The Trip: Day Four, Hagone->Mt. Fuji->Tokyo

I woke up before the alarm, again, and decided I should made the most of my time by hit the bath again :) It felt quite exquitsite to take some leisure time first thing in the morning. Alone in the male section to enjoy the bath alone. Of which I did a little swimming in the of the bath too ^^.

Then when I went back to my room I notice that the sky has open and we have a clear view of Mt. Fuji. I reluctant a bit but decided to go back to the bath again enjoy the the view of the famous mountain.

The breakfast was... ediable to say the least... Although the grill salted salmon was very good, the egg was cooked in a pot with heat on paper so it looks like fried egg but no fat, which does not taste good :P

After the meal we have a few moments to take the picture of Mt. Fuji before actually going up the mountain :) Our guide had warned us that it will be very cold up in the mountain (which was up two thirds of the height) so I wore my longjohn bottom just to be cautious and I was not disappointed.

I think I slept a bit on the way up to the tourist stops on the fifth level. When we arrive it wasn't just cold, it was chilly and quite windy. There was snow everywhere as well as tourists :P My younger bros. spot a white couple in ski suits, carries ski boards walk pass by. There were about three to four shops around there as well as a small shrine. Our guide said once we got off the bus we will receive a ticket for a blessed small bell from one of the shop (which appearantly the busiest shop too).

Only one shop seems to have the toilet and it smell Really Really bad. We learned afterward that this is because there was no plumbing up there and it would be too costly to buy water just for the toilet use. The guide mention that they use some sort of bubbly substance to clean it instead.

What surprise me is that the shopkeeper (or perhaps the owner) who hands out the bells as well as the few salespeople in the shop can speak Thai. After walking around between shops as well as looking for my family. I could not stay outside for too long due to the wind plus the chill made my earlope hurt (it would be nice if I have a tall man to kiss my ear warm later *sigh*). I walk into the big shop again and then I heard a loud yelling by a Thai guy accusing the shopkeeper of cheating on the changes, it sounds pretty bad so I hastily leave the shop. Before leaving I finally bought a blue tea cup with Mt. Fuji print on it. The funny thing is that when I hand it over to the cashier he pull out the one that's already boxed and wrapped from under the counter (which implied that this might be a mildly popular items or it's a common policy of the shop the save the time of both the buyer and seller).

After we're all back on the bus, the tourguides talked a bit about the *side show* we witnessed. First, they say that the Japaneses are trustworty regarding moneys. They said you can hand them the coins and bills and they will always pick out the correct amount for your purchase, adding that of all their 10 and 20 years of working as toursguide they never saw, heard, or been cheated in Japan. When the shouting match erupts they said they were all scramble defuse the situation as well as calling other guides to see whose group was the troublemaker belongs too. They also said that it is quite embarrasing that this happen as they were very sure that the guy must be mistaken his money somehow. They also mention that it is very difficult for Japaneses to learn to speak Thai and yet the people working in that shop all speak Thai (they were able to distinguise Thais from the crowd too) which shows how much they appreciate our business up there and said that Thais buy things up there like no others :P.

On our way down the fog began to set again which prompted the tourguide to mention how lucky our group were since if this happen in the morning the mountain will be close and not to mention we won't be able to get the view too.

Then it was a pretty long bus ride to Tokyo. We stop for lunch in Ginza area at a Thai restuarant (although in the brochure it said we would be having korean grills). The food was quite good, grilled chicken is very good, the spicy glass noodle is quite like home while the tom yum is almsot tasteless. The restuarant is very popular. People qued up for seat when we were there.

After lunch we have a bit of time to check out the area. The road in Ginza area will be close for cars and bench with parasol will be setup in the middle of the street for patrons who will crowded the area after 13:00. In front of one shopping mall there were people lining up for something and my mom push me and my youngest bro. into the que as well. As I observe the staff and the poster at the end of the line, its appear to be the draw lots of the mineral bath association in one of the province. We tried but got the lowest prize (Darn it...) which is a bag of herbal teas :p.

Afterward we went on the bus again and passed the palace, and a few sightseeing spots in Tokyo before stopping at Tasaki Pearl company. According to the guide Tasaki has became the leading pearl making company in the world. They even give away the pearl by lucky draw to one of the tour group using a number randomizer after we finish seeing the demontration of how they make pearl. Then on the first two floors it was showroom for the pearl. Some are quite cheap 14,000-18,000 yens to the very expensive necklaces. We stay here for quite a long while since there were many women in the groups :P

After we got everybody we finally went to Miraikan Museum. However it was 16:00 by the time we got there and the museum close at 17:00. So we did not have a lot time to completely scouting the place out. So I just concentrate mostly on the globe that show the current world weather and other pattearn in real time that I had often saw on Discovery channel.

Then we all leave to get back to the hotel. We have about an hour of free time before the dinner time. So I decided to check out the mall that sell earbud headphones since I seems to broke mine while I slept in the ferry. Also two of the women in the group wants to check out the mall for other items as well so we agreed to go together.

The weather is certainly colder in Tokyo than other city we were in especially after dark. We went looking for this place that called 'Bic Camera' which seems to be the biggest chain that sell electric appliances all over Japan (I saw one while in Osaka). It took us a while to look for this place as it does not have a big banner telling which building it is but we eventually found it. Once we found it we first took care of the business of my parties first which is battery for her camera. Then when it's my turn, it turns out that what actually broken is the earplug socket of my mp3 player. Since the warranty of this mp3 player is alreayd expired so I think it's a better idea to buy a new one. After browsing around a bit I decided on Creative MuVo s200 1Gb. It seems to be a brand spanking new model too ^^. It cost me around 12,000 yens, something that's close to 4,000 baht. Which is quite a good price, considering the brand and the size, comparing to TH.

Our dinner for today is at a Chinese restuarant. It was again abit edible... Personally I would prefer some ramen but still...

After the meal I rush to my room to gathered the camera, mp3 playerS, flash drive, and all the cable in order to transfer all the photo from the camera to flash drive. As it turns out the hotel does not have available business center but the staff pointed me to the internet cafe just opposite from the hotel.

It was easy enough to find but the place stink of cigarette and I really do mean STINK and REEKS of cigarette. It took some minutes to transfer all the photos and it could not be fast enough. On the bright side it cost me only 80 yens after I finish using it. I could only focus on checking my emails while waiting for the transfer to complete... Although the place looks quite interesting as it as a manga corner I just wasn't in the mood for it as I could barely breath with all the stink of cigarette smoke.

Intermission

In case any of you guys (it would only be a handful but still...) I am back from Japan already and drafting my last 3-4 days in Japan.

However, I am also came right back to work which is now a 12 hours shift 19:30-7:30. On top of that I seems to experince a moderate level of depression. While I was in my office the next day after I got back I felt drain, disdain toward my job and felt like quitting just so I have more free time for myself. At the same time, I kept telling myself that this could be the results of the exhaustion from the trip (six hours of non-continous sleep each night during the trip).

Today I felt considerbly better than the last couple of days, and I will continue blogging the trip. Although it would be nice if I saw some comments on the trip posts... Especially when I type those trip in slightly hasting manner since I was tried and really need to go to bed then as we would have to wake up at six o'clock for our trip.

The Trip: Day Three, Nagoya->Hagone

We start the day with the breakfast in hotel. It wasn't as good as the dinner but I guess it's typical breakfast for hotel everywhere...

Then we were off on the road again to Hagone. We made a pit stop at a rest area which is has eel products in the store as it is what the area is famous for. These eels are sea eel which, according to the tour guide, taste better as they live in clean water. I have not tried any of them though... The stop was not very long anyhow, however, it is the first place that I found the 'Gajapong' or the gumball like machine. Only that it didn't dispense gumball but plastic balls containing small toys insides. Most will cost you 200 yens per times and usually you will have a chance of getting getting one out of five to six varieties of the items inside. I tried a couple of dispensers and got some cute stuffs :)

Next we visit Heiwa Park, the peace park, to symbolize the peace making efforts of Japan toward the countries that it had been wronged by. The park, seems to built on a small hill has various breed of Sakura all over the place. We only visit a few high points though as time was limited but the park was very beautiful with all the sakura blooming all over the hills. On the top section there is either a church or a stupa with about 6 pairs of stone lions from India, Thailand, Burma, Laos, Malaysia, and China positioned on the path to the center building.

Then we left for lunch, which is bento (japanese style lunch box) it wasn't very good since some of the food were cold :p

Afterward we were on the bus again to Mt. Owakudani to have a taste of black boiled eggs that was boiled in the natural mineral water hot spot. The result are the black shell boiled egg due to the sulfur in the water. It is believed that one black egg will extend your life by seven years :)

However, it was foggy that day up in the moutain which slowed the bus. When we reach the top it was so foggy and windy that my pants felt moist from just a brief exposure going from the bus into the building. Inside the tourist stop we have a bit of time to shop and I bought a small black boiled egg Doraemon strap, of which I can be sure that it can't be found anywhere else in Japan (although it was made in China :P) Then we were rounded up by our tourguide to go down to the pier by cable cars.

We got the first class ticket to do sightseeing on the ferry on Achi lake. The ferry outer appearance were deck out in pirate ship style. Also we were on the red one (I notice there were the blue, violet and green ones too) which seems to be the main symbol for this attraction since the Hello Kitty keychain is of this red ferry.

