I watched this movie 2 months ago, and didn't write a post about it only because I thought nothing much of it. It was scene after scene of action held together loosely by a thin plot. I thought to myself, "meh, thumbs in the middle, it kept my attention". Last night, I finished reading the graphic novel by Mark Millar of which the movie was based on. I've decided to re-evaluate my conclusion on the movie by cranking that thumb 45 degrees south for a thumbs down decision... the graphic novel was too great.

The movie could have been so much more! In the original comic, there were so many colourful and wacky characters; aliens, robots, superheroes, supervillains, and all that stuff. Instead the movie opted out of that idea, and instead presented the mass public with a dumbed down generic-action piece that loosely resembled the comic.

The story from the book follows Wesley Gibson as he trudges through his mundane life to join a fraternity of supervillains of which his long-lost father had been employed. The key in this are the supervillains. According to their history, in 1986, there was a great war between the superheroes of the earth against the villains. The villains decided to team up in a global concentrated effort to take down the heroes, and with great success. The heroes were eliminated, and the memories of the war were wiped from all humans by use of alien technology.

At present day, the villains have divided themselves into 5 families organized around the world. They have found their "peace" with the world... doing crime in a more behind-the-scenes basis. However, there are some within the group who feel they should go back to their roots, putting crime right back into the spotlight.

Wesley is caught up in the middle of all this. Being a fast rising young villain, he is taken under the wing of the Professor, the head of one of the families. We see the underbelly of the criminal world through his eyes. He is the protagonist in the weakest sense of the word.

What I enjoyed most about this comic was all the different cool characters that filled the pages. My favourite was a villain named Shitface. He was a shapeshifting blob of a monster that was comprised of shit... specifically, the shit of the 666 worst individuals in mankind's history (which includes Hitler, Ed Gein, Jeffrey Dahmer, etc.). What made it more amusing was that almost every character was based off of other established characters in the comicbook universe. Some were more obvious than others (check their wiki for a listing, here).

Now for the movie. The beginning was similar in showing Wesley's disdain for the everyday life. Instead of a fraternity of villains it is of assassins. This takes away a certain element to the story. Assassins are typically neutral characters... usually; they are neither good nor bad... they just do what they have to do, and in this case it was the carpet machine who decided what is to be done. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they are villains. However, they didn't really hammer that point in, if so. The plot focused a bit more on Wesley's relationship with his dad thrown in with a bunch of twists, swerves, and other nonsense. The plot just seemed like an excuse to ring in the next action scene.

In going from the comicbook medium to the silverscreen, I think what makes a successful movie is capturing the spirit of the original material. If you look at the recent successful transitions, it's clear the director intentionally captured the spirit (eg. the Batman reboot, Iron Man, 300, and Spider-man).

Looking into the near future, there aren't many comic book movies I'm looking forward to with the exception of The Watchmen. Will it capture the spirit? We shall see. But from everything I've read and seen, all indications point to a yes. Later geeks.

Categories: action , comics , mark millar , movies , wanted

The end of the summer guarantees two things in Toronto: the first being the CNE, the second, and more importantly to the geeks, the Fanexpo. The Fanexpo is a time each year where geeks can gather with other geeks, dress up in costumes, making the non-geeks look strange for once. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go to the Fanexpo this year (held at the Toronto Metroconvention Centre), so being the geek I am, I scavenged the internets for some awesomely good and awesomely bad cosplay pictures. Well, regardless of whether they were bad or good, credit must be given to these geeks for creating these costumes and just being themselves, they are all fun. (Note: this post is more graphic intensive)











That's it for now, later geeks.

Categories: cosplay , fanexpo , geeky awesomeness

I recently finished Stephen Skelton's The Gospel According to the World’s Greatest Superhero. The afforementioned "Greatest Superhero" in which he refers to is none other than Detective Comic's own Man of Steel, Superman. Superman was never a favourite superhero of mine, but I did enjoy reading stories about his struggles and epic battles on Earth. What intrigued me about him was that on the outside, he was perceived as an invincible god-like being, but on the inside, he was as vulnerable as the humans he protected.

In his book, Skelton attempts draw parallels found in the Superman story to the gospel. In the Superman story, the father sends his only son to earth, who then grows up and using his powers, saves mankind. Later on, he dies defending his beliefs, but rises from the grave again. Sound familiar?

