Slhoka
Smash Lord
Link to original post: [drupal=4441]Part 1 - July 10 : «Hey, can I borrow some of your clothes ?»[/drupal]
I wake up at 8:30 am. Brendan’s got to work till 2pm, and I need to call my flying company to take care of my luggage. Apparently, it is supposed to be delivered at Brendan’s place some time after its arrival in Los Angeles Airport, at 12:30pm. Well, nothing to do but hope, I guess.
While Brendan is off to work, I try using the internet, but even with his network’s password, it doesn’t seem to work. The morning’s gonna be long...
Luckily, it isn’t : Brendan’s dad arrives, and we start chatting a bit. He’s a really interesting guy. He explains me that he takes part in model planes flying competitions. He showed me his models, and it looks really cool. It’s pretty funny, because the way he speaks about it reminds me of smash tournaments : it’s all about meeting people from other parts of the world, who don’t speak the same language and have a completely different background, but who share the same passion.
Later in the morning, we go to a nearby restaurant, where he offers me an american breakfast. I try a breakfast burrito, and while I’m not used to non-sweet food in the morning, I have to say it was really, really good ! A bit too big, I’d say, but I guess it’s because I don’t eat too much in the morning. Then, we chat a bit and I help him on a few errands. He also helps me find a replacement battery for my camera, which means I’ll add pictures on the next blog entries.
When Brendan comes back from work, we decide to go for a hike in the mountains near Camarillo. The problem is, my luggage hasn’t arrived yet, and I don’t have any clothes for hiking. So, I have to borrow shorts from Brendan. But when it comes to shoes, it just doesn’t work : I have small feet, and his shoes are way too big. So we give a ride home to his friend Kilo, and stop there to borrow his shoes, which are much closer to my size. We also stop to eat at In-N-Out, something which seems mandatory on the West Coast. And we realize it’s already 5pm, so we may not go on a hike today, and to do that tomorrow. Instead, we’ll spend the evening at Oscar’s place.
But before that, we stay at Brendan’s place to have dinner with his dad... and while waiting for the dinner to be ready (yes, we’re lazy *****), we just say «hey, why don’t we play Melee ?» And that’s how began this awful moment, known as the «Sonic Riders half-hour».
There were 11 Melee discs at Brendan’s place. Ten PAL games I brought for those who wanted one at Genesis, and my NTSC one. Problem : my NTSC’s a Japanese disc, and I didn’t know it wasn’t working on the US gamecubes. Other problem : we can’t use my wii, as my luggage hasn’t arrived yet, and we can’t use my freeloader and action replay, as they are for PAL. So... we can’t play Melee. But why not trying another game ?
However, it turns out that the only other 2P game Brendan has is... Sonic Riders. I never played it before, but Brendan tells me it’s ok. So we set up and start playing it, and my... I can’t say it was great. Basically, Brendan was always finishing first by spamming the boost button, and I wasn’t doing too great because I didn’t get what was going on most of the time. After about half an hour, it really becomes too awkward, and we decide to stop. Luckily, Brendan’s father is done with the cooking.
I’m still amazed by how good it was : we had some garlic bread (I never tried that before), as well as an tentative chili with pasta, which wasn’t a chili at all but was definitely awesome. Add some salad some mexican sauce I didn’t know, plus a few excellent strawberries, as well as a great Californian weather and a good chat, and you’ll have an idea of how relaxed I felt.
Then, we went at Oscar’s place (did I tell you that his dog is amazing ?), and we started playing Melee. Well, to be honest, I wasn’t too relaxed anymore, at least in the game. Oscar’s so good and so fast, it’s really impressive. We got ***** pretty hard, and I think I only won 2 games, against his Puff and his Marth. It was really cool, though, because I didn’t get to play him or Brendan during my 2009 trip.
Around midnight, we decided to go home, as both Brendan and me were really tired. Nothing extraordinary happened on this day, but I must say that that in order to relax after my epic trip from yesterday, it couldn’t have been better.
TD;DR :
Awesome day in Cali.
Brendan and his father are too cool.
Sonic Riders suck.
