Is it Friday? Yes it is. I double checked on a link that Joel U sent to me (and also double checks): isitfriday.biz

I’m feeling good right now. It’s 1pm, so that means it’s okay to drink! I spent a chunk of this morning watching old Christian music videos on YouTube. They bring back memories (such are the memories that one walks away with after attending a Christian high school and also going to youth group during those impressionable years). DC Talk and Dakoda Motor Co. take me back! I got so happy that I poured out some Vodka that’s keeping me warm now. Popov ..nftw but it’s still good enough!

This departure from my usual misanthropy may be temporary, but I’ll cherish it nonetheless. YES WE CAN!

Most of you reading this are in Hawaii, so it probably won’t apply, but just for reference, Olive Garden’s “Never-ending Pasta Bowl” is only in September and October.

We found this out last night after we got to the restaurant (and after I had been thinking about it all day. Fail!)

Oh yeah, and when I asked about it, the waiter also said to me “Don’t worry, you wouldn’t be able to eat all that pasta anyway!” Hey come on, man, I’m a growing boy!

Dinner was still good, though. But I’m pretty sure they hid an entire stick of butter somewhere in my food..

I spent all day playing deBlob on the Wii yesterday. My arm hurts - and the only swinging movement required is to jump! The game’s good times, though; kind of like doing a coloring book, but without the crayons, or the creativity.

Gamefly’s taking forever to send me another game. I sent Prince of Persia back to those guys two weeks ago. They said they only received it last Tuesday (8 days later), and only shipped out my next game yesterday (6 days later).

I’ve pretty much had an empty slot with them for nearly half a month now. Wtf?!

Anyway, I’m trying my best today to not play video games, and to catch up on my reading. I finished Brain Rules by John Medina yesterday and I’m going through Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky now. Both good reads. I think I found out about both of them through NPR’s book reviews site.

And um… I guess that’s about it. Okay I’ve caved. I’m gonna go turn the Wii on now. I think I just started writing this entry to avoid playing video games today, but it just got me thinking about doing it even more.

We ventured out to the suburbs that are North Las Vegas yesterday to check out the new library and casino that opened there. It was a half hour drive to the unexplored.

The Centennial Hills Library opened a few weekends ago. I heard a lot about the new building on the news - it was supposed to be one of those green eco-friendly buildings. with newfangled technology.

I thought it would be bigger, but it was still impressive. They had an impressive collection of dvd’s and comic books (LOTS of manga, in particular).

The coolest discovery came when we were checking out our books - Kerri put the stack on the checkout station, and once she scanned her card, a receipt printed with the titles of every single book on that stack. And in one step, everything was done. It was an RFID station - no need to scan each book individually with a barcode scanner.

Also cool (but maybe a bit unnecessary) was their book return station. It’s two large slots rimmed with green lights that turn red when you put stuff in in, then turn green again when it’s clear. Conveyor belts right behind the slots take everything about ten feet to a room with clear glass walls where you can watch staffers sort everything out. What is this, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant?

Pretty cool stuff. We didn’t stay at the library long, because of the noisy kids. One of the local mags here had a short blurb pointing out that libraries are experiencing a boom in visitors right now because of the economy (when I saw their DVD collection, I even found myself wondering why the hell I’m still subscribing to Netflix [I'm still not sure]).

We drove out to the new Aliante Casino right after. The place opened up a couple of months ago, and being all the way out in North Vegas, it’s geared more for locals. I guess I could see the differences - there was some sort of obnoxiousness or arrogance that wasn’t there. (I’m just not sure if the absence was coming from the casino, it’s patrons, or both.)

Anyway, we signed up for players cards there, and the lady told us that they were having some sort of grand opening promotion - from 6pm until 9pm, they’d be giving a thousand bucks every ten minutes to an active slot machine player that had their card inserted. Then at 9:15pm, all Station Casinos would have a drawing for $50,000 for everyone who accumulated playing points that week.

Of course, this gave me ‘tha fevah‘ and even though the slots were greedy, I just kept going. I lost about seventy bucks. It would have been more … if I had more in my wallet.

FAIL!!!

Other than that, it was a pretty nice trip up North. And possibly one of the last? As cool as that library is, there’s one right near our house and you can make reservations online from the entire system’s collection (my to-read list is way too long for me to need to browse around for more).

And the casino was nice but there’s a fireplace about 10 feet away from me if I ever feel the need to dispose of my income again. (wait, what income? FAIL^2!!!)

