Brose's Blog Page of Burnination

Back to school for the last time, woot.

Thus begins the end.

Classes are just kind of there right now, currently in the "meh" stage and I don't much care for the lectures yet.

Well actually, I do plan on it being more of a "meh" term than a "let's go to school!" term.

So far that's been off to a good start, both days in 'loo people have come over to Wii Sports, I started Phantasy Star 3 on Sega Genesis Collection as well as the TotA 2nd playthrough with Wen, Duy, and Jason. Likely due to a lack of sleep and moving past few days I had to cop-out of the session relatively early last night (~11:00 pm). Also I think I'm playing this more for battles and less for plot, so the first chunk of the game (where you only have like, 2 guys) I wasn't too interested in.

I moved most of my things in, but missing a chunk of clothes (brought about 4 days worth) and a chunk of my kitchen stuff (spices, cutting board, cleavers), which I intend to bring in upcoming weekend. So this week I'm eating like a student should be, plaza eateries, microwave and canned foodstuffs.

Trying to keep up with the video game news, it seems that for the 2 new console launches (Wii and PS3), the experience has been the reverse of what was expected:

At the beginning of 2006, everyone was expecting the PS3 to be a huge hit and that shortages will continue much into 2007. If it happened for the 360, it kinda had to happen for the PS3. The Wii was thought of as a gimmicky console attempt after the "gimmicky success" of the DS. And then the price point hits, and so some faith has been swayed in the Sony camp, people begin to wonder if Sony can push a $600 video game console onto the masses. Nintendo's price, although seemed quite reasonable to me, was still contested as being too high for a "Gamecube 1.5". So the Wii will probably be soaked up by its fanboys at launch, and then quickly lose steam.

And now, 4 days into 2007, it seems that the PS3 is readily available in major retailers both in North America and Japan, while the Wii is still constantly sold out. Now, I'm not sure how many of those available PS3's are being sold in bundle form, but I'm pretty sure Best Buy doesn't bundle the PS3 and there are stories of "walls" of PS3s in BB at various North American cities. I myself saw a PS3 in the Square One Wal-Mart on December 27, the day after boxing day. Granted, I didn't ask whether it was a bundle or not (actually, I can't guarantee that it wasn't a display box, but it was behind the glass and under the PS3 games and all, so I just assumed it was the real deal). I have yet to see a Wii console in stores after the launch, without having to line up for it. I have seen the PS3 "dualshock" controller (named "Sixaxis") in various stores (Wal-Mart, Zellers, Superstore), I have seen Wiimotes in stores twice and Nunchuks once since the launch (and I did quite a bit of browsing during the Christmas period).

So what is the deal here?

Is Sony being the better supplier by having the PS3 constantly in stock? Or is the PS3 at its current state not attractive enough to warrant the $550/$660 Cdn price tag?

You'll probably find both types of arguments on various gaming discussion forums. However, it should be a little bit disconcerting that Sony's PS3, regardless of how well they are being supplied, can be a walk-in purchase 6 weeks after launch and selling somewhere between 1-1.5 million units worldwide. This is coming off of a console that has a 100 million user base. Without attracting new consumers, Sony's new console has only grabbed 1% of the PS2's numbers, so even with the "fanboy" and "brand loyalty" purchase, the PS3 isn't exactly "flying off the shelves".

Looking at one websites numbers (vgcharts.org, but I'm not sure about it's accuracy), the PS2 sold some 1.5 million units in Japan alone in the first 6 weeks of its launch. The North American launch, some 6 months after, sold another 700k units in 6 weeks. So it does seem that the PS3 is not using it's predecessor's momentum nearly as well as the PS2.

Now, some speculation is that the PS3 will indeed fly off the shelves once it gets some good games out, namely MGS 4 and FF 13. But I think there is some validity in the point of view that Sony will lose 3rd party support and perhaps some exclusivity due to the lacklustre PS3 launch sales. I was thinking about why I did get the PS2 and it was primarily because I knew that FF 10 was going to be there. Now it worked out in my favour that PS2 was the RPG-god of the past generation of consoles, but who's to say that PS3 will continue that trend? DQ 9 has already been announced for the DS, and more games are being released multi-platform. So would I buy a PS3 if it lost its RPG genre dominance? I may not, definitely not at the current price.

