I’ve got another long, dizzy day ahead of me, so this is going to be a pictorial.

Yet another blogger party! Hosted by HP last night, we were given a sneak preview of the latest HP TouchSmart PC.

It’s a full touch screen PC. Awesome, awesome, awesome! Design and interface very sleek, reminiscent of the iPhone. Very fun to use. Will impress the chicks if you’re the sort who likes to bring ‘em home.

Peektures!!

Nic scrolling through photos with his hand.

HP product manager showing us how to reduce and enlarge windows.

Kinda like digital post-its.

This was fun! I wrote this note directly on the screen, which explains the lame handwriting. It was a weird angle to write lah!

You can also draw pictures. But I don’t know who would want to draw pictures on the screen with their fingers. I mean as a regular hobby. It’s okay if you’re doing it for the novelty.

The screen where all your notes get displayed. Can you see mine?

Nic’s right hand playing touch screen chess.

Me and Precious posing in front of the HP TouchSmart PC.

Michael and Peter filming a segment for The Geek Goddess Show.

Estee interviewed me about the “post-it” thingies! I hope Mic trims away all the bimbotic parts.

Oh no! I have no photos of Estee!

Free-flow food and alcohol at Brotzeit, VivoCity! Nic and Precious dig in.

Me, Nic and Precious.

Me and Nicole.

Our photo on the TouchSmart!

One of the HP reps decided to upload our photo onto the PC to demonstrate some of the photo features.

Dragging borders to crop a photo.

Crop size decided.

Cropped!

Later in the day, some smart person decided to make us a wallpaper.

We’ve been wallpapered.

The screen looks a bit dodgy because of the reflection of the lit glass cabinets facing the PC.

Peter gets wallpapered next!

This is a funny picture! It’s a photo of Peter posing beside the PC, which then got uploaded onto the same PC and set as wallpaper.

Someone thought it was funny to give him clocks for eyes.

WAHAHAHAH! WE ALL THOUGHT IT WAS HILARIOUS!!!

We couldn’t stop laughing!!!!!!

Peter with normal eyes

So here’s Peter posing with the PC displaying a wallpaper of him posing with the same PC.

*boggle*

Having more fun moving Peter’s features around (not me!).

Desktop shortcut for eyes!!! LOLOLOL.

Me and nadnut together with our Pimp Daddy, Daryl.

Jerrick, DK, me and Daryl.

What a fun party!

These parties are killing me. Heh.

Not enough sleep. =(

Sorry if I haven’t replied your comments or e-mails. So busy I’m hyperventilating!

Tekong Seafood Restaurant in Changi Village.

Saturday night.

Photo by Leonardo Menezes.

The boss of the restaurant came to take our order. We ordered our food, followed by drinks.

That done, we waited.

It was early, about 6:30 pm, so there was no crowd. Only one other table was filled.

Photo by Michel Meynsbrughen — not Tekong Seafood Restaurant!

Ten minutes later, our drinks still haven’t arrived. Waitresses were just milling around doing nothing.

We asked one of them to check on our drinks. She came back and asked if we could order again because there’s no record of us ever ordering drinks.

Not wanting to risk a double order, we told her to check with the boss.

Just then, the boss wandered in.

Graphic by Lynne Lancaster.

When the waitress told him what’s happening, he said, “Oh, I didn’t take your drinks order. Can you order again?”

*Profound silence*

Then everyone at the table started swearing that we saw the boss acknowledging our drinks order and writing it down.

His reply was, “Oh, I sent your food order in only. I didn’t take your drinks order. Can you order your drinks from this waitress?”

*Stunned*

We speculated that the boss must have been either drunk or not interested in doing business.

Photo by Konrad Baranski.

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Seperate incident that happened in the same restaurant!

My brother was having dinner there some time back. He stopped a Chinese waitress and asked for sambal chilli.

Ten minutes later, the chilli still hadn’t arrived and he wondered what happened to it.

Twenty minutes later, the waitress brought a dish to the table. It was a big chicken dish which no one ordered.

Photo by Kristina Mileva — not actual dish.

My brother said, “We didn’t order this.” (In Chinese)

The waitress said, “Yes, you did.” (In Chinese)

“No, we didn’t.”

“You did.”

My brother thought for a bit and then said, “I asked for sambal chilli.”

The waitress said, “That’s right! This is san ba ji.”

