Jan 23, 2002

Le Pact des Loups
I should have been suspicious, when they mixed the 'French film' and 'action flick' genres, but Brotherhood of the Wolf just seemed like it had so much potential. The truth is, the film had a lot of potential: cool fighting scenes, mysterious plot, strange characters, tragedy, drama, symbolism, commentary, gratuitous sex, and artsy cinematic shots. Unfortunately, none of the great elements came together, forming only a lackluster film.

Characters, although mysterious, never blossomed. Relationships never sparked. The plot never drew out the suspense, nor excited the audience. Fighting scenes were decent, but sparse compared to the long drawn out artsy shots, which were either overly cliche, like the mountain fade, or overdone, like the slow motion effects. Overall, the sum of the parts was incredibly bland.

2/5

Jan 19, 2002

California Roll
Alright, it's almost been a week to our visit to Tokyo Go Go, an Americanized sushi haven with a "Best Sushi in San Francisco" plaque on the front from Citysearch.com, but I haven't had any decent food since. I got into the restaurant first while the other guys looked for parking. The hostess said there weren't any tables available (although I spotted two tables clearing out in the back), and offered that I wait at the bar.

The two bartenders were dressed in black, like the rest of the staff except for the chefs behind the sushi counter. They were friendly enough even though I passed on a drink and took only water. I was already dehydrated from snowboarding that day. Eventually the other guys got there, and we were seated in a circular booth by the entrance, which barely fit five of us, and left Shao on a stool. The understated art deco design may once have been urban chic, but there's far too many places that are similar enough, with empty loft ceilings, and small tables and stools, to make the ambience forgettable.

The menu featured a good assortment of small, items. Appetizers, sushi rolls, nigiri, and skewered meat. However, it didn't have much traditional, substantial fare; no teriyaki or tempura, no dinners. The six of us ordered maybe three dishes each, sampling much of the menu. The food came as a series of plates, the waitress brought one as we finished the previous one, since the table was rather small.

Tokyo Go Go takes the California roll and stretches is where traditional Japanese food doesn't dare tread, much like many other neo-Japanese establishments in the Bay Area. Unlike traditional sushi, served very plainly and with clean presentation, the fusion element added creativity, but sometimes with too much noise to signal. The initial tuna carpaccio was somewhat confounding... large slices of raw tuna, but not particularly thin. An abuse of the term carpaccio, but still very tasty. Many of the other dishes were good, but split six ways were barely more than a taste. The Duck Duck, a duck sushi, stood out as being both excellent and creative (the duck was cooked perfectly). The nigiri sushi came with extremely large portions of fish (a bit too big to stuff in your mouth, but who's complaining). The soft shelled crab was well done and nicely stuffed, although none of us could identify what the stuffing was.

Sushi rolls were good but not spectacular. No great burst of flavours, most were relatively similar, whether it was tuna or scallop or salmon. The Dragon Roll, had a lot of great stuff, perhaps too much. The individual flavours of the various filling items, tuna, eel, avocado, crab, were all pretty much lost in one conglomeration of average sushi roll taste. The California Roll came out not being much better than the good supermarket variety. However at the end of it all, I was barely full, but the small tastes of each item didn't really satisfy.

We finished off with three desserts (since the Chocolate Creme Brulee was unavailable). The green tea ice cream met expectations, although the green tea cheesecake was a bit of a flop. The tempura fried banana was well on par with other fried bananas, but the rich chocolate ice cream and presentation were an added bonus.

Service was friendly, though again, not spectacular. I couldn't figure out why they didn't give us the two tables at the back, since I didn't notice any other large parties coming in with reservations. Overall an average price for San Francisco dining at around $25. It seemed like we ordered a tonne of stuff (the list was long), but it certainly wasn't too much. Good to visit once in a while.

3.5/5

Why are you reading this?
Really, I wonder what this fad with weblogs is. I find it curious that people would spill out their hearts to an unsuspecting and unknown audience. What for? A cry for attention, in hopes that someone out there finds your stories and dreams enchanting? Self-absorbed vanity, really believing that the faceless masses out there find your life intriguing? Or perhaps the naive security of opening your soul, not to a critical human being, but a souless panel of phosphors that only echoes what you type, oblivious of all the real people at the other end of the network fabric that are greedily sucking up your every word?

