Saturday, November 29, 2003

Thank you. Thank you.


Thanksgiving is done and done.

There really isn't much to say except that I played Mario Kart: Double Dash all weekend. Timotei and I beat most of it. There's still some game left to play, but it'll be a while till we pick that up again.

Thanksgiving dinner was good as always. Same traditional turkey dinner with sticky fried rice and corn... just like the Pilgrims.

Quick sidetrack setup: I bought a bunch of new patches last Tuesday when I hung out with Erico Suave. I got two Rufio patches, a Something Corporate one, and a Yellowcard button. The button went on right away, but the patches were another thing. When I bought the patches, I still hadn't sewn on the New Found Glory patch I had purchased so long ago. The only patch I had ever sewn on my No Fear jacket was the Good Charlotte one... and that one got ripped right off after they completely sold out to MTV and became annoying little flamers.

Anyway, on Thursday, my task was to sew on all my patches with Granny M's sewing stash. I did one Rufio patch (the easy one) and started on one of the harder/thicker patches when Granny M snatched it away from me and did them way faster that I could have ever done. So now, I only have one patch left to sew (the Something Corporate one).

Okay... now that you're all caught up on my patches (and lord knows you all wanted to hear about that, I'm reading a new book. It's Big Fish by Daniel Wallace and it's going to be a movie directed by Tim Burton. It's about the stories a father told his son and it's very very interesting and easy to read. However, I just need to find the time to read it. I'm always doing other things. I'll find time soon enough and then write some sort of short review.

The next day, Timotei and I went to Circuit City for the shopping frenzy kick off. At 6am, it was pretty tame, but very crowded. We just went to get some CDs for $9.99. I bought The Ataris album "so long astoria" which is VERY good. VERY! And I also got the new O.A.R. CD because they came highly recommended and I like their one song "Hey Girl." I think they might be a little too folksy for my taste, but I'm gonna give them a good listen soon enough.

That's about it. I had a chicken bake today from CostCo and it wasn't that good. I'm not a big fan of white chicken breast pieces (I find them dry), so it was kinda dry. The polish dog I also got was better as always.



Realizing it's about time we all turn off the radio,

Ricky

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Tuesday, November 25, 2003

...and that's why a week has passed since my last blog.


Ricky

Still insane,



Well, I gotta get ready to hang out, so you all be safe!

I've done some animation tests with Macromedia Flash and have written some short stories to develop my Flash skills. One involves a mother and a daughter, one involves a fat guy taking pictures of Disneyland, and one is a Christmas greeting.

Timotei and I bought Mario Kart: Double Dash the other day and it's fun! You can play on teams where one player drives while the other attacks. Attacking players is the best part.

Today I'm going to hang out with Erico Suave. No concrete plans as of yet as always.

So Ellvin Kelvin returned from New York to spend Thanksgiving with his familia. Fun times! We watched all of 24 season 2 and now he's catching up on Smallville.

I've decided that I'm bored, well I didn't decide that necessarily... I'm bored, and I've decided to entertain myself by writing today's blogger backwards! Like that Seinfeld episode during sweeps.

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Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Poison Oreo Caramel/Chocolate Apples Anyone?


Sue me for being in a particularly pissy mood. I can't explain why, because I'm not exactly sure why, but I am, so live with it.

But what's new, right?

I'm always damn tired for some reason, probably due to my lack of movement, but I DON'T LIKE IT!

But enough about me, let's check in with what... er... I'm doing soon.

I've got tickets to a Cirque show (Varekai) down here for December 14. Then on the 16th, I'm going to see The Producers in Los Angeles. Color me cultured, eh?

Then, in January is the big and much anticipated Florida trip.

But that's thinking too far ahead. I've got tons of crap to finish up before then, like designing stuff and learning crap. Why do I even bother?

Last Friday or so, I bought the new PS2 game Tony Hawk Underground. I beat it earlier this morning and I didn't even cheat! The game was fun, a little easy, but very hard at times. It's really awesome. You can totally personalize the game by designing your own character, making your own tricks, naming your own team, and even adding your own face to the main character (must have online connection though). I'm glad I beat the game so soon because now it's time to get Mario Kart: Double Dash and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Booya!

Anyway, today I went to Disneyland for a short trip to see previews of the new Snow White show and Tower of Terror. The AP exclusive event was really weak, but they did have some cool concept art for Snow White. That show looks very nice, considering I really don't like the movie

...at all.

And now I'm going to play Tony Hawk a little more, learn some Flash, and maybe get back to writing since I've been putting that off for much too long.



Hating everything,

Ricky

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Thursday, November 13, 2003

And He said that it shall rain for 1 Afternoon and 1 Night


Yesterday was the first really harsh lightning storm in a while that I can remember and it was damn cool.

At first I was just watching TV and heard a huge ka-boom! that scared the living dump out of me. That was when I realized, hey, it's a lightning/thunder storm!

So I ran to the living room and opened the curtains to our large window and sat there with Timotei's digital camera and took some short videos hoping to catch a nice strike. I got two good strikes. Lightning is so fascinating. I'm not that big a fan of thunder however. Too blood curtling.

So it was pretty slow yesterday, and Smallville sucked, so, I'm left to do nothing once again. I'm listening to Dashboard Confessional at the moment and slowly working on learning Macromedia Flash. It's a slow process. Give me a break.

Next film I'm dying to see is Big Fish. And the Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban trailer is freakawesome!



Never striking the same key twice,

Ricky

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Monday, November 10, 2003

I Left My Fart in San Francisco


It's Monday and I'm not quite rested up from the big Mission: Visit Princess Karlita in San Francisco road trip. Here's how it played out...

