My pick of movies for 2006

We've watched a lot of movies this past year as we always do. So with all these top 10 lists of the best movies for 2006, here's my top 5. There's a lot of new ones I haven't seen yet so obviously, I can't put them on the list. But I chose these 5 for their originality, storytelling, and would I pay to see it again. Here's goes in no particular order:

CASINO ROYALE
THE DEPARTED
APOCALYPTO
UNITED 93
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING

Wired Magazine

My new favorite magazine. www.wiredmagazine.com

Apocalypto

Despite the controversy over Mel Gibson, this movie was really good. Not a word of english, but that didn't matter much as it was like watching a foreign film and you just had to read the subtitles. With a cast of unknowns, the story was very powerful and the acting intense. All the talk about violence and bloodshed wasn't even an issue. It's nothing you haven't seen in any scarry horror gore movie.

I'd recommend this. However, I do wish there was a bit more of a political subplot for the fall of the mayans.

Xmas Eve

Dinner @ Zephyr

Fried Chicken
Flank steak

We ventured down to Kent Station to visit some friends grand opening of their nail salon but the opening was postponed and no one called to alert us. So we decided to eat at Zephyr which is part of Icon (Downtown Seattle). The atmosphere was very nice and the place was huge!

Service was excellent, food was just alright. The artichoke dip was bland. The salad didn't have beet in it and the waitress had to argue w/ the kitchen help that despite what they thought, there's NO beets in the salad. The steak was whatever. My fried chicken was very moist because it was dripping with oil, not flavor.

Our waitress and floor manager came by to ask how we were doing and we told them honestly what we thought and they comp the salad and dip.

We wanted to try the dessert but decided the whole meal was too boring to waste anymore time or $.

happy holidays

Latte

This is Eric's new dog, Latte. She's such a cute puppy! You know it's cold when you have to build a fire in Phoenix in the middle of December!

when you're down w/ a cold ...watch some dvds

Miami Vice. This movie blows. It's slow. The acting sucks. The story line is stupid. It's way too long. The music blows. Gong Li is there for eye candy. I can't understand half the words coming out of her mouth. Is she speaking english or chinese? Don't waste your time on this.
Oh hear's another stupid movie. Rosario Dawson is the only one who can act and I can't understand why she even bothered staring in this stupid movie. You would think Harold & Kumar goes to White Castle would be the most retarded movie but it's actually really original, and hilarious! This movie on the other hand is just lame. I like Kevin Smith, but everything about this movie blows! It's not funny, it's not clever, it's a lot of idiotic rantings and blubbering. Nate? Have you seen this?

Blood Diamond

saw Blood Diamond tonight. It's good to see Leonardo grow up to be a very powerful actor. He was incredible in The Departed and his performance in Blood Diamond was solid. I guess the next time you look at a diamond, you should ask if it's a conflict diamond, but how would you know?

Weekend Storm

A heavy rain and wind storm came through this past Thursday night knocking down trees and power lines throughout the city. It's now Sunday morning and we're feeling like refugees sleeping on Danny's floor. We went back this morning and there's tree debris everywhere and it's 40 degrees in the house. Still no power.

The first night we built a fire and slept in the living room. What a stupid idea. I had to get up every 2 hours to add wood to the fire and it didn't keep us warm at all.

Last night we all stayed over at Danny's and had a big hot pot dinner.

Hopefully, we'll have power restored tonight!!! It would be so nice to sleep in our own bed!

Eric@ Pali Lookout

More of HNL

I'll get copies of pictures from Eric when and if he ever returns to Phx. He's been stranded on HNL the past 36 hrs or so. I think he didn't want to go back anyways...

The sun wasn't strong which was a good thing. Went snorkeling at Hanuma Bay. Pay to park. Pay to get in. Watch a 9 minute video on how not to stand on the coral but people still do it. Pay to rent a locker and snorkel/fins. Pay to ride the tram up. I miss the good ol' days when it was FREE!
Relaxing in front of our hotel which was in front of the Honolulu Marathon finish line.

The best part of coming back was having fresh sweet papaya every morning.

What do you think of these pictures? All from the Blackjack phone. If you're steady, the quality is decent. It's a crappy phone if you try to take moving pictures as you can see the pictures from the U2 concert sucks ass! But overall, I love the phone.

We spent a lot of time wasting away on craiglists in our hotel room!

HNL Dec 7th to 12th

Returned to HNL just a few months after Hiram's wedding where we said we weren't coming back for a while. But it's U2 afterall and it was worth every penny! Eric and I stayed at a decent if not NY style small room w/ 2 twin beds. The last time I slept on a twin bed was back in college!

Ate a lot of food. Now we're even more fat!

Eric and his caffeine addiction @ Starbucks.

Soldout U2 concert.

Check out the flickr site for more pictures.

HNL ...I can't wait

What happened to my comment? As I was saying...My first U2 concert was (actually 2nd) because we saw them at Tacoma Dome and again in Vancouver BC with Becky, Teri, Patty, and Eric. Sugarcubes opened up!

Queen and YouTube

I wanted some new tunes somehow I ended up browing Queen/Freddie Mercury on iTunes. Then I went over to YouTube and found some nostalgic 80s videos of their songs. Check this one out...

Samsung BlackJack

I didn't like Danny's phone because I thought the volume of the calls weren't very loud and the ring tone was very soft. However, I've been reading up on the BlackJack and it's a lot of bang for the buck. I could have purchased my K790a however, there's no warranty and no returns. Even SE won't warranty their own product if you purchase it from their website, how #$%#$%$ retarded is that???

So I went ahead and got the Blackjack since the Wii wasn't available! hahahaah....

It's very different than a regular phone and there's a lot of features and getting use to buttons that I've never used before. The nice feature is that it has 3G technology which means it's FAST! The phone is 1.3mp which is OK. I'm still trying to figure out the email feature.

And this global warming sucks big time. It's snowing, hailing, freezing, lightning and thunder, power shortages, and ice everywhere is just terrible for business!!!

Happy Holidays!

New Balance Zip

I needed a new pair of sneaks and these were cool. It's not really brown as it's bronze. They're extremely comfy and cushiony. I was told that these were limited editions. Check em out, I guess they come in a variety of colors!

Phiten

www.phitenusa.com

I'm sure some of you have used Phiten and swear by it. Neil recently fell on his ass and we happened to walk by the Phiten store in downtown Seattle. They were extremely helpful and taped a lot of titanium G on Neil's back to relief pain.

I snagged a few dots and placed it on my wrist pulse points and it helped with my carpel tunnel issues.

They also have Aqua Gold and water and lotion and everything you can imagine that has gone through the Phiten process. I got a few socks that's suppose to help alleviate being on your feet all day long.

I'll keep you posted as to the results.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

You know my name

I DL Chris Cornell's opening song for Casino Royale. It sounds really good turned up LOUD on my iPod in my Yaris.

Mash Up Xanadu

I was ready someone's blog recently that a local bar was throwing a DJ event of Mash ups. This got me thinking as I was driving home that the earliest memory of a mash up was of Gene Kelly with ONJ in Xanadu. He was from the 50s and she was from the 80s and they were both singing a song each from their era and as it progressed, the 2 songs combined together to become one song.

I couldn't find it on YouTube but here's the last musical scene. And if you pay careful attention to the fashion, it's what HOT now. High boots, the color purple, animal print, flowy Muse clothing....Ahh! Nostalgia...