My blog readership suffered a 35% dip yesterday.

I think I scared all my readers away when I posted my “Sadako” photo in the preceding post.

I suppose it could also be because I didn’t blog yesterday, but I don’t usually get such a drastic dip from missing a day.

I was considering not blogging today because I’m so busy this week I’m this near to going on strike and emigrating either to the mountains or to a very clean and comfortable white padded room.

But I thought I’d better post something to displace the Sadako post before all my readers run away screaming in terror and I’m forced to talk to an empty room.

And here’s a “Mona Lisa” photo to regain your confidence in me.

Okay, that’s a bad imitation. But I wasn’t trying to do an imitation in the first place.

It beats the Sadako look, in any case.

And I still need a haircut, which I still haven’t got time to get.

I have been considering shaving my head, having a baby, and treating the baby very badly.

But then, I haven’t got time to do that, either.

Categories: Regular Blogs
12 Comments »

One day, I got really frustrated trying to clip my hair up because it’s too thick and the clip’s too crappy. So I started cursing the clip and my hair, using very imaginative and colourful language.

The Goonfather said, “Don’t put clip lah.”

I hyperventilated.

“Cannot lah!! If I don’t clip my hair I look like this!!”

“Nice wat,” he said.

I fainted for a bit before shrieking at him. “Nice your head lah!!! I look like freaking Sadako!!”

Stupid Goonfather.

Stupid hair.

That’s my hair with maximum strength hair wax holding it up.

Without wax, I look like Cousin Itt of The Addams Family.

(Picture not shown for health reasons.)

With wax, I look like Sadako.

Either way, my hair makes me look like a freak!!

I want to know how you girls with gravity-defying hair do it.

For me, hair clips till the day I die.

Categories: Regular Blogs
17 Comments »

Congratulations! You have stumbled upon the first instalment of my weekly gaming column, the express purpose of which is to force you to become a gamer (if you aren’t already one).

Yes, I’m going to be like one of those overbearing religious zealots who stare at you meaningfully before attempting to scare you with a hysterical declaration, “You will go to hell if you don’t worship The Almighty Hopping Chimpanzee With Only One Leg.”

Not.

The purpose of this column is really to serve you (and also to give me an excuse to play games), thus the name: Gamer Girl Friday, which is a very clever title with multiple meanings.

For some reason, I get a lot of e-mails asking me for gaming advice, which leads me to believe that people really need a Gamer Girl Friday to make them the proverbial coffee.

Okay, there’s really no proverbial coffee; I made that up; but you might want to get some real coffee to sip while you read. This column is massive (compared to my normal blogs lah).

To my non-gaming readers, don’t go away yet. This isn’t just about games, it’s also about my life. Stick around and be entertained!

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Table of Contents

1. Rock Band: Destroying good songs since 07
2. Playing Age of Conan for the boobies
3. Ninja girl strikes again
4. Gamers are future business leaders
5. Ask Sheylara
6. Second-hand DS Lite for sale
7. Win Grand Theft Auto IV stuff!

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Rock Band: Destroying good songs since 07

First, there was Minus One. Then came karaoke. Now, there’s Rock Band.

Some of the best rock songs in the world are getting a total overhaul in the nether direction. Watch and weep. (And these are my friends, too. Gawd.)

The main problem is that most of us don’t know most of the songs in the game, so whoever’s singing has to wing it by following the pitch indicator on the screen. The result is often hilarious.

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Playing Age of Conan for the boobies

It’s quite amazing the amount of hype Age of Conan is garnering. With VIP release just one day away and mass public release four days away, fans are starting to foam at the mouth.

I’ll bet a huge number of guys are playing the game for the boobs. For the first time ever, a fantasy MMORPG allows you to run around completely topless. And these are sexy, pretty avatars we’re talking about, not the half-baked crap you get in, say, Second Life.

Sorry, I had to put a censor bar over her… assets.

I’ll also bet that AoC will break all world records for having the most female characters created in one game, ever. And 70% of them by men.

AoC staff compiled a list of Top 10 Things Heard During The AoC Open Beta. Guess what the list looks like? Click on the link. I’m not posting it here because it makes my monitor blush.

I think it’s going to be very easy to tell in AoC who the male players playing female avatars are.

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Ninja girl strikes again

Today is the last day the ninja patrol tourist attraction pose squad will be terrorising your public space!

After today, you won’t see us again until the Ninja Gaiden II official launch event on June 3rd at Funan DigitaLife Mall! (Stupid Funan, keep changing name dunno how many zillion times already!!)

You still have two weeks to pre-order the game to get attractive Ninja Gaiden II premiums. I know many of you are waiting for preorder numbers to hit 500 or 1,000 before you order so that you can be sure of getting the 2nd and 3rd tier premiums.

But if everyone thinks this way, then HOW THE HECK IS IT EVER GONNA HIT THE 2ND AND 3RD TIER? People, stop thinking and start ordering!

Oh, yes. And catch the ninja patrol today at these locations:

12pm—1pm: Raffles Green
2pm—3pm: Plaza Singapura
4pm—5pm: Bugis

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Gamers are future business leaders

So says this paper published by a few hotshot professors. According to their research, multiplayer online games are proving to be a great tool for training future business leaders.

