From Men's Health Australia, August 2006 issue (edited to be less cringe inducing):
"PLAYING AROUND
Bad Habit: Been fiddling around with your joystick lately? Your pupils dilated and strangely square? A picture of Lara Croft in your wallet? Sounds like symptoms of (video/computer game) addiction - the bane of your (loved ones') existence.
Make it good: Tell (them) that we said it's okay. In moderation. Video games can improve hand-eye coordination, memory and the ability to form strategies and process visual information.
For example, while driving down a residential street, you may be more likely to pickout a child running after a ball than a non-(gamer). And speaking of life-and-death situations, in May this year, New York researchers found that doctors who play videogames to "warm up" before laparoscopic surgery perform faster and commit fewer mistakes than their non-playing counterparts.
Not removing a gall bladder anytime soon? No problem,you'll still benefit becaues gaming also burns kilojoules.
University of Miami scientists recently discovered that competitive (games) raise blood pressure and heart rate and uses as many kilojoules as brisk walking or cycling. Another university study has suggested that "sporting and fighting" games produce a dramatic level of pain distraction.
So long as it doesn't impinge on your everyday life (or cause severe withdrawal symptoms), play the game."
I wonder if this would apply to PvP in World of Warcraft - battlegrounds would be like some sort of virtual gym or something. I can just imagine playing an 8 hour session of Alterac Valley being something like an 8 hour ride on bike or something. Obviously no substitute for the real thing, but for light exercise, I think this would be cool.
Someone should get Blizzard to tout this! I can just see it now:
"World of Warcraft PvP: More fun than riding a bike, and less work!"
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Sunday, July 16, 2006
AvCon Hoooo!!
Well, I've come back from AvCon.
It's a pity that I couldn't get any of my otaku friends to come along, as I'm sure they would have enjoyed it. I was going to go with one (we had even agreed to it months before), but he's gotten heavily into WoW in that time and didn't want to disrupt his raid schedule. I respect his wishes, and more power to him for that, but it was still a bit of a pity, as I think he would have enjoyed it a lot. If you're reading this, you know who you are.
Not letting that get me down, I still went with a friend, and had a great time.
I had plenty of fun, despite the drizzle and the rain - lots of good quality anime being shown in the various cinemas at the con, like Initial D 4th Stage (although it was 2 years old), Fate/Stay Night, Keroro Gunsou, Tsubasa Chronicle, the two Mai HiMEs, HiME and Otome.
A note in advance - my digital camera was running low on batteries when I went (and I had forgotten to buy more), so some of the photos came out weird.
AvCon Hooo!!! Me trying to pose like Hard Gay Razor Ramon:
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/AvconHooo.jpg
The theme this year was Pirates vs Ninjas, and there were quite a few of those around. Cosplayers turned out in force for the con, and although I didn't see too many absolute cuties like they have in Hong Kong or Tokyo, there were still some pretty nice girls. I saw plenty of maids, one girl in a rather short kimono dressed up as Fuu from Samurai Champloo (apparently her boyfriend or something was there as Mugen, but I didn't spot him), and a guy cosplaying Luffy from One Piece. Damn, Luffy would have been cold, wearing nothingbut shorts, a vest, thongs and the straw hat. I saw some guy cosplaying Athrun, complete with bright blue wig (I hope it was a wig) and ZAFT red-coat uniform, as well as some Asian dude cosplaying I think Shinn - I didn't get to see the front of his uniform to see whether he had the top lapel open like Shinn does.
Cosplay photos:
A random School Rumble girl: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/SRgirl.jpg
A trio of cute girls dressed up in maid costumes: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/Maidgirls.jpg
One of the maid girls by herself:
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/Gothloli.jpg
A girl dressed as Yuna from FFX-2, in Gunner dress-sphere mode: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/Yunagirl.jpg
As well as the cosplayers and the anime (all in Japanese, thankfully - no sign of crappy English dubs there, always a good sign), they had some interesting things, like game tournaments, and various panels. I went to a rather entertaining panel called Iron Artist, which, obviously, is a parody of Iron Chef. The rules are simple - you have half an hour, one concept and three key words which are randomly selected, to draw a picture.
The words were "Homoeroticisim," (prompting remarks of the various Gundam boys from Gundam Wing being together - such as Heero x Duo ... shudder), "Happy" and "Mecha." There wer five contenders, each given a colour as is the proper thing for a sentai team (like Power Rangers) - we had red, blue, yellow, pink, green and yellow Iron Artists. This was presided over by a couple of guys, one who was a commentator, and another dressed up as a ninja, called the Cursed Ninja. He pretended he was Sub Zero at times, and made various cutting comments about the artists' drawings. Some of the resulting drawings were rather entertaining. One involved Naruto and Kakashi ... well, I imagine anyone who's watched enough Naruto knows about the One Thousand Years of Pain.
