The Hungry Hungry Writer

What’s new in the world of XBox?

Well, not in XBox, but in the world of Glenn playing XBox…

The new games I’ve been playing are MVP 06 NCAA Baseball & Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06… These are the two ‘newer’ games in “our” (Jake’s and mine) collection. The reviews are here: NCAA Baseball & Tiger Woods.

But… the game I’ve been playing like it was new is: FIFA 06! (old review) It could be because of the World Cup, but I have been really into this game the past few days.

I don’t play soccer… I don’t play golf… but these two games REALLY make me want to go out and run around on a soccer field or swing a club. Seriously.

But I’ll stick to video gaming.

We brought all our games up to Sacramento for my race this past weekend. Jake was able to pass some of his time by playing his games and I was able to pass some of my time playing both Tiger Woods Gold and right after the World Cup Championships, play FIFA 06 with the Italian team against, of course, the French.

Oh… here are some pictures of the kids at the beach. “Emo” (auntie in Korean) Lana took them to Laguna Beach a week ago. They had a great time.

Bella and the sand.

Jake and big sister Jess.

The crystal dark waters of the California coast. (I want to go to Hawaii for crystal clear waters!)

Lunch break!

*** MORE PICTURES FROM LAGUNA ***

I’m trying to write… just anything. Work on my prose, short scenes, etc… its just not coming out. I can’t read my books, I can’t sit through a movie, I can’t even get through the day!!!

These past few days have been torturously long. I had a doctor’s appt yesterday and left at 10:00 AM and even getting to 10 AM was long.

I finally went to the gym yesterday. My swim was awful. HORRIBLE! I did some weights and it wasn’t great at all. I am DYING to go for a run but my ankle still hurts - bad!

Oh, if you want to buy a picture of me for your office desk or living room wall (as this offer has been up before) you can do so here (from my Triathlon on June 10):
“Me running, me biking“.

It may be a worthwhile investment!

Here’s my post about my Triathlon disqualification on Sunday June 25th.

“I got DQ’d from the San Bernardino Tin Man Triathlon”

At least today I get to leave early again for allergy shots. Allergy shots are such a hassle. But I do believe they are working.

I haven’t played Xbox in a long time. Well, I did play FIFA 06 the other day to pay tribute to FIFA World Cup that’s going on. I did buy a new game but haven’t even tried it…

Maybe tonight.

Although I’m not movitated to even play Xbox games.

I need a drink.

June 10 through June 18

I guess my official vacation started on June 10th – my Triathlon day. It wasn’t a great start to a vacation due to my dismal performance, but that night we had a birthday party for me at The Stinking Rose in Beverly Hills and I got a Garmin Forerunner 305 with heart rate monitor.

“The included heart rate monitor delivers real-time heart rate data exclusively to the Forerunner 305. This data is stored with each track point for post-workout analysis.”

So at least THAT was a good start to my vacation. And let me tell ya…

MY VACATION WAS AWESOME!

La Costa Resort & Spa is the perfect place for a family vacation. Jessica, Jake, Bella, Donna and I all had a great time.

We arrived on Sunday and wasted no time in getting to the pool area. It was crowded!

On Monday we shopped at the outlet mall and swam and drove to San Diego to meet Uncle James and Auntie Jenny for Thai food at their house. YUM!

We really didn’t need to do any theme parks, Padre games or driving because the kids just wanted to stay at the Resort and swim everyday – all day! We literally had to drag them out to Lego Land on Tuesday and the Padre/Dodger game on Wednesday night. On the way to Lego Land, in line for rides, during lunch, and walking around the park, all they wanted to do was go back to the resort to swim. We finally left Lego Land around 4:00 and did what they wanted… SWIM. Which was fine for me!

Room Service on Tuesday night was fast and efficient as well. They set up the patio table with a white table cloth and arranged the food which was all set out ready for ‘them’ when they all got back from the pool on Tuesday. I had to wait in the room for housekeeping to change the sheets because Bella had an accident during her nap and peed in bed. I took this opportunity of alone time in the room to write about my dismal performance at the LA Express Triathlon. It has yet to be finished.

Wednesday we… swam. Auntie Lori came down on Tuesday morning and went to Lego Land with us, then spent the night. Donna and her went shopping on Wednesday morning as the kids and I stayed at the pool for four hours. Donna then got a relaxing 80 minute spa treatment which lasted about two plus hours. Lucky her. But it was my gift to her. She said it was awesome. Then that night we met Uncle James and Auntie Jenny and watched the Dodgers lose to San Diego. Petco park is beautiful. But their hotdogs were horrible! Nothing… NOTHING beats a Dodger Dog. NOTHING!

