Sales tactic

Went passed Farmers yesterday...saw their new counters. I think it is quite appealing...don't you think? It makes you wanna go and 'pay'...

A bad BK experience

I like BK...I like the food. Among all the burger chains here in NZ, BK and Wendy's are both on top there for me.

Anyway, went to BK West City yesterday and had a bad service experience. Nothing so bad that I'd come out fuming...more like a disappointment-tupe bad experience.

First of all, the floor is very sticky. But a lot of fast food places have similar floors mainly caused by kids spilling their drinks. I think this is more common in BK because you get free refills. Ok...so I'm over that...moving on...

I placed an order...waited a few minutes then there was a boy who just received his fries and asked for ketchup. The girl said they had none. For a burger chain this is bad. You cannot serve fries without ketchup...that's ok...I'll let it pass...moving on...

I got my cup so I went to the machine and got myself a coke...there were no lids...first it was the ketchup then now no lids....hmmm...ok..It's 3pm and I'm hungry...moving on...

Got my order and sat at one of the tables inside. This was the only table without rubbish on it. Normally I'm fine with that because I leave rubbish on tables myself. I think I paid for food and services at BK so services should include cleaning up after me. But the other tables also have dirty/soiled surfaces. It looked like they haven't been wiped since the morning. It is hard to see in the photos but I'm posting them anyway.

Then we started noticing that there are unusually high number of black dots flying...flies are all around. I looked over across the room and found both rubbish bins are wide open. One didn't have a rubbish bag in it and flies are crawling in and out of it.

The other one by the entrance is extremely full.

This was around 3pm. The queues are not that long. In fact when I approached the counter I waited for a total of 5 seconds and it was my turn. There were around 2-3 counters open.

I do not think this branch deserved an 'A' from the council.

700 cheers for Shane Warne

well, Warney's done it! 700 Test wickets, which is apparently unheard of in international test cricket! congrats, and even if i know very little about cricket (except perhaps Australia having the best cricket team in the world!), i join this milestone and celebration as the best spin bowler ever heads for retirement.

How was your Wiikend?

Mine was great! Decided to get the Wii the other day...The Wii is certainly japanesey. Dont get it if all you want or care about are HD games like gears of war...The Wii is more about fun, interactivity, and different ways to play games. So far I only managed to play Wii Sports (which came with the console), Wii Play (Which came with the extra controller), and Red Steel.

Console
The console is is very small. Even smaller than a Gamecube. It sits beside my TV and most people will miss it if they don't look carefully. I think most people are right to say that is is probably a repackaged Gamecube. Sometimes the size is deceiving though. The power adaptor is separate but it is about half the size of the Xbox 360 Power adaptor. The Wii uses channels as their main console navigation feature. You have the game channel (the disc you inserted which can be a Wii disc or any GC game disc), the Mii channel for creating your Mii characters (kind like profiles of yourself and others...I already took the liberty in creating some of the kuyas), the photo channel (if you have an SD card with photos, insert them and you can view photo slidehows and more here), the shop channel (for buying new channels and games from previous Nintendo and Sega game systems), the weather channel (weather forecasts - very nice and relaxing), and the news channel (currently not working but hopefully will soon).

I've downloaded a trial version of the internet channel which alloows you to browse the internet using your Wii and your TV. Btw, the Wii connects to your broadband connection using a wifi connection. You can also purchase a network adaptor (for wired connections) but this is not available here in NZ yet. The Wii's got 4 controller ports (for 4 gamecube controllers), 2 USB ports at the back, an SD card slot at the front, and two GC memory card slots. I specially like the backward compatibility with GC games, controllers, and memory cards. It feels like you dont lose out and have to sell off your old GC games and accessories.




Wii Sports and Wii Play
Awesome game. Of course these games are not just for fun but are designed to help you acclimate to using the Wiimote and Nunchuck controller. The best ones are tennis, golf, and bowling...heck I like all the sports games. My shoulder and biceps are a bit sore...I just hope I don't develop tennis elbow.

