Tron Legacy-New trailer

I was around when the first Tron movie came out and was awed by what I had seen. Afterwhich, alot of time and quarters were spent on the arcade game. Though I was never a die hard fan of the movie, I greeted the rumours of the new Tron movie, Tron Legacy, with a bit of anticipation. After having seen the newest trailer, I am eve more eager to see the final output. Its probably just the marketing of the trailer with its visuals and tension inducing music thats drawing me in. Maybe its the harkening back to my childhood days. Whatever the case may be, I do like the feel of the movie from what Ive seen and hope that it lives up to my expectations. Olivia Wilde from "House, MD" is looking pretty good too+

New trailer at Yahoo:

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/tron-legacy.html?showVideo=1#movTitle

Official website:

http://disney.com/tron

For Lunch-Lee's Deli

It was a typically cold day in the city yesterday. I was on the short block of New Montgomery and opted for Lee's Deli for lunch. This is my first venture into this local chain of sandwich stores with a hot food/salad bar that charges by the pound

The salad bar is the usual greens and fruit with some prepared salads as well. The hot food bar consists mainly of chinese fare with rice and noodle sides with various entrees

This sampling of items was my choice. From top left: California roll, cocktail shrimp, ha gow, fried shrimp, crab salad, chicken salad, fried rice, and orange chicken. There were a number of sushi items and the one I chose was so so and could have used more seasoning in the rice. The cocktail shrimp was bland and the texture almost gelatinous. The ha gow had been out for a while and the outer wrapping started to form a rigid helmet around the filling. The fried shrimp was crispy and the breading was not too think. The salads had too much mayo in them and the taste was rather mundane. The fried rice was pretty standard in all respects and the orange chicken is the same as you would expect from many fast food chinese places

Due to the weather, I had a hankering for a warming bit of soup. Three choices were available. I forgot the first one. The second was chicken noodle. And, I had the hot and sour. I hope the others were better because this was the worst hot and sour Ive ever had. It was somewhat hot, taste wise, but it was definitely not sour. The whole soup was tather bland. I would not have thought it was hot and sour if it were in a blind taste test. There were a good amount of vegetables and tofu swimming around it but that was the only thing it had going for it.

I may be a bit harsh on this place so I will try another location and different items to see if it either confirms or demies my initial reactions

Gundam Flies ANA

This information will be old by the time I post this, but I am timing this for a specific reason.

Last year, I visited Tokyo as a life-sized replica of an early Gundam robot was being erected in Odaiba. Several years ago, I went to the Bandai Museum when it was in Machida City and saw the upper torso of the full scale replica. A few months ago, a Gundam cafe was opened in Tokyo at the JR Akihabara Station. Sadly, this was after my annual visit this year.

Gundam is an anime icon whose story has spanned the decades and whose appearance changes with the seasons. I have always admired how the designers can keep the look of the giant mechas fresh, inspiring, and bascially awesome. Except for one series in the Gundam history where the look was utterly forgettable.

All Nippon Airlines, ANA, previously had a Pokemon themed airplane that I had the chance to fly on while taking a domestic hop from Haneda in Tokyo to Chitose on Hokkaido. It had Pokemon characters decorating the exterior while special trinkets were offered for sale during the flight. Once again, ANA is partnering up with another japanese icon, Gundam. Beginning July 16th, selected domestic flights will sport a Gundam head on one side and a Gundam laying on his back on the other side. He oviously flies first class to get all that legroom. The flights are expected to last until the end of March 2011.

The earlier flights will be offering for sale the special colored Gundam model shown below. After about a month, ANA will sell a different model for the duration of the promotion. As I will in Japan during the early part of next year, I hope to be able to catch one of these flights so I can peruse the gift catalog and see what else they have to offer.

Movie Review-The A-Team

I followed the antics of the A-team four when orginally broadcast on TV. I was curious to see how this movie adaptation holds up. It doesnt. The only saving grace is that it provides a bit of background information that the series may not have covered.

Overall, I thought the movie was contrived and the back story rushed. The stunts arent anything new or spectacular. And, a few scenes are downright ridiculous. The movie begins by showing how the quartet get together for the first time. This seems really implausible due to the situation and how they all bond so quickly just due to the fact that they were all Rangers. BA was Airborne Rangers. The story then delves into the events that lead to their court martial for a crime that they didnt commit. I dont recall if the series ever explaned that part.

