Crista and I have decided to try and put together movie & game night for Friday Thursday or Sunday nights. I love hanging out with friends, but have been spending so much on restaurants and movies lately, I thought it would be nice to lower the costs. Here’s the plan as it stands.

We’ll be watching old movies, either classics or b-movie horror stuff. The idea is to keep it light and silly. First up is the 7th Voyage of Sinbad. The special creature fx were done by Ray Harryhausen, who was one of a kind. He was really a pioneer of stop-motion model effects. Most of you have probably seen his work in Clash of the Titans. It’s not great by any modern standards, but he was the forerunner to the modern greats. I think some of the original Lucas model work wouldn’t have come about were it not for him.

Games after. We can split up for board and/or gamecube games. Mario Strikers is a current 4-player favorite. Trust me, even if you don’t like video games that much, you’ll love this.

I’m thinking we can order pizza for the first one. Chip in, and bring some beer if you like. Comment if you’re interested in coming this Friday Thursday or Sunday.

Update: Though I’m planning for Fridays, I can probably be compelled for any night Thursday through Sunday. I know lots of my friends play music on the weekend.

Update: Since Daryl is somebody I’d like there, this will occur either Sunday or Thursday nights. Place votes.

Update: Looks like Sundays it is! Thanks for the feedback. I will post a time and details for this Sunday. I expect we can start around 6 or 7.

There are some shows I watch that I love. ‘Lost’ is of course one of them. I love the show and it’s a great show. For new episodes, I often have Justin, Chris, Ashley, and sometimes Crista over to watch.

I also watch ‘24′ pretty religiously. It’s an entertaining, but by no means great show. Maybe not even a good show. But I consider it my guilty pleasure show. So, if you’d like to come over and watch it with me, please do. It’s on Monday’s at 9pm on fox. Comment if you’d like to pop-in tonight, Crista and I will be watching. I’ll be there by 8pm if you want to come early to hang out.

My weekend was good, despite not feeling all that hot. I almost exclusively hung out with Crista, which was great. Unfortunately, my throat has been feeling poorly, though it’s a little better now. I was also dead tired. I think I fell asleep for two hours Saturday night. Sunday, I just slept around the house all day. Due to the excessive tiredness, we didn’t get to go to Disneyland or church as planned.

In the positive news, Crista and/or I did get to:

• Watch Open Range and A Very Long Engagement. Both very good films.
• Crista bellydanced at Caspian Saturday night, and I got to watch. It was very cool. I think my favorite part was when she went out for tips and got to give a two minute lesson in dancing to a group of elementary school age girls.
• We started a game of Universalis. It’s fun but so so hard. I think my creative-bone is broken. Anyway, the story tenets are that it’s a detective story set in modern day New York, and the homeless are disappearing, possibly as the result of some conspiracy.
• I managed to browse Barnes & Noble twice. Once alone and last night with Crista. I love bookstores. I picked up some manga for Crista, as she’s always wanted to read one. Uh, I think I picked a weird one. I also got “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and Stephenson’s “Quicksilver” for myself.

So I got a Nintendo DS last week. That explains the virtual puppy. The virtual puppy is from the Nintendogs game. I also picked up Animal Crossing: Wild World at Brendan’s urging. Thankfully he hooked me up with some great items during online play the other night. It’s great fun.

Beware, both games are like virtual crack. If you value your time, loved ones, and tendons, don’t get them.

But they are real fun. Nintendogs also seems to be the first game ever to entertain my mother.

Crista and I got a new puppy. He’s a pembroke welsh corgi, and his name is Brando.

Catch is, he’s not real.

It’s up to Brendan to figure out what I mean.