White Tea, Xenosaga, Nintendogs and more
Where in Ryan drinks beverages and plays videogames…
Trader Joe’s, quite possibly the best supermarket anywhere, has started stocking these drinks called Inko’s White Tea and I have since become completely addicted to it. About six weeks ago I swore off soda again, concerned about the massive amounts of high fructose corn syrup and the boatloads of other artifical ingredients. I had been almost exclusively drinking water and plain iced tea when I discovered this white tea stuff. Its slightly sweetened, but not in the way most beverages are. They use pure fructose crystals and not much of it. Each bottle has about 14g of carbs. Compare that to your average soda which has about 57g. Anyway people should try them. They’re delicious and healthy and a damn good way to stop drinking all that high sugar/artifical sweetner garbage. I just finished playing Xenosaga Chapter 1 about 15 minutes ago. I use the term “playing” loosely, as of the 40 hours I put into Xenosaga, I suspect maybe 15 of those hours I was actively interacting with the game. The rest of it was in-engine cinematics...really...I’m not joking. Anyway, thank goodness the story was actually pretty good. It would have made a better anime then a videogame though. I also picked up Nintendogs for the Nintendo DS. I’m not ashamed to say I partook of the Tamagotchi craze in the mid-90’s and Nintendogs is a majorly glorified version of the same. This time however the pets are practically photoreal, you can enter them in contests, wirelessly connect with other Nintendog owners, etc. Its not as much a game as it is something to occasionally do while you’re waiting in traffic or before a movie or when you have to wait on a really long-ass animation preview at work. Lastly for tonight I would like to spout my adoration for a very short-lived series of animations by studio Gynax called FLCL or ‘Fooly Cooly ‘ which has been aired several times on Adult Swim and which I have just recently gotten very much into. It is, quite possibly, the most off-the-wall anime I’ve ever seen. Half the time the imagery is so fast and so visceral that I get lost in the tempo of the images and lose the story. That’s why I broke down and got all six episodes on DVD so I can watch them meticulously and get a real feel for the underlying themes. There is *so* much going on in this show. It’s very heavy in its use of visual metaphor and the whole thing is charged with this odd sexual energy. I’m going to go as far as to say its the most amazing piece of non-mainstream anime I have ever seen. There I said it. Adult Swim also finished up Paranoia Agent on Thursday which was probably a little wierd for most Nealson families, but I sure liked it. Lessee, what else. My mother is coming to visit in about 2 weeks and I’m not only getting a new couch next weekend for mere tuppance, but I’m selling my washer and dryer (finally!) and I’m gonna end up with a 100 dollar profit even after the couch is bought. Woo! Hank the dog is doing good. He’s a little bigger now. I put him at about 10lbs but he doesn’t seem to be growing much anymore. Car is running well. I’ve been in Phoenix for 7 months come September 2nd. It is still hot. Oh, one last thing. THQ announced a 3-for-2 Stock Split effective September 1. That is really good news for my options. Till next time!