We left at around 10am on Thursday morning and got there at around 5:30pm. The drive wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, of course, I didn't drive a lick. I just sat in the back, quietly listening to Dashboard Confessional, Something Corporate, Trapt, and Yellowcard.

After Erico Suave did the devil's bidding of retrieving Santa Claus' head, we met up with Princess Karlita and went back to her place for some talking and sleeping.

Friday was our tourist day in San Francisco. If you ask anyone what's there to do in SF, the first words are almost always "Fisherman's Wharf." Pier 39 is arguably the most recognizable tourist destination in SF, next to the Golden Gate Bridge. Anyway, that was our first stop. As a kid, I used to go there and have a blast, but I realized Friday that there's really nothing to do there. We watched a juggler take 20 minutes to set up a trick, basically telling the crowd to tip him after the show is over (only after about 15 minutes, it becomes begging). We saw the sea lions gather which was the best part of the Wharf.

We then hiked a few blocks to Ghirardelli Square which doesn't have much either. It was a nice picture spot and they have absolutely amazing chocolates (as I remember from childhood trips), but that's about it.

So after that, we went on a quest to find Lombard Street. I had never been there on foot, always in car, so I figured it'd be fun. We walked and walked up SF's damn hills and that's when my feet started to kill me. We found Lombard and took a few pictures, then walked down the steps off to the side.

After that, we hiked up to Coit Tower, which we learned was shaped like a fire hose. On previous trips, I always saw Coit Tower and wondered what it was. This time I finally saw it. It's home to a museum depicting worker life in the 30's or so. We didn't go into the museum, but we got a nice view of SF.

Our final stop was Chinatown. The only thing I have to say is that their boba sucked.

It was time to go to our Cirque du Soleil show "Alegria." I had a pretty good seat for the price I paid. The only downfall was that I had a pole in my way and it was off to the side, but I could easily see most of it. Very cool show and it made a fan out of me. I'm going to see the Varekai show in Pomona and then La Nouba in Walt Disney World next January.

Saturday, Princess Karlita joined us to pick up MacArthur's friend who lives in Berkeley. We drove over the Bay Bridge and then the Golden Gate Bridge. At the lookout point, it started raining really hard and got us soaked. The visability there was very limited and because it was raining so much, we decided to eat a early dinner and wait out the storm. We found a nice little pizza place in Sausalito called Dario's. They had really good bread and pizza and calzones.

When the rain stopped, we went to Haight Ashbury for some shopping. I was excited because Haight St. is mentioned in one of my favorite Third Eye Blind songs. Pretty nerdy of me. Since it was late, we couldn't do much. We ate some Crepes with chocolate, went to the Gap of all places, then went into a few other trinket stores, and finally Amoeba Music store. I bought two used albums: Dashboard Confessional's "The Swiss Army Romance" and Yellowcard's "One For the Kids."

Throughout the trip, I was trying my best to contain my farts, but sometimes it hurt too much. So I just walked away and did my business plenty of times. I don't know what it was, but I was entirely gassy the whole time there.

On Sunday, we left Princess Karlita's place pretty early and headed to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. That place was really cool, weird, and beautiful. The house is just awesome and the story behind it just begs a ride at Disney's California Adventure. We did two tours, the second one taking us on a more in-depth tour of the house, showing us how it worked, ran, and survived. We got to go into the basement. There will be a short Route on the Winchester Mystery House as soon as I develop my pictures.

After that, we drove home. One the way home, we saw a full rainbow arch, something I had never seen before. It was complete and amazing. I don't care if rainbows have a bad rap now, they're still awesome wonders of nature. And that's about it. All in all, it was a very fun trip. I can't wait to go to Florida now and Vegas trips should be a freakin' piece of f***ing cake.



Now road trip friendly,

Ricky

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Wednesday, November 05, 2003

Soon... I Walk Haight Street to the Store


Things are picking up this week. Why you ask? Well, I shall enlighten you...

Keeping me busy this week is the task of learning Macromedia Flash. Finally a professional tool to make really great animated sequences. I'm really down for starting up or being part of a site like Home Star Runner.

I'm also really digging Dashboard Confessional now. There are still a few songs I prefer not listening to, but overall, I like the CD and the songs are catchy now.

Tomorrow, I'm going to watch Matrix Revolutions with Timotei. I really didn't care much for the second one. It was rather ho-hum. So, imagine my excitement for this final chapter. Just doesn't really grab me like Kill Bill: Volume 2 will. But, I suppose I'll just watch it for the sake of saying I watched it.

Thursday, I will be hitting the road with Erico Suave and MacArthur to visit Princess Karlita in San Francisco to check out her new gig. I have no idea what to expect from this weekend, but there will probably be plenty of rain and drinking. Oh yeah, we're also watching a Cirque du Soleil show up there called Alegria. I return on Sunday night, so try not to miss me too much.



Seeing visions of caramel apples on a motorcycle drive-by,

Ricky

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Sunday, November 02, 2003

Sitka, Denahi, and Kenai = Ellvin Kelvin, Timotei, and Ricky Routes = Alvin, Simon, Theodore


Just chiming in to say that I saw Brother Bear and it was a pretty good movie. When I first saw the trailers, I thought it would be overly sappy and just way too cutesy. Thank god it wasn't like that. I'm kind of angry that they never touched on the dramatic sequences involved in the story.

Anyway, it was very enjoyable, not really that funny (some good laughs though), and a good message. The background nature shots are amazingly cool. I could just watch those all day on DVD. Really nice stuff. The moose got kinda tired though.

Anyway, that's all I feel like saying. Check back later for more interesting crap.



Dashboard confessing,

Ricky

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