Jawyei's Events Blog

Events: Foo Fighters 2011

2011-12-13T22:39:00.002+13:00

The Foo Fighters's concert was at Western Springs Stadium on the 13th of December. I was there with Michael Jacobson. Yes, me, Jawyei, was at a concert. I don't know why it's so unbelievable to some of you but I was there. Mike J texted me late in October whether I wanted to go the Foo Fighters. Seeing as I've never been to a concert before, I was curious to see what it was like and what better concert to go to than the Foos.

Nearing the date, I was amping myself for a great evening. However, on the day itself it was raining. Not pouring down but drizzling. Throughout the day I was hoping it would clear up just for the evening but it wasn't the case. At $120 a ticket, I wasn't going to wuss out. I could have though, got myself some rain proof clothing but I thought it might clear up. Mike had some rubbish bags when I picked him up at but only one large one. I got a tiny white one which couldn't fit over my shoulders.

When we got to the event at about 6.30pm, we were in line for 20 minutes....for the toilets. There were only about 6 toilets for silver ticket holders. Later we found out the rest of them were all neatly arranged in the gold ticket area. It seems strange to me that organisers would deprive of such things or were they thinking there weren't going to be that many people going to see one of the biggest rock bands in the world? We also had hecklers and one was a stand out. She said, "Look at the line; I hope you're not busting to go". No, I'm not busting to go so shut the...

When we got our spot on the grass at the top of the embankment Tenacious D was just starting. Now, I'm not sure if it was because we were in the cheap seats but the sound was a bit off. Throughout the concert I could either hear the guitar but not the singing or vice versa. It's not so much of a problem if you know the songs and can sing alone with them but I don't know most of Tenacious D's material. They were only on for about 50 minutes before the Foos got on and they were doing a 165 minutes set.

The sound problem, which was still there, wasn't too much of a concern as I know every song they played except for the ones off their new album. The energy was electric and everyone was really getting into it. The rain even stopped at about 9pm. It might be the case for all concerts but they really knew how to get the crowd going. I was fully enjoying until some people were yelling over the fenced area how they're getting this for free. Not to mention some roaming people who decided to stop right next to Mike and I and started talking rather rocking out. It was a welcomed when they left and I could get back into it again.

The night was definitely interesting and well worth the experience. Next time though I'd like to be closer to the stage if possible. Even though there was a lot of energy where we were, the guys in the gold looked like they were having a crazy time. Would also be good not to just have to look at the big screen all the time. The biggest regret I had this night was not having a compact camera. I got some photos but it was using my crappy Nokia. I guess it's better than nothing but damn, maybe it's time to get an iphone...

Events: Diwali Festival 2011

2011-10-09T22:34:00.000+13:00

The last Diwali festival I went to was way back when I was at university. At an estimate, 10 years have past since then. I don't remember much of it besides Indian food. I've got selective memory when it comes to these things so when the banners were up for 2011's Auckland Diwali Festival I had to go and make more of a memory.

It was dubbed the festival of light. When I got into Aotea Square at about half eight on the Sunday, it was suitably dark for what I expected to be; light fantastic. In my mind I was thinking lamps and candle display. I guess I was basing it too much on the Chinese Lantern Festival. I'm not sure if I got there too late or if something like that was somewhere else but it was definitely not very lightly. What I got instead was something like a rock concert. Everyone was huddle around the stage bouncing alone and having a good time. Those that weren't were in line at the food stores.

Ah, the food stores. There's nothing like walking the street where I've walked to get to work, smelling of spices and all things yum. It's not often in New Zealand that I get to waft in aromatic sensations so I took my time examining each stall. I didn't have any cash on me so no delights were bought.

The night ending with fireworks which started off small and had a really long pause. When people thought that was it, the rest of the fireworks came on. After that finished I hoped back on the trained slightly disappointed. What I imagine it would be it wasn't. Maybe next time I need to take someone that's Indian.

Events: Auckland Food Show 2011

2011-07-30T16:20:00.001+12:00

It’s that time of the year again. The Food Show 2011. The venue was the same as last year but the company was different. We had additional Food Showees in the form of Alex Mason and Andrew Mardon along with Kim Shepherd, Michael Jacobson and myself. Having to have waited in line either in the cold or rain in the previous two years I pre-booked tickets this year and saved $2.50. However it was more expensive than last year and I don’t know why. When we got to the event there was no line, it was just as cold but it wasn’t raining. It didn’t seem like there were less people there. Maybe this pre-booking on the Internet thing might be catching on.

The show this year was like that of last year. Not much difference and thus I have the same to say about it. What it really should have is sections of food stalls given a theme. I know it’s a commercial venture and people buy floor space but still, it would make the show that much better. What was missing and it was missing last year as well was this one stall which had these olives that Mike J and I consider the best olives we’ve ever tasted. Since my first food show I’ve been on the look out for those but never seem to find it

Shopping wise, I’m always on the look out for nice spicy foods. This year I bought a 3 for $10 laska+lentil curry pre-made. There was quite a hot tabasco sauce I wanted and quite a nice peanut satay sauce but never got around to heading back to the stalls.

Trekking the stalls this year seems to be quite quick. I’m not sure if it was because we had more people but the pace was faster than I was expecting. Still, what I wanted to sample I did. I noticed this year there was a cooking type show and even spotted NZ’s first top chef run past me with hands full of gear. Didn’t get to check that out this year but maybe next however those sorts of cooking shows aren’t as interesting if you can’t eat the food they cook.

I’m all keen for the Food Show 2012. You want to come?

Musings: A Nostalgic Moment

2011-05-15T21:27:00.001+12:00

Having been in Auckland now for while and still without a job I have I bit a rather large bullet and applied for unemployment benefit. I've applied before. Towards the end of 2004, not too long after my graduation, I couldn't get a job in Auckland, urge me to get the benefit. It was better than dwindelling my savings and that amount will be taxed out of me when I get a job anyway. I was reluctant at first but I eventually made the walk to the WINZ office on Queen Street. Upon reaching the counter to make an appointment I was told that appointments are done over the phone. In my mind it played out as "Go away you government leeching person. Call us so I can answer the phone and do something I could just do right now". First impressions weren’t good for them and then the pre-benefit seminar made it even worse. Now I am in the same position. No job in Auckland requiring financial assistance.

Last time I was in Auckland Central. I could just walk to the office. This time I had to discover the foreign concept of public transport. What is this that I have to abide by an inconsistent schedule and getting off not near where I want to go? It's a strange concept but I'm all for that than having to pay moneys to stop my car in a spot.

After one meeting with WINZ I decided to head to the University of Auckland to see if I can find someone to have some lunch. It was when I couldn't find anyone for lunch that I found myself seated in the exact same location, alone with lunch in hand, 10 years ago. It was in the upper level of the gymnasium over looking the physical recreation people doing physical recreational things. The moment was as pure and shocking as the best nostalgic moment anyone has. It made me think, 10 years on from when I first entered university, what has changed?

I suppose a lot has changed in my surroundings but I never thought when I was sitting in that gymnasium, 10 years from then I'll be back in the same position. Even though the moment was incredibly cool it was painfully depressing as well. It relates back previous blog entries and I can't help but think, 10 years on, am I really that different to that 18 year old boy. The boy who was afraid to take out his brick black flip Motorola Microtac 5200 phone because everyone had Alactel 301 and their variants to the boy who has a black flip Nokia phone to everyone else's smart phones. The boy who wore black school shoes as it was the only good pair of shoes he has to the boy who wears black school shoes...

It's not all bad. I do have something the 18 year old boy didn't have. Hindsight. I am wiser now I guess but there's always something that I feel I'm missing and never obtained in the last 10 years.

Events: Auckland Migration

2011-04-19T15:45:00.000+12:00

The process started when Kim Shepherd and Joshua Smyth decided to move out of their current residence and look for accommodation with myself. I was having no luck relocating. My initial plan fell through after I finished at Northtec so I had to start looking for places myself. Single room apartments didn't have car parks and single room rentals were rare or too expensive. I tried looking for places that are after flatmates and after about 10 emails/txt's within two weeks I only ever got 3 replies. One was good, said to come down have a look but within an hour they contacted me back saying the room was filled. One did say come have a look and while I was down the last one contacted me and ask if I could come the following day. Since I couldn't make it I txted them back asking if today was possible but never got a reply. The one I did look at was hesitant about accepting an unemployed person. That can't be helped as I was having no luck with jobs either. It was good that Kim and Josh wanted to move out as well. Things became really quick then.

We lined up a few houses to look at on a Saturday then proceeded to try viewing them. That wasn't a good plan but we did get to see two places. One was on Dominion Road the other in Remuera. We didn't like the Dominion Road one because it was only until October and the location wasn't the best. The Remuera one looked homely and by the time we got to the viewing there was only three families there. We didn't think we would have much of a chance but we applied for it anyway. The application was quick, the following week we heard back from the land agent and she told us we got the house. Within two weeks we've found a place compared to my two months of looking.

So now that I'm in Auckland, hopefully things might start getting better for me. It could be another one of my bad decisions but now at least I can see where it takes me rather than wonder about it. Now where's that job?

Musings: Distance

2011-02-27T12:38:00.002+13:00

A friend of mine once said that it's hard to keep in contact with people that aren't close to where are. He continues to say that if you are able to talk to them in some way that's good enough. There are a lot of truths in what he says. A lot of people, once they finish high school lose touch with the good friends they have made there. Why? Well sometimes it's because you don't like the people you met at high school and wouldn't bat an eye if you never see or hear from them again but most of the time it's because they've moved on to the next stage in life and usually that means away from where everyone congregated.

The next stage in life after high school for me was university. There's a saying that goes, the friends you make at university are they friends you'll have for life. For a lot of people that's what happens but I argue it's because usually during the university years you are working with and making friends that are going to be working in the same field as you and often going to be in the same area after university.

For those that move away, as the years goes on without regular face to face contact, they start to become distant. That's because friendships aren't nurtured and people grow apart. Friends become acquaintances and then acquaintances are never heard from again. Reasons they have moved away might be because they have found a career path in that location or a partner has taken them there. Whilst there, the people they met will then become their 'friends for life' and usually due to proximity. We are prone to a life of convenience and it even applies to the people in our lives.

It's not to say those you lose contact with disappear into obscurity. No. If it happens it takes a very long time. However, what I am trying to say is the more time that separates people the more distant a person can get or seem. It's because without regular contact you don't know what the others are doing and the events they have been through. You cannot grow with them, so to speak, and share their experiences. Without that sharing you know less of a person as time goes on. People can talk about it but without experiencing it with them, one it's not the same.

Of course when I talk about these things, I talking from my experiences. It has been 7 years since I finished university and 11 years since high school at the time of writing this. I moved back to Whangarei from Auckland because I couldn't get a job and living expenses was a concern. Ever since then I have kept up with people as much as I could but whenever I do it was a special trip. There was no 'hanging out' in the sense you could just head out for a casual gathering and then come back. Sure it was doable but at 4 hours minimum travel time plus travel time in Auckland and time spent with friends, it's not a quick night out. Add to those, 25 litres of petrol, it isn’t cheap either. Nevertheless whenever people invited me or I need a weekend away I would travel down.

