No Ears For New Years


Let me explain the title so I can get that out of the way. For about three months now, my right ear has been clogged. I woke up one morning to this discomfort and it hasn't let up since. I was hoping it would go away naturally after my cold was gone, but it hasn't. I even had to watch the Lion King musical out of one ear. The show was good, but sucked that I couldn't really hear all that well.

Mother Routes has a little earwax scooper that she used to pick my ear. But first we had to drop some Hydrogen Peroxide in my ear to dissolve and moisten some of the wax walls. And MAN, the amount of wax chunks that she pulled out was amazingly disgustular! But there's still more blocking my eardrum, thus the title of this blog. I still can't hear!

Okay, now to things more pressing. Chrismas was great this year! Our second annual Cousins Gift Exchange went off really well. Though we really should make a guessing game out of it. And we also had our second annualish White Elephant. I brought a Spongebob Bubble Bath kit. Em chose it and HATED it. She even flat out told me "RickyRoutes, I don't like your gift" to which I replied, "Too bad. That's the point of White Elephant!"

I know. She's only six or whatever age, but I didn't care. It was Christmas!

I got good things from my friends too. Angel Wing Jasmine sent me a giant family sized umbrella that opens and closes by button push. I've always wanted a giant good umbrella and finally I have it! She also sent me Excite Truck for the Wii and a mystery gift still in the mail. Erico Suave and MacArthur gave me a bunch of Wii stuff! I'll be sporting my Wii sling bag in Florida.

Have I not said anything about Florida? I can't remember if I did or not. Erico Suave, MacArthur, Angel Wing Jasmine (first time!), and I am going at the end of January! It should be a blast!

Today, I'm headed to The Oblong's house for a New Years party which will consist of much Wiiing and DSing and Hawaiian BBQ goodness. I also have to write my traditional yearly wrap up letter to myself, which I got it say I'm getting tired of writing. But I'll keep this tradition alive dammit!


Forced to write,

Ricky

Torturing Agent J

Non-Listless Xmas


So then would it be just a "List Xmas?"

This year's Christmas season, I'm happy. I feel like I've got a spring in my step (and I still haven't completely kicked a cold). I don't know what it is, but I just feel merrier this year; excited for Christmas. In years' past, I've kind of felt this lack of enthusiasm towards Christmas. I think it was due to a lack of gifts at midnight to open (on account of being older). But these days, with a job and earning money and whatnot, I think it's more about giving. And that makes things exciting. I can't wait to see people crack open the gifts we're giving. Plus our second annual Secret Santa and White Elephant spice things up even more.

So at the beginning of this season things didn't look so rosy. But that's the way it always begins. You start out with the ungodly task of creating Christmas lists. And since I'm such a difficult person to shop for (I tend to buy anything I already want), I have to create lists for some of my friends to gift me. Usually our family just hands out money, but this Christmas (and a decision made late in the month of December), we decided to get gifts for most people. 'Tis better to rip open an item, rather than a red envelope.

So Timotei and I set out to get gifts and we did mighty well. Roughly half of our purchases were from online (Amazon mostly), which made things so easy. The rest we found away from malls, like Best Buy and Toys R Us. I can't guarantee everyone will like their gifts, but the thing I love about giving is that they can't say anything bad if they hate it. I love the whole "grin and thank" fakeness. It's what I live for really.

Yesterday we celebrated Xmas with Father Routes' side of the family and I really couldn't have enjoyed myself more. Sure it was essentially the same and we just gathered around the TV and played Wii Sports all night, but I just feel we got closer as a family. Ain't that all warm and cozy?

I've got presents to give! Stop on by.



Ho! Ho! Ho!

RIcky

Knee Jerk Retraction


It's way late at night and I have work tomorrow and I'm wide awake for reasons I'll explain later. But a couple of thoughts are running through my mind.

I feel that if there is a God, He or She is exercising the "I created you... I can take you away" mantra. Not so much with my life, but just my left knee.

In the past few days, I've felt really wobbly on my left knee. During just the simple act of walking, I'll find myself weak in the left knee and reacting fast to regain my step. I'm like a malfunctioning Asimo robot. Also, on the bus the other day, during the simple act of sitting down, I bashed my left knee into the seat. The thing got bruised and hurt like hell.

