O hai~ Christmas is coming very soon and I might miss celebrating it for the first because I'm going to be out-stationed somewhere deep in the jungle doing my friggin' work in a few more days.....(。-_-。)
GARGH~ I hope I can finish my work as fast as possible and come back before Christmas!!! ヽ(TдT)ノ
Both of my work desks at the office. As you can see there are tons of things to do. Where is the Christmas spirit?!
Gonna miss my pals but damn it if they were going to celebrate Christmas without my presence. This picture shows you all kinds of emotions that you can get when playing Left 4 Dead 2.
Some new cute stuffs from Nici for Christmas gifts. MimiMamiMimamo.
The mini Xmas tree in the office just in front of my desk.
The big Xmas tree in the hotel lobby.
Dear Santa, my only wish is for me to get back before 25th December. Please make it happen. I am a good boy this year.
I like this song, the lyrics and the pop-art styled MV!
if i told you things i did before told you how i used to be would you go along with someone like me if you knew my story word for word had all of my history would you go along with someone like me
i did before and had my share it didn't lead nowhere i would go along with someone like you it doesn't matter what you did who you were hanging with we could stick around and see this night through
and we don't care about the young folks talkin' 'bout the young style and we don't care about the old folks talkin' 'bout the old style too and we don't care about their own faults talkin' 'bout our own style all we care 'bout is talking talking only me and you
usually when things has gone this far people tend to disappear no one will surprise me unless you do
i can tell there's something goin' on hours seems to disappear everyone is leaving i'm still with you
it doesn't matter what we do where we are going too we can stick around and see this night through
and we don't care about the young folks talkin' 'bout the young style and we don't care about the old folks talkin' 'bout the old style too and we don't care about their own faults talkin' 'bout our own style all we care 'bout is talking talking only me and you
and we don't care about the young folks talkin' 'bout the young style and we don't care about the old folks talkin' 'bout the old style too and we don't care about their own faults talkin' 'bout our own style all we care 'bout is talking talking only me and you talking only me and you
In another sign that the world is about to collapse, multipleblogs are reporting that a fan of the Nintendo DS dating sim Love Plus (you know, the really creepy one) liked his virtual lady so much that he decided to marry her. For real.
Apparently, a Japanese gamer known as 'Sal9000' was officially wed to Nene Anegasaki, one of the game's three virtual girlfriends, in what must have been the weirdest ceremony in the history of ceremonies. We can only assume that Ms. Pac-Man was the maid of honor.
While the two aren't planning a honeymoon -- after all, one of them is a VIDEO GAME -- they did hold a small 'reception' in Japan for friends, family and the media, indicating that this is most likely little more than the looniest video game publicity stunt we've seen in some time. Check out this video recap by Boing Boing, complete with footage of the happy, er, couple:
I just hope they signed a pre-nup... This is known as the first ever marriage between man and videogame character. That's wack!
So are you one of the average chumps out there who couldn't get a real girlfriendlike me? Are you getting bored out of your miserable couple life with your current wife or gf? Are you in need of practice before getting into a real relationship? Are you an otaku who prefers female anime characters over the real ones? Or are you an ordinary guy who's just thinking which handheld console out there to buy?
If that's the case, then this power article right here might just answers all your dilemmas and indecisiveness.
I love Yahoo! I tell ya. You can always discover amazing stuff around the world from the comfort of your home and it just a matter of knowing about it or actually feeling it because you yourself gotta be at that spot.
Yo anyway, I read this article about a virtual dating game from Japan by Konami and I thought that this might be one of the most addictive games ever created provided that you are fluent in Japanese if not I bet that you would try hard to death to master Japanese just to play this game! Believe in me. No kidding.
Introducing Love Plus.
Currently only out in Japan, Love Plus is a dating simulation that lets you court several different virtual girls. If you play your cards right, one of them will start to fall for you.
As you grow closer, you'll need to take your new fake girlfriend out on dates -- in real time, no less -- and start planning your future together. Eventually she might ask for a kiss, which requires touching her on the lips. Or perhaps she'll ask you to whisper sweet nothings in her ear, which requires babbling pleasantries into the DS microphone (and a serious lack of shame).
Amazing isn't it? But there are some problems. Love Plus has caused quite a stir in Japan, as some wives have complained that their husbands are effectively 'cheating' on them by spending too much time with their virtual significant others.
Here a funny story and interview about a couple in Japan and the husband got a virtual girlfriend from Love Plus. Source from BoingBoing.
Meet Koh and Yurie. They're a happily married young Japanese couple who moved from Tokyo to San Francisco a year ago due to a job transfer. In early September, while on a business trip back home, Koh bought a new game cartridge for his Nintendo DS. It was mostly out of curiosity — the Japanese Twitterati were all abuzz over a new dating sim called Love Plus, and he just wanted to see what the hype was about. "I've tried the other dating sims before just for kicks, but I never got hooked," he says. "I didn't expect this to be any different." He was wrong.