As the years went on I felt like I was becoming less a part of the group but as the visitor from the north. New bonds form what was local and easy to access, I've been in Whangarei. The group moves forward this visitor is just that, a visitor. I have seen this with friends I have. All not in the area that I’m in. All moving on with their lives. Some of them have got married, some of them have migrated overseas, and some of them are buying if not bought a house and other living the life of the mid-late 20 something’s. As everyone moves with time it seems like I'm getting left behind and as the distance increases, I'm left wondering, could I close the gap?

The Internet, through instant messengers and social networking helps but what if the person doesn't use them? For some reason though, instant messages, emails and other forms of text communication is not the same as 'hanging out'. Though the facilities are there, I've found, as we move forward, even Internet communications fades. It seems like the only way is to move into the same area as them.

Events: Lantern Festival 2011

2011-02-20T20:29:00.002+13:00

One Lunar Year has passed since I was at the last Lantern Festival held at Albert Park in Auckland and I had one year to make up for my mistake I made last year. Those were leaving too late and getting traffic jammed in Auckland central thus extending the time to find a car park, abandoning the friends I went with and then completely losing them in the crowd and being too frantic and self hating that I did the mentioned things that I didn't get any food from any of the food stalls that line the entire length of Princess Street.

This year Kim Shepherd and I decided to head into town early. It was easier done as I wasn't driving from Hamilton but when we got into city centre it took us about one and half hours to actually find a park due to traffic, restricted parking and parking lots being full. Finally we found a parking lot that wasn't full at Sky City Casino before embarking to the event.

The timing of the parking wasn't all bad. Sure it sucks to just sit at lights crawling a couple of car spaces forward before stopping again and watching all the party goers in their nice dress flowing around you, but when we actually got to the event it wad night fall. First was to get food. This time I actually went to get something to eat and although some of the snacks I got were average, the Nasi Lemak I had was right on point the flavours you'd get in Malaysia.

The lantern festival is one of the few events in Auckland where you can experience what it's like to be in a densely populated country. It's the experience of not having personal space, something we take for granted in New Zealand. As Kim puts it you slot yourself into the mass of people and just move in the general direction they move. You also can't be nice about getting you place especially lining up for food. Be nice and it'll never be your turn. No where else I've been to in New Zealand do you get to experience that.

With food out of the way it was time to take look at the lanterns. I was impressed that even though there were a couple of setups that was recycled from last year, the majority of them were new. Kim mentioned that it was a shame that they don't decorate the existing sculpture and fittings there with lanterns just to give them a different look. I agreed, Albert Park looks really different when the festival is on and by decorating the existing fixtures, it would change the feel of the park more.

The evening ended with a live show. It was about 10pm by the time we wondered into the concert area and the band that was playing was Askar Grey Wolf. A very interesting and confusing band. They fuse folk music from China, India, Middle East and Central Europe and mix it with rock. The combination is definitely something I haven't heard before. The crowd was quite placid during the show but some how the lead singer, who was a character in himself. A Chinese Led Zeppelin look a like, he was rocking the small crowd to them wanting an encore. It was a shame it was such a small crowd but he did work them even though they had no idea what he was saying or singing. I think at a proper music event, the people would be more into it but still very entertaining to watch and listen to.

I'm very impressed with this festival. I thought that because I've seen it last year it wouldn't be appealing again this year. I was wrong. I guess it's just something that I enjoy no matter how many times I've seen it. It was just a shame I was not able to share this with someone was unable to see most of event due to my mistake I made last year. We'll have to try this again next year.

Events: Gaidhealtard 2011

2011-01-08T20:44:00.001+13:00

For the past so many years I've known Michael Jacobson he has always gone to this mysterious event called Gaidhealtard. I've always wondered what really goes on there and if Mike was part of a cult in which they dress up funny and do silly things. With Kim Shepherd and Stephan Cantwell in town over the New Year period a road trip was in order. All the way to Whangarei Heads, from...Whangarei. About a 30 minute drive through some nice scenic beaches of the winterless north.

It's not a Jawyei road trip without getting lost. I was going in the right direction when everything seems too good. Self doubt of how smooth things were travelling to someplace I haven't been before I decided to turn around and get lost. Mike had to be called and we found out we were actually going in the correct way.

When we arrived my suspicions were correct although it wasn't a cult but they still dressed funny and did silly things. Gaidhealtard is held at Whangarei Heads Primary school situated near the base of Mount Manaia. Mount Manaia provides a beautiful backdrop to an essentially a mini folk festival that's held over one week. The event consists of music, workshops, music, dancing, music, singing, music and various activities that involve music. I felt out of place as, unlike Kim and Stephen, I have never learnt to play an instrument. Never the less I did enjoy the activities we had there and even took some footage of the lads having a jam.

It was a really good way to welcome in the year and I can see why Mike goes to this event every year. It's not a massive drunken party but what a good way to start the New Year.

Events: Labour Weekend 2010

2010-10-25T11:16:00.002+13:00

For the last so many years, Michael Jacobson have had his annual Labour Weekend Bach at Teal Bay trip. Sadly I can't say I've been there since the tradition started but I can say that I was there a possibly the last one in awhile. Mike J is looking at going overseas next year and unless he is that diligent, he won't be coming back to New Zealand just so he can head out to the bach his grandfather built more than 50 years ago. I'm sure his friends would agree he should but....

Not much to say really besides it's the usual affair of sun, sand, sea, sleep and salivating to the food on offer, which is more than enough for everyone and all cooked on iconic wood burning BBQ. Oh and there was enough alcohol to keep everyone 'happy' as well. The classic New Zealand relaxing weekend. Instead of writing, here are some pictures of what we got up to. More photos on my facebook.

The crew of 2010, missing about four people who were out back

At Mimiwhangata just down the road from Mike J's bach

Iconic wood BBQ

Need wood for bonfire

What a way to finish the evening

Three years on

2010-10-04T21:08:00.000+13:00

Today, the 4th of October 2009 marks two years since Dad passed away. It seems like an eternity ago. Another life time. To most this date is just another day but it will forever be one of my darkest days. I can't write any more without it being a sob fest so I shall end here. It is fair to say this should always serve as a reminder to get a move on to not procrastinate. I hope this would be the case. I started this blog at least, I've been meaning to for the past year. Today was the reminder to me. Get a move on.

Today, the 4th of October 2010 marks three years since Dad passed away. Last year I wanted to get a move on and not procrastinate. I think I've achieved that, somewhat, since then up until about middle of this year. At about the same time my contract got renewed the second time it seems to downhill from there. I was involved in less and less activities and just in general started losing motivation to do anything. I guess it has been the constant rejections from jobs and the fact I'm still in Whangarei. I didn't know it would take this long and it seems like I've wasted another year. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I can move onwards or before I completely run out of motivation.

I'm just wondering who reads my blog. If you do, leave a comment. Thanks :)

Musings: Why I want to move

2010-09-05T20:43:00.000+12:00

There might have been a misunderstanding or I didn't explain it right but here are the reasons why I want to move out. I've been trying to move out of Whangarei since the beginning of 2006 after iGRIN Internet. I thought after having one year's job experience I could cross off those pre-requisites for future jobs. But after about 20 applications over three months, nothing came up I was presented with a job at UIT Ltd.

It wasn't a job I went to university for and after 12 months I thought I need to do something more towards my teenage dream of being a game designer. I applied for Media Design School's game development course and was all ready to leave Whangarei to try Auckland again when Dad was diagnosed with cancer. I immediately withdrew my application and asked for my job back at UIT Ltd in a part time role.

After another 12 months at UIT Ltd I thought it would be a good idea to sort out our household after Dad's passing. In those 12 months nothing happened in terms of our household and I needed to do something to incite change. I resigned from UIT Ltd and picked up the job at NorthTec so I could have time for myself to relearn some of my forgotten university knowledge and to sort out, deconstruct and throw away all of the junk Mum and Dad had hoarded over the years. My plans were to make living at home slightly different. So that we are not just waiting for Dad to return.

After a year at NorthTec's Art Department on low salary it was time again to try Auckland/Hamilton's market to see if I could earn a decent wage after now done quite a few years of work experience. Thus started, for the third time, since I graduated, the job search. Also it was a good opportunity to see how Mum and my sister would live if I'm not at home anymore. That was one of my reasons to not look for a job in Whangarei but somewhere where I am far enough away but close enough to come home if needed. In the mean time my boss at NorthTec wanted me back and I said if everyone was happy that I'm actively looking for work then I'll take the job.

The other reason was at about 2008 my friends in Whangarei started to move out of Whangarei and there were less and less things for me to do. I'm reminded of the quote, "The only things I could really do was exercise, go online or watch or read something" by Fully Sick Rapper, Christiaan van Vuuren at the time he got released from hospital back in June to resume his normal life (http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/3862656/Fully-sick-rapper-to-leave-hospital). Unless I am organising events I feel quarantined at home. The obvious solution of just go out and do things is apparent but if you know me, you'd know that it's something I can't just do.

When it does get too much for me, I invite myself to friends'. I've often said, when I go visit people in Auckland and/or Hamilton, all I'm doing there is hanging out. Which is fine as that’s what I desired but after about five years, I’m getting tired having to set up time and spend at the minimum of $50 just so I can be around people.

My last paragraph of my Events: A dinner, a wedding and an old fashion catch-up entry contributes to me wanting to move. Even though I'm at home and Mum and my sister is always around me. I am getting quite lonely. Hopefully my new start will commence soon.

Events: Auckland Food Show 2010

2010-08-05T15:29:00.000+12:00

One year has passed since I was at the last Food Show where I was standing in the rain and the cold. This year I stood in the cold again but in a much shorter line. In company were Kim Shepherd, Michael Jacobson and his flatmate Jonathan [Lastname]. Within the show I encountered Tuan Chen and Abhishek Reddy. Everyone came on their own accord and had no influence by me that the Food Show would be an excellent outing.

$22 entry but you had all of ASB showground's hangers lined of food and wine stalls to sample from. The plan was simple; sample as many stalls as you could to your money's worth. It was successful for the most parts but we were hindered by over crowding on stalls and a huge increase of house and kitchenware booths taking up valuable sampling space. There was also a stall I found where they didn't have samples. You had to pay for everything. They were selling fish and chips but still, give us samples!

On display at the Food Show are New Zealand's finest products. Wine, cheeses, diary, oils and meats. Not good if you're a vegetarian although there was one vegetarian stall there selling imitation meats. What was missing at the Food Show that was there last year was an asian section. It was there that you found the imitation meats but it was also the place where you found things that were a bit unusual.

The missing section got me thinking that the show could be laid out better. They should have sections that that had similar or complimenting products. Maybe they have and I wasn't paying too much attention or it could of been I was walking in the way not to their recommended walking path but it seems weird to snacking on dry goods and then trying pasta at the next stall. I think it would be great if they had sections where they have asian food or french food etc. Then people of New Zealand will get a better understanding of cuisine.

It wasn't as good as last year's show but it was still excellent and will be trying to get more people to go to the show on their own accords next year. Hopefully I'll see you there.

Events: A dinner, a wedding and an old fashion catch-up

2010-07-23T20:16:00.000+12:00

Three events spanning two cities, marred by a botched plane ticking booking, non-perfect cooking and lack of wrapping knowledge. It began by choosing a time slot to head into Wellington at 1pm. The thinking was not to rush to get to the airport however the wedding was at 1pm which I didn't realise. A re-booking fee ($50) was added for me to change to a cheaper flight (would of been $50+ cheaper).

