guitar hero 3

GGF#14: Videos of video games. Haha

- Sheylara 37 Comments

[Gamer Girl Friday]

It is with a rather zonked state of mind that I address you today.

I haven’t slept all night. I started working on GGF last night at 10:30 pm and didn’t stop until 7:30 am, when I decided to go stun myself awake with a cold shower.

Another hour to neaten it up before I get ready to start my day with a morning meeting, and then an afternoon meeting, an evening event and a night engagement.

I see mushrooms dancing in my peripheral vision. GGF is zonked out her mind! Hurray.

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Table of Contents

  1. Video demo of Braid on Xbox LIVE Arcade
  2. Fable II Pub Games is out!
  3. Sheylara at World Cyber Games (Again)
  4. Too Human is too popular!
  5. Ask Sheylara
  6. Win a cool Friendster thumbdrive!!

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Video demo of Braid on Xbox LIVE Arcade

Oh, gosh. It takes freaking forever to make videos.

But here’s a video of me explaining the gameplay in Braid.

I love this game. I’ll talk a little about it in case you don’t like to watch videos.

So, Braid is an Xbox LIVE Arcade game which you can download for a small fee.

It looks like a 2D platformer, but it’s actually a puzzle game. You can die but you won’t die. That is, when you get eaten by monsters, you can rewind to when you haven’t gotten eaten, and then continue from there and try not to get eaten again.

Running around the world and not dying, you collect jigsaw puzzle pieces to make nice pictures. The pieces are scattered around the world and they just annoy the heck out of you because you can see them but you can’t get at them.

You have to really crack your brain in this game. And then crack it somemore. Until your brain hates you.

But I like the music, the graphics and the gameplay. It’s unique and refreshing. If you like abusing your brain and stomping on monsters’ heads, get it.

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Fable II Pub Games is out!

That’s right. This is the arcade mini game thingy which you can play now to earn gold for the Fable II game that’s coming in October.

Here’s a boring video I took of it. Well, watch it if you want to see what the mini games look like.

There are three gambling games and you’re given 500 gold to start off with. If you lose it all and go into debt, you’re in trouble when you start Fable II.

It’s freaking hard to win money. I’ve already lost like 300 gold. Haha.

Oh, well. Have never been good at gambling, anyway.

But I like the games. The graphics and sound effects are really cool!

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Sheylara at World Cyber Games (Again)

I mentioned last week that Bryan De Silva from RazorTV interviewed me for a segment. The video is out!

Click.

We did an interview and then we played Guitar Hero 3.

Bryan made funny faces. IT’S ALL IN THE VIDEO.

And I made victory poses.

That was on Thursday.

On Saturday, I went to WCG again because the Xbox ambassador had to make an appearance and tell everyone to subscribe to Xbox LIVE.

We did that on the main stage of WCG.

More interviews.

And friendly matches.

Offstage, I played several matches of Project Gotham Racing 4 with Xbox fans.

Which I sucked at. But it was fun. And no one booed me, nice chaps, all.

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Too Human is too popular!

I received a record number of entries for last week’s Too Human giveaway. There were 46 entrants. Wow. Didn’t know this game was so popular!

You know what… I’ve got the game in my hands already! Mwahaha!

I got two copies on Tuesday but, get a load of this, I haven’t had time since then to even open the box to kiss the disc.

In any case, I can’t publish a review of it yet because the game hasn’t officially launched and I don’t want Silicon Knights coming after me.

So… WHO IS THE LUCKY WINNER OF A BRAND NEW COPY OF TOO HUMAN?

He is… Kurow31!!!

(Or maybe he’s a she. I have no idea.)

Congratulations!!!!! You are very lucky because you’ll be playing Too Human two days before the rest of Singapore (that is, assuming you live in Singapore)!!!

The USA launch is Aug 19 while Singapore stores will only stock it on Aug 21. But I’m allowed to give it away on the 19th, so you’ll be getting it on that day if we can arrange a meetup.

Will be contacting you via e-mail!

Please thank the Singapore Xbox Team for your prize!

The rest of you who didn’t win, don’t be too disappointed. There will be more giveaways in the future!

Alrighty?

[Back to Table of Contents]

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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).

