Hmm, where did 2008 go? According to my livejournal I haven't done anything since reading Halting State last January. Interesting...

Well, I'm halfway through my time at VFS now. I'd blog about it, how it's exceeded my expectations so far and how I'm psyched about the second half, but I'm too tired from staying up all last night with my sister playing Rock Band and Portal. Lol...still can't believe my Dad picked up Rock Band for us for Christmas. Today I went for lunch at Northern Dynasty in Aberdeen with Kim, Floria, and Pedro, which was nice - haven't seen Kim or Floria for a while. Afterwards I went to Granville Island to check out DragonSpace for a gift for my Mom - managed to find her a dragon figurine to add to her collection. I was originally looking for some Windstone dragon egg bookends that Elise and I saw at Millenium in Metrotown - they were really cute and I think my Mom would have liked them. They had sold out though, and maybe it's a good thing - turns out they cost over $200. Maybe after I get a real job ^_^

Also went to Cheesecake etc. to pick up a...err...cheesecake...for my Mom - we'll celebrate her birthday tomorrow - a couple days late, sure, but Tiff was busy on Monday.

For New Year's Eve, Elise and I are relaxing at home - I picked up some ice wine on the way home - always wanted to give it a try, but I didn't realize we don't have a corkscrew. Doh! Anyway, enough mindless ramblings, i'm too tired to write anything coherent right now...moving on to new years stuff.

Last Years Resolutions:

1. Get a fulltime job until VFS.

a. Game-industry related.

b. Teaching-related but higher paid

Success! Sort of, anyway...managed to work for EA for a few months in QA. Not for as long as I would have liked, but better than nothing!

2. Continue studying Japanese

a. At least one hour every other day - reading, listening, or studying.

b. Kanji - at least 15 every day.

Utter failure. But I've been so busy with school it's impossible to think about Japanese, so I have an excuse at least. But i'm not giving up on Japanese yet!

3. Exercise

a. Push-ups - 50 in the morning, 50 in the evening.

Fail.

4. Prepare for studying game design.

a. Read game design news sites every day.

Fail.

b. Take out book(s) on game design from the library.

Success, sort of. Took out a good one from UBC but only got halfway through it before school started.

c. Start a weekly blog blogging about game ideas.

Fail.

d. Write detailed reviews on games played and how I would change them myself.

Fail.

5. Keep pace with Elise’s book reading and beat her by the end of the year.

Success...I think? I ready so many Korean books I was actually winning. We'll see how sneaky she was though...she might have ready a bunch of kids books and plays when I wasn't looking.


2009 New Year Resolutions:

1.    Game blog - Start a blog blogging about game ideas. Review games played and how I would change them myself.

Seriously, this one's important. Definitely going to get moving on this one this year. At least one update a week!

2.   Exercise - Push ups - 50 in the morning, 50 at night.

Let's try this one again, shall we?

3.    Cooking - Cook at least twice a week, even when busy.

Hopefully Elise can cook at least twice a week too when I'm busy - we'll save lots of $$ on eating out.

4.    Budget - Keep track of spending.

Make use of the geeky expenses application that Elise downloaded on her IPOD. Or perhaps just make an Excel spreadsheet.

5.     Productive web surfing - Spend a little time everyday browsing websites and reading useful articles, especially those related to the game industry.

Gotta find inspiration and keep up to date on the industry. FARK does not count.

I bought Halting State on a whim after my Mom told me to pick a book I wanted so she could give it to me as a Christmas gift, and I decided I'd try to find a sci-fi book seeing as how I hadn't read one in ages. Anyway, I stumbled across Stross's book on some top 10 list on the net, so my Mom and I went to look for it in Chapters a couple of days before Christmas. It turned out that they had one more copy left on the shelves, so we snatched it up and I'm quite happy now that I did.

Its geeky premise is what drew me in - a virtual heist takes place in an MMO involving "several orcs and a dragon in tow for fire support". I've always been fascinated by the development of virtual worlds as well as the virtual economies that go along with them (perhaps in part because I turned a hefty profit while playing UO way back in high school).

