Interesting

Chaos Rings Omega for iPad 2 Review

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chaos rings omega

I’m a huge fan of the first Chaos Rings and have grinded on the JRPG (Japanese RPG) on my iPhone 4 for ages. Chaos Rings is an exclusive iOS title by the venerable Square Enix (makers of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts) and their prequel Chaos Rings Omega just came out with the August 2011 Japanese voice acting pack.

itunes

I bought it for USD 14.99 coz I was a little to eager to grab the game – it went down to USD 10.99 to celebrate the release of the voice pack just 2 hours later. -_-

combat

The game play is exactly like Chaos Rings – there’s nothing different at all. Even the environment uses the same textures and most of the BGM is recycled, although we’ve got a couple of new characters this time around. I felt a strong sense of deja vu playing through it – I’ve spent countless hours on the first one leveling up my character so this just feels like more of the same.

gamecenter

The voice acting pack is something of a letdown too – it feels like it was rushed out, the main scenes have voice acting but some of the “less important” scenes lack voice acting, making it feel a bit unpolished. However the combat system is now fully voiced, which can be an annoyance or a treat, depending on how long you play it. 😉

Pros:
Expanded Chaos Rings story
The best JRPG on iOS devices
Voice acting comes as a free update, even for the first title
Game Center support – there are also hidden achievements for defeating the bosses

Cons:
Pixelation is very heavy even on Chaos Rings Omega HD running on the iPad 2 – perhaps coz I’ve played the previous title on the iPhone 4 with Retina Display
Voice acting is not consistent – not every scene has it, and it’s slightly buggy
The price tag is a bit high for a non-universal app, but then again, this is Square Enix we’re talking about

I would recommend Chaos Rings Omega since it’s 27% off for a week right now – but only if you don’t already have the first title or if you’re a die hard fan. It’s just more of the same – even the puzzles use the same mechanics.

Death and destruction!

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truck

We were driving up north to Penang this morning when we came across a rather epic accident involving a trailer (complete with its load), truck and a rather unfortunate and outmatched car. It jammed up the PLUS highway and upon closer inspection, the car’s driver side compartment was completely decimated.

trailer

You can’t see it clearly coz I didn’t have time to pull out my digicam so all photos are taken using the iPad. There was a policeman taking photos of the wreck in the car too – I don’t believe for a second that anyone could have survived that.

car

The driver side of the car was nearly sheered off and when it came to its final resting place in a ditch, it was facing against the traffic.

ambulance

Anyway, this just goes to show that you can never be too careful on the road. Drive safe and watch out for swerving trailers. We almost got acquainted with one carrying a cargo of timber logs just now. -_-

Freedom! Undid the Ipoh fiasco and off on a trip this weekend!

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jpn

Remember how I lost my wallet during a road trip to Ipoh a while back? That was more than a MONTH ago and I have been running around sans MyKad, driver’s license et al since then. It’s a wonder I haven’t been stopped. I made the police report on the 20th of June (3 weeks ago) but never bothered to replace all my stuff.

Well, I did go to JPJ once but they told me they couldn’t give me a driver’s license without my MyKad (it’s a national identity card, kinda like a social security number, except it stores way more personal information).

Thus, I have procrastinated until today to get it done. You know what they say about that – “Procrastination is like masturbation – it feels good at the time but in the end you’re only fucking yourself”.

Anyway, I woke up bright and early at 6:30 am today and went to Pusat Bandar Damansara to get my temporary MyKad done. It was finished within 5 minutes. I was duly amazed.

The next stop was to the bank to get my ATM and credit cards done. I only managed to go to one bank but it’s the one I use the most nowadays anyway. I got my credit card but for the ATM card, they’ll need authorization from my home branch so I’ll probably wait until I come back.

I’ve been using e-banking to transfer money to my friends accounts and using their ATM to withdraw for more than a month anyway. Heh. It can wait.

police report

Next, I decided to head down to JPJ in PJ (rhymes dunnit) to see how long it takes to replace a driver’s license. It’s behind the court (the place you go to when you’ve done something naughty, not the one you head down when you feel like a game of tennis) and my GPS says that there’s ANOTHER NRD right around the corner so should you feel the need to replace your MyKad and driver’s license in a single trip, just head there.

I paid all my summons (apparently you need to do that before you can renew your driver’s license) and renewed it for another 5 years so it was a good thing I did my credit card before that. I don’t have nearly enough cash on me to pay the ludicrous amount that I have for moving and static traffic violations. 🙁

This only took me 15 minutes, including the RM 10 I paid to get my photo done. It’s very fast. I’ve been putting off doing it coz I thought it would take ages but I finished everything within 2 hours!

