Contact - Final Review
I have posted my
final review for Contact at The Game Chair. I finished the game last week but my other work (and Resident Evil 4 - damn is that work of art amazing) has kept me from writing this up. I'll be returning Contact by mail shortly, and receiving another treat soon hopefully.
Labels: The Game Chair
Pretty Things
Today I had the immense privilege of presenting to the CIO of one of the world's great luxury brands. I donned my best suit, tie, and shoes - coiffed the coif, and headed in.
Fortunately, and to my surprise, Monsieur is a very jovial guy. It was a very comfortable and easy-going meeting, with jokes being made in both English and French.
Unfortunately, they don't offer discounts or give out free samples as souvenirs.
$450 key chain anyone?
Also -
this advertisement (youtube) is very cool
Labels: business trip, France
Delicious Dessert Parties
I attended the farewell party for an ever-cheerful acquaintance this weekend. Despite the tears, the host managed to put the sweet in bitter-sweet. His hobby involves taking gourmet dessert cooking classes and baking tasty treats.
He made a lemon cheesecake with strawberry topping, a key lime pie, 30 individual serving sized cups of crème caramel (not crème brûlée), and a couple other pies that I didn't get around to tasting.
Needless to say I took a couple samples home. Mmm...
Haiku, Hokku, and Senryu
When I was in elementary school, we finger painted and wrote
haiku to accompany our works. Back then the only rule was 5-7-5. 5 syllables for the first line, 7 for the next, and 5 for the last. It wasn't that hard and it was a neat way to teach us about syllables.
this is a haiku
written just for this blog post
too bad it's so plain
See how simple that is?
Well recently I started to research about haiku in more detail and I was intrigued. There's more to Japanese haiku than 5-7-5. In fact one important part is the need to use a "
kigo", a word or phrase that elicits feelings of a particular season. It could be very direct and explicit like "winter", referring to the season of winter, or something as subtle as "Milky Way", referring to the season of fall (night sky objects (like the moon) are most clear and visible during the fall). Without kigo, your haiku is little more than
hokku!
Then I read about another 5-7-5 type of Japanese poem that isn't really a haiku because it doesn't refer to seasons. Instead, it features satire and wit. Introducing the wise-cracking little step-sister to haiku,
senryu.
A great example:
泥棒を dorobō wo
捕えてみれば toraete mireba
我が子なり wagako nari
Translated to English:
the fleeing robber,when I catch him, who is it?my very own son
Another great one, that reminds me of a Jack Handy quote:
かくれんぼ kakurenbo
三つ数えて mittsu kazoete
冬になる fuyu ni naru
Translated to English:
spring: hide and go seek
struggling to count up to 3
too slow! winter came
Have you written any haiku, senryu, poems, or ciphers recently?
Contact - Review #2
I think I'm nearly finished Contact. At least the characters in the game have told me that I only have one more cell to collect. But interdimensional baddies don't usually make that last task easy, so we'll see.
You can
take a look at my second review on The Game Chair.
It has started to impress me, and bring a smile to my face occasionally, but for an RPG the plot isn't anything impressive. I guess it does break quite a few of
these RPG cliches though.
Labels: The Game Chair
Contact
I published
my first progressive review on this quirky RPG title from
Grasshopper Manufacture (makers of Killer7 - another fantastically bizarre game).
From their site:
"Hakase(a professor)" is looking for energy source called "Element". What a coincidence! He made the first contact with "you" who bought NINTENDO DS gamesoft "contact" . Your result makes "Cherry(a hero of this game)" grow up. You watch the destiny of this world through the DS, and make Cherry grows up!.
It has been a lot of fun so far, although I know I haven't got far enough to really evaluate the meat of the game. After I'm done playing for 6 hours or so I think I'll return it and try something else if I haven't been totally hooked. One thing that annoys me though is the Wi-Fi functionality. They have some cool features that only work if you have a bunch of friends that also have the game. Perhaps I don't have enough friends?
Anyway, thank goodness for Game Access, without my mail-delivery game rental service I don't think I'd be able to afford to be a reviewer.
Labels: The Game Chair
Cold Welcome
I flew in from San Francisco last night, and this time I was prepared for the cold weather. I took a photo from the plane and in the Toronto airport. They have made many improvements to the main terminal - Terminal 1 - which is the home for all of Air Canada's flights.
I can't complain this time because I got to fly business class both ways and no-one stole my luggage. The service was nice, and the food decent. I didn't bother watching "Dream Girls" and played my Nintendo DS instead.
There were some interesting characters in business class. You have the frequent fliers (like me), the upper-crust and comfortable, and the rich glitterati. I'm not sure which category the man behind me fit in, but he seemed to like to hit the back of my seat. But the girl ahead of me and to the right was super glitterati wannabe diva style to the max. She had a diamond ring hat was really 6 diamond rings, with diamonds all around them. Also, she sported snake skin cowboy boots and other cheezy accessories.
After arriving and ignoring the scoopers (undercover drivers trying to get passengers despite having no license), I was just glad to be headed home.
My plants (Thai basil) were still holding on, and intelligent life had not arose out of the dirty dishes in the sink.
AND I had a new game in the mail from
Game Access - "Contact". I will write about in at
The Game Chair in the near future.
Labels: business trip, California, San Francisco
California Reprieve
You may or may not have heard of the
wicked winter storm that hit Toronto and most of southern Ontario. Freezing rain, trees falling over, power outages, delayed and cancelled flights were all part of the unfortunate mess we found ourselves in here in Toronto. In fact the police had to close Front street because of
huge pieces of ice falling from the CN Tower.
In addition to the effects of weather, we're also
dealing with a severe fuel shortage which has left almost every gas station displaying a "00.0" - unfortunately meaning no gas, not free gas.
Fortunately, I'm heading back to California tonight (if my flight isn't cancelled) and I'll be able to enjoy the warmer weather there for a couple days. It's for work, a re-visit of the last stint I pulled there, and this one will be much more intense.
Essentially I'm responsible for doing a 4 hour programming content style bake-off versus several major competitors. This would be challenging enough but I have to deal with this little extra: my every move will be projected on a screen in front of the decision makers.
To the Pearson International Airport!
Labels: business trip, California, San Francisco
Today I had the immense privilege of presenting to the CIO of one of the world's great luxury brands. I donned my best suit, tie, and shoes - coiffed the coif, and headed in.
I attended the farewell party for an ever-cheerful acquaintance this weekend. Despite the tears, the host managed to put the sweet in bitter-sweet. His hobby involves taking gourmet dessert cooking classes and baking tasty treats.
When I was in elementary school, we finger painted and wrote haiku to accompany our works. Back then the only rule was 5-7-5. 5 syllables for the first line, 7 for the next, and 5 for the last. It wasn't that hard and it was a neat way to teach us about syllables.
I think I'm nearly finished Contact. At least the characters in the game have told me that I only have one more cell to collect. But interdimensional baddies don't usually make that last task easy, so we'll see.
I published my first progressive review on this quirky RPG title from Grasshopper Manufacture (makers of Killer7 - another fantastically bizarre game).
I flew in from San Francisco last night, and this time I was prepared for the cold weather. I took a photo from the plane and in the Toronto airport. They have made many improvements to the main terminal - Terminal 1 - which is the home for all of Air Canada's flights.
After arriving and ignoring the scoopers (undercover drivers trying to get passengers despite having no license), I was just glad to be headed home.