One thing I was intrigued about right off the bat was the second person narration involving different characters. Now that I've finished I have to say I quite enjoyed it - it was a nice change of pace. Lots of people complain that it's too disorienting, but I thought it was a great idea and pushed forward the whole theme of being someone else in a virtual world. I did feel, however, that it lost a lot of its impact later on as it was sacrificed in order to move the plot forward and wrap things up.

I was also impressed with Stross's ability to create a technology-driven near future that was both scary and believable. The idea of virtual reality blending with actual reality is always fun to read about as it really does seem plausible the way our technology is advancing, and Stross portrays it very well with his amusing concepts such as Copspace as well as the use of gamers to act as unknowing soldiers of espionage. I also thought the abundant techobabble in the book was sufficiently tied to reality so it didn't come across as being simply, well, technobabble. I have to admit Sue's Scottish accept was near-impossible to understand some of the time, but it just adds to the charm of being a totally different character. I never felt completely in the dark as to what the characters were talking about.

The only thing I wasn't too impressed about was the climax and ending of the book - I thought it lacked punch and could have been done much better. I was gearing up for something mindblowing, and while the overall story was above average, I was never exactly on the edge of my seat. The whole zombie thing was amusing, but I thought even that could have been done better and been a lot more funny. The Nigerian scam letter at the very end almost made up for it though.

Others have criticized the book for its use of brand names, acronyms, and other "trendy" words that could easily be outdated within the next year, yet alone the year 2018, but this is precisely why I enjoyed the book so much - I got most of the references (including the geeky ones). If you don't get the references, then I'm sure you won't enjoy the book nearly as much - this definitely isn't a "classic" that will stand the test of time, but for now I think it's a great (albeit geeky) read. I'll definitely be checking out some of Stross's other highly acclaimed books in the future.

Well it's the New Year again. Back home in Canada now with Elise - sitting at her Mom's place. Didn't do too much for New Year's...spent the night at my parents place and watched Hairspray with them (Elise has been obsessed with it for the past while now...I think I can sing most of the songs by heart). Was nice and relaxing but it might have been nice to party a bit or at least drink... maybe next year.

We just arrived back in Canada last month after things didn't work out so well in Japan. It's a new chapter of our lives now so it's also very appropriate to be making New Year resolutions. First of all I'll look back at my previous ones and see how I did last year...

1 - Study Japanese everyday.

Fail. Sure, I studied Japanese at made some decent progress, but not as much as I should have. X.

2 - Start cooking Japanese food.

Yay, something I actually did. Well, I stopped cooking new things after I found a several dishes that we liked...but at least we were saving money but not eating out so much.

3 - Find some additional students.

Never had more then 2 students at a time, but at least I got the job at Tanita - it was actually quite enjoyable working with the salarymen (and woman).

4 - Clean our dishes right away. Clean our apartment once a week.

Clean dishes - check! Most of the time, anyway. Clean apartment - fail. Better then before, but never did clean the whole place once a week.

5 - Update my journal.

Hahahahaha.


As for this year's resolutions, here they are in all their glory

1.       Get a fulltime job until VFS.

a.       Game-industry related.

b.      Teaching-related but higher paid.

2.       Continue studying Japanese

a.       At least one hour every other day - reading, listening, or studying.

b.      Kanji - at least 15 every day.

3.       Exercise

a.       Push-ups - 50 in the morning, 50 in the evening.

4.       Prepare for studying game design.

a.       Read game design news sites every day.

b.      Take out book(s) on game design from the library.

c.       Start a weekly blog blogging about game ideas.

d.      Write detailed reviews on games played and how I would change them myself.

5.       Keep pace with Elise’s book reading and beat her by the end of the year.

I'm sure things will work out for Elise and I this year, I just hope we get settled into a nice groove sooner rather then later.

