Wow, two weeks without an update. That's kind of sad actually, considering I've been up and doing things for a change. For instance, last week I finally took a day off from work to go see Shrek the Musical. We took the Northeastern corridor from Hamilton to Penn Station which was pretty easy. Before the show we ate at a great place called Tony's DiNapoli where I had the daily special ravioli with ricotta, prosciutto, and spinach. Everything we had there was insanely good, and as much as everything is more expensive in the city, frankly we've paid more for dinner at the local Ruby Tuesday's before so it was great al around.

The show was a lot of fun. I had read a lot of lukewarm reviews so the show had defied my expectations going in. The main three characters Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey were good, and the story plays up their backgrounds in a way the film didn't which makes all of them, particularly Fiona, more sympathetic. However, I have to say that the guy who plays Lord Farquaad kind of steals show. He performs most of the show on his knees with his legs wrapped in black cloth and two puppet legs dangling where his character's legs would be. He generally looks like he's walking when he should be and has a few points in the show where he has fun with the prosthetic legs. For instance, there's a scene where he's "walking on" the shoulders of his dancers which he performs by standing up and moving the puppet legs as he walks "over" kneeling subjects, but the one odd thing about his performance is that he talks more like Dr. Evil than Jon Lithgow. Also they add a subplot about him and his parentage which wasn't in the movie. Pinocchio was played by John Tartaglia, one of the masterminds behind Avenue Q, who also controlled the amazing Dragon puppet.

Being Broadway, Pinocchio and the other fairy tale creatures laid on the gay metaphor a bit thick. At first I thought I was looking at the story too abstractly, as the Let Your Freak Flag Fly song about accepting people for being different could be interpreted other ways. Then Pinocchio ends it with the line "I'm wood. I'm good. Get used to it." so I felt vindicated again. Also, the Youtube video above has Humpty Dumpty, whereas the show I saw had this green person that we couldn't decide if she was Jiminy Cricket or a plant person.

After the show I went and looked at random famous buildings in New York like the Fuse building, the MTV building, Times Square, the Late Show theater, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and 30 Rock where I went in the NBC Experience store and bought some Psych goodies including a sweet pineapple keychain.

I was supposed to go to the beach on Thursday and see Luke but that fell through due to bad weather. Thankfully Matt's been home this week, so I've been going over there a lot and got to see Larissa one day, mini golfed (which went well), and bowled (which did not). Although an old lady tried giving me bowling advice before she said something randomly politically incorrect and I felt kind of uncomfortable.

I got down to DC on Friday afternoon. Matt and I went to Chopt Salad, which is kind of like Coldstone for salad; you pick the contents and then they blend it up into a surprisingly fine salad. We then watched the Psych premiere and The JLU episode featuring the Green Arrow and had many of the Question's best lines before a Fallout bender.

Saturday we went to the National Museum of American History. The coolest things I saw were the notorious Colbert painting just outside the bathroom and the Michelangelo puppet from one of the live-action TMNT movies. Saturday night was highlighted by me vomiting, but that never happened because Superboy Prime punched the Timestream. Matt also got to see his ultimate boats of destiny cross or something, but it was largely anticlimactic. Sunday was mostly a "get your stuff together and go" kind of day, although I caught the beginning of the Eagles/Giants game. Unfortunately, I am never going back. Ever.

Today in Fallout I had to perform a somewhat humorous mission. To sum it up, I had to place a listening device in the egg sac of Mirelurks inhabiting a local dam, but for the best reward I had to do it without killing a single Mirelurk. Had I been patient I probably could have done this stealthily. Of course, this is me and video games so I present to you a dramatic recreation of Chris versus the Mirelurks:

Littlekuriboh updated!

In our next episode: Chris awkwardly offers his opinion of his friends' work.

This weekend I took the train to Washington DC to see the Matt, my first time traveling across a significant distance alone. I departed from the station in Trenton New Jersey and arrived in Union Station in Washington DC about two and a half hours later. The most remarkable thing about this was its simplicity, although the prices can vary pretty wildly depending on when you want to go.

One thing that's definitely better in the cities than in the suburbs is the women. I swear that an extremly particular atom bomb must have hit around my house because I don't even see females of a compatible age (roughly 18-24) on a daily basis anymore even when I do go out, just as Matt described it "High schoolers... and old people". Furthermore, I had a weird incidence of culture shock while passing a woman in a black dress with these bizarre squared-off ruffles. It didn't look like it was for a formal event, just the kind of dress one spends way too much on because they want us all to know that they're fashion-minded. The closest they get to accessorizing around these parts is the same damn Tina Fey glasses as everybody else!

Fun Fact: I was going to call these glasses She's All That glasses, but they're apparently a different style altogether. Take that, self!

Matt and I visited a number of fascinating places. Last time, we visited the Lincoln Memorial. This time we visited the monuments of Jefferson, home to the most badass quote on a presidential monument, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which had been updated since I had last visited it in eighth grade. Native American Museum We also went to the Native American Museum, but that was just an excuse to eat yummy buffalo sandwiches.

The most pleasant surprise of the trip was that the Jim Henson Legacy Exhibit was in town. I wish we were allowed to take pictures because among other things we saw numerous original storyboards by Henson, pieces from those two eighties movies with puppets I can't tell apart (Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal), actual muppets used on the shows of Bert and Ernie, Kermit, Rowlf, and the Mahna Mahnas. Yes, we saw the freaking Mahna Mahnas. The one unfortunate thing is that despite the fact that the exhibit was refreshingly Elmo free as he rose to prominence after Henson's passing, the gift store was chock full of the little red bastard. Also an aside for Matt, this is the book that I own. The book they had was called It's Not Easy Being Green.

As for food, Friday night we ate at Five Guys. Five Guys is probably best described as the ultimate guilty pleasure with obscenely delicious burgers and fries all coated with a lethal amount of grease. Needless to say, despite taking the metro to get there, we had to walk back. Saturday night we ate at Meiwah the top rated Chinese restaurant in Washington DC. This place was awesome. They had a wall full of pictures of the owner with various famous customers and these giant doors that look like they belong in some sort of film with about a dozen swordfights in it. Despite all that, the place was surprisingly informal and reasonably priced considering the quality of our meals. I had the crispy beef special, and with the tea and everything I was able to leave a $20. I would definitely go there again.

On the pop culture front, Matt began introducing me to Gurren Lagann. Considering everything I've heard about this show on TVtropes (mostly Kamina fanboying) I've been meaning to watch it for some time now, and so far I've been enjoying it. The animation style is so bizarre it's great. Many of the fights have a surreal Looney Tunes style to them, especially with Simon's stubby little robot Lagann. Walking back on Saturday night, Matt and I were playing the "What Angel characters people are" game and getting shockingly in-depth. I think we found someone for everybody who's been in the opening credits except for Doyle, and even some of the secondary one-off characters.

And that's my weekend.

I was at the shore from Wednesday morning to Friday afternoon. In the past we've stayed from Monday to Friday, but with work and the fact my dad doesn't really enjoy the shore very much, we each stayed only three days to my mom's five. Frankly, I found two-and-a-half to three days to be too short. There really isn't much to report; I went in the water during the day and got bored around the house at night. Unfortunately, we had a health scare with my grandfather the day after which brought us back, but everything is fine now as it turned out to be one of those things that's a "scare" only when you're in your 80s.

Matt and I saw Tropic Thunder on Sunday. It was a good time and I really heart Stiller and company. I mean, how many movies are hilarious before the film actually starts? However, I think the level of comic violence and R-rated dialog will keep it from reaching that Zoolander/Knight's Tale level of "guess what I watched three times this month on cable" viewing ubiquity, if only because it will be so watered down for TV. Also, I've been wondering if someone else would have been better in Ben Stiller's role. Most of the characters fall into one of two distinct camps: flawed and human yet funny characters where the actor mercilessly pokes at himself and his peers (Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. Oh my God, Robert Downey Jr.) or so ludicrously overblown that they have to be seen to be believed (Matthew Mcconaughey or... well, go see it if you want to know). Well, there's Plot Boy too, but he's just there to play straight man and move the plot along. Stiller's character was silly but not over the top ridiculous, but unlike the other leads, he isn't an action star, even though he had some scary muscle definitions in a few shots. IMDB doesn't have any notes like "X was originally considered for the role", but I'm wondering if watching someone like Bruce Willis go through the same wringer would have actually actually been funnier.

I have a new addiction: Rune Factory: a Fantasy Harvest Moon. One part farming, one part dungeon exploring plus relationship building, fishing, and other wacky fun. So far, the game's done a good job of integrating the two major elements, as each aspect of your life basically opens the door in another aspect.

D&D Wiki fun: Dean updated Osric some more. The story is improving, but the final paragraph is more or less code for "I want a spotlight too guys!". Will, wasn't Richtor his overly privileged knight from that awful evil game, and have we heard of this consort before? Wait, no, I just got it. Obvious plot twist is obvious. Also, I can't help but giggle at the fact that apparently he's known as the fallen dictator Osric the Homeless

[To the theme of Joxer the Mighty]

Osric the Homeless
Battles through the abyss
Never seems to act amiss
With Tesa as his sidekick
Making all her allies sick
Riding steeds and righting wrongs
Being stoic all day long
He's Osric—he's Osric the Homeless!
Oohhhhhh—
He's Osric the Homeless
He's never been kissed
Everybody fears him
'Cause he acts really grim
Osric—
Osric the Homeless!

Also, alignment!? I'm the @#$ $%^& Batman!

So this weekend was the big trip to Washington DC. On Friday, I drove down with Will after half a day of work. Going to DC consists largely of what Matt called "Following the 95s". The tolls weren't bad, about $12-15 dollars which seems downright fair after we saw the price of train tickets these days. We stopped at a rest stop on the way back and had an insanely delicious brownie. Well, I guess it more of a brownie because it was like normal cookie dough with square chocolate chips and of all things little patches of caramel. When we got to DC, we drove in circles looking for parking because between people in town for the cherry blossoms and the World Bank. Eventually we had a spot right across the street from Matt's building for the weekend and had spent a massive seventy cents on parking for the weekend. Friday night was kind of like old times; we grabbed dinner at the nearby Baja Fresh, watched The Soup, and several hours of Smash Brothers.

Saturday was largely about the Sakura Matsuri. I think we all agreed it was okay but not amazing. The festival was in a cross shaped formation across two intersecting streets. The north tip was only a stand or two. The south was all about food which was surprisingly limited in selection but pretty good. We all had chicken skewers, Will and rice and noodles, and Matt and I had egg rolls. The West was the more traditional stuff which was what I expected to be the heart of the festival. They had things like performances, kimonos, Japanese flavored services in the Washington DC area like martial arts schools and eastern religious temples and cool little wooden signs that were being painted by a little old Japanese man. The strangest section was the eastern portion which was all about anime. Now I enjoy anime and gaming, but I wasn't expecting things like cosplayers, J-Pop, and things you can buy on the Internet at the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

Saturday night we explored the National Mall. I had seen the World War II Memorial for the first time earlier in the weekend, but now I've seen the Lincoln monument, the reflecting pool, the Vietnam War memorial, and the Washington monument up close.

Sunday we went to the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History. I actually enjoyed the Museum of Natural History more. I think my Facebook gallery can do it more justice than words can. I took pictures of lots of things, particularly malachite because I have an unhealthy fascination with it thanks to Monster Hunter. We were in the same building as the infamous Colbert painting because Air and Space was housing things from the National History museum while it was being renovated, but the line was absurd. We left that afternoon and had relatively smooth sailing on the way back to my world of protocols and washed hands and instant messengers.

It's the return of the world's worst blogger. I'm currently trying to pull out the most important bits of my scrambled LJ post windows in order to make a semi-coherent post. First of all, I wanted to say this sooner, but I'm going on a vacation! After a half day of work tomorrow, I will be driving down to Washington DC with Will to see Matt and attend the National Cherry Blossom Festival. I should be back in New Jersey mid-late Sunday.

In My Heroes Ability, I still have not found a bum named Kevin to slay. However, I've slayed bums and a Kevin which is almost as good.

You successfully use Supersonic Attack on Kevin the thief, inflicting 183 damage! Kevin the thief is now stunned (8m).

You knock Kevin the thief out!


You gain 13 exp! (7101 until next level)
You pick up 11 CR from them.

So let's say there's this girl [There isn't]. You think the two of you are compatible, and you communicate relatively often. However, she has a history of friends crushing on her that she's had to let down, and in fact has done so in the past few months. She's implied that she has valued you being different from them, but you realize you're not entirely. There's still that chance you might be different though, and every once in a while you think you see signs of it. The problem if that you feel as though if you told her, it would be like a betrayal of sorts, plus you might just become another face in the crowd at that point. However, this entire scenario is hypothetical and to be ignored.

Yay, all that's left is the Monkey Pirate whose backstory just needs fleshing out!

This past weekend was the best weekend I've had since graduation. Friday night I went to Hibachi, and naturally it was a great time. The only thing is that the it's hard to talk to people because the table is so linear. Saturday night was Will's Yule party. I think this means I've failed as a normal American, but I have to say that the novelty of alcoholism is completely lost on me. Also, I'm beginning to realize that some of those people are strange to the point they starting bugging me. If you can read this, you are not one of them. Sunday I finished the absolute last of my Christmas shopping. Got some Christmas balloons and Ratatouille on DVD for my mother. That was also the first present of the season I wrapped myself. Christmas Eve was the party at Matt's. Had my first drink of the season there. Spent the big day at my Uncle Kenny's where I watched Luke play his new X-Box 360. In case you're wondering what a kid can play for the 360, the answer is driving games and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, both of which he will go in circles accomplishing nothing over... and over... and over.

