Made in China Fireworks

Third round of fireworks for this year and China takes the stage. Me and Mo2 head down as usual. Gar and Ruby were there already, Saboo, and then Sean, his wifey and his friend Mike show up later. Braman also came for the first time. We had a crave for curry since last week, so we had that for dinner. Also found Mike and Windy on the beach as well. Played Mario Kart near the end with four people plus CPUs and rose above with the highest score (1st place - 148pts!) ;D

For the main event, China started off with their Beijing Olympics theme song (that annoying "We are ready!" one)... I also recognized Laputa's theme song play (while everyone was puzzled as to where it originated from). Apparently there was also Harry Potter and Lion King in there as well. So overall, China was a lot more impressive than Canada and the US. If they don't win, it'll be safe to say that it was rigged.

I got home and it was already late but I logged in to take a look at the updated WAR 3.2. It's slicker indeed, and the colour of my armor doesn't look so gay anymore. I look forward to spending my night on it! XP

WAAAGH! β 3.2

So 3.2 is releasing and they're forcing us to redownload and reinstall the whole client. Ok so they were nice and gave us another option other than their evil patcher client - BT. Now, you'd first think that it was smart on their part - users will be sharing bandwidth with each other and helping each other out by sharing. However, to my dismay, their BT isn't all that efficient either. I've been upping more than downing, with a positive green happyface ratio the whole time and ETA of 41 hours. Apparently some fag (but who didn't see this coming?) also posted the bt link publicly.. They seriously need to put in an authentication requirement if they really wanna keep their stuff private. Ah well, stupid people.

So the download finally caught up and finished this morning, but I won't be home tonight to start it up. China power fireworks!

Batman, Fireworks, ABDC

My brother finally didn't have OT Saturday so he nagged me to watch Batman with him and dad. However, I had trouble waking up on the wonderful Saturday weekend so we didn't make the early IMAX showing at 12:15. We stopped by to grab some Mexican on our way and watched the next normal showing at 12:45.

So Batman was a GREAT movie. Joker was insanely insane! The CG on Harvey's face was quite believable. Two thumbs! Make it two hand thumbs and two toe thumbs!

After Batman, I headed home to meet up with Mo2 and headed downtown. We took our time down and arrived sometime before 6. Gar and Nina were holding a log until we came with a mat to sit on. Saboo and Sabrina joined in a bit later. I played Tales of Destiny for the most part. The fireworks itself was a lot more interesting than Canada's but we all felt they had one too many songs, making one too many "false endings".

This week's ABDC: Supreme Soul's GONE! Next week's result rankings probably: 1.Super Cr3w, 2.So Real, with Fanny Pak and Boogie Bots going at it.

Fireworks - Canadar

It's that time of the year again! The fireworks have come! Hurrah!

After work, I headed towards Mo2's workplace to meet up with her. We walked down to the beach, picking up some Vera's fast food on the way. We found the usual gang chilling around the usual area and relieved them of their duties so they could grab some food. We spent the evening playing a few rounds of Big 2, then went and learned how to play Dragon. Near the end, we also had a few rounds of Tetris DS with the Tetris Queen ;3

Ok so the actual fireworks performance tried to be epic. Epic with Godzilla. Like, literally epic Godzilla orchestrated remix of the soundtrack movie (or something to that relation). However, they failed to really grab our attention. They had well timed fires, which was nice... but it went with boring marches. They also used one too many annoyingly bright exploding fireworks that obliterated retinas in an instant. Didn't help that I (and probably 80% of the rest of the people) was not familiar with the soundtrack (if that truly was their source).

Well at least when I got home, I was greeted with a new Logitech wireless mouse and my monthly manga loot. My old mouse was having spasms, couldn't understand single clicks thinking they were double clicks and couldn't hold on to anything long enough -- like an old man! But I've only had that mouse for less than a year. I filed a troubleshoot with Logitech and they concluded I need a new one, so here, my new one! It clicks a lot louder than my old one, but it works like a charm so far. No complaints here.

Only maybe that I'm really mentally tired from coming home late yesterday... Sounded like I missed some fun PQ runs in WAR yesterday night too...

Aggh: Public Transit

Worst morning ever. My stop one of the firsts on this bus route and so it's usually always empty. This morning it was already packed at my stop and I had to stand (with two effing messenger bags - laptop & personal). Then it got really packed and the bus driver kept packing us in. He also said he wouldn't move if we didn't pack ourselves even more to fit everyone.