Lately I've been trying to decide what to do with my life career wise, and I came across some free online tests and other relevant information that helped to determine that my  "Myers-Briggs" personality type is ISFP.

ISFPs generally have the following traits:

• Keen awareness of their environment
• Live in the present moment
• Enjoy a slower pace - they like to take time to savor the present moment
• Dislike dealing with theory or abstract thought, unless they see a practical application
• Faithful and loyal to people and ideas which are important to them
• Individualistic, having no desire to lead or follow
• Take things seriously, although they frequently appear not to
• Special bond with children and animals
• Quiet and reserved, except with people they know extremely well
• Trusting, sensitive, and kind
• Service-oriented; they're driven to help others
• Extremely well-developed appreciation for aesthetic beauty
• Likely to be original and unconventional
• Learn best with hands-on training
• Hate being confined to strict schedules and regimens
• Need space and freedom to do things their own way
• Dislike mundane, routine tasks, but will perform them if necessary

The ISFP is a very special individual who needs to have a career which is more than a job. The middle of the road is not likely to be a place where they will be fulfilled and happy. They need to have a career which is consistent with their strong core of inner values. Since they prefer to live in the current moment, and take the time to savor it, they do not do well with some of the more fast-paced corporate environments. They need a great deal of space and freedom if they are going to function in their natural realm of acute sensory awareness. If they give free reign to their natural abilities, they may find a wonderful artist within themselves. Almost every major artist in the world has been an ISFP. Since the ISFP is so acutely aware of people's feelings and reactions, and is driven by their inner values to help people, the ISFP is also a natural counselor and teacher.

I've been thinking lately that the thing I would enjoy doing the most is something that will allow me to channel my creative energy into something I enjoy, such as video games or music. Luckily my Myer-Briggs personality type seems to confirm this! ^_^

Possible Career Paths for the ISFP:

• Artist
• Musician / Composer
• Designer
• Child Care / Early Childhood Development
• Social Worker / Counselor
• Teacher
• Psychologist
• Veterinarian
• Forest Ranger
• Pediatrician

(information taken from www.personalitypage.com)

Designer, composer. Yay. I think I'll pass on the pediatrician occupation.

And another description:

ISFP
Quiet, friendly, sensitive, and kind. Enjoy the present moment, what’s going on around them. Like to have their own space and to work within their own time frame. Loyal and committed to their values and to people who are important to them. Dislike disagreements and conflicts, do not force their opinions or values on others.


Seems to suite me.

Wow, I can't believe it's New Year's Eve already - my time in Japan has really flown by. I'm taking it easy this New Year's Eve - Elise and I are chillaxing in our cozy little games room in our apartment, watching Japan's traditional New Year's special on TV - the Red and White Year-End Song Festival, or "Kohaku Uta Gassen". It's an event which has been going on for the last 60 years (radio-only at first), and although it has recently dropped significantly javascript:void(0);
Rich textin popularity, it is still a pretty huge event. There sure are a huge variety of performers, ranging from the current trend leaders in jpop / jrock to traditional enka acts. I guess its not surprising since the show has to cater to all ages. But then you throw in some wacky Japanese variety-show type humor and it makes for some very interesting viewing. The enka acts are extremely extravagent ordeals, with the performers dressed in huge, lavish outfits and dancers all around them. They must have difficulty trying to figure out what to do to top last years performance (the same singers have been on the show like 30+ times). It makes me wonder if it was always this way, or if this is now the only way to keep people interested -_-. One lady had to sing balanced on this huge pedestal with her dress extending all the way down, held by dancers at the bottom who would shake it up and down creating waves (reminded me of the big parachute games we used to play in elementary school...lol). Anyway, Elise and I did consider going out to a temple or shrine, but it's just too much trouble with the packed transit (plus I think our local train shuts down at its usual time at midnight, which kind of makes things difficult). We'll probably head out tomorrow and see if there are any events going on in our area.

Anyway, time's running out...this year is almost over! I need to write up a quick list of New Year's resolutions. Here goes...

