces the use of the higher-value chips. Recall that we seldom touch my purple chips. You could just go with some version of the customized set, since it's uniquely personalized, and it's somewhat pointless to have the KGB colors when the spots don’t match up. But if you're sure you want a huge set (that effectively makes all our other chips obsolete), hopefully you'll get a lifetime of use out of them. I do like having big stacks available, and love the variety of color, but I also like having money. Either choice is easily justifiable.


Heightened difficulty and reward



Way back around the time I received my poker chip set, I was perusing the Web sites and couldn’t decide what number of edge spots looked best. Due to this recent return to the wild world of colorful clay, I have decided that I like four. It looks better balanced than three, and less cluttered than six. So if I had to choose one style it would be with four small edge spots, like KGB’s green/orange and black/green chips in Rounders. I’d think they must sell these somewhere, but who knows.

But even better, I think, would be a set combining different styles and colors, again like KGB’s (with the six-spotted purple/peach chips). The variety would look interesting and also help remind players of the values of the different colored chips. This option might take more time to complete (and yes, might be impossible), but I'd check around about this.


Unattainable perfection



Dazzling the eye and the heart, the rainbow chip is by leaps and bounds the most coveted poker chip ever made. Unfortunately for the common man, it is so valuable that only a few emperors and sultans in the world could ever afford to buy in for one. The lamentable result is that pokerchips.com does not make it available to the general public. Such is life… we dream for a moment of the wonders that might have been, shed a lone tear, and carry on.

this is an animated gif. Let the whole thing load first, and then watch it. Fucking hilarious doesn't even BEGIN to describe it.

http://x87.xanga.com/cf7b507135c3034364129/b21583118.gif

the fat punk deserved it. You don't that shit in public, especially in front of your friends house. And JLP doesn't put up with that shit. lol.

Anyone else thinks this is weird?

Al Michaels gets traded for some cartoon -> ABC to NBC

ESPN Article

Andy needs to shut his mouth considering he will never be looking at these chips. Haha.

Yes I think I'm going to buy 1100. Unless we decide to only get 50 of the purple and 50 of the chocolate. Let me know what you think.

I tried the green, but it was very hard to get anything to look decent while trying to keep the edge spots unique. Plus you have to realize that the question mark chip is the one that will be worth the most. So we thought perhaps something clean looking rather than all colorful (besides the rainbow chips that they won't let us do). Hence the blacks with the gray or blacks with the white. Although green could mean that you are in the money...

But Steve said that green/blue and green/brown makes him think of a globe. Now that he told me that, that is all I can see as well. Thanks Steve. Haha. Also Steve has expressed that the blue chips that I put up on the choices picture reminds him of the old days of when we used to play. This makes him think of Scott. Then it makes him want to leave. Haha.

The reason for the 1100 Jonathan is because I really thought we were missing a blue from my pallette. And considering blue is one of my favorite colors, I couldn't see excluding it from the set. Also if I ever wanted to purchase blue in the future, I would have to buy a minimum of 300 for a new order. Might as well get colors that I want before I have to buy 300 of them just to have em. Please let me know if this should actually change any of the numbers that we should have of each.

Let me say right off the bat my favorite ones so far that have been picked are the black/DG green obviously because of rounders and the poker superstars colors of Yellow/blue. That brown is also sick.

SO LET ME SAY AGAIN TO ANDY WHO ONCE AGAIN WON'T EVEN TOUCH THESE CHIPS...THESE ARE NOT THE ONLY COLOR CHOICES ON THE TOP. LET ME KNOW.

NARROWING DOWN THIS SHIT IS PRETTY FUCKING TOUGH....LEMME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK SO FAR. SORRY TO JONATHAN ABOUT THE RAINBOW CHIPS. I AGREE THAT WOULD HAVE MADE MY SET COMPLETE AND UNIQUE...BUT ALAS POKERCHIPS.COM WON'T DO IT FOR ME UNLESS I ORDER A SHITLOAD MORE...LIKE 500K

http://uploads.ungrounded.net/285000/285267_ultimateshowdown.swf

another video. It's only funny because of the various 80s/90s icons in it. Turn on the subtitles too.

Hi all,
Two reasons for the post.