Personally I think I'll get a PS3 if it were priced around $350-$400 Cdn. The PS2 saw that magnitude of a price drop some 1 and a half years after the launch. With poorer than expected sales perhaps the PS3's drop will come sooner, but with all the new "next gen" technology (cell processor, Blu-ray drive) Sony may not be able to afford such a large price drop (they are already supposedly losing some $200-$400 per console). If that is the case the price, with lack of supporting games, could kill the PS3.

Now, I'm all-up-ons for the Wii since they announced the remote, mainly because I like the idea and for 2 generations of console, Nintendo's console still had a bunch of solid 1st party titles, so there's always something to look forward to. Not to mention Smash Brawl is for the Wii, and the Smash series has been the party game of choice since grade 9 (for the most part). So if the Wii's success leads to more awesome 3rd party titles then that's all gravy to me, I lined up for it for Smash, Mario and Zelda.

If anything I'd be much more tempted to get a 360 than a PS3 right now. The price is much lower, and there are actually games that I'm interested in getting for it (Dead Rising, Enchanted Arms, Oblivion, Gears of War). Also it seems a junk load of 360 stuff was on sale this holiday. However I don't have an HDTV, and not big on paying subscription fees for online play (which is the big draw for 360), so for now I'll just stick with the Wii.

Actually I'm probably going to buy a DS lite very soon, I already have 2 games coming in from Amazon.

Back to school post = 60% rant on console war, I like it.

This is a story. The portrayed characters are entirely real. Any resemblance of real life events is entirely intentional. Long winded, but intentional.



Long long ago, in a galaxy exactly right here...

...and they lived happily ever after.

The end.

Lil' Timmy was a simple boy that grew up in a simple home. His dad was Superman and his mom was Batman. Needless to say, Lil' Timmy did not do so hot during sex ed classes, but today's tale is not the time to dwell on Lil' Timmy's academics.

Lil' Timmy very much enjoyed collecting acorns, as all boys like to do. However, between his playboy Mommy making millions but his leeching Daddy using all of Mommy's money, there wasn't much left for allowances. And so, Lil' Timmy's acorn collection grew very slowly, as he could only afford the odd acorn here or there every month or two.

Then, everything changed.

Stay tuned for a word from our sponsors.

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And now, the exciting conclusion to Miami Vice:

One day Lil' Timmy was walking home from chicken school when he saw a shadowy sliver of a shadow jump out from the bushes.

"How are you doing today, little boy?" said an old looking old man, with a long beard white like a black panther.

"Err....I'm okay I guess" Lil' Timmy replied.

"Would you like to get some acorns?" the old man asked with a wide grin.

"Of course!" Lil' Timmy excitedly exclaimed.

"Then come with me to this dark back alley over on the other side of town".

And so Lil' Timmy followed the mysterious old man across town to find the dark back alley. They took the bus, whose route passed by many a dark back alleys. Lil' Timmy pointed those alleys out to the old man, but the old man said either mentioned that the back alleys were't back enough or weren't alley enough. They were all dark enough though.

And so the old man guided Lil' Timmy to the front of Maple Keys Store, the largest carriers of acorns in the nation.

"This alley would do." the old man said.

"But sir," Lil' Timmy rebutted, "This isn't an alley at all, nor is it dark in front of all the bright lights."

"Quiet you!" the old man exclaimed, "The author had a change of heart okay?"

"Oh!" said Lil' Timmy, "Understood."

"Now, which acorn is it that you want?" the old man asked.

"Butter acorn!" shouted Lil' Timmy non-enchantedly.

The old man smiled a smile, shook his head and said, "No no no...you must learn the ways of the jabroni inner fire."

"Jabroni inner fire?" inquired Lil' Timmy asked.

"See this?" the old man presented Lil' Timmy a Chocolate acorn.

"Oh! Choco" Lil' Timmy said, "That was like, last year's best acorn, I saved up 3 month's allowance to buy that."

"And how much did you buy it for."

"Fifty-five pandas."

"Ah, see, I got this one for ten."

"What? where?"

