GDC outro

exit, stage left.
















hanging out with Chien Tan fellow Simone from Spain. In town for GDC. Had his game featured in Steve Jobs iPhone presser.

more GDC

Hideo Kojima was soooo boring. So sad. But I can't say he didn't warn me. I thought he was just being humble.
































random slide

GDC 09 - Day 1

At the Nintendo Keynote. Better than expected. Clint Hocking rocked again.

Somehow didn't take a single picture at our Activision party... hmm...

Time for GDC

IGDA Party

Tokyo!

Saw this at the Lumiere w/ Casey and Akiha. Also ran into Dice. The poster says "Gondry, Carax and Bong have each contributed a poignant commentary about what life is like in Tokyo and beyond, and when pieced together the result is quietly observational, imaginative and often very funny." Really? Maybe parts of it but I fail to see how a Sewer Dwelling Rat man represents life in Tokyo. Ok, it was a metaphor and the metaphor is taken but it still seems weird to read that in juxtaposition with what I just watched. I was hoping to see better constructed short piece work with a strong focus on the characters and the city as a character too. They felt like they could have been filmed in any city, in any language. Bong Joon-Ho had the best piece. Gondry's was out there. I thought I was getting what I was hoping to see but then that one just steered off a cliff of WTF. Carax had an entertaining first half (Sewer Rat man - "call me Merde" heh) but the second half was very bleeeh. Bong's was great except the ending which works but come one. You had to go with that ending? =P

Went to Sushi Rock afterwards because they were open. Next time Casablanca Cafe! Keep your kitchen open late damnit! I might have to go to Lavash to get my fill of Med. food.

meme

Do you know your memes?
http://www.youshouldhaveseenthis.com/





And I can't believe this has been getting removed from the internet but Destro's Get Money rap must stay alive. Screw the copyright barons. I did manage to find a few versions of it still out there.

Destro and Baroness GET MONEY Song

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

actually I had Sushi for dinner.
















Golden Gate Fields for Daphne's birthday (and free St. Patrick's Day flashing mug FTW!)
















It was really interesting. I always enjoy peering into these weird segments of American life that normally stay hidden from the everyday man. Horse racing is a mysterious subculture that is both very high end in the star athlete jockeys, the million dollar purses, famous horse breeders, horse lineage, horse trainers, ridiculously wealthy owners, etc. And then on the other end of the spectrum you've a lot of poor people just trying to get lucky playing the horses. And then you get the weird rich people. I saw a Chrysler 300 pimped out to be made to look like it was a Bentley. It had a Bentley logo on the front hood. Hahaha. And someone made a $1000 bet in front of us at the wager booth. Oh yeah, and there are schmoes like us hooting and hollering having a sponsored by alcohol good time.
















These are like a bunch of scrubs wandering on the track. By the way, the Jockey Club in Hong Kong is like 7000 times nicer than this place.
































































Here I am, picking up a trifecta bet (you have to pick the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place horse). I wasn't so excited when I found out that I only won ~$5. The previous race, the trifecta paid out $33. It almost was a spectacular finish for me. Race 8, I bet $8 on the long shot to show. You can bet to win, place, or show. Win is obvious. Place means 1st or 2nd place. You win less. Show means 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. The race started with my horse at 20:1 odds. Those are based on the track estimates. As beats are made, the money pots affect those odds. When the race started, I was getting 50:1 odds on my horse so if I had bet to win and won, it would have probably would have won $500. Since I bet to show, I can only guess around $200-300. Horse 5 (sadly there was no horse 8) ran in FIRST place for about 75% of the race but didn't have the staying power in that last furlong and ended up finishing 5th. For the first 5 furlongs though, I was jumping around like an idiot.









St. Patricks Day + Bay Bridge = traffic.

Volcano Curry

A "Curry house" opened up near my place. It was getting pretty slammed on Yelp. I added a review because I thought this place didn't deserve to get their business killed by shitty and picky yelp reviewers. I think they were all jaded because they wanted some "Richmond Curry Heaven" as I call it in my review, when in reality it is cheap fast food style establishment. "The Gordo's of Curry" which just happens to be next door. Don't go there expecting a great meal, although both Anthony and Jeremy were very happy with their meal.
















My final review was 2/5 stars for food, 1/5 for value. But that is a very borderline 3 of 5. If they were open later, I might have added it to my "oh crap, it's 9pm, gotta find a late dinner somewhere!" list.

Gorgonzola Penne

Who Wangs the Wangmen?

(not my picture)

Went to the nice old school Grand Lake theatre in Oakland w/ Wahab, Hon, and co. It has the classic movie marquee and curtains that draw open before the show.














Saw the Watchmen movie and all I've got to say about it is "Waaaaaaaaang"
















Some pre-movie Thai Food near the theatre. Thai interpretation of glutten is very =P At least here.

ABDC

The winners! Koreans are the best break dancers in the world and the all Asian (at least I think so) Quest Crew claim the title of America's Best Dance Crew. I left the somewhat questionable concept of "Asian Pride" behind in high school but it is still nice to finally see some on TV. And winning! Super Cr3w from season 2 is around 40-50% Asian.



















The Runner up crew Beat Freaks were also pretty awesome.



This was from magic week. Pretty sick.



More














If there is ever a Mirror's Edge (a video game) movie, this girl, Rino Nakasone-Razalan, is a dead ringer. Not just looks but girl's got moves! I bet she could parkour pretty well. Or well enough.

More Morimoto

Morimoto's Hayashi Stew a.k.a. boeuf Bourguignon de Japonais

Mint Tea is so good!

Morimoto Za Zhang Mien