Not mine, but Andrew and his gf Dawn’s. Today I went to their wedding ceremony at the Vancouver Public Library. I didn’t know that they have rooms/halls down at the ground level. Being one of the groomsmen I was responsible for doing some set ups, handing out pamphlets, and sit the guests. All went pretty well and it was actually quite fun (not that I expected that it’d be boring). It was fun to walk up to the stage (or platform, whatever) when they ceremony began - walked so slowly and being watched by everyone else in the room…lol. Anyway. I took some pictures of the couple and also spent some time chatting with them and the rest of the groomsmen/bridesmaids. I didn’t get to ride in one of those huge limos as I had to pick up Wendy and I needed to drive my car.

Around 6 Wendy and I went to the evening banquet in Richmond. Needless to say, there was food, tons of it. But the most impressive was the keyboard (Microkorg) cake that one of the bridesmaids Michelle made. I was really awed by all the details like the buttons/knobs and it’s even got these rear panels/connectors at the back…She made the wedding cake as well and it was as great as the keyboard one - its crazy tilted shape somehow reminded me of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Wendy and I both took 2 plates of buffet food (=D) and ate lots of cake. We danced at bit at the end to the music, and enjoyed some of the fantastic speeches done by their parents. Overall it was a great night and it’s great to see all the joy from everyone’s face. It made me happy too.

Oh, forgot to blog it last week but I went to Andrew’s place for a LAN party last weekend (supposedly his “bachelor party”). A couple of us played Halo ODST on a huge projector screen, and ate tons and tons of chips and salsa for “dinner”. It was crazy but at the same time very awesome…lol. I’m looking for more LAN parties in the near future, lol.

Just spent 3 hours or so playing through the last 3 missions “The Covenant”, “Cortana”, and “Halo” and finish up the entire game. The last few missions were SO FUN! Especially the last bit of the last mission, where I had to drive a warthog through the collapsing/exploding halo control station. The graphics were crazy good, I was really impressed, but of course the sound/music was just as good if not better. Also waited for the credits to finish and watched the last bit of the final cut scene. I finished the game on “easy”, going to reply the game on the “normal” level =D

I was almost finishing Halo ODST originally, but the stupid Xbox somehow erased/forgot my last save so the entire last mission that I played was gone. It was a pretty crazy mission I don’t want to reply…! I’ll see if I feel like playing it again later. I’ve played through the last few missions already anyway co-oping with Andrew.

I’ve been pretty addicted to Halo 3 and Halo ODST this week, almost playing every single night with Andrew for couple hours. It was too fun to resist. I don’t really like online games but it’s kind of weird that I don’t mind playing it with friends. I think for some reason I just don’t like playing with people that I don’t know, and I don’t know why. I have yet to finish Halo 3 even though I’m soon finishing Halo ODST, lol. I’m trying to play both games in parallel, actually I’m also playing Devil May Cry 4… Played 2 missions today it was super fun. The graphics were top notch. I love the medieval setting with all the old churches and houses, but the best thing in the game has to be the crazy rad moves that Nero (main character) can do. Dante, the main character in Devil May Cry 1-3, isn’t going to be the guy in DMC 4, even though he will sort of show up in certain part of the game (knew it from game review). Nevertheless the two guys are both super cool/good-looking, uses a gun/blade combo and are both daemons (Dante is the son of Sparda, king of the devils, I’m not sure if Nero is as well, probably not). Again, I love the extremely fast-paced moves/combos so much, it’s just too cool to play!