"Right here, 2 months ago."

"Huh?"

"You see, no matter how great the acorn is, the hype and demand for it invariably will dwindle. And as it dwindles, stores like Maple Keys will sell them for a much lower pandas in order to make room for the newer acorns." explained the old man.

"But, then you have to wait soooo looong" Timmy whined. "What the deuce? How come I aged 10 years?"

"The author must be tired of typing 'Lil''" the man explained. "Hey, I grew younger!" the man rolled his eyes. "Lazy bastard."

"Anyways, as I was saying, this is where the Jabroni inner fire comes in. JIF is an ancient Saiyan technique, it allows one to suppress the urges for acorns until they are reasonably priced, at which point JIF will release the force and one will go through hellfire and brimstone to retrieve the acorn."

"I see..."

"I shall now pass JIF onto you, use it well."

-*Months later*-

Timmy learned much from the man, whom he has acknowledged as Master. One day he received a note. It read: "It is now time. Go search for the Metal Acorn"

"Finally," Timmy thought, "I have JIF'd for this acorn for so long, it is now time to release the fire!"

And so Timmy trekked all over the city, looking at the Maple Keys Stores. The price for the Metal Acorn was very reasonable, however, all the stores that Timmy visited has already depleted their Metal Acorn stock.

Not to be discouraged, Timmy seeked the Master for guidance.

"I've looked all over, where else can the Metal Acorn be found?"

The Master grinned a smile laugh, and handed Timmy a scroll. "In here is the ultimate JIF technique, the checking of more stores."

"But I checked all the Maple Keys in the city!" Timmy said.

"That you have, but what of Pine Woods?"

"Pine Woods? But their Metal Acorns aren't reasonably priced..."

The Master laughed a chuckle, "They may not be, but they will match Maple Keys, their rival."

"They will?"

"As long as you have proof."

"Teach me more, Master."

"Now is not the time for this, go forth and retrieve the Metal Acorn. Only by mastering the JIF can you move on to the GPEG."

"GPEG?"

"Time is ticking, young one." the Master said.

"Oh, of course, I'm off Master" shouted Timmy as he raced to a Pine Wood.

"The fire is strong in that one" the Master contently said to himself as he grined his grin.

Timmy looked at the scroll from the Master, it read:

1. Obtian proof from Maple Keys.
2. Confirm stock at Pine Wood.
4. Ask for match.
5. Insist on the match if they check for Maple Keys stock.

"2 then 4?" thought Timmy, "Must be a typo."

And so Timmy walked into a Pine Woods store, wondering if any other JIF users has already used this technique. Checking the display, Pine Wood has many Metal Acorns left. Pleased, Timmy approached the store personnel and asked for a match in purchase price.

"Hm...Maple Keys did price the Metal Acorn very reasonably, make sure they have stock, otherwise we won't match it", one of the store personnel said.

Timmy's heart sank a little like a brick upon hearing that comment. But he kept on trying, perhaps they would be in stock at Maple Keys.

"So...do they have to have it in stock?"

"Yeah" the store clerk said while pigeoning Maple Keys.

"Do you check them all?"

"No, we won't, we'll randomly check one."

"But what if it's just that one that ran out?"

"Don't worry." said the clerk, but Timmy wasn't comforted. "Hello? Maple Keys? I was wondering if you have anymore Metal Acorns in stock. You do? Very well". Upon hearing this Timmy was instantly relieved, his quest is about to end!

"Well, they check their supply via the femputer, so calling any one is just the same." explained the clerk.

And so Timmy waited in line patiently to get the match in purchase price. After about 20 minutes and a bunch of going back and forth between store personnel later, the store clerk finally got a Metal Acorn and was about to match for Timmy.

"Huh, the femputer says that we sell this for less than Maple Keys", the clerk said.

"What?" Timmy said, "but the tag at the display says much higher!" The store clerk shrugged, and made a mention that these things happen. "So you still want to match?"

"No, I want it at your price then." Timmy said.

Content that he has completed his mission, Timmy went back to his Master, proudly presenting the Metal Acorn.

"I did it!" exclaimed Timmy, "I got it, but Pine Wood had it at an even more reasonable price."