1. Kevin had some funny Chuck Norris quotes on his Myspace comments:

-Chuck Norris once ate three 72 oz. steaks in one hour. He spent the first 45 minutes having sex with his waitress

-They once made a Chuck Norris toilet paper, but it wouldn't take shit from anybody

-If Chuck Norris is late, time better slow the fuck down

-Chuck Norris could have any woman he wants, but he has never had sex. He only masturbates because the only person good enough to have sex with Chuck is Chuck

-Chuck Norris sleeps with a night light. Not because Chuck Norris is afraid of the dark, but the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris

-In fine print on the last page of the Guinness Book of World Records it notes that all world records are held by Chuck Norris, and those listed in the book are simply the closest anyone else has ever gotten

-Chuck Norris is not hung like a horse... horses are hung like Chuck Norris

-When Chuck Norris has sex with a man, it won't be because he is gay. It will be because he has run out of women.

-In a recent survey it was discovered the 94% of American women lost their virginity to Chuck Norris. The other 6% were incredibly fat or ugly.

-Chuck Norris does not have AIDS but he gives it to people anyway.

-When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down.

2. Got a game Wednesday @ 715PM. This one could be entertaining for two reasons, 1 we're playing a Japanese FOB team that I think is funny. Another is this is pretty much a must win for our team to have a shot at the playoffs. We're 2 - 5 - 1, the other team is 3 - 5. If we win we'll move ahead of them in the standings (sadly they're in the last spot for the playoffs). Our game next week is also another must win to guarantee us a spot in the playoffs, but we'll take one week at a time. So if you want to come out (I know traffic is jizzy at that time) please do. We can meet for dinner downtown and take Monterey to avoid traffic if you so desire. Let me know. (Last time we played this team, I laid out two helpless Japanese girls that were trying to move me from the middle, a reoccurence is imminent.) haha

Alright Peace!

http://www.wimp.com/fiveanimals/

again, watch all the way to the end. That walrus is the shit yo.

http://www.hcn.zaq.ne.jp/cabic508/rsf/frame1.html

watch all the way to the end. hilarious.

18 MONTHS COMES DOWN TO THIS...FREEDOM OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION WITHOUT MOZILLA HOLDING ME BACK...

MY FUCKING GOD. MY DEAR FUCKING GOD. For those who don't know anything about my struggles with MentalAbstraction...ever since people have started using Mozilla and it was pointed out to me in numerous emails that my site didn't work with Mozilla I have been researching on and off for as long as I can remember trying to figure out WHY it wouldn't work. I posted in numerous forums with no one being able to help me. I've researched large amount of Flash sites and Mozilla sites trying to figure this out. I even bought multiple books on Flash/HTML to try to figure this out...and finally...at 4:23 AM...I FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT.

You might be saying...big fucking deal. Well let me tell you that my opening page has over 50 layers of graphics. A large amount having code embedded in it, it was tough to troubleshoot everything. Going over and over code, publishing sites, uploading, testing over and over and over...for over 18 months finally has paid dividends. You guys can check if you want to. The INFO, TRADITIONAL AND DIGITAL WORKS TO A CERTAIN EXTENT WHILE THE OTHER BUTTONS HAVEN'T BEEN CHANGED YET. As long as it loads I can make any other page load.

Sorry for sounding very excited...but as far as personal achievments go...this is right up there. I have never worked on something for 18 months without having some kind of growth toward optimism...this case was an all or nothing. It either worked or it didn't. Now if only I could beat the third level of Spelunker I could die a happy man. So what does this mean to everyone?

Well pretty much nothing...EXCEPT for the fact that I can finally start production on MentalAbstraction.com V2.0, and I can finally get a legit photography section up and I can finally do the cool things that I wanted to do with Ricki's online portfolio. Oh man oh man...I'm so happy.

I was going to post a large blog, but Steve told me he was gonna wake me up tomorrow morning since I didn't have work and he would be in the area...so I better get to bed. I can hardly wait to work on my site again...

Interesting way to water cool your Xbox 360 if you so desire...

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=OTM5LDE=


With all the political talk, I found this...

I also know little of politics, and I'm only sporadically into video games. So video game legislation is far beyond my realm of interest.

But the described situation does provide for discussion.

I don't see a problem with the required-ratings legislation (besides the cost of time and money, obviously better spent on more urgent problems). In fact, from my understanding it is on gamers' side.

You want to be able to play games with mature themes. I agree this should be allowed. Some parents don't want their little kids playing these games. Fine.

A rating system will help. It exists. It is used.

But no law requires it be used. <-- foreshadowing

Here's a little story to illustrate...