James Millbower asks a Wii question:

I have a modified Japanese Wii set that appears to be fully-bricked. Can it be fixed like a semi-brick Wii set by inserting a Japanese game with a firmware update that is higher than my Wii version? If it can be corrected, where can I buy a Japanese game in the US?

Sheylara Says:

I’m afraid I have bad news for you. There is currently no fix for a fully bricked Wii. Well, that’s actually why they called it a “brick” in the first place. Sorry, pal.

Chak asks an Xbox joystick question:

Do you have any idea where to download drivers for Xbox joysticks to use on the PC?

Sheylara Says:

I didn’t actually answer this question for Chak because he answered it himself before I could do it, lol. But I’m posting it here anyway in case anyone ever wants to ask the same question. You can download the driver here.

Lambert asks an Xbox LIVE question:

What’s your Gamerscore?

Sheylara Says:

Er… please don’t ask. If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you. No, actually, ask me in a year’s time. That will give me time to, uh, actually have a number to tell you.

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Win a cool Friendster thumbdrive!!

Look at this cutie!!

The sad part is that it has a capacity of only 500MB.

But the happy part is that it’s one of those thingamajigs you can take and show off to your friends and piss them off because they can’t buy one even if they had money.

Unless you sold it to them at a very high price, in which case, you should share some of that doosh with me, okay?

So… who wants it?

Yes, same old same old. Post a comment saying you want it before next Friday!

[Back to Table of Contents]

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And now… PLEASE GO READ MY XBOX BLOG. I mean, like, regularly. It’s very lonely.

Aww.

[Gamer Girl Friday]

GGF#13: Sheylara endorses Xbox 360

- Sheylara 55 Comments

[Gamer Girl Friday]

Woo! If you’re an Xbox fan, congratulations! You can expect tons of exciting developments this year to keep you happy and busy!

If you’re not a fan, I recommend that you give the Xbox 360 a try. And I’m not saying that just because I’m the Xbox ambassador. I’m saying it because I’m having a heck lot of fun with it and I’m really hyped about the new stuff that’s in store!

Today’s GGF is all about the Xbox because that’s what’s happening this week. But don’t worry. I will still talk about other platforms and consoles in the coming weeks.

The Xbox people believe in well-rounded gamers and for that I’m really thankful. After all, games are games and gamers are gamers. Bottomline, we all just wanna have fun, right?

I’m so in love with the Xbox 360! Come join me on Xbox LIVE!

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Table of Contents

  1. Sheylara as Xbox ambassador
  2. Xbox Singapore announces many exciting things
  3. Upcoming games on Xbox 360
  4. Sheylara in World Cyber Games
  5. Babes at World Cyber Games
  6. Results of last week’s contest
  7. Ask Sheylara
  8. Win a fantastic game called Too Human!!

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Sheylara as Xbox ambassador

A new campaign for Xbox LIVE has launched in Singapore.

And I’m part of it!

It’s called the Xbox Xperts program and I’m the first Xpert onboard.

More than just a brand ambassador, the Xbox Xpert will guide new users through Xbox LIVE and help them connect to the Xbox LIVE community.

Come and read my Xpert blog here!! (And if you have a minute, do register and post some comments!)

I’m not really an expert in the traditional sense of the word, though. And, in my Xpert blog, I’ll still be blogging in my usual rubbish manner which you all love. RIGHT?

You can read the press release to get the full details if you’re the sort who likes reading press releases.

Also, watch out for advertisements on buses and MRTs in the next week or so.

Oh, and dig this. New subscribers of Xbox LIVE Gold memberships will be rewarded with two movie tickets as a welcome gift!

This is an amazing offer because you’re also getting a free one-month trial Gold account when you sign up!

Trust me. Xbox LIVE is very addictive. Once you log in and play some games and start getting those achievement points, your gaming habits will change, like mine did.

Okay, now, please tell all your friends about this and get on the program!

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Xbox SG announces many exciting things

Some of the things you know, some you don’t. I’m just gonna tell you everything to make sure you don’t miss anything!

X08 Coming Soon!

This is a huge gaming convention which will be very fun and very cool and very awesome and very everything good!

The last one happened two years ago. That was X06.

On October 24 this year, there will be X08! Mark your calendars!

