Flat White War

Gosh, would you believe it almost everyone in the cafe ordered flat whites. Being the cheap uni cafe it is they just call out what the drink is and you go up and claim it. So there I was, reading old magazines (I was bored. It was there) when they called out large flat white. I looked, and another girl was reaching for it already. Fine, back to reading. Then it's large flat white again... no one moved, I went in. Sweet! Got my caffeine. Then it's ANOTHER large flat white and to my horror I realise I got someone else's flat white (I don't recall anyone else ordered flat white after me...) who happened to be head of research in the department. D'oh. Mind you he's a nice chap. I still kick myself sometimes about not taking up his offer to be my supervisor when I was doing my master. (I'd have to go to the dark side and do my master in software though. Eww! Java! Not that I can talk now that I'm working entirely in Matlab. Java would be nice.) Gosh I hope he didn't recognise me. It's a Monday. Dark circles under my eyes looks bad enough that I might be mistaken as a goth. Yeah. Let's hope he didn't recognise me. (not bloody likely...)

I hate Mondays... but at least I have SOME idea what to do for my project now... *yawn* need more caffeine.

Idle Day Dream...

It's a Monday and my brain still hasn't started. I found myself day dreaming all sort of random stuff that I can't quite get rid of. So I'll just jot all this down and get back to work.

• By end of this month, I really should be finishing my research.
• Need to take a week off for painting and stuff. Possibly do a few big ones for the fair again. Who knows, maybe I can sell something.
• Oh yeah, planning the wedding.
• Guitar Hero 3 is coming out on the Wii soon! Can't wait can't wait.
• Okay just because the wedding is coming up, we'll only get one controller *grumble*
• I shall make it my goal to make to PAX in the next 10 years.
  
• Probably when we can take a month off to tour around the States.
• We probably will be eating take away tonight huh.
• I wonder what I'm about to do for my research is considered "hacking"
• Gosh I'm so full... that steak and cheese pie was gooooood
• I'll start my diet tomorrow.

On that uber positive note, I shall get back to work...

Err.. right.. this blog thing...

Yeah I know. I've kinda neglecting this blog thing.

Nothing much happened at all. Research is crawling slowly, and I haven't done much at all besides research these days. Tired? Why yes. I have a million ideas brewing at the back of my head and I can't do jack all about it until I can hand in my thesis. Although I'm thinking that I might take a week off in October, just to chill and paint and whatnot.

In other news, I found a sport of sorts that I actually enjoy doing. I'm recently taken up rock climbing. I think it just appeal more to me because it's not really competitive, and there's a puzzle to be solved.

My addictive personality has surfaced again and currently I'm addicted to Facebook. That might also explain why I haven't updated my blog for a while. After a while I'll probably get bored of it in a few months' time.

Oh, and I finally found Twilight Watch in the edition that I want. I'm happy now. :) Just hope that they will actually release Final Watch too. The book cover keep referring to the series as a "trilogy". Bah. Whatever.

Nintendo annoucement at E3: as preceived by a "casual gamer"

Right, let's face it: I'm a casual gamer who happens to also be a Nintendo fangirl.

I mean, I ACTUALLY wanted Cooking Mama for my Wii. (Well, until I saw the review, which pretty much say if I have the DS version, I shouldn't bother.)

So, after seeing the guys at 1up.com bitching about Nintendo's annoucement at E3, I feel like I have a duty to speak out as a casual gamer.

Firstly, you guys get your Smash Brothers Brawl and Metroid Prime 3. Be glad, be happy! Just because you guys already knew about it doesn't mean you guys don't want it. Let's face it, once it's out, you'll be in line to get one.

Now: WiiFit, Check Mii Out channel, and the word/life coach on DS. Right. They're nothing new and frankly if Nintendo is really hoping to get into the casual gamer market, they need it. You guys were the ones who were all excited about the new wiimote, and how it's going to revolutionise gaming. And now that it has you're bitching about it. Seriously: Sony has their Eye Toy fitness training thing ages ago, as well as a martial art training one (which is really really cool... anyway, Nintendo). After WiiSport, the WiiFit is the natural next step.

