August/September 2009 Entry

So now I’m going to try and recollect things over a 2-month period. This should be interesting. I’ll use my MotionBox account as a small point of reference. I think I might just post a bunch of videos for this to fill in a lot. Video VS Text has its advantages/disadvantages. Forgiveness to any significant thing I forget as these last couple of months have been busy and eventful. And apologies to those that can’t view the HD footage. As a solution, if you wish to view them, ask me to email you a link to view it in SD. I know I’ll forget stuff so…yeah…can’t do much about forgetting unless someone reminds me.

-----

KT Tempura Cook-Off – 08.01.09

Our attempt at mixing odd food/ingredients with tempura batter. It came with very interesting results.

Banner

Introduction plus my ingredients

Taste testing Wilson’s ingredients

Teaser (Video Project)


-----

Linny’s Birthday – 08.09.09

Skating

Skater POV


-----

Danny’s Going Away Get-Together – 08.12.09

8-Player Daytona Racing

Danny’s Going Away Speech

My Child (Video Project)


-----

Gianni’s Baby Shower – 08.23.09



-----

My Birthday – 08.29.09

We played Wii Sports Resort and I had both the players recorded and the gameplay footage captured. But I haven’t had the time to sync and put all the videos together. I’ve only done one so far. But the funniest game had to have been when we were canoeing. The following clip is just us players playing it and not the on screen gameplay.

Canoeing

Wii Sports Resort (Speed Slice) – Ada VS Yvonne


-----

All Out 2009 – 08.30.09

Illovation

Wyldstyl


-----

And that’ll be it for videos I’ve taken. Wow, that took up all of August. No footage taken for the month of September, aww. Now it’s time for a text recap.

-----

Work…boring…
I’ve been cleaning up our website as of late. More on that shortly.

-----

Health Related

Ah, yes. Fun. For a while I had been having an ear issue. I mentioned it in my last post. Well, my ear is fine now. I went to a different doctor and he was able to extract the large piece of build up (and it was ridiculously large) from my ear and now I hear fine. Unfortunately, all of that build up has made my ear canal larger and it is liable to catch a lot of build up again. I am taking drops to help with some healing and I’ll be going in for a checkup in October.

I was also dealing with a horrible headache for a few days. It was weird. It only effected the left side of my head and it coupled together with strains in the neck if I moved it a certain way. Those are gone now at least.

Now I shall tie work and injuries together. Since I’ve been cleaning up the website at work, I’ve had to do a lot of copy/paste/move over and over. Doing that repeatedly for 8 hours a day as fast as I can with minimal movement in my wrist has garnered pain in my wrist and arm. I thought it would go away after a weekend of rest, but the following Monday had just typing short phrases being painful. I had been wearing a brace on my wrist to minimize any large wrist movement and it had helped, but the pain still persisted. The worst it was was on one night, I couldn’t sleep because I could just feel the heated pain shooting up and down from my wrist to my shoulder. So I took today (09.29.09) off and went to the doctor. Fortunately, it is not carpal tunnel. Unfortunately, I have inflamed ligaments that could lead to carpal tunnel. So I just have to slow things down at work and keep the brace on and I should be fine.

You may be asking how I’m typing all of this with a messed up wrist. Medicine.

I also knocked out getting my flu shot the same day. Yay for insurance paying for it.

This wrist injury came at a weird time. It came after doing a large deal of project related work, but it came at a point when I started to work out more. I started working out more due to the project and I had finished my portion of it. I was going to continue working out to just maintain the build I had, but this wrist thing will have me sidelined from doing anything for at least another week or two…sucks.

-----

Maria

Maria came to visit over the Labor Day weekend. I met a few of her army friends that came with her. We went to celebrate her mom’s birthday (2 days after mine) at a Mexican restaurant. It was really fun. A lot of her family was there (who recognized me) and our food took forever to come out. They had a dance floor and I danced with Maria once. That was it. We really didn’t catch up though unfortunately since a lot was going on. Perhaps another time.

-----

Game Reviews

Wii Sports Resort

Contra Rebirth

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

-----

Birthday

Other than the birthday celebration at the end of August, there was the actual day.