Then just tonight, during the simple act of going to the bathroom, I tripped on my jammies and stumbled forward, hitting my left knee into the door.

Now do you see why I feel God is trying to take away my knee? He/She must want to create some sort of three-legged chicken (that's a crack at my hyper chicken legs). Well, I won't give them up without a fight! These are my legs and my legs only!

And I'm up and fully energized because we went to Starbucks where I ordered a Caramel Mocchiato (spelling?). In fact, I ordered two grande cups for Timotei and me. When the barista presented our order, she made two grande Caramel Fraps. Freakin' cold drinks on a freezing night! Me not wanting to start trouble, just decided to take it and live with it. No one else around us was claiming the drinks, so it must have been ours. I had also second guessed what I ordered.

So right when I took a sip, the barista sets two more drinks on the counter; two grande Caramel Mocchiatos. Fuck! We didn't know what to do. So we just took both drinks each and walked out of the store. No one seemed to be claiming any of the drinks, so we took them. And yes, I drank 3/4 of both of them. The Mocchiato sucked, but the Frap was delicious. But yes, too much coffee!!!

One thing's for sure: we can never show our faces at that Starbucks again.


Bok bok bagok,

Ricky
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In The TWiilight Zone


So this is a little late! I've been, how do you say, ah yes, preoccupado.

Yes indeed fellow travelers, I did pick up a Nintendo Wii a week and a half ago, on the 19th. We left a wedding banquet in Los Angeles and bolted down to our local Target where we had read there were 60 consoles available. It was around 11:30pm when we jumped in a line of 40-something Nintendo fans/geeks. At that point, it looked like we were golden.

However, as the night progressed (SLOWLY), people began to join their friends in line in front of us. This made me very nervous, especially because the line wasn't growing much longer behind us.

Our plan was to play Nintendo DS games all night, but I found I could not enjoy the games because I was so worried about not getting a game system. It was also miserably cold out.

So after so many slow slow slow moving hours and having to hold my piss forever, we were handed tickets that ensured a system. We were around the tail end of the line; the early 50's. So we did cut it close.

Well anyway, we bought the Wii and eventually six games. I'm enjoying the hell out of Zelda and Rayman Raving Rabbids.

I love my Wii and hug it everyday. That doesn't sound right.

But in other news, Erico Suave, MacArthur, Angel Wing Jasmine, and I are going to Florida in January! It's been two years since I've gone and this will be Angel Wing Jasmine's first time! Sweeeeet!


Transforming into a blue-eyed beast,

Ricky
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Wii-minus 6 Days and Counting


Is it dedication and hardcoritude that a bunch of us plan to camp out overnight to buy the next-gen Nintendo Wii console? Or is it just plain nerdulation? Well whatever the case, that's the plan this Saturday night.

I've been jonesing to get my mitts on that piece of machinery since it was announced as Codename: Revolution. You can bet your jamooty that come Sunday morning, I'll be playing Zelda for a month straight. Heh, we'll see how that goes.

In other news, I learned from Agent J (and Rionheart) how to solve a Rubiks Cube. Go figure... you don't just spin it back the way it was spun to return it to organized fashion. You have to solve for layers by using semi-complex algorithmic sequences. My best timed time is 3 minutes 52 seconds with much room for improvement.

Will I improve? Probably not. To me, time isn't important. The real thing is being able to actually do it. After you do it once, it's always the same (unless you learn another way of doing it, which would be way complicated). So no, I probably won't improve much, but only because I don't really care. And did you know that old ass Rubik's Cubes are $10??? Freakin' expensivisimo.

Stay tuned for our S-Wii-eepover coverage. Should be geektastic!


Stuff,

Ricky
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Disneyland Overflow


Today was my company's annual Family Day, held this year at Disneyland. We got there a little after opening and collected massive Fast Passes. But after lunch, we met up with more family with annual passes. The problem was that the three of us who got there at opening (Mother Routes, Timotei, and me) finished the west side of the park and didn't intend on returning. But with more people joining our group little at a time, we found ourselves repeating a lot of the stuff we'd already completed.