We were also planning on a trip to Disneyland on the way back on Thursday morning but ‘they’ decided they’d rather swim some more. Yes – we asked and they (the kids) decided they would skip Disney and swim for a few hours before checkout. This was to the delight of me! I’d rather swim too! We scheduled a late checkout (1:00) and from 9:00 to 11:30 AM we swam, swam, swam - and it saved us a ton of cash. Disney would have run up a tab with tickets for four, parking, food and souvenirs!

I managed some really awesome workouts at the La Costa Resort Athletic Club and got in some good swims at the pool with Jessica. Her swim technique is still spot on. She just may have to do the Family Triathlon relay in Sacramento in July!

The family pool was perfect! The Splash Bar was efficient in serving meals and taking drink orders and the ‘beach’ area of the pool was Bella’s favorite area. She built sand castles, dug up the sand with shovels which she loves, and got to fill her buckets up with water. The kids could wade deep into the pool and play and if they wanted to venture out to the ‘deep end’ with their tubes it was only 4 feet deep! Jessica was great playing with them and other kids in the pool.

We got back to LA on Thursday around 4:00 PM and boy was it HOT! I want to live in the San Diego/Carlsbad area. The weather was perfect. Especially this time of year. Plus, its so relaxed down there. It’s not all fast paced like in LA. Donna is serious about getting a job down there and asked me if I would consider looking for a job there in about six months.

HECK YA!

But I probably will end up with some crappy job with an idiot boss with bad pay. At least now I have a crappy job with an awesome boss and good pay. So who knows what will happen.

Friday morning Jessica, Donna and I went to the gym for a 90 min workout. My goal is to get Jessica into shape for her basketball season. Later I fought Friday traffic to get Jessica to a birthday party way out in the Valley. That night ‘Emo Chi-Chi’ (Auntie Vivian) and the rest of us went to one of our favorite restaurants in Korea Town called BCD Tofu House. And no, its not just Tofu. It’s the best Korean BBQ you’ll ever have. Tasty, tender, juicy, YUM! Donna also got me an early Father’s Day present… the Saucony Grid Omni 5 TR trail running shoes.

My last two Triathlon races were trail runs. I was slipping, sliding, had no traction and I’ve had right ankle pains ever since the UCLA Tri. My upcoming Tri on June 25 is also a trail run. Ugh. So these shoes will help.

Saturday we bought Jessica running shoes, I dropped her off at another party and I ran several errands. And at 6:30 Saturday evening, I met Steve at the Rose Bowl and we did a 5K trail run at the Rose Bowl. It was awesome. My new shoes were great! Steve said he was slipping around, especially on some of the uphill climbs. I was running with great traction! I was also able to use my Garmin and tracked my run which you could see on satellite pictures here: Glenn’s Trail Run (Zoom into the red path to see my actual run – use the Hybrid view).

Check out Steve’s “Run Steve Run” running blog here: http://runsteverun.blogspot.com/

On Father’s Day Jake woke up with a headache and sore throat. So we stayed home. We were going to go to The Yardhouse for lunch but he was in bed for most of the morning and afternoon. I took Bella to Target and EBGames to get a couple of games for Jake…

I worked out in the afternoon and got a car wash. Donna made an awesome Halibut steak dinner and we ended the weekend and my vacation off with a Malibu Rum Pineapple Juice cocktail for her and a double Vodka on the rocks for me.

I have to say, this was one of the best vacations I’ve ever had!

The bad things… I ate too much food and I drank too much alcohol! I spent a little too much money too but it was all worth it. I’m looking forward to La Costa again next year!

Six Days till my next Triathlon!

Crash Nitro Cart
I got this on Friday night for Jake. He had an audition for Chevrolet that day so as the deal goes, I’ll get him a game for every audition. He’s getting too many auditions because I still owe him a game! But this one was a hit. He loves it. It’s similar to Mario Cart Racing which we use to play on the N64. I’ve been looking for something similar and finally found it! So I’m glad I got it… used of course.

Halo 2
Finally! I’ve been wanting this game forever! Jake got a game so I decided to get one! Used of course. I started playing it on Friday night and really, really like it. I’m not even knee deep into it but it looks like its going to be awesome. It makes me want to subscribe to Xbox live!

