Fusion

Goose Liver Pate + Wasabi Crackers = Mmmmmmmm!

Sounds strange, I know, but give it a try. You won't regret it.

Quantum Leap

I was cleaning out my desk today and decided to take on the tedious task of transferring all my floppy disks to my harddrive. Mind-numbingly dreary work, but thankfully I only had a couple dozen of floppies to deal with.

Just for fun, I copied the files to an MMC Mobile card (the smallest card I could find, even though there are smaller ones on the market). The entire stack of floppies took up a measly14% of memory. And this was just a 512MB card; a full sized 2G card would have ate the contents at the expense of less than 4% storage.

Some of the earliest files on the floppies dated back to 1995. Pretty amazing how far technology has developed in just 12 years. Makes you wonder what engineers will come up with over the next couple of years. I'm guessing they'll fit 50G in a card the size of a pinky fingernail.

Yipee-ki-yay...not

When "Die Hard 2: Die Harder" came out, I made a gag with my friends about how the series couldn't consist of more than 4 movies:

Die Hard

Die Harder

Die Hardest

Dead

It's so sad that my prediction came true.

After watching "Die Hard 4.0" (a silly title but still vastly better than "Live Free or Die Hard"), I'm sorry to report that it was DOA. The movie may have starred Bruce Willis as John McClane, but this sequel was Die Hard in name only. Sure, it qualified as a big action summer popcorn flick, but I think that was why it ultimately failed. I'm surprised that Jerry Bruckheimer/Micheal Bay weren't involved with this movie because the action sequences were SO over the top. Sending a flying car to kill a helicopter? Surfing the tail of a hovering F-35 VTOL jet? Driving an SUV through a room and into an elevator shaft to take out a bad guy? Check, check, check. And don't even get me started on John McClane's super human powers. In Die Hard, we felt his pain as he pulled blooody shards of glass out of his bare feet. This time around? He's still walking after jumping out of a speeding car (yeah, rolling like that would really help), getting kicked out a window, falling off a jet and being shot through the chest. I know that a fair degree of Suspension of Disbelief is required for movies like this, but this was too much.

The magic of the first Die Hard movie was that it was about an average guy showing up in the wrong place at the wrong time and (relatively) quietly taking out the bad guys. Yes, there was an exploding helicopter in that one too (come to think of it, a big helicopter scene has been featured in all 4 movies...) but the appeal was to watch John get down and dirty with the bad guys on a simpler scale. 1 guy stuck in a building with a bunch of villains. And Alan Rickman as Hans Grueber will always be the ultimate bad guy. Planned, poised and classy, perfectly contrasting McClane's raw nature.

To be fair, the series started it's nose dive with DH2 and entered Mindless Action Land in DH3. But at least DH3 had Jeremy Irons playing a Grueber, unlike DH4 which featured a boring, whiny computer geek as the main villain. I'm sorry, but there's a reason why Timothy Olyphant isn't a household name. In a different role, maybe. But as the villain in a Die Hard movie, uh-uh.

RIP

North Garden

Went to North Garden Restaurant in Sheung Wan for lunch yesterday. It's been around for years but this was my first time visiting. Definitely deserves a recommendation! In addtion to the standard Cantonese fare were some pretty tasty innovations.

Wasabi sauce garoupa filets

Egg white & crab filled pot stickers.

Sesame balls, but with "running sand" filling instead of the usual lotus paste.

A more standard (but still really good) "golden" salty egg fried softshell crab. Sorry for the messy look, I didn't think to take a photo until after chomping half the serving. Can you blame me?

Missing the point

Fads are a funny thing. Take the latest It item, the Anya Hindmarch carrier bag. It costs HK$120 but because of its chic factor, the price has been driven up to over HK$2000.

$2000 for canvas shopping bag. Really, has society really become this shallow?

It's just pathetic how blinded people can become over something so trivial. And the sad thing is that they're all missing the point. Instead of seeing it for it's purpose as an environmentally friendly shopping bag, they're using it as a fashion accessory. I wonder how many of the 100's of who people scambling all over each other to get this bag are actually interested in getting a shopping bag?

Well, the silver lining (if you can call it that) is that at least the shoppers in HK were relatively more sane than the ones in Taiwan. I just saw a news report showing over 1000 Taiwanese literally trampling each other to get their grubby hands on a bag.

Ginger, you asked me today why I disliked Taiwan. I guess they just gave me another reason.

Epilogue

One of the inflight movies on the way home was "300." Sugoi!!! I missed it during it's theatrical run.

What a great way to end the trip. "THIS...IS...SPARTAAAAA!!!!"



Some tasty reminders of my trip. This is just the tip of the iceberg; I couldn't fit all the goodies into the shot so I just chose some highlights.



They call this the "Kobe Caramel Choco Pie Roll Cake". LOL!

Universal Studio, Osaka

This is a fun ride.



Also worth visiting are the Shrek 4D show and the T2 3D show.



The Jurassic Park ride was kinda boring, but the final drop was fun. I just hope that the water was clean...




Ernie and Bert!




A cinnamon churro! Haven't had one of these for so long.

Hoteru

Ah, sugoi! Such a grand reception hall




with fancy pants personal products (Ferragamo shampoo?!)



and a small room

Oishii !!

Mmmmm...fresh umi on hot Japanese crystal rice.

Ramen in seafood base soup

And a supersized ramen with Japanese charsiu. Super fatty. Uber good.

Grade A4 Kobe beef





Of course, Japanese food wasn't the only thing on the menu. I have a habit of visiting the local McDonalds wherever I travel, just to see what kind of unique stuff they have. Here's the Ebi Filet-O (a shrimp burger) and the MEGA Teriyaki.









Man, my stomach's growling just thinking about it...

Watashi-wa kankou-kyaku

A typical seafood market. You buy the stuff fresh from the vendors and take it to the restaurant to have it prepared.

Some more sight-seeing. First the aquarium

Hungry Turtle Attack!


Then the old city fortress wall

Cute kitty resting under a mini tree.


And then, pitching in to the Japanese economy at the famous Shinsaibashi shopping district


Yata-se! I can't believe I stumbled across this Joby Gorrilapod. I'd read about it online but had never been able to get one:





As if this subway map wasn't complicated enough...would it have killed them to include just a little English on it?

Not to sound biased, but I stand by my firm opinion that HK's MTR is one of the most accessible subways in the world. Very tourist-friendly with clear instructions on where you are, where you're going and when to get off.

Wakayama

The natural beauty of Wakayama (和歌山). A good place to go if you're into ocean views and rock formations. I'd recommend visiting in the Fall to take advantage of the Autumn foliage.

Water filled caverns





No PhotoShop done to the colors in these photos; the sky and sea really are that blue and emerald green.

Actually, reminds me of a grander version of HK's Tung Ping Chau

What shapes do you make out of these rock formations?