March 2007 Archives

Bathroom_New_Cabinet&Light Hosted on Zooomr

One of the things Kelly wanted to do was redo my upstairs bathroom.  I was not initially excited about it so I postponed it a bit.  For Christmas I told her she could do whatever she wanted.  She took me up on that offer a few weeks ago.

For those who haven't seen it my bathroom is very pink.  Kelly's goal was to offset the pink qualities.  This was because I wasn't quite ready to rip the tiling off the walls and the flooring up.  She started with new towels and bathmats.  Then she got a new shower curtain to match.  The final step was repainting the walls.  While she was doing the walls I figured it was a good time to replace the medicine cabinet and lights.

I think it turned out quite well.  You can see the pictures on my zooomr smart set.

On March 18th Kelly and I went to a Johns Hopkins Alumni event at Geppi’s Entertainment Museum.  We had both wanted to go to the museum for a while.  Kelly was actually supposed to go once earlier but couldn't make it.  I didn't realize there was anything special about this event I just figured it was a good reason to go.  Wow was that an understatement.

When we got there about 2 PM we found out the Steve Geppi himself would be giving us a personal tour.  This museum is essentially his personal collection of pop culture and entertainment memorabilia.  Having Geppi give the tour was like someone giving you a tour of their house.  It was really amazing to see how much he enjoyed the collection and how much he knew about it all.

The museum has a very large collection of rare and important comics in one section.  The comics alone are worth millions.  Not all the comics are old or unique, some are just important for being the first appearance of a character or a particular use of the comic medium.  There are also computers that you can read through scanned versions of many of the comics.

The other sections of the museum are sections of history sorted by time.  Each section is a period of time and a collection representing that time period.  The items show how cartoon and comic characters were used throughout history to advertise and sell.  Most of the items are in mint condition no matter the age.  Geppi indicated they are always looking for better versions of items that aren't in good condition.

Often the items came from the original creators or designers.  In other cases Geppi said they would purchase complete collections from people who had managed to get everything of a particular line of items.

In the hallway connecting the collections there were posters, newspaper comics and other artworks.  Some of them were 6'x6' or 6'x10', truly huge.  Other items were the original artwork from newspaper comics.  There were also some very rare animation cells from movies or cartoons.

I highly recommend visiting the museum.  It is a great history lesson as well as possibly a walk down memory lane.  Even if you aren't a comic or cartoon fan I promise you will enjoy it and learn something.

Since Christmas I have gotten a few games and had a chance to play them.  Who knows at somepoint I might play some of the PC games waiting for me, most likely not until I get a new machine.

Gears of War - This was and still is the best looking game on any console.  Some will say that it is all fluff and no substance but I think that is unfair.  There is a good 1st/3rd person shooter in this game and it has great co-op.  I got to play with Chris a whole bunch and almost completed the whole game co-op.  It is a relatively short game, but full of action.  Hopefully it also shows what we will be coming down the line from Unreal Engine 3 games.  It is a lot of fun if you are into shooters.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition - I wasn't totally sure what to expect of this game.  It hadn't gotten a lot of good reviews.  It is a fairly simplistic 3rd person run and gun shooter.  It doesn't have a lot of depth but it is just a bunch of fun.  About 60% of the game you are on foot with various weapons.  One of the fun parts is grabbing the guns of mechs and dragging them around.  The other 40% of the game is spent in the aforementioned mechs.  There are quite few different mechs to use some I liked better than others.  You can also modify the weapons on each by grabbing of other mechs you find.  The game wasn't very long but it was almost non-stop action.  There was also a pretty good storyline that was fleshed out via well made cut scenes.  A good straight action shooter.

Crackdown - I have to admit that the game came with an entry into the Halo 3 Beta helped push me to get this game.  However it is a really fun game.  Many will say this game is like GTA or Saints Row and it is in regards to being an open area game, but otherwise I don't think it is that similar.  You play as bionic cop who can upgrade with experience.  As the game goes on you get stronger, faster, better at jumping and better at shooting or explosives.  The game has a really large island to explore and is also very vertical especially compared to other games.  There were points where I had to look away from screen as I jumped since it was giving me vertigo.  Unfortunately the boss battles are a little too easy after a point.  You simply run up and kick them repeatedly.  The game though is just fun, it was the first game in a while that I really wanted to go back to and play for hours (much to Kelly's chagrin).  I definitely recommend this game.