Madden NFL 2005
Again… FINALLY! I’ve been wanting a Madden NFL game since I owned an N64 but never got one… That’s a long time ago mind you! Last weekend in Sacramento, my cool little nephew gave me his old Madden NFL 2005 game since he has the newer Madden NFL 2006. I’ve played maybe three full games so far using the Colts and the Chargers and just like I remember it from the good old Sega Genesis days… its awesome!

Another Game…

I bought Jacob another game the other day for his audition a couple of weeks ago. He’s played it once since he was grounded from video games for three days. I’m not sure how he likes it yet but we’ll figure out how to play it tonight. I hope its better than the ratings GameSpot gave it a Rating of 6.1.

I’m also looking into an Xbox Golf game for the Jake as well. Possibly…

with a GameSpot Rating of 8.1.

or… this…

Since the reviews are better. Rating: 8.8.

Also, Jacob really likes Tiger Woods AND he has another audition today. If only he’d get hired. That would be good wouldn’t it?

How sad. The number system will never be the same without it.

Jake had an audition for Kellogs last night. They asked him if he knew any jokes… his joke is the go to joke - “Why is Six afraid of Seven? … Because Seven ate Nine.” Funny… But I told him to use this - “Did you know 4 out of 3 people don’t understand fractions?” Then end it with a couple of… “Get it? Get it?” But he doesn’t get it. And it might fly over some of the casting directors heads until they drive home and think, hey, that was a funny joke.

I’m taking a break from work since my boss is doing something with his Fantasy Baseball team right now. I was going to get an apple but I don’t want him to know I know that he’s on the phone with someone discusing the ‘draft’.

So what video game did I get for Jacob doing the audition? I mean, what did HE get for doing such a great job at the audition?

Well, okay, he got a game and I got one too. I mean I deserve one right? He does look like me. And its his look that is getting the auditions right? See, its all justified.

Since he doesn’t really like the Nascar 06 game very much because of the difficulty level, he has been wanting this motorcycle racing game. It was pretty difficult when I tried it but he actually figured out breaking before the turns and is controling the motorcycle quite well. Better than me at least.

It’s called: MOTO GP 3 - The Ultimate Racing Technology.

Gamespot gives it a ‘Great’ rating of 8.9.

I like it because you start the game and you can choose a race right away. You don’t go through some start up race like in Nascar 06. And the motorcycles look awesome. He stayed up a little playing - around 8:00 PM, and in the morning, after feeding Gordon, he got to play it again.

Oh… he had another 4:00 AM bloody nose again. Donna took care of it this time. So no school for the Jake-dawg today. He has school, he’s just missing it. And its not because of the 4AM bloody nose. It’s because he has to have his nose catarized at the doctor’s office due to all the 4AM bloody noses he’s been having. So his nose is a little sore after the catarization. He will have the right side done next week. Is that the right spelling? “Catarized”? I don’t care. Look it up and let me know.

And for me… I bought an older game, used, for nine bucks.

Fable

I’ve always wanted to try this game. They have another updated version out but they say the jump isn’t that big of deal. So the price was right and I got it.

Gamespot gives it a ‘Great’ rating of 8.6 as well.

Damn… I want to take a vacation and just hang out at the house, read, get a fire going, play Xbox and write.

I have a vacation scheduled in June - right after my Redondo Beach Triathlon which includes a half mile swim. Shit I’m freaking out! We might stay in San Diego or Sacramento or Santa Barbara… we are not sure yet. Somewhere quiet I hope.

Oh… and Jake has ANOTHER AUDITION today!!! Whoo hoo. That means we… er… HE gets another Xbox Game! I hope HE picks a good one.

Okay… back to my analysis.

Yes, I went snowboarding last night while on drugs. Now I’m tired.

Get this… I’m on five… FIVE prescription drugs at the moment and one OTC drug.

Due to my asthmatic bronchitis I’m on the following drugs:

Azithromycin
Tussionex
Prednisone
Albuterol
Advair
Advil (OTC)

The Tussionex side effects include drowsiness; excitement; dry mouth, dizziness, stomach upset and more. I’m feeling all.

The Azithromycin side effects include mild diarrhea, nausea, stomach pain. They’re right!

The Prednisone side effects include difficulty sleeping, MOOD CHANGES, nervousness, increased appetite, indigestion. I’m feeling a few of those.

