So, here’s the saddest irony in the world.

I have in my hands a full-build copy of Grand Theft Auto IV, five days before official release.

But I have no time to play it.

And not just for one reason. Not even two reasons. But three reasons.

1. I have so much work to do I don’t even have enough time to sleep. I hardly even have time to blog, missing a day yesterday and almost missing today.
2. Our projector has just been sold so we have no TV right now. (Our new plasma TV will be delivered to our new place on Saturday.)
3. Our Xbox 360 (together with half our stuff) is now sitting in our new home. We just haven’t officially moved in.

So…

I HAVE THE MOST HAPPENING HYPED UP GAME IN THE WHOLE WORLD BUT NO TV AND NO CONSOLE TO PLAY IT ON!

Talk about agony.

I can’t play till official moving day on Saturday. And even then, I’ll be busy unpacking and setting up all my Internet and gaming connections all day.

So I decided to play a little at the office before going home.

I’m horrible at console games, I’ve decided. The controller has too many buttons and toggles and they are not all nicely labelled like keys on the keyboard.

I couldn’t get Niko Bellic to run properly. I couldn’t shoot the damn gun so I had to suffer this dumb NPC continuously stabbing me in the face. I couldn’t run down the stairs properly, so I got Swordplay to help me get out of the damn building and jump into a car so I could put my driving skills to the test.

He got Niko into a car for me, and the first thing I did when I took over the controller was to make Niko get out of the car again.

What. I was stress testing the car doors okay. You guys ever see the stress test machines at Ikea, where they have the machines open and close closet doors 200 million times a day?

Fine. GTA IV is totally, like, wasted on me.

Hehe.

But I swear I will master console gaming if its the last thing I do. Once I have time to start playing games again, that is.

But someone has to first tell my new boss that he’s working me too hard.

Oh, wait. My boss reads my blog.

OMG.

Hi, boss! =)

Nothing to see here! Kthxbye.

Categories: Gaming Notebook
20 Comments »

I’m actually too busy to blog today. Between moving house and my new editorial work and entertaining the Goonfather’s rubbish, I’m lucky I even have time to have nightmares.

But I don’t want people to get upset if I miss a day blogging, thinking that I’ve been abducted by aliens or something equally nuts. So, here’s a quickie!

Once in a while, when I’m stressed out, I get what I call epic nightmares. These involve a drama or adventure that play through my entire sleep and have themes of death and violence.

Like, there was this time I dreamt about being trapped in a haunted house with my friends. It took us forever to escape and we encountered endless horrible things in the process.

Or this other one about an ex-boyfriend trying to kill me so I had to kill him back but no matter how much I slashed at him, he refused to die.

Last night/this morning, my nightmare was about witnessing a group murder in broad daylight, in full view of hundreds of people, after which a revenge took place involving the attempted murder of the original murders’ instigator, after which I was made to witness gory interrogation sessions, during which I cried and cried to the point of exhaustion because I couldn’t stand seeing people get hurt, after which I became some kind of special agent sent to investigate the crimes.

The dream gripped me so tightly that I didn’t wake up until past 2 pm.

I had gone to bed around 4 am and set my alarm for 10 am. But when my alarm rang, I was so deep in the dream that I didn’t hear the snoozes till 11 am, and then I was so groggy and spaced out that I turned the alarm off and continued sleeping/dreaming.

I hate when this happens.

I’ll bet if I were still 16, my parents would ban me from playing video games. Haha. (But it’s not the games lah. I haven’t played a violent game in ages.)

Do you get epic nightmares, too?

Categories: Regular Blogs
10 Comments »

I was in the car when I saw this. It gave me a surreal double-take moment but I recovered fast enough and proceeded to get the Goonfather’s attention by jabbing his left arm violently.

“Look, look!! Quick! What are they carrying??!!” I exclaimed excitedly.

And then I whipped out my camera like the obssessed blogger that I pretend not to be.

It’s hard to tell for sure what those things are. Even in close-up.

I don’t know. Are these girls crazy, or weird, or cute? Why don’t you tell me.

Anyway, I’m jealous that there weren’t cool stuff like that when I was in school. Not fair. I want to be born 100 years later. (Or maybe not.)

I wonder if the school bag plushie things are part of the school uniform. If they are, I’m sending my future (hypothetical) kid to that school.

Great. I just succeeded in making myself sound old.

Categories: Regular Blogs
29 Comments »

I recently signed up for this service called Google Alerts, which sends me the latest results of my specified search terms.

I’ve set it up so I get an e-mail when a site links to sheylara.com. It’s not 100% because I know some sites linked to me recently and I didn’t get an alert. But that’s alright because it’s just for fun.

Well, this morning, I went digging into my Gmail spam folder to find errant e-mails. Once in a while, legit e-mails get caught by the spam filter and that’s when you tell your friends to be more personable and stop writing like spam bots.

And this is what I saw in my spam folder.

See the Google Alerts e-mail in there? Hahaha! Google filters itself as spam! Hahaha! Great wtf moment here.

But I guess we can also take that as a sign of Google’s professionalism and credibility. Still funny, though.

Side note: Check out the link on top of the spam folder.

French Fry Spam Casserole! ROFL. One of the funnier instances of targeted marketing. I wonder what this guy will think if he knows that his ads are appearing in someone’s spam folder which is filled with disgusting junk selling services of a questionable nature.

I wish men would stop buying these online services to lengthen themselves or whatever. You are the cause of the endless flood of spam we’re getting every day!!! YOU don’t get your e-mail folder spammed by retailers selling you boob jobs and anti-aging facial creams or whatever, so I don’t see why I have to get spammed by rubbish websites trying to sell me lengthening meat-increasing gizmos which I don’t need!!!

Yes. I blame the consumers, not the retailers.

It gives me an indication of the number of desperate men out there.

Please, stop.

I’ve veered off topic but, actually, I have no particular topic. It’s a Sunday! And I’m going to play Rock Band later! =)

Have a great whatever’s left of your Sunday!

Categories: Regular Blogs
11 Comments »

Telemarketer: Hello, I’m calling from XYZ photo studio.

The Goonfather: Yes?

Telemarketer: I’m very happy to announce that you’ve been specially selected to come for a photoshoot. We will give you two photos, valued at $480, to take home.

The Goonfather: Are you paying me?

Telemarketer: No, sir, we’re giving you the photos free. You don’t have to pay for them.

The Goonfather: I know, but are you paying me?

Telemarketer: Sir, the company will be paying.

The Goonfather: The company is paying me?

Telemarketer: Yes, the company is paying $480.

The Goonfather: So, the company is paying me $480 for the photoshoot?

Telemarketer: No, the company is paying for the photos and the makeover, valued at $480.

The Goonfather: Then how much is the company paying me?

Telemarketer: No, the company won’t be paying you.

The Goonfather: But I’m a celebrity. I get paid for photoshoots.

Telemarketer: But we only pay for models.

The Goonfather: Yah, I’m a model.

Telemarketer: But we will not be using your photos. We’ll be giving you the photos.

The Goonfather: Oh, I see. But people usually pay me to take my photo. So how much are you paying me?

Telemarketer: Oh, sorry we’re not interested. Thank you.

*click*

Categories: Regular Blogs
27 Comments »