As I mentioned a few posts back, lately I’ve rented a few video games from the local video store. The way I figure it, it’s better to spend $5 or $6 and find out a game is crap rather than drop $50-$60 and find out a game sucks.

I initially rented Dead Rising for the Xbox 360 (on the recommendation of Chief Oddball), and that was a lot of fun…for about an hour. You see, as soon as I embarked on my first real mission – to save Brad, the bald dude you meet not too long into the game – the Xbox reported an error trying to read the disc. I took the game out, wiped it down, and tried again – to no avail. The game was damaged (one of the potential hazards of renting…or buying used, for that matter). So the game went back the next day (got a free game rental out of it once I explained the situation, at least) and instead rented Bullet Witch.

Bullet Witch is the latest 3rd-person action/adventure offering from Atari for the Xbox 360. In it, mankind – as a result of both natural and man-made disasters ocurring over a number of years – is on the brink of extinction. The world is now populated by all sorts of foul undead beasties, who delight in murdering any remaining humans in cold blood. You play as Alicia, a slender woman with a habit of wearing a very tight bodice as her primary clothing (of course). Alicia’s body is host to some sort of demon (or some such thing) that empowers her with magic (and that also talks to her from time to time by making the edges of the screen go pink and swirly), which she can use to fight off the undead. She also comes equipped with a sword-gun kind of thing (which immediately brings to mind Squall Lionheart of Final Fantasy VIII and his gun-sword) that also supposedly looks like a broom (since she’s a witch and all). It doesn’t really, though; all it has are a few spokes protruding out the butt of the gun, which I suppose are meant to evoke the bristles of a broom. Regardless, it still looks nothing like a broom. But that’s hardly a gripe, especially when you consider the other things in this game you can complain about.

Continue Reading…

Today was quite an adventure for us here in China. After staying at our friends’ (very nice) apartment in XinJin yesterday and basically working most of the day, we set out in the evening for Ya’an, an old-fashioned town about an hour from here that is home to China’s single largest population of Pandas — a world-renowned location.

We arrived last night and had a late dinner. Since we’re in Sichuan province, the local culinary specialty is called “hot pot.” Basically this involves a large table with a gas burner in the center, upon which a large stoneware pot is placed, then filled with broth and all manner of ingredients. The contents are brought to a boil and everyone partakes in what’s being cooked inside. Last night, the particular variety of hot pot that we enjoyed was like a big chicken soup: Chicken-based broth filled with tons of wild mushrooms local to the region. Lest you think it was simply chicken broth, allow me to add that an entire chicken was cooked in the pot as well. It was quite simply delicious.

Afterwards we spent the night at what is probably Ya’ans nicest hotel, an extremely posh and modern place — one of the nicest hotels I’ve stayed in, even. They had very fast high-speed Internet, a huge spa bathtub (the first bathtub I’ve seen since I’ve been in Asia, actually), fantastic furnishings, and a tremendous array of buttons, switches and electronic convenience doodads. To gain entry to the room you just waved a keycard at the door, and there was a console outside with a bunch of telltale indicators on it that were linked to switches inside the room. You could indicate that you didn’t want to be disturbed, or that you needed something, or a bunch of other situations that I didn’t have time to investigate.

Continue Reading…

Our globetrotting continues, this time taking us to Chengdu, China, where we are presently staying the night at the apartment belonging to — if I’ve got this right — my boss’ wife’s parents. (Between my boss, his wife and their family, they have several residences in the country.) The first thing we noticed about Chengdu is that it’s freaking cold here. Of course, “cold” is only about 50 degrees — not exactly blistering, but the wind chill makes it seem colder. And, coming from the 95 degrees of Thailand, anything else would seem like a refrigerator.

I got to see our company’s China office, as well as a five-story computer and electronics center called “Buy NOW” (not kidding) where you can buy just about any geek equipment imaginable. Lastly, we had dinner at a really fancy restaurant called “The Essence of Europe” (if memory serves) which was quite wonderful.

My boss has to get up at 3 a.m. and go into the office to take care of some kind of database transfer procedure for one of our big clients, which sucks for him. I’m not quite sure what we’ll do tomorrow, but I think we’re going to get our “work day” out of the way so we can spend the next few days relaxing and chilling out. Either way, we’ll be in China here for the next few days — we return to Thailand on the 11th.

Also, for the curious, the time here is one hour ahead of Thailand time. So if it’s 8:00 in the evening here, it’s 7:00 in the morning U.S. Eastern Time.

Greetings, gentle beings. Chief Oddball here, with another update from GMT +0700. (Thailand time, by any other name.) It’s been a few days since I’ve posted, not because I’ve been overwhelmingly busy or distracted, but because I wanted to get my latest photos off my digital camera first. Because I was a doof and forgot the camera’s USB cable, I need access to my brother-in-law’s computer in order to do that. Couldn’t find a chance to get at it until tonight; he’s not at home at the moment.

So the Chinese New Year has wound down, the firecrackers have stopped going off, and it’s back to business as usual here in the Land of Smiles. While Apple’s father’s print shop hums with activity during the daylight hours, I’m usually to be found in the (very thoroughly) air conditioned loft, working away on my laptop. Prior to that, though, we spent one more day celebrating the new year by going out to a Chinese festival where they have a variety of traditional stage shows, and a big street fair where you can buy all manner of food, trinkets and other stuff.

A stage was set up in the courtyard of a rather large high school, and there were numerous acts on display. A troupe from China, who visits Hat Yai every Chinese New Year to put on this show, was the last event of the evening. Their performances ranged from traditional dance and acrobatics to puppetry and a magic show, but the most interesting was the last show — wherein a pair of Chinese dancers performed almost magical “face changes.” They’d spin around, or bob their heads, and their masks would completely change in an instant. Pretty cool to watch. I shot a video of it, and although my camera doesn’t take very high-res movies, it came out pretty well.

(You may have noticed in the background of the photo above that the year is “2550.” That’s 2007, according to the Buddhist calendar.)

Continue Reading…

Today begins the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Pig (or Boar, if you will). Here in Thailand, where much of the population is of Chinese ancestry, it’s a cultural event on the order of our own Gregorian New Year back home. Many people (including myself) wear bright red shirts on this day for good luck. Yesterday, on New Year’s Eve, we spent much of the day celebrating the new year in traditional style.

One of the things families do is burn faux paper money and gold as an offering to their ancestors, that they might enjoy these riches in the afterlife. Another part of the ceremonies is the preparation of a huge meal which we offer to those past. At night, the Chinese temple across the street blocks off the road and sets up a big movie screen in the middle of it, after which they play Kung Fu films and set off firecrackers all night long.

We ate home-cooked meals of traditional Chinese dishes yesterday, but in the evening we went out to a western-themed coffee shop called The Coffee Maker. This is a yuppie coffee bar type of place, in the style of the various “boutique coffee joints” in the U.S. You can drink a cappucino and eat chocolate cake along to the sounds of Norah Jones and Britney Spears. They also have a full menu of food ranging from Thai favorites to western-style spaghetti and sandwiches. Each with its own Asian flair, of course.

Continue Reading…