I’m on Advil because of the headache my cough is giving me.

Albuterol and Advair… that’s just my asthma stuff but I’m supposed to take the Albuterol as needed for treatment of asthmatic bronchitis as well. The other four drugs are temporary.

WOW.

So lets see. Blame my irritation and mood swings on trying to find the phone last night to the Prednisone. I was totally on edge let me tell you. One minute I was calm good old dad trying to explain to the kids why you shouldn’t do this that and the other thing, the next thing you know I’m pissed off husband because I can’t find the phone. Thank goodness I wasn’t stuck on the freeway with an a-hole cutting me off. It could be bad.

Blame the horrible nights sleep I got to Tussinex which caused drowsiness. I like drugs that cause drowsiness but then the Prednisone made it difficult to sleep! What the hell?

Blame the dirty underwear to Azithromycin. Okay that’s sick. But I’m here to tell only the truth. And the truth is sometimes sick. But all must hear the truth or I wouldn’t be here.

I also have a dry mouth so I’m drinking tons of water which means many more trips to the bathroom, I’m dizzy, a little nauseous and I’m twitchy – nervousness. Every noise startles me. WHAT’S THAT? Who? What’s that? - It’s like paranoia!

So back to Snowboarding while on drugs. Which is appropriate since the Olympics are happening and Bodie Miller made some stupid comment about skiing and intoxicated or something. What an ass. Well, last night I found myself playing an XBox Snowboarding game for way too long. The time flew. And that’s what this game does. You start playing a quick game and the next thing you know you’ve been playing for two and a half hours straight.

Jake and I played it before dinner. When he went to bed I got on the console again. It was 7:00 PM. Donna was at work and I didn’t want to watch the Olympics, American Idol, I didn’t want to read, I didn’t want to write, I was feeling everything the drugs made me feel. It’s not a good feeling.

The distraction of the game made things better. Normally I catch myself and stop playing after such long stretches of time, but this new game we got is so addictive and makes time fly like you wouldn’t believe! It’s grrrrrreat!!! But it is bad in that way. It is everything you want from a game and more. This game is why people actually get addicted to gaming.

The price for the game was $8.95 with my EBGames discount card. A small price to pay for a very addictive game. It’s called SSX Tricky – a Snowboarding game. I reviewed the game on my Gaming-XBox Addiction page if you want to read about it.

Anyway, after I caught myself playing for two and half hours I got in bed to surf ‘The Net’ but just couldn’t hang for too long. I turned on Torino coverage of Bobsledding and Figure Skating and dozed off in between events and skaters.

I was so tired… I was drowsy damnit!

Even though I was so out of it, the damn drugs kept me from a sound sleep. My mouth was so dry I had to get some water. Getting water meant peeing several times during the night. I kept waking up to look at the clock, ‘how much more time do I have to sleep’ was on my mind all night long. It was horrible.

The kids woke up around 5:30 and are sitting watching TV as I write. I’ll be heading to work late as I wait for Donna to come home so I’ll make fried rice and add coffee and the effects of caffeine to all the other drug effects I’m going through.

One thing good about all these drugs that are totally affecting my night’s sleep and are probably going to ruin how I feel during the day is… I DIDN’T COUGH AT ALL LAST NIGHT – from what I remember. Diarrhea, nausea, a jittery sleep and a dry mouth… I guess it’s the price to pay to get rid of a cough -

I hate being sick.

I want a Dodger Dog.

Check out my latest XBox game reviews including the SSX Tricky review.

MX World Tour Featuring Jamie Little (Review)

SSX Tricky (Review)

Over on my Gaming-XBox Addiction page.

It started around 5:30 AM when the kids woke me up. Well, that wasn’t the fun part. I managed to get them to stay in bed with me for an hour watching an episode of “Caliou” and then thirty or so minutes of the Torino Olympics. Boy, there is a lot of Curling coverage going on in this Olympics.

That wasn’t the Sunday fun part though.

After Donna got home I took the kids out for breakfast. That way they won’t bother her as she takes her nap. We went to Goldstein’s and ate bagels.

It was freezing in SoCal on Sunday! We got all bundled up and on the way to Goldstein’s marveled at the snow in the mountains. It was really pretty.