Robyn's New Year's Resolutions

1 - Study Japanese everyday.

Yes, I have been studying Japanese, but my level has not improved as much as I'd hoped it would by this time, especially for speaking and listening. I'm going to review at least one chapter every day for the rest of the holidays until school starts, and then study at least 1-2 hours every day afterwards.

2 - Start cooking Japanese food.

With Elise's brother and Pedro visiting, we've fallen back in to the habit of eating out every night, which is hurting our budget significantly. Now that our "vacation" is over, it's back to cooking for ourselves. It's time to start learning to cook some new Japanese dishes. My resolution is to try cooking at least one new thing every week, on saturday or sunday night.

3 - Find some additional students.

I haven't been trying hard enough lately finding new students - I've got a good start, but it's time to get serious again.

4 - Clean our dishes right away. Clean our apartment once a week.

This means sweeping and vaccuming - dust and dirt builds up very fast.

5 - Update my journal.

Yeah, it's been a month and a half since I updated...time to get my act together again. I have lots of pictures from David and Pedro's visit, so time to get cracking and update my journal again. Minimum one update per day until I get caught up.


It's 11:53 here now, time to bring this post to a close. Happy New Year to my friends and family! I hope everyone is having a safe and enjoyable holiday!

[edit] - 12:54am

It's now 2007 - time to add in my top 5 lists for 2006!

Robyn's Undisputed Top 5 Lists 2006

Best Games:

3. Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
2. Civilization IV: Warlords
1. Heroes of Might and Magic V (PC)

* -  Wow, I really didn't play any games this year - what's wrong with me? I could only come up with a top 3 - pretty sad if I do say so myself. To be fair, there are a lot of PS2 games I really want to play that i'm sure would have made my list - Final Fantasy XII, Valkyrie Profile 2, and Metal Gear Solid to name a few. Perhaps i'll still play them someday.

Best Movies:

Honourable Mention
Superman Returns

5. March of the Penguins
4. Life is Beautiful
3. Crash
2. Little Miss Sunshine
1. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Worst movie
X-Men: The Last Stand

* - I had to cheat this year and look at Elise's movie list to decide my top 5 - I was too lazy to make one myself...oops. It was a tough choice between Final Fantasy and Little Miss Sunshine, but the FF fanboy in my heart won out in the end. Oh, and for anyone who thought  the horrible pile of crap that was X-men was better then Superman Returns, I have no words for you (and this is coming from someone who loves the x-men comics and thinks superman is a really lame hero).

Best Books:

5. Waiting for Godot: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts - Samuel Beckett
4. Black Rain - Masuji Ibuse
3. The Woman in the Dunes - Kobo Abe
2. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
1. A Wild Sheep Chase - Haruki Murakami

Biggest disappointment
A Feast for Crows - George R.R. Martin

* - All but one of my top 5 this year were from school - I definitely had some great literature classes. And a play even made the list - how about that? Am I an intellectual or what? ~_^ My biggest disappointment this year actually wasn't that bad - I still gave A Feast for Crows 4 stars. But all it really did was extend the story, nothing advanced and nothing particularly new or exciting was introduced - quite a disappointment. Hopefully the other "half" of this book will be better.

Best quote from last year:

"Indeed, if I make one New Year's resolution, it will be to read as many books as Elise this year!"

Done and done.

Just finished watching "Just Like Heaven" with Elise. It was one of the movies she rented from zip.ca - it's a romantic-comedy starring Reese Witherspoon and some guy. I remembered seeing the preview for it and thought it looked really bad - something about a guy falling in love with a ghost or something...looked really cheesy. Nonetheless, being the dutifull boyfriend that I am, I watched it with her tonight (while we ate the crappy kind of dumplings for dinner...*sigh*). Anyway, to my great surprise, it actually turned out to be quite good! It had its share of romantic cheesiness (although most of it was only at the end), but even the most painful moments were quickly followed by some intelligent comedy to make everything bearable. I laughed quite a bit throughout the film, and the dialogue and acting was top-notch. For a romantic comedy it was probably the best I could hope for...4 stars from me. I guess I'll have to apologize to Elise for my bitching about having to watch it... She enjoyed it quite a bit too, although she pretends that she doesn't like all the girly moments. Oh yeah, and it had the Napoleon Dynamite dude in it too playing the same type of character...he was pretty funny, as usual.