Afterward we were on the bus again to Gotemba outlet mall, which is the outlet mall of all the brandnames products from Nike to Bvlgarri. All are genuine sales items, by that I meant the items were the top quality products that were out of fashion and the company did not wants to stock them.

The mall itself is quite amazing. It seems to be up in the hill somewhere and the space was quite large. Each shops has its own showroom in open area which clutter together down the path. Heck the place even have it's own ferris wheel.

By the time we left Gotemba mall it was like 19:00 already. We should head straight to the hotel to be on time but we still have one place left to shop which is Seifu Supermarket. Our tourguide has to tell tall tales to the hotel people (which had setup the dinning room for us) in order to make time for us to do one more shopping for the day at this supermarket. The tales is that there was an accident on the moutain road. However, we were busted when we stop at Seifu since it's the big supermarket of the area, the hotel staffs also shop there too :P So another tales has to be made which one of the woman in the group need emergency... maxipad :P

After the shopping ended we finally head to the hotel. The dinner is traditional shabu Japan style, it did not taste much but it was ok by that time.

The next agenda on the list is the onsen (mineral water bath). The practise is to shower first to clean yourself before go down into the bath section. We can't use towel to cover.... our midsection either since the guide said if the hotel caught us doing so we will be fine 300,000 yens since the hotel will replace the whole batch of mineral water to perserve it's cleanliness.

In the end, I did take the hot bath 4 times altogether. Two in the night and two more in the morning ^^.

The Trip: Day Two, Osaka->Kyoto->Nara->Nagoya

The breakfast was not as grand as the last night's dinner but it still good. My mom found out that the hotel plant a lot of rosemary on of side on the hotel as decoration. I get to rub my hands and glove on it to get the scent and it's quite good :)

After the breakfast we took the subway and the Shinkansen to go to Kyoto to visit the clear water temple. It was not unlike the scene from many many manga I had read. The balcony, the sakura, the 3 streams water for drink for blessings.

Then we took the bus to see Kingkakuji Castle (the Gold Castle, as in real gold from gold leaves, the guide mention that now the gold parts are about 2 inches thicks from all the annual renovation every 4-5 years) Too bad that it was quite windy in that area so there was no clear shot of the castle and it's reflection in the pond in front of it.

Afterward we went to Nara to visit the temple with Giant Buddha. This place is famous for the deer living in the entrance area of the castle. They didn't look as pretty since I think they are sheding to their summer fur after the winter has ended.

For Dinner, we go to a grilled house, much like Daidomon, but a lot of food and also taste quite a lot better!!

Now I am in Nagoya Kanko hotel's business center, transfering the pictured from the digital cam to thumbdrive for my mom. She already took 298 pictured already!! and this is only day two! Now I have to leave since I am getting lightheaded and I also have an early morning again. Plus I haven't prepare my clothes yet!

The Trip: Day One, BKK -> Osaka

The flight was quite grusome, starting with the delay due to the amount of people traveling doing this times... The airplane as Boeing 777 (as I was told later) which was told by the tour guide that it has rather narrowed seat, plus we were seated at the very end of the plane which is quite noisy and often shaky. To top it off it was a night flight which we were suppose to nap while on the plane, since we will began touring once we landed!

Needless to say I didn't get much sleep, tried as I might, with the above reasons. Anyhow we landed on Kansai Inter. Airport in Osaka. The airport itself looks very modern and cool. However, I guess will realize that you hsd landed in Japan when you get a fainted scent of smoke starting in the connecting tube to the terminal.

First stop was Osaka castle. the symbol of Osaka, I tried my first real takoyaki in japan here. Sakura (Cherry Blossom) were blooming everywhere. (I will post some pictured later as right now I am in an business center in a hotel in Naghoya). Not a lot to see since we were going into the castle itself.

Next stop is Universal Studio Japan, I got to see the Terminator 2 3-D which is quite nice even if it looks a little dated. Backdraft, is quite cool indeed as
shows a lot of cool pyro technique, not to mention it heat up the room quite a bit.

Jurassic Park Ride, one of the raft riding that has about 3 stories drop at the end. I am not shame to say that as the result of the panic from the drop once the raft stay horisontal again I hurt my neck, stomach and perinum from the tightening reacting of the drop. Boy was it HURT!! Especially the mid-section. Luckily it wasn't until about 30 sec later that we have to get off the raft which give me a bit of time to recover.

Later we have a chance to do a bit of sightseeing in the city as well as shopping at the 100 Yen store. Walking around I saw quite a few shops that sell mobile phone, 90% of them are clam shell type, quite heavy (due to large screen) and quite heavy. Quite ashame that it won't be working in TH.

Toward the end of the day I was quite exhausted from the lack of sleep and excessive walking. However, the dinner was GREAT. It's a buffet in the hotel we stayed in, Ramada Osaka, the salmon was good and the rip-eye steak is very Good.

I finally get to sleep. But it was quite restless, probably because of the quilt, which is quite thick and fluffy which will be hot if you stay under it after a while. And the pillow was quite strage as half of it seems to be stuff with the foam beads not unlike those in beanbags chair...

Still I did get some sleep and woke up a few times and decided to spend about 5 mins. soaking the tub with mineral bath powder :)

Physically Away...

Ummm.... well... My family is taking a trip to Japan and I will go along too...

Eventhough I would prefer going to Europe or Australia (as I might be able to sneak around for the not so clean fun of my own, plus I could speak the language :P) But it would be nice to do the traveling again after have not been on the plane or out of BKK for like... 7 years... I am not too excited about the trip but I am sure glad to be part of it.

So... I start packing today and realize that I am not sure if my clothes (especially the pants) would be warm enough to withstand the 5-10C that the tour guide said Japan will be... I got a pair of longjohn and I hope that that would be enough...

Still... it would be a lot nicer if I have a big hunky man to keep me warm though :)

The Grumpy Alan Moore

I had browse through the net today and stumble upon a forum with a post regarding the movie 'V For Vendetta' and found this link http://www.mtv.com/shared/movies/interviews/m/moore_alan_060315/ which is an MTV interview with the cartoonist who wrote the original graphic novel. I have read a few tidbits of how Alan Moore was not happy with the way his works (From Hell, Constantine and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) were 'hollywoodfied' by all parties involve with little respect to the original.

After reading the article I must say that the man, despite his caveman like hairstyle, is very intelligence, literated and poetic in his own style. You would not be surprise from this article that he really is the one who wrote all the lines that V spoke in the movie.

It is an interesting read. If you like the movie you should read this article too :)

Laughter with XXXL size

I first saw this comedian on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and this guy is GOOD. He did his stuff in the clean fun way.

I had this file on my computer as well before I found it on youtube.com . I really don't have anything else to blog about at the moment so enjoy the clip :)

Computer Lesson 101 and Now warm up to the LCD

I plan to do this post for quite a while now and after a failed post for some reason by blogspot it took me a few days before feeling like posting again.

The topis for today is Task Manager and Ctrl+Atl+Del.

Ctrl+Atl+Del is one of the earliest hotkey I had learn ever since my first experince with the Monochrome monitor and DOS :)) In the old days Ctrl+Atl+Del are use to do warm boot on computer. Which comes in handy when the machine freeze up, especially in case of Windows 3.1-Me

Now with WinXP it is use to call up Task Manager to look at the programmes and processes running of your computer.

Once Task Manager is called up you will notice that it has four tabs.

Applications: Display your current running application. Mostly use when you need to 'End Task' the not responding application :)

Processes: Display the current running processes. This is the tab that you should play with once you are experince with the computer. It shows all the running processes currently running with the size of memory usage. Also an option for you to kill the processes that you need to shut it down. Very useful in this days of adware & spyware aka Skumware.

The other two tabs are only for monitoring function.

And now with my LCD monitor, I finally figured out that I could reduce the gamma level (light level) by a notch to make all the color seems richer. I hope it will works...

LCD era, and not really liking it yet

I finally bought a Viewsonic LCD monitor today. It was quite a let down in terms of color. I usually use dark color theme on my desktop and since the monitor seems to be brighter than CRT it makes all the color seems fading. But when I play games the colors does not seems to be too shabby.

However, when I looks at the screen I felt my eyes were straining to watch the screen for some reason... I hope it just because of the new position of the monitor and not the monitor itself... I simply can't afford to buy a new one...

The First Video on my Blog: Cork Soaking

I saw this clip from another blog. It is a skit from SNL and my oh my...



To think that this would be the first video I put on my blog and it is This video?? It made me slightly shivered...

Anyway, this would be a a good video to watch to learn how to inappropriately speaking English

British Movies: Boots and V

By chance, I had watch two movies that set in Britian within the span of three days. And here they are :)

Kinky Boots : I first heard about this movie from the TV shows that preview upcoming movie trailer and I guess it's almost obligatory to be interested in the movie that has a drag queen in it and not to mention that he/she is the important part of the movie.

It took me several days to acquire this movie once I learn that it has already been release in UK since last year. The movie, which was based on a true story, is about a man whose family run a shoe making factory where the shoes are the works of craftmen that could last a lifetime. But things change and business isn't what it used to be. So the company have to switch to niche market making sexy boots for drag queens.

A stellar performance from the black actor who plays the drag queen in the movie who also perform on stage in the movie and singing as well.