Very funky cool Xbox retail shops

New concept stores will soon be built for users to immerse themselves in the true Xbox experience!

Events will also be held in those stores… and I think I’m supposed to make public appearances for some of them.

Nice. I hope I’ll get to play some games in there!

New and improved Xbox LIVE dashboard

Xbox LIVE will soon have a new look and user experience.

This was announced at E3 so it’s not very new news but it’s still exciting, nonetheless. You’ll be able to create customised avatars and there will be a lot more fun content to download. Look out for it!

For a detailed overview of what’s in store, read this article.

Xbox 360 is very affordable now!

The Xbox 360 has seen a price drop from $620 to $499.

Not only that, the new Xbox Pro, which comes with a 60GB harddisk, will be available from mid August also at $499!

Great time to buy an Xbox now, I think.

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Upcoming games on Xbox 360

Too Human

I am most interested in this title because:

  • It’s an interesting mix between fantasy and science fiction, combining gods of mythology with technology.
  • It’s got cool quotes like “He who fights monsters should take care not to become one” (Nietzsche).
  • The genre is interesting, action combined with RPG, and the story is rich.
  • It’s releasing SOON!! On August 19 to be exact!

You can watch the trailer here or view the official site here.

You can also win a copy!!!

Fable II

I didn’t play the first Fable but I’ve read good reviews of it.

I want to play Fable II because:

  • The Fable series is an RPG with a difference. You can become a good or evil person based on your actions. In Fable II, you can get married and have children and the fate of your family depends also on your choices in the game.
  • You can start earning gold for the game from next week! Yes, you didn’t read wrong. You will be able to download Fable II Pub Games on Xbox LIVE Arcade. Points you earn from playing those games will be turned into actual gold pieces that will be deposited into your Fable II account when the game is live!

Fable II releases Oct 21, 2008.

Japanese RPGs

Fans of JRPGs will be really pleased to learn that several exciting titles are in the Xbox 360 lineup!

Starting with Tales of Vesperia by Namco Bandai, there’s going to be a slew of JRPGs to quench your gaming thirst!

Square Enix, the popular giant that made Final Fantasy, has committed to making an exclusive JRPG title for the Xbox 360.

Infinite Undiscovery is the title and – OMG – you must check out the website. It makes me want to play it now. I’m DYING to play it now.

Well, okay, mainly cos the music is so nice. Haha. But the game does look really good, too.

It’s coming on Sept 2!!

Also, Final Fantasy is finally coming to the Xbox 360! No dates yet, but expect to play Final Fantasy XIII on your Xbox! Let’s hope it comes sooner rather than later!

There are tons more games coming up:

Gears of War 2, Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise, The Last Remnant and Lips!

Aren’t you hyped?

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Sheylara in World Cyber Games

Yesterday, as part of the WCG celebrations, Microsoft Xbox hosted a press conference at Harry’s Millenia Walk, where I was introduced to the press.

So many journalists attended the event.

This is me before the event started, in my Xpert outfit.

After the event, I popped over to WCG in Suntec, where Bryan de Silva of RAZORTV interviewed me for, well, RAZORTV.

After the interview, Bryan challenged me to a game of Guitar Hero 3, which turned out to be quite hilarious.

I can’t tell you the results yet. Wait and watch on RAZORTV!

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Babes at World Cyber Games

There were fewer babes than I expected, but they were all very pretty!

Samsung babes:

Intel babes:

There are more, I believe. Go check ’em out yourself!

World Cyber Games is now on at Suntec Convention Centre Halls 402 & 403, until Sunday.

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Results of last week’s contest

Wow, lots of people wanted the Gran Turismo 5 windbreaker! Unfortunately, I only have one to give away.

Randomiser proclaims the winner of this awesome windbreaker to be Anlooo!

Congratulations, Anlooo! Randomiser loves you! Will contact you soon about your prize collection!

[Back to Table of Contents]

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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).

Nikhil asks an Xbox 360 question:

I have bought an Xbox 360 in singapore. I would like to know which format of Xbox 360 games I can use for my Xbox 360 (NTSCJ or PAL). Thanks.

Sheylara Says:

That would be NTSC-J. Remember to sign up for your free one-month LIVE Gold account to get free movie tickets! :) More info found here.

aig asks an Xbox 360 question:

Have you guys managed to make the Xbox Media Center work flawlessly? I have a Windows Vista laptop and I tried to set it up with my Xbox 360 Media Center feature. They can detect each other; problem is I am not able to play a video nor a picture slideshow on it because it is very slow. Ever had the same experience?

Sheylara Says:

We haven’t had a lot of success in this area, either, trying it on both wired and wireless connections. But there’s an alternative you can try, which works for us. Watch your video off a thumbdrive, which you can plug directly into the Xbox 360’s USB port. The playback is decent on that. :P

Anlooo asks a GGF question:

Can you do a section in PSP games review?

Sheylara Says:

I certainly welcome suggestions of what you guys want to see in GGF. However, I can’t promise that I will take up every suggestion. What appears on GGF every week is very dependent on my resources for the week and amount of time I have to work on it.

If a PSP game appears in my life, I will review it. If it doesn’t, I can’t. Maybe if game companies start sending me games to review, I will be able to do permanent sections, but not until then!

Alfred asks a Ninja Gaiden II question:

How to open the gate in Stage 5 where there’s a lot water???

Sheylara Says:

I believe you’re talking about the bridge gate in the Aqua Capital. There’s a shop directly opposite the gate, right? While facing the shop, you can see a small door on your right. Kick that down and go inside. You’ll find the key inside a chest.

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Win a fantastic game called Too Human!

Yes! I managed to wrangle a game for you guys to win! And it’s a game that I dearly want to play myself! I hope I can wrangle a copy for myself, too, when it releases!

This prize is kindly sponsored by the Xbox team in Singapore!

Well, I don’t have the physical copy yet since it won’t be released till Aug 19. That also means the winner won’t get a copy until then, too.

But let’s win it first!

The usual deal, okay, cos I don’t have time to think up anything fancy.

Post a comment saying you want it before next Friday.

Then go suck up to the randomiser so that it will pick you.

Good luck, everyone!!

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Woah, this has been quite a dizzying week. Lots of stuff happening, hyperventilation, general craziness.

And people publishing ugly photos of me in the papers. OMG.

I suppose that can’t be helped.

I want to thank all my friends and supporters for saying that you still love me even though I have ugly photos. You guys are the best and I love you!

[Gamer Girl Friday]

GGF#10: Updates from the gaming world

- Sheylara 13 Comments

[Gamer Girl Friday]

These days, I’m spending more time being a “journalist” than a gamer! I guess it comes with the territory of writing a gaming column.

Quite ironic that writing about games because I love playing games is deterring me from playing the games that I love writing about.

Hmm.

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Table of Contents

  1. WCG interviews Sheylara!
  2. WCG to attract female gamers
  3. Centrino 2 for enhanced laptop gaming
  4. Neopets creators announce a new MMOG
  5. Guitar Hero: World Tour plays on Rock Band
  6. Ninja Gaiden II t-shirts won!
  7. No one Asked Sheylara anything

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WCG interviews Sheylara!

So, there I was, innocently attending the World Cyber Games press conference as a member of the press, and then some peeps came up to me and said, “May we interview you, please?”

Which was kinda amusing, because press doesn’t get interviewed, press interviews. LOL.

Here’s the interview:

I should have told them about Gamer Girl Friday so they can mention it! But I kinda didn’t know at that time why and for what they were interviewing me. I just answered questions. Haha.

When I showed this to a friend, he rightly pointed out that I don’t speak like what’s reflected in that interview. A lot of what’s written has been dramatically rephrased from what I actually said (since there was no tape recorder present).

Guess I’m alright with that, as long as there are no scandalous misquotes.

[Back to Table of Contents]

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WCG to attract female gamers

World Cyber Games, the world’s first global cyber games festival and perhaps the most well-known, is doing something right this year (in my books.)

In an attempt to attract casual and female gamers, WCG has included Guitar Hero 3 (Xbox 360 version) in its 2008 lineup!

I can’t tell yet whether this strategy has been successful so far, but it’s certainly gotten my attention. I want to take part in it, except that I haven’t got time to practise. Argh.

Here’s the lineup of official WCG games for 2008:

I believe some of the games still have slots left for registration if you want to take part. Sign up here for the Singapore National Finals, which will be held on August 7 and 8 in Suntec Convention Centre.