Now i'm going to play some more Heroes V, brings back lots of memories...such a good game! Well, the dialogue, story, and voice acting are pretty atrocious, but that was never the games big draw anyway. Besides, it's bad enough that it's actually really amusing to watch... Too bad I need to buy the game if I want to play it multiplayer with my friends. I might though; i've only played it for a couple of days, so I'll get some more gametime in before I decide.

Also, Elise and I can watch the 7th episode of Haruhi tonight! Yay! It's chronologiclaly episode 8 (so annoying!) and since we've already seen 7 and 9, it must be a filler episode. Hopefully it will still be entertaining. There better be a good reason for them doing this!

Got around to reading the second book in Adam's crazy series. Elise snatched my book from me and read through books 2 and 3, so I decided to do the same. I enjoyed it - some of the things he thinks of are just hilarious. My favourite part was probably when they actually met their meat before their dinner - that was a truly disturbing image. The other great scene was with the spaceship that holds all the "useless" people from society going to colonize another planet. Classic. Like the first book, the best thing about it isn't the story, but rather all the crazy asides he has that make you stop and go "hmm". I just wish it did have a more coherant story and more interesting characters - aside from Marvin the Robot, I found them all to be very flat and bland. Nonetheless, a solid read - i'll be reading the final book for sure.

Now that school is over i'm finally able to read some books of my choosing. Obviously, the first thing to do is go back to my roots and read some fantasy! Obviously my first choice was George R.R. Martin's A Feast for Crows, since I got it for Christmas (i've only been waiting for 5 years for this damn book to come out!). I was afraid that it's been so long since i've read fantasy that I might not enjoy it as much as I used to, but it turns out I had no reason to fear, Martin's book didn't disappoint. Well, that's not entirely true...I only gave it 4 stars, and after a 5 year wait a 4 star rating is a bit of a letdown, but at least he didn't crap out completely. It was fairly exciting all the way through with some interesting turns and twists, although nothing as big as in the previous books. Cersei was pretty much the "villain" of the book, and it was amusing to watch her frantic attempts to secure the throne, doing whatever it takes, trusting no one and jumping at every movement in the shadows. Jaime was really annoying though, perhaps the most boring character to read about; his whining self-pity and pathetic attempts to retain some sort of honour was just sad. Brienne was entertaining, although in the grand scheme of things her role seemed pretty pointless. Arya had her moments, but this religious group she's joined is annoying beyond belief. Speaking of religion, it seems to be starting to play a larger part in the story as well, which kind of scares me because I find the whole fanatical religious zealot concept to be very boring. The last character was Sansa, who was more entertaining then usual I have to say, perhaps because she was with Littlefinger who is always interesting to watch. So all-in-all it was a good read, but the biggest issue I have with the Martin is his decision to split the book into two; this is only half the book and deals with only half the characters. Not only that, but he introduced a crapload more main characters and so many more story arcs that it leaves my head spinning at times. Not to say they weren't interesting; I enjoyed almost all of them, however, it's starting to feel like it's becoming increasingly more epic at an exponential rate. I'm beginning to worry that the resolution (when it finally comes) is going to be abrubt and unfufilling because Martin's simply taking on too much to handle. The other thing that is odd is how Martin deals with the "supernatural" aspects of the book; for a 700+ page novel, they are far and few between, hovering on the edge with an aura of doom and destruction, making an appearence mostly at the end of the book (like before) as a cliffhanger. It will be interesting to see what the hell happens when the shit finally hits the fan, so to speak. Hopefully all my fears will be unwarrented; I'm still eagerly awaiting the second half. It deals with some of my more preferred characters, although it is also extemely annoying that I have to wait even longer to find out what happens to the characters I just read about. Oh well, such is the life of a fantasy fan...