Redsteel
Crap graphics...no doubt about that. Well it would have been good if you haven't seen HD game graphics. But that's fine...Gameplay..a bit odd. You need to get use to it. You use the nunchuck to move around. Then use the Wiimote to point at the screen and shoot. This is what I like the most...to reload, just flick you nunchuckdown. :)

Redsteel art is like XIII....some cutscenes are set in comic/cel type graphics which will appeal to some.




Almost forgot...some opponents fight with swords. This is a japanese yakuza game so it is about fighting and honour... you use your nunchuck to dodge and parry attacks and use the Wiimote to slash.

Ok...i think you get an idea of what it's like. For more info, click here. There are lots of trailers and screen shots on this site plus some concept art.

I'm going back to play...

PS3 review

On our second to the last day at work, we managed to get an invitation from Sony to go and have a play with the new PS3 console.

First impressions....the PS3 is quite bulky (but so is the Xbox 360). It's got Blu-ray, HDMI out, HD capability, etc.

We played about half a dozen games. The first one is MotorStorm, is an off-road racing game. The great thing about this is that your car breaks apart and eaqch time it is completely different depending on how you crash. Crashing in this game seem to0 be a huge deal...but then again there is nothign much you can do with racing games so the crashes are definitly highlights. The game is also designed to take advantage of the high detail capabitlity of the new PS3 console.

Second game we played is called Lair. It's like Lord of the rings combined with action and flying games. The first stage is flying the dragon and it takes advantage of the 6-axis tilt controller [idea] that Sony stole off the Nintendo Wii controllers. But It is still good. Takes a bit of time to get use to since all previous generations rely on buttons and joysticks for control.

Lair graphics is quite good. When I was flying above the water I could stop looking at the water graphics quality. Gameplay-wise it's not bad. First, you fly around attacking other dragons. You can shoot fireballs at them or if you dare, target your dragon, zoom fly in, once you switch to action mode, you fight the dragon mid-air and leap onto the enemy dragon and kick out the enemy pilot. Very dramatic....lots of oohs and aahs..

Third game we played is probably not much worth writing about...It's called Genji, a third-person samurai type fighting/adventuire game. Hated it.

4th one...another one I personally do not like...F1 racing...Once you played one racing game, the rest is pretty much the same. But I must say the graphics is really good. If it is raining, you will see the rain drops on the screen screen which will later slide sideways when you speed up.....Just graphics details...nothing special.

The last one we played is very very good. Well I'm a bit biased because I prefer playing action games specially first person shooters.

Resistance: Fall of man is the last game we played and one we had most fun. Graphics is quite good - highly detailed. AI is also good with good adaptability. One moment you are hiding/crouching and getting ready to shoot at the enemy...next thing you know he is walking around to get you.

I managed to play about 4 checkpoints/scenes...enemies in the beginning range from you usual grunt type aliens to these Jurassic Park mini-raptors and scorpoions looking creatures coming at you.

We managed to get to a stage where we are required to drive a tank. That was sort of fun ... running over enemies but it wasn't much fun...seem to easy....well that's because we've set difficulty on easy...duh! I would have set it on normal setting but I wasn't alone. Resistance reminds me of Halo.


Overall it was a great experience. All the games played were still on development code and therefore buggy and some run on 720p resolution. But considering it was on development code and that the console is a prototype, the PS3 only crashed once and it wasn't during gameplay. We also never experienced any lag like we did on Xbox 360 Gears of War. It'd be interesting to see how PS3 performs at full capacity and full HD.

The controller is wireless (woohoo) but it seems to me it was something they forgot and tried to include as a catch up...to connect your wireless controller to the console, you have to plug it in using the USB cable. Unlike the Xbox 360 and Wii controllers where all you need to do is press a button on the controller and it will sync up to the console, the PS3 is not exactly wireless...I'd rather call it semi-wireless or pseudo-wireless.

I don't think the $1200 planned price tag is worth it...maybe when its cheaper...but I do love it...Sony, if you are reading this, please give The Kuya Club a free PS3 concole set with games. :)

Shakoo's Birthday

For Shakoo's b-day, we went out for a bit of fun at the driving range.
Here he is showing us how it's done.