"Oh, not surprising" said the Master, "so why did it take so long?"

"'Cause I had to wait for the store people to figure out all the match policy stuff."

"Huh? Didn't you ask for the price first?"

"What? The scroll said nothing of the sort, don't tell me lies."

"Let me see that," Timmy handed the scroll back to the Master. "Ah, I knew I forgot something, step number 3 is to first inquire about the Pine Wood price."

"WTF..." Timmy said under his breath as he rolled his eyes.

Chapter 1
---------
There once was a man from Pantucket...

Muhahaha, won't need to line up they say. Plenty of supply they say.

Actually, reading news on Kotaku seems to indicate that the Wii were in short supply at various places, but not all. Like, there were photos of stores where there was no one in line to get a Wii or that very few people lined up. So I guess GTA had more people who wanted one than there was supply.

I guess I'll recap the past month or for the November console launches:

I am interested in the PS3, but once they released the pricing I knew I won't be getting one anytime soon. Just too expensive for a gaming console, and in retrospect buying the PS2 launch bundle wasn't a really smart move. I'm pretty sure I'll get one eventually, just not for $660.

I was really interested in the Wii when they revealed the controller at last year's TGS IIRC. I liked the idea, and after watching the promotional videos, I was sure that this would be a very unique console. Coupled with the fact the next Smash would be on it, the Wii would be a must have (at the latest by the time SSBB came out). When Nintendo came with more news such as the Virtual Console and the pricing, I became more interested in getting a Wii at launch.

The few weeks prior to the launch though, my plan was to show up to a store a bit before they opened up and see if I can take a Wii off the shelves, and if I couldn't, I'd wait for the subsequent shipments. I'm not sure what changed along the weeks, but as the launch date approached, I just kinda wanted the Wii more and more.

Seeing the people lining up 2 days for the PS3, I knew I wasn't hardcore enough to do that for the Wii. But I was willing to line up Saturday night to guarantee that I'd be swinging to slash things in Hyrule. Unforunately, no one in 'sauga wanted to line up with me, so I was in a bit of a rut in that if I lined up, I'd have no real company nor could I step out of line for a washroom break or a coffee run.

On Saturday I decided that I'd do some reconnaissance to check out how long the Wii line would be at the Heartland Best Buy (BB) and Future Shop (FS). I asked at BB on Thursday night and the staff didn't think there'd be a line for the Wii. So I show up around noon on Saturday and there's about 10-15 people lined up out front. No where near as many people as the PS3, so that was a good sign. I went into the BB to see how many units they had, and the staff answered that they had at least 100 units. Recon at FS revealed had no people in line at noon and the store had about 50 units. So I went home feeling fairly confident that I can get a Wii, only question was when I should arrive at the BB.

Did some stuff at home Saturday afternoon, and then more recon at BB and FS before heading out for dinner at 6pm. At that time, the line had grown to "edge" of the "first side" of BB (the side that the entrance is at). From my recollection the PS3 line on Thursday night was longer than that, and they had less than 50 units of PS3. So accounting for higher density I figured that maybe 40-50 units were accounted for in the line. No one at FS yet. Dropped by after dinner around 7:30pm and the BB line grew about 3, 4 people, still no one at FS. So at this point I kind of knew that most of the hardcore Nintendo fans would have shown up, and the remaining units will go to those who have a little more patience than the rest. If someone had wanted to line up with me (perhaps I should have called Lowry, as I'm sure he was lining up somewhere), I would've totally lined up after dinner at BB.

I made a mention of lining up to my Mom during dinner, and then she was saying stuff like "what if you get robbed?", "you're going to freeze", etc (Mom stuff). So I couldn't exactly go line up right after dinner (I kind of half wanted to after seeing the BB line reaching the "corner"). So I went home and took a nap, intending to wake up later on in the night, and head over to the BB to wait for a few hours.

I ended up falling asleep around 1:30 or so, and woke up at 3:30. I knew that by that time I had to head over to the BB if I wanted to get the Wii for sure. So that's what I did. As I was driving past FS I see a line of at least 40 people, which I thought was trouble, as that line went from 0 to 40+ in 8 hours or so. I went to the BB, and the line covered about half the wall beyond the corner. I parked, did a count of the number of people and chairs in the entire line, and figured that there was maybe 50-60 people in line. Since they had well over 100, even with people cutting in line and staff holding a few units, I had a pretty good chance of getting one. And so I plopped myself in line.