(1) A new company makes a game full of graphic sex and violence, not to mention a 4-letter word in every sentence spoken by the realistically-rendered 3D characters. Clearly the game is worth a purchase.
(2) The company craftily designs the game box with all manner of harmless wholesome cartoon characters. No rating is there to be found.
(3) The kids who read magazines and the Web find out what the game is really like. Naturally, they want it.
(4) Their parents buy it for them because the box looks harmless. The kids only play in their rooms or when their parents aren't around. Often without pants.
(5) The kids show their friends, who also trick their parents into buying it. Many circles of trust are broken.
(6) One day a parent comes home from work early to find a 7-year-old latchkey kid beating up a hooker. Rage ensues.
(7) Parents tell parents. The whole world is mad. Child abuse skyrockets.
(8) Some parents demand that games not be allowed to have this kind of content.
(9) Someone more sensible suggests a rating system be required. The best way to ensure that is to make it law. It is done.
(10) Someone even more sensible says "We knew this was what we needed, why didn't we do this long ago? A temporary lapse in violation does not eliminate the need for law."

Why would the company choose this path? I don't know. People are silly sometimes. They don't think long term. I can't be held accountable for every video game company executive's faulty decision. I just make up the utterly unbelievable stories.

How is the rating issue handled with movies? Is there a law? I never knew or cared.

And what about books? Is no one concerned because no one reads anymore? There is some adult stuff filling up public libraries across the nation. And I've been taking advantage since I was 5.

Kevin noticed something when I showed him the Brady Bunch pictures - notice a resemblance?

Okay so I have a lot of pictures to sort through...roughly 500+ and like I said...I'll probably only like 25 of them. That is not to say the subjects were crappy, basically just my photographic EYE. Some of this turned out too soft and out of focus and some of them look really crappy compositionally...but all in all...I have stumbled on a few so far that are almost magical to say the least...

So for a preview...here is me walking with Shannon's family. Who knew we would meet up with them there? Shangri-La tours in the hizouse.

First off, sorry for uploading these on the blogger. I know it fucks up our layout and I will hopefully get my website back up soon so I can have a new photography session. For those that don't know, I just got a new camera...definetely not one of those point/shoot ones, but a camera that resembles a 35mm. It set me back a pretty penny, but so far with these images I am very happy with the outcome. These of course are LQ so please don't judge the camera on these images. All the RAW images are actually about 50X30 inches. Enough to make a decent sized print!

So Aaron, Jen and Shan were nice enough to come to my part of town to eat dinner because they know I'm lazier than shit. It seems they got their money with Guitar Hero, Gunther.net, Wacom Tablets and XBOX360. All the while they let me even photograph them...I hope these photos help capture the fun we had! While checking out these images I learned a lot about my camera and what does and does not work. Hopefully the Disneyland photos will be something special. In the meantime enjoy these!

Madden 360 Style
With the craze of Fantasy Football, Colts undefeated season, the 49ers sucking, but @ times looking promising, I was pretty stoked to get this version of Madden. I had played the same game for regular Xbox and I was pretty disappointed because Madden had just peaked in terms of gameplay.

Pros about the new one:
-Of the course the graphics. The stadiums look great, the field looks awesome, and the player models are spectacular.
-Got rid of any of the "stupid" modes in Madden that don't focus on game play itself.
-The user interface is easy to use and intuitive. The way you call plays now seems easier and more efficient as it shows more plays on the screen.
-The AI seems a bit smarter when it comes to D. I have a hard time scoring 40+ pts against the computer. This could also attribute that I'm using the Niners, but who knows.
-Utilizes Dolby Digital 5.1 - which makes it sound awesome.

Cons:
-No mini-camp. The mini-games were kind of dumb, but I did like the fact that you could progress your players with it.
-No post game stats. This seems like a simple thing to have, but for some reason they got rid of it. All you get to see is the top statistical leaders for the game.
-No way to change camera angles. The gameplay changes a little bit when you hike the ball, but it would be nice to have this basic feature as well.
-No Madden - he may be annoying, but he's a classic. "BooM" "Where'd that truck come from!?" The new announcer isn't very good.
-The controls are a bit funky. There's a button for sprint, hold ball, spin, juke, stiff arm - it's a tough combo of buttons. Moving your QB and doing a pump are used with the same control stick and it must be sensitive because I seem to pump all the time which leads to sacks.
-I haven't gotten this far yet, but they took out scouting of the college players which I thought was kind of cool.

So all in all, it's still a solid game, but this is like the "core xbox 360" where ironically the other console version would be the "premium." I expect next years Madden to include anything missing from the stripped down version.

In the meantime, I will wait anxiously and hoping EA will release a MVP game for 360.