The book is filled with interesting facts, comparisons, and analogies. The one that stood out the most for me was the analogy with the father. Firstly, the original names of Superman and his father are respectively Kal-El and Jor-El. The El in Hebrew translates to the word God. So if you go back to the origin story, what you have is God the father sending God the son to earth to defend humanity. The similarities go a bit further. Jesus' earthly parents were named Joseph and Mary, similarly sounding to Clark's earthly parents, Jonathan Joseph Kent and Martha Kent.

As I was reading the book, I was recalling scenes or lines from the movies that resonated with what I was reading. My favourite line from any of the films was from Richard Donner's Superman, and was an inspirational line spoken by Jor-El:

"Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. Always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son."

Before reading this book, I never thought about how this line relates so much to Jesus. Here is a man sent down to earth by His Father to live as we live, feel joy as we would, and to suffer as we would suffer. As Jor-El puts it, we can be a great people, but sometimes we lack the light to show the way. We have the potential to be so good, but as it says in Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". We live in a broken world, and we do need a saviour; we do need a messiah, just as the people of Metropolis need Superman.

One of the main problems I had with the book was that most of the analogies used were either from Richard Donner's Superman movie or Smallville, the TV show. I would of liked to read more about the comparisons from the comic medium, of which decades and decades of material exist. Furthermore, it seemed rushed as the last chapter was about Bryan Singer's Superman Returns movie, before the film was released. All Skelton could do was speculate about what was known at the time of the plot. Had he waited a few months, he could have watched the movie, and added a chapter that more accurately described its analogies.

In the end, the book does provide some fun facts but I couldn't recommend it for anyone who didn't have more than a passing interest in Superman. Later geeks.

Categories: books , christianity , religion , superheroes , superman

This is an idea that I'll try once a week or every two weeks. Each week I'll try to pick something that made the news and yet exercises in stupidity so much that it deserves an honorary 'fuck off!'. This week's Fuck Offs go to the Men's Spanish Olympic Basketball Team. The team posed for a picture holding their fingers by their eyes, mocking the Chinese because apparently we have slanted eyes. The photo was for an advertisement for a Spanish courier company called Seur. So fuck you Seur! Fuck you and your dumb ideas!

But worst is the men's team who went through with it. Did you guys really think it was a good idea? Fuck you Men's Spanish Olympic Basketball Team, fuck you.

Categories: fuck offs of the week , men's spanish olympic basketball team

On Wednesday, August 20th 2008, it was announced that Gail Kim was leaving TNA and was signing back with WWE. This met fans with confusion as Kim was a prominent player in the TNA Knockout's division. The Knockout's division started not even a year ago and came to fruition with the crowning of Gail Kim as champion after a gauntlet match at Bound for Glory. Clearly the division was centered around Gail Kim as the ultimate babyface and her arch-rival, Awesome Kong as the ultimate heel. It was so classic and it was so simple. The Knockout's division basically grew from around these two, and it was clearly catching the attention of TNA fans.

I've said it before, there are only two reasons to watch TNA: firstly is for the X-Division and secondly, but equally, is for the women's Knockouts Division. TNA claims that they do all those wacky and stip matches in order to distinguish their product from WWE's. But if they take a step back and look at what they have, they are already distinguished, in regards to the X and Knockouts Division... there's no need for stupid angles and stip matches~!!

In particular, with the Knockout's Division, what makes them so special is that they (for the most part) hire women who were initially trained as wrestlers. They may not be tall thin bikini-type models (a la WWE Divas), but clearly they are beautiful... and they can work!!!!! The booking agents for TNA's heavyweight division should really watch what the other agent's are doing for the Knockouts division; their angles make sense and they draw good heat.

WWE uses a reverse approach of hiring bikini models and then converting them into what they call wrestlers (or Divas). With the exception of one or two Divas, the division is a joke; there's a lack of heat in the matches and the crowd can clearly be seen as bored and ready for the next match. They are beautiful women, there's no denying that, but a part of me thinks that people go to wrestling events primarily to see wrestling.

Again, what separates the Knockouts from the Divas is that they create characters which develops into intrigue for the fans. There's all sorts of colourful characters: a beer chugging trailer trash (basically a woman Steve Austin), a punk rock chick, a mysterious gargantuan woman (and her equally mysterious middle eastern female manager), a cowgirl (the pride of Tennesee), and so forth. The characters they play and their mannerisms help them distinguish each other from being just generic women wrestlers. In WWE, it's quite different; they are basically distinguished by the colour of their hair. Case in point, there was a Divas battle royal some months ago, and even the commentators were getting confused with who was who, and who was getting eliminated.

