February 26, 2008

The Universal Language

My local NPR station WNYC is currently broadcasting the New York Philharmonic's performance in Pyongyang. Now I know why I donate to them every year :)

The program is just lovely. They open with the North Korea National Anthem, followed by the United States National Anthem. Then:

Wagner, Prelude to Act 3 of Lohengrin
Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 (New World)
Gershwin, An American in Paris

There are three encores, the third of which is a beautiful Korean folk song that I think clinches the night perfectly. The standing ovation is quite apparent.

I hope they broadcast this again or make a podcast/recording available somehow. You really hear everything in a new way, when you imagine hearing it through the ears of someone who may have never been exposed to such sounds before.

February 25, 2008

The Gamers

For those of us who have spent countless hours playing D&D, this is simply too funny:

The Gamers Part 1


The Gamers Part 2


The Gamers Part 3


The Gamers Part 4


The Gamers Part 5



February 19, 2008

Greatest TV Show Ever

Yesterday, Sci-fi had a Firefly marathon. It was actually nice having the show on TV, because you could get other stuff done (cleaning the kitchen, catching up on reading, doing laundry) during the commerical breaks and not miss one great scene after another.

I could write a ridiculously long fangirl post about how much I love this series. But I'll spare everyone the lovefest. Let's just say the marathon yesterday made for a perfect holiday :)

February 15, 2008

Library Cuts

For 2008, our library funding was cut by 10%. It was part of a township-wide budget reduction, so it wasn't like the library was specifically targeted. But the impact is still startling.

When you walk into our library, there's a set of shelves for new books. Usually it's about 80% full.

Visiting earlier this week, those shelves were nearly empty. Perhaps two dozen books total. The new books from last cycle had been put into regular circulation (I think every 60 days) and there just weren't enough new titles to take their place. It was really sad, looking at those empty shelves.

Turns out the 10% reduction caused a 50% cut in the new material budget, due to rising expenses in other areas. You can't control health care or building maintenance costs, so you have to curb your intake spending. It's practical, but discouraging.

While it's nice that the town is cutting costs, I think having a good library is important to the community. It influences the town's educational resources and overall quality of life, and provides a place for research, gathering, and learning. I'm seriously considering donating money directly to the library, to offset whatever tax break might have been attributed to this budget cut. Might as well pay for those new books myself, and in turn, share them with everyone else.

February 14, 2008

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

On this Valentine's Day, I'm going to take the opportunity to gush. While my personal philosophy is that you don't need a holiday to celebrate the one you love, a post on this subject would seem odd on any other day. So here goes.

I can't imagine my life without Vic. When I'm in his presence, all is right with the world. We're like a mecha of two robots. Individually, we're functional, but combined, something stronger emerges (with the power to wreck entire cities! Mwuahahahaha!).

After nearly ten years, I'm still amazed at how well matched we are. Our personalities and beliefs are aligned in such a way that the relationship is virtually effortless. I don't go out of my way to be with him. I just do it, as natural as breathing. Wanting him to be happy, to spend time with him, is as fundamental as wanting to eat or sleep. It's like a reflex, no thought or work involved at all.

It helps that we share a multitude of interests and tastes. Sure, we have disagreements, but they're usually intellectual, more like debates than fights. Ultimately, we shake off the words and return to an amiable core. Being able to enjoy movies, TV, anime, books, comics, games, food, hobbies, just about anything together is simply wonderful. Being able to rationally discuss differences of opinion is equally good.

There's a long list of things I adore about him. In addition to meeting the triple C requirement (Cooks, Cleans, and Codes!), he's one of the smartest people I know, filled with common sense, possessed of a logical mind, and hilarious to boot. It's a casual intelligence - he doesn't show off, but talk to him for a while and you get a good idea of how sharp he is. He's laid back, not in slacker fashion, but in his ability to calmly roll with just about any situation using a straight-forward approach and adaptability I really admire. There's a sweet, silly side to him that lightens my mood, even on the worst PMS day. His sense of humor is just the right blend of dirty, geeky sarcasm. I crave the comfort of his physical contact, even if it's as simple as holding hands or brushing a stray hair aside. He's a prolific techie and deftly competent gamer, which I find insanely attractive. A gentleman at heart, he takes good care of me, mirrors my outlook on life, and comprehends me in a way that makes me secure and safe. Very few things come between us, and the little quirks we notice in each other are insignificant when compared to the overwhelming joy of being together.

It's pretty extraordinary. I think unless you have the same, it's difficult to understand. It's like parenthood or home ownership or even college. Verbal description is pale compared to the actual experience. And I know I'm extremely lucky to have this experience and continually be immersed in it. So on this Valentine's Day, I'm gushing and maybe a little sappy, but at least I had an excuse to post about it!

February 11, 2008

KAIJU!

