Posted by Barron • Miscellaneous • Comments • Permalink

Hi loyal readers! I created a mini-blog for short, quick posts. You can access it here: more.takoyaki.org.

Posted by Barron • Living • Austin • Comments • Permalink

We’ve lived in Central Texas now for 13 years and surprisingly never made it to Schlitterbahn, the “best” waterpark in the U.S. Whenever I read something about Schlitterbahn it was always about how crowded it is, or how dirty it is, or how long the lines are. Therefore, it’s been at the bottom of my list of places to visit. That all changed when Mariko mentioned that we should go on the day before schools start up since she heard it is not crowded on that day.

So… we went on Sunday, August 26. It opened at 10am, but we got there at about 9:30am which was great because we got to park right by the entrance (to the old part of Schlitterbahn). By the way, it’s free parking! They actually let you in before 10am, but they won’t let you on any of the rides until 10. So, we found a great spot to park our cooler and headed out for some fun! By a stroke of luck, we were befriended by an older couple who have season passes and knew the best ride order to go on to avoid the crowds. It was great because we hit all the four best rides before 11:30! Actually, there were hardly any lines at all. The longest we waited was maybe 20 minutes (Dragon’s Revenge, in the afternoon) and mostly there was just a minute or two wait. Of course for the lazy river rides (including The Falls) there is no line at all.

Anyways, it was a fantastic day and not too hot either. I’d definitely go back to Schlitterbahn, but my big tip is to go on a day that isn’t crowded. You don’t want to spend a couple hours in line for a short ride. Speaking of that, here are a few more tips and observations:

• To avoid the crowds and lines, go on the day before Texas schools start up. I’ve read that Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are also good days to go.
• Bring a cooler with plenty of food and drinks. With the money you save, get a locker ($8) for your car key/money or treat the family to expensive Icees at the end of the day. BTW, no glass or alcohol is allowed to be brought in.
• Small inner tubes are easier to flip over, so if you find yourself in the drink a lot, get a larger one. They also have tubes with handles and bottom covers near the main store. Good for kids.
• Bring plenty of sunscreen and/or wear a hat and swimshirt. I got really burned even with sunscreen!
• Go a bit early to get good parking and a nice shady picnic table to park your cooler and towels.
• “Schlitterbahn" means “slippery road” in German.

Posted by Barron • Personal • Rants • Comments • Permalink

These past few days have been nice here in Central Texas. Evenings in the 60’s, and daytime temperatures in the 80’s. But the mosquitoes are in full force! A couple days ago, one got in the house and has been bothering us. I have at least four new bites from that little bugger! This morning as I was waking up the kids I heard the buzzing in my ear and saw the mosquito flying away but I couldn’t get him. A few minutes later, Koa and I saw him in the bathroom and I thought I smashed him, but I couldn’t find his little corpse on my hands. Isn’t it funny that the mosquito can be right there, but if you miss smashing him between your hands, it goes invisible? You’d think it would at least drop to the floor because of the shock. But the good news is that a few minutes later it was spotted again and Mariko smashed him against the door. Yay!!

Posted by Barron • Digital • Android • Comments • Permalink

A few weeks ago I upgraded my phone from my trusty HTC G2 to the Samsung Galaxy S3. I love the new phone! It’s so light, thin, fast, and beautiful! I got a flip cover, which actually replaces the battery cover so it’s just about as slim as regular, but now there’s a nice soft cover to protect the screen. The phone comes with Ice Cream Sandwich on it, and I am awaiting a Jelly Bean (4.1.1) upgrade to roll out soon! As you can see from the photo above, the screen is large, measuring 4.8”. Videos look amazing on it. Speaking of videos, check out the YouTube video I made at the end of this post. It shows a cool feature of the video player. Samsung really hit a home run with this phone. I love it!

By the way, I added some stickers to the back cover. Although the phone is “Pebble Blue”, I bought the white flip cover, mainly because I wanted to put stickers on it and white would look better. The white and metallic blue edge look pretty nice together, and the actual front of the phone is this really cool iridescent color. I prefer it over the white bezel of the white model.

Posted by Barron • Living • Food • Comments • Permalink

People usually like to go out for their birthday and have a special dinner, and I used to do that too. All-you-can-eat Asian buffets, Brazilian churrascaria, and sushi dinners come to mind, but these past few years my birthday request has been to eat Oyakodon. For those of you who don’t know, it’s basically a bowl of rice topped with chicken, onions, egg, and a slightly sweet sauce. It’s very basic and not at all fancy; I guess it could be considered a Japanese comfort food. At any rate, we don’t have it often so it’s kind of special. And I love it! My birthday is coming up soon and I think I have to make my normal dinner request. It’s important to carry on with tradition, isn’t it?

