Saturday, March 12, 2011

Vacation Review

Well, the end is near. Today is the last day of my 7-day vacation. I'm sad that it's over, but if it never ended, that would mean that I either became extremely wealthy or dropped dead. So, I knew this day would come (the end of my vacation, not dropping dead.)

As far as vacations go, it wasn't the most eventful one that I can remember. I spent a good deal of it with my girlfriend which is always a treat. Since our schedules are very hectic, any time spent together is tremendous even if it's not on the beach somewhere.

Speaking of that, this was another one of my staycations. People always wonder why I don't travel much. I think there's a misconception about me that I'm a homebody who'd much rather stay home and watch a marathon of Three's Company than go out, but that's not true. While is it true that I do enjoy my television marathons, the idea of traveling is quite intriguing to me. I wouldn't mind seeing Europe or even the West Coast, the problem is money. I don't make a lot of it and that, even more than my fear of flying, is a big reason I don't take two or three expensive trips a year. My money situation is why I take trips to the NFL Hall of Fame and not the Super Bowl. My money situation is is why I occasionally travel to California, Pa. with my girlfriend to see her father instead of the state of California to see her uncle. Money is why I will attend a few Pittsburgh Power games this season, but the chances of going to see my beloved Steelers only comes along once in a blue moon. Believe me, money is very liberating and if I had the means, I'd probably travel more than most.

I suppose I could be a little more irresponsible and run my credit cards up while I take one trip after another, but I just don't see the point of it. I'd rather live a modest lifestyle and have some money to play with than have lots of "fun" and wake up one day $20,000 in debt. So, anyway, that's why I don't mind taking a week and just doing ordinary things like watching DVDs, writing, and working out. So next time you want to know why I never go anywhere, money is a huge reason. And besides, sometimes taking trips is a pain in the butt. It's often more work than being at work.

Speaking of DVDs, I had been looking for Bruce Lee's "Way of The Dragon" for years and I finally found it the week before I went on vacation. Way of the Dragon was the one where Bruce Lee fought Chuck Norris in the Coliseum in Rome. I found it at FYE at the Mall at Robinson only it wasn't a single DVD but part of a five-set collection of the movies Lee did exclusively with his Hong Kong production company. I already had two of the movies, but since this DVD was marked down considerably and since I've been searching for the movie for a long time, I decided to buy it. So along with Way of the Dragon, Fists of Fury, and The Big Boss, I also now own The Game of Death and The Game of Death II. I've seen Game of Death before, but never Game of Death II and let me tell you, if you're into really bad movies that are so bad they're good, I would recommend both of those movies. While Way of the Dragon, Fists of Fury and The Big Boss provide entertainment not only with epic martial arts battles, their hilarious Cantonese-to-English re-dubs, the Game of Death movies are entertaining in a whole new way.

Game of Death was a movie Lee was working on before his death and he only shot 22 minutes of footage for it. Golden Harvest Productions, the studio that produced Lee's Hong Kong movies, took those 22 minutes and decided to build an entire movie out of it. The movie was a far cry from Lee's vision and it was a real stretch on the part of the producers.

To pull this off, they used two guys that kind of looked like Bruce Lee and filmed them either from behind or from far away and the actors almost always wore sunglasses. For the close ups, they used stock footage of Lee's old movies. There is actually a scene in Game of Death where the main character (the Bruce Lee look-alike) is sitting at a desk looking at one of the bad guys through a mirror, and they actually taped a picture of Bruce Lee on the mirror hiding the actor's face. It's Lee's face and the guy's torso. An early form of photo-shop, I guess. I know this was made in 1979, but you'd think even back then they'd give the audience a little more credit. Actually, the storyline for the movie isn't horrible, but it's more fun watching how the production team tried to pull this off. You really have to suspend your disbelief or be totally ignorant, or very stupid to watch this movie without laughing. It's just great stuff.

As for Game of Death II, I could only watch about 10 minutes of it before the absurdity of it forced me to hit the stop button. I don't know what they were trying to pull off in that movie, but they used more stock footage from Lee's older movies and spliced them together with some actor who they only shot from the side and from behind. It made no sense at all.

I also finally bought my own bowling ball shortly before my vacation. It's nothing special, just a marked down 12lb ball that I bought at Dicks. I think the holes are too big and now I know what people mean when they say you have to get a ball custome-drilled just for your fingers. But I did manage to bowl my first 200 game with it on Monday when I bowled a 213 at the Crafton-Ingram lanes. Pretty impressive considering the venue, but I didn't bowl too well other than that so I can't get too big an ego about it. This ball might be 12 pounds, but it feels heavier because of the size of the holes. Anyway, I didn't know what I thought would happen when I finally cracked the 200 ceiling. It was like playing a video game and finally making it to the next level. Nothing special happens, you just keep playing.

So that was my vacation. Nothing special, but it's always nice to have a week off.

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