Originally my plan was to play GBA while waiting in line. However, it was much too cold to not wear gloves. Thus I spent my time keeping my body warm (it was quite cold outside, heh) and having some small talk with the people in line. At first I was expecting to wait until 8 am for the store to open, but along the way I heard someone say that the BB staff will hand out tickets at 6am. Around 5:30 am a few BB staff started showing up. A staff came by the line and said that they had 120 units, and he was doing a quick head count to see if they had enough for the entire line. He thought that they would have enough, and then went and did a tally asking each person in line if they were buying a unit (in case some people were there to keep people company, or like, father with sons). He came by and I was number 75, and at that point I knew that I will get a unit even if a lot of people jumped into line in front. A bit later on the staff then said that at 6 am they'd start giving out tickets, and that the tickets were good until 10 am. More staff came by to tell people what they had in stock, answer questions and promote their extended warranty program. At around 6:30 am I received my ticket, number 74 of 120, and proceeded to go home to warm up and eat breakfast. The BB staff said that they'd put people back in their spot in line starting 7:45 am, and at 8am they'd let customers in 10 at a time, and that all the Wii stuff will be at the front desk (cashier areas).

So I went home to warm up and eat some breakfast, as well as doing some browsing on what launch games (besides Zelda: TP) I might want to get. Got back to BB at 7:45am or so to stand back in line, and by then everyone (who had a ticket) was in high spirits. While standing in line I saw some people approach the store and the line, most likely trying to get a Wii but were turned away. I was home at around 8:45am, happy owner of a Nintendo Wii.

Rest of Sunday went by pretty quickly, I spent an hour or so setting up the Wii and connecting it to the wireless network, then played a bit of Wii Sports before going to church. After church and lunch I came home to sleep. Around 4pm people started showing up to see the Wii, and around 6pm I went to pick up my Dad for dinner at my aunt's. Coming home I told my stepdad about Wii Sports boxing and that he might like to play (since he's into martial arts). I showed him a game and he found it interesting, and called my mom down to check it out. And so my Mom and Stepdad each played a round of Wii Sports boxing, which was very cool. They both enjoyed it too, heh. Another hour of Wii Sports and my arm is sore from all the "exercise", I was also tired, so I proceeded to bed.

Browsed some websites today to see when stores were expecting a second Wii shipment. Seems that general consensus is that Nintendo can get units out quick, maybe in a couple weeks. The more Nintendo units sold the better, it might mean that they can get some solid third party support again, which means more games for the Wii, heh.

So you Waterloo guys should come out heh.

So UWGamers, this term in partnership with Mathsoc, held the 4th (3rd in successive terms) SSBM tournament this past Monday (Oct 23).

Unfortunately, they weren't able to do a team tournament or a Smash 64 tournament. I was hoping that with more people organizing they could possibly do 2 tourneys, the 1 on 1 and a team/64 one.

This term's tournament structure was changed, one to accomodate more people and to speed up the elimination process, and two (probably) to try to make it more difficult for Duy to win =p

The tournament was divided into 2 parts: the preliminaries consisted of 4 rounds of 4 player free-for-all timed battles where the person with the highest score (kills - suicides) would be the winner of the match. From the preliminaries the top 32 players advances with a seeding, and from there on the usual 1 on 1 battles (but on pre-determined stages) ensues, double elimination.

So for my usual main, Fox, the setup was a bit difficult. In terms of 1 on 1 I have full confidence in Fox (or I should say I have the most confidence in him, heh). However, having Fox win a "who can kill the most" FFA setting is a bit iffy. Although he has solid finishers, he doesn't have much range on them. Also, with full tourneyment of 64 people, one would need to win 2 rounds to advance for sure, thus it was hard to even bank on being "lucky". Leading up to the tournament I was going to use Fox and hope for the best in the prelims, and I didn't have high high hopes of advancing.

