Spider-Man 2

Just saw Spider-Man 2 at AMC Mercado. I got annoyed at times when various characters verbalize the moral dilemma of Spider-Man, but other than that it's a great movie. Great action, great special effects, and very entertaining.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios)

Last night, I saw the movie Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown on DVD. It was by Pedro Almodóvar, who also did Hable con Ella. Unlike Hable con Ella, which is covered with a certain tone of sadness, this movie is outright funny. I guess you can tell from its name? Another thing I got out of it was that I really wanted to try some gazpacho myself -- without the extra ingredient from the movie, of course!

Grameen Bank

I just finished the book Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty. It is the autobiography of Prof. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grammen Bank. He observed that the poorest of the poor are very hard-working, but they barely make enough to live from hand to mouth. Prof. Yunus believes that they can break out of the cycle of poverty with just a tiny bit of capital. Grameen Bank provides exactly that. It extends small loans to these poor people so that they can start a profitable venture. And it works. Millions of people have benefited from the Grameen Bank. It is truly inspiring to read its story.

Big City, Goa and Ra

Yesterday we played board games with some friends. We played Big City, Goa and Ra.

Big City is more or less the board game version of Sim City. Each player takes turns to develop the city, and his/her buildings are scored with respect to their location and neighborhood. A quick and nice game.

Goa, on the other hand, is a long and painful game. It is set in the 16^th century. You are in the business of spice trade, and you are trying to found colonies and plantations in India. There are many different things in the game: the auction, the ships, the spices, the colonies, the colonists, the ducats, etc etc. It is a bit too complex for me.

Ra is an auction game set in ancient Eygpt. You get tiles from auctions, and different combination of tiles gives you different scores. It tends to be a bit confusing for first-time players. But since this is my second time playing Ra, I did alright :)

Talk to her (Hable con Ella)

Just watched the Spanish movie Talk to her on DVD. It's a very emotionally charged movie. I am not saying that it is a tear jerker. Rather, the plot unfolds in a way that keeps you emotionally connected to the characters.

Destination Berkeley

This afternoon we met up with Romain at Games of Berkeley. We bought the game San Juan and played at his place. It was a lot of fun.

After that Francois and I went to Berkeley Repertory Theatre to see Mike Daisey's 21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com. He talked about his crazy dot.com days at Amazon.com. I laughed quite a lot during the show.

Before we drove home, we stopped by Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy of Britannica Almanac 2004. Now I have the names of US Presidents and their wives and children, together with a lot of other information :)

BANG 7

We played in the treasure hunt BANG 7 yesterday. It was a great deal of fun. We could almost solve all the puzzles, but the one we couldn't solve was really frustrating. It required the knowledge of the middle names of the presidents of United States! Last treasure hunt we were also troubled by a US Presidents question, so we printed the list of US Presidents from the White House. Alas, that list does not have their middle names. Next time we will print a list of US Presients with their first, middle and last names, plus those of their wives and children...

U.S. addiction to oil puts it at mercy of risky characters

The San Francisco Chronicle has an excellent article titled U.S. addiction to oil puts it at mercy of risky characters. It said that the gas tax in the US is too low -- not enough discourage the use of inefficient vehicles, and definitely not enough to create and maintain a mass-transit system. To achieve that would need at around $1 to $3 per gallon. That is so not happening. Can you imagine the US public suddenly ditches their SUVs and goes gung-ho on public transportation, plus advocates a high gas tax to support that? To me that's like seeing the sun rise on the west!

Harry Potter 3

Just saw Harry Potter 3 at the movie theater. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is my favourite of all the Harry Potter books, and the movie disappointed me in that regard. When I read the book, there were a lot of "aha" moments when mysteries from the first two books were explained. The movie did not give me that feeling at all. But then I know the story already by the time I watched the movie, so I guess that's unfair. One thing held up to my expectations though -- Professor Lupin. He was as amiable as the one portraited in the book :)

Shrek 2

Just went to see Shrek 2 at the theater. I usually have lower expectations for movie sequels, but Shrek 2 is no less funny that the first one. It's filled with excellent jokes and parodies. I also like the cute little cat a lot :)

Cool way to fold a shirt

I got a link to a video showing a cool way to fold a shirt. The video is in Japanese (no surprise there), but it's pretty easy to understand even if you don't speak the language :)

The Postman (Il Postino)

Last night I saw The Postman on DVD. It was delightful to see the shy postman and the famous poet become good friends. I like the music in the movie as well.