Friday, November 23, 2007

Blazing Noodles

Greetings, Readers:


The Blazing Noodles at Pei Wei (119th St., between Black Bob and Strang Line) are extremely hot and spicy!!!

That's all. :)

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

A Happy 4th!!

Hey what's up? Long time no blog. Yeah, I've been super-busy with work projects lately. Today is July 4, 2007, the 231st birthday of the United States of America!! w00t! :)

What have I been doing lately...watching lots of Japanese anime! They're all over YouTube and veoh.com, and you can download original Japanese anime with English subtitles off bittorrent networks. The one I'm watching now is called "Ah! My Goddess" which is about a college student who lived a relatively dull life until a goddess appeared (from the Goddess Assistance Agency) and granted him a wish. The (lucky) guy wished that a goddess like her could be with him forever. Then a beam of light shot out of her forehead towards the heavens. It was funny how she later called her agency (I wonder what Heaven's phone number is) to confirm whether such a wish was acceptable. At first it sounded like "God, when I told him he could have any wish, I didn't mean this!!" But when you watch more episodes (3) you'll begin to wonder if what she was really asking was, "I want to grant his wish to be with him, is it really OK?" The goddess has a really funny name: Belldandy. How funny it would be to have a girl named Belldandy walking around Japan. Honestly, I wouldn't mind meeting a Belldandy in Kansas ;)

I've also been renting movies from Blockbuster Online. It's cool because there's a store just around the corner. Plus I heard that IBM Informix Dynamic Server (the project I support) powers the Blockbuster Online data servers. So basically I'm paying into the project I help make. Heh heh heh heh.....

I was surprised this morning at 11:00 AM when the tornado sirens were being tested. I heard them go off but couldn't see any weird weather. I called my friend who told me that it was just a test.

Today I think I'm gonna watch a few more episodes of Ah! My Goddess, take a nap, then catch a public fireworks show nearby. Private fireworks are illegal in our city, possibly the entire county. But I love the fireworks shows here. Y'all should come down and visit me sometime.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

KC Wizards 2007 Season Opener

Went to my first Major League Soccer (MLS) game tonight, featuring the Kansas City Wizards vs. the Toronto Football Club (FC). I got the ticket for free from one of my co-workers (thanks dude!) and even though it rained at the beginning, KC won 3-0. Parking was also free that night. I'm not surprised that very few people game because of the rain. My 1/4-lb. chili cheese dog and 20-oz. soda was $10.75--not bad, I have to say. Good time all around!

Cheers!

Saturday, February 24, 2007

Love is..."Chobits"

Could human beings ever fall in love with robots? What if robots had the capacity to give and show love?

That was the question at the center of "Chobits," a Japanese anime series about Chi, a kind of robot that falls in love with her owner, Hideki. The story takes place in a futuristic Tokyo, Japan, where people have PERSECOMS filling their every need--from mobile phone, significant other, to house servant. Hideki finds Chi wrapped in bandages at a dumpster. When he finds out she is a PERSECOM and switches her on, all she is able to say is "Chi" (the name one gives to a cat or dog in Japan). Without any sort of programming but a learning module, and Hideki not having money to buy software, he is forced to teach her everything. But Chi, unlike most common PERSECOMS, is an advanced type of PERSECOM called CHOBITS that is only driven by one thing--love. Hideki is confused by the affections Chi exhibits towards him. Even scarier, Hideki finds himself depending on Chi for encouragement and can't imagine what he'd do without her--even to the point of embarking on a journey to rescue her when she's kidnapped by a maniac! Hideki can hardly describe his feelings for Chi, as though she were a real human being! Worse, the fate of all PERSECOMS depends on Hideki, as a hidden program (unknown to Chi herself!) threatens to destroy all PERSECOMS when Chi finds "The One Meant for Me." Will he deny her because she isn't human? Or will he accept her for everything she is?

Love can be confusing sometimes. Certainly, Hideki was confused not by Chi's outright affection, but rather by his seemingly pointless reaction. What kind of human would end up with a PERSECOM? How would his family feel if one day he came home and said, "I married a robot"? They probably wouldn't be thrilled at all, and might even say he's insane. But Chi started out knowing nothing about life or love. All she knew was that Hideki cared enough to take care of her, teach her things, and keep her even though she didn't have a lot of programming or skills. In fact, one of the first things he taught her to say was "Take care of yourself" when he left for prep school. She could see how happy Hideki was when she said that every morning and that, in turn, made her happy (remember, she's a CHOBIT!). At night, when he came home, she greeted him with a hug and a "Welcome home!" When he asked Chi why she worked so hard to do all these things, she said that "when Hideki happy, Chi happy." And when he was down, she used to say, "Fight, Hideki!" And when Chi asked Hideki to explain something, he would do so patiently and without judgment.

When Chi realized that a PERSECOM could not be with Hideki the same way that a human being could, she didn't believe that Hideki felt for her the same way she felt for him. She stopped loving him halfway, until she heard Hideki say how his life would be unbearable without her. To him, it didn't matter whether Chi was a human or PERSECOM. "Chi is Chi," and that was all. And to her, he was "The One Meant for Me." He was the one who accepted her completely. Humans could do that PERSECOMS couldn't, and in the same way, PERSECOMS could do things humans couldn't. It didn't make one typically better than the other.

So would you fall in love with a robot? Meet one and find out for yourself!

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Monday, February 12, 2007

Furniture is paid off

All my furniture--the dining room set, corner table, lamp, and (my favorite) green couch--is paid off. Finally, I have my very own furniture!

THE GREEN COUCH IS MINE!!!

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

27, on 2/7/2007

This birthday of mine, read out loud: I turned twenty-seven on two, seven, two-zero-zero-seven.

Thanks to everyone that remembered to wish me a happy birthday!! I appreciate you all!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Sunny and freezing


See the icon of the bright, yellow sun surrounded by a clear, blue sky? The weather demons must be playing tricks on us...1 F and sunny. Good grief....