The new flight time was 8am in the morning. I decided to organise accommodation with the Radfords' on the Friday and also cook them a two course Malaysian dinner. Two courses because I don't know how to make a Malaysian dessert. Shrimp Laksa and Hainanese Chicken Rice. The cooking wasn't perfect. The Laksa came out dry and the chicken wasn't seasoned enough. These two dishes can be a meal by themselves and as simple as they are, they do require a lot of preparation. Especially if you're doing it all from scratch. I will make up for it next time I visit.

Saturday 17th July 2010 Sally Doughty and Karl Eagle. The wedding was held in Wellington. At Old St. Paul's church with the reception at Silverstream in Lower Hutt. Due to my not functioning camera I didn't take any pictures of these two locations. However, these venue were a good fit for a traditional wedding. You have an old style church with earlities architecture and stained glass windows followed by the modern angled design at the reception.

Everything went smoothly besides the annoyances of rain and cold. But that didn't hinder the celebrations as the couple had the foresight of arranging cutting of the cake with tea or coffee inside the church. I would of hate to be the bride's maids at photo session being outside but they all made it to the reception without being sick.

This wouldn't be a Jawyei blog without my comments on the food at the reception. All in all it was good, we got served buns, a leaf salad, couscous salad, vegetable stir fry, roasted potatoes, chicken pasta, curried mushrooms, ham on bone and roasted beef. I think there might have been one other dish. The dish that was most outstanding was the potatoes. Perfectly cooked with a firm coating and almost mash potato like texture in the centre. The most disappointing was the stir fry vegetables. Uninspired, some overcooked, some undercooked. Good thing the salads made up for it.

During my time at Wellington I caught up with friends I haven't talked to for awhile. One of them was Stephen Cantwell. After a lengthy discussion on life and the progression of time, combined with marriage of Sally and Karl Eagle, the marriage of Ashliegh and Daniel Radford, the overseas explorations of friends and the secured job placements, that time has finally caught up with me. People around me are moving on to the next stages of life. As it should be being in the late 20s now. I realise that I cannot keep doing what I've been doing for the past seven years. Before I'm 30, I want to have some experience of what it's like being a mid 20s person. I missed out on most of the antics of my late teens and early 20s, I'm not going to miss out on the mid 20s before I'm 30. That's my goal currently but for that to happen I need to move out of home and to do that I need a job. It's great being at NorthTec and being amongst the new students but I am the 'old guy'. I remember when I was at Grafton Hall of Residence and there was a 25 year old student living there. He was the 'old guy' and now, it looks like it's my turn.

Gaming: Wonderboy Series

2010-07-05T15:48:00.001+12:00

A little while back Joshua Smyth and I talked about how Sega never capitalised on their franchises like Nintendo did. When you think Nintendo what are the franchise names comes to mind? Now think Sega. I bet you can only think of two. One of them being Sonic and the other, maybe Alex Kidd.
There was another franchise that Sega had which was popular enough but only lived to the Mega Drive (Genesis). That was Wonderboy.

After just played through the series (except for the first game), I think it's time the series needs to come back from the underground and get a new coat of paint. Wonderboy in Monster Land on the Sega Master System showed RPG elements could be added to a platform game. Wonderboy in Monster World showed that a platform game need not be completely linear either.

Wonderboy III: Dragon's Trap came into a sub genre of its own when they introduced elements that I have not seen in another platform game. It's all based around a central town where things are not accessible until you have a certain shape/ability that you'll obtain as you progress through the game. It's true that each ability you got lets you finish the next part of the game, that's the linear side of it, but there are little pocket/secret places to get the player to change shapes to be able to access them. They expanded on the inventory system by not making all items that's more expensive necessary the better item at a given shape.

Wonderboy in Monster World (IV) bought everything that was good in 2 and 3 and put it all into one game and was gave Wonderboy a name of Shion. I thought it was a shame that they did not have the shape changes like in Monster World. They did make another Wonderboy game after Monster World but that shifted away from the Wonderboy theme of medieval fantasy to an ancient Arabian setting. The gameplay had been dumbed down and it played at times like Sonic. They even replace the boy with a girl named Asha.

What Sega could of done to make these games more memorable was have a more epic storyline. A medieval/ancient Arabian setting needs to have that sort of storyline. I remember watching a video where they had Luigi talking to Tails about whether Sonic rescues a princess. Tails replies, "no he only rescues woodland creatures". It reminds me that a love story always makes a story seem more involved. Compare Slumdog Millionaire to City of God. It's the love interest that makes it. In the Legend of Zelda games, you've got Link rescuing Zelda. Nevermind that he defeats Ganon and saves Hyrule. That's the by-product of rescuing Zelda.

If they were to make another Wonderboy platformer they need to mash what was good in Wonderboy III and Wonderboy in Monster World. Namely: -
- Free roaming worlds with teleporters in the central world to access them.
- Abilities/transformation to access certain areas.
- Equipment/items that are not more expensive is better.
- Diverse landscape and environments for each world.
- Magic (they removed that in the last Wonderboy game).

They could add in: -
- The same menace that's plaguing Monster World and not some generic magical bad guy.
- Co-op gameplay similar to that of the new Super Mario Bros game on the Wii. Have Shion, Asha and maybe Hotta, Shabo.
- Equipment and/or magic that could change the landscape or environment.
- More diverse weapons for certain situations.
- Side quests?

With Nintendo bringing platform games back into the mainstream, it's time for another Wonderboy game. There are more casual gamers now that will enjoy the game and many older gamers that will play it for nostalgia. I wonder if another one will be made and made with Little Big Planet graphics.

Events: 20 Years in New Zealand

2010-06-28T14:11:00.000+12:00

I remember when I was 16 and thinking I have spent half of my life in New Zealand. Now I have been in New Zealand longer than some of the students have been alive in NorthTec. To mark this milestone I have made a video of the places I have lived. You'll have to excuse the audio, I have learnt to use a proper mic rather than inbuilt ones.

After doing the video, which was meant to be just a quick look at the first five years of being in New Zealand, I feel like I need to expand on that more. In the future I will do something more to fully explain and document the first five years of being here.

It will be more for my reference than anything else and it is a good entry into The Book of the Wong Family, which I intend to write as a historical timeline for future generations of our family to look back on. It will include Mum and Dad's stories and myself and my sister's. I do not know my family's history and I do not want my kids and my kids' kids to not know how they came to be where they are.

You might have noticed I have started to take photos of events I have been to and often with the people I went with and started doing a year in recap. It's all aid for when it's time to write my story to pass down. It will be my legacy and hopefully my future generations will continue this.

Musings: Identity Crisis on Paper

2010-06-23T14:50:00.001+12:00

Some of you might know that I went through an identity crisis on paper where from months of not even getting an interview for jobs I thought it could be my name that was preventing me from moving to the next stage of the job application process. After Campbell Live's segment titled "Migrant changes name to get job" at where Rushabh Nayak had no luck getting a job until he shorten his name to Rush on his applications after which he received interviews to jobs that would otherwise just ignore him.

This isn't the first time through something like this. Back in my early years of being in New Zealand people have told me to adopt an english name to make me easier to identify. Even Dad told me to introduce myself as J.Y to make it easier for people to pronounce my name. A series of names was picked but I never liked any of them. I couldn't see myself as a Joey or a John or a Charles. At school and various other places when people would pronounce my name wrong either unintentionally or intentionally. I have always defended that my name was Jawyei. I never liked J.Y as it sounds like a dumbing down of my name to satisfy the masses. Like butter chicken to curries.

One time I did try to introduce myself as Jay. This was at the Sword and Shields society at Whangarei in 1999. It never felt right to me when its member would call me Jay. I would think to myself no, my name's Jawyei. That felt strange because I can't even give myself another name without myself defending against me.

It was only when I came around to Identity Crisis 2 did I come to realise why I like my name. My name was mis-pin-yin'ed as I don't think Dad knew Pinyin nor English at the time of my birth. The correct Pinyin of my chinese characters should be Shào Wei. On my birth certificate it's Jaw Yei (It's Jawyei because I joined the two words together as I thought it looked better) and due to a clumsy Y it looks like a V so on my passport, it's Jaw Vei. Before we came to New Zealand Dad said my name was Jawyei and since we came to New Zealand, my formal chinese name was never used. My sense of identity to the rest of the world was Jawyei. Hi I'm Jawyei. No, my name is Jawyei. When you have created a sense of identity for yourself and have defended it through the years you tend to get a little stubborn.

That stubbornness prevented me from changing my name, even on paper. The best I got was J Wong with the intention of correcting it back to Jawyei when said out loud. It was my friends who said I shouldn't need to change my name for a job. That Jawyei was the best name for me. That affirmation made me comfortable with my name on paper and hopefully it won't impact on job prospects that initially started this ordeal.

My thanks to my friends.

Events: V48Hours 2010

2010-04-25T22:09:00.000+12:00

V48 Hour Furious Film making has finished for 2010. First time entry into the foray and we couldn't quite get there in the end. Twelve minutes out from the finishing time all due to my inexperience in not video capturing on the Saturday. My excuse was I was way too tired and I didn't have a firewire port on my computer at home. I could of taken one of the Macs but I didn't. Then on Sunday, didn't check the settings on one of the computers when we were capturing. Because of that Jade Morgan, Digital Media Tutor, started editing at 12pm. Then due to other little technical difficulties like me not realising Final Cut Pro couldn't red m4a files, I got to Kamo Intermediate at 7.12pm officially.

Our team was called Jatcam. Jatcam was just the first letters of each of our names in the team. Myself, Amy Nichoson, TJ Rankin, Chyna Wilkinson-Gale, Andrew Mardon and Matthew Shepherd. Unfortunately TJ had to pull out but it was too late to change the name to Jacam. Although we did get two addition team members in Jade Morgan and Simon Morris. We had Andrew, Amy and Chyna as actor/actresses, Simon as boom operator/minor actor/other stuff. Matthew and myself on the cameras and also the directors.

To be a good director you have to have the whole story in mind. The movie's already created in your mind and you are relaying your imagined shots and angles to your cameraman. I know this now. At the shoot, I could not figure out what would be good for shots and was really concerned that my camera work wouldn't be good enough come post. Thank goodness Matt was there and was able to just try out shots. His enthusiasm carried the whole team through that gruelling Saturday shoot. I would say he did more in the filming and directing part of this project than I did.

The take back from the experience would be to
- Write a script with no shots, just how everything is going to happen
- Memorise the script and start going through it in your head
- Write down the shots next to the actions and dialogue in the script
- Story board what you had in mind. Take an arts class to learn how to draw

It helps the editor too. Then it's just finding the correct takes. Which would be made a lot easier again if each take was titled and recorded. We tried doing that at the start but gave up on when people just wanted to get it done. Clappers would have been handy and I see the importance of them. Writing down the good takes on each scene would of decreased the time spent looking for them in post. And who would of known capturing the footage straight after the shoot would be good. Even as I'm writing this, I am re-editing the film and I've found many shots wasn't even captured. With all the problems with editing, Matt didn't have a chance to re-work some of the audio and was left with nothing to do on the Sunday.

Amy, Andrew, Chyna and Simon did really well in front of the camera and there were enough out takes and general silliness for a blooper reel. That will come out as soon as I finish my edit of the film. Unfortunately though, I can't seem to find Chyna's giggling fit so I thought I'd mention it here for the record.