Viva Piñata - For Christmas I attempted to get Kelly into games a little more.  One of my attempts was Viva Piñata.  In this game you create a garden to attract piñatas.  After you get them to your garden you feed them, breed them and generally take care of them.  Kelly seems to really like this game.  Usually she loses all track of time and then yells at me for making (letting) her play for so long.  Usually she gets most frustrated at the game when it interrupts her.  I don't think this is really a kids game since it is a little complex, but it is more a family friendly game than any of the above.

Ok so it has been a while since I wrote about some movies.  Haven't been watching enough it seems.  First, a few that we saw in theaters.

Children of Men - The storyline for this movie is pretty depressing but it is a really interesting look at a potential near future.  Many have compared this movie to Blade Runner and it is similar in its dark look of the future.  The film is really well made in regards to cinematography and settings.  It definitely isn't cheery but I really recommend the film.

Babel - This movie has an interlocking storyline like Pulp Fiction or Sin City.  If there is one word to describe this movie it would be intense.  The stressful situations start almost immediately and never let up.  It is also to a certain degree a little depressing, definitely needed a change of pace after this and the last one.  It is also a good movie that I would recommend, but not a forget the world and relax movie.

Breach - This is based on the true story of one of the worst spies to infiltrate the US government.  I heard an interview with Eric O'Neill in which he said the movie was very accurate, just a few dramatizations.  It was impressive to see how many resources were used to catch the spy and how many mis-steps were made along the way.  For someone who lived in Fairfax County it was interesting to see how it was all happening right in town.  A really good thriller that I would recommend.

Pan's Labyrinth - This movie is a cross between WWII period piece and a messed up Alice in wonderland.  The WWII parts were about the fascist control of Spain and were pretty gruesome at times.  Those darn fascist aren't very nice.  The other part of the movie was a young girl completing tasks to find if she was a mystical princess.  The part with the young girl gets just weird at times, there is a creepy faun and a monster that eats babies.  It is a pretty good movie, if a little strange.  Oh and it is subtitled.

I have a netflix membership now so I can get some DVD and HD-DVD without my usually buying of everything.

Wordplay - This is a documentary about the current NY Times crossword puzzle editor.  It is also about the annual crossword puzzle championship.  In several scenes they have several people from Jon Stewart to President Clinton talking about how they do the crossword puzzle.  While I must admit I don't a lot of crosswords it was interesting to see how they are created.  This is a short quirky movie, if you are at all interested you will enjoy it.

Yesterday was a year since Kelly and I first went on a date.  While we had been emailing online for a little over a week previously it was the first time we met.  Even though she left our date to go on another later date that day I don't hold it against her.

As a celebration we went up to Philadelphia again to go to Franklin Institute as we did on our first trip together in mid-April last year.  This time we were going to see the King Tut traveling exhibit.  We left after Kelly got back from work on Saturday.  We dropped our stuff at the hotel and headed over to the Franklin Institute.  It was a little chilly of a walk but not too bad, even though the pathfinder walked us in circles a bit.  We entered the exhibit about 8:15 PM and walked around and saw it until almost 10.  It was pretty crowded.  It was an interesting exhibit, especially seeing how well preserved the 3300 year old items were.  There were some things not there that would have been nice to see like the main coffin.  Some of the craftsmanship on small items was amazing.

The next morning we had room service and almost breakfast in bed.  After checking out we walked over to the Liberty Bell.  It was snowing on and off and sustained winds in 10-20 MPH range.  It was quite chilly.  We went and saw the visitor center, the liberty bell and took the Independence Hall tour.  I learned that the President and Vice President can't be from the same state, never knew that.

After that we walked over to the Italian Market.  Since it was a Sunday many things weren't open at all or were open very limited hours.  We ate at Geno's Steaks which is one of two famous cheese steak places on the same corner.  Even with the cold weather it was quite busy.  You have to sit outside which made for a quick meal.  We walked pack to the hotel, while stopping at Starbuck's to warm up a bit.

Other than being cold it was a very enjoyable weekend.  Maybe next time we can do it when it is a bit warmer.