Danny's Dream-Rag Discourses

Friday, July 16, 2004

The Japanese

The truth about Japanese restaurants.

Danny blacked out at 7/16/2004 07:46:00 p.m.

Thursday, July 15, 2004

The Blackboard

Silly Flash games... how fast can you erase the
blackboard?

Danny blacked out at 7/15/2004 09:51:00 p.m.

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

The Hole

I know this is old, but I ran across it again... a man and his Hole.

Danny blacked out at 7/07/2004 12:33:00 a.m.

Saturday, July 03, 2004

The Sequel

Today, Jess, Kevin, Derek and I went to see "Spider-Man 2". I liked the first, but my movie-watching peers didn't quite feel the same. All of our expectations were high for the sequel however, because it was getting good reviews from critics and friends. On a sidenote, Spider-Man has expanded to India.

ATTENTION: Do not read ahead if you haven't seen "Spider-Man 2" yet! It contains minor spoilers and my opinions might change your mindset going into the movie!

The following is my personal review of "Spider-Man 2".

Plot (8.2/10): Doctor Octopus without the rest of The Sinister Six? That can't be good. The whole bit about Peter longing for Mary Jane is overdrawn, especially since a lot of that was covered in "Spider-Man". The scientific aspect of Doc Ock's work requires a lot of suspended disbelief. A lot of loose ends don't really get tied up, such as what Peter does for his financial issues. Perhaps simplicity would have benefited "Spider-Man 2" more.

Acting (8.7/10): Tobey Maguire is solid as the adorkable Peter Parker and the heroic Spider-Man. Kirsten Dunst is cute, but her repetitive facial expressions and pale complexion kinda distracted me. I didn't really like Alfred Molina at first, because he's on the chubby side, but he made up for it with the way he really looks like his comic book likeness. The best actor must go to J.K. Simmons who played J.J. Jameson. He timed and delivered his humourous lines well, and really brought the comic book character to life.

Visuals (9.7/10): The scenes of Spider-Man swinging through Manhattan were breathtaking. The CGI was incorporated well, but you could still tell most of the time he was digitally inserted. The battle scenes were captivating, particularily the bank and train sequences. The Green Goblin never generated so much tension and suspense in his fights with Spider-Man as Doc Ock does. The action sent shivers down my spine.

Sound (9.5/10): I never paid attention to sound so much in my life. The theme music that plays during the opening credits suits the general theme of the movie very well. There was no cheesy dramatic musical build-up to visual surprises in the movie, so it left you guessing. All of the sound effects were well done and not deafening.

Overall [not an average] (9.5/10): A definite improvement on "Spider-Man" and a worthy sequel. There is more humour and more action, which makes up for the mediocre plot. I highly recommend it for all audiences.

Danny blacked out at 7/03/2004 08:02:00 p.m.

Friday, July 02, 2004

The BBQ

Happy belated Canada Day! I think the afternoon and evening was a success! Accomplished my goal of getting some good friends together for probably the last time in a while. Thanks to Tung for the inspiration, it's too bad you're halfway around the world slaving your ass off to some Chinese pimp =D !

Derek says that linking our XBOXes with a router and LAN cables was skill. I say it was luck. The only game we could play linked together was Halo, but boy, it was fun with 8 players: 4 on the "big" screen, and 4 on the small screen =) . We also played tennis, hockey, and racing. On the XBOX of course!

In real life, we played basketball briefly on my vacationing neighbour's basketball net. Of course, I invited a couple of giants in Kevin, Mitch, Derek Lam, and Steven. 6 guys playing basketball on a teeny driveway equals mayhem and hilarity. When the crowd thinned later in the afternoon, we went out to the field across from my house. There were the 4 who wanted to play soccer, and the 4 who wanted to play frisbee. Jess was wandering around chasing dragonflies. There's nothing better than a compromise. Thus, "Froccer" is born! It's basically Ultimate Frisbee, but you have to shoot the frisbee into the soccer net to score! Steven showed off some surprising moves for a guy who plays a lot of virtual games =P !

Thanks to Derek for cookin' up a storm! He generously BBQed the burgers and souvlaki for the 10 or so of us. Kevin impressed and disgusted me by downing 3 burgers in one sitting =P . Good stuff Mr. Leung a.k.a. Master Chef ;) !!

The end of our day was when Jess graciously invited us to come watch her extended family do fireworks! I didn't think she'd actually let us light some! It was funny seeing Kaelen shriek and curl up when the family beside us let a loud one off without warning =) ! WTF moment of the day was when this BG came from behind us and accused us of shooting fireworks at his house, and he said he would call the cops LOL. Unpatriotic "citizens" =D !

All in all, a good day! Thanks to those who came! Perhaps another time, but at someone else's house =) !

Danny blacked out at 7/02/2004 11:54:00 p.m.

Thursday, July 01, 2004

The Groceries

Anyway, on Canada Day Eve, Derek, Kaelen and I went shopping. For groceries. At 9:20 PM. I had no idea Loblaws was open until 10. Loblaws is traditionally cheaper than No Frills, but they had burgers on sale according to both of Derek and I's parents. It was mad busy there too! Freaks buying last minute stuff for parties the next day :/ . One problem: no hamburger buns.

Solution: on to Sobey's, open 24 hours a day! It was pretty insane there too. When we got to the bakery section, there was a man staring at the ransacked shelves, on his cellular telephone. I recall him saying something about a lack of hamburger buns in a rather dejected manner. Suddenly, Derek darts in front of me and snatches a bag of buns off a shelf to the man's dismay. I muttered some sort of apology and we got the hell outta there as I heard the guy telling his wife about what just happened. Desperate times.

We then had the genius idea of going to Kaelen's Tim Hortons, since I hadn't eaten yet. I was under the impression he would hook us up with some free stuff (stale donuts/cookies). Upon arrival, it turned out he just got some free cookies for himself :/ . Then, to our surprise, our dear friend Lok-Man entered the building! He biked and bussed his way to Markham & 16th from McCowan & Ellesmere. The guy's nuts. I also discovered he works in a sweatshop. Lok-Man shared some funny stories with us, and we ended up lounging around Tim Hortons until 11:30 or so.

The final step to preparing for the big day was to get a movie or game from Rogers Video in the Garden Basket plaza. Kaelen wanted "Labryinth", a David Bowie flick about goblins on VHS from 1986. I had no better ideas, so we went to check it out. Well it's not that easy being 17. I had never been to this location, and you needed to be 18 to open an account. Bah. On to my home Rogers Video. What do you know? Kaelen picks out a copy of "Labryinth" on DVD. Money was actually spent on producing this movie on DVD! Derek grabs "Need For Speed: Underground" for XBOX. It's 11:59 and we go to check out.

Clerk: I'm sorry, you need to get a movie that isn't taken out.
Danny: ....

Turns out Kaelen just took the cover of the movie, and not the thing you actually take home. We go back, and for some reason, SOMEONE HAS TAKEN IT OUT >=( !! Freaks. The guys in a hurried rush take "Cowboy Bebop" and then we get on our way.

In conclusion, a fun night. Hope the BBQ is a success!

Danny blacked out at 7/01/2004 01:22:00 a.m.