Sushi

Yummy~~~

Had 迴轉壽司 yesterday night for dinner - it's also a while since I had sushi as well. However, that did burn another hole in my wallet. I went with my brother and together the bill came out to be $55. The prices are $1 to $6 per plate. Majority of things we picked were two bucks, but did have some threes and up. Though it's not "too" expensive, but it's still a bit pricier than what I planned for dinner. The sushi were acceptable but I've had better. However, that will have to do since I don't think I'll convince the other for sushi in Madison:

MyEvilInsideYou - No Japanese unless it's Hibachi
King Snort - He might be okay with Japanese, but seafood is no, no, no
Konphused - Okay with both Japanese and seafood, but I don't think sushi is "budget friendly"

Duh...

Big spending weekend

Well, even without the Wii preorder, this weekend was still very "costly" for me. Part of which is of course going down to Chicago and securing my plane ticket back home in December. Yeah!

I checked a couple agencies in Chinatown. The first one was pretty bad. They couldn't find any open seats on any airlines except one, and it was Cathay/AA which means i need to stop in O'Hare and Narita, Tokyo. Definitely not desirable to me (since I already quite some number of miles with UAL, I rather stick with United). The agent tried to play scare tactics but unfortunately (fortunate for me), I was like "meh" and left.

That proved to be the smart move. At the next agency, the agent there did manage find an open seat on the 7th AND it's MSN-ORD-HKG, for the same price as the Cathay/AA one earlier! The only catch is that I have to issue the ticket right away. Oh well, don't really think I can pull out any better deals so I handed him my credit card, he handed me my receipt.

Now I just need to submit yet another vacation request for the 7th and I'll be all set! Guess I can officially start the vacation count-down clock... Kakaka...

People are already lining up... *Upated*

...in front of Toysrus when I drove past it on my way back home earlier (around 1:15am). Since Toysrus are doing PS3, Wii and TMX Elmo pre-ordering tomorrow, don't know what those people are lining up for.

Speaking of pre-ordering, need to go to bed now since it looks like I need to be at Toysrus earlier tomorrow... kakaka

*** Update: Mission Failed ***
They only have 6 PS3s and 15 Wii and were gone by 5am. Gee~ I now have a date with Baraboo Walmart on the night of 18th then. (They are the closest 24-hr Walmart in case you wonder).

Rube Goldberg

The fun thing is - this was created by a member on our Web team!!! So this is the office building I was in before I moved to the new campus. =P

Finally have my glasses fixed

About a month ago, I was sitting at my desk and suddenly there's this "pop" sound. It turned out that one of the lens fell off from my glasses. Somehow, the screw got loose and fell off. I couldn't find it and suspect that it's been lost earlier but the frame was tight enough so the len didn't fall off right away.

I got a glass repair kit from Wal-Mart about 2 weeks ago but it didn't have the right size screw. So I thought, "All right, I'll just use my spare pair instead and have this one fix when i go back home". But tonight, I found another set of repair kit and this time, it does have the right size screw. So yippee I have my Burberry frame back~

I also realized that the last couple pair of glasses that I have are all pretty similar in style - thin frame, rectangular lens. Maybe I should try something different this year...Um...

Updated List of DS games to buy

Um...looks like I'll need another certification bonus....

10/17 - Contact
10/23 - Magical Starsign
10/24 - Touch Detective
10/30 - Children of Mana
11/06 - Elite Beat Agents
11/07 - Bomberman Land Touch!
11/14 - Final Fantasy III
12/01 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates

This should wrap up my English DS games that I planned to buy this year. While on my trip back home, I'll probably pick up Daigasso Band Brothers and Bleach DS (possibly its sequel as well if it's out). So that makes 11 games?

Not to mention in the month of November, I'll have Wii and Zelda to buy (probably one or two more Wii games). Lucky for me that Mario Galaxy won't be out at launch. :P

Ouendan Side-Effect

Finished Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! earlier this week (the game's already on loan to King Snort). Like I said before, it's a very fun game to play (not to mention addictive) so I highly recommend it.

