So I have successfully integrated myself into the college atmosphere. I am currently living with three other guys. White. Persian. Asian. The white male apparently was a high school football player, which would explain why he is such a mess around the apartment. Luckily, I do not share the same room with him, the other Asian does. Seriously though, this guy leaves all his clothes and junk laying around the floors, in particular, his room. As for myself, I share a room with the Persian. Surprisingly, he keeps his stuff in decent order. Unlike the other room, people can actually walk through our room without stepping on something. Oh, the other Asian is pretty much like me, keeping things neat and tidy. The White and Persian purchased a school meal plan, even though there's a kitchen in our apartment. The past week, my food menu consisted of rice with chinese sausage and scrambled eggs, spaghetti with meatballs, ramen with beef, ravioli with mushrooms, sandwiches, and salads. Not bad for someone who isn't experienced in cooking huh? What I like about this year living in the on-campus apartments is that everyone on the floor is very friendly and active. Last night, we played a game of nerf gun wars, and it was straight out fun. It has been while since I last had that much fun, or at least in student housing that is. Child's play, yes I know, but heck it was fun. During the nerf gun war, I had no gun at the time, so I just threw the darts at people. I think I threw like over 100 or more nerf darts. After that, I immediately purchased a small nerf pistol gun called a Maverick from Amazon. Using my $10 gift card credits I redeemed (within 2 weeks or so) from a site called swagbucks.com, I was able to get it pretty much for free since it was sold for only $10 w/ free shipping (Thank you Amazon Student Prime). It's very easy to get points actually. You can get points from searching using their search engine, filling out surveys, entering codes, and etc. And in a matter of weeks, you'll be raking in dozens of $5 amazon gift cards (I've already redeemed $20 in amazon gift cards). So if you want to join in, use this link: http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Tofu720. Alright then, time for me to put on some more icy hot on my right shoulder and arm.
Well, I guess I finally pulled the trigger and decided to purchase Starcraft 2. There goes my precious $47 and you know where I bought it? One of my best friends, Ebay. Yup. Won it in an auction and with 3% cashback, I got back $1.40. All in all, I guess it wasn't that bad of a deal. I was really aiming for $40, but I guess you can't win them all. So with that said, now I shall go brush up my skills against bots using my 7-hour guest pass my friend gave me. The hunt is officially over.
Hey again, Starcraft 2 initially released on July 27, but I still want to blog about this. Of course, if I really wanted this game, I would have pre-ordered months ago like everyone else did, but I decided to just be patient and wait for the price to drop. I mean... me spending $60 on a video game is just not likely to happen. So, I did what I do best and embarked on my quest for bargains and deals. Checking my main online hotspots, I looked through Amazon, Best Buy, Gamestop, and a few others. Kmart actually had a pretty sweet deal not too long ago where if you purchased Starcraft 2, they would give you a $20 game coupon. The only downside I saw to this was the fact that I don't even shop at Kmart and the last time I did was like 2-3 years ago. I was hoping there was a coupon code for Gamestop, but unfortunately there were none that could be applied. As for Amazon, coupon codes are very rare, so I was not expecting anything. I did, however, had a $10 gift card I redeemed through an online survey I took a while back. The problem here is that I "had" the gift card. I actually spent it a week before the release of Starcraft 2 on a pair of Asics running shoes. Now that I can honestly say was an awesome deal for myself. The pair of ASICS Men's Gel Kanbarra 5 Running Shoes sold for $42. Applying the $10 Amazon gift card made the cost go down to $32. Now here's comes in the money saver. The site was having a sale where all shoes were 40% off. That takes off another $17 making the final cost a total of only $15. Oh, and I forgot to mention they offered 2-day free shipping! Probably the best $15 I ever spent. Anyways, back to Starcraft 2. The best price I could find was $50 using cashback, but even at that price, I am still hesitate to click the add to cart button. Well, I guess I'll just have to wait it out. I'll probably just ask one of my friends for a 7-hour guest pass or something in the mean time.
Hey again, so Valve is going to be releasing a game called "Alien Swarm" on Steam for free today (7/19) -approximately 10 hours from now.- So don't forget to add the game to your wishlist or if you don't already have Steam client, go install it now at http://store.steampowered.com/about/. The game actually looks pretty fun, especially with co-op in there. What I love most is that it's FREE, and I just love that word oh so much. Take a look at the gameplay yourself. The store page to find out more information and to download the game is at http://store.steampowered.com/app/630/
If you didn't already know, I'm a huge fan of martial arts and kung fu movies. My top 5 martial arts/kung fu movie actors are Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Tony Jaa, and Sammo Hung (not in that particular order). From looking at my list, you may be asking yourself, "Where's Bruce Lee?" Well, not to say Bruce isn't a good actor, but I personally have more of a taste for movies with a modern day/contemporary feeling. I choose my favorite actors based not just solely on choreography, but also on character and personality. Anyways... moving on to the topic at hand.
So lately I've been watching quite a few Asian martial arts/kung fu flicks and decided maybe I should blog about my one of my favorites, since I currently have nothing else to blog about. After much contemplation and review, I chose "Ip Man (2008)" aka Yip Man as my top favorite movie. "Ip Man" directed by Wilson Yip, is a semi-biographical account of Yip Man, the famous Wing Chun grandmaster, depicting his life story. Since it is a semi-biography, that means about only 2/3 of the movie is actually based on a true story, while the other parts were added in for movie/entertainment purposes. So if your really interested in learning the true story of Yip Man, you should go look up on Google or some books.
I couldn't agree more with the film director's decision to cast Donnie Yen as Yip Man, whom I must say does an outstanding performance. I just can't see any other actor to fit so perfectly well in the role of Yip Man as Donnie Yen does. The storyline of the movie itself, takes place in China when ruled by the Imperial Japanese Army and the Sino-Japanese War is happening. In short, the plot is about the Japanese oppressing the Chinese, and then the Chinese decide it's time to stand up for themselves and fight back. The storyline isn't much new from what we've seen in other movies such as Jet Li's "Fist of Legend" but the character's personalities and emotions were all there. The fight scenes and choreography, however, blew me away. This movie is definitely worth watching and if your a fan of kung fu movies, then I suggest you watch "Ip Man."
The sequel to this movie "Ip Man 2 (2010)" actually already came out. I do not wish to talk full length on this movie right now, but I would just like to say, IMO, I felt it wasn't as great as the first movie. The realism and powerful story seen in the first movie seemed to have been lost. Overall, the movie had a good story, good amount of fight scenes, and very fun to watch. Ip Man 3 is still undecided, but if decided to be made, it is rumored that Jay Chou might play the role of Bruce Lee.
So this morning I checked my email only to find the dreaded cancellation email. The email titled "Best Buy Order Update" said the following message:
Dear DANIEL,
There was a pricing error on the Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty video game; as a result, your order will be cancelled and you will not be charged for this item. We are sorry for this error and apologize for any inconvenience.
Within a few hours later, I received my refund of $5.49. Well, it was worth a shot. Honestly, I was hoping Best Buy would give me a small gift card or credit for raising my hopes up and making me go through the whole checkout process.I guess I'll just have to wait until Starcraft 2 goes on sale or I have some coupon or promotional code because I don't want to have to pay $60.
Earlier today I stumbled upon an interesting video on Youtube titled "Power Laces" and I must say I was very impressed. Inspired by the movie "Back To The Future 2" Blake Bevin created a pair of Nike shoes with actual working power laces. Just take a look at it yourself. Unfortunately, we are not at the stage yet where the mechanical parts hanging on the back of the shoes can disappear, so you'll probably have to bear with it. On the bright side, we no longer need to tie our own shoes. Now all we need is a hoverboard and were set to go.