Elise made me this new layout for my journal, woohoo! I quite like it; it reminds me of the black cat I used to play with at my Grandma's when I was a kid. She threatened to take it back if I don't update more often, so here's my second update in a row.

I'm sitting here watching baseball after we slept all day. Was supposed to take in my car to get the doors fixed, but I slept in so now I have to do it again on Saturday. Blah. And now we're losing the baseball game against the Twins, a team that has an even worse record than we do. Double blah. *sigh*...Elise wants to give up watching and go play tennis. Maybe we should...feeling super lazy though. It's the 6th inning...we can still come back from 1-4, right? Right?!

Ibanez...strike out! Gah...Santana has like 6 strikeouts and no walks. Guess this is a lost cause. Oh, now Sexson struck out. Blah, guess I'm giving up too.

I should really be typing up my resume now...sigh...what a lazy bum I am...

Yay! Went to the used bookstore and sold a whole bunch of my old, crappy fantasy books (as opposed to my old, great fantasy books of course). I was afraid that I would only get like 25 cents for each book (after all, they didn't even sell for $1 at the garage sales we've been having lately), but I got about $78 for about thirty books. That's like $2.50 per book! Sweet! I pity the foos that pay $5 for that crap...

Unfortunately, I'm quite the fool myself since I speant all the money right away on other used books (well, if I had wanted cash it only would have been $50. At least I have some justification for it). Since I read such awesome Japanese literature in translation for my class this semester, I wanted to try some other books by the same authors. I couldn't find Murakami though. According to the bookstore owner he's like one of the top 3 authors whose books they are never able to hold for very long before they sellout again. Anyway, here's what I got my hands on:

Kobo Abe - For class I read The Woman in the Dunes - great book! I suppose it's pretty predictable especially if you are familiar with other existential works, but it still hooked me in. I also want to see the movie that was made, too bad I didn't borrow it from my teacher when I had the chance. Here's the other books I found by Abe:

Secret Rendezvous - Apparently a "classic satire" about one of Japan's "greatest living writers" who is searching for his wife in some very strange underground hospital. The fact that it is a satire caught my eye, must be quite different from Woman in the Dunes. We didn't read any comic stories for class last semester, so this should be pretty interesting.

The Ruined Map - A woman hires a detective to track down her missing husband (hmm, missing people seems to be a reccuring theme in Abe's work) and his investigation leads him into the depts of Tokyo's underworld. Sounds like a pretty basic plot from the back, but I remember hearing the name of this book a couple times before, so I thought I'd give it a try. It's also the thickest, so it's also the best bang for my buck.

Kenzaburo Oe - Only read one of his short stories for class, however, apparently he's badass enough to get his book filed under the "literature" section, unlike all the other Japanese authors who are regulated to the "general fiction" area. Obviously, I have to give one of his novel's a try.

A Personal Matter - They had a few of his books to choose from, but this one was by the same translator as the short story I read for class, and his writing seems pretty good. This book is also dedicated to Pooh, so it's obviously a winner.

Banana Yoshimoto - I wanted to read one of her books because she seems to be the most popular female Japanese author in translation. Hopefully she won't disappoint.

Kitchen - Umm, it's her first book. Good place to start.

Shusaku Endo - Umm, I know nothing about this guy. But the cover says he's the best living Japanese novelist! It must be true!

The Final Martyrs - It's a collection of short stories, which I thought might be nice when we go for a short read in the park.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Hey, how'd this old Russian guy get in here? Oh yeah, I read some of Notes from the Underground in Existentialism class and was quite impressed; I've also heard good things about Crime and Punishment. Oh, and it says "Dostoyevsky" in big letters on the cover. You know an author is good when they don't even need his first name.