Eventually we ended up as a group of 23, which made it impossible to get anything done. But we did do some cool things. We visited K-mart as she played host for Buzz Lightyear. And we even posed for pictures on Tower of Terror.



Click the picture for a better look.

I couldn't stay long however. I originally had plans to see Sister Act in Pasadena with Erico Suave and MacArthur. So at 6:30 in the evening, I left the group and met up with my friends and we drove down that crappy 5 Freeway in bumper to bumper traffic. I felt the most claustrophobic in Erico Suave's VW Beetle. The traffic was entirely too frutrating to bear.

But we made it with plenty of time to spare. I had eaten a big lunch buffet, so I wasn't hungry, but the drive made me incredibly thirsty. The Pasadena Playhouse has nothing really around it (unlike the Pasadena Civic Center which I mistook it for). So I was forced to buy their $3.00 bottle of Aquafina. Then during intermission, I found myself starving and bought a $3.00 cookie and $2.00 bag of M&M's. Crap.

The show was pretty good. A lot of good new songs, but something seemed off compared to the movie. Anyway, I was so tired from running around all day at Disneyland that I was falling asleep during the show. One thing that was cool, we saw legendary composer Alan Menken there (he wrote the music for the show). I wish I got a picture or his autograph, but he was always so far away. Oh well, when I tell this story again, I will have met him and now we're good friends.


Exhausted,

Ricky
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P-Wii-vieW!!


It's no secret around here that I loves me my Nintendo games. I consider myself a born-again Nintendo fanboy. I was a dedicated Nintendo kid back in ye olde pub days. I still remember that Christmas when my brothers and I unwrapped the very first Famicon Nintendo system (which included Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt with Zapper, and Track and Field with Power Pads). We were off-the-wall overjoyed.

The next few years, we got the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and we were just as bowled over.

But then something happened. There was this perceived notion that we were growing up. We were never treated to a Nintendo 64 system and then opted to buy a Playstation. I can't remember why exactly we turned our backs on Nintendo at the time. I think it was the perception that Nintendo was for kids. Since we were getting older, we were supposed to graduate to the Playstation. (Plus, games were *cheap* with easily modded systems [if you catch my drift]).

So we missed out on most of the more famous Nintendo games like Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Starfox 64. I remember my first impressions with the N64 were bad because the new Mario game was completely in 3-D and I found extremely boring to navigate (but apparently it's incredibly beloved).

We eventually graduated to the Playstation 2, basking in the graphics upgrades and real life simulations. And while PS2 was our primary system, I still bought a Gamecube when an opportunity dropped it on my door for a bargain price. But even after buying it, I found myself only playing a few games like Smash Bros.

It wasn't until the Nintendo DS that I fell back in love with Nintendo's classic and superbly designed games and even trying many series that I bypassed/missed/overlooked.

I've never beat a Zelda game because I was very uninterested in long RPGs. Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation, along with the handheld Mario & Luigi games, helped break those barriers. I had never cared for the Starfox series because I thought free-roaming in space was dull. And I never tried Metroid because it seemed too difficult and on the Gamecube, I wasn't into first person shooters. But the DS showed me such inventive ways of playing that I wanted to try everything. I gave everything a shot and with the backwards compatibility of Gameboy Advance games, I was able to catch up with classics like Metroid: Fusion.



Which brings us to today. A bunch of us went to the Nintendo Fusion Concert stop in Orange County where bands like Relient K and Hawthorne Heights were playing. But the real reason I wanted to go was to preview the new Nintendo Wii console. With motion sensing technology, Nintendo plans to change the way we play video games. And after playing some of their games, I think they're going to do it. The new ways of playing are so much fun. I've already committed to spending the night in front of Target to get one on November 19.


Wii-living past gaming memories,

Ricky
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Ending Pending?


Just to let you know that I won't be discussing any specifics regarding the last book in A Series of Unfortunate Events. So if you are worried about spoilers, you can still read my thoughts on it. I'll try to be as vague as possible when describing things. But rest assured, I won't ruin anything for you.

Begin review of The End.

After the disappointment that was The Penultimate Peril, book twelve of A Series of Unfortunate Events, I wasn't as eager to read the final book The End. I mean, don't get me wrong. I was very interested to answer all of the lingering questions that the first twelve books have been dragging along. But I didn't find myself counting down the days to its release, not like I did with book twelve. I think I was just preoccupied with the Nintendo Wii.