(“San ba ji” is the Chinese term for “Kampung chicken”.)

Joke of the year!!!

I guess “sambal chilli” does sound a bit like “san ba ji”.

Be careful what you ask for and who you ask it from.

ROFL.

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This restaurant has the weirdest service ever. It’s not strictly bad. The waitresses and boss are actually quite friendly and easy-going. There was no rudeness or anything.

They just gave us the impression that they’re all clueless and not really present.

Strange, because this restaurant is supposed to be quite popular and has been around for decades.

Sorry I had to use stock photos for this post. I didn’t feel like taking photos that night because of the weird service, plus the food is average only, so I don’t really want to advertise for the restaurant. Hah.

Don’t go there. There are better places to eat seafood.

I was at Watson’s the other day buying a whole heap of stuff.

As the cashier was scanning my purchases, she noticed a small tin of grape pastilles among them.

She held it up and said, “This one is $4.95, okay?”

I stared at her quizzically before saying, “Yes, I know.”

Then she continued scanning.

I was puzzled. Why did she have to say that? The price was listed on the shelf.

I said, “Why? Have people complained about the price before?”

She replied, “Ya, got customers buy this sweet and complain it’s too expensive. Then they reject it.”

WTF lah, people. It’s only five freaking bucks. Sure, it’s kind of expensive for a small tin of sweets but you don’t open your eyes and look at price tags, then you make a joke of yourself by announcing to the whole world that you can’t afford five bucks for some sweets.

Idiots.

I’ll bet this person doesn’t blink when shelling out $2,000 for an LV bag.

Maybe if the sweets came in an LV tin, he or she will pay $200 for it. Haha.

Crazy people.

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UPDATE (9:15 pm):

Seems like people are misunderstanding what I mean!

I’m not complaining about the cashier. I’m commenting on the people who complain about the sweets being too expensive! LOL.

The cashier is fine. She was only doing her job and I had a nice conversation with her about lame Singaporeans who complain too much.

Nokia sure knows how to host a party.

I had to hastily buy a dress and a handbag just to attend it.

Dress:

With handbag:

I swear, it’s ridiculous how they expect us to fit anything in those tiny handbags.

People who know me know that I go around with a sports or duffel bag all the time.

Party clutch bags are absurb.

Honestly! After putting my camera and handphone in, I have no space left for anything else!!

What about my wallet? What about my house keys? What about makeup for touching up? Tissue paper? Blotter? Filofax? Camcorder? DS Lite? MP3 player? Drumsticks??? (Yes, I now carry my drumsticks around so I can practise on the go.)

I suppose you might argue that I don’t need to bring all these things to a party. You might be right, but I’d still say …*cue sinister music*… you never know.

I could invest in one of those all-in-one gadgets to combine phone, camera, video, gaming, music and organiser functions in one tiny sleek package that will fit nicely in my clutch and still leave room for my drumsticks… not.

But I still haven’t found a gadget that does everything adequately. For instance, what phone-camera-PDA-mp3-player can give me DS-standard games?

(Civilization Revolution is coming out on the DS!!)

That brings me back to the Nokia party.

I shall sum Nokia Connection 2008 up in one sentence:

Gorgeous models, exquisite food, free-flow alcohol, performances, impressive light show, immersive party venue, prizes, competitions and tons of latest and not-yet-released phones to play with!

Yes, there was even a BMW in there.

Unfortunately, it was such a fun and successful party that I didn’t have time at all to play with the phones much.

Yeah, so, I still haven’t found my dream all-in-one gadget to solve my handbag woes.

The party took place in giant domes at the Padang.

(I took this photo from PeepShow’s blog. I hope they don’t mind!)

It was futuristic and funky at the same time. Appealed to the party girl in me! Although I’m not much a party girl since I hate wearing party dresses and carrying party handbags.

This photo was taken at the start of the party when it wasn’t so crowded yet.

For comparison, this is about half an hour later:

Back to the start of the party, after I snapped a few photos, a lady come up and said, “Excuse me, but you’re not allowed to take photos because this is a private event.”

HUH??

You invite a blogger to your party and you don’t allow her to take photos! Siao lah!

Well, okay, the situation was that all photos and info of the phones were embargoed until the party officially started at 8 pm.

But there were no phones to take photos of because all the phones were covered up in large white sheets of cloth!!