Duy kind of had a similar dilemma, in that some of the organizers didn't want to see his Link for the 4th tournament straight (since he won 2 and placed 2nd in the 3rd). So he was debating between taking his best character (who could handle both FFA and 1 on 1) in, or switch to a more "fun, FFA-friendly" Captain Falcon. In the end he decided to go with Falcon. On a similar note, as I was heading towards the SLC (where the tourney was held), I started debating whether to switch to Fox's closest counterpart in Falco so that I can advance for sure (since Falco can get kills in FFA much easier than Fox). The downside of that would be that should I advance, I would be playing a character that I don't know how to play with very well, and the only way of advancing into the late rounds of the 1 on 1 would be to get some easy matchups.

At the registration desk I, in Duy's spirit of switching characters, switched to Falco in hopes of doing well in the preliminaries, land a high seed and get a couple easy matches to start the 1 on 1 rounds.

My "strategy" worked, I won all 4 rounds of the FFA and was the only one undefeated (hence I can claim the title "King of FFA", muhahaha), giving me the first seed. Actually, a lot less people showed up than signed up (about 47 people showed up, while 67 people signed up online). With the reduced attendance essentially one FFA win would secure a spot in the final 32, so I theoretically would have done better had I gone in as Fox, as I was pretty sure I can squeeze 1 FFA win out of him. (ah, the wisdom of Monday night quarterback never ceases to amaze)

Thus with everything in FFA falling into place, I was pretty happy. However, I knew that my chances of winning the whole thing would be quite slim, as there are solid players out there besides Duy. So I got into a "Cinderella playoff mode", see how far I can take Falco in the 1 on 1. Also I am trying to see if I can improve on my 0-3 record in elimination matches.

I got my easy match in the 1st round, the guy I played didn't really know what to do, and I won rather easily. The second round match I had a bit of trouble and lost, although upon reflection the player wasn't too hard to beat, just that I didn't have enough experience with Falco to know how to counter the usual tactics used by Luigi players.

Thus anything from the 3rd round on were elimination matches. My 3rd round match was against a Young Link, who also wasn't too great, so I won that battle without much trouble. I didn't feel too great getting my first "elimination win" because of a relatively easy matchup. Then came the 4th round against another Luigi. Perhaps I learned a bit from my 2nd round loss, I was pretty much neck to neck with the guy until the very end. I managed to squeeze out a victory, but I had 120+% on my last life when I won, so it was a pretty intense match. I was very pleased with that match.

Then comes the 5th round, against a doctor mario who's not too bad. However, I severly boned myself in the match with 3 sd's so that ended my run in the 1 on 1 rounds. I was mounting a comeback too, stupid bomb-ombs and Falco jumping so high...

Anyways, from there on I was spectator, and the matches involving the final 6 were great to watch. Duy met up against Justin (DPF) in the 4th place match, which was pretty good considering Falcon might not even be in his top 5 1 on 1 chars. Duy barely beat Justin using Link in the 2nd tournament, so his Falcon lost and he finished 4th. Justin ended up taking the whole thing with his Sheik, good on him.

So there's probably one last tournament in the Winter '07 term. I really hope that they can run a SSBM team or Smash 64 tournament. The predicament I have now is, if they are to keep the "FFA --> 1 on 1" structure, should I try with Fox, or do I practice my Falco for 1 on 1, or find a character that's good in both? =p

Ok, so over the week Bao's "party" post had been edited like, 3 times =p

The whole thing started last weekend when Ray, Bao and I headed into Hamilton to lay a visit on Jia and Rama. The original plan was for me to have Disgaea 2 by then, but there were a few hitches in getting the merchandise to the warehouses. But since I've always wondered about the sushi buffet the Mac people often talk about, I made the trip anyway.

So after seeing the secret, um, "projects" Jia and Rama were working on (apparently we're not supposed to ask questions about the business) we made our way to the sushi place. Overall the stuff isn't bad, about the same as the sushi buffet in Waterloo. But for the same price ($20), if given a choice I'd go to Markham/Scarborough for Japanese ayce =p

Over the dinner Rama suggested that we have a classic high school type get-together, with the addition of alcohol, and he volunteered my house for the location. It has been awhile since an "old school" game-fest has taken place, so I obliged.

