It’s Short & Sweet Day today at Gamer Girl Friday! (Okay maybe not that sweet, but definitely shortish, lol).

I spent 41 hours in the last three days filming because the shoot overran by a total of 15 hours (for me), which ate into the time I had to work on GGF.

Yeah, that happens when one tries to juggle a zillion careers at once.

Gamer Girl Friday is greedy and wants to do everything. What can we do about it, then?

Make a face.

Enjoy this issue, which took me four hours to produce even though it’s shorter than usual.

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Table of Contents

1. Sheylara Island
2. The Goonfather’s spycam
3. Securing World of Warcraft
4. Result of last week’s contest
5. Ask Sheylara
6. Win a pair of Ninja Gaiden II t-shirts!

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Sheylara Island

I’ve created an island for myself in Google Lively, which is a virtual space for 3D socialisation in the style of Second Life, IMVU and PlayStation Home.

What’s cool about Lively is that you can embed your “virtual room” on a webpage and friends can come visit directly!

Here’s mine!

I’m not normally into this kinda stuff. Like, why would anyone wanna hang out in Second Life when they can hang out in World of Warcraft or Age of Conan where they can do stuff like kill dragons instead of just stand around looking bored and pretty (or pretty bored)?

But I gave Lively a try because it’s Google. You gotta be curious how a giant corporation fares, jumping on a bandwagon.

It’s relatively painless to sign in (using your Google account), do a quick download and installation, create an avatar, create a room and dress up your room and avatar.

I made an island instead of a regular room because I thought it would be fun to party on an island.

I put a DJ console on my island!

But I have no guests.

I’m kinda talking to myself.

And I realised that decorating an island is harder than decorating a regular room because, like, you have no walls to hang posters on or put a bed against.

And, like, beds would look totally out of place on an island, no?

By the way, you can bring a gift and decorate my island if you visit!

Not saying you should. I’m just saying this “game” has the capability.

It’s still very new and there’s nothing much you can do in there now. We’ll just have to wait until people with too much time on their hands and smarts in their brains start developing applications for it!

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The Goonfather’s spycam

A few days ago, the Goonfather MSN’ed me, “I wanna buy a doggy.”

Then he sent me this link.

I took a quick glance at it and said, “I thought Aibo was a failed product.”

He said, “The new Aibo PlayStation. Different now, can stream what it sees to PSP or PS3. Control and program via PSP. Can be guard dog also. Image recognition, sound recognition, heat sensors… to determine whether a person is the owner/family or intruder.”

“Er…,” I said. “Being practical, what can it do that you can’t do yourself now (besides guarding the house, which a real dog might do better)?”

“I can look at you while I’m at work… or bring it for a walk in the park while it records upskirt videos of female passers-by?”

“Hold on…,” I said. “Back up a little…

“Look at me while you’re at work?

“YOU MEAN SPYCAM?

“WHY YOU WANNA SPYCAM ME?!??!?!!”

He did a quick defensive manoeuvre.

“No lah no lah. I mean like video conference!”

Honestly.

I think the new Aibo (if the leaks are true) portents ill for us girls.

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Securing World of Warcraft

You know a game is really, really big when they release a security device which, up to now, we’ve only mostly seen banks use.

Due to a rise in account thefts in arguably the most popular MMORPG in the world, Blizzard has made available the Blizzard Authenticator, which adds an additional layer of protection beyond the usual username and password login for World of Warcraft.

Unfortunately, this device is only available for USA residents.

Then again, I don’t know if I would use it even if I could. Hate hassle.

It’s a nice-looking dongle, though. Wouldn’t mind having it just for fun.

By the way, I’m not playing World of Warcraft right now.

Age of Conan!

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Result of last week’s contest

Somebody won this!

And that somebody is Al Sayf! Yay!!! Will be contacting you by e-mail soon!

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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).

oOC1KnightOo asks an Initial D: Extreme Stage question:

Are the controls hard? And the graphics toned down? And how does the avatar customization work?

Sheylara Says:

The controls aren’t hard compared to other racing games because this game was made for the fun factor rather than realism and true simulation. Graphics-wise, again, it’s not as good as one of those hardcore racing sims, but it’s certainly better than the arcade versions.

For avatar customization, you just pick a gender, then you go through a list of customiztion options which allow you to change your hairstyle, eye shape, lip shape, clothes and a few other things. The choices are quite limited, though.

benjaminlee12345 asks an Initial D: Extreme Stage question:

Is there a Silvia S13 in the game?

Sheylara Says:

Here’s a complete list of cars available in Initial D: Extreme Stage!

Toyota: Sprinter Trueno GT-Apex (AE86), Corolla Levin GT-Apex (AE86), Corolla Levin SR (AE85), MR2 G-Limited (SW20)

Nissan: Skyline GT-R V-spec II (BNR32), Skyline GT-R V-spec II (BNR34), Silvia K’s (S14), Silvia Q’s (S14), Silvia spec-R (S15), 180SX Type II (RPS13)

Honda: Civic SiR-II (EG6), Civic Type R (EK9), Integra Type R (DC2), S2000 (AP1)

Mazda: Savanna RX-7 (FC3S), Efini RX-7 Type R (FD3S)

Subaru: Impreza WRX STi Version V (GC8), Impreza WRX STI (GDBF)

Mitsubishi: Lancer GSR Evolution III (CE9A, Lancer RS Evolution IV (CN9A), Lancer Evolution IX GSR (CT9A)

Suzuki: Cappuccino (EA11R)

Initial D: Sil-80

enhaced asks a PC question:

How do you set up dual montiors?

Sheylara Says:

You need a graphics card that supports dual monitors, first of all. Most mid to high end cards have two output ports (VGA/DVI, DVI/DVI, DVI/HDMI). Just plug your two monitors in! Then go into your graphic card control panel to control how you want to display stuff.

Wallace asks an Age of Conan question:

What’s the difference between the Xbox 360 and PC versions of Age of Conan?

Sheylara Says:

Nobody can tell for sure yet since the Xbox 360 version won’t be released till next year. But Funcom maintains that the gameplay will be identical and Xbox 360 users will be able to play together with PC users.

The difference will lie probably in the interface, since the PC version was made for a mouse and keyboard. I believe Funcom is working on an interface revamp for the Xbox 360 Age of Conan even as we speak.

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Win a pair of Ninja Gaiden II t-shirts!

Abashedly, I have a pair of Ninja Gaiden II T-shirts sitting around forgotten since the game launch some months back.

I’ve got TWO!! One M, one XL. I’m giving them away as a pair so you can wear it with your partner or give one to someone you like! ;)

I don’t have a picture of it (cos I forgot to charge my camera’s battery. Really!!) but Nizam does! Go check out his page here if you’re interested in the t-shirts!

These are exclusive t-shirts! Only given out to people who pre-ordered the game for the launch event and not available anymore!

I got mine from working at the launch and haven’t worn them (cos they’re a little too big for me, hehe).

Oh, well, you know the drill.

Drop a comment if you want them. Lucky draw!

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End of Short & Sweet issue!

Gamer Girl Friday feeling stoned from lack of sleep.

Gamer Girl Friday is glad that it’s Friday. Looking forward to chilling out over the weekend.

MUST – PLAY – GAMES!!