So as shitty as the TNA product can be, they sure know how to handle their women's division. Can you imagine WWE placing a women's match in their main event slot on a Raw or Smackdown? Me neither. TNA is able to not only place a Knockout's match as the main event, but it draws even more viewers than the men's heavyweight main event. The following is data from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (issues August 11th and 25th of this year):

• TNA Impact on July 31st drew 1.6 million viewers. The main event was Gail Kim & Taylor Wilde VS The Beautiful People, which drew the largest quarter for the whole show, increasing by 118,000 viewers.
• TNA Impact on August 14th drew 1.2 million viewers. The main event was an amatuer style match with AJ Styles VS Kurt Angle, which lost 14,000 viewers. So people decided to tune out the main event.

Velvet Sky's shirt says it all, "OMG WTF". There's not much more to say, the proof is in the pudding. TNA, continue with the good work with the women. WWE, open your eyes, open your minds. Later geeks.

Categories: gail kim , women in wrestling , wrestling

I'm trying out a new layout. Some stuff have disappeared, but I'm in the middle of the coding trying to get that fixed. Let me know what you think. Later geeks.

Categories: changes , other

I saw these on Kotaku the other day, and they seem too geektacular not to share. They're from Cubeecraft. They have print-out templates of various geek related characters that you can print, fold, and glue into these little figurines. Check it out here at Cubeecraft.com. Later geeks.

Categories: cubeecraft , geeky awesomeness , random

This is a bit of a late slip. I finished Final Fantasy III for the DS about 2 weeks ago.

For those that know me and my gaming habits well, you'll know that I'm quite the Final Fantasy junkie. In fact, you wouldn't be wrong to assume that the FF series played an important part in forging the geek in me. This made it easy to decide what consoles to buy when the time came. It has always relied on the question, "which system will the next Final Fantasy game be released on?".

FFIII was the only game in the 12 game series that had not made its debut on American soils. Instead of just a straight-up rehash and 8-bit (or 16-bit) graphics, Square-Enix took it to the next level and rendered the game fully in 3D, including a few FMVs, as well as enhancing the soundtrack. What we end up with is a beautifully looking game that pushes the DS to its limits.

This game was the first one in the series to use the now renowned job system. They offered almost 2 dozen different jobs, although some were clearly more useful than others; I think in the end I used only 8 of them.

The challenge of the game was quite unforgiving sometimes. In RPGs nowadays, we are far too much pampered with tons of in-dungeon save points. In FFIII, you can find yourself wandering a dungeon for 30 minutes, only to be wiped out by a massive monster, and having to start all over again... reminding us of the pains of yesteryear.

In the end, the game was definitely fun, but not definitely not a standout of the epic series. However, the game should be given credit for first introducing the job system to the FF series.

I'm playing through FF XII: Revenant Wings on the DS right now, and it is quite good, but I'm only a third through. Anyhow, that's it for now, later geeks.

Categories: ds , final fantasy , gaming

In what was forseen as a weak card for a Summerslam event, WWE managed to pull off quite an exciting show, all things considered. My predictions sat at 57% (4 of 7), lower than expected. In a surprise move, they decided to put the two non-championship matches on top as the main events. Highlighted in bold are the winners of the matches:

MVP Vs. Jeff Hardy:
Shelton Benjamin ran in for some interference. Jeff missed the swanton on MVP, and MVP capitalized with the yakuza kick. This was surprising, but I was happy as MVP is my favourite wrestler in the WWE brand. I hope they push him now into a main event program with Triple H.

Santino & Beth Phoenix Vs. Kofi Kingston (c) & Mickie James (c):
Greatness! Santino and Beth as champions will have limitless comedic opportunities. I can't wait.

Mark Henry (c) Vs. Matt Hardy through DQ:
Match ended after 2 minutes after Tony Atlas interfered. DQ finishes suck on PPV, but at least they did it to the match that would have brought the card down. They teased a Hardy tag team reunion when Jeff ran in to make the save.

CM Punk (c) Vs. JBL:
Though I placed my bets on JBL, I'm glad CM Punk won. JBL now looks like a big fat geek, after already being stomped on during Raw this past Monday. They seriously have to build CM Punk as a legit upper carder. He still looks like a mid-card chump holding the belt.

Triple H (c) Vs. Great Khali:
In a match that was better than expected.

John Cena Vs. Batista:
Fun match. The frustration in the face of Batista during the match furthers his decent into heeldom. Can't wait. I think the guy is boring as a face. Having big hulking monsters as heels are usually more effective.