Flying a tank, how idiotic does that sound? The team have abandoned a cargo plane that has just been blown apart at high altitude. An M1 Abrams tank floats down carrying our daring foursome. After engaging in a midair battle, the unharmed tank is still falling to earth with only 1 of 3 functional parachutes remaining. They use the main gun to "fly" the metal behemoth towared a lake where it lands face first. Later, the tank drives out of the lake totally unharmed and in perfect running condition.

There are references to the original television version. I spotted a few but there may be alot more that I didnt catch. BA's black van with red accent makes a short cameo appearance. Hannibal goes around shooting a Ruger Mini 14. BA's fear of flying is a recurring theme but the justification behind it is without merit. BA is Airborne Ranger so he is used to flying but one trip with Murdock on a helicopter leaves him so mentally scarred that hes has to be drugged in order to get him on any succedding flights.

I can't reccommend this movie at all, not even a rentail. The original had camp value going for itself but this version takes itself a little too seriously to make it fun

One Year Anniversary

It was one year ago today that I started my blog. My only goal was to average 1 post per weekday. 365 days per year minus 52 weeks per year times 2 weekend days per week equals approx 261 weekdays. According to my blog stats, I have penned a little over 290 posts. At this point Im going to slow down a bit and reduce my goal to 1 post a week. Thats quite a drop off but I may be able to post more quality stuff, fingers crossed. I have felt that I had to rush some of my posts due to trying keep to my goal and other times I just didnt have anything I thought was worth posting.

We'll see how it goes from here

I Am My Own Worst Travel Companion

When I travel alone, and I have been doing that quite often, I find that I have a very closed minded view of things that I want to see or do. Unfortunately, its been difficult to find friends to travel with. Its usually one of several reasons thats the culprit. Finances are always a big issue. One may not always have the funds to do what they like. Time allocation is an obstruction in light of things like family and kids. Many of my friends are married with children an tend to travel mainly during times when their kids are off from school. This intersection of events occurs during the summer, the heaviest travel time of the year. Lastly, the destination is not favorable to everyone. There are a number of places that I would like to visit that are high on my list and then there are places that wouldnt affect me even if I passed on without ever visiting them. We all have our own preferences.

Travelling with another person has alot of benefits to it. First off, it can help to defray some of the costs as those would split amongst the group. Getting a room for two and splitting the cost is almost always cheaper than getting a single room for oneself. Some days I may not feel like going out for one reason or another. Having someone there to motivate you to get off your lazy but can help to maximize the precious little time that you are given for vacations. Another pair of eyes can help to make you a rounder person by giving you a broader perspective. There has been many a time where I have read up on a certain location and not worth enough attention to actually visit. On the other hand, someone else will find something of value. I will frequently follow that dissimilar opinion and join them on their trek. A few times it has turned out much better than what I would expected and was grateful for having taken in someone elses views. Not just a travelling companion but a dining companion boosts the experience. Knowing that I will be dining alone, I tend to find the cheapest, but not the most satisfactory, of meals either at fast food joints or convenience stores. I believe that good food should be a shared experience. Bad food should be isolated to the one. When with another person, I am inclined to be a little more adventurous with meal offerings rather than being safe and sticking to things that I know. While dining, especially at dinner, this gives us a chance to recollect the day over a more leisurely amount of time. Alone, it's in, eat, then out again. My next domestic trip may find me wandering a new city by myself once again. But, the next international excursion will be me amongst a group of friends.

Upcoming 4th Of July Weekend

This weekend commemorates the hard fought independence of this country from British rule. Standard procedure for celebrations usually mean barbecues and fireworks. I will be gathering with friends for a sharing of food and company this weekend as well. These are not the only events that take place around this time. Anime Expo is a regular event in the southern California area. I have a passing interest in anime. I have enjoyed watching my fair share of it. I have awed at their designs. All part of the drive that made Japan the first place that I wanted to visit when I first caught the travel bug.

A while back, I had friends who worked the convention and provided me with a pass. The year I attended the expo was held in Long Beach. Having hung out with these friends and other friends of theirs who were also part of the expo, I thought I was fairly jaded and knew what to expect. Boy, was Iwrong. The scope of the event was much bigger than I had anticipated. The amount of attendees were vast. The dealers, showcases, and events were mind boggling. All in all, I was glad to have experienced some of that mayhem over those couple of days. This weekend rolls on and it gets bigger every year as the popularity of Japanese culture spreads

After this weekend, a special anniversary is around the corner.