Vista Fraggers

Remember a couple months ago when I went on and on about my mail-order gaming mouse? Well, when I got my Logitech MX310 I had to tweak my driver files (read: overclock my mouse) before I could take full advantage of the mouse’s abilities. Ever since I migrated to Vista, I’ve never gotten too much into the FPS games since my mouse ran at the average polling rate of ~125 Hz which just doesn’t cut it when I’m trying to blow a baddy’s head off with a 50 caliber sniper rifle.
Up until today, my searches for a way to overclock my USB ports on Vista turned up nothing. I don’t know whether it was my searching or people not having invented some way of doing it yet. Anyway, long story short, for all those fragging on Vista, check out this thread (you need to register on Overclock3d.net to download the zip file) to overclock your own ports for better and smoother fragging all around. I am now happily chugging along at ~450 Hz.
In related news, Battlefield 2142 is fun. It was fun even when I could hardly aim but now that I’ve got almost 4x the sniping power, well, it’s great fun and I’d suggest it to anyone with even a half-decent machine to give it a go. I just can’t wait until Gears of War comes out for PC. Curbstomping and chainsawing can never be a bad combination.

Homecoming

It’s almost been two weeks (actually exactly two weeks including today) since Moyee and Herman (and the rest of the STM @ Longlac Team) left meaning that they will be momentarily home if my calculations are correct. I can’t wait until they get back because then I can book Moyee for some day to go have lunch.
Speaking of food, I’m about to head downtown with a couple friends to get stuff and eat. We decided to “just hang out” but I’ve also got to check out Coast Mountain Sports for a nice water bottle and take them to Burrito Boyz (yeah, the place is actually named with a zedzorz). I’ve been sans water bottle (and burrito too) for the past many months and it’s about time my old one got replaced.
I’ve gone through a few in my time but my last one was definitely my favourite one (so far). I got it at TC two years back, oddly enough. I think I downed all the water and then, because my backpack’s bottle pocket is shallow (funny/plug line: “There’s more to you than meets the eye…” – Sam, Transformers the Movie) it fell out. Being empty, I didn’t feel the tiny difference and thanks to my ear buds I didn’t hear it fall either (“Oh when she breaks your bottle falls down and makes a sound you’ll never hear her your damn bottle falling and making a sound!” – Howie Day, She Says). Oh well, it’s not a big loss. There will always be other bottles… but not many TC bottles. Sigh. I’m hopeful in the slimness and curves of Nalgenes to more than make up for the minor loss. Photos to come if I’m successful in my search.

Kinetic Auto Re-P-lay

A while ago (it’s been at least a year I think) my Seiko Kinetic Auto Relay wristwatch died for no reason. This was a gift from my dear uncle Keith (my mother’s younger brother) and I’d never worn it when I was smaller for fear of breaking or losing the watch. Someone told me (I can’t remember if it was my father or my uncle himself) that the watch was very expensive. Anyway, it broke (as in stopped ticking) for no reason one day and I hadn’t gotten it fixed. Today, my dad came home after forking out $40 for repair fees with a ticking and reanimated Seiko. It’s now firmly attached to my wrist again.
It’s surprising how many of my favourite and dearest possessions actually belonged to other people before. For example, there’s my little bouncy blue ball which used to be Herman’s. Then there’s my green pencil case that used to be Keith’s. My old school clear plastic ruler used to be my mother’s and my Sony digital camera used to be my father’s. Even random items like my umbrella of choice was, incidentally, my uncle’s from HK. I’d say most of my stuff (including my PSX, the first gaming console I really played) belonged at one point to my uncle or some other person before. So here’s me saying, thanks family and friends, for letting me have your stuff.

Rumor Busted: Silver PSP Exists

Everybody, come hither and bask in the light of the little mentioned but oh so stunning Silver PSP. I mentioned spotting this thing a while back but I had never gotten a chance to see it again/find it again since then until today. My parents happen to be out of the house at the moment so I got to take a few sneaky shots of it without anyone knowing. My dad is a sneaky one, what can I say. I didn’t even know they made them in silver… It’s too bad there’s already word of a PSP 2/Slim coming out…
On a PSP related note, I am still considering whether or not I should custom firmware my PSP… I’m wary of writing over the flash memory of it since I might brick my PSP (“brick” means to freeze up the PSP and turn it into, well, a brick). I also happen to own the games I play so I don’t have any real motivation to go ahead and get a homebrew firmware. It would be nice to have PDF reader on it though…