During that one week in Tokyo, Koh found himself fully committed to his virtual relationship with Rinko, a pouty, hard-ass high school girl who hung out at the library. The relationship was formal at first, consisting of awkward whispered conversations in which she sent mixed signals and called him by his last name. As things got more heated, though, she started calling him Kohichi (calling someone by the first name still carries a degree of intimacy in Japan) and became more demanding of his attention. "I felt like I might get sucked into this world," Koh, who is an engineer at a major game manufacturer by day, tells me. "It's not like any dating sim with young girls in it becomes a hit, but this one is really well-made."
An article posted on a Japanese tech site in September told the story of several women who had complained on an online bulletin about how their family lives were disrupted by husbands addicted to Konami's hit game. Last weekend, I invited Koh and Yurie over to my house to talk about Koh's virtual relationship with Rinko, and how — if at all — it had impacted their real world husband-and-wife dynamic.
Koh, what do you and Rinko do together?
Koh: OK, this is pretty embarrassing. The DS has a mic and a touchscreen, so... one time, she asked me to say "I love you" a hundred times into the mic. I was on the airplane when she asked me that, so I was like, no way. There was also this part where you have to hold her hand on the touchscreen. If you touch her hand with the stylus, you get to hold her hand. And then there's the part where you have to kiss her.
Did you do it?
Koh: No, no! The girl's face shows up on the screen, and you have to touch her lips to give her a kiss. That's pretty weird.... this is embarrassing. I'm sweating right now just talking about it.
Yurie: Ew. Do people really do that?
Koh: I guess some people do.
What do you think, Yurie?
Yurie: Until now, I wasn't aware of the specifics of the game. Hearing it now, I'm like, barf. That's just gross.
Koh: I know. It's pretty gross. I really wouldn't want my wife to see me playing this, me desperately trying to hold hands with a touchscreen.
Yurie: It sounds like you can really experience the realness of dating.
Koh: Yeah.. the girl also talks a lot. You hear her voice at every part of the game. A lot of dating sims are mostly text, but this one has a real humanistic side to it. I think this comes down to the fact that men are simple. This is obviously a computer program, but this makes us really feel like there's a girl inside the DS. It feels dangerous, like I might get sucked into this world. Some guys on the Internet are saying that their Love Plus relationships feel more real. They feel like they're with their girlfriend every day. I kinda get it.
But Koh, you have a real woman in your life.
Koh: That's why I was able to come back. Thank god! I was only stuck in that world for about a week. Also, I got hooked when I was in Japan on a business trip, so when I came back to San Francisco, I didn't play it that much. Maybe just for a day. In the bathtub.
Yurie: I didn't really see him playing it.
Koh: It's pretty damn embarrassing. I think if I wasn't able to come back from that world, I would have run out of things to talk about with my real wife. I can understand why some couples would get in a fight over that.
Yurie, does this bother you at all?
Yurie: Not at all. If he's just enjoying it as a game, that's fine with me. I don't care that he has a girlfriend inside of the game at all. I'm just like, oh okay. So that's what you're into right now. If we were to get into a fight over this, it would be less about the content of the game and more about how much time he spends playing it. It doesn't matter what he's doing, but if he spends too much time on the computer, then that's not good.
Koh: Yeah, if I was playing too many games and that was compromising the time I spent in my real life, that would be a problem. It's the same with Second Life or World of Warcraft. If I got too into something and couldn't come back, that would be a problem. At the same time, though, the danger I felt when I almost got sucked into Love Plus was very human. If I was single and had gotten too into this... I don't know, I recognized that there was a me in there that could have a real attachment to this artificial character on the other side of the DS screen. It made me think that humans could probably pretty easily develop feelings for AI robots. It's the same with animals, right? Animals don't speak words but you can really love them. But I do think it has something to do with the simplicity of men. I'd be really curious to see how women would react to a boy version of Love Plus.
Yurie: If there was a boy version, I think most women would be able to clearly distinguish between real life and in-game life. I have celebrities I like, too, but then I also have a husband. And they're totally separate.
So what is your Love Plus girlfriend doing now?
Koh: I'm too scared to find out. I'm probably going to get in big trouble if I open it after leaving her alone for several weeks. Maybe she's dead now. That would be scary.
Yurie: Does that happen?
Koh: I don't think so . But remember Tamagochi? They used to die if you didn't feed them.
Yurie: Oh yeah. That would be kind of bittersweet.