So that’s why I don’t have any photos of all the wonderful food and all the wonderful drinks and alcohol. By the time the party started and I was allowed to take photos, I was kept busy partying and taking photos of the models!

Okay, brace yourself for tons and tons and tons of model photos (human and phone models, lol)!

The best (or worst?) part is that this isn’t even all of them. They were literally all over the place and, after a while, I couldn’t remember who I had photographed and who I hadn’t!

I love how they all wore different costumes to match the phones that they were modelling.

The official highlights of the night were the Nokia E66 and Nokia E71.

I had the chance to use the E66 because they were running a photography competition that night. We were supposed to use the new phone to take specific photos of the exhibits, and then, also using the phone, upload the photos to Share on Ovi, which is sort of like Nokia’s answer to Flickr.

The phones have inbuilt functions to upload directly to Ovi so it’s very convenient for camwhores.

This is what the Nokia E66 looks like:

It comes in silver, too, but I prefer the black. It’s cute!

This is the Nokia E71:

Also comes in black and silver.

Looks more businessy, not really my style.

At the event, they gave us a press kit comprising press releases and a thumbdrive containing hi-res images of the phones and accessories.

It’s a 2GB thumb! I have another to add to my collection now, yay!

It’s designed in the Nokia Connection 2008 theme but I think it looks like a lighter. Haha.

A little blue light comes on when you plug it in. Sweet!

Matches my CPU casing!

We also got matching shot glasses as a door gift.

No, we didn’t get any phones.

At least, I didn’t.

Oh, I should also remark that the makeshift outdoor restrooms were done up very nicely!

There was a very nice auntie there to hand us towels, but she was very camera shy and kept running off to hide when I whipped out my camera.

I got quite tipsy that night because the martinis were so deceptively tasty. They had apple, lychee and chocolate martinis! You just taste sweet, you don’t taste the alcohol!

Well, what can I say? Nokia hosts one heck of a party!

Gamer Girl Friday is slightly late today because I only started working on it this morning, can you believe? I don’t know how my week just gets packed without warning, week after week. It’s getting ridiculous, if you ask me.

But, busy or not, I need my weekly gaming fix so GGF will go up weekly no matter what!

We’re also seeing more and more gaming-related events happening in Singapore, which is great!

You guys know what to do! Support these events. Take part in them. It will pay back in the long run because it will help the gaming industry grow. It can only benefit us in return.

So don’t be a couch potato gamer. Get out there and party!

By the way, the best gaming party so far is still the Xbox 360 birthday party couple months back.

Let’s have more of that, then. Can we?

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Table of Contents

1. Sheylara is 12 years old
2. Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution trailer
3. Adidas invites you to be a UEFA EURO 2008 champ
4. YouTube finally acknowledges gamers
5. Adventures of Sheylara the Barbarian Part V
6. Playing PS3 on the silver screen
7. Ask Sheylara
8. Win an Xbox Live Gold Subscription Card!

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Sheylara is 12 years old

So says this random Age of Conan player.

Gamer Girl Friday got linked in another AoC forum, although this one didn’t garner as many responses as the previous one.

Here’s the highlight:

Love the PLZ DIE emoticon!!

Here’s the link.

Well, I could care less whether people think I’m 10 or 40. My age is not really the point. The point is I’m amused that Americans (mostly) still enjoy making a big deal of female gamers.

We know that they know that we exist. And in large numbers, too. And they know that we know that they know. And yet the charade continues.

People are too free! =)

Well, it’s entertaining, anyway, so I hope they don’t stop!

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Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution trailer

I’ve never played any Civilization games but I know the series is hugely popular and I’ve seen the Goonfather stuck to his PC for hours, playing the game.

He recently showed me this trailer which he downloaded from the PS3 network and I must say it’s got me hooked.

The trailer is very nice. It’s got lots of awe-inspiring quotes from great historical men, like:

I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep, I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion. — Alexander the Great

The best part is that the game is coming out on the DS!!! I am so gonna get it. (Because, unfortunately, I seem to only have time to play the DS these days while commuting.)

It will also be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360, in July, if you’re interested.

Link: Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution official site

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Adidas invites you to be a EURO 2008 champ

Here’s a really cool gaming event you can be part of.

