Stargate SG-1 Fervor
I've been watching a lot of Stargate SG-1 episodes lately. I think the character development is really good (especially for a sci-fi series). Although I've always regarded it to be a really good show, I never really understood what they were talking about most of the time. See, this is a kind of show that makes a lot of references to things that happened in previous episodes. Personally, I think its good that they do that. It's a sign of solid story linearity. However, there were always factoid gaps that I would never get unless I saw some of the earlier episodes. Who are the Nox? Who are the Asgard? What's with Major Carter and her recurring dreams?

Well, I've been borrowing the DVD volumes for Seasons 1, 2, and 3 from friends and things are starting to make a lot of sense. I must certainly say: it's a pretty good series. I like all the characters and there's a lot of depth in the storywriting.

On another note, I think I got a thing for Dr. Frasier (Teryl Rothery, www.terylrothery.com). I don't know what it is about her, but she seems so adorable to me. hee hee. I'm not sure if it's her eyes or her voice that appeals to me. On top of that, how many actresses do you know that were voice-overs for anime? Enough said. A thought stands in light of this though: I should have joined the Air Force instead. *sigh*

The Vehicle Weekend
So much to do and so very little time. My buddy Bill is here in the Bay Area studying at DLI in Monterey. On Saturday, we drove to SF and walked through Fisherman's wharf and drove across the Golden Gate. Interesting to see actually how many stores in the financial district were closed over the weekend. Of all the Starbucks we saw there, they were all closed! Southbound on the Golden Gate was jam packed well into Marin so we decided to drive around the bay (via Richmond).

We met up with Grace and the volleyball crew at Hometown Buffet. Everybody was so bleary-eyed, I guess everybody was pooped from volleyball. From there, Bill and I left for my house to watch Falling Down on DVD. I've seen it many times before, but I finally now realize how interesting this movie is. I originally thought it was just a simple movie about some distrught dude flipping out.

The next morning, we met up with Alan and his motorcycle friends at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey for the AMA Superbike Championships. Near the blue lagoon, there were tons of cycle vendors where we all checked out various speedbikes and accessories. We got good seats. Alan's friend, Justin, hooked us up to what would be the racing equivalent of skybox seats! The first 2 races were the 1000cc class. Man, these suckers can haul. Bill and I were surprised that a person can crash at 150+ mph and still walk away from it! I want a superbike now. We left from there as I dropped Bill off at DLI.

Right after, I met up with Alvin and Terry to see Bowling for Columbine in Milpitas. Interesting documentary. However, the movie tended to leave me with more questions than answers. Interesting nonetheless.

Before going to sleep, I tried to modify this PHP script that I'm writing. No such luck so far. Other than this, I had a pretty busy, yet nice weekend.

PERL of not-so infinite wisdom
Been experimenting with PERL/CGI stuff and trying to understand it. I'm still confused. I want to learn it. In the meantime, I'm wishing the who ever invented this language should be dragged out onto the street and beaten! A programmer, I am not.

The List
A thought hit me regarding my birthday this last weekend. There's a a lot of things I want to do before I turn 30. However, this notion pretty much shifted from the meaningful to the impossible and to the zany and insane. Here are a few random ones I thought of (in no particular order):

1) Study graphic design.
2) Get a job doing graphic design.
3) Become an officer.
4) Get a role in a movie (as an extra at least).
5) Perform on stage.
6) Get rich by any means necessary.
7) Marry a singer.
8) Ride a motorcycle (not necessarily owning one).
9) Become a bad-ass.
10) Become a bad-ass.

The last one has gotten many rave reviews and a little of interesting suggestions. Orpheus suggested that I satisfy several at once by marrying Jennifer Lopez to satisfy #4, #5, #6, #7 and #9 (as well as #10). Fat chance. :-)

Whatever the case, remember this: You only live once.

The Birthday
Welll, to tell you the truth, I really didn't have much intention of celebrating my birthday yesterday. All I thought of was to visit some friends and I would have been satisfied with that. However, I was really surprised that some people remembered my birthday! I feel blessed. I'm 27 now (can you believe it?). After yesterday's hella late dinner, we went to Grace's afterwards with everybody's intention to get me drunk. I can't begin to fathom the concoctions that Dan threw together for me. Some of it was interesting but the most vile of it all was the tequila! I started getting sleepy. Since I was in no state to drive, I intended to take a nap before getting in my car. Instead, I woke up with the sun in my face.

This morning, I did some light calisthenics to start off the day with some sense of sharpness. I feel fine, actually. As of right now, the smell of Grace's omlets are wafting their way to me like a siren song to appease my hunger.

Needless to say, I'm quite grateful for people attending and calling me to wish me a happy birthday. Thanks, everybody.

Independence Day!
Well, this celebration was ok. Went down to Watsonville with my folks to visit my aunts and uncles to celebrate Independence Day. As usual, the only other person at this gathering that I really could communicate with dynamically was my uncle Maurice. While everybody was talking at the top pf their lungs in Chinese, we're the only two left who were speaking english (see, he's French-Canadian). I kinda feel bad not being about to make it to Paul's gig though. I totally forgot to reply to his evite.

Frustrated
Drawing people is difficult. Very difficult. So after spending multiple hours drawing a picture of a person, the teacher said that the drawing was out of proportion. So instead of having me try to fix some of the drawing, he wants me to start over! BASTALARANZA!