Update: Koh is informing me that, since our interview a week ago, Yurie has now become addicted to a mini game in Ryu ga Gotoku 3 that entails training a cabaret girl to become the #1 earner at the club. "I've never seen her enjoy a game like that before," he says. "The graphics are realistic, and she gets to choose the girl's makeup, etc. Now I'm thinking that maybe women get more hooked on games that involve nurturing or becoming someone."
What do you think? Single and lonely guys and those who have lost their trust in REAL girls should cheer for Konami LOL. Man, they should produce an english version of this game. Sigh I'm so sad and I'm getting a DS muahaha. Shit Crap...
*SNAP from fantasizing* Actually in reality, if you really really think rationally about it. It does seem kind of creepy playing this game. No it makes you seem creepy to others by playing this game do.Ob
“Food was my friend, my blanket, my comfort, my lover – my drug,” said Kimberly Anne Evans. “I replaced my need for love with [meals] ... I walked around in a food coma for 39 years.”
The 42-year-old member of the Joy Fit Club, who once weighed 347 pounds, relied on fatty foods to satisfy all her emotional needs. From early childhood, Kimberly viewed food as something she could always count on to comfort her in times of distress. “In school, I was called many names, had things thrown at me, and had kids whisper and laugh behind my back,” she recalled.
Kimberly spent the next three decades gaining an abnormal amount of weight, subsisting on a diet of large portions: two McDonald’s breakfast burritos with hash browns in the morning; two cheeseburgers with fries and shakes for lunch; and a pizza with four scoops of ice cream for dinner. Overall, it came to roughly 9,000 calories and 150 to 200 grams of fat per day. “Little did I realize it was slowly killing me,” she said.
Kimberly felt like a prisoner of her size. Her life was entirely controlled by its limitations: She couldn’t walk long distances, fit into airplane or restaurant seats, or even apply for a job without feeling like her weight stood in the way. “I worked extremely hard to prove that, despite my outward appearance, I was highly competent, hard-working,” she recalled. “‘Normal’-size people have no idea what they take for granted.”
Kimberly thought she would outgrow her obesity, but as she approached 40, she began to believe she might always be fat and that her goals, including having a relationship, would remain forever unfulfilled. She was 39 years old and had still never been kissed. “I stopped thinking about my soul mate, and when I would see [romantic movies], my heart would ache. I would cry, reminded of how truly lonely I really was.”
Although Kimberly was unhappy with her lifestyle, it took years until she finally felt motivated to make a change. It all came down to one moment with a DVD – and Gerard Butler.
She had just turned 39 when a friend loaned her a copy of the movie musical “Phantom of the Opera,” whose title character, like her, was an outcast yearning for love. It had a huge impact. “Gerard Butler’s portrayal of the Phantom changed my life,” Kimberly said. “His talent woke me up from my food coma. From that moment on, my soul was alive.”
Kimberly completed changed her eating habits, switching from pizza to Subway sandwiches for lunch, ditching fast food meals for baked chicken or tilapia, and recruiting family and friends to locate nonfat ice cream that tasted “just like the real thing.” She began tracking all her calories and looking for nutritional information on restaurant menus and supermarket food labels. “The problem is, so many dishes appear healthy by their title, description, or look – but they aren’t,” she explained.
That doesn’t mean Kimberly doesn’t allow herself a well-earned reward now or then. “When I do indulge on the holidays, I appreciate the taste of the food so much more – it is such a treat.”
As for exercise, Kimberly took baby steps, starting with walking every day. She then graduated to a stationary bike, slowly increasing the intensity and time over several weeks. After a while, she added in weight-lifting and general floor exercises, and committed to working out seven days a week.
The transition wasn’t easy; it was often hard to find the energy to exercise in the morning. But Kimberly soon learned that “once you start, you feel the energy come to you.”
In just under 21 months Kimberly was able to shed 211 pounds, and she now weighs in at 136 pounds. She finally feels confident about her appearance, and has found a new zest for life. “I literally run up and down the stairs now. I am never out of breath and look for opportunities to hit the stairs more for exercise � it is unbelievable!”
Physically, she’s now able to enjoy simple everyday activities that once thwarted her, like crossing her legs or sitting in an airplane seat comfortably. In fact, Kimberly just recently met a man, who finally gave her what she fantasized about for three decades: a kiss. “He told me he wished he’d known because he would’ve made it even more special,” Kimberly said. “He’s very sweet and we’ve been getting along very well.” As for her future, Kimberly looks forward to many more exciting “firsts”:
“I want to live for the first time and experience everything – I want to travel, have fun and [go on an] adventure. I lost so many years to my ‘fat suit’... I have a lot left to do.”