The movie as the feels of Full Monty and The Calender Girls, which give me a glimse of how things has turn for the worst in UK in some aspect.

But I got to hear a song that I like at the end credit called 'In These Shoes' by Kirsty Maccoll :) Quite a nice song to dance with in my opinion.

V for Vendetta : It got quite a good review at yahoo.com and I can see why. The story is about rebellion against a fascist regime. Starred the ever talented Natalie Portman, whose in this movie seems to serve more as a narrator or a witness to the events than anything else. And Hugo Weaving, whose never got to show his face under the Guy Fawkes mask but his distinct accent and pronunciation delivered the lines with such power and emotion that his facial expression is not required for the audience to sense his character.

It shows London in the year 2020 under a facist regime that seems to reminded me of East German and Soviet where people could disappear without being seen again and government dictates information, news and communications.

It is a Must-See movie which should be shown everywhere, especially where citizen thought they should be silence for whatever reasons.

"The people should not be afraid of their own government" - V from V for Vendetta

Hit or Miss: The Comebacks of ComMarts Show

I went to Pantip again today to check the price of LCD monitors, Again...

So far I has not commit to buy a new LCD monitor yet... Mostly it concern with the price and how I was uncertain about the quality once I use it. Anyhow, when I was walking through the shops, I notice a poster of the ComMarts show.

ComMarts, at the beginning, it was one of the big IT event in Bangkok. At first, it was an exhibition to showcase new IT products. Now it turns into a trade show and sales (although not a big discount) event. I think it used to be once a year and now they seems to held it quaterly. The last times I went to the show was last Nov. and I was looking for LCD monitor back then too. The price was slightly more expensive than at Pantip plaza...

But I will go again this times. Perhaps things might be better for me, afterall they might have extra promotion other than sales.

My kind of Mr. Right

I suppose it is times to describe the kind of man I want (and at times need) to have. Perhaps one might surf by my blog and contact me :)

Personality wise...

I think I would like to have a man with good & decent sense of humour. The type that would smile often, especially when he looks at me, and know how to make me giggle at the right moments as well as the wrong ones :PP

I love affectionate man, the kind that would be physically affectionate with me. Hugging, cuddling, pecking and kissing, and often the sneak groping in public :P

Physical attributes...

I would like a tall and hairy Caucasian man but that's not a must (Hispaniuc would be the only alternative to Caucasians :)). I prefer my man ot be easy on the eye and have great smile, the kind that Dennis Quaid has :).

I would love to have a nice muscle man but that might be too much to ask... Since I am not one myself but I would surely not turn them away if they came knocking on the my door that's for sure ;))





















The pictures are for references :) The guy on the right is my current favorite porn star, Arpad Miklos, who was a chemist by trade (who would thought a scientist would be this FUCKING HOT).

Yogurting

If you asked me like ten years ago to try yogurt I would definately not gonna tried it, at present time however, it's a different story

Somehow one of the marketing scheme did works on me, the product sampling. Recently I had tried a new product from Dutchies a 0% Fat yogurt with Green apple flavour and I like the taste.

I figured eventually that I could eat these while stay up late in my office. And these things suppose to be healthy, right??

When I was younger I would denied any attempt to eat vegetable. Now it's not very different, although I would eat carrot, basil and cabbage, which if I do back then my mom would be very happy indeed.

I wondered if my older self take part in my widen taste in eating though...

The Brief Stint Under The Spotlight

The Time: Junior Highschool
The Event: School Plays

You see... when I was younger, I had done some acting during my junoir highschool time.

Back then I had one best friend whom I spend most of my lunch break with. He is a smart guy, a teacher's pet sort of way if you would say. Among the rebellious talkative youngsters in the class, we seems to be the two that pretty much the well-behave group.

One day during the lunch break, my friend was approached by the English teacher and she wants him to be in a play which will be done in English. Somehow I had been drag along to do a support role as well. At first I must say that I was embarassed about all of it. But after one or two more shows I seems to kinda like it in a way.

By the time I graduated from Jr. Highschool, we had done quite a few shows under her direction (her husband was the music teacher). Now thinking back I vaguely remember it all, but I must say that I was quite fond of the time I had on stage :)

Arrgghhh My Sleep!!!!

Although, Winter is not my favorite season (too darn cold for a nice shower), Summer is not that good for me either...

Ever since I started to work night shift (like 9 years ago), my sleep pattern has been scramble quite a bit. Add that to the fact that I am not very easyto fall asleep to begins with seems to take a slight toll on my overall pattern as a whole. During Winter times, sleep came easier than summer due to the cold breeze with me keeping warms under my blanket and quilt. Summer, however, is another story altogether. I could barely stand the heat even with the fans on I would usually still toss and turn searching for cool spot to lay upon unti l the heat from my body make the spot too warm for comforts and have to move again.

The night before Tuesday was no different, I slept early (around midnight) only to be awake 6 hours later and after mugging around on my computer feeling pretty bored I finally try sleeping again around 9:30. My phone rang around 12:20. It took me about 5 seconds before realizing the ringing noise is from my landline phone. Mister M was on the other side and wanted to meet me later in the afternoon for computer lesson...

Mister M is a friend of Nordic, an elderly British man who stayed in Thailand for more than 15 years. He began to take interest in Internet and I had been approached by Nordic to teach Mister M about Internet and computer.

When Mister M said he wants to meet me later that afternoon I thought something urgent must had happen. After remembering that I would be working on Wednesday night, I concluded that it would be best to meet in the afternoon as he suggested.

As it turns out, nothing urgent has happen... He just want another regular computer lesson (with a slight mix of applied Thai language lesson. This times it is about how to ask for the *special* massage in Thai -*- ).

Light! Camera! Action???

I finally gave in to temptation and break out my steel cage wallet to pay for a cool looking Logitech QuickCam Comminucate STX as well as a slick looking mouse by the brand Acron.

It all happen because I want to check out the price for LCD monitor after my currect CRT monitor had been flicking madly for the last couple of days. While I was at the infamous Pantip Plaza I figured that I should be looking for a new mouse as well since the one I was using seems to have broken wire inside and the curosr won't move until I reapply it's USB cable.

I still unable to decide on which LCD monitor I should buy though... Although my main concern is the rpice but my chat with some shop owners remind me that I should be looking into the warranties as well.

So now I am down to either LG or Samsung... One shop owner said LG will have better warranty but I will ask around and see.

The Approaching "V" Day

It is that day of the year again. The day when every friggin' place are all deck up in red and heart shape stuffs, chocolate and strawberry. To pretty much say to you 'Buy This, it will make your lover Happy!!'

Except for those singletons who do not have the lover which it is more like rub it their face of how single they are...

If the above lines sounds bitter, I meant it to be be cause Darn It I DON'T Want to be SINGLE!!

My Day with Paul

Paul is, of cause, the good doctor of Bedtime Story Blog. We planned to meet today at 11:30 at a bookstore in the newest shopping mall in Bangkok, Siam Paragon. However, my strange behvaior kick in and I awake at 4:00am instead and would not fall asleep. So by 8:10am I call Paul at his hotel to tell him of my woe and planned to meet earlier than that.

We finally meet, he is a fast talker, fast walker and the most shopaholic guy I ever met. We met at 10:00 and by 15:00 we had walked through four shopping mall, walk through numerous home decor shops and he bought a several items while urging me to do the same. I told him that I only have my own room not house and he still could not help but point out how I am not a shopper as he is.

He seems to share an equal amount of interest in both concept decor shop as well as antique shop. Not to mention he really is a movie buff. We stopped at one of the DVD shop in MBK and he kept pointing out to this movie and that movie with commentary of this one is good, bad romantic, and how I should see them :P

By that time, 14:35, I had lost the energy to tell him that I am more of a gamer and not movie buff :PP I have a few favorite that I deem a must have and then I would bought them. With this he is surely have a broader taste in movie than I am.

Right now I am EXHAUSTED, with only about 3 and a half hours of sleep plus 5 hours of continuos fast walk equal me being really tired :p I will hit the shower right after this and laydown on my bed a bit, Phewww....

Yahoo! Web Messenger

After a bit of searching I found out that Yahoo! now have Web Messenger service as well. You can check it out here http://messenger.yahoo.com/webmsgr/fmsgr.php

Compare to the MSN counterpart, I must say that it was not as good, as it could not connect when I use it from my office...

The YWM use Java application to do the job, so it would work on many OS and Web Browser. But it seems to use the same port as the software version that it did not work in my office while MSN Web Messenger does.

Quite a shame really...

Self Comfort

I have read Scotty's blog as well as discuss with Mr. American regarding the hardship of being gay in 20-40 years ago. And it made me realize how lucky I am that I am able to be comfortable in my skin (for the most part) and not having to go through what these guys as well as many other had gone through.

I think I began to almost always be interested in male body which might just caused by my father... I remembered being little and watch a couple of movies with him (on seperate occasion) I seems to remembered that my mom was sleeping at that time and he was on the bed watching the video in the dark. Mind you it wasn't porn :pp

One of the two that I remember rather vividly is a sci-fi movie, about some astronaut who found either an astrorid or some satellite filled with people in crystal looking thing. They brought back 3 people, two male and one female and they taken those bodies out for testing. It turns out that they were some sort of vampire like being that suck life energy out of people and turn those people into dry body that would do the same to others. Now the thing I remembered that I find it rather odd then is the nudities. That vampire woman was naked (although the shots were from the waist up :P) And I think, alright so this is woman's body look like.

