Wishlist...

I'm going to submit my final report for my funding soon, which means I get 3 years worth of my holiday pay soon. (Yay!) Pete agreed I can buy ONE Wii game (I know. ONE?!) So below is my wish list... I just need to make my decision sometimes...

Guitar Hero III: Legend of Rock (link)

Pros: THE music game on Wii at the moment. Cool guitar controller. And I get to pretend to play the guitar properly.

Cons: Can you say "expensive"? Songs selection isn't exactly fantastic either.

Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (link)

Pros: BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! (Oh, and it's a great party game)

Cons: Maybe too similar to the first game?

Elebits (link)

Pros: The "Katamari" of Wii games. Prices might have came down a bit by now too, one would hope.

Cons: This

Tomb Raider: Anniversary (link)

Pros: Improved game play, cool fighting control. And it's Lara Croft.

Cons: I might get motion sickness. :(

And there you have it, my wish list. As an aside, Okami is coming out of the Wii. Very exciting indeed. Hopefully by the time we get it in NZ I have a proper income again.

P.S.: Rabbids 2 is winning at the moment, but I'm still tempted by the other three options really...

sudo finish thesis

I got my inspiration from this:


xkcd is FAAAAN-tastic.

Anyway, after much pissing off and whatnot, I've figured out the main problem of my thesis, being that I'm trying to solve the clinical AND engineering problem at the same time. Solution would be to be slightly so selfish and so something on the engineering side to solve something that the clinician already knows, and build a classifier from there. I don't know if it'd work, but we shall see eh? Been trying to get various thing to work on my desktop (which runs Ubuntu and Octave, not Matlab), and surprisingly I found out I missed fiddling with code and stuff. I guess I really have been working on Matlab for too long.

In other news, Jon Stewart is away AGAIN this week. I hate September. I don't get Jon. :(

Right, back to hacking Octave. :)

Time Loop

I was reading my old blog (believe me it's actually the best time waster) and reading this entry... in particular about how I'll stop dwelling in the past and come back to "2004" and listen to Dark of Matinee again... and I was reading that while Dark of Matinee was playing. It's surreal.

I've been really frustrated with my research lately. Gosh the stupid f*cking theory won't work and that means I pretty much have to go back to square one. I thought I'll read the beginning on my blog to remind myself how far I've came along. And then, I realise I'm still listening to the same f*cking song as I was 3 years ago.

More ironic than having 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife. Heh.

Anyway.

You would've thought being depressed about your PhD will end around 3rd year seeing that I should be used to being stuck in the middle of nowhere. Nope. Far from it.

I swear after my PhD I shall take at least a month off. They better still have that completion award when I'm done so I CAN afford that month. I just need to actually finish the f*cking thesis.


P.S.: Excuse the language. In case you haven't notice I'm frustrated and pissed off at myself.

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.