Why the sudden call to action after more than a month of procrastination?

I’m heading down to JB this weekend to party at Freedom with Lainey bff. 😀

It’s going to be loads of fun…and that’s not all – after Freedom, we’ll be heading to Singapore (since it’s just across the border). w00t.

temporary mykad

Oh, and I noticed a strange thing while doing my MyKad and at JPJ – they actually show you the photo for your approval before they use it. Huh. Last time I did that, no one bothered, I wonder what has changed?

My iPad 2 has a cracked screen

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ipad 2 cracked screen

I put my iPad 2 in this small The North Face sling bag during the time I spent in Australia. It fits the iPad 2 snugly in the back compartment where you zip it.

ipad 2 shattered glass screen

Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer any protection at all. I dropped the bag numerous times and must have hit the side of the iPad 2 once coz that side shattered and spread into two long cracks down the entire screen. Crap. It still works though…but there’s bits of glass that comes off every time you accidentally touch the side where it shattered. 🙁

That’s why I can never have anything nice. 😡

My ESPN Star Sports Castrol Football Crazy video!

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Happy Friday the 13th!

Do you happen to be a king of the football field or the futsal center? Well, you don’t need to be that good actually, you can be the master of the foosball table for all intents and purposes…just as long as you can kick a football.

Patricia Sue-Lin Knudsen

Hey, remember the ESPN Star Sports Castrol Football Crazy’s Longest Pass launch that I went too? I finally got the video that’s going to be compiled into a long football pass video spanning Asia from them! I’ve just uploaded it and you can see it here:

This clip is actually from one of the outtakes where I messed up a bit. Heh! I would have thought they would have chosen a different one since I didn’t pull this off quite well. I think I did about 5-6 takes. T_T

Anyway, if you want to be part of Castrol Football Crazy’s Longest Pass video, just follow the steps below:

espn star sports castrol football crazy longest pass

You’ll be featured across ESPN Star Sports’ TV networks and also on the Castrol Football Crazy Facebook page if your video gets selected! 🙂

It’ll be nice to appear on TV on this scale so if you want the chance, submit your video to be a part of it!

Has anyone here ever been on TV before?

Tell me about it, I’ll love to hear your experiences! I’ve been on air several times but never across the whole of Asia so it’ll be a first for me! Come on, join in the fun! 🙂

Altogether now – Look ma! I’m on TV! 😀

What would you have for your last meal?

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last-meal

I posted this question on Facebook a while back and I’ve been reading the unusual last meal requests of death row inmates in Wikipedia. It’s quite interesting, really. What would you have for your last meal?

Personally, I’ll like:

last meal
Chicken rice
It’s my favorite dish. I used to eat it for lunch everyday!

foie gras
Foie gras
I love this stuff. It goes well with some bread. I’ll love some caviar to go with it too!

kobe steak

In addition to that, I’ll have some comfort food (pork leg, chai bo, century eggs) and a huge Kobe steak – medium rare. 😀

What would you like to eat for your last meal before you die?

Pulling my dermal anchor piercing out myself

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dermal anchor reject

I had a dermal anchor piercing (also called a microdermal implant) done last year and it healed pretty well without much care on my part. However, the skin around it started getting inflamed and I knew that my body was going to reject the piercing.

The microdermal implant started growing out when my niece pulled at it during Chinese New Year and it has caught several times against my clothing ever since. I got really tired of it and decided to pull it out just now.

dermal anchor remove

I’ve heard a lot of people say that it’s a painful process that must be done in a proper setting but I just grabbed the loose part and pulled it out with my fingers. It didn’t hurt at all. I think it was about to fall out by itself sooner or later anyway. *shrugs

pulling out microdermal

Microdermals are foreign objects and your body will reject it given time so I figured I might as well expedite the process. There’s minimal bleeding and at least I won’t have to feel uncomfortable with it snagging against my clothes anymore. smirk

Wicked the Musical in London

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wicked the musical

Wicked the Musical is one of the best musicals I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching. It’s currently showing at Apollo Victoria Theatre in London. Yup, I caught the West End cast in this award winning production! 🙂

wicked

Wicked is actually based on the first of a trilogy of books by Gregory Maguire called Wicked – The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Most of you would have watched or read The Wizard of Oz at some point in your childhood. It’s a good movie but ultimately suffers from being based on a children’s book – it’s all black and white, good versus evil.

