Protocol Snow

Taiwan is a food lover’s paradise with lots of unique and tasty delicacies. One of their most popular exports to the U.S. is boba tea, which some people call bubble tea. Another treat is Ai Yu jelly, which isn’t as mainstream here but is ubiquitous in Taiwan. Walk around any of the many Taiwanese night markets and you’re guaranteed to see multiple Ai Yu stands with lines of people.

Ai Yu is made from the seeds of the Jelly fig and has essentially the same consistency as Jello. It is practically tasteless by itself so traditionally, lemon juice or other enhancements are added. I’ll show you how to make this refreshing dessert! (so easy even I can do it)

This is all you need. You’ll have to go to your local Asian supermarket to find cans of Ai Yu. Chances are if you have a decent market, they’ll have a plentiful supply. Get the “Made in Taiwan” cans if available for best taste.

I like adding almond jelly for a little variety. I think this is probably sold in regular American supermarkets as well, but if you’re already at the Asian market, you can most likely find this right next to the Ai Yu cans and save yourself a trip.

Opening the can gives you a block of Ai Yu. Chop it up to pieces of desired size. Do the same with the almond jelly. Next, add as much water as you want and then squeeze some lemon juice. For a bowl of this size, I use half a can of Ai Yu, half a can of almond jelly, about a cup of water, and juice from one lemon.

The finished product! I can’t even call this a recipe since there’s literally 2 steps. It makes a refreshing treat and tastes just like they make it in Taiwan.

If you haven’t seen the news, Darth Vader and Yoda have been confirmed to be playable characters in Soul Calibur 4. I don’t even know what to say about this, it’s the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard. Again, that’s coming from a guy who loves Street Fighter the Movie.

Yes, I know that Link was in Soul Calibur 2. And that Final Fantasy characters meet Disney characters in Kingdom Hearts. And that Mario and company played basketball with NBA stars in NBA Street V3.

Actually, maybe this doesn’t seem as bad in comparison.

Watch the trailer to see Mitsurugi and Darth Vader clashing sword and lightsaber.

American Gladiators is so deliciously awesome. Pure ’80s cheese just the way I like it. Of course, I also LOVE Bloodsport and Street Fighter: The Movie so you be the judge. I live for unintentional hilarity.

But if nothing else, watch it for Crush, the new darling of the Internet.

Don’t get fooled by her looks, she’s a legitimate Muay Thai fighter. She absolutely brutalized one of the contestants in the Joust event yesterday. Well, not that those two things necessarily have any correlation, but she’s my favorite Gladiator. Other favorites are Wolf and Titan.

And oh yeah, I’m back at school. My backlog of posts I keep intending to write continues to grow. I’ll get around to it one of these days…

Penny Arcade comics are hit-or-miss, but they do have some classics. They recently started a service selling full size prints of virtually all their comics and I decided to pick up a few of my favorites for decorating purposes.

The comics come printed on thick stock paper and seem perfect for hanging on the wall. I’m happy with them, though the customer service at the Penny Arcade store could use some work. I never got notification that my order was shipped and my order status on the website is still blank. After 10 business days, I sent them an email asking if they were having problems printing the comics, but never got a reply. The comics showed up all of a sudden yesterday though, 12 business days after my order.

I have it all planned out. When I’m officially a licensed doctor, this is going up in my office. Orange Box DVD next to the poster to give you an idea of the print scale.
Original comic

This one will be displayed in my game room. The comic’s actually referring to the John Woo Stranglehold game, I don’t know why I put Mass Effect next to it. From what I hear though, Mass Effect is so good that it can blast your nuts off and you’ll grin. I’ll finally play it for myself today.
Original comic

And this last one will be in the bathroom. Maybe even in the women’s restroom if I have my own clinic someday.
Original comic

I’m leaving for Los Angeles and winter break today yay!!!

Here’s an example of how addicted I am to Team Fortress 2. I was driving on the freeway today and was behind a group of cars. I couldn’t help thinking how… exposed their backs were and how juicy of a target they were.

Prime time for some back stabbing and multi-kills. My left hand on the steering wheel was practically hitting an invisible “3” key to switch to my knife.

(For the uninitiated, I like playing the spy class in TF2. It involves a lot of sneaky disguises and cloaking to maneuver around the enemy team and backstab for instant kills. Other favorite classes: demoman, pyro)

I just watched the tail end of the Celtics/Knicks game (final score: 104-59 Celtics) and now the Nuggets/Lakers game came on. The camera panned over the Los Angeles skyline and zoomed onto downtown L.A. and Staples Center. For possibly the first time in my life, I felt homesick. Christmas break can’t come soon enough.

I am so addicted to Team Fortress 2. When I can’t exercise any self-control, I turn to my buddy Temptation Blocker. It is a very cool app where you can block any program on your computer for a specified time interval. If you try to run the blocked program, a message pops up telling you to go back to work. And just in case you have to run that program, you can enter a 32 character password to bypass the timer.

Thank god for this application because I still feel like I’m on Thanksgiving break. Now to get some work done.