I’ve always believed MMORPGs to be a great training ground for the working world, so it’s nice to know that my views are being validated. It’s a really long article (7 pages) but go read it because it’s very interesting, especially if you play MMORPGs.

After the Goonfather read it, he said, “I think I’m gonna put this on my work resume:

“Mar 2005 - May 2006 Valorian Vanguard guild leader in EverQuest II, leading an approximate 118 members.”

ROFLMAO.

The Goonfather, aka Silvermist, shows off his leet leadership skillz to Sheylara in EverQuest II by pulling a whole camp of gnolls.

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Ask Sheylara

Ask me any gaming-related questions! Post them in the comments or e-mail me, I don’t really care. I will try to answer all questions (unless I get like 500 questions a day). Best questions will be published in the next GGF.

Anthony Goh asks a PSP question:

My nephew has problems playing games on his PSP. When he tries to play, he never goes on to the next level. In some games, he just goes round and round. I’ve tried to find instructions online but nothing was found. Any good websites to recommend?

Sheylara Says:

This is the first time I’m hearing of such a problem. How old is your nephew? If he’s above five, he should be able to Google his own solutions. If he doesn’t know what Google is, he has no business playing the PSP.

In any case, one of my favourite places to go to for help is GameFAQs. It has guides, walkthroughs and cheats for every game and every platform you can think of. Just search for your game and follow instructions. Problem solved!

Dexter Tiah asks an Xbox 360 question:

Do you buy and play original Xbox 360 games? I am uncertain whether I should modify my Xbox 360 to play pirated games. I do not have any friends who possess an Xbox 360 so I have no one to turn to for my queries. Would you reccommend buying originals to play on Xbox Live or play pirated games on a modified set? Afterall, pirated games are a lot cheaper…

Sheylara Says:

Three reasons why you should get original:

1. Piracy is illegal. Of course, we know that most people don’t give a rat’s arse about that, but it’s still not nice to support piracy.
2. Xbox Live is cool because you can download all sorts of great content, play multiplayer, and have all your gaming achievements recorded. Go make friends with other XBL players at Brotherhood of the Box.
3. Mod sets and pirated software have all sorts of problems and complications, which are annoying. Do you want to go through that?

Nicola Reynolds asks a Wii question:

I’ve gone through your instuctions for the Japanese-to-English translation (for the Wii), which was very helpful. But what I want to do is change the language. Can you advise me how to do this? Can I do this so it’s permanently in English?

Sheylara Says:

I have received like 200 e-mails from people who’ve read my translation guide, asking me this question. I don’t know why anyone even imagines that it’s possible to change the language on the Japanese Wii. If it were possible, I wouldn’t have bothered producing the guide. I would have simply changed the language and be done with it. So, the answer is no. Sorry!

Nurul Amirah asks a Rock Band (Xbox 360) question:

When will Rock Band for Xbox 360 be available?

Sheylara Says:

Nobody knows yet. EA refuses to say. Trust the gaming companies to make us wait!

Gamer Girl Friday will answer more questions next week. Ask yours today via comments or e-mail!

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Second-hand DS Lite for sale

The Goonfather has gotten tired of his Nintendo DS Lite so I’m helping him get the word out. He bought it to play Mario party games with us (lol) but he tired of it after a month.

It has been sitting around doing nothing for two months. Duh.

It’s black, in great condition and comes with a clear protective cover. Please e-mail the Goonfather if you’re interested in buying it.

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Win Grand Theft Auto IV stuff!

I’m always getting free stuff from events, so I’ve decided to share some of them with you because you made it possible for me to get free stuff in the first place by reading my blog!

I will run a simple contest every week to give stuff away. What I give depends on what I get from future events, so keep your eyes peeled for the good stuff!

This week, I’m giving out Grand Theft Auto IV stickers and coasters. I know it’s not like very impressive or what, but I think GTA fans will like them.

I have five stickers and three coasters.

How to win them?

Just post a comment here telling me you want a sticker or a coaster. (You can only choose one!)

The first five sticker requesters and first three coaster requesters will get them. Simple, right?

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Oh. We’ve come to the end of this week’s gaming column. I hope you enjoyed reading it!

Please give me your feedback and suggestions. Gamer Girl Friday will be serving you with news, funnies and help, every Friday, till she gets tired of doing it (lol) but that won’t be for a while if most of you respond positively.

Now, get with the program and be a gamer (if you aren’t already one)!

Gamer Girl Friday signing off.

Categories: Gamer Girl Friday
36 Comments »

I haven’t done a food post in a while because I’m getting bored with photographing my food before eating.

But my blog feels hungry today, so I went to dig up some old food pictures. Haha.

This fine-looking specimen of epicurean delight is, unfortunately, only available in KL, Malaysia.

I know, I’m kinda evil.

I don’t know what they call this dish exactly (because my friend did all the ordering) but it’s self-made noodles and also comes in soup form.

The good news is that it’s not really that nice (to me) so I don’t think you’ll miss much if you don’t get to eat it.