We sat at Goldstein’s for about forty five minutes. The key to taking the kids out is to take your time. And they are serious ‘eaters’ when they like what is in front of them. They just sit there and eat-eat-eat. I shared half a bagel with Bella, who actually was more interested in the cream cheese than the bagel itself. Jake spent thirty minutes eating his bagel systematically and methodically. He’s the Obsessive-Compulsive one. After the bagels they each got an M&M cookie. By 10:00 AM we were out of there and on our way to Target.

We bought popcorn, Goldfish cookies, and two movies:

Madagascar

…for the kids and:

Elizabethtown – because I’m a HUGE Cameron Crowe fan.

Then we went over to the EB Games to peruse the used games. Having watched a lot of Olympics Jake and I wanted some snowboard or Olympic game so we bought:

Torino 06 Olympic Games (new $19.95)

…and a Snowboard game:

SSX Tricky (used $8.95)

…and one for me:

Ninja Gaiden Black (new $29.95)

Then home we went for Popcorn and movies.

On the way home cousin James called and asked me what beer he should buy. I told him to try RED STRIPE BEER since its one of my favorites.

Jake tried SSX Tricky for about 10 minutes as I got the popcorn and drinks (water) ready and the game was awesome. What a fun game! I wanted to play it but Bella wanted to watch a movie so that’s what we did.

While they watched Madagascar I researched the games online. Both SSX Tricky and Ninja Gaiden Black were top rated games on www.gamespot.com (both 9.4 ratings) but Torino 06 Olympic Games had such a poor rating (3.4) I was worried about playing it and totally being disgusted with my purchase. I know, as long as Jake likes it, but really, is it worth the risk? I explained this to Jake and he agreed on returning it for a better Basketball game (his kinda sucks).

After the movie, Jake was allowed to play SSX Tricky for a few minutes as I got Bella ready for her nap.

Donna was still asleep and the kids joined her in bed at 2:00. By the time they woke up it would be time for Donna to wake up so it was planned perfectly!

I went back to EB Games and exchanged Torino 06 Olympics for:

NBA 2K6 (preplayed $22.46)

Which is actually pretty damn fun!

I drove to Pasadena to this awesome bike store and bought a pair of Tri-shorts and got on some Tri-Specific bikes. Wow. What a difference a Tri-Bike makes versus a road bike made into a Tri-Bike. I was drooling. I can’t wait to get one. I just can’t see spending $5000 on a bike especially if I’m not a top athlete. I mean, these are the bikes the ‘big boys’ use. There was a FELT Racing Tri Bike for $1199 which is reasonable, but I really like Kuota and QuintanaRoo bikes – which are companies that really specialize in Tri-Bikes.

I wiped up my drool and headed to the grocery store to get things for dinner.

A few minutes after I got home Jake wakes up from his nap and plays Xbox games. I get Bella and Donna up and by 4:30 I’m cooking dinner!!!

Talk about perfect timing!

I made Salt Fried Ribeye Steak. The topping is a mixture of tomatoes, Kalamata olives, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It’s so easy to make. Just use about 1 ½ tablespoons of Kosher Salt on a 12 inch skillet, heat the skillet up and drop the boneless Ribeye Steak onto the pan and fry. Takes about four minutes on both sides for a medium cook. No other seasoning. Just the salt on the pan. Take it off the pan and let sit for about 5 minutes – and if you like it well done, letting it sit for 5 minutes actually cooks it more. So don’t overcook! Then slice them up into strips and pour the diced tomatoes, diced olives (pitted) mixture onto the steak and serve! We also had steamed rice and artichokes.

YUM!

By 6:15 the kids were bathed and ready for bed.

Donna left at 6:40 and by 7:00 PM the kids were in bed while I got to spend and hour playing an AWESOME game… Ninja Gaiden Black! No wonder it is highly rated as one of the best X-Box games of the year! It definitely is NOT for young gamers like Jake. So there are three games he’s not allowed to play. Call of Duty 2, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and this one, Ninja Gaiden Black.

Okay, I played for an hour and a half. According to the game I played an hour and thirty minutes.

Then off to clean the kitchen, feed Gordon, a shower and bed time.

I watched a little of the most horrid Olympic event – Ice Dancing, read a couple of bike and running magazines, talked to Dale (in Hawaii) for like thirty minutes, then dozed off during more of that horrid ice dancing crap.

And that’s a fun PERFECTLY PLANNED Sunday in February!

And yes, I had a cold Red Stripe beer during dinner to make it an even better Sunday!