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Showing posts from September, 2009

Halloween's coming early: Trick 'r Treat!!!!!

Warner Bros., what is wrong with you? Trick 'r Treat has been on their shelves for the past 2 weeks, in distribution limbo, but it'll finally come out next week on DVD. So what is it? The movie is a collection of four different horror stories, all revolving around Halloween. There's a story about a disgruntled school principal, a story about kids with an urban legend about a school bus massacre, a story revolving around a bunch of party girls and lastly it caps off with a story about a grumpy old man who doesn't like Halloween. Trick 'r Treat works like Crash or Traffic in that there are four stories interwoven together. The stories cut into each other where sometimes dead characters will show up again. It's a nice stylistic choice in telling the different stories. This is a really fun movie and has a great 80's kind of feel to it; an homage to 80's style anthology horror. At 82 minutes, it's not a particularly long movie either. The only

Pics of New York Trip

I've finally uploaded and captioned (sort of) all my pictures from my trip to New York. If you're interested, you can find them in the following link ( here ). I also made a short slide show video that you can see below. It basically summarizes the trip if you don't wanna go through 300+ photos :) Later geeks!

New York City: Day 6/7

Day 6: -when I left the house this morning, my aunt handed me $100. I'm confused. But maybe it's a sign that I should get that jacket. -6 train to 53rd St. for MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). -well this is disappointing... MoMA is closed on Tuesdays. -gonna explore midtown instead. -there are a shitload of cops, securities and barriers on the street. Streets are totally gridlocked. -no wonder. There's a UN conference, apparently Obama is lurking. -stumble across 666 5th St. It wouldn't surprise me if Satan set up office in the heart of midtown. It's a posh, chic and rich area, the perfect disguise. -I'm at Madison Square Gardens. Massive line-up stretches around the block. Thought a pre-season Knicks game was going on. It's not. They're lining to get in a job fair. 10% unemployment here. Shit. -back at Century 21. The jacket is gone. Today is full of disappointments. Looks like the jacket regret will continue for another year. Day 7: -10:00am bus ri

New York City: Day 5

My second last day here: -visited grandma at nursing home =/ -morning dim sum with aunt, Millie, Stephen. -headed to Broadway to pick up where I left off last week. -zigzagging through streets, I find Soho. -at the famous Pinkberry for yogurt. -the first time I've ordered yogurt before (not a big fan, but this was good!) -I tried their original w/ strawberries and raspberries. -after weaving through Soho, I end up in East Village and NYU. -found my favourite place of last year: Union Square. -hopping on 5 train to check out Ground Zero. -stopped by Century 21. Found a jacket I wanted but it's $70... NO BUYS~!

New York City: Day 3/4

I'm a day late, but hopefully not a buck short. Day 3: -outlet mall shopping at Woodbury Commons (outlet mall). -this place is a sinkhole for your money. -women beware of their fabulous prices. -went to Uncle Sik and Aunt Gigi's home. Huge like a mansion. Steep hilled backyard. -went to local Italian restaurant for dinner. Waitress caught someone trying to dine and dash. Culprit caught by waiter and chef. He threatened the chef afterwards. Scared my cousins. -1.5 hour drive back home. Day 4 (WEDDING DAY): -wedding of my cousin Eileen and Dr. Victor Yim. -venue: country club on Long Island (I forget the name), 1.5hr drive from Brooklyn. -...so this is what a 6-figured wedding looks like... $1,000 centerpieces. Shit. -Eileen looks drop dead beautiful and both seem extremely happy. -early reception @2pm. -video montage of their engagement... it took place underwater while scuba diving! -so sleepy. -wedding ends super early, 5pm. -I'm not hungry, but apparently we're

New York City: Day 2

More manual tweets: -I guess I was tired. Ended up sleeping for 12 hours... longer than anticipated. -dim sum lunch with family. -headed for Guggenheim -I feel like Clive Owen in The International . -place is big, but The International made it seem bigger. -feature artists is Kandinsky. Today is the first day of his exhibit. Packed place. -interesting to see how his work evolved over the decades. -my non-artistic interpretation: literal -> abstract -> scientific/geometric -> poetic/romantic -heading to Broadway for a short stroll. -got lost for 5 minutes after the train skipped a stop. Found my way not too long after. Thank you sun. -spotted a store made for Vicky: Shoegasm.

New York City: Day 1 - Manual Tweets

I don't have a Twitter account, but if I did, the following would have been my tweets for the past 24 hours: -bus ride will be long, 11 hrs. -trying to sleep, but hard. Dude in front of me has his chair all the way back... my poor knees. -arrive earlier than ETA, 7:00am. -dim sum for breakfast with aunts and uncles. Mom seems lively and happy. -aunts and uncles said they could drive me to Woodbury on Sat. for shopping? Maybe. Cheap shopping for cheap man? -tired as shit, but sticking to the plan: American Museum of Natural History. -this C train is being very M.F. -okay. this place is big. -marine life exhibit. so many fishes. so many fears. -5 hours in and i concede, this museum owned me. -walking through Times Square before heading back. -only walked thru Toys R Us. I tap out. Too tired, maybe I'll come back later in the week. -hung out with my 11 year old cousin Travis. He teaches me to play Halo 3. He's such a kool young dude, I need to pray for him more. -cousin

Yes, You're Pregnant, But What About Me...