Upon writing this, I got a text from the 48Hour crew saying that our final cut has no audio. Due to time, I did not check the tape after it was done. They gave me another opportunity though. I finish re-cutting it, put it on tape and check to make sure everything plays fine. Unfortunately the audio varies and I don't know how to normalise it but it will have to do. Spent way too much time on this but I fully appreciate how long editing actually takes now.

The screening went ok. The film, compared to the others that were shown in heat 11 was neither good nor bad. Thinking on it now it was a damn good effort for a team that had no proper filming experience before. I just have to keep reminding myself that I had no prior experience before this in film making. It really opened my eyes and I hope I can do it again. See how it goes next year. Thanks again guys. It was a fun weekend even with all my stuff ups. If I were to do it again I'd like to do with the same team. You guys were a hoot :)

Events: Easter Weekend 2010

2010-04-06T21:14:00.000+12:00

Having missed Karl Eagle and Sally Doughty's Wellington's engagement party, I thought I'd make it up by paying them this easter. So off on a plane I went and turbulence into Wellington for a three day weekend.

While I was down, I was able to catch up with Raja Bhadury before he headed off to the Tongariro Crossing. Haven't really talked to Raja and Rachel this year but I will before the year is over.

First order of the day after an un-inspired, public holiday surcharged breakfast at a place that I can't even remember on Courtaney Place, was to see Sally Doughty. Which I found out lives on the other side of Victoria Peak. I don't have a problem walking but am a little put off when I have to walk up hills. That sentiment was shared amongst all the people we passed heading down the hill. I think Sally thinks Karl is fat and requires him to exercise every time he wants to see her. She didn't move there by chance Karl.

Not much happened for the rest of the day. Had lunch at Sally's which was curry roasted vegetables kosh kosh that had some feta cheese in it. Sounds weird but it was delicious may it just needs a dash more salt. Evening came and there was a dinner get together at Tali's. The idea was good if only the supermarkets were open to actually get food. The night went good with pizzas and an assortment of desserts.

The group that I've called Karl's group are an interesting sort. They are, to the most part of what I've observed, not the typical groups that I've encountered throughout my times. I think could be a part of this group without for going most of the activities they do. It's something I have thought about a little in the past so many months since I first saw them at christmas/new years holidays.

Karl hasn't been to Armageddon before and was keen to check it out. It just so happens that it was on when I was visiting so I went along to see what the difference between Auckland and Wellington was. The major difference was size. Auckland's event is about three times larger than Wellington's. With a smaller venue, they have jammed everything that would be spread out over 3 floors at Aoetea Centre or 3 section at Greenlane Showgrounds. The results can only be described as lacking and disappointing. Definitely not worth the entry fee into the event, which was the same as Auckland's. The highlight of it all was Karl and I discussing whether this person was male or female. We had to do three passes to make certain due to her costume but she wad definitely female. Great costume too. With Armageddon being lacking we went and hired out games (Burnout Dominance, Fahrenheit and We Love Katamari) and geeked out for the rest of the day/night. Our favourite past time.

A trip to another place will not be a trip without me sampling the local restaurants. We went to two, while I was down. Cafe Italiano and Grand Century. Cafe Italiano was dinner on Saturday it is a place that I won't go back to. The food was overpriced, not very well prepared, the decor shocking and the service could use work. Without going into much detail, let’s just say you can get better food at La Porcheta for half the price and a better looking restaurant.

I had the opposite feeling for Grand Centaury Restaurant. We went there for lunch. A chinese restaurant that was serving Yum Char. They way they handle lunch service was efficient. The food was well made and the decor is what'd you expect from a flash chinese restaurant. They even served food that I haven't had in years. Thumbs up from me on the place and will go back there for next meal.

All in all, a great weekend in Wellington. It was good to see people especially those that I haven't like a certain William Beard. A person that I forgot to see was Stephen Cantwell and I will make note to catch him next time I'm down. Was it really worth the trip down just to see people? Well, to me, enjoying the company of friends is always worth it. Where ever they are. Hope everyone knows that. Thanks to Karl and Sally for a great weekend. See you guys at the wedding.

Musings: Opportunists Rule the World

2010-03-27T23:04:00.001+13:00

The person who see and makes opportunities for themselves, rule the world. Given any opportunity, he or she isn't mr or ms right, but mr or ms right now. In the real world, when people are presented with options, maybe it for a job, a transaction of sorts, or even a partner they will only have a limit range of options to choose from. The opportunist will place him or her self at the top of that list, get picked for the shortlist and eventually be the option the others pick.

Take for example a job. When the shortlist is drawn you have people with very similar skill sets. How do you pick the correct person? Well if the people are unknown then you'd go into deeper analysis of their credentials to make your pick. What if thought a person in that group knows someone that was in the business the job was for and he/she mentions that he/she knows that person? Now the opportunist will have more credentials than the others and therefore more likely to get picked for the job. It person the opportunist knows doesn't need to be a friend. It could have been someone whom he/she met and created a network with as he/she sees them as a potential opportunity to get a job in that business. Even better if they have networked with the people that will be employing them. They might not be the best person for the job, an unknown person might fit in better but because that person is unknown, he/she is out of luck.

The same sort scenario happens for relationships. A person's shortlist of potential partners is defined by the people he/she has contacts with. The opportunist makes themselves into that list by making other person know that they are available. That's why you see people go out with certain people and then not long afterwards go out with others. They are never mr or ms right, they are mr or ms right now. Then the complaining starts, "oh why can't I find someone that is..." or "why did I ever go out with him/her". The right person is there, but they are shadowed by the opportunist.

I once read, on a Work and Income notice board, the slogan of "There are three types of people in the world, those who make things happen, those that watch things happen and those that wonder what happened". I think opportunists are the ones that make things happen. They see an opportunity in any situation and take advantage of it. And because of that I think they rule the world, maybe not the entire world, but some world.

Events: Auckland Lantern and Hamilton Food, Wine and Jazz Festival 2010

2010-03-01T21:22:00.001+13:00

After missing the Lantern Festival every year since 2002 I wasn't going to miss this year's one. Thinking I should share this event with some of my oldest friends I concocted a plan to for the weekend of the 27th of February. The plan was simple, pick up friends in Hamilton and then go to Auckland's Lantern Festival in Albert Park on the Saturday evening. What to do during the day then? I looked up the up coming events for Hamilton in www.eventfinder.co.nz and stumbled across the Hamilton Food, Wine and Jazz Festival that was happening the same weekend.

The Hamilton Food, Wine and Jazz Festival were a disappointment. $22 door entry into an event which you had to pay above retail prices for everything. No wonder the ticketter emphasized that these tickets weren't refundable. I was expecting wine and food tasting while being serenade by live jazz music. What we got was a sauna of over priced food and drink with the majority of the people piled under the three trees that were providing shade to the Hamilton sun. The music was good however. If only if it wasn't ruined by the lack of cover. I saw people were sitting on access ramps for shelter but had to be shoo'ed away by security. The skies felt bad and hide the sun for awhile but it was too late as the combination of alcohol, heat and dehydration meant the paramedics needed to be called. It wasn't too bad though, we did get a complimentary novelty plastic cup on a rope. Great for spontaneous wine festivals where you don't want to drop your cup.

The Lantern festival was another story. We got to Auckland on time but had to sit in traffic for more than an hour to find a park. Crawling pass Kitchener Street and seeing Albert Park but metres away was torture and it was even worse when Victoria Street car park was filled just as we got there. After finding a park it too us another 20 minutes to get to the event.

Now no dis-respect to the people that waited for me at the festival. It was great seeing you guys too but I thoroughly regret being separated with my friends at the start as there was so much to see. There were so many people there it reminded me of Hong Kong and all the decorations bought the festive back to me. After being separated I spent most of the evening trying to find them but I did get to see some good display of contained illumination the oriental way. I finally caught up with them at the concert stage which I completely forgot and caught only the tail end of a fantastic performance with tradition chinese instruments. Even though we were separated for most of the evening we did get a shot that I will treasure.

Thanks Kirsty, Kim and Cameron for a truly fantastic weekend.

Musings: Paying the bill

2010-02-14T13:14:00.000+13:00

Image found at http://whoisprincecharming.blogspot.com/

[This entry I am submitting to stuff.co.nz's Blog Idol 2. It only allowed 150 words which made it difficult for me but hopefully it do well]

While scanning forums, I came across a post that reminded me of the debate of chivalry on a date. It was about a girl's recent date where the guy organised an expensive candlelit restaurant. The date went well until she offered out of courtesy to pay for half the bill. When he agreed he stopped being chivalrous. "A gentleman would never have let me pay and I only date gentlemen". She argued that since he arranged everything he should have paid.

A flatmate a friend once had tried to convince me to join findsomebody.co.nz because she gets to meet different people and go on dates. My reply was, "it's great for you because the guy pays for everything". She immediately replied, "No, if the girl is half decent, she will pay her own way".

Was it not chivalrous to pay for half or was she "not half decent"?

Gaming: Neverwinter Nights 2

2010-01-28T21:49:00.003+13:00

Another outing on a AD&D based RPG game. This time the sequel to the successful Neverwinter Nights. When I was playing Neverwinter Nights I always though that this is just a game engine for the masses and here is a storyline we put over the top to show what it can do. It was successful although I did find the story for it boring. The engine performed as it was supposed to and everything just seem to click. When I finally came to Neverwinter Nights 2 I had much the same thoughts when I was playing it. Game engine with just a story thrown over the top of it. Unfortunately this time around it didn't cut it with me. RPGs to me are supposed to be a grand adventure. Although european base RPG's does not have the scope or the dramaticisms of Japanese RPGs, it doesn't excuse the makers in skimping on the depth of the story. Not only was the story lacking, the designers didn't full utilise the game engine as evident throughout the game where there are snippets of things that make you go 'cool'. And that's all they were snippets. Put in almost accidentally.

Not to say this game was completely bad. It does have redeeming features and story ideas but it just wasn't enough though to carry it. I'll talk a little about aspects/features/ideas that could of been done better in this game.

Pros
Music match situation throughout game
Landscape and buildings look more impressive
UI improved
Able to make out the textures of armour when zoomed in
Nice touch of having to actually protect people as they cast spells

Cons
Limited music for length of game
Tilting camera can't be fixed
Load times on slower machines
Portraits would have been better rather than snap shot of rag doll
Constant zoom in on explorer camera from arches or buildings gets annoying
Ugly rag dolls for inventory
Purpose built areas make it seems like you disconnected from the world and just doing tasks
Neverwinter not really a part of the game
Unimaginative cut scenes
Ending is a collage of since paragraphs of the choices you made in the game

This game, like many (if not all) RPGs has some evil bad guy that is extremely powerful and magical and has been slumbering awaiting to destroy the world. It has been over done but that's ok. If it's delivered well then players will love you for it. However they didn't delivery it that well here.

Missing in this story was the connection that you made with the characters. As any good author will tell you, your characters carry the story and in some chases the characters are the story. There are not many non-party characters within this game that you could identify with. Because of that you don't really care how the story progress and thus not really worried about the big threat in the end. So you're only really playing so you can just finish it. The story wasn't terrible to make you not want to play it but I think it just wasn't engaging enough. Not much of an adventure.

One thing that caught my attention was the fact that my race seems to actually create some dialogue changes for some people. I'm not sure if it was because I was a drow or not but it was refreshing to see people making comments like "that's what they get when they take on a drow". I haven't played through the game a second time but I had a notion that what race I was and what sex I was seems to affect how they present the story. Yes it's a game worth playing through a second time because it does have critical plot decisions which affects what ending paragraphs they are going to show. I've read that being good or evil affects it as well.

The ending paragraphs I first encountered when I played Fallout 2. Essentially it is just a paragraph of the aftermath of your decision at certain parts of the game. This is fine because it gives you a dynamic ending but I'm an old fashion RPG player. I much prefer ray traced cut scenes. There's nothing better, in my opinion, nicely rendered scene that you have fought so hard to get. Example would be the end cut scenes for each race in Warcraft 3. I haven't seen any other game since then that has done this. Such a shame. Sure the ending then would be static but I think there is a way to do dynamic pre-render cut scenes so you do get the same paragrahic ending like this currently has. In game cut scenes aren't so bad if the models have a large range of motion and is actually in sync to what is being said. Neverwinter Nights 2 is definitely not there yet in this regard.

The models in this game that are not your character are done well. You enjoy the mid range shots of them as their head and faces are well detailed. The player's head I don't think is done well and it was not that nice to look at. I missed the portraits the old AD&D games had. I know the portrait is usually not what you look like but if you can't make a detailed 3D head make a very well drawn 2D portrait instead. The body was standard however the armour that went onto the body could have been better. Sure the textures of the armour (which includes robes etc) was great but it didn't give the impression of you were wearing really good armour. Often your party members have their predefine 'look' and suiting them with armour did not change their appearance. Helmets on the other hand do not appear on your party member's head at all. I couldn't get a paladin's helmet onto Qara to make her look funny. What? Helmets contributes to concentration and that's important for a magic user. It was the same for the inventory. I'm reminded of how well Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance did their models and why something similar could not be done here. This is an RPG, character models and the inventory is very important.

They have really emphasized the 3D in this game offering three camera options. Obviously catering for people's preference of either top down or third person view. Me personally I choose the explore camera mode for the game as it was the same as Neverwinter Nights. I never had a problem with the camera in Neverwinter Nights (except maybe some depth of vision when you're trying to look further ahead) but I had plenty of problems in explore camera in number 2. Because the game was not completely designed to be in this camera mode you run into bugs. One bug was that certain buildings' roofs cannot be transparent. If your selected character is under said roof it automatically zooms right into your character. This gets annoying when you've set a path for your character to go and it keeps walking under these roofs causing the game to constantly zoom in and out. Another problem would be the tilt of the camera. You set up the angle you prefer and want to keep it at that angle. However sometimes your mouse hits the top or bottom of the screen which throws out your angle. I did not find anything about keeping the tilt locked. Probably a problem due to those roofs and other camera angles?

They've got beautiful landscapes and landscape shots in this game but because of the not set camera view style a lot of that was missed. I only stumble across it by sometimes switching to character view. Because you can have character view, they have made walking towards a fort or castle perched upon a hill stunning to look at but if you don't switch to that view you will never see it. It was the same when was in one of the instances where I had to climb this large hill to do a quest. At the top they had a very beautiful shot overlooking that instance and you only get this effect in character view. If the game is best played in character view, why have the other options? Having that nice hill was another thing that annoyed me. Yes that particular instance was good but what about the rest? It just didn't work to just have one morsel of good, a tease, for the entire game. There were a few other cases which I cannot remember but what I do remember is I wanted more.

When I say instance I mean the area in which you can do stuff. This game was littered with it which I found not too good because it disconnected you from the world they were trying to create. Instead exploring through the lands surrounding Neverwinter you just place at a location and within this location there are these things in it. I'm an old school Ultima RPG player. The world in that was all connected, you could walk from town to town without cutting to the world map. I don't have a problem with a world map or a problem with how Neverwinter Nights laid out its lands but in Neverwinter Nights 2, there were just too many instances. It felt like you were just doing tasks and here's a specially made area for you to do this task. Afterward we will just delete this area.

All in all it wasn't a bad game. Just it could have been a lot better. We will see how well the expansions have made the game, more on that when I get to play them.

Dining: Hot and Spicy Instant Noodles

2010-01-18T16:22:00.004+13:00

I recently had a conversation with people on irc concerning noodles and more specifically of the instant kind. No not the Maggie beef or chicken flavour kind. I think I've eaten enough noodles to be above Maggie now. Yes that's right, I'm above Maggie Instant Noodles and some Trident instant noodles as well.

Enough label bashing, no one at the time knew the brands of the noodles they've tried beside Nong Shim. It was a general consensus that they made best instant noodle meal. I've had Nong Shim noodles and yes, they are quite good but surely there are other brands that are better.

When paruzing through the Tofu Shop I decided who would be better to try out and document some noodle choices but me. To put constraint on what is a rather large undertaking and monetary issues I chose only 5 brands and of the Hot 'n Spicy varieties. Then I tirelessly endured trying each brand out so that you may not have to. Advice sometimes can be hard work but I shall do this for the betterment of student's consumer decisions.

I'd like to point out here that all these noodles were prepared in a pot over a gas element. None of this putting it in the microwave. Blasphemy!

1. Unif-100
Artificial spicy beef flavour
Made in China
$1.10 @ Tofu Shop

Noodles
Thin plain noodles with no funny taste. Soaks up soup well

Soup
Sufficiently spicy with good artificial beef flavour. Soup packets makes a really strong soup and would be better if you used two noodle cakes. Dehydrated vegetables include red pepper, spring onions and cabbage.

Presentation
Very nice looking red to the soup with the dehydrated vegetables giving colour contrast. However it is a bit oily evident from the bowl.

Conclusion
Very tasty but definitely suggest two noodle cakes per soup packets rather than just the one. Will buy again.

2. Doll - Instant Noodles
Spicy beef flavour
Made in Hong Kong
$1.20 @ Tofu Soup

Noodles
Plain thin noodles with no funny taste. Does not soak up soup well.

Soup
No dehydrated vegetables. It's plain spicy with no beef taste to it. The spicy is also quite mild.

Presentation
Looks like a regular bowl of noodles. The soup was a dull looking red and it was oily.

Conclusion
Not too impressed with Doll, there was not much thought that went into this. To me it seems cheap and not worth over $1. Will not buy again.

3. Samyang Foods
Made in Korea
Kimchi Ramen
$2.10 @ Tofu Soup

Noodles
Slightly fatter and firmer noodles than above with a little floury taste. They do not soak up noodles well.

Soup
Sharp sour taste as expected from Kimchi flavour. You get what looks like cabbage and spring onions in dehydrated vegetables.

Presentation
The soup's a dull red with the dehydrated vegetables a dull looking colour as well. It was less oily than the others which is good.

Conclusion
The soup was quite flavoursome accompanied by firmer noodles which was welcoming. It was too bad that the noodles itself does not soak up the soup. At $2.10 this was the most expensive out of all the ones I tried and I don't think it's worth it over $2. Will buy again but not at $2.10.

4. Nissin Foods
Made in Hong Kong
Spicy Flavour
$1.10 @ Tofu Soup

Noodles
Thin noodles that taste a little floury and it doesn't soak up the soup well.

Soup
Very mild soup with a very strong sesame seed oil taste that overpowers the rest of it. It was generic spicy taste which was disappointing as you expected seafood from the picture. You get no dehydrated vegetables.

Presentation
Like Doll's, generic bowl of noodles that's oily. No dehydrated vegetables means there's no colour contrast and frankly it was just sad to look at.

Conclusion
Might have been better as dry noodles rather than soup noodles. They have tried to mask this as good by making the sesame oil really strong. I'm most disappointed in this one and will not buy again or eat for free.

5. Nong Shim
Made in Korea
Hot and spicy Shin Ramyun
$1.60 @ Tofu Shop

Noodles
Fatter noodles that soak up the soup well. A little floury on taste.

Soup
Soup was a nice rich colour and it was very well flavoured. Taste was not too sharp and not over powering spicy. Dehydrated vegetables were spring onions, carrots and radish.

Presentation
Nice rich colour that's well contrasted with the noodles and the dehydrated vegetables. It can be forgiven that it was a little oily.

Conclusion
People like this for a reason. Everything seems to be in the correct proportion and because the noodles soak up the soup, it makes for a good eating.

If I were to give these an order of preference it would have to be Nong Shim (no surprise there), Unif-100, Samyang Foods, Doll and finally Nissin Foods. I may have been a bit picky but you don't buy these types of noodles because you want simple. Else you'd buy Maggie. I hope this has given an insight to these noodles and I suggest that you try some other 'fancy' noodles. I will probably do another segment like this later. Any suggestions of what types I should get?

Gaming: Jawyei's Most Memorable Games for the last Decade

2010-01-17T18:38:00.003+13:00

Having read Josh Smyth's My Top 10 Games of the Decade blog entry, I have decided to make my own list. Like what Josh said, "this is not a best games list, or any other such nonsense". When first thinking of the list I've come to realised that I have played quite a few different games in the past 10 years. Thus it was very hard for me to come up with just 10 games that I enjoyed so here are just games that are most memorable for me. I've group the games that are similar to cut down what I have to say about them. Bear in mind that I'm only referring to just the last 10 years.

Starcraft/Warcraft/Company of Heroes
For RTS games you cannot go pass Blizzard's franchise of the crafts. These games defined what RTS games are like for me. I actually base all other RTS's strategies afterwards to that of Starcraft. There were not many other RTS I've played since the crafts that I actually really liked except for Company of Heroes. I did not like the Dawn of War mechanics but for some reason Company of Heroes took the same mechanics and made them better. The only game after the crafts that I can remember where I looked for the expansions.

Need for Speed Porche Unleashed, Underground 2, Most Wanted and Gran Turismo 2
Need for Speed and Gran Turismo are the most well known racing franchies in the world. They didn't get there by accident and for me these were the games that stood out. NFS: Porsche Unleash a lot of people didn't like. Yes I may like Porsches but that wasn't the main reason why I liked this. Porsche Unleash had a very cool game mode which I have not seen in any other car game since. The stunt driver mode. This is when you have to perform certain car manuvers or drive the car without damaging it against the clock to pass the stage. This promoted precious driving and involved a lot of skill. Which was probably why I really enjoyed Gran Turismo 2. First proper driving simulator I played which really pushed the idea of having to slow down for corners and driving to a racing line. Of course this doesn't mean I didn't like the arcade racers like Underground 2 and Most Wanted. Underground 2 was good because of the added tuning aspect. That gave a good balance of arcade and realism. Most Wanted was pure arcade racer though, nothing more needs to be said.

Baldur's Gate 2
Out of all the RPG's I've played this was the only one that really took me on an adventure. Where the characters in the game mattered and you were really involved in the story. Often regarded as one of the best RPG's ever made and I can see why. What made this stand out to all the other RPG's I got quite involved into the story and I considered my options quite carefully before selecting them. It was also the game that made me realise that I can't play an RPG and be the evil character. I had problems selecting "I'll just kill you now option" and even when starting as neutral I'll end up as good.

King of Fighters/Street Fighter
Anyone that knows me knows that I spend a lot of small pocket of time just playing these games. I still play them now. Even though I have no real life opponents to play now I still practice so that when I do I still can beat them and maintain my asainhood.