The second movie seems to be one of those cannibal movie, I am not sure if it suppose to be documentary or not. I think it was about an American family whose small plane crashed in Africa and the young college girl survivor has been captured and been forced into become one of the cannibal tribe (the same one that had either kill her parents or just shrunk their heads for ornament as well.) I remembered one part where she had been applied some kind of oil all over and been push into the middle of the village with narration explaining that she knew she has been placed as a prize for the strongest men of the tribe. I also remembered another part where she became pregnant and have to be away from the main village as the tradition of this tribe. And how her husband take off his loincloth (first male frontal nudity :p) to jump into the lake to get something. The American girl was blonde and bare chested I think all the time that she was with the tribe.

What I am trying to explain is that maybe somehow seeing naked women at such a young age, albeit boobies only :P, had made me lost interested in girls. As in there is no mystery to what would they look like naked as compared to the naked men which is still quite a mystery to me then.

I began to notice the gay magazine with the half naked men on the cover in my junior highschool years but never actually buy them until I found the secondhanded sidewalk stall in my highschool years.

The realization that I am attracted to men does not seems to bother me that all. Although, during my jr. highschool year commented that I might end up being gay since I am such a goodie two-shoes :PPP

Nevertheless, I never felt the urge or felt pressured into leading the straight life nor I ever attracted or wanted to do a woman :pp

So right now, apart from the worldly matters of money, felt like my job is going nowhere, the urge to travel to places where I can meet hunky GWMs, etc. I am totally OK with myself, apart from the usual urge to wants the muscular body and clearer skin and be better looking :pp I guess I am a well adjusted gay man. And I felt lucky that at least this thing fall into place.

New Monitor

My office has replace the monitors in my section with 17" LCD monitor. A cause for celebration? Only until I turn on the machine and see how crappy the monitor is.

At first I thought it was because of the light from the ceiling but it was really the monitor, the bottom half of the screen looks brighter than the upper half. The color looks too faded against the seemingly too bright light.

All in all I would warn anybody against choosing HP 1740 17" LCD Monitor for your own use (perhaps recommend it to people you don't like.) You would better off buying LG or Samsung or Sony (if you can afford it).

I hope this is not a permanent screen... Afterall the eye sight of people who use this machine is vital. Right now I would prefer having the old CRT monitor back. At least it project the color just find without making me uncomfortable.

Family Reunion: The Aftermath

It was by far the shortest one of our reunion that I could remember. I think the main two reasons that contribute to this are that my grandpa did not came up from Phuket to attend this reunion and the Korean TV series that has been a hit recently.

Quite a few sibilings mention how I should be giving out the red envolope now considering my age... I think I will have to gave in next year... Gosh... how time fly...

I did get some money :) I will do the deposit tomorrow.

Blogging Bug Bit Nordic

In my old post, I lamented of how it seems impossible to ask my non-blog friend to look at my blog. And now out of the blue Nordic is now also a Blogger!!

I just found out about this last night... He just mention it in the email. Anyhow he did setup a nice blog with unique template... I wondered where he get a hold of that...

Anyhow his blog is about the life of GWM = Gay White Man in Bangkok and can be read at http://gaythailand.blogspot.com/

PS: The picture in the profile isn't really him :ppp

Another Chinese New Year post

As one of the numerous chinese decendant who do blogging I guess I am bounded to do a Chinese new year post.

I don't know how other families celebrate their chinese new year. In my family, we will arrange a reunion, usually at one of my aunt's house which has the space to accomodate all the people (my mom has 4 sisters and each with their husband and 3-4 kids.)

Now I have a dilemma... I am getting to the age where I should stop *receiveing* the red envelope and start *giving* them out. But I am still trying to make ends meet, albeit not that much of struggling since I still live with my mom. The idea of handling out 16 red envelopes is quite a nightmarish thought considering I am quite a cheapo when it comes to spending money on other people (the curse of single gay men who only have themselves to spend money on :p.)

In time (most likely next year)... I will have to bite the bullet and began handing out the envelopes with money in it!! **Shudder**

Windows shopping at IT Mall

Not buying any Windows software if that's what you are thinking :) Only walking around scouting out the price of 17" LCD Monitor which I would be desperately need in the near future...

The output of my current trusty CRT monitor began to flicker wildly. To be honest I can get it fix but I had enough to lugging around the heavy and bulky 17" CRT monitor... Daddy want a cool flat screen 17" LCD monitor this times!!

However... For gaming purpose, the monitor has to be choosing more carefully so that it can display the movement of the game correctly. Not that I play a lot of Firt-Person shooting game... Come to think of it, I don't play that genre of game at all now... since it would surely give me headache after a while... Still I do want a decent performance monitor at the price that I like...

I want to spend around 9,000 baht only... But the nice one seems to be more close to 10,000 baht... Oh... well... I am holding out as much as possible by bare with the sometime flickering monitor... If one day the monitor just snap out or flicker contineously... That is possibly be the day that I actually cough up and pay the price...

Colin's Cat out of The Sack

Some of you might have heard the news of Colin Farrell's ex girlfriend wants to distribute their *homemovie* that they made when they are still together a few years back. And that Colin had sued to the stop the distribution.

Despite his efforts, the movie file is out and about in BitTorrent network since probably a few days ago, much to the delight of gay men all over (and straight women too I suppose :P)

I had downloaded the movie this morning: thousand of people were seeding the file while a few hundred more peering it, the whole movie, 103.67Mb in size, finish within an hour and a half ^^

Now there is no way to stop the movie from being seen by people with computer all over the world (and I expected that some witty merchant will put the movie on VCD soon.) I had watch it, the movie is only about 13min long, and Mr. Farrell is also quite long himself too :PP He is most certainly packing and not to mention cursing like a sailor.

Too bad that the movie is too short and no *money shot* :PP If you guys have questions of how to obtain the file, leave comment and I will point you to where you can it ;)

Good things cum in Three

I was browsing my regular gay webboard and someone has post some pictures of a Triplet. A set of Hunky Handsome Winsome Smile TRIPLET!!!! Talk about a wet dream came true. Like Paul had put it in his stories, God must be having a Extra triple great mood on the day these guys were conceived :p

I only know their last name 'Karshner' I suppose you always use google to find out more about them. In the means times check out their winsome smiles :)).

I Got Canned...

I got a job interview today... It did not look too well... But hopefully I would get teh help desk job instead...

Oh... and the new office's manager call earlier to tell me that she talked with her boss and she said that she did not think that my working two job would work since I seems very tired when I show up for work.

In a way she was right. Although the timing could not has been worst, since the coworker has gone for the week and left me working in the worst condition.

I suppose it probably for the best. Now things went back to normal...

I Survived

I seriously thought I would reach a breaking point today when I post about how I felt about the whole scenario in previous post.

Strangely enough I seems to only have about two hours of sleep after I went home from my night job. I toss and turn for about an hour or so before fall sleep possibly after 3:00 only to awaken by my mom at 5:05 since she would drive me to the day job after sending my sister to school...

The strange part is that I did not felt sleep deprive when I woke up this morning. It is almost like something right happen before and when I woke up that made me felt wide awake and not so sleepy. I was yawning madly after 13:00 but I do felt quite alright in the morning indeed.

I told my mom about how I felt like quitting the new job. First she did the old 'I told you so' routine about she already me marketing is not my kind of work and how the office is not very convenience to reach. And then when we were in the car she sid to see how today goes first before actually told them I quit.

I got some work done by giving idea of how to improve the company website. It did feels good to my brain to work on something more productive after a few days of ditch out vague marketing idea of hwo to increase our customers.

So I did get through today quite alright although I left the office early to catch some sleep before heading to my night job, again, for the fourth night tonight darn my co-worker who has to go back home in Southern TH this week T^T.

Tomorrow however, I have another job interview and I hope and wish that I could landed this one for two obvious reasons.
1) I can travel to this office by subway which would means I have more time to sleep if I would keep my old job
2) It is a software company which would be interesting for me. And my current experince wokring in IT should help me also.

SO people please wish me the best luck tomorrow ^O^

Change of Heart

I was relatively excited about the new job before (it was the first place that would have me after 3 years of looking for new job on and off.)

Due to several factors, things did not go quite well at the new office (at least in my head)... The other people in the marketing section are nice, but work vice... The place is pretty small and their marketing has just began to play bigger parts not so much long ago, so although there are certainly a lot of things that need to be done I just have no idea where to start...

My role there is clear on what I need to do I just don't know where to begins... I know it sounds like a whine but it is how I felt sitting in the office knowing that I should be doing something useful and yet unsure on what I should do. It left me feeling rahter uncomfortable as I spend most of my time on the net reading my usual stuffs without being productive.

I certainly felt rather low spirited right now possibly due to my lack of sleep or at least from the change of adding a day job into it. Moreover, the new job is not quite in my area of interest. It might be an exhaustion talking but I had been thinking about quitting this new job... My mom had said recently that I did not strike her as a marketing type :pp Plus since this job will be paying slightly less than the old one it would certainly paid out less due to the travelling expense as well as meal cost. I guess there is nothing like a motherly support eh?? But perhaps she is right, afterall she is a great woman. Besides I am not feeling overall happy during my time there eventhough it has been just three days.