This weekend, we saw Kaiju Big Battel in NYC.

My words can't do justice to the spectacle that is grown men in bizarre monster costumes wrestling each other. So check out the link!

February 8, 2008

Assassin's Creed

Even without an HDTV, the infamous birds-eye panoramas in Assassin's Creed look amazing. Needless to say, the graphics in this game are fantastic. Beautiful textures and animations, with lots of environmental details and wonderful use of imagery and sound.

In the game, you access memories of an ancestral past life. The past life takes place in 1191, during the Third Crusades, and your memories are of Altair, an Assassin. You play as Altair, who is commanded to kill political figures in an overarching conspiracy theory that runs throughout the game.

As a Crusades buff, I'm delighted with the setting. They stuck with Masyaf as an Assassin stronghold and you can visit three other cities: Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus. While I don't know how close to the real thing the maps are, they got the ethnicities right; for example, Jerusalem belongs to Muslims and Acre has a number of French and German guards. It would have been better to assassinate Conrad of Montferrat instead of William, since Conrad supposedly died via an Assassin attack (though in Tyre, which isn't one of the cities in the game), but that's just nit-picky. Overall, they did a good job bringing the period to life and filled the plot with actual events like the seige of Acre and disagreements between Richard and the contested rulers of Outremer (however, it was Richard who ordered the execution of the 3,000 prisoners at Acre, not William...). The inclusion of the Templars and Hospitallers were a nice touch and it was interesting to play a non-Christian in an era usually romanticized by Europeans but demonized by everyone else.

This is one of the better stealth games, with a "low" and "high" profile system. If you keep a low profile, your actions are much less noticeable than aggressive high profile actions. But of course, it also limits your speed and range. People around you act realistically: making comments if you do strange or rude things and alerting guards when you kill someone. If you're careless, you spend a good amount of time running and hiding, so it's a constant, enjoyable struggle between quiet, patient killings and outright bursts of violence. There are also mini-quests to help citizens, who later return the favor. Sneaking up behind someone and slipping a knife into their throat without anyone noticing is pretty damn fun too.

The climbing algorithm is really well done. Instead of a set path, the system figures out if your next movement is plausible given the map and your position, and then transitions you into the appropriate animation seamlessly. The character looks absolutely beautiful and smooth when scaling walls, darting across beams, and leaping rooftops, all in motions that are determined ad hoc.

The art direction is great and the story is actually decent. It's preachy at times, trying a little too hard to make the targets "evil" and the code of the Assassins "good" (for example, not killing innocents). But I like how they didn't go for the obvious Holy Grail or Ark of the Covenant angle, and instead invented their own powerful icon.

Innovative as the game is, it's also immensely repetitive. While the climbing mechanism is awesome, the combat could use more work. Sword and hand-to-hand combos are well animated but very limited, and using the same old moves on the same old enemy patterns gets...well...old. The missions could use more variety, perhaps with different goals and citizen reactions in different cities, or more mini-games aside from capturing flags. Once you complete two or three assassinations, you pretty much have played every scenario the game has to offer. All the missions follow the same steps and the beauty of the world can only hold your attention so long.

I think there are sequels planned, so hopefully they carry over the good elements and add more diverse missions and combat mechanics. That was definitely holding back this installment from true gaming greatness.

February 7, 2008

Gong Xi Fa Cai, Xian Nian Kua Le

Happy Lunar New Year!

We had our dinner of fish and noodles last night. Turns out Highland Park has a really yummy Chinese restuarant called Shanghai Park. It looked like they had Taiwanese breakfast food too - we may have found our regular Sunday brunch place.

The past couple days have been busy! Aside from the usual month-end accounting crush at work, Vic and I also participated in a two-day sword seminar last weekend. It was taught by our teacher's teacher, Scott Rodell, and concentrated on the dao (Chinese saber). It was really fun as he focused on historical usage, rather than performance moves. However, my poor untrained body was quite sore after twelve hours of practice!

Then of course, there was supercalifragilistictuesday. I'm glad McCain won so many delegates: it's nice to know there's room for moderation in the Republican party these days. And the close race between Clinton and Obama is quite exciting. It's making more people pay attention to the political process, which can only be a good thing for this country.

The CRV is now in Vic's possession as well. It turned out to be a smooth transaction, despite the lost car keys. The trade-in was fine, they didn't screw him on the additional warranty sale, and the car is working out quite well. I don't have a photo of the car itself, but this is pretty much the model he got:



And finally, we've been planning for this year's San Diego Comic-Con. Since this may be our first and last time attending, we are going all out. We've already purchased 4-Day memberships, plane tickets, and secured a hotel room for five nights. Apparently hotels are freakishly difficult to book during the Con, so even though it seems early, we're being super cautious.

And I think that about wraps it up! It's so nice to condense one's life into a few paragraphs :)