I’ve been watching the rest of Arrested Development (the funniest show ever) on Hulu.com for the past few nights trying to finish up the third season. I borrowed the dvd’s for seasons one and two a long time ago from my friend Chris and found it to be hilarious. It’s like if you take the misunderstanding in Three’s Company, and multiply it by a factor of 50. There is so much going on, and so many cameos (all great) that you can’t help wonder why the show got cancelled after three seasons.
I am glad hulu.com has the entire show on their site. It’s really convenient and the quality is pretty good. You do have to watch some ads, but they are quick (usually only 10 seconds before the show, and a couple of 15-second commercials during) so they aren’t too bad, except the ones they are showing right now are mostly for the Cadillac Escalade, which are so offensive to me. They are supposed to show luxury and power, but in this time that we are living in, it just showcase excess, wastefulness, selfishness, and arrogance. It’s embarrassing to equate this SUV with the American lifestyle. But enough of that. The show itself is full of great acting, hilarious physical comedy, witty dialogue and a plot that just keeps twisting and contorting. If you have never seen Arrested Development, what are you waiting for?
We got Mario Kart for the Wii a few days ago and have been having a blast playing. It’s so much fun. The online portion is the best part of the game for me. It’s cool to be racing against people from all over the world. I’d still learning how to race better, but it’s still a blast even when I lose. We’ve been using the special wheel to control the cars and motorcycles, but I did use the old Wavebird when we had a 4-person multiplayer race going. It seemed a bit easier, but you don’t get the cool (at least I think it’s cool) wheel icon next to your screen name if you don’t use the wheel.
Mario Kart Wii has a lot of different vehicles to choose from. There are carts, souped up racers, dirt bikes, sport bikes, scooters, choppers, even stroller-cars! It’s so fun to race using different cars. The animations are really neat too. For instance, when you throw an item out of the stroller-car, the top canopy opens up and the shell flies out. Also, when you do a mid-air trick while on the bike, he does a moto-x style move. I tend to use the motorcycles more than the cars because the drifting animation is awesome-looking. Especially the Sugar Scooter, which looks like a modified Vespa. It’s very cool. And the racing outfits of the motorbike riders are really neat. I mean, look how cool Peach looks in racing leathers in the graphic above!
Mariko was telling me a couple neat things about Mario games that I didn’t know before. First, the name “Luigi” is the same as the Japanese word “ruiji” which means “similar”, which is a nice pun since he is similar to Mario. And secondly, by combining the name “Mario” and the Japanese word for bad, “warui”, the character Wario was born.
Mario Kart is really a great game, especially playing against others either online or multi-player. I definitely recommend this if you have a Wii. If anyone wants to exchange Mario Kart or Wii friend codes, just drop me a line! (barron @ the url of this site)
Mariko sent me a link to a fantastic article by Chris Kohler about the opening of a Go Go Curry restaurant in NYC. It’s got me craving Japanese curry so badly! His description of J-curry is right on the money, and I was so glad he mentioned the practice of topping the curry with cheese. It’s my preferred method of eating kare-raisu (curry rice).
Obama on American energy consumption: “All of us are going to have to change our habits. We are a wasteful culture.” It’s so refreshing to hear a politician tell it like it is.
After a few months of this dvd sitting on the enterainment center, I popped it in the player and watched it. I haven’t seen a Tarantino movie since Jackie Brown, and I really don’t know why I waited so long to see Kill Bill. I love this movie. I loved Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown. Kill Bill is over-the-top violent, with amazing action sequences, lots of dismemberments, and even a bitchin’ anime sequence. Plus the soundtrack is super! Uma Thurman is perfect for the role, and I really loved the character Hattori Hanzo by Sonny Chiba. I was wondering why Tarantino chose that name for the character, but the dvd’s special feature explained it. (I used to watch that show about Hattori Hanzo on KSCI in Los Angeles just like Tarantino did)
My only complaint was the casting of Lucy Liu. I’m not sure why, but I really can’t stand her in any movie. She’s not great at all. Acting, charm, presence… totally lacking! The funny part is, I like her when I see her in real-life interviews and stuff, but in an acting role, I just don’t get her. Plus, she looks lame in kimono. I wish Tarantino would have cast Nakama Yukie of Gokusen fame in that role. Go Go Yubari was pretty great, though! The Japan scenes (most of this movie) were fantastic. My favorite scene was when The Bride and Hattori Hanzo were talking at the bar.
Hattori Hanzo: What do you want with Hattori Hanzo?
The Bride: I need Japanese steel.
Hattori Hanzo: Why do you need Japanese steel?
The Bride: I have vermin to kill.
Hattori Hanzo: You must have big rats if you need Hattori Hanzo’s steel.
The Bride: Huge.
I have Kill Bill Vol. 2 next up in my Netflix queue, and I can’t wait to finally see Bill himself.
One totally convenient thing in Vista is the way that it handles copying files. Specifically, if you are copying a file to a location that already has a file with the same name, Vista will ask you if you want to either “Copy and Replace” the file, “Don’t copy” the file, or “Copy, but keep both files”. You can also of course select Cancel. But the huge change is that there is now a checkbox that asks if you want use the same choice for the rest of the files pending copy (and it lets you know how many files are in conflict). This is so convenient for me when I am copying photos between camera and computer, or from computer to computer. For instance, I will copy several days’ worth of photos to the computer. But then I keep on taking photos with the camera for the next few days, without ever deleting the previous photos. When I next copy the pics from the camera to the computer, I can just select all of them, then select copy, and then choose the “Skip files” option with checkbox to do the same to the remaining files. In Windows XP, you had the option to Skip a file, but you couldn’t tell XP to do the same action for all duplicates in that batch. I actually searched (albeit not too hard) for a utility that would do this. So it was a pleasant surprise when I saw the new, improved Copy File dialog box pop up in Vista. All-in-all, Vista is a really nice OS. I am enjoying it quite a bit.