I never thought I would miss my old office when I am in the new one... But I guess it would be ahrd press for me to leave my old office... Afterall I do work in large corperation with nice office and facilities...

Perhaps I will talk with my mom tomorrow morning about quitting...

Darn... quitting after just less than a week... Must be a new record.

Tired as Hell...

Let's me start with a cryptic phrase here and I won't elaborate about it. Anti-allergy drug made me sleepy and It's great during the weekend!!

Today I started my new career path as a marketing officer at a small hostel that is a member of worldwide hostel organization. I arrived 2 hours early, before anybody else in the marketing section arrived. My mom wanna see the new office so she drive me there and it's not too far from my sister's school too.

My first day was rather boring... Those that has works to do and off doing their own things and left me to my own device... A new guy with no idea how to be productive despite that the manager do have some idea of having me work international market (due to my good English ;P) as well as web marketing (with my daily net use)...

I guess I did not expected that my first day would be like this... Added to that is the fact that I still have my old job to do as well. Plus my college have to go home in the south for his New year's celebration. So this will left me with very minimal sleep (18:00-20:00 and 2:00-6:00)and not much to do...

The whole deal made me feel discouraging about the new job... The job wasn't really in my area of interest and I though I had dealt with that but it seems to not be the case when I sit around in the new place with nothing to do...

I guess the agenda of tomorrow is to be more assertive (as much as I could in my groggy state) and map out what I need to do in the new job as much and as soon as possible.

My New Love.

Several months ago I had posted about buying a new mobile phone. So far that has not happened yet... As the model I was aiming for Sony Ericsson w800i seems to be quite popular. So popular in fact, that the price as not drop one bit from the released price... And that's the reason why I am still using my old Nokia 3300 :PP

But tonight I found a details of a new mobile from Sony Ericsson, Sony Ericsson w810i (the link is from a Thai mobile phone website since I couldn't find other preview pages.) I had a muffled scream in my head because... well you just gotta click and see the image :).

It's essentially a slightly improved version of w800i with black colored body and may have better speakers. However, this one has no protective cap over the camera lens for some reason...

I have never really like the color of w800i but now that this w810i will came out in the first quarter of this year I will definately getting this one :)

The Amazing Amazon

I hardly use Amazon.com ... I have never thought of it as a music search engine but lo and behold... I finally able to get the name of the singer and of the song of the obscure songs that I had on my cassette tape.

In my younger years (gosh I never thought I would ever utter these words) Long Long before mp3 player became a hit. I used to love listen to radio for my music fix which mostly are pop, adult contemporary and R&B. One day I came up with an idea that I should record the songs that I like so I can play it to record store to track down the album. That never happen after I realize that I could just listen to my recordings instead of buyin the real thing :PP

Thus, over the years I had filled up several 90 minutes recording cassette with various songs of various genre most of which I knwo the songs quite well but several are the songs that I have heard only once or twice ever...

Mica Paris - Whisper a Prayer & Jessica Rush - In The Arms of Love are the two that I was able to identified (first is from the DJ saying her name while the second one from a guy I played the song to and he just tell me right off the bat :))

And tonight I just made two more hits using Amazon.com Woo hoo!! The hits tonight are Laurnea - Infatuation and Mary Griffin - Just no other way. I only found Laurnea's album available to get... Mary Griffin seems to be another talented black female vocalist that for some unknow reason, never made it big...

From the sample available on Amazon.com it's clearly that she have the talent and the looks. Just one of the mystery of show biz I guess...

The Little Creature

Just a short post that I intended to do a while ago

This is "Little Creature" By Ursula Vernon a short comic with lovely story and very cute image :)

The lady is an artist, although I did not know her personally I love her works ever since I saw them on deviantart.com

Here is the link to her gallery http://ursulav.deviantart.com/

And check out her blog too :) Her antics is Very amusing http://www.livejournal.com/users/ursulav/

Blasted Time :D

Well well well... This New Year's eve seems quite magical indeed... Not only Paul of Bedtime Story get a lil' somethin' some some (no wondered why the man has been quiet for a few days :P) but I did too :dd

My day started earlier than I thought it would... Due to the mix up of informing my college to come in early when he was groggy and instead understood that *I* would be going in at that time instead... Needless to say, the office all and I have haul my ass off from bed, shower, get dress and hop on the first bus to arrive at the office within 20 minutes (luckily my office is close to my home ...)

The works went along quite smoothly today... which allow me to ran out from the place around 19:00. After an hour of transportation, My Big Thank you to the Subway, I finally arrived at the... well let just say that it's the same decadence place I mention in my X'Mas post. However, when I arrive there were quite a number of people standing and sitting around in front of the entrance. As it turns out the place was full and we need to wait till some people leave so the waiting people can get in. While waiting at the que I notice a handsome blonde with big shoulders sitting. After a chair next to his was emptied I took the place and began to chat him up. The man has nice voice and I manage to get an email address from the guy but not before I tell him that with his look it would not be hard to get laid and that I would pull him into a room and do him myself *blush*. My shame seems to had take a break by that time as I feel a bit sleepy and hungry :pp

Then I went into and after a while saw CA again. And this times I was succeeded in getting in to his pants with my lovely behind :ppp

I was also ran into another Australian friend whom I had only seen online as well. Talk about small world or rather small gay world :p Too bad that he came with his bf otherwise I might tried to get into his pants as well :PP

All in all it was a triumph night. I manage to get laid, an email address from a handsome stranger and ran into a friend whom I wanted to see albeit his bf :pp

This is a Lovely New Year's Eve Indeed!! ^_^

Back from the date, Empty handed

As I mention in my previous post, the cute guy whom I would dubbed 'CA' as he was born Canadian and now Australian citizen (although no accent... darn... I do like Australian accents too) had SMS me for time and I reply back with time and places to meet which is Pantip Plaza.

I arrive about 10 minutes early and the guy was surprised, saying that he has never seen anyone came early to an appointment in Thailand before - -;;;; Man... what did we Thais coming to... Anyhow... we had lunch and then walk around loking for the right mp3 player for him to buy. Along the way we discuss various thing. I did grab his ass once in a shop but he didn't respond much to that :ppp My hope came crashing down as it turns out that he had just been dumb by his bf as well as the fact that he like the dark skin, short, muscular, North-Eastern Thais look while yours truly is a pale skin (from sleeping till afternoon and go out to work at night) chinese looking guy :PP

But he seems like a decent enough guy who came to BKK often... I will definately tried to keep in touch with him for sure... Who know... perhaps I would be able to get in his pants one day :P

Changing Time

Today is quite an up and down for me...

My day started when I woke up about four hours too early than I wish with dull throb on the right side of my stomach... Which strangely enough did not ache when I sit up straight. Bothered by it, I play a game on my computer for a couple of hours just to ignore it and finally force myself back to bed so I will have enough time to recover from wake up with less than 5-6 hours of sleep.

I woke up again around 12:40 after a few alarm change :p And was greeted when I check my computer by a friend's bf who was almost in hysterical state as the friend was not on the flight that he was suppose to be... I tried the friend's cell phone number as this guy requested a few times but no one pick up the phone. But since the cell phone was ringing I suppose he was alright.

Then I have to do errand for my mom at the bank and since it's holiday so there were several customers. It took about 20 min of waiting time until it's my turn :p

Then I finally took the bus to my campus (all the while have not eat anything :p) And when I arrive around 14:30 I headed toward the restaurant I mention in previous post. Only to realize that it wasn't there anymore... I was kinda down by this... Not to mention feeling quite starve by then so I just head to one of the new reactionaries that I never saw before and order some food. It was mediocre at best and by the time I was done I was not really in the mood for any game booths... How time had change, so I walked toward to exit and head to a shop that has Chrysanthemum tea. Then I ask the waiter if he knew what happen to the missing restaurant and he told me that it move to a new location near their place instead!!

Wow this perk up my mood nicely and after finish my drink I thanks him and walk straight to the direction he told me. And lo and behold I found it again. The chicken in pandan leaf and Tom yum kung was not as good as it used to be but it could be just this plate... I could not eat the second one since I already ate... But I am a happy camper afterward :)

However, I will not divulge how I spend my evening :p It was rather decadence... But I was able to give out my mobile phone number to a Canadian guy who might call me tomorrow for a Monday appointment to help him by mp3 player. I wondered if I will be able to get him in the sack or not... I wish I could though...

Merry Christmas to all :D

First off, let me say I am not a Christian but a Bhuddist. However, I have spend most of my academic year in Christian establishment and the festive activities had grown on me.

I had came to a realization some time ago that my Birthday and Christmas are my most important days in the year for me. But Christmas for me is mostly about FUN times, since whenever it's X'mas in my school or university they will have a X'mas fair and I love it :)

This year my university will again held their annual X'mas fair at the Huamark campus which means I would be there :) I like to go back my university because there is a restuarant in the area that serve Chicken fried in pandan leaf and Tom Yum Kung. The only place that one this in set and made Very good chicken+pandan dish.

So Merry Christmas to All :D

Manga o' Me

I LOVE comic books, which in this case meant Japan comic books aka Manga. Unlike Paul at Bedtime stories, I rarely read any books. I guess for me I find that Manga can be as profound if you allow them to be and that you choose your Manga carefully. Afterall comic are not to be taken too seriously :)

I remembered the first one that I bought (not srue if it's the first one but it's definitely the first I remembered buying). It was one of the weekly issue one with Kano, a lead guy from old sci-fi drama comic: Xenon. And I had read quite a lot ever since.