I’d like for the next actual day of my birthday to have no problems at all. Not getting my way…continuing from not getting my way…yelling at a coworker at the end of the work day over stupid things…

But it wasn’t all bad. A couple of friends took me out for a memorable dinner. Good piano player, good food, good drinks, good conversation, pretty waitresses actually taking it upon themselves to do the restaurants’ birthday celebration (thanks Angela and Tina)…yeah. Memorable.

For myself, I ordered (and have since then received) BoA’s re-release of her first English album. Deluxe comes with 3 new songs (technically 2 since Energetic is the MV/Radio version). I only like the new Energetic track they added, but I actually prefer the original version of Energetic. Fan. Support. BoA.

My parents’ birthdays were also this month. Happy birthday to them and others who had September birthdays like Jason (BALLIN’).

-----

Girls’ Generation

Now you know we’re almost done. Congratulations on reading/watching this far.

HyoYeon had her birthday, yay! She and my dad share the same birthday, yay! She is now 20/21 (depending if you’re using Western/Asian age). Happy Birthday!

I know some of the videos I embedded in previous posts are no longer up. You could find those videos around somewhere. The girls ended their promotions for “Tell Me Your Wish/Genie” a while ago, but they still perform this and other older songs at different appearances. Here is one of their official Goodbye Stages (08.09.09) and the latest performance of that song that I’ve seen (09.25.09) and I’ll also leave you with Soshified’s birthday video they made for HyoYeon. You can see what else they contributed to her in the description in the direct video link.





Take care. Mmbyeeeee.

July 2009 Entry

And I thought June was a busy month. Going to try recollecting what I can. By the way, there will be no pictures for this post. There will be a lot of videos though to make up for that.

-----

So work is kind of lame. It’s not horrible, but it’s not a fun time. I spent the last 2 days checking a new program we made called I.T. DVD. It’s basically a DVD with whatever video you order, written materials (Q&A, PowerPoint, Guide, etc), and you can take a quiz straight from the DVD. So I’ve been doing quality control on them. I have gone through 30 and only 1…ONE had no problems/errors. ..and we have 100 of these made. Needless to say, they’re going to be remade/corrected. It’s just a pain in the butt and very time consuming to go through. This program has been a pain since day one and still brings frustration to those involved with creating it.

We also hired a couple more workers. One is temporary and his last day is actually tomorrow (07.31.09). He’s been doing stuff for the I.T. DVDs that I was originally doing. He’s a cool guy to talk to. We had our share of laughs in the office. Another hire is ANOTHER alumni from Kempner High School. He was originally doing research for us, but recently he has been given a video project to edit. I didn’t know him well back then, but he’s also cool to talk to and have lunch with the others. Both are definitely better than the other recent hire from Kempner…ugh…

Something somewhat cool (I think), I now work with 5 computers at once in my office. It gets hot.

-----

No new game reviews. I could write one for “Final Fantasy IV: The After Years,” but it hasn’t been completely released yet. I did buy the latest new chapters and beat those. Now I’m just maxing out characters in my spare time. Can’t wait for more next month and the following month.

I’m also playing “Wii Sports Resort.” Fun like the original “Wii Sports.” The MotionPlus does well, but really does drain the batteries. I’ll probably play it another week before reviewing it. I do give it a thumbs up though.

I’m on the fence about buying the “Metroid Prime: Trilogy.” I honestly don’t think I’d be playing through each one again. It is a time consuming game. Not only that, I already own each game. I loved each one. Right now, I’m thinking I’d only buy it as a collector’s item. I don’t think I’d have time to cram 3 more games into my game time, which is small and reserved already.