Edge Vs. Undertaker (Hell in a Cell):
Crazy match, but easily match of the night. It was madness. After the match, Undertaker left the ring, only to turn back and chokeslam Edge off of a ladder. Edge fell through the canvas and fire and brimstone was seen erupting from the gaping hole. Cheesy but fun.

That's it for now, lata geeks.

Categories: summerslam , wrestling , wwe

Double-post Saturday! Tomorrow night is WWE's inaugural Summerslam event, I thought I'd just make a quick post of my predictions, with a follow-up post-show tomorrow night.

My predictions are in the bold and the (c) denotes the current champions:

Santino & Beth Phoenix Vs. Kofi Kingston (c) & Mickie James (c):
Santino is a great man. His wrestling capabilities may leave more to be desired, but the man is a freaking genius on the mic. Imagine all the comedic promos that could come if he and Beth were to win the belts.

MVP Vs. Jeff Hardy:
I see Hardy going over as revenge to all of MVP's attacks in recent weeks.

Mark Henry (c) Vs. Matt Hardy:
Who cares.

John Cena Vs. Batista:
Cena wins and Batista's eventual heel turn nears. This match could have been so epic if they built it up towards Wrestlemania or at least a different PPV. But with only a two week build, it doesn't seem as significant. What a waste.

CM Punk (c) Vs. JBL:
Tough call. I want Punk to win, I really can't see them putting the title on JBL. However, Punk was made to look strong over JBL on Monday's Raw, and usually that's bad news for the person that's strong on the go-home show. So I want Punk to win, but I think JBL unfortunately.

Triple H (c) Vs. Great Khali:
Again, who cares.

Edge Vs. Undertaker (Hell in a Cell):
Undertaker wins, and Edge's downward spiral into madness continues.

We'll see how this all pans out. Later geeks.

Categories: summerslam , wrestling , wwe

The above photo is courtesy of my friend Beka. The darker figure in the back is me, and the closer one is my friend Keith. Yes my fellow geeks, two days ago I stepped onto the casino floors for the first time. It was both what I expected and in a way, not what I expected. We headed to Casino Rama late in the evening, after a full day of hanging out with some friends in Orillia.

One of the things I first noticed after stepping in was that it seemed so much smaller than depicted in the commercials. The majority of the casino floor was devoted to slots, and I'd say 1/6th of the floor area were the tables (cards, roulette, craps, etc).

Another thing we noticed (and expected) were all the lifeless people that sat in front of the slot machines and gambled all their money away. It was clearly an aging crowd dominating the slot areas as well. I was reminded of a line from the Simpsons, when Marge becomes a gambling addict:

Homer Simpson: The only monster here is the gambling monster that has enslaved your mother! I call him Gamblor, and it's time to snatch your mother from his neon claws!

So what I had in mind when I got there was to withdraw $20 from my bank account, and risk it all (I'm a cheap n00b gambler). I accepted the fact that I would most likely lose it all, but that there would be a small chance that I could win some. We looked at the slot machines and were immediately confused. We thought all we had to do was put in money and pull the lever, we didn't know anything about buttons, 'credits', lines, increased payouts and what not. So we, being the n00bs, examined the machines to try and figure it out. Eventually Beka grabbed a veteran pro (an asian woman at that) who explained to us how it worked. It was actually simpler than it seemed, thus proving our n00bness.

We tried the 25¢ machines first which proved to be a failure; we both lost our $5 in mere minutes. We then moved onto the 5¢ machines which were a bit more fruitful. Down to $15 already, I inserted another $5 and tried my luck. I used up to around $2.50 and then won $4 (so I stood at around $16.50 of my original $20). After a few more presses I won 100 credits, it seemed so much, but alas it was only $5 bringing me to about $20.35. I said to my friends, "Okay, I'm done, but let me at least risk the 35¢ to see if I can make more or at least bring it to even". Unfortunately, I was unforunate. In the end, I came out not winning... but not losing either. As Keith humourously put it, "Essentially, you came to the casino to withdraw money". I think God was giving me a chance to bail out, and I took it.

After leaving the casino, I still had that urge to go back and spend my money... the allure of gambling was strong... when I closed my eyes, in my head, all I could see or hear was the flashy lights and sounds of the slot machines. In hindsight, I'm fortunate to have good friends to keep me from wasting my money. Had they not been there, I would have easily used up my $20, and would not be surprised if I withdrew more money and gambled it all away.