It can be quite annoying when people think manga are for strictly for kids. Of cause what do They ever know... Comic book industry in japan had grown so much that some comic are made for older demographic as well as for youngers.

My recent fixation is on comics made by CLAMP, a group of four female cartoonists which produce their work in almost every mainstream genre ever since they became professional. Thier trademark can be clearly seen in the artwork and story, both of which are Splendid and thought-provoking and sometimes even profound. For example, One character ask another 'Why we should not kill another human being?' What would be the correct answer to this question without referring to the religion and philosophy?

CLAMP's present work are Tsubasa Resevior Chronicle and XXXHolic. Both of which are unique in their own way as TRC will feature characters from CLAMP's old comics and XXXHolic's main character will play a vital parts in TRC story line. The scanlation of Tsubasa (which is Japanese word for feature :)) can be found at http://www.stoptazmo.com and XXXHolic is at Baka-Updates Manga - Hisa-chan Scanlations

I will put up more post about CLAMP and their latest works later :)

The Second Chill

The cold weather has swept over Bangkok again since about... This passing Wednesday. It was beginning to crept up on me when I reduce the fan from 3 to 1 and now to none.

Plus now I wore T-shirt *gasp* instead of my usual tanktops so that I won't get too cold... Also that I now sleep under two blankets and one quilt to keep warm.

In the weather like this, it is very hard to get out of bed but it is also unbearable when you need to relieve yourself since you woke up with full bladder from not sweating at night...

I should also mention that showering in eather like this is no fun... I have to reduce the water pressure on my warm shower machine to make the shower warm enough to stay under... It is rather breezy in my bathroom so it also chilly when you wet and trying to dry yourself without sneezing :PP

Eventhough I do like to this cold for sleeping... The rest of the day it wasn't as fun... I do like to take shower straight from the tab, woke up and did not felt so parch in my throat...

The waether seems so f*ck up this year...

The Luna in my music

So far I have a collection of about 2GB worth of mp3 files on my computer. Just almost every genre from Whitney Houston to Bach, Aretha Franklin to Evanescence and of cause Madonna to Meatloaf :) Except for the mind numbing trance=techno=dance stuffs that they play in Disco nowadays...

Many times I like to listen to something that make me feel crazy with emotions. Evanescence and Meatloaf's ballad usually had that effect on me :) The sound on their songs that I could describe as 'full' that just hit me complete and take me somewhere else. The kind of song that make me wish I have a room with nice set of speakers to sing the song (badly) to it.

Other times I would visualize the songs. The Carpenters's 'Touch Me When We are Dancing' seems to put me in a flowery park in a bright afternoon dancing with a man ^o^. Fourplay's 'After the Dance' put me in a lazy Sunday afternoon swinging to the jazzy sound close to my man as well. And Oddly enough... George Michael's 'Father Figure' made me think of hot sweaty night, naked in bed with a man with blue light shines through the window. (I should mention that I am still single. Any hunky GWM volunteer to help me change that?)

My mp3 player of choice on my computer is Sonique :) The Lovely, Nifty, Cool, mp3 player that was bought my Lycos during the dot com boom and eventually got dismantle by that darn company. Lycos manage to fired all the people working on the Version 2, hired One new guy to work on it. And we got stuck with Beta 3 version that never complete... Therefore I still use the 1.96 version with DFX plugin. For some reason I never really like how Winamp sound...

Here is an image that I found on a forum that I had visited. I like it so I save it and now sharing it with ya All :)

Being Constant

I like to think of myself as being constant. A standstill point in the world if you will. I have read such passage from the very last official chapter of Sherlock Holmes series in which Holmes said to Watson that he is still the same like a unchanging point in the universe. A person who will not be subject to change by time or against his will or perhaps just be able to maintain an email address for over 9 years.

It might be mind boggling to think back when. When I still use internet on unix and open Hotmail with lynx: a text-base web browser *insert your gasp here*. It just that I seems to have less impression on people than I thought I would be... Afterall I have be able to maintain the same email address for close to 10 years and yet some of my older contacts never seems to try to reach me... I suppose they are more occupied than I am with real person unlike your truly :p

My new gig and Final Fantasy

Well well well... I guess it's official... I have no social life to speak of... Fourth game post coming up as well as another good news of myself.

First, the Good news. I had finally landing myself a new job!! It's nothing fancy or not in the industry that I am interested in but it will be a stepping stone toward what I would rather do. But for now I need to experince..

And for the game post (darn...) My bittorrent of FF IX had just finish a few days ago. I had bought the ROM on DVD before but it was in Japanese. Now I have it in English :DD. I have been a fan of Final Fantasy series for quite sometimes. The series is quite unique in that none of the characters are the same. The stories are usually about saving the world from mad person on a mission to destory it. Each Sequal has a unique system to it which I guess has became a trademark of the series.

Personally I had finish only FF 4 to 8 and now playing 9th one :) The unique point that need to be mention are the 'Job System' presented in FF 3 and 5 (Both of which has never been officially release in English language which seems to be common that there will be on game in each console that has been left behind for some reason) In both FF 3 and 5, you will be able to change the job of your characters to suit the situation :) Each will have special skill that will help make the game progress better.

However, in most of the game there are some 'training' perios in which the characters need to gain some certain points to completely learning spell or abilities. It would be nice if the point gains (usually 1-3) is balance (as in not taking 4-5 hours to complete) with the required points (40 or 50 or sometimes hundreds) But I guess this is RPG game Japanese style for ya...

I will be busy going through FF IX for quite a while... It's a 4 CDs game afterall :)

The Evil Chill comes and gone

It's been quite sometime since I post anything... Mostly it is because there is nothing news worthy to post... Although this might made me looks like a hardcore gamer I just have no other interesting news to tell :pp

The third game post in the row and this one is of 'Evil Genius' *insert evil laugh track here* :))
Like the name suggested in this game you will take on a role of an evil genius set out to conquer the world. You will first select your avatar each with their own perks and looks. The whole game seems to be influence by the Austin Power movie. Or perhaps by the 60s looks in the costume, the style and in just about everything.

The game play will be more about managing your base and your global evil activities. Your minions (the staffs :)) will run around doing their things automatically. Also when you send them on the mission or just to steal money they will do so by time count and without micro management.

When you look pass the facade of planning world conquering and so on, this game is more or less your typical management simulation game with an evil twist.

On to the Chilling part... The cold had comes and gone from Bangkok, not quite in record time but somewhat expected. Either it was less cold than a few years back or I became more tolerated since I did not have to pull out my jacket this year :) It was quite cold for about a week in which I have no need to turn on Any fan on my room as well as gotten myself under 2 blankets and a quilt just to keep warm.

All that is almost gone now... The night time is still quite chilly but not as much. I wish I have a hunk to hold on to at night instead of my long pillow...

And then there were...

None :) This is of cause about one of Agatha's classic 'And then there were none' and no I am not talking about the book but the game :)

I guess I would just skip the story part. You can find the book to read I am sure so I will just get into reviewing the game.

This game is done in traditional adventure game with static 2D pre-rendered background and 3D characters. The background scenes are typical quality stuffs, nicely rendered to pictured the moody British weather quite well. The same could not be said for the characters... All the character looks rather rough and did not blend well with the background. It is that bad that at one scene one of the character place both hands on a table and I have to look twice just to make sure that both palms are faced down :ppp

The voice of characters were mediocre and rather inconsistance. Sometimes the character talk in a rather calm voice in not so calm situations... I think the overall voice did not help built up the tension that well...

The game seems mostly stable until it crash on me when I tried to examined an item... I have yet to replicate the crash as I haven't reach that point again yet but we will see... The character also suffers (well not quite) from the 'is that a ladder in yoour pocket' syndrome of adventure games. You got to pick up a Lot of stuffs in this game, some of which are rather sizable such as blownup raft with oars and even full size ladder!!. It would surely looks rather ridiculous in real when you see this guy walking around with a bunch of books, ladder, raft+oars, wheel of cheese, and two buckets of apples.

My Final Words: It is a good story, and the makers add a good plot twist with player as the 11th person stranded on the island. I think it would have been better if more experienced studio produce this game... At least the whole package would be prettier and perhaps looks more professional. Still the game's saving grace is the story itself. Which still make the game playable and quite enjoyable. This game is probabaly the testament that Adventure games are define by being story-driven first and foremost, thus, will stand the test of time and prevail over the mindless FPS games :p

Light! Camera! Action!

Yeap I got a brand spanking new game called 'The Movies' This is another product from the same maker as Fable: The Lost Chapter and Black and White series Lionhead studio.

This game is more or less serve two purposes in one software as a typical business tycoon and a rather immersive movie making software. In game mode you will get to play as movie studio boss beginning from the year 1920. You get to manage from hiring actors and studio crews. You get to assign a movie making process and release them. You get to hire a bunch of scriptwriters to literally churn out movie scripts to be make or sell (you should get the writers to work non-stop as they have do not get tired and they will gain experince from working.) Since pretty early in the game you will get a 'Custom Script Maker' facilities. Which will begin the process of making the move by yourself.

