Old McDonald had a Garage Sale ...ee, i, ee, i, oooo...

Sorry I haven't been updating my blog lately. There are a few stuff running through my head but as soon as I try to write them down, it just went to pieces. *sigh*

Anyway, I saw this ad on a post board outside a supermarket. Struck me as funny how someone can be selling this so cheap and in such a nonchalant way. Do you have any idea how much it cost just to keep one alive? lol.

Game Rant

Game:- Fatal Frame III : The Tormented
Developer:- Tecmo

Once in a blue moon, my brother would actually manage to do something right. This time he went ahead and got Fatal Frame III : The Tormented. It’s developed and published by Tecmo, which is also responsible for the famous ‘Monster Rancher’ and ‘Dead or Alive’ series.

Main char, a young woman, Rei Kurosawa, spots her dead boyfriend roaming in a haunted mansion. After the incident she visits the ‘spirit world’ only when she sleeps. This storyline offers the player to visit both the scary place and the ‘real realm’. The more she investigates, the more her ‘Curse’ (a painful, yakuza styled, snake like tattoo) spreads on her body.

At first glance I assumed that it’s no different from it predecessor Crimson Butterfly. Perverted spooks walking about, trying to maim you or the least, try to grab the character’s chest. The only thing the she’s got is a torchlight and an old wonky ‘Camera Abscura’.

This is the original part from other survival horror games I’ve played. The camera. To fight it out with the angry spooks the char has to pretend she’s in a photo shoot where all the models sport the latest fashion seen on the catwalks of the netherworld. Blood shot eyes, missing or disjointed limbs and ‘Ju-On’ hair styles are all the rage, baby, yeah!

Take enough fab shots of the spooks strutting their stuff (especially when they come charging at the char with eyes and mouth wide open) and they will moan into disappearance. However, don’t be fooled, unlike in Crimson Butterfly where when you beat a semi-boss spook, it’s gone forever. In The Tormented, they stay tormented, so be snap ready at all times.

Throughout the game you accumulate points and find additional lens to upgrade the camera with making it easier to shoot and beat the spooks.

Another spin in this game is that you don’t stick with one char throughout the whole game. You get to play as a man and a child later on. You would even get to meet the stars from Crimson Butterfly, the twins.

Not recommended for the faint hearted, I played Crimson Butterfly with a natural fear factor like high, but this one has me making excuses to switch it off, only to go back playing it again within an hour.

Friendly Fire

Last evening while I was waiting in line at a supermarket counter when I realized the person right in front of me was my cousin from my mother side.

”Cousin? How nice to see you! Why didn’t you say something? I almost didn’t recognize you. How are you? I heard you just had a baby girl!”

*what am I suppose to say again? Oh yeah congratulations, say it, say it.*

“Ah cousin Knife, sorry there, I also didn’t recognize you. I kept wondering if you are cousin Knife or not. Just haven’t seen you for so long. How are you? Is your mom well?”

*what you mean you didn’t recognize me? I saw you looking at me. If I didn’t take the initiative to say hello, we would be absolute strangers!*

“Yes, she’s just fine. You know hashing and stuff. Haha. Is that your son? What a handsome little man he is.”

*He is adorable. I wish I can go over and coo over him. Hi little darling, I’m your auntie Knife.*

“Yes that’s my son, he’s 1yr old already and that’s my husband there, I would introduce you to him but my in laws are waiting for us in the car, so we’re kinda rushing here. Haha…”

*Woah, that’s her husband? Hold the phone! That is one delicious looking muffin! *

“Oh, er, that’s alright, you go on now, better not keep them waiting but promise you’d drop by the shop for a chat sometime, ok?”

”Sure I will. Bye cousin.”

”Bye.”

Now this got me thinking and I confessed a little worried. This cousin of mine is only older than me by 2 years. Now she’s with two kids and a husband. My mom told me that her hospital room (when she gave birth) was like a florist shop. Flowers everywhere.

What I’m seriously worried about is not about my single status but that of my gossipy aunts. They will probably start asking my mom when her eldest daughter is gonna get hitched? After all she’s 26, er, 25 already and tick tock tick tock dear.

I bet many people hear this all the time. Not only are there sibling rivalry but here we have to deal with cousin competitions as well. Instead of the “My daddy can whoop your daddy’s ass” kind of comparisons, this is “My daughter can out marry your daughter.” Or “My son can land a better job than your son.”

Of course, being adults this is never said in one’s face. It’s done with tact and finesse befitting the best strategists.

Senario Example:

“Mrs X long time no see! How’s your family doing? How’s your daughter? I heard she works for this-this company.”

“Yes Mrs Y, she just got the job last week and she did mention some stress but I’m sure youngsters these days have it easier than we do. She’s already planning a trip to Korea (jealousy arrows FIRE!) this august to ‘reward herself’, well, as long as she pays the bills, I’m not complaining. I’m sure your son experience the same stress in his job with that-that company.”

“Oh yes, youngster these days have no backbone, I’m sure, but it’s all about the money. It’s enough to keep the family together and put food on the table I suppose. I mean I don’t know what his boss would do without him really, keep sending him overseas to china, korea, japan, (warning! Warning! Arrows deflected, launched heat seeking Envy Missiles!) you just can’t imagine the stress he’s on. He even doesn’t have the time to see his fiancée sometimes (Lock target! Aim! Fire!), poor girl.”

“Hmm yes, poor girl… ( Target hit! Damage control!) oh well, Mrs Y, I would love to chat all day but I’m late for a church meeting already.”

“Oh yes, yes, I’ll talk to you next time. I have to get home as well, have to cook dinner soon. See ya!”

“See ya!”

This is a typical scenario where Mrs X would go home and start nagging her daughter. *sigh* Yes I know it very well. My mom has 8 siblings and all together I have 20 cousins although my mom compares me with only 10 of them cuz they are around my age. This bugs me immensely because I for one like my cousins a lot and am particularly close to a few. That is why when my own mother nags me about this cousin’s job or that cousin’s marriage, I keep quiet.

I admit I have a little green eyed monster in me but it’s not a big one. Still, it’s annoying. There was a time when she nags I would fret about it but now, not really. It’s because I realized it’s not fair to keep comparing myself with others, especially those who are related to me or even more important, who I respect.

In a sense I can understand my mother only wanted me to improve my own life. Any mother would only want what’s best for her own children, right?

Book Rant

Title: Confessions of a Shopaholic
Author: Sophie Kinsella

On a frist look the cover’s bright, almost too bright, like those girls in pink outfits complete with pink bags and shoes. No decent man would be caught dead with this book because not only for it's cover but also for it's intimate desription of a very scary world of a regular working woman in England.

Rebecca Bloomwood is a 25yr old with all the worst and the best of luck. She’s a shopaholic and a desperate one. Overdrawn in credit cards, she’s got bankers on her shadow and bargain sales in her sight. She would twitch and squirm if not in a place of new bright shiny purchasable goods. Tell her it’s on sale, it’s one of a kind and it can be charged on either visa or master, she’s hooked.

Every new working woman can sympathize with poor Rebecca. The more depressed she gets with her debts, her lack of social life, the more she spends and yet many can understand the kind of rut she gets herself into because let’s face it, we have been (or still are) there or worse, are going to be. Women, for some reason, have no will power against shopping.

Add to that, she seems to have the knack in winding up in the most hilarious and embarassing situations. A nut in a rut, she frantically tries to find ways to wipe out her debt problems, even date a millionaire?

A good light read to tickle the funny bone. I reckon is book is worth charging to one's visa card.