According to Overcominggambling.com, in the US, the average debt inccured by a male pathological gambler is between $55,000 and $90,000. And that's only from one gambler. I could think of so much to do with $55,000. That gave me an idea. If you the reader, consider yourself a gambling addict, please send me an email. I will reply to you with my mailing address where you can send me a cheque for the amount of money that you would plan to gamble with. I can guarantee you that I will be happy to spend your money, and would even include a post about what I did with your money. I know you won't gain much, but you can at least rest assured that you're making someone else happy.

Later geeks.

Categories: casino rama , gambling , gambling addicts , n00b , send me money

I couldn't find a poster that I liked for this movie, so I assembled a picture of my own. Anyhow, this movie fuckin' ruled. It had an easy to follow plot, some kick-ass action, and a Jedi-Master on a rampage.

The story goes like this: One day Qui-Gon Jinn and Jean Grey (probably the Phoenix actually, she was in major bitch mode) had a child named Shannon from Lost (who must have escaped the island and resurrected). Although Qui-Gon and Jean are separated, it shows that Qui-Gon living a happy life by himself, with the comfort of close friends, who work together doing high-level bodyguard stuff. In the past, Qui-Gon worked as a secret agent of some sort (most likely of the Jedi flavour). Everything is pretty happy until one day Shannon goes off to France and gets kidnapped. Queue in non-stop action. Qui-Gon heads off to France with just the shirt on his back and the Force in his hands to find his little girl. Heads are cracked, necks are broken as he tracks down his daughter.

This movie was basically the Qui-Gon Jinn Show, all the other characters were either secondary or fodder for an ass-kicking. The action closer to the visceral-type found in the Bourne-series rather than some flashy martial arts a la The Transporter series.

Qui-Gon has a pretty bad-ass monologue early in the film, it went like this:

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

I guess what he failed to tell the perp's was that those certain 'skills' were Jedi-Master skills, I'm sure they would have let his daughter go had they known that.

This was Pierre Morel's sophomore feature having helmed 2004's adrenaline rush, District 13. Morel is no stranger to visceral action having worked on a slew of other action movies (albeit not as the director). Much like D13, he delivers an action-filled feature here with a simple story. The first 20 to 25 minutes are spent character building to get us to feel for Qui-Gon when the shit hits the fan. And feel, do we.

Check it out when it comes out, I think it's scheduled for sometime in September. That's it for now, later geeks.

Categories: action , fucking ruled , liam neeson , movies , severe ass kicking , taken

If you're a DVD-enthusiast but still a cash-strapped post-secondary student, then you'll appreciate the world of used or previously viewed DVDs. I'd say about 75% of the time my DVD purchases are of the previously viewed version. Here are a few of my favourite places, highlighting some of their pros and cons.

CD Cat (613 Yonge St.)
CD Cat is primarily a used CD store, but it also carries an assortment of DVDs (as well as some VHS). Well on the plus side, they carry a lot of albums from scene bands. This place is good for when you're looking for any special editions of a movie or 2-disc versions. Their collection is quite eclectic compared to other stores. The drawbacks are that their collection is smaller than some and their prices can be quite high, nearing retail. Sometimes you can get a better deal at HMV with all their 2 for $20, $25, $30 deals (and they're brand new!), as compared to let's say picking up Death Proof here, which may cost you $17.

Game Centre (730 Yonge St.)
Although a video game store (an excellent one at that, really great for pre-owned games) they carry quite a large collection of used DVDs. The good things are that usually they offer deals (ie. buy 2 get one free, or some sort of discount) thus making it worth your buck. The bad thing is that they have no proper way of sorting their collection, so you'll have to look very carefully if you're trying to lock down something specifically. It can be annoying because they're all over the store, but fear not, gems have been found.

BMV (3 locations)
There are 3 locations for BMV, each one of them a bit different. The pricings basically the same in each store. One drawback is that, like CD Cat, you might find a better deal buying the brand new versions, but rarely.

• 2289 Yonge St.: I used to work just across the street from this store so I'd frequent this place a lot after work or during lunch. This store sorts all their DVDs by alphabetical, so there's no need to look for separate genres. However, their collection is the smallest of the three.
  

• 471 Bloor St. W.: This store is the largest of the three, and like so carries the largest collection by far. This store sorts their collection by genre first and then alphabetically.
  

• 10 Edward St.: This store (just 1 block from Eaton Centre) is somewhat of a mix between the above two. It's collection is medium compared to the other two. They do a really general way of sorting as compared to the 471 Bloor location. How they do it is basically Horror, Anime, Foreign, Adult, and Everything Else (sorted alphabetically).
  