I must handg it to the makers since the process is relatively easy to master. Add this to the 'Post Production Office' and you can add soundtrack, lipsync, and even edit the movie. This section can be pretty extensive... If you dig that kind of thing :)

However, the thing that bug me the most is the complete lag of people to be hired to be the crew. Especially, after the actors became really famous and they want assistance... When you have a big enough lot you cannot get by with just 7 builders to maintain all the set and buildings. And you can not really get by with just 2 janitors :ppp Plus, with the film crew that seems to be available with just 7-8 people as well as the number of stars, you can only make two films at the same time.

I wondered if LH will release a patch to make the people became more available... I know that this is a business tycoon game and resource management is one of the key factor. But it is rather ridiculous to manage the studio and when they asking more and more and more people. All of which you cannot spare... And this is only the year 1965 in my game... Darn it...

The Moving Castle and Strange Passerbys

I had just finish watching Howl's Moving Castle today and boy I like this animation. Besides the well-drawn characters the story is quite intriguing.

The main protagonist, Sophie, a simple girl whose family own a hat shop had a chance encounter and fallen in love with a handsome wizard, Howl. The pursuer of Howl, The Witch of the Wastes, did not like this one bit and put a curse on the girl, turning her into an elderly woman as well as she would not be able to tell anyone that she has been cursed.

Sophie, despite being cursed into elderly state, seems to cope with the situation quite well and set out to see Howl at his moving castle. After found it with the help of a scarecrow that she had rescued, she put herself into the position of cleaning lady of the castle and thus her adventure begins.

All I can say is that this Sophie gal rockss!! She is all heart and solid determination that surely impress not just the people around her but the audience as well :) Perhaps I should looking into getting the previous work of this studio 'Spirited Away' to see...

Recently I get several googled from people looking for information about the game Indiego Prophecy. Or to be more specific, how to play it without the CD or in this case it would be DVD. The fact that these people use 'Indiego Prophecy' in their keyword mean that they get the US version of the game. One thing though... The game industry, just like the movie and the music industry, they love their product protections. But so far it only prove that it did not really working. One person's lock is another person's challenge and I guess, in a way, it work out rather beautifully. Eventually these so called CD protection scheme did not work as a safeguard against illegal copied but rather preventing the game to be play unless they have the legitimate CD in the computer. This also means that you cannot play the same game using one copy in more than one computer.

However, it just a mute point, since the cracker can be found all over the net. The treat by the companies that these sites are littered with dangerous stuffs are no big fuzz to the tech savvy generation.

As I read recently on cnet.com about Sony's invasive tactic of protecting their music has been view as way out of line. The editor put it quite well in the article that if the company keep acting like this people will stop buying their crappy product and just turn to P2P which in my opinion much easier than travelling to record store and spend money on the company that did not care about their customer. And people should be concern with this news since it is 'Rootkit' tech and it installed and run active on your machine just like the spyware and adware (read scumware).

Envy as you have never seen before

I suppose there are many miage depicting the Seven Deadly Sins. I found this particular take of 'Envy' on deviantart.com. I can guaranteed this is Envy as you have never seen before :))

Full view click here

The artist is windy999 at deviantart.com. If you like your comedy subtle British style you will like this guy's sense of humour :) I know I did ;) So be sure to check out his gallery at http://windy999.deviantart.com/ You won't be disappointed.

The Bride with No Pulse

Despite to my tiring condition (just have 15 hrs shift from afternoon till almost dawn), I did went to see Corpse Bride today.

Eventhough it is somewhat too short it is still very good. The animation is definately improve since 'Nightmare Before Christmas' time, the bridal showl move fluidly in the wind just like in real time that made me wondered if it was short seperately. And in the very Tim Burton's way, the underworld folks are much more kind, frinedly, and lively than the living folks. Not to mention a lot more colourful.

I would love to see the overview shorts of the underworld town though... But since it was stop-motion animation it might be too much to ask for such views.

Anyhow, the animation is crisp and very fluid, a big step up compare to Nightmare..., I would highly recommend this movie :)

Tough time ahead

My current job (been doing this for almost 9 years... when I want to switch to something else ever since I graduated 3 years ago T^T) is tied to the account dept. so every first week of the month is the time with long work hours and lack of sleep... Although I could not fully complain since I got paid by hours...

However, this month is different, my co-worker who has the same job as I do (the job is daily regardless of weekends so we alternate the days) has to go home which is in the south of Thailand for the Muslim New Years which is at the end of the fasting month. So not only do I have to work for extra long hours this week. He will be gone for the whole week next week also!!!
Oh.. boy... I already felt like staying in bed just thinking about it or rather when I look at the time table of this month that has been newly printed today...

I think I will be needing another face stuffing time after the crunch week is over...

D. Gray Man

I am an avid manga fan (bought and read about roughly 3-5 comic books per week ^^;; (the regular three were weekly release)) And one of my recent favorite is D. Gray Man.

It is the story of Allen Walker, a young man of 15 y/o with red left arm, black nail, and a cross embedded into the back of his left hand. He is an exorcist: an apostle of god destined to fight against the evil of the world which in this particular universe is a mysterious figure Millenium Earl and Noah family. Like any epic type story Millenium Earl have a grande plan to destory humanity and his method is quite evil indeed. The Earl will went to the person who just lost their love ones and offer to reunite them. But in fact it was a ploy to have the grieving person call their love ones' soul into the Earl's skeletal contraption which will captured the soul and only obey the command of the Earl. The Earl will then proceed to order the soul to kill the person, taking over that body which will then became weapon of the dark side called 'Akuma' (A Japanese word I think... I am not sure what it means but I suppose it could means demon)

The main protagonist, Allen Walker, has Innocence: An Anti-Akuma weapon embedded into his left handever since he could remember. He was an orphan and has been raise by a man name Mana whom he considered his father. At the age of five, Mana died, and The Earl came to Allen. He fall for the ploy call Mana's soul into the contrapment. The soul became enrage and leave a cursed scar on his left eye (which have special ability that if you wanna know you better read the series :)) Allen's Innocence invoke by itself and destory the contrapment which also release Mana's soul back to the afterworld. This event leave emotional scar to Allen and lead him to became determine to kill Millenium Earl to avenge for his deception and to save the world.

The illustration itself is quite unique. The design is very interesting, the setting start in Europe and now move to Chinaand now going over to Japan. But what set it apart from other manga is its uniquely dark story line. Eventhough it did have comedy part from time to time as most manga do, some of the storylines can be quite heart-wrenching (at least to me anyway :P).

My favorite page is the first page of episode 24: The story line is about a young woman who was never good at anything in her life. The image of this particular episode show the young woman's as a child, in a dark scene with one spotlight shining down on her. In the foreground and in her hand spot badly mended dolls. And also in the last frame showing her crying, with needle and tread in bandaged hands badly mending her doll. With the line "Eventhough I was never good at anything I can't stop trying. Eventhough I had given up on it but I end up regretting and try to do it again. After all, I can't do anything right, it's better if I just don't try at all. How stupid of me" The author/illustrator succeed in sums up the whole psyche of this person in one page that almost brought tears in my eye :)

The serie is still on going and show no sign of weakening. I would highly recommend it :) You can download it from this link http://www.stoptazmo.com/d.gray-man Also make sure to check out their main page http://www.stoptazmo.com/d.gray-man as there are a lot other manga for you to read :)

The Chill and God on the run

Since I have got a brand spanking new DVD-RW drive I has been playing my new game that seems to only available in DVD: Fahrenheit aka Indigo Prophecy and Black & White 2. And here are my takes on the game.

Fahrenheit aka Indigo Prophecy, was promised to be new generation Adventure game with grippin' story telling, intuitive puzzle and strong narrative. They also throw in the controlling method that at times can be downright frustrating rather than the supposed *fun* and engaging feeling type. In the game when you character 'interact' with the hotspot there will be movement gesture for you to imitate with either your mouse or controller, alright I am no problem with this and it does make things more interesting than just click away at the options. If the action was more physical then you have to alternately and repeatedly pressing either Left and Right arrow on your keyboard or L R button on the controller, I kinda get the idea of this one but sometimes there is no telling if it's working until it's too late, plus it is kinda tiring after replaying the sequence several times... And the controlling that I hate the most PAR system. What you will get are two circles with four colours to indicate up, down, left, and right movement of both your keyboard and mouse Or both side of the analog stick. Some of these sequences are just too fast to follow... Plus my right analog doesn't seems to work properly... I seems to get better results by using keyboard and mouse...

The game also promise that the story will be slightly altered by the way you play it. The company call this 'rubber band' affect, as in you can stretch the game or bend it around according to your game play. However, it did not really affects the game that much only in some minor areas. And multiple endings will be determine by how you play the last chapter (which is good in a way, afterwise you would have to replay a considerable amount of game just to see it all)

Anyway the story part is more interesting. It involve murder, conspiracy, grand scheme of secret rulers, and a prophet child. Although I must agreed with others in some forum I have read that the story began to loosen it's focus after the two thirds of the game with some added plot that just doesn't addup on what we been playing so far. But all-in-all this game is a commendable afforts by the company Quantic Dreams in delivered an enjoyable experinces for this game.

