Showing posts with label hobbies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hobbies. Show all posts

Tuesday, 21 October 2008

The Gamer

3Willings
2) Tomato and Parmesan Dip
3) F.E.A.R.

Its not the fastest beast on the planet, but I'm very happy with my new computer.
 My girlfriend is not impressed with my inches

The big reason why I'm happy is because I built it myself.  
The building process was stressful but it was very educational and quite rewarding.
Thank you to Tess for all your help.
 
I'm finally running games at decent resolutions and graphics details.
old laptop resolution (click)
New PC resolution (click)

Phully S3k.
 
************************
 
Back in high school, I did a lot of tinkering with computers.  
I played with RAM, 3DFx card, sound card. And toyed a fair bit with the IRQ on the 14.4kbps modem. 
 
And I spent quite a bit of time playing games.
 

Actually that would be a mean understatement. 
 
I spent pretty much most of my waking hours playing on the computer. 

If not on the computer, I'm thinking, dancing, eating and singing about computers.
 
The only thing that stopped me from infusing with the the computer chair was work twice or three times a week.  

Of course work pay I used to fund upgrades for the Cyrix 686 or buying games.
 
I loved my computer.  

It gave me the escape I needed from the craziness that was high school.
 
But Moore's law would have it that my computer wouldn't run the newer games.  8Megs of video RAM and 133MHz of pseudo-intel CPU power would not cut it.  

And very quickly, games started to look ugly and ran like slideshow on my beloved machine. 

Enter the Playstation.  The OTHER woman in my life.  Hehehe.   And PC was quickly forgotten.

********
 
A few weeks ago, when I slotted in the new PCI-e graphics card to the mobo, I got a rush I haven't felt in years.

Its like a jolt of energy traversing down my fingers into my spine.  A mix of anxiety and excitement of tinkering with computers came rushing back. 
 
Suddenly I want to play games again.  And I want to play them all now!

I want to see the worlds I've missed because of all those years I've missed. 
 
Its like discovering colour after living in grey for a long time.
 
But I'm also worried.  Worried that I'll get hooked again.


**************
Last sunday my girlfriend was subliminally trying to tell me she wanted to go to the beach.  

Yeah, I know, subliminal is how she communicates.
 
I knew she wanted to do something, so I ended my Guildwar quest and was quickly adjusting my skill attribute points for my next time playing.
 
'Quickly' turned out to be an hour.
 
I was so consumed by what spells and skills to use that what I perceived to have been 'quick', was an hour in real-people time.
 
Luckily, my charms, manly strength and quick thinking won my girlfriend back quickly.  But that was a close call.
 
This was a minor thing.  The real issue here is girls and their silly subliminal messaging.

But it's still noteworthy, and scary, how time slips away from me when I'm on the computer.
 
And not just me, there's group of girlfriends out there who have lost their boyfriends to computer gaming and MMORPGs.  

The gamer widows as they are called.
 
So I am a bit worried.  But hopefully I won't get addicted.  

Now what game do I play next.  



Wednesday, 5 December 2007

Drawn Out

3Willings:
1) Escape from Monkey Island
2) Hong Kong BBQ - Francis St, Northbridge
3) Paul van Dyk - In Between

Saw this cute article on the internet.

The story is, guy sees girl of his dreams in the New York subway. He tries to contact her with a rather unconventional way of doodling her and putting it up on that website.

Kinda like a real life version of that Daniel Powter - Bad Day music video. Kinda. :)

I'm guessing he must have gotten lots of prank phone calls.

Maybe from girls that look like this. Hehehe.

But yeah, nice story and I'm happy for the guy for having found the girl.
Hope it works out for them.

When I was cleaning up my room last week I re-discovered my art stuff. My sketch pad, pencils, gum tape together with a bottle of brushes, my water-paiting palettes and paint tubes all dried up and dusty.

Its depressing that I haven't done something creative of lately.

The last art-related thing I made was a cartoon eggplant fridge magnet. my purple creation

And I recently found out that the magnet has fallen off and the eyes have diffused so the eggplant looks like it has glaucoma!! :(

I guess if i'm to make something I gotta make sure it stands the test of time.

Even today, my mom still has the very first 'love card' that my dad made for her.

Yeah - I know, im shocked too!

Not because it's terribly romantic, but because I discovered my dad's drawing skills is sooo bad!
My two year old nephew could draw better!! :P hehehe.

Maybe they didn't have cute cartoons back in them days. Only stick figures.. and two colours of crayons.

But yeah, I want to go back to doodling.
Real drawing or painting or something.

The only doodling I've done lately is on my Nintendo DS.

A game called Drawn to Life lets you draw your own hero. I haven't played much of it, but
its quite amusing seeing my pumpkin head creation with octopus legs walking
around fighting bad guys.

I guess that can be my new year's resolution. Paint or draw something that I can frame.

Choosing the topic is the hard part.
Maybe I can find something from my travels.

Like girls in the subway.
Or not.