While we were waiting, they got people from the audience to be a 2-minute Iron Artist, including this guy wearing black that the commentator and the Cursed Ninja teased, calling him an "emo kid," and this rather cute girl in some sort of goth loli cosplay outfit.
The Cursed Ninja stole the cap from the guy on the far right in the grey trenchcoat (that's right, the one next to the Jack Sparrow lookalike), and pretended he was a Communist ninja.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/IronArtist-1.jpg
The 2-minute Iron Artist challenge with the goth loli girl (she got Schoolgirl as a key word to draw):
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/IronArtist03-1.jpg
One of the other ups that I had at the convention were meeting my friends from Shintokyo at the Shintokyo stand - plenty of looking around, chatting with them, and so on. I got a real kick out of the fact that one of the guys told me I was the most fanatical Gundam fan who came to their store. I even joked I should get a badge - "Shintokyo no ichiban Gundam fan" (Shintokyo's #1 Gundam fan).
I'd go again next year - this time with more people! And then I can run around and spout random Japanese at people, because I'll be proficient enough in the language for that then ^_^
It's a pity that I couldn't get any of my otaku friends to come along, as I'm sure they would have enjoyed it. I was going to go with one (we had even agreed to it months before), but he's gotten heavily into WoW in that time and didn't want to disrupt his raid schedule. I respect his wishes, and more power to him for that, but it was still a bit of a pity, as I think he would have enjoyed it a lot. If you're reading this, you know who you are.
Not letting that get me down, I still went with a friend, and had a great time.
I had plenty of fun, despite the drizzle and the rain - lots of good quality anime being shown in the various cinemas at the con, like Initial D 4th Stage (although it was 2 years old), Fate/Stay Night, Keroro Gunsou, Tsubasa Chronicle, the two Mai HiMEs, HiME and Otome.
A note in advance - my digital camera was running low on batteries when I went (and I had forgotten to buy more), so some of the photos came out weird.
AvCon Hooo!!! Me trying to pose like Hard Gay Razor Ramon:
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/AvconHooo.jpg
The theme this year was Pirates vs Ninjas, and there were quite a few of those around. Cosplayers turned out in force for the con, and although I didn't see too many absolute cuties like they have in Hong Kong or Tokyo, there were still some pretty nice girls. I saw plenty of maids, one girl in a rather short kimono dressed up as Fuu from Samurai Champloo (apparently her boyfriend or something was there as Mugen, but I didn't spot him), and a guy cosplaying Luffy from One Piece. Damn, Luffy would have been cold, wearing nothingbut shorts, a vest, thongs and the straw hat. I saw some guy cosplaying Athrun, complete with bright blue wig (I hope it was a wig) and ZAFT red-coat uniform, as well as some Asian dude cosplaying I think Shinn - I didn't get to see the front of his uniform to see whether he had the top lapel open like Shinn does.
Cosplay photos:
A random School Rumble girl: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/SRgirl.jpg
A trio of cute girls dressed up in maid costumes: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/Maidgirls.jpg
One of the maid girls by herself:
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/Gothloli.jpg
A girl dressed as Yuna from FFX-2, in Gunner dress-sphere mode: http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/Yunagirl.jpg
As well as the cosplayers and the anime (all in Japanese, thankfully - no sign of crappy English dubs there, always a good sign), they had some interesting things, like game tournaments, and various panels. I went to a rather entertaining panel called Iron Artist, which, obviously, is a parody of Iron Chef. The rules are simple - you have half an hour, one concept and three key words which are randomly selected, to draw a picture.
The words were "Homoeroticisim," (prompting remarks of the various Gundam boys from Gundam Wing being together - such as Heero x Duo ... shudder), "Happy" and "Mecha." There wer five contenders, each given a colour as is the proper thing for a sentai team (like Power Rangers) - we had red, blue, yellow, pink, green and yellow Iron Artists. This was presided over by a couple of guys, one who was a commentator, and another dressed up as a ninja, called the Cursed Ninja. He pretended he was Sub Zero at times, and made various cutting comments about the artists' drawings. Some of the resulting drawings were rather entertaining. One involved Naruto and Kakashi ... well, I imagine anyone who's watched enough Naruto knows about the One Thousand Years of Pain.