Where the fuck did these "new bus improvements" go?

If you guys had more damn buses at the right crucial times, there would never be these problems.

Tales of Phantasia done

So I finished Tales of Phantasia (GBA). My brief review, which is basically just random stuff that come up in my head:

The game is old, I understand that it was remade from a Super famicom game and didn't get ported to GBA until later. Some transitions were slow (e.g. victory fanfares felt like forever) and character responses after getting hit were even slower. After a few hours in, I got used to them though. The voices were also a treat; the quality was horrible since it came out of GBA quality, but there were voices nonetheless (for their skill moves) so that was still nice.

There are a few battle scenarios (usually solo) when you can get stuck between two monsters and... get stuck there forever and die... so that was kind of annoying. I also encountered a glitch where I entered this Inn in Fritzerald (sp?) at the end of the game, and my game actually crashed and went black. It didn't affect me much as it was a sidequest near the end.

Overall, the story was your typical save the earth with time traveling. The characters were fun. I think I generally liked everyone; all my characters were equally powerful in battle. I especially liked the choice of character faces you can config, and you get to pick this funny SD-face version. The last boss was a joke - I trapped him in the corner and my mages just spammed him. He didn't even lay a finger on me. But the ending was kind of depressing... for both the real reason behind Dhaos' objectives and for the characters to depart in such a way.

I'm playing my brother's Luminous Arc right now just because that was the other game with me when I finished ToP (was not home). And I don't even usually play strategy rpgs (cuz I suck at strategy? I barely made it through FFT...). But I think I'm starting to like it.

Dance Crew S02E05

I freaked out when it ended with Super Cr3w vs hi i'm deaf ASIID.

Silly FFXI

15. Apollyon - MNK (ohshit I have the set now!)
16. Apollyon - BLM (uhoh does that mean I should finish lvling this)

It's great. I can just imagine myself quitting with a shitload of garbage.

My feelings for FFXI right now: Get myself a Limbus piece with all my points (a la Homam/Nashira) and call it quits. Then maybe join the rest of the gang when they return to finish the WotG story.

JttCotE.... then work

Watched Journey to the Center of the Earth (...JttCotE) Sunday night with Mo2 and Braman at the Empire in North Van (it was the only place that had it in all of Greater Van). We were originally hoping to catch a glimpse of Shi2 who's been avoiding any contact with us for a few months now. Unfortunately she wasn't working that night so pooey.

It was in 3D so we had to wear these thick, black-rimmed glasses (what happened to the old school cardboard paper glasses? ;o). Most of the trailers that came before the feature presentation were also 3D movies, so we got to watch those in 3D as well. Am I the only one who thinks the bugs in Fly Me to the Moon are ugly? Bolt looks fun to watch though.

I don't particularly like Brendan Fraser but hey, the movie was not bad overall. There were a few illogical parts like using your PSP wirelessly on an airplane, and literally falling straight down into the earth's core at gravity speed and NOT dying. Then (minor spoiler?) dinosaurs were wtf and somehow they snuck in some romance where it didn't belong.

No fear, there's Batman coming up.

Then the work week rolls around. I get to the office building to find the lights all off and a weird beeping going on - it was a power outage. It wasn't the first time this has happened so we sat around and waited for it to fix itself. It was taking longer than usual, so we decided to go out for a walk and grab some drinks. Since our whole block had no power, we walked up to Hastings and stopped at a coffee shop. I got myself a fruity mango slush drink, which wasn't that good actually. :( Another co-worker notices smoke coming out from a manhole nearby. I didn't think much of it cuz I've seen that before.

We took our drinks and headed to the "park" by the EA building. It was HOT. I didn't want to get burnt so I hid under my jacket which I luckily brought with me. I still got brown though. :( The shade was soggy too so there wasn't much choice. About an hour into the work day, we get a call from our boss telling us the power wasn't going to come back for a while, so we were told to work from home. We returned to the office, got briefed on our work and headed home.

When we all got settled down in the comfort of our own homes, we receive news that a circuit caught on fire underground and it was messy. The area became closed off, and they're in the process of fixing it right now, however it's quite the major problem. It's the second day and they predict they will be done by 11PM tonight. Good luck with that. I hope they don't so I can work from home again tomorrow!

So when I woke up today to check the status of the power outage, I get an email that I got accepted into Warhammer closed beta finally. Luckily being at home, I could start the download process as well. However, their update servers really suck. I've been downloading this one 1GB file for 3 1/2 hours. The download rate fluctuates erratically from 15kbps to 500kbps, usually staying in the low numbers. And then sometimes it would timeout and then you'd have to reopen the update again. Being not around my computer the whole time, I don't know when it will decide to timeout.

How annoying.

That's even more annoying than FFXI updates.

Today's interesting miracle

For long trips, my parents are the type who hides their important personal belongings, so if someone were to raid the house while they weren't home, they couldn't (or would at least have trouble) finding them.

Since the whole family was leaving for HK for almost a whole month, leaving the house dead empty, my mom suggested that I hide my/her precious watch. (Long story, short: My mom has too many watches so she gave me one. Rolex, mind you.) The day before we left, which was the 14th of April, I tossed the watch into my drawer. When I returned, I couldn't find it (I didn't put too much effort into it however).

This morning I felt like digging up a shirt to wear (on the shirt shelf) and then, voila, it shows up. It read the 14th. Today's the 14th. 3 months after I tossed it away.

Reminds me of this movie I watched that had something happen at 11PM and it was 11PM at the time when I watched it.

Giving Phantasy Star another try

K so I decided to give Phantasy Star another try with Phantasy Star Portable's demo. I can't stand the configuration - especially the D-pad. The end.

Bullfrog is still so awesome ;_;

I've been playing Theme Hospital again on my PSP during travel time to and from work. I was on a roll until I forgot to charge it after it was low to none for a whole day and it resetted on me. Yes, I don't save. I rely on the PSP sleep mode way too much. X3

Feeling totally upset for losing my progress, I started playing Tales of Destiny instead. I like how ToD kept the Japanese voices. It's been a while since I've last heard Tomokazu Seki. I've been hearing Midorikawa in Code Geass... but that's an angry, Chinese Midorikawa, not a cool prince like in ToD!

....

I suddenly have this itch to play Dungeon Keeper.

Tenipuri 100 Song Marathon

So for some reason I decided watched this, and even though I didn't know 75% of the songs, my love for PoT has been rekindled.

I didn't realize the chick behind the voice of Kintarou of Shitenhouji was so annoying in real.

And Hyotei is still so awesome lol.

Sicked :(

So yeah I'm sick.

Went to bed at 8 yesterday. Slept until I had to get up for work the next day. Scary, 11 hours.

Nose hurts from all the nose blowing.

I blame it on the office for being so damn cold while it's so damn hot outside. They do not understand the concept of regulation.

Seriously.

12. Temenos - BRD
13. Temenos - RDM
14. Temenos - WHM

WTS Male Taru 75 BST BRD WHM THF 68 RNG 67 BLM

I somehow stumbled across a FFXI account selling forum.

Wow. I can make over $1k USD easy.


If I really wanted to.

I am a garbage collector.

I'm becoming a Cire.

10. Apollyon - SMN
11. Apollyon - WAR

On a different note, BLM burning through NW Apollyon is fun stuff. 3x BLM, 1 RDM, 1 BRD. Ripped it good.

Limbus

So I've been doing Limbus (and nothing but) since I came back from HK. Probably because I've been going with an experienced LS, it looks insanely easy every time. o_o

So a bit of my Limbus achievement timeline thus far (since now I have nothing else to talk about really...):
1. Temenos - BST
2. Temenos - BRD
3. Apollyon - BRD (stolened from Proto-Omega)
=. BRD Hands +1
4. Apollyon - BST
5. Temenos - THF
6. Apollyon - THF
=. THF Hands +1
7. Temenos - MNK (lol, dropped on me)
8. Apollyon - BRD
9. Apollyon - THF

Loquacious Earring O
Musical Earring X
Burtal Earring X

(is it me or have I gotten a lot of drops?)

Ample drops but not enough of those damn ABCs! Those damn coins suck my wallet dry.

Why didn't I win that effing lottery!

Carbon Tax

It goes into effect starting today.

Hello $1.50+ gas!

Yesterday (June 30) I decided to join the bandwagon and fill up my baby before the carbon tax began. And... holy crap! Literally ALL the gas stations were PACKED at 10:00PM! It was already at $1.42 at regular (and I use Extra, so it was already basically $1.50) so with the .025(?) carbon tax, it'll be well over $1.60. My mere 20L was worth $30. Ouch. And my tank was already around 3/4 full.

I'm glad I bus to work.

Can't wait till school starts though...