Pink Berries and Apple iMacs

I had my first Pink Berry experience today. What can I say, it was pretty damn good. The yogurt is tasty, the toppings are fresh, and the atmosphere is modern. As I told my friends, it felt so 'Apple iMac.' The walls were pristine white, the area was clean (they manage to make pebble rocked floors seem classy), it just felt... now. Back it up with a great product in a fun packaging, throw in some buzz, and people will line up in droves.

Some Recommendations...

Here are a few places on the interwebs that I recommend you visit.

Shoot Club - One of my favorite writers on the web, Tom Chick. This is an always entertaining, often hilarious, and quite touching look at friendship-- with gaming as the backdrop.

Zero Punctuation - I look forward to every Wednesday for another lashing of a game by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw. Fast talking, brash, and brutally honest; trashing video games has never been so fun.

Menu Screening - A plug for my brother and his friends' website, featuring foods in the L.A. area. They have reviews, but more importantly, pictures of each item they sample.

Slickdeals - Here is where you can find daily deals discovered by deal finders everywhere. Check out their forums for other deals, but watch out; you just might burn a hole in your wallet.

Hoopshype - Has a roundup of the daily rumors for my favorite sport, basketball. Boy do I love the gossip.

The Brotherhood

After a fun night out in Laguna Beach with the guys (My brother Chris and my cousins Nate, Paolo, and Peter), in which we ate at the Japanese restaurant Mosun and hit up the club upstairs, Club M, we decided to hit up Del Taco.

We're sitting in the drive-thru placing our order, most of the guys still a little buzzed from the evening, when some guy two cars behind us thought it would be a good idea to open his mouth.

"Hurry up you queers! Bunch of (female genitalia)!"

See, not a good idea for several reasons:
1. Sake bombs.
2. We were hungry and tired.
3. 5 of us, 2 of them
4. My ass just got thefted and I was waiting for someone to take it out on.
5. Most importantly, we had the PIEDOT (aka Peter) (aka Mixed Martial Arts trainee)

Soon enough, I started yelling at these guys in some colorful language, while Peter was, as the guys called it, "turning green". I calmed down a little, especially after the worker from Del Taco came out to try to diffuse the situation (good luck), but Peter kept calling those dudes out.

"Are you gonna apologize," he screamed.

Silence.

"Now you're gonna be quiet, huh?"

After a couple long stares in their direction, and a bunch of more choice words thrown their way, the guys in the car directly behind us (who weren't involved) were pretty shaken and the two dudes who picked the fight were in their car, dead quiet.

Of course our car started laughing hysterically, urging Peter to yell at the Del Taco worker to get us free food.

Long story short, I have never seen Peter so passionate about anything before.

Afterward, we went to Peter's place, laughed it off and while eating our tacos Peter kept saying: "Nobody steps to my boys." For all the crap we give each other, its good to know that we have each others' back. Peter gained a lot of respect from me that night.

I think Paolo said it best when he told Peter, "I'm glad that I'm on your side."

We all are.

My Ongoing Christmas Wishlist

In no particular order and constantly updating:

San Francisco State University Sweater
I've wanted one of these since I started attending this University over 2 years ago. Now that I'm done, I should really get one.

Unreal Tournament III
Ok, despite stories of horrendous sales figures on a game that relies on its online community, I still want this game. I want to support it for a variety of reasons: 1) Unadulterated FPS goodness. There are so many class based shooters now, sometimes it is just nice to go back to old school gameplay.

Xbox 360 Bundle
Mine got straight jacked. I loved it.

ASUS Eee PC
Lightweight, small form factor (the size of a hard cover book), and flash based memory make this the most mobile computer on the market. Coming in at about $400 bucks, it is the perfect companion in world where being connected 24/7 is almost a reality.


updated: 12/23/07 11pm

Blog 2.0

It's time to take my webentity (has anyone coined this term yet? If not, I'll take all the credit) to a whole new level. I'm done with college (for now), and I need something else that wastes my time. There is going to be some major blogging going on, so please get ready readers (both of you).

To the right are two new blogs that I am starting. Ray the Gamer is my video gaming industry blog, while Ray the Director is my film and television blog.

Edit: Incidentally, today is unofficially the 10 year anniversary of the blog. This is according to one of my favorite websites, Arstechnica.

Check it out:
Blogging celebrates is tenth birthday

If you think this is hilarious...

I Chat Therefore I Am

...then we should be friends.

Is this really necessary?

As I slog through a ridiculous study guide for a class that fulfills a stupidly unneccesary history requirement at my current university, I can't help but think about how pointless our school system can be. I mean seriously, how many times do I have to take a damn history class? Sure, maybe it was cool in elementary school, when we didn't know better; fine, we have to take all this general education in high school so that we can figure out what we want to be when we "grow up"; but damn it, I am in freaking college now and I already know what career path I want to follow. It's not that I'm not down with knowing history and all about the things that brought us to where we are today, but REQUIRING me to take this shit is so damn dumb. I ALREADY KNOW WHAT I WANT TO DO. DONT MAKE ME PAY FOR CLASSES I DONT WANT TO TAKE. *&^!

Not to attack the credibility of my school, because I actually like it here, but sometimes you guys just don't get it. Read the evaluations on some of your teachers, because some of the dimwits you put in these classes couldn't teach a dog how to bark.

Man, I will do anything to get out of studying ;)

Peace. Love. History.

28 Days Later...

Let me begin this blog by saying: It's great to be back home and in the groove of things! There has definitely been an adjusting period that comes from taking a nearly 5-month long journey. I decided when I arrived that I would not immediately judge the impact of my trip until there was sufficient amount of time to truly define what, if anything has changed in my life.

Coming back from the trip was like waking up from a coma like Jim did in 28 Days Later. Nothing in my world has been the same ever since. Though things changed greatly for Jim in his external world, my change happened internally. I have a greater appreciation of my friends, family, and home. It challenged my waist, wallet, relationships, and my mind. None of which have yet to recover. =)

It reiterated what I believed before: the best places in the world are where the best people are. I am so thankful to have traveled with Chris and Mike, who are both my brothers. When people ask me where my favorite places were on the trip, they always end up being where we met new friends or spent time with our family.

So I just want to say thanks for all the people and friends who were very generous enough to take us into their homes and just deal with us in general. We are forever in your debt and we will always cherish your kidness.

-RAY