I dropped off my Lexus at the body shop yesterday to get the scratch repaired, and I am driving the Spyder to work this week. What a nice opportunity to reacquaint myself with the 5-speed manual transmission, and the satisfaction of revving and snarling my way around every street corner, exhaust and engine singing together behind me. Sure, a brand new Porsche Cayman would be nice, but this will do just fine for now.
The weather has been actually pretty nice this past few days, no rain for a while. But man is it cold outside at night. I don't know if I have the courage to put the top down for a drive. Maybe a short one. V. just bought me a new hat to keep my big dome warm, so maybe with that and a heavy jacket I can tough it.
Still haven't received my games for the PS3 yet. To my chagrin however, the Best Buy gift card arrived separately today. Well I have been downloading a bunch of demos from the Playstation Store, and so far they are impressive. Of course the first demos I downloaded were racing games.
MotorStorm is pretty awesome. It has quickly become the
best-selling game for PS3 in Japan. The graphics are amazing but what is really cool is you can turn on the motion sensing for the SixAxis controller, and tilt it to turn like a steering wheel.
Formula One Championship Edition is also fantastic. The sights and sounds of racing were so realistic I thought I was actually watching an F1 race on TV.
For more arcade-style action I checked out
Blast Factor and
Cash Guns Chaos DLX. Both are fast-pased arcade shooters where the goal is basically blow everything away around you. They're both fun at least for a little while but I don't think I will buy either one of them -- just playing the demo gives you a taste and you can imagine how the rest of the game would play out: just more of the same.
And last but not least I checked out a sports game, the demo for
NBA 07. Along with the Formula 1 game this is probably the most challenging game to learn I have seen so far. There's a bunch of buttons for offense and defense, and special moves you can make while dunking, etc. Visually the game is very nice in hi-def but to me the players' skins seem a little too shiny -- it's like they're all sweaty even before the tip-off. The demo only has a quick game mode where each quarter is 2 minutes. I got slaughtered my first game, I didn't even score by the end of the first half. I'm getting better with my defense though, but I still can't land a 3-point shot to save my life. Maybe it's because I'm trying to use Shaq to shoot them...
The Godfather of Soul, James Brown died on Christmas morning at the age of 73. JB was one of my favorite soul/R&B artists while I was in high school and college. His music had a huge impact on the world of music and the R&B, soul, and rap of today. He will be missed dearly.
As you can see from these screenshots, the graphics are pretty amazing. The cars look photorealistic, and in high-definition 720p or 1080i the game is fantastic!
Well the wait for my PS3 is over ... I came home today and Santa left me a big present by the fireplace! Actually his lovely and beautiful elf helper V. helped out by casing the local Best Buys and today they had a shipment come in... she hustled down there and grabbed one of the last boxes..jpg)
In the meantime, I have the included Blu-Ray disc of Talledega Nights to enjoy, and I signed up on the Playstation Network so I can download free demos from the Playstation Store. I'm downloading the demo for Formula 1 Champtionship as I write this, hopefully it is worth the wait! It's a shame I can't call in sick tomorrow, cuz my coworkers are all taking the day off and I'm the only one left on duty!
There's nothing like the taste of fried chicken and waffles for breakfast -- they just taste right together at the Home of Chicken & Waffles. I couldn't believe the amount of butter they serve with the waffles and grits though. That's Southern style cookin' for ya!
The thin-crust pizza from Arinell's is one of the best NY-style pizza in the Bay -- Vito's is the other top contender.
JT takes on the Global Thermo Nuclear chicken wings from Chicken University. At the lower levels of hotness the wings are fantastic, but at Global level they are just downright painful. Your mouth and lips go numb for at least 20 minutes, and you'll be paying the price for hours if you know what I mean...
The fried calamari at Barbara's Fishtrap. They're pretty good, although I have to say I like the garlicky calamari at the Flying Fish Grill even more.
The banana creme pie and the blueberry sour cream pie from Heidi's Pies are very tasty but they don't come cheap -- they're like $10 each.
The strawberry and banana crepes at Cafe Durant. Good food, generous portions, and low prices make this a favorite college student hang-out near the Berkeley campus.