k, I'm up now so I can post about this. Forest and I drove up Pacific Highway 1 almost all the way to Santa Barbara (sunset chasing) but to no avail. So we ended up taking some photos of the beach and waves crashing up against the beach. Then we drove to Hollywood Blvd. and the Kodak theatre. Tried to walk up to Garuman's Chinese Theatre but tonight was the openning night for "The Longest Yard" so it was blocked of. There was also an after party but it was "exclusive". I got some shirts and that was that!

I drove Chad back to Jon's place after E3 and took Forest to chase a sunset. We drove all the way down Sunset Blvd. (from West Village) to Pacific Highway 1. Forest is an awesome photographer and we were chasing the sunset. Problem is that the sun doesn't set over the ocean near Malibu (gotta go south or north...so we went north). We drove for 30 minutes before it got dark so Peter popped out and pictured away. We then started driving back and stopped again when getting close to Sunset for more scenery pictures. Supra fun!

Played the XBox 360 games, which include a racing game, a very violent criminal game, and a tennis game. The graphics for each game were really really really REALLY GOOD! However, they could be a lot better. Each game was played in HD and appeared very crisp. There wasn't any rendering slow down and the sheer power of the model physics was incredible. There is still work to be done though. There was a realism edge that didn't exist. Textures seemed to be missing in some cases (things didn't appear as rough as they should have). That said, the games: The racing game involved driving behind other cars and shooting at them. Lots of tight corners, lots of things being destroyed. It also has a rewind mode that lets you rewind a bit from an accident (hmm...where have we seen that?). The violent game seemed to have quite a bit of equivalent game play. You smacked criminals around with a rod, crowbar, 2x4 with a nail through it, shotgun...yada yada. It was ultraviolent and people seemed to be having fun. Things were a bit too shiny but otherwise the graphics were pretty good. Decent, but not my taste as of yet (too short). The tennis game was standard run of the mill tennis. The graphics were significantly better but as I said before...can do better. So, 360, good graphics, good gameplay (for games by SEGA). More Natsume gaming, super sweet!!! There's a game where you're a fish!!! It's already out! Will talk about it when I get it. Played more DS games, lots o fun. Played Infected (for the PSP) which involves running around and shooting. Also, running around with a chainsaw can be fun. More Mario Striker (can't get enough). k, that's enough, it was a productive day with lots of games.

Sorry about the E3 post coming so soon to this one (network died before I could post). In anycase, it was a very very very boisterous crowd that was overwhelmingly positiving and having a bloody good time. There were three guys who came by with signs who said Star Wars was a tool of Satan. Lots of folks dressed up as their favorite character. Anyhow, go see it, definetly the best of the first three and by far the most entertaining. There are a few corny moments here and there but nothing excessive like episode 1. Well played George Lucas, well played.

Just got back from E3 (traffic is fun). I went around with Jon (Lobsterbib) quite a bit and there's a few things that caught my eye. ([url=files/e3/2005/day_1/]some pictures I took today[/url]) First, Mario Striker (Soccer (Football)) is amazingly FUN!! I had a 7 minute match (including two minutes of sudden death) with some random guy. We had a lot of close calls and it was really fast paced and exciting. It played very smoothly, the players reacted quickly, will be very easy to pick up and play for the average person. Oh yeah, I scored, the other guy was so mad he wouldn't even shake my hand. Mario Baseball looks pretty decent and I will be grabbing a quality so that I have a quality baseball game in my library (have I told you how much I hate baseball?). Battalion Wars (Advanced Wars) has been texturized, more levels, same fun gameplay as last year. Hopefully will be out soon. Didn't get a chance to play Killer 7 but I will tomorrow. Prince of Persia 3 (PS2) is brutal, violent, and fun!!! The folks at Ubisoft have managed to make PoP3 really dark and I'm finally excited to play a PoP game. Don't remember the name of the game (Oktai?) but it blew me away, more details tomorrow. What else...Rockstar has an awesome booth, will take pictures of it and will show yah tomorrow (pictures today were from my Zire 72). It's a whole bunch of buses and nobody except press is allowed in. No sign of the 360, PS3, or Revolution except behind closed doors (I'm assuming). Ghost in the Shell for PSP played like the PS2 version and looks to be about the same. Lots of exciting games...Namco has really milked Pacman and is releasing a plethora of Pacman based mobile games. Fun. 'Kill All Humans' on the XBox comes out in June and makes me think about buying an XBox, definetly a funny games...Mars Attacks! Visited Natsume (of course) and played the different versions of Harvest Moon ;) more details if I can remember it. Ok, gotta get to Star Wars, laters!