Finally, the best one is...

Blockbuster Video (anywhere)
Oddly enough, the most corporate one. I like this one best mostly because of the money it saves me. For example, this week I picked up Paprika and The Orphanage together for $16. Blockbuster is good because usually they offer deals such as 25% of all purchases, or buy 2 get 1 free, 2 for $20, $16, and so forth. Their selection is comprised of mostly newer releases (pro and a con), so it may be harder to find old stuff (but they usually do have a few lying around). It's a great place to go to get the cheapest new releases though. Drawbacks are as mentioned the lack of depth in their collection, the DVD cases (I hate those Blockbuster cases!), and their lack of special editions. Don't expect to find any special editions or 2-disc versions of movies; they're mostly the barebones DVD versions of the movie.

That's all for now. Go save a buck! Later geeks.

Categories: blockbuster , bmv , cd cat , game centre , movies , toronto , used dvds

This is last in a series about my trip to New York, this time focusing on my family there.

As noted in one of the previous posts, I have a lot of family living in New York, notably, all of my mom's side of the family. When we were younger, our family used to visit New York a lot. These days it doesn't happen as often, not because we don't want to, moreso that as we're getting older we're getting more busy with work and what not (our side and their side). And so more recently we all visit separately when it's not too busy; my brother's been down a few, and my mom goes there at least once a year.

Regrettably, there's been a large gap of 11 years since my last visit. Many important things have happened since then; people graduating from schools, people getting married, people having 1st or even 2nd children, and so forth. I even have a few new second cousins that I couldn't tell you the names of because I don't know them myself (many apologies). It is sad to look back knowing I've missed these sorts of things; things that would seem important. I mean, if I were getting married or having a child, I would want my relatives to be around and celebrate with me. But I guess sometimes you've got to look pass things. I mean, we're all living our own lives, doing our own things; we can't be in each other's lives all the time. It still sucks, but I understand that it's a fact of life.

Seeing my grandma was the most painful reminder. I went with my aunt to visit her one morning at the nursing home, but she did not recognize who I was. It was a bit heartbreaking, but I understand that it's been many years and that at her age, she is going a bit senile. She seemed to be doing okay, at least better than I assumed she was going to be. She told me she was not happy though. She didn't have many friends (or friends at all) at this place. I guess what sucked was that she seemed like a pale comparison of this powerful/authoritative woman I remember from yesteryear. But there goes my brain again trying to bring back relics of remembrance.

I guess this post sounds a bit sadder than I intended, however that was not the purpose. If you had to ask me what the best part of my trip to New York was, hands down, it was seeing my family. In fact, when I arrived home in Toronto, I told my mom how grateful I was for the way my relatives took care of me those few days. They provided me a place to stay, they took me to many meals at restaurants, and they even offered me some money so that I would stay for a bit longer. Of course I couldn't accept, I was so tempted to, but I had to hold back... I just couldn't do it. It's interesting, this concept of love. I can be away from family for over a decade, and they would treat me as a prince because of our blood ties.

This then made me think of God. How complicated and interesting is He, that He would create something as intricate and special as love... something so strong and deep that it transcends everything, even religion itself. That's the way I see it. Regardless of spiritual background, cultural background, or anything else, love beats all. How great is that.

I left New York feeling so grateful and so blessed. Hopefully someway, somehow, they felt the same. I promised them that I would return next year, with my parents, since I stayed such a short time this year.

I know this post didn't add too much to the geek lexicon, but I had to get this out for sure. Later geeks.

Categories: family , new york , travelling

Part 2 in a series, this time highliting some of the things we did.

New York is a big city, and in a big city there's lots to do. With so much to see and do, where do you start? One of the problems with going to such a large city is that there's so much you want to do, but it's nearly impossible to do it all in a weekend (or a week for myself).

The thing we probably did together the most was shopping. Keep in mind that my travel party was 4 girls and 2 guys (effectively me, the oriental, and my friend Rajiv, the token brown guy... collectively, Harold and Kumar). We went to a lot of the more decently priced fashion stores, with a double trip to the world's largest department store, Macy's.

