Tomorrow night
So excited. I think I am a board game addict.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Nintendo Wii
Another Nintendo breakthrough
Wii looks cute. My first experience was in Valley Fair where Nintendo had an open demo. I liked it immediately. The 
control part was not hard. Non professional gamers like me could get tons of fun from Wii.
control part was not hard. Non professional gamers like me could get tons of fun from Wii.The second try was in Navaline's place. That night we had four people: Navaline, Laurent, and us. Wii came with Wii Sport. We tried Tennis first. The motion was easy. I got some Aces accidentally. The computer opponent was a bit difficult for me (others did not have any problems to beat computer. Only me). I had tried at least 3 times. I got some luck and defeated my opponent eventually. Everyone liked tennis a lot.
We then tried Bowling. I barely played bowling. I only knew my goal was to get a turkey. Turkey? In real bowling, when a player got three strikes in a row, the player would get a turkey on the screen. For me, I did not expect to see a turkey. A spare was good enough for me. I knew I would be thrilled if I got a strike.
Here came the beauty of Wii. With the controller, you could adjust spin, direction, and start point. As long as your arm did not shake, you had a good chance to having a strike. Of course, sometimes you would encounter some difficult situation: two pins left and one on each side. Based on our experiences, everyone got good scores, at least 100.
After bowling, we tried golf. Golf was intuitive. You turned 90 degree and held both hands on the controller the same way you would do for your golf club. Then, kneed a bit. Then, swung. Wii tried hard to mimic golf. With the controller, players could adjust efforts (one to four points. Four points are the maximum. If you swing too hard, your ball will be under control. It can go anywhere it likes) and adjust directions (to follow or go against wind). With the map on the right hand corner, players knew how far from the hole and how strong the wind was. Players could also change clubs. If you did not like the default club, you could switch to another one. One amazing thing was that players could see the contour and knee down the character when the balls were on green. Quite real. We initially just wanted to see how Wii designed golf games. It turned out the golf game was my favorite among these Wii Sports.
Significant other
People here don't use boy friend or girl friend, they use significant other
It is interesting to learn something like this. Significant other is not specified. This term can refer to married or unmarried life partners. Perhaps it is because gays and lesbians are quite active here. It is common to have gay or lesbian coworkers. It might be hard for life partners to disclosure the role. So, people tend to use a common term like "significant one" in conversations.
It is interesting to learn something like this. Significant other is not specified. This term can refer to married or unmarried life partners. Perhaps it is because gays and lesbians are quite active here. It is common to have gay or lesbian coworkers. It might be hard for life partners to disclosure the role. So, people tend to use a common term like "significant one" in conversations.
AUDI or LEXUS
Test drive experiences
Test drives are fun. Totof and I went to three different dealers, 1 Audi dealer and 2 Lexus dealers. We tried Audi A4 and Lexus 250.
Audi A4
Audi was and still am one of my favorite brands. We went to Anderson Audi in Palo Alto. At that time, they only had a few A4s available. We tried a smoky one. The outside looked luxurious. The front bumper area looked gorgeous. But, the interior disappointed us. We had a friend who got an A4 (same model) in 2004. His car's interior was exactly identical which meant Audi had not changed A4's interior for 4 years.
I drove. Neither I nor Totof appreciated A4's horse power. We did not feel its power at all. Besides, Anderson's sales was quite lame. He was not enthusiastic in talking. He even gave us a wrong brochure after the test drive.
Lexus 250
We went to Stevens Creek Lexus first. I had seen 250 many times. Still, I felt wowed when I saw it in front of me. The exterior attracted me a lot. The car looked sexy. The interior was elegant. Its elegance and luxury were implicit. What I liked the most was its safety design. Lexus 250 had 3 air bags.
I drove. The car was quite powerful. We could feel it. We liked the sport design gears. We also liked Lexus put the gear control around the steer area. We felt like we were playing Arcade.
Next week, we went to Fremont Lexus. We picked a black car. It was around afternoon time. The weather was hot. We were surprised to discover another Lexus design: Lexus used tech to reduce the heat absorb so that driver and passengers were not overwhelmed by the heat at hot days.
This time, Totof drove. The laid-back style of our sales astonished us. He did not come with us for the test drive. Basically, he just gave us the key and let us play around. How nice.