Went to a Japanese mobile developers pre-E3 conference today. Very impressed with the games that they're making and the new technology. Sprint is supposed to be releasing some new news about their new online phone stuff soon, not sure what but there were a few spilt setences. One of the most exciting is OpenGL on mobile phones being natively supported by graphics hardware. The 3D games I saw looked like it had N64 graphics quality! k, time for sleep as today is when E3 actually starts.

Jon Yu just read me "The Giving Tree"...he made it dirty.

Episode III is awesome!

I got 5 poser points!

We've played quite a bit of poker during the downtimes here. It's been interesting as initially there was a bit of trepidation on my part but since then it's turned into a blowout. Chad is learning how to play for the first time and he's getting better at knowing the odds and reading his opponent. Fun times.

Hi folks, Watch it tonight at 11:05 PM EST/PST...it's supposed to be absolutely amazing!! We'll see "Tron", "Chu Chi", "Golf attack", "Night attack", "Bosses Bake Sale", "Deja Vu" and much more. The screenshots look awesome!!!

Picked Chad up from the airport this morning...no worries! Went to John's place (we're here right now) and it's pretty fun. Had burritos twice today as well as ice cream! I've noticed a lot of homeless folks around here. A really really inordinate amount. Last year I only saw a few here and there but nowadays there are lots of homeless folks near UCLA campus.

[url=http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=qw111596760144B215]New Fuel cell![/url]. This is an awesome invention because it finally allows for truly inclosed artificial hearts (although it will be necessary to have one that runs from a backup power source as well). There are many aspects to artificial limbs that the layperson fails to recognize. A major one is durability. We use our cars a few times a day and need to service them every few months. An artificial heart on the other hand has to go without servicing for decades; it must be flawless. Machines must be treated with care simply because they can't heal themselves. You can't drive a car roughly and then expect it to heal itself. The same line of thinking goes for artificial hearts.

Just when I thought I could head to bed...SNL comes on with Will Ferrel...with Jeopardy!!

Well, let's see what's happenned in the last little bit. I woke up at around 0630 PST (0930 EST) but realized what time it was and went back to sleep, woke up at 0730, then 0830, then 0930. Got ready and headed downstairs (still at the Four Points Sheraton). Hoped on the shuttle to LAX but since I was the only one on the driver took me right to Enterprise. At Enterprise a fellah named Lance gave me a nice Toyota Corolla 2004 LE. The brake is really sensitive and it's nothing like the one at home...next time a power car. Drove it around, there's a street called Sepulveda Blvd. that goes right up to UCLA so I tried to get to a Target to get a cellphone. Went there, found a cheap one...I think it was a Verizon phone (no SIM card...I like SIM cards). Anyhow, the guy couldn't signup me up because my postal code wouldn't fit into the zip code field (HA). So he told me to go down the street...here's something you need to know...it's really really crowded here. I come from a place where I live at one end of town and work is at the other end and it takes me 10 minutes at most on a bad day to get to or from work. I drove for 10 minutes here and didn't see anything except Taco Stands (awesome). Anyhow, I ended up in Westwood...I realized that when I saw the [url=http://jamdat.com]Jamdat[/url] office building. It was a welcome sign...but still, no target...hmmm. So I turned around and headed back towards the hotel. Then on the left...an Office Depot (that's where the Target was supposed to be). Anyhow, from there they sent me down the street to Jefferson Blvd. where I saw a Verizon but they were out of phones so they sent me back to the other where they were out of prepaid phones. So they sent me back towards Office Depot but said there was a Macy's. Turns out there's a huge mall right behind my hotel that's got a lot of fun stuff. So I went to Gamestop and got Harvest Moon 64 (shibby). Bought a cool little flying toy that will be interesting to fly at home. Drove down Venice and on the packed highway (horribly packed). I think that taking the street is much faster. Anyhow, got into the mall, the Verizon folks downstairs wanted to sell me a contract phone, but I convinced them that I didn't need one so they sent me upstairs to the corporate office. So...got a nice phone...works well, called home. Headed back to check into this other hotel (went for a detour, ended up driving past [url=http://adamriff.com]Jon's Place[/url]...remembered exactly where it was and all. The parkways are horrible but the GPS helped me out. Got in, checked in, went back to mall to get cookies. Got cookies, watched lady sing happy birthday a million times to little kids who were getting their pictures taken. Talked to a mexican guy who sold me a flying toy (w00t). Felt sorry for the guy selling perfume outside the Victoria's Secrets store. Saw like 10 different Indian families with women wearing shawls and stuff (silly ladies). Saw lots of mallrats, saw lots of gangs...saw lots of overpriced stuff. Bought some yummy cookies. Tomorrow is get Chad day and head to Hollywood (HOLLYWOOD!!!).