NBA Live! 2004
The only game I sold because I thought I was playing too much. It got to a point where I wouldn't play anything new because I was just playing this game. It was great, it took half an hour to play one game so you could time things by playing it. Then game was frustrating as anything with the AI at superstar level blatantly cheating. I know I have watched may replays to see them block my shot when they are only slightly where near me. I kept playing it because there was always one person I couldn't beat (Steven Wang) unfortunately I never did have a rematch with him after all my practices. I had a go at NBA 2005 and 2006 and they just can't compare to 2004.

Runaway: A Road Adventure and I Dream of Turtle/Syberia 1&2/The Neverhood/The Longest Journey
Adventure games are a lost art but these games seem to have not recieved that memo. I mention The Neverhood here because even though it was a early 90s game it was only in the last 10 years did I play it. The people who made the game was obviously ahead of their time and it didn't make much of an impact when it was released. It's too bad they can't remake this today. It's imagination that makes adventure games and the imagination that went into The Longest Journey and Syberia I found very fascinating. Sort of everyday but add strangeness and mystery. Kept your imagination ticking as you process through the game. The Runaway is probably the only cartoon adventure game made after the Lucus Arts adventure games of the 90s and because of that it held nostalgia value to me. It's well paced with clever humour similar to that of the Lucus Arts games and also the geek gets the girl in the end. My favourite bit.

Tomb Raider Legend/Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
First time playing Tomb Raider and it was exciting to play Prince of Persia again. I've always liked Prince of Persia theme. The Arabian Night feel, where everything is mysterious. They've maintain that quite well in Sands of Time and thus helped the 3D plateformer. This was my first time playing with Lara Croft. I have to say she was definitely as good as everyone makes her out to be. All the mechanics in the game just seems to fit to get nicely. Tomb Raider Legend was also the first game where I encountered 'next gen' mode. The marketing ploy used back in those days was actually a graphic setting. Both these games have one the thing that is very important to 3D plateformers done really well. The controls.

Guitar Hero 3
I was a sceptic before I played the Guitar Heroes but after I picked up that plastic ax my perception of the genre changed completely. I played Guitar Hero 3 first which is why this is on my list. Now whenever anyone mentions getting out console games I always mention Guitar Hero. I'm not sold on playing it by myself and will probably never buy it but as a rental, I'm all for it.

Call of Duty 1&2/Max Payne
First person shooters aren't really my thing due to motion sickness so I'm a little surprised I even have this section. Ok Max Payne wasn't a FPS but it was a shooter none the less and probably why it appealed to me in the first place. The game was short but sweet. There were many aspects of it that made it unique, bullet time, Payne's narration and the comic book/visual novel feel to it. Those are completely different to Call of Duty 1 and 2. The thing that captivated me in Call of Duty was the chaotic-ness of war where, a lot of the time, you just don't know what's going on around you. It is also the only shooter I've played that when got given an order to do something I said "no, you do it".

Platypus/Metal Slugs/Cave Story
Side Scrollers. I can't get away from the appeal of a fast paced arcade side scroller and both Platypus and Metal Slug. It's something you can just pick up and play for x amount of time. In that x amount of time you're concentrating and oblivious to the world and your worries. In that x amount of time, you are free *cough*. Cave Story bought me back to the traditional 2D side scrollers that I have mostly forgotten. The mechanics and the story of the game made it and it goes to show that, that style of game can still be made. A mark of true Indy.

With the good always comes the bad and since this entry has become a lot longer than I expected I'll just quickly say what I don't like about the following.

Need for Speed: Carbon - Game concentrated way too much about the cinematics than actually the game itself
Nba2005/2006 - Lost game play by trying to make it more real
Dawn of War - Resource gathering and lack of depth. Lots of potential but seems it was rushed
Icewind Dale 2 - UI let it down and story was not engaging
Morrowind - World was too big and creatures way to hard to kill when you start

Well, that's my list. I have started to take notes now of each major game I play so after 10 more years if I'm still doing this I will have a better recollection of what I enjoyed.

Cooking: Salt and Pepper Prawns

2010-01-07T19:17:00.002+13:00

When I venture out to a restaurant with a group and Kim Shepherd is in this said group. If there is a menu option of Salt and Pepper Prawns (or shrimps) you know we'll be having prawns (or shrimps) that evening. The dish is simple. Prawns seasoned with salt and pepper like its namesake. Seeing as this is a favourite now of ours I thought it would be time for me to try my hand on this dish.

I started off with a batch of frozen de-shell uncooked prawns which I defrosted and pat dry. I don't have access to fresh prawns so these will have to do. The ingredients I used for this is as follows:

hand full and a half of prawns
1 tbs pepper corns
1 tbs Sichuan pepper corns
1 tbs of salt
5 Tbs of rice flower
2 leaves of lettuce
1 onion
1 chilli

I ground the pepper and Sichuan pepper corns to powder then mixed with the rice flower and salt. Coated the prawns with it then shallow fried the prawns in canola oil until they were pink and the coating was a golden colour. Then I removed the oil leaving only a little bit left and with the onion diced, I saluted it with the diced chilli until the onion bits were lightly brown. The lettuce leaves I sliced thin and then on the plate combine the two and mixed together. The prawns were then put on top.

The reason why I added Sichuan pepper corns is I wanted that spicy numb taste that you get with those corns on the prawns. The results were good but I think I added too much of those corns. Next time I'll definitely use less, maybe half a teaspoon. I'm ok with this dish, not completely happy. Next time I want see what happens if I marinate the prawns first in ginger and lemon juice before coating. Maybe instead of using a flower coat, I will make a batter.

This dish being so strong in flavours and it's plum season at the moment. I decided I'd try my hand on a desert. A sorbet to be exact. I'm disappointed in the photo I got for this because I took quite a good one but then deleted it accidently. This photo was the best I could get. I am working on my food photography.

The recipe for this I follow this link. I was missing arrow-root powder so I didn't use it. The results were good for my first attempt at a dessert. I do, however, need to pick plums that are more ripe as it came out a little too sour. Perhaps less lemon juice or just add more sugar next time. I will try this again as we've got a tree full of plums and it's such an easy dessert and a good platelet cleanser for a strong flavoured dish.

Movies: Sherlock Holmes

2010-01-02T22:15:00.001+13:00

On the 2nd of January 2010 I went to see Sherlock Holmes with Kim Shepherd. Quoting from a friend of mine, Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes is "...not for the traditionalists" and rightly so. You get the sense, after watching the trailer that they've turned the world's greatest mind into a glorified action hero. Well, they have but not in the traditional way. No, if they had they would of got Bruce Willis to play Holmes rather than Robert Downy Jr, who might I add, did a superb job and a great casting choice for this 'new age' Sherlock Holmes.

Don't be fooled by the trailer of what this movie might be. They have kept the most important aspects of what makes Holmes and Watson in tact. Deduction and scientific theory is all in this movie. How they've delivered it gives what would be a boring science lesson to a 'life on the fast lane' audience, a decent paced ride into some time in the past England, mixed with traces of deceit and mystery to keep people guessing what exactly is happening right to the very end.

The movie was engaging, you can't help but try guessing what will happen next. There is also enough humour in this movie to take away from the murky filth of England's back streets all executed perfectly from our dynamic duo.

Pros:
New direction for the Sherlock Holmes franchise
Good use of humour throughout the movie
Uncertainty
Music
Good use of visuals of the back streets of England

Cons:
Which time period were they in?
Downy Jr's mumbling makes him hard to understand at times

Downy Jr's depiction of Holmes reminded me of how Depp played Capitan Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. The often loopy but knows exactly what he's doing, seems to make for more interesting characters. Holmes in this movie never seems to be out of place and you never think he would act anyway else than what was portrayed in this movie. The same goes for Watson as well. Unlike in Pirates of the Caribean, you knew from the start that the more interesting character was Holmes. Not to say Watson was boring. He played his part in the movie but there was no doubt who the man was.

The storyline was well executed in that no matter how brilliant Holmes was, you weren't sure if he was going to solves this or not. The story was a little long and often there are scenes which could of been left out as they were purely for comic relief than to move the story. There were little nit picks but they were overshadowed but a great performance. The storyline was interesting but it was the characters that made it.

Except one character. Rachel McAdam's character Irene Adler. It was never explained if her character was American but she spoke with an American heavy British accent. That the illusion that you were watching an all British film. There was nothing else wrong with her character than her accent and I think the movie would been that much better if she was speaking in the correct accent. Or at least have some sort of dialogue that explained why she spoke the way she did.

Movies: Avatar

2009-12-19T12:41:00.000+13:00

On the 17th of December, Alex Mason, Steve Biggins and I went to see James Cameron's Avatar. Not to be confused with Avatar, The Last Airbender, that isn't out just yet. This movie was fantastic with its visuals and that's what most people will tell you when you ask them about Avatar. It's not to say though that it was without a story or even a love story. No blockbuster these days are complete without a underlying love story. Look at Slumdog Millionaire compared to City of God.

On the whole it was good. My only real complaint was that it just a little too long. You know when a movie is too long, when you catch yourself shifting from one butt cheek to the other one.

Pros:
Very well done 3D animation and green screen effects
Outstanding music to company the film
Good portrayal of cultures and its differences from another
Interesting designs on aliens

Cons:
Seems a little long

This movie was always a copy of The Last Samurai, which I sure is a copy of another movie or story. There's nothing wrong with that, just that it reminded me of it. I've always like watching movies that shows culture differences and the mis-understanding between one from the other until one either learns or integrates into the other. In Avatar, that was built up slowly so you could see the all the emotional and life decisions our the main character Jake Sully goes through.

Americans was the culture represented by the humans and on the aliens side, the Na'vi it seems to me to be a mix of maybe South American, African and maybe native American Indians. I'm not sure if that's correct but that's what it reminded me of from how they talk, their surroundings, their clothing and customs they have. Although it was typical to show the humans to be greedy and destructive. First trying to be friendly and diplomatic to gaining something they want, it all ultimately leads to heavy weaponry and explosive. Even though you know they will be attacking, you never get the sense that diplomacy will work, the battle might be diverted. Much like what happen through the Iraq war I guess.

The design of Panora the world, it's creatures and the Na'vi I found to be outstanding. It's hard these days to come up with aliens that aren't just a mish mash of things you can find on earth. That's not to say things aren't interesting with just slight design changes. For example I thought the Na'vi to be giants was a nice touch. Too often humans are perceived the main attraction and aliens are either about the same size to humans or smaller. When they showed the Na'vi for the first time, I was taken back that they were a lot larger than humans. Just something simple like that makes the difference. Well to me anyway. Being giants means they have giant weapons and it was very amusing to see people getting hit by giant arrows.

Like I said about, no blockbuster these days are without an underlying love story. The one here just gives the story that little extra something. It may be a bit more direct than Last Samurai but very well put together to achieve the desired effect of making up Jake's mind of which side he should be on.

One geek nitpick I'd like to make here is how they transfer one's conscience to the Na'vi bodies. It's understandable when they're close in the lab as you'd think it'll be transferred by some sort of wifi or similar connection which some sort of chip that'd be implanted into the Na'vi body. My question is how do they make the transfer when the body is way out of range of the lab. Do they connect via satellite? Also if they don't have implanted chips for remote control and since the Na'vi bodies are a mix of human and Na'vi DNA, does that mean they can control other humans? Surrogates anyone?