Here's a belated welcome to my weblog, which is here perhaps to not as much to be read, but to archive some aspect of life here in Silicon Valley.
Jan 12 Tahoe trip in review (part 2)
Day two started off with a jolt as I awoke from a weird ghostly dream to a blaring sound and a flickering white apparition in front of me. The blaring sound was the alarm clock. The white apparition was the light from the alarm clock projected on the ceiling, flickering as Shao's hand attempted to stop the infernal noise. I was too tired to get up, suffering from a fitful sleep, complete with Billy's snoring and Shao's teeth grinding. Shao was first in the shower, and eventually he was done and I got up. We went through the usual morning drill, waiting for everyone to clean up, and packing up the luggage and sleeping bags.

The first stop was for the relatively cheap gas in Reno. The second stop was McDonalds. It seems like McDonald's at any tourist location is bound to have incredibly slow service. We went back to Truckee to pick up snowboards for the ones that didn't go the previous day, and we got to Northstar at around 11am. Luckily, we got the last pay parking spot (quite worth it since we parked right in fron of the entrance), and hurried up the gondola.

The air was cold on Sunday morning, I couldn't go with just the sweatshirt. However, compared to the previous day, the slopes were barren. The huge asian crowds had disappeared. Shao and I headed to warm up on a few blue runs, while Xun accompanied Sinyee and Johnny on the easier runs. Shao and I had lunch at the lodge, since we couldn't find anyone else. I should learn to bring my own skiing lunches, although that involves carrying it around. The morning was pretty good; there were no lineups for the lifts and we got quite a few runs in. The only sad point was that I couldn't find the crew from PBC.

Shortly after lunch, we managed to page Xun on Billy's FRS Radios. We didn't have much luck the previous day, given the limited range, and the fact that every channel we tried was already occupied. Xun joined Shao and I, while Billy and Johnny stuck with the easier slopes. I actually have no clue where Sinyee was at that point. A went a few runs with Xun and Shao, then took off to try a few steeper hills on my own.

There's something grand about chasing the shadows down a steep snow face, with the sun slipping away behind you and the wind nipping on your ears; starting from the top of the mountain and just riding it out until you hit the absolute bottom. It takes you twenty minutes though you know you could make it down twenty-two hundred vertical feet in three minutes. You're still rather glad that the mountain is there to slow you down.

We left Northstar at 4:20pm, in a rush to make it back to San Francisco by 8:30pm, to make Billy's reservation at the Slanted Door, a chic urban Vietnamese restaurant that we've so far been unable to get to. We made it to Truckee to return the rental equipment soon enough, but ran into traffic shortly afterwards on the highway down the mountain. The sun set quickly as we crawled through the foothills of the Sierras, the orange clouds bright against the deep blue and violet sky. The snow-covered mountaintops around us blushed warmly, kissed by the last glimmering rays of the weekend. At 6:30pm we were approaching Sacramento, and unsure of the traffic situation in San Fran (where we faced a good 45 minutes of stiff traffic across the Bay Bridge on the last Tahoe trip), we decided to call ahead and push the reservation back to 9:00pm, since the restaurant had a $10/per person late or no-show policy.

The rest of the drive was uneventful, except that the traffic was clear on the Bay Bridge. With Billy's spectacular driving, we ended up in front of the restaurant a half-hour before our original reservation. Unfortunately, they didn't have a table for us until 9:00pm, so we decided to pass instead of waiting for an hour. Instead we went over to Tokyo Go Go for some fusion sushi. After a short wait at the bar with a glass of water, we were seated in a small booth that snuggly fit the six of us. Dinner passed by quickly, with a series of small dishes. With what seemed like plenty of time left before our 11pm rental minivan return time, we went for dessert as well.