In fact, I’m going to be part of it. I’ve signed up for Adidas UEFA EURO 2008 tournament happening on June 28, where 128 players will pit their football skills against one another!

Come and see me get licked horribly!

(To be honest, I’ve never played a single football game in my life. Wait, I’ve never even played real life football!!)

There will be lots of wonderful, exciting prizes given out at the event for both contestants and passers-by.

So, even if you’re not taking part in the tournament, you can just come and answer questions or test your skills at the skill stations to win vouchers and knick knacks from Adidas.

For tournament participants, stand a chance to win a PS3 console, an official match ball of EURO 2008, customisable Adidas football boots, EA game vouchers and more!

DETAILS!!!

How To Take Part

Buy $80 worth of Adidas products at Adidas outlets in The Cathay, VivoCity, Suntec or Cineleisure. Check out the in-store promotional material for the rules and regulations.

Event Details

Date: June 28, 2008
Time: 12pm to 7pm
Venue: East Court, VivoCity

Spectators are very welcome! See you there!!

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YouTube finally acknowledges gamers

For the longest time now, I’ve had to file my gaming videos under the categories of either “Science & Technology” or “People & Blogs”.

Which is ridiculous. I can’t believe they never had a gaming category!

Well, they do now. Finally! I noticed it when I was uploading my CivRev video.

I actually did a double take and thought I was dreaming when I saw it. It was about 2 am when I uploaded the video and I was sleepy.

Oh, well, not that it’s very relevant to you. But it makes me happy!

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Adventures of Sheylara the Barbarian Part V

Read Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Sheylara was increasingly amazed at the divine help she’d been getting since being tossed into this violent new world.

First, she mysteriously acquired this weirdass power to throw white dazzling light at people to fry them.

Then, she got arrow thingies pointing the way to important places to pick up important objects (such as meat cleavers) to give to important people wanting them.

Smooth, thought Sheylara.

Gathering a meat cleaver and rolling pin and roll of leather in this way, Sheylara ran back to the old man to whom the items belonged.

“Oh, I say,” said the old man. “Awfully kind of you, my dear.”

He gave Sheylara a rusty piece of tin for her trouble.

“Here, that ought to buy you a lick of ale at the inn.”

“Yeeeeeeeeees!” Sheylara rejoiced and danced. “I have a tin! I have a tin!!”

The jubilant barbarian girl consulted her little arrow friend and found the inn in no time.

Then she tried to find someone who could help her get settled in properly.

“Excuse me…,” started Sheylara.

“Oh, alright!” complained the warrior-looking woman grudgingly. “You can have a quest.”

“Wha—”

“Go talk to the old woman up on a hill.”

“Excuse me?”

“That’s all you’re going to get from me!” screeched the woman. “All you soft newbies always want clues! Hints! Walkthroughs! Power levelling! You are a useless bunch of nincompoops! Now stop bothering me and go talk to the old woman up on a hill!”

Refusing to be defeated, Sheylara tried another.

“Um…,” she said.

“Yes, I need an errand run. Go find a city guard and pass him this message for me.”

“But—”

“Be off with ya, then.”

Almost in tears, Sheylara retreated to a corner of the inn to try and make sense of things. She didn’t quite understand why everyone just wanted her to do stuff for them.

“Psst!”

Sheylara was suddenly jolted out of her thoughts.

“Psst! Little lady!”

Turning around, she saw a vision.

“You musn’t be discouraged, young one,” said a beautiful woman all dressed in white. “It is only through hardship and trials that we discover our destiny.”

“But I just want a cream soda. And a place to sleep for the night,” said Sheylara miserably.

“Come now, my dear. Sleep is for the weak. Why, there are some adventurers like yourself who do this continuously for 48 hours or more, stopping only for toilet breaks and to call the pizza delivery service.”

“Really?” said Sheylara doubtfully.

“Don’t fret, my dear. You will learn our ways and you will find your destiny. Here, this will help you.”

The woman in white handed Sheylara a hugeass hammer.

“I can tell that your destiny is to fry enemies with the light of Mithra from afar. But sometimes, those brainless mobs will get too close and that is when you’ll need to clobber them with this hammer.”

“But this is—”

“Seek an island south of the city. There, you will find further instruction.”

With that, the woman shimmered away into a mist of nothingness.

“Holy crikey,” breathed Sheylara.