I’ve got a bunch of “copies” of games, to name a few, Eternal Sonata, Bioshock, Lost Odyssey, Devil May Cry 4, Resident Evil 5, Dead or Alive, Fable II…etc. It’ll keep me busy for couple months for sure~

I went out and got a copy of Halo 3 ODST Special Edition which includes the game and the super cool looking controller, for $99 at London Drugs. Apparently this combo is being sold on Ebay for way more, for some reason, so I think it was a good deal. The game’s pretty similar to Halo 3, but you no longer is Master Chief, but a tropper, which was dropped to earth from lower orbit to battle the Convenant (aliens). I find it more challenging not just because I’m playing at “Normal” difficulty versus “Easy” in Halo 3, but it’s easier to get killed as you have to find health packs when you are low on health, which isn’t always easy to spot. Also you have to run around more to locate the next check point in ODST, whereas in Halo 3 there’s pretty much just this one straight route that leads to the next point. I love the controller! It’s got cool looking Halo 3 ODST logo printed on it, and the “Spartan Green” color matches with my other Halo 3 controller. I played 3 missions last night all at once since it was just too fun.

2 nights ago Wendy and I went to the Orpheum Theatre to watch this Final Fantasy ochestral performance. It’s my first time at the Orpheum Theatre, it was fairly grand and nicely decorated, just kind of tiny. There were a lot of audiences, which made it looked even smaller. I guess that was because the place was built hundred years ago and maybe due to the small number of citizens back then they didn’t need too big of a concert hall. However, the acoustic was very good, I’m sure lots of thoughts were put into designing this hall, I could see panels and stuff on the sides and ceiling that were used for directing the sound waves.

As a huge FF fan I was stoked to listen to the songs. Actually I didn’t really have high hopes on the Vancouver Symphony Ochestra since I think I’ve heard them before and they sucked. However, with total surprise, they were really good. I was able to tell it easily. That was just for the ochestra itself though, the choir sucked a lot. I think they were the “UBC Opera Ensembles”, didn’t look like students though. Not only they were out of tune, but the voice quality were just not up there. Lack of bass, messy cutoffs, weak voice…everything of it sucked. That was actually apparent even from the first song they played - Liberi Fatali. Choir was pretty much the most prominent part of the song and they just totally wrecked it. I felt shame on them that they ruined the great performance from the ochestra.

Anyway, I must say again the VSO was good, especially the harpist, pianist, and the people that played the wind instruments - they were flawless! Also what impressed me was the lady that sung Distant Worlds song from FFXIII. I wasn’t sure if she was part of VSO or was a guest singer, I better find that out. They played a LOT of songs, way more than I have expected, and they’ve also paired each song up with nice footages from the actual FF games - from FFIV all the way to FFXI. A few of my favorites that they played were, the Chocobo theme (remixed/swing version), Liberi Fatali, FFVII Theme (premiered in Canada!), To Zanarkan, Bombing Mission (FFVII), Terra’s Theme (FFVI) - even though I haven’t played FFVI I recognized this song so much as I instantly felt in love with it when I listened to the sound track from a CD, One Winged Angel (FFVII).

Overall it was a great performance, and I really liked the footage they showed on the huge projector screen - brought back so many memories of the good times when I played all the FF series years back.

Finally laid my hands on an Xbox 360…..!!!! After 2+ years of wait, finally. I don’t like Microsoft, I’m just going for the games, don’t have a choice. Anyway I emailed this guy today that claimed to be selling his Xbox 360 Halo 3 Edition for $190 (Craigslist), and hoped that I’d be able to pick it up same day since it was too good of a deal I scared that someone else would buy it off him. We ended up meeting at 1:30AM, when he’s off from school. Pretty crazy. Tested it at his place, everything seemed to be working, packed them all up and drove home super fast. I spent half an hour to clean it up very thoroughly with some cleaning agent and also dug up all the dirt that’s been accumulated on the controller. Tested it on my TV, Halo 3 played well, controller seemed to be responding ok, also signed up for the Xbox LIVE 1-month free trial. Oh yes, he gave me his Wireless Network Adapter as well! I think it retails for $99 or something.

It’s like 5AM now, after playing some Halo 3 (just wandered around and shot my teammates for fun). Going to play some more Halo 3 tomorrowwwwww! I’ll probably get it modded very soon, but I want to play a bit more before that just in case the modding kills the console.