Castle Adventure

Original Date: Mid-80's

POV: 3rd
Graphics: 1
Controls: 2
Difficulty: 5

Last night, I had a dream that I was playing an ancient PC game called Castle Adventure. The last thing in my head when I woke up was the command, LOADING CASTLE.RAN, the command that started up the program. The game came out sometime in the mid-80's because I remember it being way before the Nintendo Entertainment System and before real computer graphics. The whole game was made up of ASCII characters... the environment, characters and items. You would use the arrow keys to move around and hold down the arrow key in the direction of the enemy to attack. Battle results were determined by random numbers on the backend. It was a pretty cool game in it's time because it mixed action with problem solving.

I thought about adding this to my blog and was going to write how it was basically The Legend of Zelda in ASCII. Then I did a search for "Loading castle.ran" in Google and the first result was from someone who actually created a complete site dedicated to this game. And he already mentioned the Zelda comparison. Please click the graphic below to visit...


Everything truly is out there on Google!

Dominican Republic

Here are some photos from my parents' most recent vacation to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic:

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The resort was part of the same chain we visited when we went to Cancun earlier in the Summer for Reinhard & Marites' wedding. It's the largest and most impressive location out of all of Palace Resorts' all-inclusives. When we were in Cancun, my parents already said it was the best resort they've ever been to. Now the Punta Cana one easily trumps that one!

Sunday Dinner

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It was a good weekend for a small get together because my parents were on vacation last week, during the Autumn Moon Festival. Uncle Bock and Auntie Kim are also going to leave for vacation in Singapore next week, so we won't see them for a while.

Tito Rad's

Location: 49-12 Queens Blvd., Woodside, NY 11377
Cuisine: Filipino
Hours: MON-FRI (11am-10pm); SAT-SUN (10am-10pm)
Phone: (718) 205-7299
Website: www.titorads.com
Prices: about $25/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 8
Service: 9
Value: 7
Environment: 6

Frequency: Uncommon

It was just about a year ago the last time we went to Tito Rad's, and my parents haven't tried it yet, so we did our family dinner there tonight. I made sure they had the tuna jaw before we went, otherwise there would be no point... all other dishes are better @ Ihawan. So they did have plenty in stock. The person I spoke to said that there are periods in the Summer where they don't have it available, so it's worth checking before making the trip each time.

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We were planning to have an early dinner since my parents are leaving early in the morning tomorrow to the Dominican Republic, but the place was more crowded than we expected at 5pm. I never thought to make a reservation because I expected the place to be empty on a Sunday afternoon. It was completely full, but there was a large party that was about halfway done. So we waited about 30 minutes, but were able to preorder so that the food would be ready once we got seated.

Maine Coast

Photos from my parents' Maine Coast road trip earlier in the Summer:

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Flushing Apartment

Since it's a work in progress, I just shot the completed parts of the place. I'm slowing filling in the furniture based on sales and color match, so it's going to take a while. Remember, it took me 3 years to get a sofa for the Manhattan place!

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Pine Court Chinese Bistro

Location: 249-32 Horace Harding Expressway, Little Neck, NY
Cuisine: Chinese
Hours: SUN-SAT (11am-10pm)
Phone: (718) 279-1999
Prices: $17/person
Credit Cards: All major

Food: 7
Service: 7
Value: 4
Environment: 6

Frequency: Unique

It's been a while since I had dim sum, but Auntie Kim and Uncle Bock invited us out today. It was a little different than usual because it wasn't in Flushing. We went all the way out to Little Neck. It sounds illogical to do that, but the idea was to bypass the downtown traffic and crowds for Sunday lunch... one of the peak times of the weekend. We took local roads out to the area to avoid Long Island/beach traffic on the L.I.E.

Please read comments in the Picasa album for details about the restaurant.

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While the food overall was good, it wasn't comparable to the Flushing downtown area even when you factor in the traffic. It took us about 20 minutes to get out there and there was a 30 minute wait for a table. From where I live in Flushing, I could walk to the downtown area in 20 minutes and have a table right away. Parking was nearly just as difficult as the Pine Court lot was packed. There aren't a lot of dim sum places out there, so it looked like all the Chinese in the area went to this place!

Wesley's 3rd Birthday

Wesley's 3rd Birthday was originally going to be at Chucky Cheese, but was switched to a home BBQ instead. Things worked out well because it was a perfect day. It would've also been hard to coordinate 20+ people for dinner at Chucky Cheese with several kids running around. At the house, the kids had all the toys in the world to keep them busy!

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Dragonboat 2010

This year's Dragonboat Festival was a lot like Last Year's. The weather was perfect... sunny with blue skies and no chance of rain. The temperature was somewhere around 83 degrees, which is low for this time of year. I arrived a little before 11am and got lucky with the shuttle bus. It was empty when I got on, then another 7 train arrived and it got packed immediately. I was a little disorientated when we were dropped off though. Because they were in the middle of reconstructing the boathouse and surrounding area, the bus stop was on the opposite side of the usual location. So we started a few blocks from the far end of the events are rather than the boathouse and racing area.

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I started by getting photos of some of the races and boathouse area. Then I headed off to get the events and info. stands. I took my usual lunch break at Chef One and then met up with Charlotte and Jeff. We all headed back to the races to get more photos.

Tung Yi Fung

We haven't gone out for a family dinner in a while, so there was nothing more fitting than heading over to Tung Yi Fung for the best microwaved Chinese food in Flushing! I don't have any changes to any of the stats... the food was still as good as last time. Customers are learning to eat there earlier though. We got there just before 6pm and it was almost full. Previously, it would be empty until about 7pm.

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