But I did pre-order the book and had to wait an entire extra weekend to receive it from Amazon. And yeah, once it arrived last Monday, I immediately cracked it open.

The book starts off just like all the others; recapping the story of the Baudelaires. The book isn't exactly what I expected. I thought the last book would be a collection of explanations. I guess I expected it to come full circle and toss out any kind of story to just explain everything; much like the series finale of a show. But this book bucks that trend. Like all the other books, it is its own self-contained story. And why shouldn't it have been? This book speeds along as if it weren't the last of anything, and I gotta give the author credit.

And the story is fantastically interesting and imaginative. It was refreshing to see a different villain (though it depends on how you look at it) and to even see a different side of Count Olaf. The books are far from realistic, but at the same time, they are down to earth. Lemony Snicket doesn't sugar coat things and he has warned repeatedly that it won't end well. Well, I gotta say that I thought the ending was very fitting. Though not all my questions were answered, I believe there is meaning in Snicket's decision to leave things open ended; namely that the points aren't important. And if he were to answer some of these questions, we'd no more understand or care for it than if we were still in the dark.

And dagnabbit, how he ends the book makes you ponder the story from the bad beginning and opens wide new questions. I'm actually thinking about going back and rereading the series, now that I'm knowledgable on a certain detail.

Was that vague enough? If you couldn't tell, I really loved this last book. It was smart, funny, poignant, pregnant, tragic, hopeful, heartwarming, infuriating, and just plain memorable. I'm very sad that there won't be any other updates on the Baudelaires, but this ending was very satisfying. Though if you've also read The Beatrice Letters, well, I won't say anything further. It just makes me sad thinking about it.


Wii!

Ricky
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The Wedding Usher


It truly is the year of weddings and jury duty. I can't believe the number of weddings that have happened this year around me; friends, family, co-workers, famous people, etc. And really, the number of people summoned for jury duty is staggering too.

But this is about weddings; Charmin's wedding to be exact! Yes friends, my amazingly awesome cousin Charmin got hitched to her fiance Tony Toni Tone today!






Ellvin Kelvin, Timotei, and I were ushers. I was a little surprised at what the duties were since I thought all we did was tell people where to sit. Because the church was so strict, after telling the guests which side to sit on, we had to tell them to turn off their cell phones and that they were forbidden to video record or take pictures until after the wedding. Then after all the guests were seated (after having arrived all at the same time to be seated), we had to escort the parents and grandparents down the aisle to their seats. It was pretty cool.



Of course once the wedding began, the flashbulbs went off. People were taking pictures everywhere. So much for our authority. And I had never noticed how annoying digital cameras were until I heard the beep-beepbeepbeeps every 4 seconds.



After the short and sweet wedding, everyone applauded when the minister guy announced them and we took a mess of pictures. But we couldn't stay long because we had to help set up the reception dinner.

The reception was pretty awesome. We helped set up the slideshow (which was also short and sweet) and the party favors. I was in charge of recording the reception, but from my point of view. In fact, the newlyweds wanted to witness memories from every table's point of view, so they left cameras for all to use. I thought this was clever and I had never heard of it, but apparently it's a common thing.

However, things weren't all rosebuds and Lucky Charms. Near the end of the meal, I turned around to see many people staring at a single table. Turning around even further, an elderly woman (who later I learned was Charmin's great aunt) was not responding to repeated attempts to open her eyes or mouth. Thankfully, it turns out that one of Charmin's good friends (and co-wedding coordinator) was a doctor, one of the guests was a nurse, and one of our second cousins was a firefighter. They all helped her to the ground where they administered CPR. I didn't want to look because it was really horrifying. They had successfully revived her before the paramedics came (within 5 minutes). She went to the hospital, but is expected to pull through. Word has it that she may have taken one too many heart medications.



But besides that scare, things went great. Our family had the most fun in a long time. There was some dancing and drinking and man was there drinking at our table.

We're all looking forward to Ellvin Kelvin's wedding, whenever that may be.


Munching Cap'n Crunch,

Ricky
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