wicked book

As you grow older, such concepts are foreign, nay, an insult to your intelligence, in a world you know has no such absolutes. It’s all shades of gray and Wicked will appeal to the older audience. The book and the musical adaptation has quite a few differences though – the book is darker and Dorothy does not make an appearance in the written word.

wicked glinda

However, I love the musical coz it weaves everything together and portrays Elphaba (the name of the Wicked Witch of the West) as a revolutionary who fights for the rights of Animals. She is ultimately a very misunderstood character and you can’t help but feel sorry for her.

wicked ticket

I managed to get reasonably good seats for 62.50 pounds (about RM 300) – it’s the very front row in the middle of the Dress Circle. I was impressed by the props on stage as well – the animatronic bird (?) hovering over the stage like a large pterodactyl that comes alive when the Wizard of Oz makes his speeches is awe inspiring!

apollo victoria wicked

The orchestra playing in front of the stage is so good that I went and bought the CD + program for 20 pounds. Wicked the Musical is probably best known for the song “Defying Gravity” which also appeared in an episode of Glee (the one with the wheelchairs in Season One).

wicked program cd

I won’t spoil the story for you but basically the musical is about Glinda (The Good Witch of the South), Elphaba (The Wicked Witch of the West) and Nessa (The Wicked Witch of the East) during their days in school.

orchestra

The witches weren’t known as such then (Glinda is such a selfish airhead) and the incredibly sad and touching series of events which culminated in the death of Nessa (damn Madame Morrible) and the vilification of poor Elphaba will bring a tear to even the most stone hearted man.

elphaba

The production runs for about 3 hours, including an intermission between Act I and Act II and I cannot recommend it strongly enough for those with an interest in theatre (and even those without). If you only watch one musical in your lifetime, let it be Wicked. I got so angry at Galinda and felt so sorry for Elphaba even though it’s just great acting.

I can relate so much to Elphaba. T_T

No one mourns the wicked. 🙁

Microdermal implants – my third nipple

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microdermal implant instruments

Microdermal implants uses surgical grade titanium to anchor an interchangeable stud under your skin. It’s done by creating a “pocket” under your skin and it’s a lot easier to heal than the previous surface bar piercing that I have. I shall do a quick n00b drawing to show how it works.

microdermal diagram

Basically, it needs to be anchored towards something, in this case, my ribcage. There is a long titanium anchor that goes up and a shorter one that goes down. The first time you do it, it’s best to have a flat stud so it won’t rub too much against your clothes.

microdermal implant draw

It’s a lot easier to get piercings in high school and university coz you don’t have to give considerations about work. However, now that I’m working, piercings (except for the usual orthodox ones) have to be concealable under office attire.

microdermal implant measuring

Michelle calls it my third nipple. smirk

Fresh says it looks like someone just hammered a nail in my heart but it’s actually straight in the middle of my body. Frankie of Zoo Body Piercing measured it so it would be right in the center of my body.

microdermal implant look

The procedure is fairly simple – a small gauge needle (which is a large needle – the higher the gauge, the thinner it is) is used to make 4 incisions under your skin. The top part of the anchor is pushed in followed by the bottom part.

microdermal implant done

I didn’t find it painful but then again your mileage may vary since everyone has different pain thresholds. I actually like pain so it was quite enjoyable for me.

Microdermal implants takes only 3 months to heal and costs RM 250. You have to really take care of it during the first few days though. However, my approach towards body modification is always LITHA (Leave It The Hell Alone) and it usually works for me.

microdermal implant us

Thanks to bff Lainey for the recommendation! Zoo Body Piercing also does branding – my next project! =D

Balcony jumping in Sepang

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balcony jumping

Okay, this is a rather ill conceived idea that got into my head ever since the mangrove tour guide guy told me the water was 5-6 meters deep from the individual water chalets. I’ve done cliff jumping in Ton Sai and bff Lainey knew that I was gonna do this from the way I pondered and reccied the exit points.

There is an emergency ladder system about 100 meters from our water chalet and to be safe I deployed the life buoy (standard in each chalet). I didn’t know how deep the water was or whether there are any rocks under it so I needed the life buoy as insurance just in case I jumped into rocks and can’t resurface.

I must let it go on record that this is not recommended at all! It was a lot of fun for me but the water at high tide is only 1 meter deep (!!!). It’s a good thing the bottom is sand or else I’ll be in a shitload of trouble from jumping from the balcony into the sea.

The video is funny from bff’s commentary and how I kena tiu by the security guard when I appeared seemingly out of nowhere…in my briefs. smirk

Go watch! =D

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