Trying on the hammer for size, Sheylara the barbarian looked up into the night sky and marvelled at the strength and courage she suddenly felt infusing her.

She was now ready to take on the world!

(To be continued next week…)

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Playing PS3 on the silver screen

As you all know, a handful of readers got to attend the Cathay/Sony digital movie system launch event with me last week. (I hope you guys had fun!)

We played Tekken 5 Online in the cinema auditoriam itself. That was super, super cool.

Anyway, that’s the beauty of the new digital movie system. Now, we can watch or play anything in the movie theatre (only at The Cathay) without being limited to traditional 35mm film reels!

I want to play Rock Band in there!! Can you imagine what it would be like?

Me and Timothy took a picture in front of the big screen while people were playing the game.

It was supposed to be a tournament, but I think the organisers decided last minute that it wasn’t very fair because there was limited time and not everyone would get to compete, so they decided to lucky draw the prize of a PS3.

Some stranger got it, bummer.

We watched Don’t Mess with the Zohan after that. Well, this is technically a gaming column so I shouldn’t be talking about movies, but it’s a damn good show. I never knew Adam Sandler could be that sexy. He literally oozes charisma and sex appeal throughout the show.

Okay, I’m seriously waiting for someone to organise a Rock Band party or tournament in the movie theatre. It will rock serious ass.

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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).

Dexter Tiah asks an Xbox 360 question:

I encountered some problems when trying to connect to Xbox Live. How do you connect? Wired or wireless? Do u need some special hardware like Microsoft wireless adapter to play? And what if my IP is wrong or MTU has exceeded?

Sheylara Says:

You can connect to Xbox Live either wired or wirelessly. Yes, you need to buy a wireless device if you want to go wireless. As for your IP and MTU, well, you’ll have to understand that it’s a bit hard to troubleshoot such problems remotely.

I can direct you to a fantastic guide on xbox.com, though.

To learn how to set up your system, click here.

To learn how to connect to Xbox Live, click here.

aig asks a console comparison question:

I’ve read somewhere that the Goonfather ranks the PS3 above the Xbox360. Why is that? What are PS3’s greatest points? Thinking of perhaps getting one in the near future. Thanks in advance…

Sheylara Says:

The Goonfather ranks the PS3 above everything else because he’s a Sony fanboi. Haha. Well, the good things about the PS3 are the Blu-Ray player and the slightly better graphics, although I think the Xbox 360 Elite gives the PS3 a run for its money (haha the Goonfather hates this phrase).

But he’s getting very irritated with Sony now because the Asian market is largely neglected and there is virtually no support. For example, the latest download from the PS3 Asia network is some game trailer from last year.

I’d still stick with the Xbox 360 for its superior games library and unsurpassed Xbox Live experience and wonderful local support, all of which I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you about. ;)

Best, though, is to buy both! We do use both of them quite equally!

ryo hazuki asks a gender question:

Do you think more girls in Singapore would pick up gaming if it was advertised more? Or are there not enough games that are appealing to girls right now?

Sheylara Says:

The number of girl gamers is already increasingly at a respectable rate, I feel. Game developers are already doing their best to produce games that appeal to girls, so I think that area is covered. Maybe advertising is the key.

I think what we need is a girl gamer movement, some organisation that brings girl gamers together and organises activities that will appeal to girls. Make it something very exclusive and hip and happening, you know? Kinda like the women credit card campaign — the men don’t get it kinda thing.

Also, what we really need is for guys to buy games and gadgets for their girlfriends and pay for all their gaming subscriptions! =P

Yes, that will really help.

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Win an Xbox Live Gold Subscription Card!

If you’re never tried the Xbox Live Gold membership, here’s a great chance for you to get started and enjoy the full online multiplayer experience!

I have one 3-month Gold Subscription Card to give away this week.

Just post a comment saying you want it and I’ll enter you into the draw. Yep, lucky draw this time!

Closing date: June 25, 2008

Good luck!

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People always ask me, “What games are you playing now?”

My answer is, “I don’t have time to play games nowadays because I’m kept so busy writing about games and attending gaming events and writing about them! (Among other things.)”

I’m ashamed of myself. How can a gamer girl not play games?

I shall endeavour to game more in the coming weeks.

Well, you know what, I’ve got a Rock Band jamming session tomorrow night (after three weeks of not playing). I’m going to rock the house down.

Shut your windows and don’t call the police!