We went to Chinatown on Friday in hopes of finding cheap goods. Chinatown was a lot different than I remembered in days past. For one thing, there were a lot more tourists. The girls were hoping to score some knock-off bags which was a challenge to find sellers. We noticed that there were tons of policemen patrolling the area, trying to crackdown on vendors selling fake stuff... this did not help to our cause. Vendors were nervous to tell us if they had any goods or not, in fear that we were undercover policemen or some other authority. We spent about 2 hours in Canal St. and we finally lucked out. It was one of the SKETCHIEST things I've ever seen happen though. It went down like this. Me and Rajiv were waiting outside one of the purse stores while the girls went inside to look around. They must have asked the vendor if they carried any knock-offs. My back was facing the store, so I didn't see it all. But when I turned around, all I saw was the back wall open up into a pit of darkness, with my 4 friends being sucked into the unknown. It was totally something out of a horror movie. It was sketchy because you never know what could happen back there. You could be robbed, raped, and killed, and we would never know. But alas, my imagination was just running wild, and there were only fake bags back there. My friends exited safely with their new purchases in hand. It was funny though. As Rajiv and I waited outside, the two owners (a wife and husband I presume) kept talking softly with each other while looking at the two of us. Our guess was that they didn't like us standing in front of their store, which I suppose would draw some suspicion to the coppers patrolling the area. However, they never told us to leave or anything. It was just funny. Me and Rajiv laughed while they bickered to each other. That's right, sweat it out.

We were very touristy and did lots of sightseeing things. We did a $25 water taxi tour of the New York Bay area which circled the Statue of Liberty, passed by the four manmade waterfalls (which we heckled), and passed under all the major bridges. The tour guide was good, it was a bit costly at $25. Later we found coupons in the tour books at our hotel that would have saved us $5 each... d'oh!!! We went to see the Ground Zero, site of the WTC attacks. It was a bit eerie seeing the large open spaces and the new constructions going on, to think that almost 3,000 people were killed, right in front of where we stood. What's interesting is that the number 3,000 may be a lot higher as it does not account for all the homeless people and illegal workers that might have been in that area (we read this piece of information on an article posted on a fence).

One of the peeves I had with the City was that it was tough finding public washrooms at times. It was tough relying on fast-food restaurants, as most of the time they would only have 2 urinals and 1 toilet max. If you had an emergency and really had to go, you'd be shit out of luck (no pun intended). Macy's, as the self-proclaimed largest department store in the world, suffered the worst with this problem. Perhaps I was searching the wrong places, but I found only 2 sets (2!!!!!!!!) of washrooms for men there. 2 sets. Keep in mind that there are at least 7 floors. 2 sets (2!!!!!!! TWO!!!!!! DEUX!!!!!! DOS!!!!!! 二!!!!!!!). Needless to say, there were lineups at the men's washrooms... something I've never seen before in Toronto. Washrooms were usually not as cleansy as those you would find in Toronto, 1 point for Toronto. But I can't fully blame them. Maybe I'm just looking at all the wrong places. I guess it's easier in Toronto because I know the city better and therefore know where the good/clean ones are.

We did a fair amount of partying down and tearing up in the City. I think I enjoyed this place called The Grand the most. The place was a bit pricey for my taste, but it had a good atmosphere, good vibe, and killer music (credit the DJ). If you have deep wallets, then I must recommend the bottle service to you. Oh boy. They treat you like you're a celebrity or a superstar of some sort. Keep in mind you're dropping about $350 minimum per bottle. We ordered I think 3 or 4 bottles, my head was spinning thinking about the costs. Rajiv had a friend there named Mehar who took care of us that weekend. This was a great man. He never let us touch the bill and just wanted us to have a good time... And a good time we had! On Saturday night we went to a club in Times Square called Spotlight. It was 4 floors of partying. It was pretty nice too. We went on a night when they were promoting some place called Hardy's, and so there were tons of bikini models walking around. No complaints. Atmosphere didn't feel as intimate as The Grand probably due to its size, but it was still a good time.

On Sunday, my friends left back for Toronto, and I was alone to brave the City. I stayed with my relatives from Sunday to Wednesday. It felt very different wandering the city by myself than with a group of friends. On one hand it was easier to decide what I wanted to do and just do it, but on the other hand, it could be lonesome if you wanted someone to talk to or just shoot the shit with. That said, I think I got the chance to see more of the city (especially more of the geeky aspects of it) when I was solo trekking. I did a tour of the NBC Studios in Rockefeller Centre which was pretty fun. I got to see the studios where they shot Saturday Night Live, Conan O'Brien, and the NBC Nightly News. All three studios were noticeably smaller than they appear on TV all due to the use of wide-angled lensed cameras.

