Monster Hunter Tri

Tried it out last night; one main thought: Wow can't believe they can get something like this on Wii!

Most Wii games I played do not pay that much attention to graphical realism. After all, Wii never really boasts its 3D capabilities. I'm surprised (but also glad) to see MHT managed to get Wii to exercise its 3D muscle a bit. The environment feels like some MMORPG games I've played before.

Control is fun but awkward at times. Okay awkward is a poor choice of words. You can swing the WiiMote or press A to strike. It was fine when I wielded a hunter knife (sword + shield combo). It was relatively responsive... just need to take a bit used to. Went back into town and realized I picked up a 2-Hand Sword somewhere, so I equipped that. Went into the field and was gonna hunt down some gazelles, and realized I'm like swinging an iron brick. WiiMote made sure you feel the difference of the weight/speed of different kinds of weapons... I guess being awkward is a good thing in this case.

They say this game has a relatively high learning curve... but I find it fine so far. It's certainly better than some of the MMORPGs I've played when I started out in those games. I guess I've dabbled in MMORPGs enough that anything more than a grindfest is considered all right lol.

500GB MBP

After some swapping, I'm loving my MacBook Pro with its 500GB hard drive space! :-D

DSLR - Round N

Okay I admit seeing my colleague getting a Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 and a friend of mine getting a D90 made me look a bit into the current DSLR round-ups. The result is a mental state of troubling and mesmerizing indecision.

A big factor is price. Most of them are getting more and more into the $1000 range and I couldn't really find one with reviews justifying the price enough to make me even tempted. Had price not been an issue [where have we heard this before ;-)], it's certainly easy to pick a better one of the bunch.

I admit that HD Video on DSLR is a novelty to me, but as vain as it may sound, I tend to look away when I see one without that feature. It had been years since I've tried to find where to fit DSLR into my life, and somehow I envision myself expecting to use that feature if ever invested in a new one. It's an odd feeling as one year ago I'd not even consider that as a factor. Now this made me look away from ALL Sony DSLRs.

Another thing is IS. I may be spoiled by my SD850's built-in IS and maybe that's why I don't take my 350D out that often. I know some people might just scoff at the idea of relying on IS like I do, but my #1 philosophy is really that, I'd take anything (almost) over a blurry picture. And I know some people will argue with me big time when I say this, I'm totally drawn to in-body IS. It's sad that I have to take out all Sony DSLRs for the lack of HD (Rethinking about this very hard right now), since I have a bunch of Minolta AF lenses at home just ready to be mounted and to become ISed. I looked very hard into Panasonic GF1, but the lack of in-body IS is really scaring me away.

Yet another thing is portability and size. I suspect a big discouragement of my 350D is its relatively bulky size comparing to SD850. I also have a twisted (?) philosophy that, if I'm not motivated enough to take it out with me, even a free 1Ds is poor camera choice for me. <= Okay that said, I totally won't mind receiving a free 1Ds XD. E-P1 and GF1 are two nice little cameras that made me forget they aren't really compact P&S cameras, but they both have their flaws doing no justification to their price tags. All the other DSLRs in the market are just moot in this area.

So in the end, still researching and looking, and (sadly) still carrying my SD850 IS much more than my XT. I guess that's what really differentiating me from even amateur photographers.

Popeye!

So I visited the Popeye's on Broadway today. Really not what I expected. Two salespersons over there look like bouncers though very eager to share their 2 cents on the products. Half of the store is stocked with one main brand of protein, while the rest is quite limited. All in all, didn't find the one I wanted, though I still managed to pick one I wanted. Got 10% off due to my gym membership, so it's not too bad (though still over my initial expected budget).

Some after-thoughts:
A. I didn't get any Popeye bucks off my purchase... But for some reasons I didn't feel bold enough to ask for it after asking for the 10% discount.
B. Felt almost like monopoly in there in terms of protein products. The salesperson I talked to tried hard to sell that main one in store...
C. No I didn't get that main one lol. It doesn't contain enough info about some amino acids.
D. Tried my first scoop today and didn't dislike it. Though I felt relatively full after taking it. Kinda feeling jittery too. Not too big a deal.

[Car, Chinese Food, Grease, Bleach] Fiasco

One often hears one say one thing leads to another... I'd say that's kind of my state right now.

Let's list the things in order:

1. Had a whole day of church events yesterday
2. Super tired getting home in the evening
3. Out of rice or meat or even ingredients to cook up dishes
4. Decided to order Chinese food take-out
5. 30 min later, headed out the front door, originally planning on going on foot, but saw our car parked in the front, so drove that instead
6. Took the food home, gotten into the door and realized one bag is leaking
7. Went back to check and realized it leaked everywhere, dripping grease everywhere I've went - got it on my jeans and coat, and stained car seat a bit
8. Realized out of kitchen paper towels, too... grabbed bathroom toilet paper instead
9. Smeared off the grease off the car seat, still smelled funny
10. Wiped using dish-washing detergent, wiped with damped toilet paper
11. Repeat last step about 10 times in 15 minutes
12. Still can't get rid of the smell; went back into the room and originally wanting to find stuff that got rid of smell, but couldn't; grabbed Stain Away instead
13. Super hungry now, so used Stain Away on the car seat and let it stay there for a bit
14. Went into the house and started eating the food a bit
15. 10 minutes later, went back to the car to wipe it off with damped toilet paper
16. Mom informed that Stain Away is no good because it has bleach; went back to the car to check again and didn't find whitening, though still smelled funny
17. Grabbed dish-washing detergent again and repeat the apply and wipe step again
18. Wipe it off one last time and called it a night
19. 16 hours later (now), mom said whitening is showing on the car seat due to bleach
20. ...

Not too sure what to comment but as Greg Kinnear said in Little Miss Sunshine, "What a ******* nightmare."

Bye Bye VW266H

Measured up and VW266H is about 59.7cm wide physically...

My desk's set-up allows only about 54cm... (sob)

Still looking for 24" LCD Monitor with HDMI + Component input on sale and can fit on my desk... is that really too much to ask? (lol)

26" @@"

Asus VW266H on sale right now... should I spend the box for Wii work? ;-)

Recipe Revelations

Every time I followed a recipe, 80% of the time I felt "Holy cow, this is how much [ingredient here] they put into this out there?"

Made the tried and true honey cake yesterday, and I was still amazed by how much ingredient was used. I remember trying out making an angel cake few years ago, experimenting with the recipe and substituted sugar with brown, halved the added amount. And boy, came out darkish and taste bland at best, more like a burnt pancake.

So I was taught the 2 lessons:
1. When dining out, appreciation (or more like acknowledgement) of what's in your food, that includes the amount of sugar, oil, salt, sauces, creams, and even M.S.G.
2. Always follow the recipe. (Ratatouille, anyone?)