The Asian Championship will be held in Singapore on August 9 and 10.

Incidentally, there was an F1 simulator at the press conference so I did me some F1 racing.

Got pwned.

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Centrino 2 for enhanced laptop gaming

Intel has just released its new Centrino 2 processor, which is set to own the next generation of laptops.

Until now, there’s been a lack of gaming laptop choices. Not anymore!

Well, the chip wasn’t built specifically for gaming, but it’s been built to cater to gamers, too.

You can start checking out computer shops now for laptops with an “Intel Centrino 2 inside” sticker. But give it a few more months maybe, and more models carrying this chip will probably be released.

Intel took a bunch of journos out to sea to show off their new baby. These people sure know how to party!

But that’s not really relevant for this article, so let me show you something more relevant.

A powerpoint page showing you the improvements of the Centrino 2 over its predecessor:

So, anyway, everything about the Centrino 2 is good. Faster, better, cooler everything. I don’t really want to elaborate on it because I’m not trying to be a salesman about it. So, go read about it yourself if you’re interested!

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Neopets creators announce a new MMOG

Don’t judge me but I’m a huge Neopets fan.

Well, it is a good site and a great concept, even if it’s mostly for kids.

Neopets has constantly evolved over the years to meet new demands, which is good, although I didn’t like the last major overhaul when they commercialised almost everything. But I can’t blame them for doing that. A business has got to grow and make money.

This new MMOG is called Twin Skies and it will feature a persistent world, pets and mini games (which you play to affect what happens to you in the persistent world).

According to the FAQs, the game might impose a monthly fee to keep it ads free, but it’s still undecided.

I like the game concept, anyway. I might try it out when it’s launched goodness knows when, time permitting.

I said, don’t judge me!

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Guitar Hero: World Tour plays on Rock Band

Much buzz has been generated from Activision’s recent announcement at E3. Apparently, you will be able to use Rock Band instruments to play Guitar Hero: World Tour.

That means Rock Band fans will be able to play GHWT without having to shell out ridiculous amounts of money to acquire yet more instruments.

This is a good direction. I was getting kind of worried that, by the time GHWT and RB2 releases, I’m going to have four guitars, three drum sets and three microphones fighting for space in my room.

The only duh spot in this is:

I don’t really want to play GHWT with RB1 drums. The GHWT drum set has five pads. RB1 only has four. Duh. One extra pad can make a lot of difference in terms of fun.


Guitar Hero: World Tour instruments

But it seems like Activision developers have hinted on the possibility of releasing updates to make GHWT and RB2 instruments compatible. Sweet if that happens.

Read more here.

[Back to Table of Contents]

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Ninja Gaiden II t-shirts won!

I have come to dread announcing contest results weekly.

I know that when I make an announcement, one person will be very happy but more will be disappointed.

I know the disappointment is minimal because, after all, my giveaways are small items. But disappointment is still disappointment, right?

But its still gotta be done. So, this week’s announcement:

Chong wins two Ninja Gaiden II t-shirts!! Wootage! Congratulations! Ding gratz!

I will be contacting you via e-mail soon about the collection of your prize.

Thanks to everyone who participated. Hope you win something next time!

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No one Asked Sheylara anything

Sheylara is taking a break from answering questions this week because no one asked her anything, can you believe it? Hah.

Good. People are learning the power of Google! ;)

[Back to Table of Contents]

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But there is no contest this week.

Sorry!

No, I haven’t run out of stuff to give away. It’s just that running even a simple contest takes a lot of time and I am swamped this month. I even considered postponing GGF this week, but then I had so much news I wanted to share.

I’m sure you understand. GGF is a personal project at this point of time and real life (paying jobs) have to take precedence.

By the way, Gamer Girl Friday recommends that you vote for Sheylara in the S’pore Blog Awards! (Yes, there is no escape for you until the voting periods ends with July.)

Thank you all.

Have yourself a great weekend and we’ll see you next week!

[Gamer Girl Friday]

It was Xbox 360’s birthday, but we got presents

- Sheylara 15 Comments

And the parties just keep coming. I could really get used to this!