Of course, what would any Christmas post be without everyone's favorite tribute to materialism, the gift list. So now, in no particular order, I received...
* Two drawings from Luke
* UR MR GAY
* I am America (And So Can You!)
* An iPhone that I'm already hopelessly addicted to
* Two Samurai books
* A miniature Zen garden
* Curse of the Golden Flower
* Dance Dance Revolution Supernova 2
* Lots of stuff from The Office for my cubicle at work.
* A Late Show with David Letterman t-shirt
* A Wolverine t-shirt
* The animated Iron Man DVD
* A cup with breasts
* Candy

Random note: saw both of the girls who made me super depressed at one point or another in my life and didn't feel a thing. Avoidance FTW. Go me.

Happpy Thanksgiving Internet! Fortunately, this is one of those holidays I don't replace with another word, like my distressing tendency to say "dress up in a costume for Christmas" or that Wheel of Fortune always get turned into Jeopardy but not vice vera. Jeopardy must simply be a fun word to say.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, I have a question. Does anybody understand new fancy televisions? My uncle is interested in buying this bad boy but we're not sure if it's a good deal or whether to go with LCD over Plasma or HD or what. Is this a good choice in tvs? Suggestions?

This was our first time on Norwegian Cruise Line aboard the Norwegian Spirit. You know those commercials with people in blue bathing suits doing everything in unison to a drumline followed by a darling African American couple in earthtones? I was that African American couple! In other words, this was our first experience with "freestyle cruising" and honestly there's virtually no difference. The big upside is that you don't have to wear a suit to dinner (which makes packing and travelling much easier) and that you can eat dinner in the nice rooms whenever you feel like it after 5:30 or so, as opposed to a scheduled time each night. The downside is that after the first two hours of "Oh this is so relaxing" you're pretty much refreshed and thinking "Now what?".

Also, since my boat actually got to its destination and not Canada this time, clearly the powers that be needed some sort of bizarre way to make me remember this trip forever. This time it was... Chinese people! Our unofficial nickname was the 'Orient Express' because the ship was 35-40% Chinese. Not Chinese-American either; Chinese-Chinese!

I hope that after my last two and a half experiences in vacationing that the next isn't another exercise in isolation. Twenty-two is an awkward age for cruising. No little friends for me; the teens all fall together and have a ton of unresolved sexual tension, and the next big groups are newlyweds in their mid-twenties and Cougars-in-training in their early thirties.

The boat made three stops: Cocoa Beach in Florida, Nassau in the Bahamas, and Norwegian's private island just off the Bahamas. Cocoa beach was nice, in fact, it was kind of like tropical lite. The waves are rougher than the islands' but gentler than New Jersey's, but the only sand smoother that I've been on was Bermuda's. I didn't like Nassau that much. In short the first couple miles from the port are just one big hot ghetto. However, after travelling by both water taxi and car you find Atlantis, deemed one of the most beautiful casinos on Earth. Frankly, the casino looked like a casino to me but the surrounding area was beautiful. In particular, I liked the aquarium on the first floor. The private island was pretty nice. Beautiful palm trees, chairs and everything set up when you get there, and just about anything you would imagine to find at a "tropical luau" in a movie.

One of my favorite running gags was this really mediocre steel drum band. They only knew three songs: Jump and Wave, Hot Hot Hot, and Dollar Wine. Then there would be an awkward silence, they'd go on break, and come back and play... the same three songs.

Our entertainment was all over the board. Comedian/singer James Stephens III was amazing. We saw him three times: onstage the first night and the last night, and an impromptu show in one of the bars Thursday evening. Magician Eric Walton? Not so much, although his dry presentation had a very dry Tom Lehrer-like quality to it. The boat's song and dance group was good. Their first show was a Broadway medley with a slow start but ended on a good choice (You Can't Stop the Beat). The second show was the Best of the seventies, eighties, and nineties. Apparently the only thing that happened during the nineties was Gloria Estefan.

Didn't grab a lot in souveniers. If anything, I took pictures for some specific people. The only thing I bought was for myself and it was a pirate necklace of a skull with a bandana on its head and its teeth. Kinda sorta like this. ;)

So all in all, I can say I've been further south than Florida and it was a nice place to see in my life and cross off future honeymoons. I definitely need to lose weight after this. They say the average person gains a pound a day onboard, but I don't think I gained six pounds. We didn't really hit up the buffets onboard because for a cruise ship the lido deck wasn't very good after the first day. My first day back at home has been kind of stressful. I'm not sure how long I can live with my dad always trying to be the boss. Also, Drexel still hasn't responded to me, positively or negatively even though according to the schedule classes have @#$%ing started, at least for undergrads.

How's my trip going you ask? I think this sums it up nicely. Feel free to find your own links if you can. Bottom line is that I'm not in Bermuda. Actually I'm outside of St. John's in Canada in Bermuda wear. Needless to say, everything isn't honky-dory.