I’m in love with garlic bread.
Oscar’s too good (and his dog is the best !)
I wake up at 8:30 am. Brendan’s got to work till 2pm, and I need to call my flying company to take care of my luggage. Apparently, it is supposed to be delivered at Brendan’s place some time after its arrival in Los Angeles Airport, at 12:30pm. Well, nothing to do but hope, I guess.
While Brendan is off to work, I try using the internet, but even with his network’s password, it doesn’t seem to work. The morning’s gonna be long...
Luckily, it isn’t : Brendan’s dad arrives, and we start chatting a bit. He’s a really interesting guy. He explains me that he takes part in model planes flying competitions. He showed me his models, and it looks really cool. It’s pretty funny, because the way he speaks about it reminds me of smash tournaments : it’s all about meeting people from other parts of the world, who don’t speak the same language and have a completely different background, but who share the same passion.
Later in the morning, we go to a nearby restaurant, where he offers me an american breakfast. I try a breakfast burrito, and while I’m not used to non-sweet food in the morning, I have to say it was really, really good ! A bit too big, I’d say, but I guess it’s because I don’t eat too much in the morning. Then, we chat a bit and I help him on a few errands. He also helps me find a replacement battery for my camera, which means I’ll add pictures on the next blog entries.
When Brendan comes back from work, we decide to go for a hike in the mountains near Camarillo. The problem is, my luggage hasn’t arrived yet, and I don’t have any clothes for hiking. So, I have to borrow shorts from Brendan. But when it comes to shoes, it just doesn’t work : I have small feet, and his shoes are way too big. So we give a ride home to his friend Kilo, and stop there to borrow his shoes, which are much closer to my size. We also stop to eat at In-N-Out, something which seems mandatory on the West Coast. And we realize it’s already 5pm, so we may not go on a hike today, and to do that tomorrow. Instead, we’ll spend the evening at Oscar’s place.
But before that, we stay at Brendan’s place to have dinner with his dad... and while waiting for the dinner to be ready (yes, we’re lazy *****), we just say «hey, why don’t we play Melee ?» And that’s how began this awful moment, known as the «Sonic Riders half-hour».
There were 11 Melee discs at Brendan’s place. Ten PAL games I brought for those who wanted one at Genesis, and my NTSC one. Problem : my NTSC’s a Japanese disc, and I didn’t know it wasn’t working on the US gamecubes. Other problem : we can’t use my wii, as my luggage hasn’t arrived yet, and we can’t use my freeloader and action replay, as they are for PAL. So... we can’t play Melee. But why not trying another game ?
However, it turns out that the only other 2P game Brendan has is... Sonic Riders. I never played it before, but Brendan tells me it’s ok. So we set up and start playing it, and my... I can’t say it was great. Basically, Brendan was always finishing first by spamming the boost button, and I wasn’t doing too great because I didn’t get what was going on most of the time. After about half an hour, it really becomes too awkward, and we decide to stop. Luckily, Brendan’s father is done with the cooking.
I’m still amazed by how good it was : we had some garlic bread (I never tried that before), as well as an tentative chili with pasta, which wasn’t a chili at all but was definitely awesome. Add some salad some mexican sauce I didn’t know, plus a few excellent strawberries, as well as a great Californian weather and a good chat, and you’ll have an idea of how relaxed I felt.
Then, we went at Oscar’s place (did I tell you that his dog is amazing ?), and we started playing Melee. Well, to be honest, I wasn’t too relaxed anymore, at least in the game. Oscar’s so good and so fast, it’s really impressive. We got ***** pretty hard, and I think I only won 2 games, against his Puff and his Marth. It was really cool, though, because I didn’t get to play him or Brendan during my 2009 trip.
Around midnight, we decided to go home, as both Brendan and me were really tired. Nothing extraordinary happened on this day, but I must say that that in order to relax after my epic trip from yesterday, it couldn’t have been better.
TD;DR :
Awesome day in Cali.
Brendan and his father are too cool.
Sonic Riders suck.
I’m in love with garlic bread.
Oscar’s too good (and his dog is the best !)