Xbox 360 celebrated its second birthday on Thursday by inviting a group of bloggers to The Screening Room to play games.

Can anyone even think of a better way to celebrate a birthday??

It was a really exclusive party during which we were shown (and even allowed to try) upcoming highly-anticipated Xbox 360 game titles.

(The first part of my games preview report is out here.)

[Bloggers at Xbox 360 party]

I could really get used to this.

When we first arrived, we were tagged. I was told I was a ninja. Awesome blossom. We later found out that we had been split into groups for the gaming competition. Exciting.

(I was faintly disappointed that we didn’t get ninja costumes to wear but I guess I’m alone in this. Haha.)

Anyway, the first thing we did was just to mingle around and talk shop (games).

[Talking shop]

We posed for pictures.

[Posing for pictures]
(Blogger Farinelli, Microsoft rep Ian Tan and blogger Sheylara)

We watched “live” game demos.

[Watching demos]

The photo above shows me videotaping the Dragonball Z game which I embedded in my earlier blog. Now you know what lousy equipment I’m using for my videos. Haha.

We tried out Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3.

[Being rock stars]

Although I should say “they”, because I already have Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3 at home.

We ate yummy food!

[Being gluttons]

That mini burger is to die for, man. I love it! But I only ate one (and a stuffed chicken wing) because I was so so busy talking about games and playing games!!

We drooled at divine yummy host Oli Pettigrew.

[Ogling Oli]

At least I think the women did.

Oli’s a gamer, too, which makes him perfect for the job of hosting the party.

There was so much to do at the party and so little time.

There was a competition!!

We had four teams of 4-5 members each. Our teams had cool names like Ninja (my team!), Rockstar, Covenant and Ghost.

The games being competed in were Bomberman, Guitar Hero 3 and Project Gotham Racing 4. One or two representatives from each team were sent to play each game and wins were tallied at the end.

Jerrick and I represented our team for Guitar Hero 3!

[Guitar Maniacs]

Well, we didn’t score the highest on GH3. I’m actually much better at drums.

But… OUR TEAM WON in the final tally!!

I could hardly believe it!

Team Ninja won!!! Haha. Cool or not? Team Ninja, like the developer for Ninja Gaiden.

Okay lah, fine, I have no shame.

Anyway, we won this.

[Team Ninja posing with prizes]

Grand Theft Auto IV long-sleeve t-shirts! OH-MY-GAWD.

I am such a game freak, getting excited over such things.

And this is, like, the third t-shirt I’ve won within a week!! (One is for the Ping.sg game and another was at an event I haven’t blogged about yet because I have too many things to blog about recently!)

Actually, I was a very lousy team mate. While my mates were competing in the other games, I was busy elsewhere chatting, eating, playing games, talking shop, instead of cheering them on. Haha. Sorry lah, guys!

But I love my team! You all rock!

There was a birthday-song-birthday-cake routine at the end. But the birthday cake was really special. It was a bunch of mini cakes! *lol*

[Xbox birthday cake]

Very innovative, and no messy cake cutting, either!

We were each given one to hold while we sang the birthday song. And all of us blew our own candle out. Cool, huh?

[Happy Birthday Xbox 360]

So we all had our cakes and ate it, too!

[Having our cake and eating it]

Microsoft very kindly gave away a Limited Edition Xbox 360 for the lucky draw.

And Farinelli won it!

[Big winner!]
(Lucky draw winner Farinelli poses with Microsoft’s Alan Chou and host Oli Pettigrew)

I am so jealous of him because it’s a special Halo 3 edition!!! But I’m also glad he won because he’s my team mate! And I already have an Xbox 360, anyway.

Way to go, Farinelli!!

It was Xbox 360’s birthday, but we all got presents, instead! This is my favourite kind of birthday party!!! Hahahaha.

[Goodie bags]

Let’s see what’s in the goodie bag!

[Our presents]

Two t-shirts, one of which is a limited edition Xbox 360, only 60 pieces made!

One Xbox 360 black wireless controller.

GTA4 stickers and coasters.

Fantastic!

I realise I have tons and tons of exclamation marks in this blog entry which makes me sound like a bimbo!!!

I’m sorry!! But I can’t help it because I’m so happy and excited!!!!

More parties, please!!!