A quick summary of everything else I went to see: 5th Avenue (for high rollers fashions), Broadway (good for trendy styles), Times Square, Wall Street Chinatown, Soho, East Village, Union Square, Grand Central Station, the Piers... and I'm sure there's a few others I'm missing.

East Village was by far my favourite place to wander. They had lots of chic little shops be it geeky toy shops, or little boutiques for vintage clothes. Just think of it as a large Kensington Market (from Toronto). The geekiest of all geek things I stumbled upon was that Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright were coming on the Tuesday night that I was there to promote the release of the Spaced DVD set. Excuse me. SIMON PEGG AND EDGAR WRIGHT HOLY GEEKGASMS!!!!!!!!!! They were going to do a marathon at one of the small theaters there. How 1337 is that? On top of that, later on I went to one of the Virgin Megastores there and the place was packed. I was wondering what was going on, I thought it was because they were having a $10 sale throughout the store (on various DVDs, CDs, and books). I was wrong. The afforementioned Pegg and Wright were going to be there later that afternoon to do signings!!! Unfortunately for the geek in me, I had other things to do and see than lining up for 2-3 hours for an autograph. Were this in Toronto, I would definitely line up.

That is all for now.

This was a long post. Like I said, big city, lots to do. And I didn't even cover everything. Thanks for reading. Next up will be a short post on my family there. Later geeks.

Categories: new york , partying , travelling

Two weeks ago I went to New York City with a bunch of friends for some sightseeing, partying, shopping, and other touristy-type things. I have much to say about the six days I spent there, and I figure the best way is to split it up into 3 separate posts: observations and misconceptions, things we saw and did, and family.

As mentioned above this post is about my observations and misconceptions. The first thing that you geeks should know is that half my family resides in New York (and its surrounding areas). Basically the whole side of my mom's family lives and works in the City. Our family went to New York a lot during summers to spend pseudo-vacations there when I was younger; the last time I was in the City was about 11 years ago (unfortunately it was for my grandpa's funeral). Because these trips were always family trips my vision of New York was reduced to a small window. Simply, New York = Chinatown + my cousin's house. Yes, most of our time was spent at Chinatown in Manhattan (and the then smaller one in Brooklyn) as well as at my cousin's house. As I would soon learn, New York was a lot more than just Chinatown and my relative's house.

In preparing for our trip there, one of the things we tried to do ahead of time was to learn how the subway system worked ie. how and where transfer stations were, and how to get to places where we wanted to go. Confusion is the first word that came to mind when looking at the map provided by the MTO website. It looked like a multi-coloured spiderweb layered on to a city map... vastly different from the TTC subway grid of Toronto. There was a small sense of nervousness before we first stepped on to their trains, basically in fear that we'd get lost. THANKFULLY, their subway system was quite efficient and easy to understand once you get on the train. Inside the trains themselves are digital itinerary's depending on which subway line you were on. They displayed all the stops in a linear fashion (no spiderwebbing to be found) and a computerized voice would announce all the transfers that were at the station. This made for easy transportation. We never got lost.

New York is also a safer place than I had once thought. The media is to blame for this one. Growing up, movies and TV shows that I watched would depict New York as this dark, gothic, crime-laden city. On top of that, two years ago, my brother went with a group of friends, and on the first day while in Chinatown (of all places) his friend was pickpocketed. In reality, at least for this trip, I found New York to be really safe. I kept my wallet in my front pocket for the first day, but was comfortable enough to transfer it back to the back pocket afterwards. There were always policemen in cars or on foot patrolling all the areas I visited. I never once felt threatened or unsafe.

Now for a lightning round of observations:

• it seemed like 9 out of 10 workers in retail were either hispanic or black.
• the suckiest job I saw was people who would wear wooden signs on them to advertise a store. You know it sucks when your job could be replaced by a post. Sadly, all but one of these workers that I saw were middle-aged latino women.
• don't always expect help when you're asking, even for something as simple as the direction of the subway station.
• Americans are really patriotic to their country.
• American portions are at least 1/3 larger than their Canadian counterparts (ie. McD's iced coffees).
• the buildings were all tall (and beautiful)... but not tall enough for someone like Spider-Man to swing everywhere.
• there were no public cigarette advertisements around the city (unlike when I was younger).
• New Yorkers don't go to Times Square, only tourists do. Times Square was pretty nice to look at during the night though. Toronto is brainless to think that they could imitate this.
  

That's about it for now. Stay tuned for a post about the things we did (at least some of them). Later geeks!

Categories: new york , travelling