While we were waiting, they got people from the audience to be a 2-minute Iron Artist, including this guy wearing black that the commentator and the Cursed Ninja teased, calling him an "emo kid," and this rather cute girl in some sort of goth loli cosplay outfit.
The Cursed Ninja stole the cap from the guy on the far right in the grey trenchcoat (that's right, the one next to the Jack Sparrow lookalike), and pretended he was a Communist ninja.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/IronArtist-1.jpg
The 2-minute Iron Artist challenge with the goth loli girl (she got Schoolgirl as a key word to draw):
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f327/nightbringer360/Photos/IronArtist03-1.jpg
One of the other ups that I had at the convention were meeting my friends from Shintokyo at the Shintokyo stand - plenty of looking around, chatting with them, and so on. I got a real kick out of the fact that one of the guys told me I was the most fanatical Gundam fan who came to their store. I even joked I should get a badge - "Shintokyo no ichiban Gundam fan" (Shintokyo's #1 Gundam fan).
I'd go again next year - this time with more people! And then I can run around and spout random Japanese at people, because I'll be proficient enough in the language for that then ^_^
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Work, work
Well, my exams finished today last week ... and I was free. Or so I thought.
I believed I was free to do whatever I wanted to do (within reason - I'm not going to become an arsonist simply because I don't have to study for nine months), and had even planned out parts of my first few weeks of freedom. They were quite complex plans:
Thursday 29th - Sleep in, play World of Warcraft, work at night
Friday 30th - Go to work from 9-5, go out with cousins from interstate at night
Saturday 1st - Work 9-2, go to friend's house, bum around, go to another friend's BBQ, then go clubbing
Sunday - Lazy day in
Monday - Work, then go to the gym after work
Tuesday - Work, go home @ 4, play, sleep
Wednesday - Work, go home @ 4, go to gym, cook dinner, play, sleep
Somehow, things went pear-shaped.
Thursday and Friday went by nicely enough, particularly Friday night.
One of my cousins on my mum's side was in from interstate (Victoria, Melbourne, of all places!) for a few days, and not having seen her in a year and a half (along with another cousin I don't keep in contact with much), I decided to party. We went out for karaoke, along with some other cousins on my dad's side - including my boss (she works under my dad), making reservations at a well-known karaoke place on Hindley street. We get there at the appointed time, and what do you know - you need ID to get in. My long-lost cousins didn't have ID, so we ended up cruising Hindley street for another karaoke place - about five to six hundred metres down the street.
We sing there, have lots of fun (one was when we did Love Shack, and I somehow managed to spank my boss), and gross out people by singing love songs at the other guys. The best one though, was for some reason the Backstreet Boys songs we sang (Everybody and As Long As You Love Me), being old school songs that I remember knowing waay back in year 6. Others included scaring family with how high my voice can go while singing the Bee Gees' "Staying Alive," and trying to do the YMCA while making an ass of myself.
We went to that pancake house off a side street of Hindley street after - loads of fun. The night ended with me taking the long-lost cousins back to their place, in Parafield Gardens. Walking to the carpark, I play games with them, seeing who could stuff a napkin down the other's back the best, and generally acting like a horny git - acting like they were the guy and I was the girl. The scary thing is that I'm more silly when I'm sober and it seems less when I'm drunk - at least that's what I've observed.
I end up getting lost trying in Parafield Gardens during the stormy night after dropping them off, driving around aimlessly for about 15 minutes before I find myself back near Tea Tree Plaza. Good thing too, I was scared that I'd spend the night lost in the hills of Parafield Gardens.
Saturday came and went - people wanted DVDs of stuff from me, so I ended up bounding out of the house to my car in the morning and back in because I forgot the DVDs. Having no time to hunt out cases to store them in, I just stuffed the whole folders into my car boot (the aforementioned spanked boss wanted House seasons 1 and 2 from me, and a friend wanted some DVDs of his returned).
I get ready for the friend's BBQ, and then find out enroute that it was Friday night, not Saturday night. Looks like Lean Cuisine for dinner, and then a bit of me-time before I headed off to Soul Bar.
Not too much happened, although I did meet a couple of cute Japanese girls who were studying at Adelaide Uni.
A note here - the shop I work at is going through a shop refit, so the whole place is (as of this blog) a big mess, so I pretty much spent most of the day at work each day shifting things - be it glass panels, boxes of stock, or mounting brackets - from one area to another.