Gift Giving

You gotta love this time of year. For some people it is filled with joy and happiness and for some it is a time of anxiety and wondering if that certain friend is going to get you anything this year...and just what exactly are you going to buy them. So with that being said I will be perfectly clear in who I am giving gifts to. If you feel like buying gifts for other people is a waste of your money then perhaps you would like to skip the stage of life and go straight to hell. Tony will arrange that for you. As for the rest of you fags, I will tell you who I am getting gifts for. This is no way an attempt to make you guilty of not getting me anything. Besides, Steve doesn't get guilty and he only reaps the benefits of Xmas. =)

Bryant - Is getting a gift of some sort. Except for once his gift will be something he needs not exactly what he wants. Haha.

Tony - Has not been around for the holidays in the past couple of years. I have grown fond of Tony even though he sucks at Winning 11 and provides no challenge whatsoever. He will be getting a gift so he can truly enjoy Christmas with us this year.

Andy - I have to get Andy something because he is poor. He is my captain and he deserves something for leading me into battle. I trust and follow his wisdom in the gaming world and it usually keeps me alive. Usually...

Derek - Is also getting a gift. I have it narrowed down to a couple of choices, but no final decision is made just yet.

Kevin - I don't even talk to this fool anymore. However I will probably go into something with Bryant/Andy for your gift. I would make it more personal, but ever since you got a girlie dog and bought a house...you just don't seem like that nigga I knew back in da' hood. =)

Steve - Ahh Steve. To Steve's defense he has ALWAYS said not to get him anything. I completely disobeyed him every year thinking he was bluffing. He wasn't. Haha. But Steve, once again I got you something. This is a gift that might not be the best in the world, but I did put a lot of thought into it.

WILDCARDS (NOT YET BEEN DECIDED)

Jonathan - I say we save our money for this 40K poker tournament we are having. How about we just go out to dinner after a day of card playing. We can buy each other the same amount of chips. Haha. But seriously, let me know if you want to or not want to do the gift giving thing. And I promise that if we say not to get anything for each other...I won't pull a Derek and give you something.

Brian - This fucker one year got everyone and their mom gifts. It was totally unexpected, but a very nice surprise. We then retaliated by giving him a game that we didn't even end up playing that much. Haha. As with Jonathan, let me know if you are getting me a gift. Or you can join in on the poker idea above. What d'ya say? Everyone go to the card room and dominate?

THE BOTTOM LINE IS THIS. THIS YEAR I WAS REALLY LOOKING AT PEOPLE'S INTERESTS AND ON THE LOOK OUT FOR SHIT THEY NEED. I DIDN'T GO OUT THINKING, "WHAT AM I GOING TO GET THIS PERSON?" IT WAS MORE OF A "OH HEY THEY MIGHT BE ABLE TO USE/ENJOY THAT FOR A XMAS GIFT" AND THEY ARE GETTING SOMETHING FROM ME.

So to say again. This is who I am getting gifts for with the exception of Jonathan and Brian who I haven't found anything for just yet. If you guys get back to me and want to scratch the other off the list then that is fine by me, but only because I haven't found anything just yet for you. So lemme know.

On a more ipmortant note: I'm down with Zhang Ziyi as an actress...but give me a fucking break. CHINKS DO NOT PLAY JAPS. See Tamilyn Tomita can play a chinese person (Joy Luck Club) only becuase she is superior to them. Zhang cannot play a Japanese...even a Japanese slut for that matter because she is inferior. Haha. So who's gonna see the film with me?

I would use the chatter box, but this may be more readable. I know Brendan will blog more on this later, but this is what I'm hearing so far about X-mas. It sounds like there might be some quasi-party gift giving going on.

Seeing the responses from Steve, Kevin, and Tony; talking with Brendan and Derek - it sounds like most people would like to get together for a little shindig -> this may/may not tie into the Annual Horiuchi Dinner (Brendan will provide more details) and may include some poker fun (with special guest Phil Ivey and his 40K). Most likely this would be an after Xmas - Pre New Years type o' deal.

It also sounds like people will be buying gifts for some and not others, which should be fine, since some of us know each other better then others and some just like giving gifts. Can't stop anybody for that! But gift giving among others is not mandatory. Christmas is the season of giving, not the season of "shit that guy bought me something, I better buy him something fast." That's a risk, but if Christmas is truly about giving, it shouldn't even matter, right? =)

Tony's right, where the most important thing for us should be spending the holidays together. With some of us not working and/or going to school, it's pretty much the only time of year where we can all hang out together and possibly see each more then once a weekend, if that. I know I'm a hermit because of work lately, so i'm definitely looking forward to the holidays. This doesn't count for just the Pooky guys either, I know we have some readers out there and I would love to spend the holidays with you (Horiuchis, Shannon, whomever else that reads this darn thing).

Still awaiting to hear from Andy, Jonathan, Farmer B on their thoughts for X-mas and whether they'll be joining us in our gathering. Actually this could include Kevin, but I'm especially looking at Brian on that one.

heading to vegas on dec 19th. You guys are invited as well if you want. Should be fun.

Hi all,
As the X-mas season is drawing near, there have been some informal discussions in terms of how we're handling X-mas gifts for everyone. I've kind of heard mixed reviews on what everyone wants to do, so I was hoping that this blogger would garner some opinions. From what it seems to me, gift giving is kind of a chore that people feel obligated to do and I know us in Pooky don't want to create that kind of atmosphere.

We could do 3 things:
1. Buy gifts as usual for everyone.
2. Not buy gifts and everyone be ok with it.
3. Have like a little gift exchange party of some sort.

Any of the 3 options are ok with me. I don't mind just buying for family this year as most of us have what we want in life in terms of tangible items (Me especially haha). If we don't spend money on each other, I would say maybe we can pull some dinero together and throw a little holiday shindig. Maybe a nice dinner and some cocktails. (haha I guess this could be option 4)

Any opinions?

PS - Brendan, a post will come soon about the new Madden and my thoughts. =) I know you're all sitting on the edge of your seat for that one.

In all this Xbox360 hype and shopping sprees, I think it is time to give a moment of silence for THE man. American-Japanese wouldn't be the same without him...



Mr. Miyagi has waxed on and off for the last time. I still think he should have won that Oscar and Golden Globe for the Karate Kid, but I guess they had to give it to the black people first. So in memory of Pat Morita..here are some quotes from Mr. Miyagi himself...of course I couldn't remember all of these by heart, but after reading them they made me proud to be American-Japanese...yeah...even though he didn't write it. Some are funny and some we can definetely take to heart.

Daniel: You think you could break a log like that?
Miyagi: Don't know. Never been attacked by a tree.

Miyagi: Daniel-san, never put passion before principle. Even if win, you lose.

Daniel: [presenting Miyagi with a rosewood display case, obviously for Miyagi's WW2 medals] I got something for you here... see, it's rosewood. For your medals. I thought it'd be nice to... like, show 'em off or something.
Miyagi: Why, Daniel-san... Thank you for gift. But why show off?
Daniel: Well, you know, winning the Medal of Honor and all... It says something about you. Like, you're brave. And all that stuff.
Miyagi: [puts hand to Daniel's chest] THIS say you brave.
[motions to medal]
Miyagi: This say you LUCKY.
Daniel: Just what did you do to earn this, anyhow?
Miyagi: ...Not important anymore.
Daniel: ...Was it scary for you?
Miyagi: ...Miyagi knees no stop shaking for whole week after.
Daniel: ...Did you have to kill a lot of people or something?
Miyagi: Hai, unfortunately.
Daniel: But they were, like, the enemy... weren't they?
Miyagi: They were also PEOPLE, Danielsan.

[At the cannery. Daniel has ripped his shirt, and almost gotten himself killed, while perfecting Miyagi's "Swinging Drum" maneuver]
Mr. Miyagi: Daniel-san, you all right?
Daniel: Yeah... I'm sorry; that was pretty stupid, wasn't it?
Mr. Miyagi: [with a grim smile] Miyagi say that to father when same thing happen. Father agree, was stupid. Father was right.

Daniel: Hey, what kind of belt do you have?
Miyagi: Canvas. JC Penny. Three ninety-eight. You like?
[laughs]
Daniel: No, I meant...
Miyagi: Daniel-san... karate here.
[he taps his head]
Miyagi: Karate here.
[he taps his heart]
Miyagi: Karate never here
[points to his belt]
Miyagi: Understand?

Daniel: You're the best friend I've ever had.
Miyagi: You pretty okay too.

Miyagi: Now, ready?
Daniel: I guess so.
Miyagi: [sighs] Daniel-san, must talk. Man walk on road. Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk down middle, sooner or later, get squished
[makes squish gesture]
Miyagi: just like grape. Same here. You karate do "yes," or karate do "no." You karate do "guess so,"
[makes squish gesture]
Miyagi: just like grape. Understand?
Daniel: Yeah, I understand.
Miyagi: Now, ready?
Daniel: Yeah, I'm ready.

Daniel: You could have killed him, couldn't you?
Mr. Miyagi: Aiy.
Daniel: Well, Why didn't you?
Mr. Miyagi: Because Daniel, for man with no forgiveness in heart, life worse punishment than death.

Thank you Pat Morita for talking in a memorable Japanese accent that all of white America thought you really had. I know you are in a better place where the flies just stick to hashi like they were shit.