Conclusion
Overall, we preferred Lexus 250 than Audi A4.
Test drives are fun. Totof and I went to three different dealers, 1 Audi dealer and 2 Lexus dealers. We tried Audi A4 and Lexus 250.
Audi A4
Audi was and still am one of my favorite brands. We went to Anderson Audi in Palo Alto. At that time, they only had a few A4s available. We tried a smoky one. The outside looked luxurious. The front bumper area looked gorgeous. But, the interior disappointed us. We had a friend who got an A4 (same model) in 2004. His car's interior was exactly identical which meant Audi had not changed A4's interior for 4 years.
I drove. Neither I nor Totof appreciated A4's horse power. We did not feel its power at all. Besides, Anderson's sales was quite lame. He was not enthusiastic in talking. He even gave us a wrong brochure after the test drive.
Lexus 250
We went to Stevens Creek Lexus first. I had seen 250 many times. Still, I felt wowed when I saw it in front of me. The exterior attracted me a lot. The car looked sexy. The interior was elegant. Its elegance and luxury were implicit. What I liked the most was its safety design. Lexus 250 had 3 air bags.
I drove. The car was quite powerful. We could feel it. We liked the sport design gears. We also liked Lexus put the gear control around the steer area. We felt like we were playing Arcade.
Next week, we went to Fremont Lexus. We picked a black car. It was around afternoon time. The weather was hot. We were surprised to discover another Lexus design: Lexus used tech to reduce the heat absorb so that driver and passengers were not overwhelmed by the heat at hot days.
This time, Totof drove. The laid-back style of our sales astonished us. He did not come with us for the test drive. Basically, he just gave us the key and let us play around. How nice.
Conclusion
Overall, we preferred Lexus 250 than Audi A4.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
300
Tonight we dine in hell
If you like computer effect oriented movies, if you enjoy fighting scenes, if you like to know Battle of Thermopylae, if you like to hear people screaming Sparta, or if you are a geek, you will enjoy this movie a lot.
Or if you just want to be wowed...
I saw this movie at a movie night. 300 is a fictionalized Battle of Thermopylae (I knew this history after the movie). The main characters are Spartan King Leonidas, Spartan soldiers, and Spartan Queen Gorgo. The beginning part was to show how Spartan men were raised, what Spartan boys had to go through before their manhood, and how strong Leonidas was. The middle part was to let audience understand what was going on between Persians and Greeks. You saw how determined Leonidas and other Spartan soldiers were, how strong Spartan soldiers were, how insane Spartan people could be (Spartan men's specialty was to kill, to fight, and to protect), and how corrupted and shamed an politician could be. Of course 300 vividly showed how Spartan fought against Persians. Tons of fighting scenes during the movie. Interesting and creative fights were here and there. The producer and film script writer had a lot of imagination. Many scenes were filmed aesthetically.
If you want to know more detail on 300, you can click on this link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(film)
I really enjoyed this movie. The story is quite straightforward. But, the way the film was produced makes 300 stands out. Totof and I were totally wowed from the beginning to the end.
If you like computer effect oriented movies, if you enjoy fighting scenes, if you like to know Battle of Thermopylae, if you like to hear people screaming Sparta, or if you are a geek, you will enjoy this movie a lot.
Or if you just want to be wowed...
I saw this movie at a movie night. 300 is a fictionalized Battle of Thermopylae (I knew this history after the movie). The main characters are Spartan King Leonidas, Spartan soldiers, and Spartan Queen Gorgo. The beginning part was to show how Spartan men were raised, what Spartan boys had to go through before their manhood, and how strong Leonidas was. The middle part was to let audience understand what was going on between Persians and Greeks. You saw how determined Leonidas and other Spartan soldiers were, how strong Spartan soldiers were, how insane Spartan people could be (Spartan men's specialty was to kill, to fight, and to protect), and how corrupted and shamed an politician could be. Of course 300 vividly showed how Spartan fought against Persians. Tons of fighting scenes during the movie. Interesting and creative fights were here and there. The producer and film script writer had a lot of imagination. Many scenes were filmed aesthetically.
If you want to know more detail on 300, you can click on this link, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300_(film)
I really enjoyed this movie. The story is quite straightforward. But, the way the film was produced makes 300 stands out. Totof and I were totally wowed from the beginning to the end.
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