Donations to Philippines

I gathered some links for donating to the recent typhoon relief efforts in the Philippines. Each item below was personally link-checked to make sure there was an option for the specific crisis:

• AmeriCares
• Medical Teams International
• Operation USA
• Oxfam International
• UMCOR

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Thank you.

DVDeals 9/20 - 9/26

DVD Tuesday
The 2nd season of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is coming out tomorrow. It's the same price at Best Buy and Amazon... $44.99. The only difference is the Best Buy version has a metal outer case... exclusive. The 2nd season is a lot more expensive, but keep in mind that it has more than twice the number of episodes. It was a true full season whereas the first was sort or a pilot half season. The set is well worth the money too. The 1st season was one of the best Blu-rays I have, so I expect the same out of the 2nd.

Boulder Creek

Location: 134-15 20th Ave. College Point, NY 11356
Cuisine: American
Phone: (718) 961-2900
Website: www.bouldercreekcollegepoint.com
Prices: about $25/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 9
Service: 8
Value: 8
Environment: 7

Frequency: Common

We rarely go for steak, so I chose Boulder Creek for my birthday dinner. I think the last time I went to a steakhouse was January of last year at Michael Jordan's! I made an early reservation because I remember the place getting packed in the past... even at 5:30. It was actually pretty empty when we got there, but filled up around 6:30. So they were affected by the recession a little, but their peak hours looked OK.

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It's been a couple of years since eating at Boulder Creek, but the important thing is the food was still good. The service was still the same as before. Our waiter, Tyrone was very helpful and patient. One thing he did that I wish other restaurant would do is... he handed us a piece of paper with the specials. In other places, they would usually read everything quickly (and sometimes with a thick accent). This way, we all got a long look at the specials and knew the prices of all of them. The value is great at this steakhouse because the portions are satisfying... a medium sized steak with a prtty big bowl of salad and a side dish was $19.00. I'd say the average for a steak is $25-30.

For details on the food and event, please visit the Picasa album.

Mini Ninjas DEMO

Category: Adventure
POV: 3rd
Graphics: 7
Controls: 8
Difficulty: 7

I actually downloaded this one just because I hadn't downloaded anything for weeks after Batman: Arkham Asylum. I didn't expect the game to be good at all. It looked like a cutesy children's game. The only positive it had going for itself was the ninja theme. I tend to enjoy games where the hero uses a sword or hand-to-hand as opposed to a gun. So I gave it a shot.

Mini Ninjas is about a village of ninjas that gets invaded by a mysterious band of samurai. They capture all but 2 ninjas... Hiro & Futo (the demo lets you play as Suzumi as well) and are capturing animals to convert to evil samurai. Hiro is the main character and best all-around ninja for most situations. Futo is all power and Suzume is the most agile.

I immediately felt at home with the controls because they were similar to other games I play regularly. There's the standard move & camera controls with the analogs, jump, attack, block... just like any 3rd person game. This game uses every button on the PS3 controller + combinations. Despite it's simple, cartoony look, the game is actually very complex and takes a while to get used to.

I did whip through the demo easily on the first try, but didn't get perfect scores on everything. There are tons of items you need to collect and many are very hard to find in the vast environment. In the demo, the fights were generally easy. It was the problem solving that was hard. This game is like a modern day version of Legend of Zelda... a combination of action, collecting items and figuring things out. What makes things interesting is all of the secret areas and different environments you have to navigate through.

I'll probably give a walkthrough later on, but need some more practice first. I'm pretty much finding all of the items now, but need to be able to do it more efficiently (without going back and forth a lot).

DVDeals 9/13 - 9/19

DVD Tuesday
It was another movie release drought, but X-Men Origins: Wolverine will be released this Tuesday. There are a couple of editions of this movie, but they're the same price everywhere for the DVD versions. The regular edition is $15.99 and the 2-disc set is $22.99. For the Blu-ray, Best Buy has the lowest price at $23.99 unless you can qualify for free shipping at Amazon where it will sell for $22.99 (same price as the DVD set). Best Buy also has a Blu-ray boxed set for $42.99 that includes a Wolverine bust and $50 gift card to sideshowcollectiblaes.com.

Best Buy Deals
All $19.99 items are also 2 for $30.
- Independence Day (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- X-Men (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- X-Men III (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- i, Robot (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Fantastic 4 (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Terminator (Blu-ray) for $19.99
- Fantastic 4 Animated for $6.99
- Wolverine and the X-men for $6.99
- Punisher Extended Cut for $6.99
- Punisher (Blu-ray) for $12.99

Game Reviews

Since getting the PS3, I've been slowly getting back into video games after many years. The Playstation Network is great because they have so many demos that I have yet to buy a full DVD game. I only purchased Super Street Fighter II HD Remix, which was a downloadable game. So I figure I would try writing some reviews of the demos I play constantly in this blog. For the rating scale, please click here.

Happy Labor Day

Labor Day Weekend

I never really have anything planned for Labor Day Weekend, but always end up at a BBQ or two. On Saturday, I went with Uncle Rupert and Auntie Chit to Auntie Carol's house for their annual celebration of Auntie Ching's Birthday. It was a skeleton crew this year as many of their family members were away for the holiday. It was a Filipino style BBQ on the outdoor patio. This one was so spontaneous that I didn't even have my camera with me!

Just today, I went over to Cindy & Wil's place. Since I had no plans, I asked Cindy on Friday if she was doing anything because I was going to call her over to my parents'. Instead, she invited us over because Wil's family would already be there for lunch.

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So Labor Day weekend has been pretty eventful so far. Besides the BBQs, I've been juggling Yankees games, US Open and PS3 Demos!

Early Autumn in NY?