Life’s Edge

Is the tentative title for the culminating movie project of my group (tentatively named Pointy Hat Grp./Ltd./Wtf.). It’s a story that revolves around two brothers, one older and essentially the generic blessed and admired older sibling and the other one who is younger and conventionally jealous of the older brother’s success and good reputation.
One summer day, after some harmless sparring in the park (both brother conveniently happen to be martial artists, go figure), the older brother (played by Darren Guo, superstar in queue) suggests that they go for food together. The younger brother (Henry Leung, my doubles partner) brings them to a restaurant he heard about from a friend nearby.
Upon exiting the shady cafe, the two brothers happen upon two mobsters (played by my good friends Kishon M. and Jonathan L.)headed the opposite direction. Some short bursts of dialog follow ending in the older brother fending off the two mobsters and a third one in hiding (played by Alex K.) with a sledgehammer while the younger brother makes a run for it. He is soon gunned down just as the older brother is beaten unconscious.
From here, it only gets better, but you’ll have to wait until the final product is out (via Alex K.’s editing). To say the least, there’s a lot of revenge and sword busting-out-ing.
I received a (pardon my French) fucking cool gift today from a school friend as a way early birthday present. Amy happened to be at Anime North, an anime convention of epic proportions I’m told, and I had originally asked our friend, Queenie, to pick up something in my stead for ~$20. Neither found anything totally awesome on the first day (past Saturday) of AN. On Sunday, however, Amy had to make a judgment call. Either get for me a bookmark with Fuu (from “Samurai Champloo”) on it, a huge pin-up poster of Haruhi (from “the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”), or a mystery gift. The bookmark, she said, was too girly, even for my tastes. And she feared what I might do to the life-sized Haruhi poster, so she ended up buying a wooden sword for me because it was expected that I’d appreciate something so (pardon my French again) fucking cool. She was totally right.
Here are the pics (click for a larger view):

The sword has some pretty sweet detailing etched into it’s smooth black finish (it’s wooden, remember?). Click here for a video groping of it.

Note: If you’re wondering why, the sword came originally wrapped in gift wrap paper and then plastic cling wrap under to prevent scratching. I didn’t wrap it in a huge latex–nevermind.

Disturbingly Cool

I’ve had a PSP for awhile now. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them that my dad was the one to want it first–I just have fun with it whenever he’s not using it–but it’s true.
Having played with it on and off for many months now, I think I can give a pretty good summary of the sweet package. My PSP is a white one which hails from Hong Kong. Before you write it off as a fake, I assure that it’s the real deal. It’s made in Japan and thus, has a Sharp screen (as opposed to the Samsung screens used in models made in China–that is, the ones available state-side). I remember it cost my dad about $150 CDN when he bought it a month or so after it was released here in NA.
My favourite part about the PSP is its screen. The screen’s beautiful. It’s sleek, wide where it counts, and views beautifully even from the side (I’m still talking about the screen you pervs). I remember having brought it to some event night at church and watching Advent Children on it while almost four children crowded around to join me. Everyone go a piece and no one go the dreaded side-glare that some devices (like the backlit GBA SP) give off. And all this is important, especially if you don’t buy into Nintendo’s BS that graphics don’t matter, and if you plan on watching movies off your PSP. Really, if I’m going to shoot a zombie’s head off, I want to see ALL the splatter effects you can conjure up.
Anyway, without going into any more detail, here are a few pics of my baby running Tekken and her pretty backside.


For the more… gadgetsexual ones out there, here’s a pretty interesting picture I found on Kotaku the other day. I’ve been dying for a chance to post this.
NOTE: I think today I accidentally stumbled upon a second (that’s right, a second) PSP in my dad’s room. That’s just like him to go buying electronics without anyone else knowing (I’m sure my mother would go nuts if she found out… He pulled this same stunt with GBA SPs too, which explains why I have two). But get this: this fabled second PSP is neither black nor white, it’s silver. I’ll sneak some shots of it the next time both my mom and dad are out. >_O

My New Kicks

Today was a momentous day. It marks my purchase of yet another pair of apparel for my troublesome feet. I’m sure I’ve posted before about playing badminton at school (and now at Joshua’s club as well). Seeing as how my interest in the sport has only increased (in spite of my not getting along with my school coach) and how my feet are constantly getting owned from playing in a pair of Head tennis shoes, I decided a long time ago that I would be buying a pair of badminton shoes. This marks my fourth investment in sports equipment (the first was my beloved Carbonex racket, the second was a change of grips, and the third was my tuition fee at the IBC).

The comfy kicks:

The light stick: