Whoever thought someone would be concerned that this blog might die? This, together with Windows Messenger, is my personal entertainment when I'm not gaming. Gaming is to me as TV is to most other people my age, I think. And blogging is just something to fill the time slot between gaming and sleeping. I type better when I'm a little tired.
Some say that speaking in a poetic way in normal conversations is a symptom of some kind of mental illness, or basically something is wrong in the head. Speaking in such a way indicates that the person's unable to use or remember words they normally use, thus this person has to find alternatives. Beware, poets! And old people!
I see a link between the two paragraphs above. When I'm tired, I'm unable to find the words to say. At times, I stutter, which, basically, is the same thing. Therefore, fatigue screws my brain up temporarily( I hope), and I type in a more poetic way, utilising words of considerable lengths to create this effect of making my lines appear dramatically more impressive.
It's either this, or I don't care what I type when I'm shagged.
After learning to make perfect crispy bacons and sunny-side ups, I decided not to neglect my Chinese heritage and went on to find Dim Sum recipes.
Subject/Link to recipe: 鲜竹牛肉
Grade: Fail
Comments: GG, nub
This is the first one I tried, and the results are as described. What was supposed to be perfectly steamed beef balls with a smooth texture turned out to be minced beef in oyster sauce sitting in fragile balls. I followed the recipe dutifully, even frying the beancurd skin, which doesn't seem necessary since it doesn't make much difference in the taste of the beef!
Well, I did change the recipe lol! I didn't have tangerine skins at home, and I didn't want to buy a whole packet just for one piece of it, so I skipped that. I didn't have water chestnut powder at home, nor cornstarch, so I substituted with potato starch. I think this last change made all the difference.
But I still don't understand how the oyster sauce's flavour can be so obvious! I'm not supposed to taste anything but the beef, as I remember it! And all 6 websites I checked display almost the same list of ingredients. I don't see why oyster sauce should be used at all, since I don't remember tasting oyster sauce when I last ate it in Hong Kong. Does the water chestnut powder make such a huge difference in flavour too?
Anyway 鲜竹牛肉 is not sold in Singaporean restaurants, which made me want to try it first.
Right now I'm folding boxes for Christmas gifts. These will be given out when I go to CZY's tomorrow. I'm estimating 9 people, but some may not come, like Ivan and XL who are undecided. Too bad for them. I prepared one even for CZY's sister. Btw, I won't be surprised if I find out that her favourite brand is Prada. Frigging she-devil who throws stones at my groin! But still, I'm a nice person. At times.
I have no experience in wrapping gifts, so I decided to fold boxes with magazine paper for all of them. These boxes are in different shapes and sizes, regardless of what they're containing. I can almost see their surprise when they realize what each of them is getting.
The Witcher is a pretty nice game. It's like NWN, an DnD style RPG in which you can pause at any time. But it's only for single player, allows only one playable character - the Witcher, and only 1 style - WITCHER STYLE!
This game is a horror-themed RPG focusing on the adventures of Geralt of Rivia, a warrior who has undergone special training and a mutation through alchemy, and lives to kill monsters that roam the nameless medieval world in the game. Such people, or, as some call them, mutants are known as Witchers. The game starts with a stunning CG clip of a fight between him and a striga, a monster which is really a woman under a curse. I'm amazed that they would put so much effort in a mere trailer that plays when you start the game.
The trailer is really a prologue that happened some years before the game's story. In the game, Geralt lost his memory prior to the game's plot, and was found by fellow Witchers. They brought him to a ruined fortress where some of the last Witchers in the world still lived. One day soon after he recovered, they were attacked by a mob accompanied by an unknown sorcerer, a notorious serial killer and a summoned monster.
Eventually the sorcerer and his hired killer got what they wanted in their alchemist lab and left, but not before killing their one and only apprentice Witcher. Of course they were pissed, and thus they split up in the four directions to gather information of the powerful sorcerer, and kill him.
Thus begins a game of seriously creepy music, monsters that pop out suddenly, gorgeous women who want to get laid, and an intriguing plot.
Bad points:
The isometric camera, similar to the one used in NWN2, pisses me off sometimes, since it works horribly when there are tall buildings to trees. Instead of making the trees translucent when they block the camera, the camera is raised to a higher level on the tree while maintaining the distance between the character and the camera. So if you're standing next to a tall tree while rotating your camera, one moment your looking from his back, the next moment you're getting a bird's eye view of the scene. WTF!
The loading is slow. It can take half a minute to exit a building into town. The saving is slow. It takes 10s to save.
Good:
The monsters are not scary since they always look so small when I use isometric camera instead of the other 2 camera choices. But the music and environmental sound effects makes all the difference. A headphone really helps.
There is no sex scene but you can get a nude portrait of each of the ladies you manage to have sex with. There are always a few in every chapter. All the pictures are more tastefully done, not lewd like most porn, and look nice except for the one with the vampiress. Vampiress is how they say it in the game. So far I've seen only one lady appearing nude in the game, but she's a dryad and is all green from head to toe, with leaves and vines around her body.