Andy Warhol is one of my favorite artists. Pop art is my favorite style of art and he is the main influence in it. He was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. Pop art was an experimental form that several artists were independently adopting; some of these pioneers, such as Roy Lichtenstein, would later become synonymous with the movement. Warhol, who would become famous as the "Pope of Pop", turned to this new style, where popular subjects could be part of the artist's palette. His early paintings show images taken from cartoons and advertisements, hand-painted with paint drips. Those drips emulated the style of successful abstract expressionists (such as Robert Rauschenberg). Eventually, Warhol pared his image vocabulary down to the icon itself – to brand names, celebrities, dollar signs – and removed all traces of the artist's "hand" in the production of his paintings.
I've been doing my new job for about a week now. I kinda like the environment. Like I said, I finally got my own space, my own chair, my own desk, a calender and plenty of parking spaces. I can even off on weekends now! The people there are helpful and professional. Best of all I don't have to work like a lowly-paid slave anymore to do crappy works like carrying heavy things back and forth which contributed to the recurrence of my back pain and wrist injury. Not to say the current job is perfect, but at least it's a lot better than the previous one.
6/10/2009: a) Spent my tea break observing the Koi fishes at the pond. I gave names for each of the fishes. There's Big White, Side Surf, Giganthor, Chrystal, Litchi, Jumble, Raven, Corona, Jack, Flat Floor, Orange Peel...
b) Each fish has its own traits just like homo sapiens. I wonder what are they thinking?
c) Ah Oh, I've got an idea. Why don't somebody go and invent a keychain or something that would let out a sound of baby cry when ya drop it or separated within a distance of 2 meters. Like that, my wallet or handphone wouldn't get lost again.
d) It's becoming 'tee-di-us'.
e) I am carrying out introspection on meeself.
7/10/2009: a) Numbers, numbers, I have never seen so many numbers in any one day of my life! But I am happy that I have finally been given something to do.
b) You should check out the Korean Restaurant at Park Everly Hotel. Nice food but not cheap but worth it. I had the Bim-bi-Bap for lunch. Yes, outrageously weird, for LUNCH. Btw, the chef is a local who acquired his cooking skills from Korea. Who wanna go wit me next time?
c) Mmmm...'air longkang' from India goodness. Drink that and get rid of your 'heatiness'. ZaikaChalaChaka!
8/10/2009: a) I saw a dude who looks a lot like Jon Gosselin from the American reality TV show Jon & Kate Plus 8. He is Asian Malaysian.
b) Black coffee (Kopi Kosong) is probably the next best thing at work after the hand drying machine. I have never experience the kind of amazing effect that the coffee could give me. Keeps me awake for a long time if not...
9/10/2009: a) Sometimes the only fun thing to do in the office is to read the dictionary and look for funny words like 'libidinous'.
b) Today my eyelids are especially heavy. Difficulties in keeping the eyes from being shut.
c) Oxford's entry of the day: St Swithin's Day - 15th July; according to tradition, if it rains on this day, it will rain for the next 40 days. Noted.
d) Kopi Kosong, I NEED you desperately!
e) Yes, finally I am able to solve the Rubik's cube...after 4 days of trying.
That's all =P
**Update: Just came back from AhBu's Massage Therapy for my ailing back and wrist. The pain was hellish. At one point I screamed 'F***' and the whole world heard me. The experience was like being canned, penetrated by thousands of needles and having your flesh stripped off from your bones. This went on for like an hour! But it's all good, I feel good now. Finally I don't really feel like an old man anymore hehe.
This morning I had difficulty waking up because of my back pain. Damn pain. It's an old injury. I exaggerated it from last night after-midnight basketball activity. It's an injury everybody is scared of. If I did not get it treated, I may have to carry it to my grave! do.Ob
Anybody who has any joint pains, sprained limbs or what, you should look for this guy. This guy is amazing. He'll make you feel the pain of hell at first but alas your injuries would be cured almost instantly. Definitely ichiban! But he talks cock a lot, funny dude lol.
Regular customers may get 50% discount like me. That did not sound right right? That means I get injured quite frequently huh. Good for his business but not good for me health sad face. I should really take care of myself now.
Check out the bruises on my left arm. This is what I got after the massage. This is from my wrist injury. You haven't seen my back yet.
Both of my work desks at the office. As you can see there are tons of things to do. Where is the Christmas spirit?!
Gonna miss my pals but damn it if they were going to celebrate Christmas without my presence. This picture shows you all kinds of emotions that you can get when playing Left 4 Dead 2.
Some new cute stuffs from Nici for Christmas gifts. MimiMamiMimamo.
The mini Xmas tree in the office just in front of my desk.
The big Xmas tree in the hotel lobby.
Dear Santa, my only wish is for me to get back before 25th December. Please make it happen. I am a good boy this year.