Like DDR, Ouendan is a rhythm game, and is comprise of 15 music tracks. Among them a song called "Taisetsu na mono" from a JPop/JRock band "Road of Major" that stirred my interest. I did manage to find a couple songs by the same band off YouTube before what I guess is the Japan's equivalent of RIAA requested those vids to be taken down (stupid them - honestly they should thank YouTube for luring a potential customer...kakaka).

Now I am debating whether I should order it via YesAsia or not. I haven't been buying anything from YesAsia for a long long time. The last CD that I bought from them was, I believe, back in my sophomore year in college. Somehow, I always think that YesAsia tends to rip the customer off with a high mark-up. So when I check out the price, I was pretty amazed that it was around US$23. For a Japanese version CD, that's really cheap. The part that sucks is that it only $23, which means that I need to pay for shipping because it's $2 cheaper than the minimum for free shipping (and I don't think i can find any $2 product off YesAsia to buy). Side note: Am I complaining that it's too cheap??? Amazing~ So my other options is to wait until I get back to HK and hunt around the CD shops in person - which might not be such a bad idea. Tough call...

To Pre-Order or Not to Pre-Order

Tough choice...

Gamestop/EBGames is officially starting pre-order for the Wii this coming Friday. Should I go and pre-order one? Or should I try to just get it on launch day? I still have no idea whether I'll be in Madison or Lafayette/Indianapolis on the 18th (the day before Wii launches), and thus making things a bit complicated. If I am staying in Madison, then pre-order kind of makes sense since I can get it on the 19th. However, if I am going down to Lafayette, then it would be fun to hang out at the Super Target and get it at midnight (still no clue why Madison doesn't have a 24hr Walmart nor Target).

Slight change in plan, but still a fun weekend

The original plan was to meet up with DNA and Peter on Sunday. Yet, SOMEBODY (from Indianapolis) assumed that I wasn't going down because I was still in Madison Saturday night, and was having lunch/had lunch already when I called!!! Only if he were to check his voice-mails! So it was only Peter, Linda and I having dim sum and catch up with each other. There really isn't much going on for either for us (haha - is that a good thing), but it was nice seeing old friends from college.

As I was driving out from the parking lot, I noticed the Civic in front of me had a IN license plate. And a second after, the driver of that Civic rolled down his window and waved at me - more folks from Purdue! This time, it's mostly the "seniors" whom I have met when they were still freshmen (and I've already graduated and left Lafayette). I guess time really flys. Honestly, I don't remember anymore how many "freshmen" I met throughout all these years. Once a while I would think about this and am pretty amazed how I met all these folks (only to be reminded that i am getting olders....T_T).

DNA's planning to go to watch Purdue vs. IU on 11/19. Let see if that will happen. HKSA is having the annual B-ball tourney this year on 11/4, and I am tempted to go down as well. Luckily, with my brother's recent relocation to Indianapolis - I think I could visit Purdue more often. I can now kinda justify flying down to Indy (Madison to Indy is a 5.5 hrs drive so very unlikely I will do that), visit my brother and then go up to Purdue.

Another interesting turn, met Kelvin during dinner. It turns out that he knew someone working at my company; and that guy is in WebCorps as well! What a small world. :)

Unrelated note: Belinda's leaving for HK in Nov, I guess I'll meet her this winter then.

Male Cheerleaders!? What da...

(I had another title earlier, but as I finished up the post, this title pops into mind...XDDDD)

1. I hate L'Aren Ciel for their song "Ready Steady Go"
2. Fingers on my left hand hurts from holding the DS for extended period of time.
3. OSU TATAKAE OUENDAN is a blast

My copy of Ouendan arrived in the mail this past week, and I have nothing but great time playing that game. Out of the three games I bought this month (Mario Hoops 3-on-3, Cooking Mama and Ouendan), Ouendan wins without much contest. In fact, I think it maybe the best game I've purchased so far (It's really a race between Ouendan and NSMB). King Snort and Konphused got some play time as well when we went out to dinner on Friday nite (Japanese Hibachi). The only drawback is the lack of single cart multiplay. Let me see if I can get King Snort to get a copy... hohoho~

For #1 above, Ready Steady Go is the final song in the game. While it's not too difficult (still challenging) in easy mode, I have my hands full playing it in the normal mode. Pretty much my whole evening is spent on trying to beat that song. Barely passed it 5 minutes ago and unlock the hard mode. Yeah!