It’s not horrible. It’s just normal tasting. But, for some reason, it’s very very popular with the locals. They drive miles to come to this backwater place just to wait 45 minutes for their food. No kidding.

Since we had to wait so long for our food, I engaged in the only entertainment available at that time and place.

Camwhoring.

But it was so windy and the wind was threatening to turn me into Sadako so I stopped. I went to check out the other entertainment, instead.

LOL. There’s a car wash service just beside the noodle place. Motorists can have their car washed for a few ringgit while they sit around waiting for their food.

Not too shabby, is it?

While most people flock to the place for the noodles, what I found really good was the side dish:

These are to-die-for, to-queue-up-for pork balls. Best pork balls I’ve eaten. I will wait 45 minutes for them, especially when they come with a complimentary jar of a very disgusting looking chilli concoction.

It doesn’t look that awful after you scoop it out into a little dish and hide the jar.

The chilli’s very hot (you can feel it burning the moment it touches your tongue) but it tastes damn good. You can’t stop dipping your balls in the chilli even when it starts killing you.

Well, my Malaysian friend said not to tell anyone the address of this place because he says waiting 45 minutes for his noodles is enough for him and he doesn’t want to have to wait 90 minutes.

LOL.

But I’ll offer a clue. Here’s a road sign:

The road leads to the food place… eventually.

It’s only a little way in lah.

Shit, I just hate doing food posts. Now I’m hungry again.

Categories: Food Files
10 Comments »

Okay, not quite extraordinaire, seeing as I’m a reputed klutz and am all hands and feet.

(You might argue that a good drummer is all hands and feet, but I kinda meant mine in the negative way.)

Anyway, this is a semi-long story so I’ll start from the beginning.

Remember the Goonfather bought Rock Band six weeks back?

Well, we haven’t had much time to play it. Let’s just say we’ve played it fewer than 10 times since we’ve got it, but it seems that the drum is my instrument.

I find the drums most fun to play. I’m also the official drummer in our “band” because I happen to be the best at it in our group (although Minou is possibly as good as I am, just that, for some reason, she refuses to play in hard and expert modes).

The Goonfather thought I should have a pair of real drumsticks. He’d read that anti-vibe drumsticks will reduce the ridiculously loud “tok tok tok” sound that you hear when the default Rock Band drumsticks hit the drum pads.

So we went to Yamaha. We tried a few different ones and found that they all sounded about the same, anti-vibe or otherwise, so I decided to go for looks.

I am now the proud owner of a pair of dazzling white Zildjian Travis Barker drumsticks!!

And I can’t even play drums. Real ones, I mean.

But they look so good and they feel so good. Seriously, it feels so much better playing with real drumsticks, like more solid or something.

But they also make me feel like a poser. Not a real drummer using real drumsticks! The cheek of me!!

Which led me to consider drumming lessons.

I googled “drumming courses in Singapore” and shortlisted three places to visit and see how I feel about them before making a decision.

Today, I was out for an audition and a work meeting, so I thought I’d check out those rock schools on the way.

I went first to The Music Lab. Within two minutes, I signed up and paid the deposit for four lessons, committing myself to 24 lessons.

I hate shopping around. I hate waiting. I hate dilly dallying. Not always a good thing, but it gets things done.

Ok, fine. I’m impulsive.

I told the Goonfather what I had done and he scolded me for wasting money. As if it’s his money I’m using.

He said I should have signed up with Yamaha because Yamaha charges like $10 less per lesson. When I tried to explain that I don’t care about the cost because I believe in learning from the best, he said I shouldn’t believe everything I read on the net.

But he was the one who wanted me to get real drumsticks in the first place and was supportive of me getting drum lessons, so I don’t see why he has to suddenly turn critical!!

Idiot partners.

So, anyway, I refused to talk to him anymore on the subject because I don’t believe in flogging a dead horse. I mean, I already paid the deposit so what did he expect me to do, rob it back?

But now I kinda regret signing up because this wasn’t even part of my masterplan.

I don’t know what’s wrong with me this year. I keep doing things that are not part of the plan. I think I’ve been possessed by aliens or something.

It’s not that I’m not excited about the lessons. (I start next week!) I love learning new things. And I’ve always loved drums.

I watched a Metallica tour video eons ago and fell in love with Lars Ulrich (the drummer) because his drumming made my heart skip a beat, it’s so good.

But being a drummer has never been something I felt I needed to do. I don’t think I could ever be a good drummer, anyway, because I’m so uncoordinated. (Rock Band is different. It’s easy because there are only four pads and a foot pedal.)

I guess I’m just curious about real drumming. I have this impression that drummers are not human because what they do seems impossible, especially those who seem to suddenly grow ten hands and twenty feet when playing.

Aiyah. Don’t care so much lah. Like I said, I already paid the deposit so wtf I’m just going to have fun with it, bugger them all. I think I need the stress relief. Life has been getting too stressful of late.

But the aliens possessing me had better stop making me do anymore crazy things.

Categories: Gaming Notebook, Regular Blogs
19 Comments »