Saturday, November 01, 2003
After a couple of weeks of managing not to spend money, I think I blew my November budget within 24 hours. On Friday night, I saw Finding Nemo on DVD for sale at Blockbuster a good four days before the official release and bought it (this is a no-brainer if you know me: I love Pixar films, loved Finding Nemo, and it didn't help that the 2-disc set was only around US$15). On Saturday, after picking up a printer for my sister's new iMac (NOT with my own cash, thankfully!) I figured I'd go buy that new hard drive I've been itching to pick up. While in Sham Shui Po, I saw a bunch of new (fake) games I rather wanted, and picked up a stack of them. I tend to make a weekly trek out there, but there hasn't been much new lately so I've been holding off on buying anything. There didn't seem to be much new now either. I figured I'd browse casually anyway when I saw it in a random shop window: Mario Kart Double Dash!! It's not actually due until NEXT Friday, but for some reason these guys had it early. And so I bought it, and am utterly delighted for it. Mario Kart games are always good, and this one is no exception. The only problem is that when you add that unexpected purchase to the hard drive, the stack of games, Finding Nemo and the fact that I was out on Friday night... well, it's not looking good for the month already.
I saw the second episode of 24 last night. It didn't seem to be a finished copy, because there were some placeholder graphics and odd dubs here and there, but 95% of it was perfect so I'm assuming that once it's been cleaned up it'll air just as I saw it. It's building slowly but there are a lot of interesting threads developing and an absolutely killer twist at the end. The only problem with watching this episode early is that now I have an extra-long wait for the next one!
One last thing I've really neglected to mention was that the Lakers won in superb fashion on Tuesday. Gary Payton was awesome and I admit -- sorry Pat! -- that I never really gave him his dues. He's being tipped by a lot of people to be LA's key player this year, which is really saying something given the stars out there. It's not just the names though, but the way they were playing was fantastic... and this without Kobe. Incidentally, my take on the Kobe versus Shaq feud: I'd prefer for them to both sit tight and play together, but Kobe needs to wake up. It's Shaq's team. Kobe is easily one of the best players in the league, but Shaq dominates games like nobody else. Even when he's quiet, he's still drawing double and triple teams, freeing Kobe (and now Malone and Payton) for open looks. Shaq simply cannot be replaced, while you could sub T-Mac in for Kobe without much fuss. I'd much rather it not go to that at all -- I generally like Kobe, his ball-hogging tendencies and big mouth aside -- but when he leaves (it's not an "if" anymore, but a "when"), he can be replaced. Bottom line is that Shaq shouldn't be shooting his mouth off about Kobe, even if some comments are ringing true (as some of Kobe's comments are), but Kobe is in the wrong here. Shaq is the man. Deal with it and get in line.
Posted at 11:05 PM