As part of my Campaign of Cheapness, I've been starting and finishing books off at the bookstore. This is the third book that I finished in the store over the past few months and I can't believe I never did this before. Combined, it's saved me over $50. I know, I sound like a cheap sonuvabitch, but were my employment situation any different I would of bought all of those books. Which brings us to Yes, You're Pregnant, But What About Me . Over a year ago, Kevin Nealon was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and I remember he was there to plug this book. I usually enjoy his brand of humour and the title of the book made me laugh, so I added it to my "To Read" list. For those of you unfamiliar with him, he's most known for being a cast member on Saturday Night Live from the late 80's to 90's. His Hans and Franz sketch with Dana Carvey is probably his most famous bit. Also, he has a recurring role on the show Weeds and is in just about all o

Lost Odyssey (Xbox 360)!

Some of the minds behind the Final Fantasy series have come together to bring an RPG epic to the Xbox. Produced by the Final Fantasy master mind Hironobu Sakaguchi, Lost Odyssey is one of the few large scale Japanese RPG productions for the Xbox. The story follows an immortal warrior named Kaim who is a soldier for a nation named Uhra warring against a neighbouring nation, Gohtza. Kaim, who has lost all of his memories, becomes a pawn to the nation until one day he starts recovering some of his memories. On his adventures, he is joined by three other immortals who have also suffered similar memory loses and a band of ragtag humans. The story follows the party as they seek the mystery behind their vanished memories which unravels a larger political scheme behind it all. From a technical standpoint, the game is very polished; from the designs of the areas and characters to the music. Spanning 4 DVDs, the game is beautiful in high definition. Everything is colourfully painted and r

Garth Ennis' PREACHER!!!

Well, I've been reading this on and off for about 4 months, but last week, I hunkered down and finished off the series. Yes, the critically acclaimed Preacher . The series was originally released 1995 under the Vertigo imprint (probably my favourite publisher I'd say). It was written by Garth Ennis with the artwork by Steve Dillon. The story follows a southern preacher named Jesse Custer who becomes possessed by a spirit called Genesis; an ungodly creation through the mating of an angel and demon. Because the being is composed of pure good and pure evil, there is a fear that it's stronger than even God himself. Upon it's conception, I guess God was pissed and just left Heaven. Jesse is joined by his assassin girlfriend, Tulip, and an Irishman vampire, Cassidy, who embark on a journey across America to find God. Of course, being the most powerful man on Earth, many people are also after Jesse for their own nefarious purposes. What Ennis does good in this series is

I threaten the game when I'm scared.

Today I learned something new about myself. I can be threatening when I'm scared. Case in point, I started playing Bioshock this weekend and I had no idea it was going to be a creepy game at all. Today while playing it, I got to the first boss, a fellow by the name of Dr. Steinman. He was behind a window muttering to himself, so I ignored him because I didn't know he was a boss. All of a sudden he bursted through the window guns a-blazin' and it startled me. I started to yell at the game verbatim, "Do you know who I am? Do you know who I am?!?! I'm Jeff Lam! Who wants some? Who's next! WHO'S NEXT!!! ". Well, after I beat the boss, I had to pause the game and laugh at myself, realizing I sounded ridiculous. Well, it's random, but I just thought I'd share. Also, 1 vs 100 on the Xbox is a great party game. Some friends were over tonight and the game was full of moments of intensity and laughter. In other news, I'm going back to

Let's go to the EX~!

Yesterday, our church small group took a trip down to the Canadian National Exhibition, or The Ex as it's more commonly known. They had a wicked deal this year; between Monday to Thursdays, if you go after 5pm, entrance was only $5, compared to the regular $15. This worked well for our group since most of us worked until 5pm. My friends Matt and Tracy. The Ex is Canada's largest fair and actually the 4th largest in North America (I guess it'd be something like America's state fairs... although I've never been to one of those). There's lots to do there like losing your money to the carny games, wasting your money on expensive carny food, some shopping, some live music, and so forth. It takes place every year for two weeks at the end of summer and completes on Labour Day. It's been a number of years since I was last here and nothing much seems to have changed. I paid $8 for some "Kentucky Style Chicken" combo that came with 2 pieces of chicken a

Your Heart CD Release

Last night I attended the CD release show for Andrew Huang under the name Your Heart at St. Stephen in the Fields church (home of Freedomize Toronto). The album is called "Summer" and it's his goal to release one themed album for each season, with this being the first one. In the promo flyer it said that there would be cookies, farm animals, and Barack Obama. All three were promised and delivered. It was a nice intimate atmosphere capped off with candlelit tables which gave off a great romantic mood even if you're not romantic. My friend Vicky with Mr. President himself. In addition to releasing his CD, it was also the debut of the music video for his song "In the Sun", which opened up his set. The set was an eclectic mix of upbeat songs and more mellow tunes. About half the songs were performed with a full band, while the others were filled with selective instruments. The show ended off with a live performance of "In the Sun", to which a fai

Disney buying Marvel Enterprises for a ton of cash!

If you've been watching the business news or geek news the past 2 days, then you've probably heard: Disney is buying Marvel Enterprises. For how much? A whopping $4 billion (full story on CNN ). I seriously don't know what to think. A list of pro's and con's about the deal comes to mind. On the plus side, much like DC Comics being owned by Warner Bros., now Marvel has a huge financial backer for any endeavours that they couldn't pursue before eg. cartoons or movies for less famous characters. Any failures that they might incur would be absorbed by the pockets of the big Mouse. Also, this opens up the doors to much more geek-centric films, like Pixar created superhero movies (like The Incredibles , but with more known heroes!). But at what cost? Will the mature content and subject matter be toned down in the comic book stories? Will we see no more rated-R superhero movies a la the Blade franchise? [note: on a messageboard, someone assured me that if they