Musings: Luck vs Fate

2009-11-30T21:18:00.001+13:00

Luck - noun - 3. a combination of circumstances, events, etc., operating by chance to bring good or ill to a person (source: dictionary.com)

Fate - noun - 1. something that unavoidably befalls a person (source: dictionary.com)

Both these words can be good or bad given the outcome or process (although fate it seems associate to the bad and destiny is used to reference the good). Whether you believe in these two words there is no mistake that you will have use them to describe something. In one off instances one would use luck to state the good or ill fortunes of someone but what if that instance happens to that person again and again? Would that person then just be incredibly lucky (good or bad luck) or it's fated (or destined if it's a good outcome/situation).

Now I know that good luck is harder to obtain than bad luck but what if, given a situation where the outcome (statistically) is fairly even, if a person were to always come out of that situation with similar results? Some will argue that being skilful in something will lessen the use of luck thus creating a desired outcome given each situation. And because the same outcome occurs at each situation, they will argue that they are 'fated' to always get that outcome. Thus luck is for those that are unskilled and fate is for the skilled. An example would be a normal person trying to chat up a person vs a pickup artist.

What if, though, the situation that is presented to this person can be mathematically calculated. What if the situation is completely random but yet at every instance of that random situation the outcome is more or less similar. For example, if a person were given a randomised pack of cards and all he had to do was to flip the top card and get 8 or higher and he had to do it 1000 times with the deck randomised (by a third party) after each attempt and when he does this is randomised. If he were to flip an 8 or higher each time given all the randomised processes, would he just be lucky? What if that particular person never gets a 8 or higher?

Some maths:
There are 6 cards in a suit that is 8 or higher, so 6x4=24. 24 chances out of 52 (46%) that this person will flip the correct card.

If the pack of cards is randomised each time, that person will only have a 46% chance each time he flips. No matter how many times he does it, it will only be a 46% chance each time that he will get it correct. Even if he's done it 460 times, the 461th time will still be a 46% chance of him hitting the right card even though statically he should start getting it wrong.

Musing: Down a slope

2009-11-16T21:35:00.000+13:00

Tumbling down a familiar slope
Few are left to provide guiding hope
One by one they are casted away
Further falling far far away

The blue man is ever silent
The figure S has ceased its roar
But the messages are loud and clear
Not wanted here any more

Musings: North Korea

2009-11-13T19:29:00.002+13:00

Whilst paruzing through the internetz I came across a discussion on North Korea at GP Forums that can be found here. In amongst the jib jab came a link to quite an interesting documentary.

http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3
http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-2-of-3
http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-3-of-3

A vbs.tv presenter, citing that "no one knows anything about North Korea", ventures into North Korea and embarks on one of their 'tours' to see their sites and sounds. What's interesting is the fact that you get to see what North Korea is like through a video camera. I've seen photos taken of people who have been on these 'tours' and read articles on them but never actually seen moving images of one of the most secret places in the world. It's very well presented showing how entrenched the nation and just your joe average citizen is into Kim Jong Il's behind. This got me thinking, how would you integrate North Korea to the rest of the world?

One cannot just kill Kim Jong Il. Someone else will just replace him. Not only that, the populace has been lead so long to believe that Kim Jong Il and his regime is the only government to follow. You cannot just replace the government either, the entire populace (those that are not starving) will fight back to maintain what they know. How would you like it if someone were to replace your parents all of a sudden? That's their mind set as scary as it maybe. It sounds like they're all in a massive cult.

However way you look at it, there will be bloodshed, and lots of it. Unless for some reason they government starts to allow the rest of the world in and the whole country starts to change slowly. It's doable, look at China. If that was the case though, how does an individual handle this? North Korea is probably 40 years behind everyone else, what happens if you introduce today's technology to them all of a sudden?

Technology isn't the only thing. Think the arts. North Koreans known only songs and art from the current regime. How would you introduce the likes of heavy metal or rap? How would you explain rebellion, human right movements? How would you explain the Internet?

It's interesting to think about and I wonder if the day that North Korea gets to join the rest of the world will be within my life time. Probably I suspect. At least not without something catastrophic happening first, followed by civil war, famine and re-integration.

Movies: Surrogates

2009-11-11T20:02:00.001+13:00

Went and saw Surrogates Tuesday (10/11/2009) evening with Alex Mason and Steve Biggins. Was looking forward to this movie as people of my outlook then to be people sitting on a comfy chair typing into a computer and being something more than their real life selves can be. Or maybe that's just me. I can, however, say that this movie's premise would appeal to all your WoW players out there and anyone that ever has ever donned an avatar persona. The trailer to the movie can be seen here.

Pros:

Interesting premise of exploring people's fears of going outside

Properly paced story

Decent action

Cons:

Story was interesting but predictable and fell short

The premise of the story is what made me part with my money to see it on the big screen. That and the trailer for it make it look like it was going to be a really good sci fi action thriller movie. What made it disappointing was it seems like this movie was just another hollywood action movie template movie. What I mean by that is it seems like they must include, random acts of destruction, car chases, guns, and explosions. What was missing though was girls in little clothing although it's not to say the females in the movie wasn't bad looking. Of course though this being a Hollywood action movie, it can't all be action....anymore. Hollywood action movies nowadays must include some sort of love story and if the main actor is old enough, include some sort child that was lost. That's all fine, but where it falls short is when they 'insert emotional scene here' and' insert action here'. How they made it is exact how Steve Biggins says it is, "an action movie with not enough action".

The movie would of been better if they made it the psychological thriller template. Through the movie there was that unknown element of who's real which they didn't capitalise on. Characters seem to not matter as well. There's no real build up, even the ones that seem important. When you find out the reason for those characters, it was all unsurprising. In fact, I think if they built those characters up more but following the psychology thriller line, the movie would of been more interesting.

All in all, it wasn't bad. I do recommend you seeing it because it does explore enough of the premise to make it worth while. Just don't have high expectations like I did. Go into it as you're going to watch another action movie and you'll be fine.

Cooking: Deconstruting a McChicken Burger

2009-11-03T19:31:00.001+13:00

As some of you might be aware, I like cooking. I even have a gallery of dishes I've cooked (and deemed worthy to be photographed and put on the Internet) here. Last week when I was watching Top Chef they had an elimination challenge of deconstructing a well known dish. From what they explained on the show was, you take a dish that everyone knows (like fish and chips or sweet and sour pork), break the dish down and remake the dish so that it is different but when the diner eats it can figure out that this is that well known dish. I thought that was quite an interesting idea and today I tried my hands on deconstructing something simple, a McChicken Burger.

Breaking down a McChicken Burger is actually quite simple, all the components that I know of are chicken, salad and bread. Looking at each of those more closely, the chicken is coated and seasoned, the salad is just lettuce with mayo and the bread just has sesame seeds on it. With those three components listed like that I thought why not do a normal protein on vegetable with a carbohydrate on the side dish that you normally find at most western restaurants.

After some searching on the Internet, I have found the ingredients that goes into making a McChicken burger and attempt to copy it my dish. First off we have the chicken, which according to the online recipe, the coating consisted of, bread crumbs, flour, salt, onion powder, pepper, garlic powder and some other thing that I don't know. What I did in my version was not to completely coat it like you'll find in the burger but just lightly coat it to be baked. My ingredients for it was, flour, salt, pepper, onion soup powder (the stuff you can buy at the supermarkets) and rosemary. I put the chicken (breast) into my little toaster oven and set it to bake.

The salad was easy. In the burger, the salad is just lettuce with mayo so I used regular lettuce but I dressed it with mayo, virgin olive oil and toasted sesame seeds. The seeds of course comes from the bun on the burger. The only component left was the bread so I just tasted two cut of rolls that was buttered.

After everything was put together and eat commenced I have say my oven skills need work as the chicken was quite dry but it was close to how the chicken tasted the burger. The salad I thought was quite good except for maybe using extra virgin olive oil wasn't the best or maybe I should use less next time. The sesame seeds with the salad though gives really good flavour to it. All in all not a bad attempt I thought but thinking on it now I might have tried this dish before. At least now though I have it on record.

***

Now usually I have to cook something for mum to eat as she's vegetarian. You can see in my galley I often have a non-vegetarian dish and a vegetarian dish. Tonight, because I was busy putting together my dinner, I quickly slapped together something for mum. As it turned out it was better tasting than my non vegetarian dish.

That picture to me reminds me of Malaysian dishes that you can get in, well Malaysia. Dry vegetarian lamb red curry was the dish and here I served it with the salad I made and rice. The vegetarian lamb is made from shitake mushroom stalks and flavoured. Often when eating at vegetarian restaurants and they have curry, that's the "meat" that they use.

Making it was quite simple, cloves with diced really fine onion, ginger and lemon grass, saluted in oil until brown. Add in a diced tomato and cook until tomato starts to break. Throw in the "meat" and coat with ingredients in the pan and cook for a few minutes. Since the "meat" is already cooked all you need to do is just warm it up a little. Add in solution that I made of curry powder, chillie powder, cumin powder, pepper and water and stir through. Cook until the solution starts to reduce and then seasoned with salt.

The dry curry was actually quite a good accompaniment to the salad. I wasn't sure if it would go well but it did. I quite like dishes that I make that come out good by accident :)

Gaming: World of Goo

2009-10-30T16:34:00.002+13:00

World of Goo, developed by 2D Boy is a physic based game involving goo balls which you interconnect to reach a pipe. Essentially it is a puzzle game with that will test how well you know how things lean and what clever constructs you can build with these balls to reach the suction pipe. Yeah that's right.

Pros:
Interesting gaming design
Colourful cartoony visuals
Un-intrusive music
Simple controls

Cons:
Game seems short
No save replay

There is not much to fault in this game. Everything was 'keep it simple stupid' or KISS if you will. The controls, visuals, music and concept of this game was great which goes to show that you can get a fun game, even on PC, without ultra realistic 3D people blowing off people's heads and zombies and other pop culture exploits.

I love the visuals in this game. It seems to me cartoony graphics is a lost art in games these days or reserve only to the Nintendo. That shouldn't be the case. Cel shaded graphics or proper 2D cartoony visual will always be better than crappy 3D textures mapped on a polygon with not enough vertices.

The music in this is always good in that it fits perfectly into the background. I don't know how many games I've played where the music grinds on your nerves. Especially if it's a game where you need to spend a lot of time on (like puzzle games).

The other good things about this game beyond just 'in the game' is that they have ported this to Mac, Linux and even the Wii. More platforms equals more avenues of income which means potentially more profits which will of course means more games being developed by these people. That is probably one of the problems with indie games at the moment is that there is not many cross platform compatibility. But of course that doesn't matter these days as if you want to make an indie game to make money, the only platform you should be concerned with is the iPhone.

I said there weren't many things to fault but there are a few. One thing that I'd like to have had in this game is having the ability to save replays of the structures I've built to get to the goal. You could upload your structures to a hall of fame for each level but, to my knowledge, they're just flat images. You want to see what you did to make that construct and everything that was involved in getting to your goal.

Ball selection can be a problem at times when you have a mass of balls all cycling one area. When you're at a level and there are multiple balls to choose from, it is very hard to select the one that you want. The other problem I had was when you've selected your goo ball to dragged to the place you want to place it, when that goo ball hits an obstacle sometimes it gets dislodged and falls away. Sometimes to their doom. It would be a lot better to have the object that you're holding be ethereal until you're ready to place it.