Overall, it was a decent restaurant, and rang us up about $25 each. We quickly dropped off Billy at a light, an intersection away from his loft, right by the entrance to highway 280. It took us about 45 minutes to reach San Francisco and drop off the minivan, unfortunately without refilling the tank. We realized later that they charge $4.65/gal (as opposed to $1.19 out on the street). Won't be making that mistake again.

Somehow, the next morning it was back to work...
Jan 12 Tahoe trip in review
Let's rewind to Wednesday January 9th, the day it all came together. Sure, there was a lot of talk beforehand, especially since the guys were just starting to kick into things the last time we headed up in December. That was a practice run, with little planning and a lot of unknowns. Time was wasted that time, but we were wiser now. We knew what we were doing and what we were getting ourselves into. Last time, the guys got schooled. They were a tired, pathetic mess, whimpering on the way home from the beating they had received. But they had paid their dues, and now anticipated only retribution for the coming weekend.

On Wednesday we reserved a minivan with Hotwire, where we found a room at the Peppermill in Reno for $56/night. Xun and I went to a nearby ski and snowboard store to pick up early season coupons for Northstar ($36 day pass, down from $54). Billy did some research and found $20 snowboard rentals (which went down to $15 with a coupon) at Truckee Sports Exchange. We were good to go.

Saturday morning started us off twenty minutes late, as the self-declared 'Alpha House' loaded into the blue Mazda MPV we picked up the night before. Sinyee and Xun had had snacks handled, and after packing in a cooler and a trunk full of backpacks and sleeping bags, we were headed off at 6:30 am. Xun drove us to Billy's San Francisco loft; Billy had been waiting and quickly packed his stuff into the back. I took the driver's seat and Billy rode shotgun. We headed across the Bay Bridge and up the I-80. Billy loaded some soft jazz into the CD player, and by the time we switched over to Enya, the rest of the van was pretty much asleep.

The sky was light as we approached Sacramento; the sun was blinding to eyes accustomed to darkness. It was past 9:00 am as we headed into the Sierras. The sun had made its way above the mountain horizon. The tank was down to 1/4 as we pulled off the road to fill up and take a break. The air was chill at the service station. It was a quick rest stop, and soon we were back en route, with Billy behind the wheel. The mountains unveiled themselves as we climbed, clad in snow and covered with trees. We soon got of the I-80, and headed for the town of Truckee. Truckee Sports Exchange wasn't too hard to find, and Billy and Xun got in to pick up boots and boards. Billy got a board by M3, Xun got a decent Burton, both with Switch bindings. As soon as we crammed the equipment into the van, we got back on our way. It was 10:30 by the time we pulled up to Northstar.

Xun, Billy and I got our stuff together. There was no snow on the ground in the parking lot, and it was incredibly warm. I left my coat in the car and grabbed my board. Johnny and Sinyee got back into the car, and Shao took the wheel and headed out to Reno. After getting our lift tickets, we lined up for the gondola and finally headed up the slopes. Happily, there was snow as we got off the gondola, but not as much as we had hoped. As a fellow gondola rider had explained to us, it had rained in Tahoe for the past week, taking down much of the snow from December.

It took me a few runs to get into the swing of things. It was a warm day, and I felt great without my coat. Unfortunately, the lifts were crowded, and there were a suprising number of Asian skiiers and snowboarders (primarily snowboarders) on the slopes. After my first two runs, I found Xun and Billy, who had been giving the easier runs a try. We hung around the Arrow Express lift for a few runs. Xun could make his way down the hill, turning slowly. Billy was fine on his heel edge, but had trouble keeping his toe edge, and hadn't quite gotten the turn, or so it seemed. A few runs later, he tried riding fakey, with much improvement. Always figured he was goofy.

We stopped for a late lunch to avoid the heavy crowds. The lodge was still busy, but it looked much better than it did at lunchtime. After relaxing for a bit, we decided to head to the top of the mountian, as Billy and Xun were confident enough to ride the blue runs. The last two runs I hit were the two best runs of the day. The crowds were disappearing, as the sun sank behind the mountain, casting the resort in shadow against a violet sky. I was the last person up the Comstock Express for the day; it was pretty much empty when I got to the top. I bombed the first half of the mountain until I started catching up to other riders. Reminds me of the recent Cartmanland episode of South Park... if I had my million bucks I'd buy a ski resort... yeah!