Posted by Barron • Living • Food • Comments • Permalink

Cooking a big pot of chili this morning. Some of which I will be taking to a potluck lunch, but most of it will be saved for the family to enjoy. I’ve never liked really sweet, tomato-based chili, and I was really happy to run across this recipe a long time ago in a chili-lover’s cookbook. The only tomato in it is a small can of tomato paste. But the real flavor comes from the dry chili pods which are boiled and pureed. I’m not fond of chili recipes that don’t actually have any chillis in it! Anyways, the recipe I base mine on is called Hightower’s Awfully Good Chili and it is from the book Chili Lover’s Cookbook. I usually add some masa harina at the end to thicken it up, and also add a couple cans of beans sometimes. Today’s chili will have a bottle of Shiner Bock in it.

Posted by Barron • Living • Comments • Permalink

I was trimming a hedge out in the front yard when I felt a sharp pain in the back of my neck, just at the base of my skull. Turns out there was a wasp nest in the hedge and they didn’t like me disturbing them. I was worried because I have never been stung by one of those before, but it didn’t seem to be very serious. Now however, a several hours later and my neck and shoulders are very sore, as if I was lifting weights or something. Very strange…

Posted by Barron • Miscellaneous • Comments • Permalink

It looks like the recent rains we’ve had here in Texas have driven the ants to look for a drier home. Hopefully the new ant bait I got will take care of them. It seemed to work wonders with some smaller ant-like bugs that were enjoying our home earlier this year.

Posted by Barron • Digital • Video Games • Review • Comments • Permalink

I bought Dragon Age: Origins a year ago and haven’t played it but since I have some free time on my hands (the wife and kids are in Japan) I decided to give it a go. Dragon Age: Origins was released in 2009 by Bioware and is an RPG in the fantasy genre. At first this might seem kind of boring since there are so many games of this type, but Dragon Age is one fantastic game! The story is interesting, the voice acting is superb, and the cinematic graphics are pretty cool. These three factors really got me into the game and the world that it was set in. I played through the game as an elf rogue, focused on archery and it was great fun! What was really neat was scouting ahead of the party in stealth mode deactivating traps and getting off that first bowshot.

I finished the game (what a great ending) and soon found the sequel, Dragon Age 2 at the store for only $5. I had heard that it wasn’t that great a game but figured I’d give it a try since the price was so good. In fact, the girl at the store said it wasn’t as good as the first one, but the other cashier said he liked the sequel more than the original. At any rate, I played Dragon Age 2 and finished it last night. In many ways it was better than the first, but in other ways it was kind of lame.

First the things that were good in both:

• The soundtrack is excellent. Epic in feel, but also really soothing at the right times. I ended up buying the soundtracks at Amazon.
• The epic storylines were indeed epic. Also, the choices you make in the game decide what happens at the conclusion.
• Voice-acting was top-notch and the dialog was hilarious at times.
• Character development was complex and interesting. Each one of your party members had a story to tell, and the combinations of the different characters would lead to some funny dialog.
• Skills were really cool and you could specialize your character in neat ways. In the first one I specialized as an archer, and in the second I was a dual-wielding assassin.

Next, things where Dragon Age: Origins was superior:

• You could choose your race among elf, human, or dwarf. In Dragon Age 2, you were human.
• You had more choice in choosing your party’s equipment. In Dragon Age 2, you could fully customize the main character, but many items were restricted to only the main character. That was frustrating and lame. I know it was meant to streamline things, but it wasn’t so clear. For instance, my character was a rogue, but some vendors were selling mage robes that were restricted only to my character, who couldn’t use it anyways. Why?!
• Overall quests and zones were better utilized. The quests had a more epic feel to them and zones felt unique. In 2, the same zones were used multiple times in quests, with very minor changes, if any. Sometimes in a cavern, part of the zone would be blocked off by a doorway that had what looked like a grey concrete slab in front of it. That was a cheap and tacky way of recycling a zone for a quest. LAME. Also, in 2 most of the quests are within the city of Kirkwall’s zones, and you end up running through them again and again on these really short quests. It felt just like busywork after a while.

Finally, the things that I thought Dragon Age 2 was better at:

• Graphics were great. The colors were a lot brighter and more saturated. The armor looked better, and the models were smoother. Also, the environment was a lot more polished and felt more realistic. You can see how bright the colors are in the first screenshot above, while the second screenshot (which is from Origins) is very drab.
• Fighting animations were really cool. However, the fights were usually over too quickly.
• Voice acting for main character. In the first game, the main character didn’t talk, and after a while just seemed like a mute. But in Dragon Age 2, the main character had a lot more personality and you could get into the roleplay aspect more.

I enjoyed both games, but I might have to say that I liked Dragon Age 2 better. I hope for Dragon Age 3 they combine the best aspects of both, while ditching the annoying things. I’m really looking forward to it!