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What a night. Evening started when us Manchester Boys finally got started to San Francisco’s Sake Lab where we were gonna try to meet up with Fi and friends. We found the "and friends" (had a friendly moment with Wes ^_-) but must have lost Fi to some other (hopefully still enjoyable) part of the city.

The Lab was an interesting place. Almost entirely asian crowd, creative sushi that seemed reasonably priced to me. Speaker quality could have been better though and the partitioning of the space between restaurant, bar, and dance floor made the already small-ish area cramped, especially around the dance floor. Drinks were prohibitively expensive.

After the Lab, while we were waiting way too long for the garage to find our car, the idea descended upon us that with the night still early we could head over to Jackson Rancheria. For a little gambling distraction. I spent most of the two-and-a-half hours that the drive east took slipping in and out of consciousness in the back seat. Though I seem to remember being taken up to an ATM and withdrawing $300 that never made its way to my wallet when the closest bank to the casino was a Bank of the West branch (ha!).

Frank, who’d been riding the lower end of stims for most of the night spent the early morning hours sleeping in the car. I had a fun time keeping Mike company at the blackjack table and got to spend some time practicing rolling a coin on my fist when Mike got a fifty-cent piece from a blackjack. We had some ups, some downs, some free juice and coffee, some interesting sidelong glances. Met some interesting people. Well…not so much met as noticed and commented on. People to whom we would gave nicknames such as Georgia, Farv, Shorty, and Dickies.

Frank did the good duty of driving back to Santa Clara (a good thing too since I was only awake by the grace of caffeine and Mike was just exhausted) and we’ve started our mornings all on warped internal clocks.

Hopefully with more fun to come this spring break ^_^

Frank was kind enough to drive me to Ranch 99 Market this afternoon so I could stock up on vegan supplies while he checked out some of those foods I’d prefer not to smell. Afterwords, we were looking for food in Cupertino Village. The dim sum place we were thinking of going to was closed and that left us deciding between Wolfe Cafe and A & J Restaurant.

Frank, after I suggested Wolfe responded “I don’t feel like slumming it today.” So we went to A & J. The food was really good and the staff friendly, but it was a couple little things that made it seem “dive-ish.” All of which can be seen in the photo below.

We’ve got tea in styrofoam cups, a random pen on the table, sugar and salt grains stuck on top of their shakers (held there by the residue of some liquid I dare not touch, I’m sure), and spoons (without bowls) before we ordered soup.

To this places credit, though, the food was really good and very reasonably priced. The green onion pancake was delicious.

Went to this place Tao Tao’s in Sunnyvale with my mother, Mike, and Frank. The waiter was nice about finding something vegan I could eat. Turned out like ma po dofu (麻婆豆腐) with peas.

Funniest thing was the table next to us. These four people from Cisco (we gather) who were making a ruckus. I think one of them got there early and threw a few back at the bar while waiting for the rest of his people. I couldn’t believe how boisterous they were, especially this one I’ll call Dave. Running joke there. It was a nice quiet restaurant, people using their indoor voices, except for this bunch. At one point, Dave actually puts the person he had been talking to through his cell phone on speaker phone. So now there’s a table of at least half-drunk people shouting into this phone and the guy on the other end yelling back. Amazing.

I was so amazed I felt it necessary to take a photo with Dave, telling him he looked like my highschool English teacher. Yeah, this wasn’t true, but it was pretty good for something I thought up on the spot.

That’s me in the dark shirt and Dave with his head turned letting out a guffaw.

He really got a kick out of it. Even said “oh, this is going on the Internet.” Dave, you didn’t know how right you were.

My thanks for his table-mate for taking the picture and apologies for the low quality, it was taken with my cell-phone in doors in the evening. Beg pardon.

Hope you aren’t too hungover tomorrow, Dave.

Finally got around to watching Troy, that epic movie starring Brad Pitt based on Homer’s Iliad. The way I see it there are two ways to look at this movie: one being as a historical piece, relating the events of the past as described in The Iliad; and second as a fictional movie inspired by past events.

As a telling of The Lilian I would say this movie falls far short. Is only built around perhaps six key plot anchors from The Iliad.

1. There was a war between Greece and Troy.
2. Achilles fought in the war.
3. Patroclus died.
4. The Trojan Horse was constructed as a rouse.
5. Achilles died.
6. Troy fell, with some fleeing with Aeneas.

The action and development between these points (and there is a lot between six points for a movie that’s more than two hours long) is more a creative interpretation of events.

Entertaining? Sure. Historical? Only in the loosest sense. And any points that the movie may gain for this can be quickly deducted for the points where it seems to be purposeful oversight. How can someone make a two+ hour movie about the Trojan War and so completely leave out the homosexuality. I mean, I’m not asking for blatant displays, but how about a little-more-than-cousinly kiss between Achilles and Patroclus, huh?

Cooperative interaction among groups, especially among the acquired subsidiaries or merged parts of a corporation, that creates an enhanced combined effect. Often used as business jargon to describe companies cooperating with companies under the same corporate umbrella; think of it like dating in the south, might as well do it with someone close to the family, right?

That’s what I thought…
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Oh my freeking goodness this movie is good. It’s got just about every element an entertaining movie should have; humour, kick-ass kung fu, romance, gangsters dancing, a smoking bitch of a landlady slapping punks around, EVERYTHING! Funny and poingnent, might even get you to squeeze a tear out. There’s even character development, well written backstories, tons of sweetness.

Buddha even works his way in!

Rent, Watch, Enjoy, Repeat

Didn’t today start great. I went up to San Francisco with some friends for a nice Chinese breakfast and a visit to the De Young museum. Before the soy milk we had to run a few blocks through a crowded sidewalk (part of which was obstructed by vendors setting up a farmers market) for the train that we nearly missed, committed a few minor federal offenses, and almost got hit by a car making a left turn from the second lane.

The museum was enjoyable. They had interesting sculptures in their gardens and an impressive collection of art from a great array of periods and cultures. Some of the pieces I found notable were the paintings from 20th century America, the glass work, and the African pieces (which I had very littler prior exposure to).

The architectural style of the new building itself was a topic that was well debated within our group. My first impression was that it looked like a prison from a Kurt Russell sci-fi movie. The walls were large flat metal sheets with convex and concave dimples, some with perforations and a tower. From the tower, a shelf of this metal sheeting kept a person from seeing the sky, forcing them to look down at the rest of the structure and the gardens. The interior of this structure similarly had a way of forcing the patron to move and look in a certain way. The rooms were thoughtfully layed out and were intresting spaced in their own right.

To anyone considering a trip to the De Young, go with friends because it’s better when you can talk about it. Oh, and uhhh….don’t try to hold the train.

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For months I’ve seen this coffee shop on one of our major thoroughfares, El Camino. A great looking, small coffee shop squeezed into a space so narrow I doubt you could park a car in it. From the outside the place always looked interesting because of its bright yellow paint and sign simply declaring Sufi Dripped Coffee. In an environment where most coffee shops are either Starbucks or Pete’s Coffee, an Indy joint is always interesting.

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