-----

I’m currently fighting an ear issue. My left ear is really packed with build up (according to the doctor I saw) that I can barely hear anything out of it. My right ear is totally fine. I can hear clearly from my right ear. So I went to an otolaryngologist to get my ear checked out. He tried cleaning it, but it got to a point where it was too hard for him to keep chipping away at. And it also hurt a lot. I was feeling faint a few times. For a week I was using ear drops to help soften the build up. So the second trip to the doctor didn’t last that long. He was able to clear more out, but it hurt too much and my ear was very irritable. I was given the option to have an operation done, which just meant I’d be knocked out for about 20 minutes so the doctor can really dig into my ear without me flinching or pulling away. I let my mom know about it before just agreeing to it and she was against it. Long story short, I’ve been using more ear drops since then and am waiting to see someone for a second opinion. I really was opting for the operation. It is very frustrating only hearing things out of one ear.

-----

I won tickets to a baseball game at work. So Danny and I saw the Astros lose to the Pirates. It was cool though. It was my first baseball game and we had good seats (behind first base). The cool part was something else that happened.

You know those Kiss Cams they do at sporting events? They did that and it was funny to see how couples would react. But one guy proposed to his pregnant girlfriend. And it happened in our section. The couple and their family was actually sitting around us, but the guy had moved elsewhere to do it (not too far off). It was pretty cool to actually see that happen live. You always hear or see these things happen on TV, but I never thought I'd see one happen in front of me. Crazy.

-----

Went to see “42^nd Street” live for a Anh’s birthday. That was a good show. I only knew one song fromt here, ha. It was nice being outdoors to watch the show.

I also saw “Phantom of The Opera” live. It was really great. There was fire, ha! A lot of the story had fallen out of my head over the years so it was as if I was seeing/hearing the show for the first time. I’d highly recommend the show for anyone interested.

And congratulations to Le for giving birth to another boy.

-----

I have a couple new magic tricks that I learned. The people I’ve done them for were pretty amazed. I’ll oddly name them here because I kind of like leaving a mystery of what I know for some people. I’ll call one “King’s Hidden Power” and the other “The 25-cent Bend.”

-----

The annual July 4^th Exploderbration was fun like it always is. Rather than type about it, here are a couple of videos.

-----

Went crabbing again. It was more like fishing than crabbing though. 2 crabs and a lot of fish. That was fun though. I never fished before and was very happy with every catch I procured. The following video will only show a few fish caught, but we caught around 10-12 in the end. That’s not counting the little ones that were thrown back in the water.

-----

Went to the All Out 2009 dance competition. Andrew and Wyldstyl were competing so I had to come out and watch them. The whole show was a small tribute to Michael Jackson. Each crew did their routine, but also had a small section of a Michael Jackson song that they danced to also. Here is the video of Wyldstyl’s performance. Congratulations on advancing to the finals in August.

-----

Hmm…SNSD…

Been watching a lot of their performances and some of their scheduled appearances on various shows. Good stuff. I don’t have too much to say about them. They make me happy. Here are a couple of performances of “Genie” that I’d like to share. The first one was a nice rooftop performance. The second one is probably my favorite one they’ve done because of the intro, their outfits, and the stage…”hey, baby.”

And…I have a new favorite…for many reasons. Here she is performing with Park MyungSoo with their catchy hit song, NaengMyun (Cold Noodles).

Take care.

June 2009 Entry

This has been a busy month.

-----

Work…is okay. We did hire 2 new workers; one editor and one guy to crank out some of our new programs we’re producing. That guy happens to be someone from high school. I had choir with him and…he is just as I remember him…yeah…work is as lame as ever.

-----

Latest game review is for “Punch-Out!!” on the Wii.

Punch-Out!! (Review) - click

I recently beat “Sonic and The Secret Rings.” I did enjoy it very much. It had its frustrating moments, but it was still a good game. I’m not going to review it although while I was playing it, I was thinking of how to write a review for it, ha. I’d rate the game 3 out of 5.

Currently, I am playing “Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.” It is a sequel to the original “Final Fantasy IV/II” on WiiWare. It’s released episodically, but you only need 2 chapters to get the main story. The rest of the chapters are side stories of the characters that are part of the game, but do add a lot to it and are must plays for fans. It didn’t take long to beat the available chapters. Right now I’m just maxing out my characters and collecting rare treasures. Can’t wait for more chapters to be released next month.

-----

I recently bought my own video camera. Spent some time researching it and others with Mike before spending a nice chunk of money on it. So I’ll be taking it around a lot because there is no way I’m going to spend as much as I did and not use it.