I wasn't sure if it was just me but I found the game a little easy. There was only two or three levels that I found hard and because of this the game seems short to me. There is replay value in trying to complete each level within Obessive Completion Distinction (or OCD) criteria, which can be tough, but the main game seems short. All in all quite good. Lets hope that 2D Boy are not a one hit wonder and I look forward to see what they come up with next

Events: Armageddon 2009

2009-10-25T21:17:00.002+13:00

Armageddon 2009. A gathering of pulp culture - whatever that means - has happened again. This year they shifted the venue from the Aotea Centre in central Auckland to a bigger venue at Greenlane event centre. The rumour I heard was that the Aotea was over flowing with people that they needed a bigger place to contain all the fan boys/girls. This indicated to me that Armageddon has finally got better and it is finally time for me to return to the event that has disappointed me after years and years.

A little back story of my experiences at Armageddon. I first went to this event back in 2003. That's the earliest memory of, I think I might have been earlier but it wasn't memorable and thus not important. Aoeta Centre was packed, all the 3.5 floors was jammed packed with comics, games, tv/movies/anime and other things that make up armageddon. The games section had plenty of booths of playable games and there were pods of computers networked where you play vs each other. The promotion people stands etc was mind blowing. They were all up in your face with play this game and there were so many of them. Each section was different and within those section it was really diverse. It was so pleasing that I had to go back next year.

Since the first year though, the event suffered from getting sectioned removed and focusing more the retail side of things. It was no different this year even though it was at a bigger venue. Here are the list of things that did not sit well with me:

Even longer line to wait to get in (1.5 hours for my group)

Bigger venue but same bottle neck at admission

Lack of freebies

In a paid event like this one you usually expect freebies but it was not the case here

Wasted floor space

There's more room to put things but instead of placing them efficiently they wasted

Gaming section was lacking

Gets worse every time I go and this is the main reason why I go

WoW booths showing off WoW that people have already seen

Just normal WoW, so you can play WoW at an event where you can play at home

Probably some more but I can't think of them right now. However it wasn't all bad though there were some good in there as well:

Gaming stages

Show casing games like DJ Hero where people can go play and humiliate themselves (like me)

Celebrity panels

Where you can see the stars and ask them question. May it be a little cringe worthy for the amount of non-related to what they're promoting question and more just fan girls/boys remarks. (HAVE MY BABIES!)

Screening rooms

Needed more but the screening rooms were good to show case things that you may not have seen before

There could be improvements of course, this is what I propose:

Split the events

Armageddon is comprised of essentially three events. Comics/anime, gaming and unconventional events. It would be better if the events only contain elements related to those events. A lot of people go to the event and won't bother with the others. If the same are group it makes for a better community. Also it will make those that do go fit in. There's nothing worth turning up in cosplay and everyone thinks you're weird. It's much better to turn up in cosplay and the majority of the others are in cosplay also.

More screening rooms.

What's better than to screen shows to the public and have the available DVDs for sale right at the door.

Proper layout for booths

Actually think what booths will attract people and layout accordingly. Nothing worse than people all gathering around something that they can't see or obscuring walkways

Better admissions

Know that their will be a lot of people who won't pre-purchase tickets and set up a way to sell people tickets and shift a line. This isn't new, Armageddon has always had lines that stretch for ages and yet there is still only three people that sell tickets

Have sections with age limits

There was an age limit to a specific gaming area but on the whole there were too many children mixed in. To me that wasn't the best of experiences.

I think the reason for my dislike stems from the saying of "been there done there". I guess also because I'm older now these things doesn't seem to hold it's appeal. People that know me know that I've been wanting to go to a gaming event for quite a while now and I honestly believe that there is enough audience in New Zealand to hold something like that. I honestly believe if Armageddon was to split of into gaming event, comic/anime event and 'others' it would make for a better experience. Until they do that though, this will be the last Armageddon I attend as an event.

Musings: What she's really thinking

2009-10-14T20:27:00.007+13:00

Towards the end of September http://x kcd.com posted this comic:

Steven K Wang commented on facebook and I quote: "ha, so unrealistic, his imagination seems to be more probable...oh wait, that actually depend on if he is good looking, damn." And I thought to myself yeah that is quite unrealistic in the modern world so I thought I'd do a comic of my own to illustrate how in a situation like this, what she would be actually thinking...

I am come on, other guys would be way more interesting than thou no?

Gaming: Golden Axe Warrior on Sega Master System

2009-10-08T20:20:00.004+13:00

No, not the side scroller of fame but the birds eye, top down, action adventure version that maybe a lot of people haven't heard of released in 1991 called Golden Axe Warrior. A simple way to explain it is, it looks like the original Legend of Zelda on the Nintendo Entertainment System. In fact, I have read from places it was Sega's way of competing with the NES at the time. If you put a play the games side by side you can see they are nearly identical.

Pros:
Quite colourful and good use of colour.
Music match mood of game.
Easy to pick up and play.

Cons:
Repetitive.
Lack of world map.
Frustrating secrets.
Unimaginative monsters.

The game works of titles. The player walks around on a single map and when that player moves off the side, a new map is drawn. The map doesn't scroll. Each of these maps are joined thus creating a tiles for an overall world. Each object and monsters are titles as well. It could almost be like a first year compsci assignment. Maybe not to that scope but the basics are there.

I have to say the game was interesting at start but it got quite repetitive really fast and the lack of a proper map system means you have to memorise each location. Which isn't too bad because you have to walk by the that often anyway. It was nearly the end of the game where you get a device which shows you where you are on a slightly detailed map of the world. In the normal game you only get a rid that with no picture of the world, and a flashing dot to represent where you are. If they had the map device at the start of the game it wouldn't have been so hard to navigate the world. When designing a game where you have a world. Have a map that show where you are in the world.

The lack of saves in this game was quite annoying, especially when you get into the dungeons. (As we all know, all the action happens in dungeons.) You usually get a save spot somewhere outside and that's it, if you die in the dungeon you restart back at the beginning of the dungeon. Sure they may not be that big but it was a real hassle as they can be quite hard at times. The lack of saves was actually one thing that made this game a little off putting but they did make it up by letting you 'continue'.

You can 'continue' a few square out (I think) and everything still done (monsters still beaten) for horns (the currency of the game). This isn't so bad if things aren't so expensive and collecting horns weren't so slow. Sometimes it's not worth it but having to retrack your steps from the save points can also be really frustrating. It is good to be good....at this game.

In the game they try to weave together a story. That's normal for an action adventure game but the problem is, it's so detached from what you're actually doing. There is story then there's action and nothing in between. When you're in a town they might say something relating to what you're doing but that's it, it was almost like, oh we need to add some dialogue to this game to make it more story-y. A lot of it you just don't care about and often just skip through but sometimes they actually talk about (may it be very vague) hidden items but because the dialogue was so boring I skipped the important ones. Oh and the secrets...

Secrets are fine in a game. It adds re-playability but it is really frustrating as a player when you have to guess where the important, game finishing critical things are. Often there are no clues so you have to chop at each tree and blow up each boulder in the game to see if there is a secret underneath it. In the end I got so frustrated with this I had to look for a walkthrough with a big world map so I could tell where I was at any given time. It seems like they are trying to increase play time in the game by making you explore every single thing!

To conclude though it was quite the effort Sega put in to compete with Zelda but seeing as there are no more follow up games, it just couldn't handle the juggernaut that is The Legend of Zelda. Having never played Zelda, it seems to me, in this game, they were sloppy in some of the monster's AI and design with monsters just having a different colour to indicate toughness. It was entertaining but flawed however back in the day it would of been quite the game to own.

Dining: At Butter Bank on Bank Street Whangarei

2009-10-07T21:41:00.006+13:00

With me today was Kirsty Williams. I first saw this place open a few weeks ago but I've been told that it's been there a little longer than that. When it was open it doesn't matter, it's a restaurant that I haven't been to yet.

At the Whangarei Food Show at the 3rd of October 2009, there was a stall representing the Butter Bank and the Butter Factory. Upon closer probing of what's what. I found out they are connected, or soon to be in the near future. Also the Butter Bank is more a bar/club than a restaurant. They serve Spanish tapas and pizza as their main sort of food. It does sound very bar like and I also found out they have salsa there on Tuesdays.

When we got the place and was seated. It was evident that this place was more of a bar/club than a restaurant. The whole place was seat out in that fashion although if it was a club I didn't see the dance floor, maybe it was to the back. I'm not sure the advantage of having it at the back as if you seat it closer at the front it'll generate more attention. Maybe they encourage their patrons to head to the Butter Factory for fun times on the groove floor.

Being seated near the main road of Whangarei isn't the best as you can't have a conservation without boy racers hooning past and they can't help it. It's right on a hill so you have to accelerate. The tables was small, obviously intended for drinks only. The lighting of the place too was quite deem. It might be my eyes but I just find it being that dark isn't the best for eating food. Then again, not intended as a restaurant I suppose. There was a few people there but on the whole, pretty empty for a Wednesday evening. Maybe I should of treated more like a bar/club and actually ordered a drink. I found out tonight that I prevent people from having a drink if they are the only person drinking. It's a good thing I don't completely swear of alcohol. I do have my drinks and I'll remember it for next time. I hate being 'that guy' that dulls the fun.

Food wise, since the guy at the food show mention tapas, I ordered the chef selection of tapas, hoping to get a taste of the different appetisers. Kirsty order the spaghetti and meatballs which was the special for the night. Time wise, it was quite the wait before the food came out although I didn't time it. When food was bought out, Kirsty's spaghetti was first but the server at the time dropped it. A new portion had to be made so more waiting again. I think it was because they only had one chef at the time but there wasn't that many others, another table of two maybe, to serve.

When we finally got the food my tapa variety was served on a circular chopping board. On was a selection of small portions of medium pan seared steaks, chicken roasted with pepper and other herbs, roasted small cubes of potatoes, sliced tomatoes with fresh herbs and cheese, bread that was toasted to be really crunchy and a martini glass of black and green olives. Was fair to say that the food served was nothing special. Each of the portions was prepared like any other european style restaurant would prepare the food. I was hoping actually to get more of a variety than just steak and chicken. There was seafood and a few others on their menu that didn't make it to this order. Nothing wrong with the food in itself, cooked nicely and nicely seasoned but I was expecting a bit more than just steak and chicken. The bread was way too toasted, it was really crunchy and hard to eat. The olives in the martini glass was nice looking but there was way to many of them and thus the left overs would of gone to waste. This particular dish might have been meant for multiple people, but no more than two I guess as there isn't that much food on it three.

Kirsty spaghetti and meatballs looked quite good I have to say but I didn't get to try the meatball. The spaghetti and sauce itself was quite good. Fairly standard but Kirsty says the meatballs was quite tasty.

On the whole, not a bad night out but I have to say am disappointed in what I ordered. I would come back to this place however I'd have bar/club in mind than a full eating place. Thing is now, I think I'm obligated to head to Danger! Danger on Vine Street in Whangarei as well as they're classified as an eating place as well. One day, hopefully I won't get stabbed although I hear getting stabbed is the pinnacle whangarei experience. Or so I hear

Two years on

2009-10-03T23:51:00.004+13:00