We went to the Cal for dinner last night - they mail us these $10 buy-one-get-one food vouchers, which have always turned out being a straight $10-off voucher. So we had chili rice, fried samin, and a soda at the snackbar for free.

I have a new strategy for slots - I realized a while back that the only way I can really ‘win’ is if I just bet really little bit at a machine where there’s high traffic, and try to flag the waitress down to score as many free drinks as I can. For the most part, that’s been a fairly effective strategy.

At least, until I get ‘the fevah’.

That’s when my eyes glaze over and bug out and the machines all start calling to me. I’ve lately been able to repress it pretty well, especially when I think about the groceries you can get for $10 bucks (see previous entry).

Anyway, last night I was playing at a penny slot machine and hit 5 blazing 7’s in a row. Off an 18-cent pull, I won $75 dollars (if I bet the max bet - 45 cents, it would have been $200).

An old local (from Hawaii) couple was nearby and shared some of their stories with us (Kerri noticed that for some reason, old people always seem to like talking to us when we’re there, and we’re wondering if it’s because in the same way everyone there reminds us of our grandparents, we might remind them of their grandkids - but that’s a different story).

After I hit the win, I cashed out. I was going to go home with about $60 dollars more than I came with …if ‘the fevah’ hadn’t hit.

I held out pretty long, though. It wasn’t until we were about ready to go that I sat down at the dollar slots. My $50 bill lasted 6 minutes - longer than usual - but that’s because the machine jammed, and it took about 5 minutes for the attendant to show up.

I think I pretty much broke even. All in all, I returned home with a couple bucks less than I left with, which isn’t too bad considering we tipped the waitress $1 each time for the dozen or so drinks we had that night. Dinner, drinks, and conversations with the elderly, all for the price of a sack of potatoes!

(ok, maybe two sacks - they’re cheap here. See previous entry.)

wtf, Lost started up again yesterday? I had no idea. This is what I get for skipping tv commercials. (and for my waning interest in shows between seasons).

Am I alone here? Anyway I’ll go check it out later.

In other news, one of the few TV commercials I DID see was for some movie called Revolutionary Road, starring Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. The commercial looked like a married couple fighting all the time. I know nothing more about the movie and don’t know if I’ll even see it, so I’ll just fondly think of it as the realistic sequel to Titanic, if DiCaprio didn’t die at the end.

(sorry if I just gave it away for you, but please catch up - it’s nearly 2010).

I can’t stand when the fact that there are Asians in a movie (yet have very little to do with the plot) is used as a gimmick. Along with every movie with Lucy Liu in it, I’m pointing the finger squarely at movies like Better Luck Tomorrow (which hyped a predominantly Asian cast as part of it’s marketing), and this other movie I Netflixed, which had the nerve to call itself Asian Stories.

In both these movies, you could have subbed the entire cast out with another ethnicity, and besides one or two jokes or one liners (that had very little to do with the plot anyway), there’d be little consequence.

These movies might star and even be created by Asians, and it’s fine if there’s nothing particularly “Asian” about these characters. But if that’s the case, don’t make a big deal out of it in R.L, and don’t use it as a god damn gimmick to get people interested in your movie. Because then you’re just stunt-casting (or, I guess stunt-titling).

On that same token, though, I have seen some pretty good movies that really are “Asian stories”. Charlotte Sometimes and Shanghai Kiss fall gladly into this category. And I’m adding another one that I just saw tonight - Ping Pong Playa! This one gets 4 out of 5 stars from me. Maybe I enjoyed it a little more because I’m first Generation Chinese like the main character. Or maybe it’s because the main character looks a hell of a lot like this dude I had in Mandarin class back at UH? Oh wait I know what it was - there were Asians in this movie that weren’t complete on-paper bananas AND no one made a big A.R.G. out of it. Good job, guys!

I watched the inauguration like everyone else. We get free HD channels here, so it was even nicer. Anyway, check out this compilation of front page images of newspapers around the globe reporting the event.

…In (somewhat) related news, kotteke.org (and a bunch of other sites) have reported the difference in the robots.txt file between this and the last administration. Huge difference!

Update: Looks like the price has gone back up.

Amazon.com’s selling the 12+1 month renewal cards for Xbox Live for only 30 bucks! Normal price is like, 50 or 60. I just checked; it still looks like they’re in stock. Go get some!

Some of the recent entries had disappeared yesterday. Turns out it was something to do with my web hosts. I emailed tech support this afternoon and they said they were doing a server migration and did a re-transfer. Everything was restored within a few hours.

I’ve learned that I should make backups. I’ll do it…later today.