Okay.

Bimbo-geek Sheylara signing out.

Bzzzt.

I’m so busy I’m turning psychotic

- Sheylara 25 Comments

And now, I’m going to recap my past two weeks, in case people don’t believe me when I tell them that I’ve been busy to the point of psychosis.

Starting with a party.

Nov 24 (Sat) — Drunken Guitar Heroes

I organised a party for my delinquent friends, luring them with Krispy Kreme donuts (all 3 dozen of ’em, courtesy of my favourite Hong Kong-based cousin who goes by the endearing moniker of Monster).

At the party, I made everyone play battle mode in Guitar Hero 3. The loser of each battle had to drink a shot from an unwanted bottle of raspberry vodka that had followed our group from party to party for two years because nobody ever wants to drink it.

We all ended up pretty drunk (because I made sure everyone took turns to play and lose) and had to crash at J&J’s place overnight. Was planning to blog about this (I have incriminating videos! Wahaa!) but haven’t had time to sort out the pics and vids yet.

Nov 25 (Sun) — Free And Easy (Not)

I say free and easy because I had no appointments. But free and easy is not as free and easy as it sounds. It just means I could stay home to nurse my hangover work on any number of things piling up on my metaphorical in-tray — advertorials, scripts, blogs, rehearsals.

Nov 26 (Mon) — New Project In The Works

Met up with some folks to discuss a video blogging project that was supposed to have started this week but got delayed due to technical setbacks. (Which was actually fortunate because I don’t know how I would have found the time to work on it otherwise.)

Nov 27 (Tue) — Playing Truant To Work

I skipped ABT (gym) class for the fifth consecutive week. Not because of laziness (as is usually the case) but because I’ve been so busy meeting deadlines that exercise has to wait.

Spent the day slaving over my script for 3 Men Meet 3 Women, instead, because I needed to cough it out, pronto.

Nov 28 (Wed) — Anti-Smoking Crusade

I’m acting in this anti-smoking play designed to persuade staff in the civil service to quit smoking. Yes, it’s an educational play but we try to make it funny so that it distracts our audience into forgetting to be annoyed by the messagy nature of the play.


(Rehearsal picture taken at Health Promotion Board auditorium)

We go to exciting places like airbases to perform. (Actually, it’s a pain to go to those places because of all the security procedures at entry and exit points.)

On this day, we had two shows to perform at two different locations, one of which was Tengah Airbase. I made a discovery there: If you park your car backside in, it will get towed away. An officer kindly alerted us to that fact when we made the mistake of parking our vehicle like normal Singaporeans do. But he didn’t want to explain why.

Nov 29 (Thu) — First Rehearsal

I had my first rehearsal for 3 Men Meet 3 Women, which I already blogged about.

Nov 30 (Fri) — Trying To Plug Holes

I was able to get properly psychotic today because I didn’t have any engagments. So I was forced to stay home and work on the damn script, which had just been shot full of holes from the previous day’s rehearsal. Spent all day stressing over plugging the holes. Didn’t make much progress because I was too panicky to concentrate properly.

Dec 1 (Sat) — Crying At Auditions And Laughing At Parties

I auditioned for a feature film and cried real tears when performing a monologue which I only had 10 minutes to prepare. It’s really liberating and fulfilling when that happens. Actually, I always find it easier to cry on fresh material than on prepared pieces. I don’t know if other actors are that way.

After my audition, I rushed to Morte’s birthday dinner. (Late again.) The plan was to surprise him with dinner and a birthday cake. But because Morte is an inquisitive dongo who likes to sneak up behind his wife and peek at her MSN conversations, which, during one inopportune night, involved secret birthday party plans, he already knew everything even before the day arrived.

After dinner, we came to my place for Drunken Guitar Heroes Part 2.

Don Juan de Porko (picture, left) showed us the alternative way to mash buttons. (Check out his left hand.)

The Goonfather commented on this photo: “F**king Stamford Raffles or guitar hero, siah??”

Well, I don’t know who or what The Goonfather himself was trying to be when he struck this pose (below).

But I do know it’s the best pose to strike if you’re in the mood for cramping both your arms before the song is done.

Dec 2 (Sun) — Meeting Ate My Social Time

A technical meeting was held to discuss – duh – technicalities and logistics for 3 Men Meet 3 Women.