Tuesday - I wake up, it's 9:55am, and my shift starts in five minutes. It's a half hour drive to West Lakes. You can do the math. Somehow, to punish me for being a half hour late, I have to stay until closing time - an extra hour. The boss claims she needs me here, but towards closing time, I spend more time hovering around the dispensary looking for work to do or waiting for her to finish with the computer so I can jump on and surf the internet.
Wednesday (today) - more of the same, it seems - shifting stuff around, serving people, generally being the hired labour and shifting things about. Ugh, somehow, moving all that glass today makes me feel like I've been working out at the gym - that combined with having to shift heavy-as boxes of brackets around.
Here's to keeping my sanity intact as I work the rest of the week up to Sunday. It should be all nice from here - no more 6+ hour shifts.
I believed I was free to do whatever I wanted to do (within reason - I'm not going to become an arsonist simply because I don't have to study for nine months), and had even planned out parts of my first few weeks of freedom. They were quite complex plans:
Thursday 29th - Sleep in, play World of Warcraft, work at night
Friday 30th - Go to work from 9-5, go out with cousins from interstate at night
Saturday 1st - Work 9-2, go to friend's house, bum around, go to another friend's BBQ, then go clubbing
Sunday - Lazy day in
Monday - Work, then go to the gym after work
Tuesday - Work, go home @ 4, play, sleep
Wednesday - Work, go home @ 4, go to gym, cook dinner, play, sleep
Somehow, things went pear-shaped.
Thursday and Friday went by nicely enough, particularly Friday night.
One of my cousins on my mum's side was in from interstate (Victoria, Melbourne, of all places!) for a few days, and not having seen her in a year and a half (along with another cousin I don't keep in contact with much), I decided to party. We went out for karaoke, along with some other cousins on my dad's side - including my boss (she works under my dad), making reservations at a well-known karaoke place on Hindley street. We get there at the appointed time, and what do you know - you need ID to get in. My long-lost cousins didn't have ID, so we ended up cruising Hindley street for another karaoke place - about five to six hundred metres down the street.
We sing there, have lots of fun (one was when we did Love Shack, and I somehow managed to spank my boss), and gross out people by singing love songs at the other guys. The best one though, was for some reason the Backstreet Boys songs we sang (Everybody and As Long As You Love Me), being old school songs that I remember knowing waay back in year 6. Others included scaring family with how high my voice can go while singing the Bee Gees' "Staying Alive," and trying to do the YMCA while making an ass of myself.
We went to that pancake house off a side street of Hindley street after - loads of fun. The night ended with me taking the long-lost cousins back to their place, in Parafield Gardens. Walking to the carpark, I play games with them, seeing who could stuff a napkin down the other's back the best, and generally acting like a horny git - acting like they were the guy and I was the girl. The scary thing is that I'm more silly when I'm sober and it seems less when I'm drunk - at least that's what I've observed.
I end up getting lost trying in Parafield Gardens during the stormy night after dropping them off, driving around aimlessly for about 15 minutes before I find myself back near Tea Tree Plaza. Good thing too, I was scared that I'd spend the night lost in the hills of Parafield Gardens.
Saturday came and went - people wanted DVDs of stuff from me, so I ended up bounding out of the house to my car in the morning and back in because I forgot the DVDs. Having no time to hunt out cases to store them in, I just stuffed the whole folders into my car boot (the aforementioned spanked boss wanted House seasons 1 and 2 from me, and a friend wanted some DVDs of his returned).
I get ready for the friend's BBQ, and then find out enroute that it was Friday night, not Saturday night. Looks like Lean Cuisine for dinner, and then a bit of me-time before I headed off to Soul Bar.
Not too much happened, although I did meet a couple of cute Japanese girls who were studying at Adelaide Uni.
A note here - the shop I work at is going through a shop refit, so the whole place is (as of this blog) a big mess, so I pretty much spent most of the day at work each day shifting things - be it glass panels, boxes of stock, or mounting brackets - from one area to another.
Tuesday - I wake up, it's 9:55am, and my shift starts in five minutes. It's a half hour drive to West Lakes. You can do the math. Somehow, to punish me for being a half hour late, I have to stay until closing time - an extra hour. The boss claims she needs me here, but towards closing time, I spend more time hovering around the dispensary looking for work to do or waiting for her to finish with the computer so I can jump on and surf the internet.
Wednesday (today) - more of the same, it seems - shifting stuff around, serving people, generally being the hired labour and shifting things about. Ugh, somehow, moving all that glass today makes me feel like I've been working out at the gym - that combined with having to shift heavy-as boxes of brackets around.
Here's to keeping my sanity intact as I work the rest of the week up to Sunday. It should be all nice from here - no more 6+ hour shifts.
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