wildyams

So here was my weekend: Friday and Sunday I did nothing (well, Friday I worked, obviously, but afterwards did nothing). Saturday was Dennis' (or 'Denis' as we like to call him) 30th birthday, and he decided to have it behind The Orange Curtain down in 'the OC' (that's Orange County to you and I). The first thing on the list for his birthday was go-kart racing at 10 am, so naturally I said I couldn't make that, cause I would be sleeping in (I wasn't the only one to skip this, so they ended up pushing the time back to 11). But after those guys were done racing (evidently Jon rules at that), I met them at Dave and Buster's for lunch. Lunch was tasty, and it was good to see everyone again, since it had been a while since I'd seen Steve-o and Jon and Dennis and everyone.

After lunch we went to play games in the arcade, where we discovered what a scam Dave and Busters has going there. See, you can't just put money in the machines, you have to put money on a "power card" and then you swipe the card on the games to get credits. But they don't tell you how much each game costs, they tell you how many credits it costs. And the dollar value of a credit is pretty uncertain, but its not something that adds up easily, like 1 quarter equals 1 credit. So essentially they've got their arcade rigged so that you have to stop and do algebra to figure out how much each game costs you (on top of that, they didn't have the number of credits required to play each game easily displayed, making it even more of a mystery). All I know is that everyone was given a "power card" with $20, and I, naturally, sought out the old school video games (of which there was only Street Fighter 2, Ms. Pac Man and Galaga) and for $20 it seemed like I was only able to play about 10 games or less of Street Fighter 2 (I woulda preferred Ms. Pac Man or Galaga, but they were occupied).

Anyway, after all that, Dave and Jen split, and Bob and Becky showed up, and we cruised around The Block for a while, checked out the shops, then debated going to a movie. Jon was really psyched to see "The Rundown" which was sneak previewing, and most everyone else wanted to see "Underworld." I was up for either, although wasn't really too enthused about seeing another movie starring The Rock after having to see "The Scorpion King", but if everyone else wanted to see "The Rundown", I woulda gone. Really I wanted to see "Matchstick Men" but most people felt that wasn't something they wanted to pay to see on the big screen. Anyway, I ended up going to see "Underworld" with everyone else except for Jon and Pierre who saw "Rundown".

"Underworld" was ok, I didn't really have high expectations for it cause I thought it looked crappy, but was kinda drawn to see it anyway cause I like vampire movies and werewolf movies (even though they usually suck too). Like everyone else I thought it looked like it would be a bad "Matrix" meets "Blade" ripoff or something, and it kinda was, with "The Crow" thrown in for good measure. Everyone I saw "Underworld" with absolutely hated it, it sounded like, while I somewhat enjoyed it. Could be because my expectations were low going in, I dunno, but it delivered more than I was expecting with some pretty decent effects, an interesting backstory, and some decent acting from some of the cast. Ultimately I didn't really like where the story went, and the end was pretty mediocre at best, but I would go see a sequel if they made one. I would be reluctant to recommend it to anyone though, since I definitely seemed to be the only one who enjoyed it at all.

Anyway, after the movie, some people went home and Steve-o, Juliet, Bob, Becky and myself all went back to Bob and Becky's place and hung out and chatted for a couple hours, which was really nice. Bob and Becky are getting married on December 6th, so we talked a lot about that, and we got a good tour of their place, which is really nice. After all that, I went back to my Dad's house and got to bed around 3 am, so all in all it was a good day.