Thus next Friday and Saturday (September 29th-30th) we'll have the get-together-ma-jigy. Some games, some drinks, some movies, chilling out, good times. Oh yeah, bring some games/drinks, heh.

Addendum: With unknown traffic and all that, I suggest people to contact me before arriving (phone or MSN). Also, you should eat dinner before coming, I'll cover the meals from midnight snack on.

If you were asked to name a hobby of mine, I would think that most would say one of the following:
- games
- video games
- movies
- TV
- basketball

What I believe few people would know is that I very much enjoy singing. Now, this is one of those "you like it just because" things, not one of those "you like it because you're good at it" kind of things (which in itself could be the topic of a post, but I digress).

So you may wonder why is it that I don't own any versions of Karaoke Revolution or I don't much participate when Bao loads it up at his place. It's simply because I listen to next to zero North American music, and I find that one needs to like, or even love, the song you're singing to fully enjoy the, er, "singing process"? (It's kind of like only playing genres of games that you like). Luckily for me karaoke is a well established form of entertainment in Asia, so I have the liberty of buying VCDs or DVDs of HK artist's concerts or MVs and sing to my heart's content at home.

It's kind of obvious why I've never gone karaoke with any of you (save Duy and Bao once, and that was because someone else asked and I asked them to come): not many of you know Cantonese, and I pretty much only sing HK pop. On top of that, those of you who know Canto, might not be interested in karaoke or HK pop. Hence going out to a karaoke place would not be a wise use of money.

So there should be about sin(PI) of you that's wondering: "Gee, I wonder what Ambrose sounds like when he sings his HK pop?" Unfortuantely for the rest of you guys, here's your chance to find out.

Disclaimer: Not responsible for nausea, psychological trauma, loss of hearing, homocidal rages, or any other physical, psycholocial, socialogical, geographical, sexual, notawordsical damage this may cause you. If you wish to sue me you must first pay me one trillion billion million dollars first, then you may proceed to not sue me.

You should note that:

1. You don't actually see me in the vid, just some dude giving a thumbs up to the camera. This is convenient as I can totally deny that I was in the video (for those that want to kill the author) as well as take all the credit for the video (for the ensuing groupies that will inevitably show up)

2. I picked a song that was relatively simple to sing, didn't want to bust out my true rock n' roll hollerin' voice, which is so awesome that Tommy Lee would totally ditch Lukas and join my band instead.

3. I also picked a song that I've been singing to in my car for the past half year, so I pretty much sang this from memory.

4. I decided to make the video after I was appropriately "warmed up", and was "in the zone" so to speak (the twilight kind).

1+2+3+4 = 10 = The video is about as good as it gets, anything else I sing would be much, much worse. So be thankful that your eardrums are only bleeding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lkd597YZ-6Y

One reason that I wanted to take a video of myself singing is that I've never really heard myself sing. So in a way this is to satisfy my own ego while endangering your sense of hearing. Win-win. I've also learned that I have kind of a weird/annoying voice, which means that I have another thing to thank God for because I totally sound much cooler in my head. So it's everyone else that has to suffer, sweeet.

"What about Stephen Hawking there trying to do the 500 butterfly?"
- regarding a wheelchair patient who dove himself into a pool

QED



For me, there are two main things about the show that interests me:
1. Mystery - I love to watch/read mysteries, can't say exactly why, but I generally like any form of entertainment that requires some sort of deduction on the character's behalf. I however, hardly ever try to solve the mystery as I watch them (i.e. I almost never "see it coming"); perhaps it's because I like the "shock" of finding out with the characters.

2. House, the character - This man is probably what we all wanted to be, at one time or another. In terms of work, he pretty much has the dream position: he's the best at the job at work, he says and does whatever the hell he wants and he gets away with most of it. It's very amusing and entertaining to watch House spew out his controversial and snide remarks; you always want to see what else House can say next to piss off someone. So he kicks ass at what he does, doesn't have to answer to anyone, and does what he wants, when he wants at work; sounds like a plan to me.

So if you have the time on Tuesday nights, check out House (should be either 8pm or 9pm on Global) =p