Black & White 2. Just like the first one, you can play as Good God or Evil God at you will and you will also get a Creature which will aided you quest to became the ruling god. Unlike the first one, you are no longer a nameless god of some tribe but of Roman empire which has been pillage by Aztec force in the beginning of the game. Thus, began your quest to restore the power of your people and destroy or convert the Aztec according to your play style.

In order to win each mission, you can either 'capture' each town by military force or by building an 'impressive' city so the people from other cities will be migrating to yours. Quite an impressive idea really... You actually get to play two style in one game. As you can either play it as RTS game by storming your troop to crush everything in sights or play as Sim City by keep building, and sometimes protecting, your city to impress the people of the whole island. I have not play far into the game yet as I restarted it because I wanna have Lion instead of Wolf as my creature :p

PS: I am kinda disappointed that no one leave comments on my previous post... I wondered why no one post comments...

When Friend became Ex-Friend

I considered myself as the kind of guy who will maintain the friendship until the other person said otherwise. And what do you know it had happened once along with another type of incident...

The First one I would mention is a French man I met from somewhere. He was and ok guy I suppose and then the fall out happen when we was chatting on MSN. I said something and he corrected me, I laugh it off (type hehe back) and I think said something like it's not fun to right all the time. De seems to take offended by that, argument ensued and it end up with him said he did not want to keep in touch with me anymore. Thinking back sometime later, I think that he seems to be quite smitten with me at first and thought of me as some clean cut cutey with no edgy side (How Wrong was that impression :ppp) I guess I am a Leo with Cancer's shell. The guy with calm, serene look with temper that shot up instantly when provoke the right (or rather wrong) way. Plus I tend to be more subtle but nasty chatter on the net when I got offended (as oppose to in real life since I seems to lost my train of thought in the heat of anger.) So there goes Ex-Friend no. 1

The Second Ones is an American whom I chat with on gay.com and then move on to AOL chat. It was after Thanksgiving, and it seems mandatory to crack a joke about face stuffing on Thanksgiving. So I ask him if he stuffing his face on Thanksgiving and boy he did not like that, not At ALL!!. He manage to tell me that his mom think he's too thin (and I had seen him naked he definitely DID NOT need to thicken up, he need to work out more than anything else) and wanted him to gain more weight. I thought geez... This guy must has some issues and obviously did not seems to be aware of it. As an American, if he cannot take a pot shot about overeating during Thanksgiving then I have no intension to keep chatting him up. And that was the last times I chat with this guy.

There is another guy that recently became an Ex-Friend upon his request and I am not sure if I want to blog about it... But since I seems to be on a roll so where I go...

This guy is an old friend of mine. I have know him for about 9 years now. He is a doctor in NY with both MD. and engineer degree (just to establish that this is quite a smart guy). He told me that he recently wanna take up C programming lesson and told me he wants me to buy him some software from Pantip (pirate version) for him. I said sure and told him to go ask his tutor/teacher which software he need and email me.

Two days later he email me saying he wants C/C++ Compiler for XP. However, that is just a category of software. Eventhough I know nothing about programming, I do know that it is important for the student and teacher to be using the same tool to smoothen the learning process. Especially when you learn to produce something like programming. So the next times I saw him online I ask him which compiler he really want. He reply just any would do. So I point him to some free stuffs at download.com . He questioned me why would there be any free version when there are one that sold for $500. The more I keep pressing him about which software he wants, he became more agitated and upset for some reason. Eventually he cuss me off (not literally but close), accuse me of not wanted to help him and log off.

He later emailed me that he tried the free compiler and said that it only gave him ads and popups. After I investigate this issue I learn that that compiler is sort of barebone software: Came in ZIP file, No install module, just several EXE files and sample code to use in DOS mode. So there is no way he get spyware from this... After several more argument with me keep asking him which one he want and him saying I am trying to get out of helping him. He seems to finally have a breakdown, calling me an idiot and saying he would block my message from now on.

So now I would like to ask my readers to vioce their opinions regarding the above incident. I know that if I told this to Nordic or Mr. American they would just say 'Good Riddance!!'

Into DVD era!

I suppose it is a sort of personal indulging cause by taking advantage of a chance happening... Oh... heck it just that my mom wanted to go to Pantip Plaza (the First Computer shopping mall in TH: Five floors of computer softwares (pirated mostly :p), hardwares, accessories, etc. a pure heaven for techno junkies) so I decided to tag along to replace my CD-RW drive with DVD-RW so I can play PC games that came out in DVD :ppp

I got LG 16x according to the salesgirl's recommendation despite the fact that most people in my webboard seems to be using Lite-On - -;; Oh.. well... this one is a bit more expensive but it also give 10 LG DVD+R as well. I hope I didn't make the wrong choice :p

And I also add another 512MB DDR-RAM as well. so now I have total of 1GB RAM :)

Me the Bachalor??

The Bachelor Deliberate Gentle Sex Master (DGSMm) Straight-up. Studly. Congratulations, you are The Bachelor. You're an honest, good-thinking guy, and though you're very sexually active, people don't perceive you as a male-slut or man-whore or guy-dick-putter-inner or whatever. You have a sterling reputation. You're a careful person, perhaps too much so for your friends' tastes, but guys like that in you. You probably don't kiss & tell. And you definitely don't brag. You know you don't have to prove anything to anyone. It's as if you believe in monogamy, so long as it's with lots of different people. Our guess is that you've got some kind of word-of-mouth going with the boys out there, and that in the future, your sex partners will get even more plentiful, and more attractive, too. Your exact opposite: The Manchild Random Brutal Love Dreamer You will settle down eventually, and make an excellent husband. You seem like the type who is into the idea of making copies of yourself, so you'll probably adopt lots of kids. Bear in mind, meanwhile, this can get expensive. ALTERNATE ENDING: You will die broke and alone. Vermin will feast on your ragged body for five days before the groundskeeper notices. The thing is, when somebody dies in a public restroom, the natural odor of his decomposing flesh is often masked by the feces smell. ALWAYS AVOID: The Manchild CONSIDER: The Bachelor, The Backrubber Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating I saw this test from Brett Cajun blog. I suppose it describe me somewhat fairly :ppp The thing is that I have never been in serious relation before... Despite the fact that part of me wanted to be in one quite desperately but it was barred by my standards as well... Heck I would have to have an ISO like Paul's already T^T

Fully Loaded: Redux

Boy I Am Fulled!!

I went to a buffet today. And it's not your typical buffet, it's Cake buffet :) All Cake and pastries with drinks include refillable Coffee, various kind of tea, chocolate, and coke.

It's good that I went with a friend (from my webboard) since it's better that we alsotalk about this and that and not stuffing our face. Afterall it's not really sensible to eat that much cake...



The above are part of I have eat :dd In total I think I must have about 6 cakes and 3 pastries. It taste alright :P They weren't Great so to speak. But at the cause of 150 baht per person, it's worth it :) It's not really fulled though afterall it's all carb. and sugar and not really healthy :p This is not the kind of buffet that you would do every week anyhow...

Plus my mom made some dinner afterward so I am now really really full :PP

Homeworld

The first 3D Real-Time Space Strategy game that dare to go beyond the common ground and able to delivered.

It was the first game that have you play in complete 3D space environment and I did not mean just graphic but also in terms of combat :) You get to fight in real 3D space as in 360 degrees with real ups and downs. You also get to controlling an entier armada. Plus the game manage to look better while playing than in screenshots. I had first played this game extensively on demo since I was afraid that the machine we have back then won't be up for it until I finally bough the CD (pirate version of cause.) And boy was it WORTH IT!!!

The story itself was quite powerful, not to mention the graphic, the superb sound affects that really give you the feeling of being in space. The beauty of commanding an entire fleet of spaceships that ranging from minute star fighter class to the giant carrier and battle cruiser and one I love the most 'Salvage Corvette'

For more comprehensive infomation check out this site http://www.rakrent.com/rtsc/rtsc_homeworld.htm .

One downside of this game is that it seems to have too good of a CD-Security... The no-cd crack I tried does not work on it. Good thing I still kept the CD though :)

Even so this is a great one of a kind game. A must for gamers everywhere :) Even more so if you like RTS (Real-Time Strategy) game.

Three Times CSIs

I have been a fan of the show ever since around third season of the first CSI :)

Thinking back I seems to heard of this show sometimes ago in some sort of program about how Jerry Bruckenheimer was about come out with a show named with three letters and that it would be his second attempt in producing this sort of shows.

In one of Dennis Miller show, one of his guest was the man who actually came up with the idea to do this TV series. Anthony B. Zuiker was trams (did I type that right?) driver in Las Vegas, he said one night he was watching a show on Discovery Channel 'The New Detective' (I actually like this show too as well) which is a document where they show how forensic science help police track down and show who's the victim and who's the perp. Zuiker said when he saw this show he thinks it would be make good TV series. So he call B.'s company to pitch the show. I must say this now that Jerry B. mention this in particular that thsi Zuiker guy is a real salesman at heart, as his pitch is very good and convincing that he convinced Jerry B. to make this show (in contrast of let's say... Me :p I have no salesperson personallity no t he drive to be one either (which is lucky for me I suppose))

Also I should added that the writing of the show is very good. I like how the use the various sub-cultures to be involve in the crime scene. I suppose they first push the envelope with the little people first, then the S&M brothel episode, then the furry group, the transexuals, and the chubby chasers scene.

If there is anything I learn from these shows... Is that murder in general Is VERY Messy :)