Omnibus: Crime and Punishment, The Gambler, Notes from the Underground - Wow, it has both the stories I want to read for only 8 bucks. Sweet!

Woohoo, this should tide me over for a while. I still need to get through A Feast of Crows and World of Wonders first though. Bwa ha ha, Elise will never catch up to me this year!

★★★★★= All time favorite
★★★★= Recommended
★★★= Worth reading
★★= Time killer
★= Waste of time

January:

1. Bordertown Café (1987,play) by Kelly Rebar- ★★★1/2

2. Polygraph (1987,play) by Robert Lepage & Marie Brassard ★★★

3. 7 Stories (1989,play) by Morris Panych ★★★★

4. Masks (1958) by Fumiko Enchi (tr. Juliet Winters Carpenter) ★★★1/2

5. Never Swim Alone (1991,play) by Daniel MacIvor ★★1/2

February:

6. American Gods (2001) by Neil Gaiman ★★★

Currently Reading:

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda- Philip Gourevitch
A Feast of Crows- George R.R. Martin

To Be Read:

Fiction
Luck in the Shadows- Lynn Flewelling
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe- Douglas Adams
World of Wonders- Robertson Davies
Lysistrata- Aristophanes
Nerves- Lester Del Rey
The Case of Emily V.- Keith Oatley
Koko- Peter Straub

Non-Fiction
The Dragon Syndicates- Martin Booth
The New Taipans- Claudia Cragg
The Economic Development of Japan- Ryoshin Minami
The China Watchers- Anthony Austin and Robert Clurman
Pacific Destiny- Robert Elegant
The Last Emperor- Edward Behr

Last night was fun. Eon invited Elise and I earlier this month to come with him to an all-you-can-eat / all-you-can-drink New Year's Eve party at The Eatery, a Japanese-Western fushion restaurant on Broadway. I didn't know exactly what to expect but it turned out pretty good (despite Elise's foretellings of gloom and misery), although not worth the $60 a head tickets. We sat at a table in the back basked in candlelight and red, hazy lights, and directly under a speaker pumping out hits from the 90s. It ended up being Elise and I, Mike Brunac and his girlfriend Sara, Pedro, and Eon. Oh, and a friend of Sarah's too, whom Elise thought was a hook-up for Pedro ^_^. I wouldn't put it past Eon for trying something like that, but since it's a friend of Sara's (whom Pedro doesn't know very well) i'm doubtful. Besides, she didn't seem his type anyway. The food was pretty good, mostly sushi with a few hot dishes such as chicken wings, gyoza, and tempura. Some of the sushi was a bit scary, such as the one filled with cream cheese of some sort, but on the whole it seemed fresh and decent quality. It was hardly all-you-can-eat though; we weren't able to order anything, it was just served randomly to our table, and only until 11:00 as well. It was all-you-can-drink, with a selection of crappy beer or cocktails. Elise and I decided just go down the list, ordering a long island iced-tea, gin and tonic (well, double thanks to Eon! -_-), vodkacran (vodka and cranberry juice), rum and coke, screwdriver (vodka and orange juice), and greyhound (vodka and grape juice). So we just snacked, drank, and "socialized" the night away, until watching the countdown on T.V. We didn't stay too much longer after that; Pedro unfortunately had one too many drinks and ended up puking in several empty cups, which we pretty much took as a cue that it was time to head home. Elise and I took the bus home (which was free and running all night long), leaving Eon, the party animal that he is, to head off to yet another houseparty. We got home at about 2:00 and weren't awake for much longer; we ended up getting a better sleep then most other nights. Elise had thought that it would be better for just the two of us to stay and home and have a relaxing New Year's Eve together, and I have no doubt I would enjoy that too, but all-in-all I think it was still a pretty fun night and am glad we decided to go out bring in the New Year with a bang.

Robyn's Undisputed Top 5 Lists 2005

Best Game:

Honourable Mention
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness (PS2)

5. Guildwars (PC)
4. Ys: The Oath in Felghana (PC)
3. Pangya (PC)
2. Resident Evil 4 (GC)
1. Civilization IV (PC)

* - Quite a change from last year, which was 100% gamecube games. Guess I can thank my new laptop for that ^_^

Best Movie:

Honourable Mention
12 Angry Men

5. Primer
4. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
3. Batman Begins
2. Hotel Rwanda
1. To Live (Ikiru)

Worst movie
Mr. 3000

Best Book:

Honourable Mention
The In-between World of Vikram Lall

5. The Tempest
4. In Little Need of Divine Intervention
3. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
2. The Bone Doll's Twin
1. The Tale of Genji

Biggest disappointment
Hidden Warrior (sequal to The Bone Doll's Twin)

* - It was slim pickings for books last year - not even one 5-star book. Oh well, hopefully this year. Indeed, if I make one New Year's resolution, it will be to read as many books as Elise this year!

Here's to another great year with Elise! On to 2006!

The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

The Colour of Magic is the original discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. I had previously attempted to take it out from the library but it is too popular, so when I saw it in the used book store I decided to pick it up (I can be rather anal about starting at the beginning of a set of books, even if it supposedly doesn't matter which order you read them in). I have yet to give Pratchett's books a four star or above rating, but they are almost always an enjoyable read when you want something lighthearted and funny in a silly and absolutely ridiculous way. This book, which started them all, is no exception. The main character is Rincewind, a third-rate (if that) wizard who got kicked out wizarding school but happens to have accidently memorized one of the most powerful spells in existence. He gets caught up with a "tourist" from the richest and most technologically (magicalogically?) advanced country on the discworld. The tourist's goal is, simply enough, to see as much as he can of the world before he dies (which, to Rincewind's dismay, also means get into as much trouble and danger as possible before they both die). Accompanied by his many-legged man-eating luggage, they traverse (and thus, introduce us to) the crazy and bizarre Discworld universe. Again, I was not blown away by this novel, but it was a enjoyable, entertaining read and deserves a nice solid three stars. One thing I didn't realize is that there actually IS a sequal to this novel as it ends rather abrubtly. *sigh*...now i'm going to have to hunt the second one down...

I'm hungry. Elise is chatting to Chia in the living room right now, and I'm bored.

Finally done school...ahhhh. Well, one more final on the 20th (!!), but other then that i'm finished. What a crazy week...two finals and 35+ pages worth of essays to write...gah...I thought I wasn't going to leave everything to the last minute. I blame my sickness. Speaking of which, I'm still coughing quite a bit, guess i'll have to go the doctor after all. What a pain. And speaking of pain, I have to work tomorrow too turtoring the two new kids Lay introduced me too. Gah...happy thoughts, happy thoughts. Oh yeah, I'll just think of my 28/30 history essay. Ahh....that's better...finally, my greatness is being appreciated. Guess i'll go find something to eat...hmm...those chocolates I bought for my family for stocking stuffers are calling to me...

Ugh...I was hoping to have my paper finished by now...I was all set to work on it until I realized I needed to drive all the way back to Delta to pick up the rest of the stories I need. And, since we were driving past Richmond, Elise (who had been lying on the bed pretending to sleep, while i'm hard at work!) suddenly had a burst of energy at the thought of getting crispy chickens. So we ended up spending the night snacking and watching Batman Begins. Life's tough. Oh well, at least I have all day tomorrow, and I should be able to finish it in one day. After all, i've done it twice this week already -_-.

Rewatching Batman Begins was fun; I went to see it with Lay and Chris previously. Elise pointed out a couple of things that annoyed her though, and now I realize they annoy me too. Psh, why does she have to make me think about things when I'm perfectly happy in my ignorant bliss. I'm too lazy to be specific; it'll all be in her review anyway ^_^

Time to sleep, got a lot to do tomorrow.

Elise only saw 6...kicked her ass

 

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Took another psychology quiz...differences between the other one is interesting...