After wandering around the village at the bottom of the hill for a while (it had gotten quite cold in the shadows), I eventually found Xun and Billy, and the three of us quickly found the rest of the crowd, who had kindly returned from Reno, just to pick us up. The ride back to Reno wasn't too long, maybe a half hour. Like Vegas, it was a small lake of light against the black wasteland around it at night. It was however, much less exhuberant; it took us five minutes to drive through the main strip of epilepsy inducing displays, crowned by a brightly lit "Reno: the Biggest Little City in the World" sign that arched across the roadway. Past the main strip, we hit an average American town, set apart only by the frequency of adult novelty stores.

The Peppermill stood alone, set apart from the main strip of casinos. The gayly lit monolith was huge compared to the rest of the Reno strip, although really it would be substandard fare compared to the ubercasinos of Vegas. Shao drove us past the lights of the Peppermill, to the dark lodges hidden behind the hotel, where our $56 room was situated. Before stopping to check out our room (where Shao and friends had already checked into earlier during the day), we circled around to the front desk in hopes of upgrading to a cheap suite.

Shao came back to the van, defeated. No more cheap suites, and we were resigned to our hotel room. The room was sufficiently clean, not half as bad as what Johnny had warned us it would be. The large washroom had a heated fan on the ceiling, a warm welcome from the evening chill. We relaxed in front of the television, watching "the Mummy" until sufficient complaints caused us the venture forth in search of food. We passed on the "White Orchid", the hotel restaurant that featured $45 entrees, and headed back over to the Circus Circus on the main strip. We had decent American/Italian food at Amici's. After dinner we realized why we had come here: Shao's passion for the camel game.

Circus Circus featured an area of midway style games, with the standard stuffed animal prizes. The particular game in question involved rolling a ball down an alley so that it would fall into a bunch of holes, which triggered a plastic camel on the back of the stall to move a portion of the distance from the right to the left. Sinking enough balls caused the camel to race across the stall. The game was a race with the 15 other players, all trying to roll balls into holes to get their camels to run. Apparently during the day Shao had already mastered the game. We watched as throngs of people shuffled past behind us, adults carrying children and pushing strollers. We cheered as Shao won race after race, establishing his dynasty over the prepubescent challengers, all helplessly trying to goad their camels on. But alas, all empires are eventually crushed, and an adult eventually sat down in alley 14. After a few losses in succession, Shao surrendered the crown, but he left carrying a bagful of loot garnered from the stall.

We headed back to the Peppermill, but since it was still early we hit the casino before going back to our room. We wandered through the mostly empty slot machines and half empty card tables until we lost Shao. We doubled back and found him sitting next to a smoking white chick on a single-deck blackjack table. As Shao played, the white chick puffed, and the gay guy in a white coat at the end of the table made lewd remarks at the Philipino dealer. Eventually Xun joined him and lost $20, and Shao quit with $45 more than he started off with, wisened by his last attempt in Vegas.

Billy also gave it a shot at a $3 table. At first he was tossing chips to the dealer, as the live entertainment in the background belted out mangled versions of pop hits. Eventually Shao came around and Billy's luck turned. He left with $20 more than he started off with, and we headed back to the hotel room around 11:30pm, to get the sleep in before skiing the next day.

Jan 18, 2002

friday
I look out the window, the sun's almost set. I look past the flourescent lit windows of Building A of the Nvidia campus, and in the distance I see the dark silhoutte of mountains against a crimson skyline. It's surprising that a week's already past. It's been a while since I've wondered what I'm doing here. There's a balance to life: sometimes things are so uncertain and you have no clue what the future's got in store, and you have to learn to take each day as it comes. Then life swings around and you hit the routine, and you're reminded that change and uncertainty isn't so bad after all.

California rocks.

Jan 14, 2002

monday
I'm usually not one for hating Mondays, but it's cold and cloudy, I had to wake up this morning to a dental appointment, and my brain is still in weekend mode carving down the slopes at Tahoe....

Jan 10, 2002