From a marketing point of view, what Nintendo is doing is logical, admittedly slightly risky. Nintendo's strategy for this round of the console war has been going pretty well. Let PS3 and 360 battle out with the traditional gamers, while Nintendo will go explore the untapped market of the traditionally non-gamer demographics: like the teenage girls and the baby boomers, and all the while hook the kids on Nintendo while they're young. And it's not like they've abandoned all your "hard core" gamers: there are still Zelda, Mario, Metroid Prime, etc etc. Just because gaming stopped being an exclusive club doesn't mean it's a BAD thing.

Come on: my mum wants a Wii. It's gotta be doing SOMETHING right. I for one am happy Nintendo won this round.

I'm trying to save for Elebits and WiiFit now...

P.S.: For those who cares: the lack of updates usually means I'm stuck in my research. I WILL get over it and I WILL solve a big chunk of the problem before end of this month. Watch me. Sick of my project tormenting me like that now.

Jitterbug

Nick has ever so kindly offered us free Ceroc lessons (I'm too cheap to pay, and Pete doesn't really want to commit to a weekly thign, even though you can pick which night to go... ANYWAY) To be honest after the wedding and when I actually have this thing called income I really won't mind picking that up as a hobby.

Okay so I did hurt my shoulder (I injure myself A LOT, in case you haven't notice), but it's still fun.

In other news, research is going alright for once. 3 months is all I'm giving myself to finish the research side of things... so I probably will be AWOL from the blog for a while again to try to push myself (I figure I have about the same amount of time I did when I was in St Louis.)

That is all. Nothing to see here. Move along now.

One of those days...

I was going to work on merging the company's classfier with my own to see what would happen or if anything interesting will turn up... and I left my keys, which has my USB pen drive attached, at home. What's on my USB drive you might ask? Why it's the said classifer from the company. D'oh.

Not to mention that means the key for my laptop lock is also at home. Unfortunately I found that out AFTER I locked my laptop in... *sigh*

So err... interesting work today, reading about clustering and trying to hack the toolkit to show what I want it to show. Not a bad day after all though.

If it's not for my hayfever making it a pain just to breath.

I'll get over it. *sigh*

Now that I think about it...

These few weeks had been kinda weird. Had a really bad bug and then I had to force myself into thinking positively just to make sure I can actually pull myself out of it. Now that I have... my progress is slowed again. How typical is that?

Anyway, today I'll post a few things that I thought about in my (very VERY little) spare time and got confused about in the past week:

TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Seriously: WTF? I know that as a kid I thought they were cool too but can you imagine what the creative process must be like?

"Hmm. Turtles! Except it's humanoid turtles... who are ninjas! Yes! Ninjas! Everyone love ninjas. And mutants too. Like the X-Men. And we need a giant rat. Oh oh and pizza. Hmm... pizza...."

I can even understand why they came up with Aquaman. TMNT is just... WTF?

Having said that, they're still cool. Unlike...

Paris Hilton: The Vicious Cycle

Why on WHY are people paying so much attention to her? And THEN I realise it's vicious cycle: people talk about her, then people talking about why we're still talking about her, then people talk about how complaining that we're talking about her is STILL talking about her... and there, I just contributed to the whole vicious cycle.

Sometimes I still don't know why we pay so much attention to celebrities.

Dogs... err... "toys"

Come across this goodie the other day. I don't even what to ask about its creative process...

McDonalds Subliminal Ad



What I don't get is that why McDonalds even need subliminal advertising: Look, it's the biggest fast food chain on the planet. I can't even drive anywhere in Auckland without seeing at least 5 of their logos somewhere. If THAT doesn't get registered somewhere in people's subconscious I don't know what would. Why even risk looking bad and put that one frame there? Really: why?

This ends this week of rant. I'm also freezing cold at the moment. Hopefully next week I can also report on how far I've gone with my result. I won't hold my breath if I were you.