It's not baseball!!!
Hey the ball is still here...

Demo number 2...


Ernie finally decided to give it a try.




Ernie got bored and started playing with his PSP.

Air NZ Building Visit

For the past few months, I haven't been able to create regular entrie to this blog due to a project at work. Now that the project's completed and I'm on my Christmas break...I'll try to catch up with a few entries that I've been holding off for a while.

Let me start with my visit to the new Air NZ Building, thanks to Shakoo.

The new Air Nz building is across the road from my building. I can see into the building if I stand by the window.

Above is the view from their window into ours.

Office space is abundant I thought. They spared no expense. Designs and facilities are awesome. Here are a few samples...

First we have the runway style carpet...

Then we have the Brabantia rubbish bins. This aint cheap...around $500 a piece...maybe more.

Nice spacious kitchens. It'd be a shame to use this kitchen just to make instant noodles.

This is a meeting room...I took a photo of this because I liked the concept of covering the wall with glass virtually turning it into a giant whiteboard.


In addition, they have coffee machines everywhere!

Happy Christmas to all Kuyas!!

Home Brew: Day 30

Three weeks had passed since I bottled my home brew. Actually I couldn't wait and opened a bottle 2 days before.

I must say that I'm quite satisfied with the results. Well I wasn't sure what to expect. What was I looking for...was it drinkable? Was it contaminated? Does it taste good?

First of all it is not contaminated...as with any culture where you grow some kind of organism, there is always a chace of cross-contamination. In this case, I've been observing the bottle every week. The solution was clear and the yeast sits at the bottom of the bottle.

It was certainly drinkable and the taste was uite alright.

This formula is called Pale Ale so the taste is not like your normal heinaken or Steiny. It is a bit more full bodied...Malty...

I told my colleagues about it and one of the first things they asked..."is it bubbly?" I said yes...Then they said "because that is one of the harder things to accomplish...for the beer to be bubbly" I told that when I opened the first bottle, I forgot I was pouring beer and I poured it into a glass straight...and there was a 1-1.5 inch foam head and it almost overflowed...

They all cheered in approval..."then it's good! Once you get the foam, it means you've done it right..."

I was relieved...

I'm not sure what the alcohol content is but I certainly felt the effect of the alco after I had a glass..However, the beer is quite heavy...I couldn't have a second glass or at least I didn't try...I wonder if leaving it in the bottle a bit longer will age it and make it better.

What's next? I'm already planning to start fermenting the next kit...possibly one of the darker ones...need some empt bottles though and I'm thinking whether to let the current one age further and buy new bottles or drink these ones first before starting the next one...

Horrendous F1 accident - not for the faint hearted

GR along the Yarra...!

as the release date of Ghost Rider looms ever so closer, we are now exposed to a few images from the Nic Cage film. this one was shot along the Yarra River in Southbank with the Crown Casino as the background. the first to tell me what that structure GR rides over with his ghostcycle gets a Cherry Ripe!

The atmosphere was electrifying! The crowd were buzzing! The chips were... all gone!?!

The Crown Casino came alive for the Corporate Games: Poker Tournament a couple of Fridays ago, and yours truly ended up in the top 100 (ranked 88 when I got eliminated)! Companies from all sorts of industries were fairly represented, and the competitive edge was certainly evident (especially between Telstra and Optus, methinks). The pace was much faster than what you and I would've seen on TV, but the dealers were very helpful in letting us know where the game's at.

I went ALL IN once with a pair of aces. The second time I went ALL IN, my King-Ten got beaten by a King-Jack! :(

'Twas a good warm-up for next year for sure! I would recommend joining the game, even if you're a beginner like me. Thanks to those who dropped by in Melbourne for a visit and the support!

Image of the day: Fantasticar

December 1. Sigh... I'm just getting used to October! 'Twas a hellishly hectic day, and it's meant to be TGI Friday. Sigh 2. Well, here's the debut of the Fantasticar for the upcoming "Rise Of The Silver Surfer". Er, where's The Thing?

Digital Technology can make anyone an expert musician