I wanted to discuss my script with the director, producer and my partner, but there wasn’t enough time and I had to rush off to watch the Slingers. I even sacrificed half the basketball match by leaving the meeting later than I’d planned.

Dec 3 (Mon) — Mission Complete

Today was the ultimate do-or-die day. I absolutely had to rewrite a passable script even if it killed me. Countdown to performance: 11 days.

So I sat down and forced myself to keep working at it no matter how many times I got stuck. I would write one page, then get up to walk around my room complaining, “I’m stuck!” and pulling my hair out, then sit down again and write some more.

Using that method, I finally completed the script despite being horrendously tired from lack of sleep. I did-and-didn’t-die!

Dec 4 (Tue) — Happy Big Project

Met up with a bunch of happy people to talk about starting a new theatre/media group so we can create our own platforms to do the things we love to do. There are already several ideas we want to work on as soon as we have time. This is the way to live life, is it not!

Dec 5 (Wed) — Hobnobbing With Elites After A Long Day Of Work

I had a corporate photoshoot at Singapore Polytechnic. Not for SP but for Ministry of Manpower (related to my Promoting Singapore video). Photoshoots are generally boring because they don’t engage me actively, since I have to stay still in specific poses. Staying still too much makes me want to jump and dance and run around a football field yelling at the top of my voice. But photoshoots are easy jobs that pay well for minimal effort so I like them for that.

From the photoshoot, I had to rush to NYU Tisch Asia for a party. I was half an hour late. Then again, is there such a thing as “late for a party”?

Wasn’t really a party, actually. It was a mixer, the purpose of which was to allow potential future hotshot actors and potential future hotshot directors to network. Many of those potential future hotshot directors came up to me to say they recognised me from the two short films I had acted in for their coursemates, and to congratulate me for doing a really great job. I hope they were all genuine compliments.

Dec 6 (Thur) — Qiaoyun The Blogger, Qiaoyun The Model

Was invited to Samsung office, together with a small group of bloggers, to talk about blogging, new media, gadgets and yet another project, which I can’t reveal now. It was a fun meeting. Strangely, no one took any photos.

Right after that was a 3 Men Meet 3 Women rehearsal. We did hotseating today. In theatre terms, that means an actor gets into character and has to answer questions thrown at him by the director and/or other actors. All questions must be answered in character. It’s a cool way to explore a character deeper and to test how much an actor knows his role.

Throughout the hotseating, my director claimed, the way I physically sat screamed “Qiaoyun the model” instead of my character. Well, I sat the way I thought my character, a high society lady, would sit, like all proper and posey, you know?

Dec 7 (Fri) — OMG Reshoot

We had to reshoot an episode of Snap! (the kids drama now showing on Channel 8, Sundays, 10:30 am) because one episode was dropped for inappropriate content (which is subjective, in my opinion). So we had to shoot a new episode with a new script to replace the dropped one. My hair is now four inches longer than in the other episodes. I hope no one notices.

Today — No Rest For The Weary

Attended a Philips press event for bloggers (I’m really tickled and a little disconcerted that bloggers are more and more being recognised as an alternative for conventional press). I’m sure you’ll be reading about the event pretty soon from some popular blogs in the Singapore blogosphere. I can’t talk about it now because I have to rush off (yet again) for a rehearsal after posting this blog.

SEE I NEVER BLUFF YOU ALL.

I’m working on so many things at the same time that I don’t have time to tidy up my wardrobe, which is now looking like a tornado hit a clothing store and dumped its spoils into it.

I don’t have photos for many of the activities I mentioned above because all the rushing about saps my energy. I don’t have any strength left to even take my camera out. Haha. I mean, I do enjoy every meeting, every rehearsal and every project. But the fact that they’re all clamouring for my attention at the same time is killing me.

I’ve been rushing from one thing to another so much that it’s a wonder I can keep track of what’s going on.

When I bump into people recently and they ask, “How have you been?” I give a tired look and say “Busy.”

If they ask, “Busy with what?” I’m speechless because I don’t know how to start answering.

Next time someone asks again, I’m going to answer, “I’m so busy I’m turning psychotic” and then give them the link to this post.