I did have to find a new uploading service so I can share the videos in HD. I’m using Motionbox and I’m pretty satisfied with them right now. Next up MIGHT be upgrading my computer to produce videos faster. I’ll have to think about that for a bit because if I’m not having more editing to do, I can still work at the same pace.

-----

Went to Dallas for Barry’s birthday. It was a nice road trip. We went to different museums and did a lot of tourist/sightseeing stuff. For me the highlights were the TMNT van and seeing Michaelangelo, doing the late night surprise for Barry, the Dallas Aquarium, and the bear statues we saw before leaving. This was also the first time I used my new HD camera.

There were a few negatives about Dallas that I won’t delve into though. The one thing though that effected me a lot was being dehydrated after the trip and running a fever the following week. Those conditions lead me to miss 6 days of work. I’m fine now though. I did try to go back to work, but within less than 30 minutes I was very dizzy and light headed. They let me go back home for me to rest. I did see a doctor also just in case. Nothing severe since I had pretty much recovered 90% before actually seeing a doctor (needed a doctor’s note to return to work). I still haven’t gotten my blood results back though…odd. But I’m feeling good and am back to doing things normally.

-----

I went crabbing with friends for the first time in my life. We left around 2:30AM and got there around 4. It was pitch black when we got there, but we had enough lights to see what we were doing and to allow to not have to use night vision on my camera. The sunrise was great to see. It was a nice activity to do and I wouldn’t mind doing it again. I’m very happy to have caught the biggest crab of the trip. It was a tough fight. It took a good 20 minutes of concentrating in the same area to catch that crab (it escaped once, but not the second time). We left around 9 and actually caught the majority of our crabs before we left. Good times. Got back around noon.

And then later that day (don’t worry, I took a nap) I went with Mike to a surprise party for one of Darrell’s friends who I have known for a while, Melissa. We all ate at California Pizza Kitchen and had some nice conversation with the guys we were around. We then left and surprised Melissa again by playing a few rounds of Mafia at Darrell’s. I’ve got to say that this was the best Mafia outing I’ve had in a long time. 3 long rounds of Mafia with the first 2 going to the killers. Last round went to the cop…ME! Sure…all but the last 2 citizens out of 15 people were the only ones left, but that was a hard fought victory. I had to eat fire to get people on my side. Yes, I pulled out my fire eating trick for the first time in public and DAMN it was awesome, ha! Ah…great night.

-----

I’d like to take a portion of this post and just express my feelings about the recent string of celebrity deaths. It was sad to hear Ed McMahon pass away. He had a great personality. Farah Fawcett…I actually didn’t know she died until I heard about Michael Jackson dying. I don’t have much to say about her, but I wouldn’t think it would be her time yet. Michael Jackson…he’ll be sorely missed. Seeing a lot of his videos air reminded me of how much I enjoyed his music. He was actually the reason I started to like dancing. I remember when I was younger that I would actually learn his dances for fun. Whenever his videos would play, I’d just dance along with him and eventually had most or all the step down. It has been a long time since I had done his dances so I don’t remember the steps by heart, but watching his videos sure made those steps return to me. His passing was a definite shocker and we definitely lost one of the greatest entertainers ever. And Billy Mays was another surprise. The short time I knew of him, he left a strong impression. To their families and friends, we miss them also.

-----

And now to talk about SNSD. They’re back with their second mini-album “Genie.” My copy will mail out soon and I can’t wait to receive it. They recently released their new music video and have started their Comeback Performances. At Soshified (which I haven’t joined), they’re doing a contest for members to send in videos of their reactions of watching the new MV for the first time. Had I done that, they would’ve just seen me smiling and singing along with a few brief momentary pauses of “mouth in awe,” ha. I’m a fan, I’m biased, but I won’t talk/type too much about it. I’ll leave you with a the MV and one of the Comeback Performances. Welcome back, SNSD.

Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) - MV

Etude - SBS Comeback Special - 06.28.09

Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) SBS Comeback Special - 06.28.09

Take care.