You can fool around with alchemical recipes to make new potions, blade coatings and bombs. Keeps it interesting.
The graphics are nice, but my laptop can only handle the low settings. When I first tried the highest setting, the graphics appear quite screwed up. Parts of everything appear bright teal, probably because my video card is unable to produce the textures for these surfaces.
This game has a Mature rating in Europe, and is partially censored in the US. Cited reasons include nudity, language and violence( there's a move in which Geralt slices his opponent's head off, and since you can zoom in with the right camera choice, it makes for quite a fascinating sight).
And when I mention "tastefully done" in regards to the nude pictures, I hope I'm not misunderstood. An example of a very lewd picture can be a young woman posing nude, sitting down on the floor and her legs wide apart. One hand is between her legs and speading her labia. And not to mention with that slutty facial expression. I can see how some people describe porn as disgusting.
On the other end of the scale, we have tasteful pictures, which are of a more "teasing" nature, in which "not all goods are displayed", and hints at beauty that is unseen. One example can be a silhouette of a young woman in nude, facing away from the camera, and maybe with one of her arms stretched out while holding a translucent sash that is barely covering her body. The body can be facing the side, making the outline of a full breast visible.
Both are nude pictures, but the former is gross and cheap, while the latter has more class. There is a big difference. In one you can see everything, in the other you need imagination.
Anyway back to the Witcher, it is a nice game, but not as addictive as NWN2, probably because of the long loading times. Really ruins the momentum.
I'm playing this because my PS2's TV has finally shown signs of aging. More specifically, the green tube no longer works and the TV cannot display the colour green. Now everything appears red, so I stopped playing. If I get a new TV, fine. If not, I get less distractions in the future. I'm not planning to ask for a new one.
When I stopped playing my PS2, I was planning to play NWN2, now that I have the expansion set, but one of the files in the CD turns out to be corrupted, so I cannot play it until I get a new copy. Meanwhile I had nothing to play, and when withdrawal symptoms started to become obvious, my bro told me about the Witcher, which he tried but didn't like. He's a MMORPG addict, so this is not his type. I tried, and now I cannot make myself play NWN2 until I give up or finish Witcher.
And I cannot install NWN2 because my laptop is 3/4 full. The freaking Supreme Commander with expansion takes up 15GB!! Holy shit!
And about Supreme Commander's expansion, Forged Alliance, the campaign for the 3 races is really the same story in which you can choose to play as any of the 3 races. Since all 3 races are allies now, the story doesn't change whichever race you choose to be.
The new units are nice, but in the campaign, all I really use is heavy artilleries plus nukes - my omnipotent strategy against AI. First I create walls of shielded defenses at the correct choke points, then I tech up and build some heavy artilleries. If they have anti-nuke defenses, I have specific targets for the big guns. If not, I let my guns go free. Most likely they won't die from mere artilleries unless I build 20 of them, but this gets boring, so I get nukes.
If this shitty strategy is unsuitable, like for example they start out with Experimental Units that rush at you right away, I spam a mix of Air Superiority fighters and Strategic Bombers. Simple ideas for simple people like me.
The game's battles are so huge, I always zoom as far away as possible to reduce the load on the computer. I zoom in only when I pause to give orders. In the campaigns I can have up to 500 units, and even though this includes buildings and builders, 350 bombers and fighters is a FREAKING HUGE SWARM. I really built that many in one of the battles. I had about 50 structures and 100 builders all helping my 3 air factories spam planes. LOL! I remember I had about 50 builders on one, the rest split between the other 2.
Later in the game I realized that instead of building with these drones, I can get a hundred ACUs when I have the tech, so I spent 4 hours on that round, spamming upgraded ACUs and then sacrifice all the drones on planes. I never expected the building speed to go up as much as it did. It was insane. And so was the lag when I was done.
After that I tried building about a hundred Colossus ( I was Aeon), this time with only 30 ACUs, and using 30 on each of the 3 enemy bases. It was like using a towel to wipe the screen clean.
Hmm, should I use Colossii instead, as the plural of Colossus?
My mum has been bugging me about getting a girfriend. It is simply annoying. What did she expect? Not everyone can find a suitable girl in half a year like Ivan did. Not that she knows about him, but he's a good example of a lucky person.
Now she's telling one of her sisters about it, and one of my cousins too. Hong Kong and New York are no longer on my list of good vacation destinations anymore. I don't need blind dates nor arranged marriage; I need silence and peace in my life.
But this nagging will never end, I think. I am beginning to see the need for a girlfriend, if only for some peace at home, but I'm not aware of anyone suitable at all. In fact, I don't see myself as having any similar interest with any girl. I don't watch TV, I don't listen to music regularly, I read voraciously, I need games, I don't visit the cinemas often or even spend money outside much. I don't shop, except for groceries. I don't talk on the phone, and when I do talk at all, it usually evolves into a monologue. I'm not humorous.
This is a rather tricky problem for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment