I live a sheltered life

Despite the fact that I should be working right now, something happened last night which I just have to get down in writing before I forget. What happened last night has never happened to me before in my thirty somethings years of life (hey, I live a sheltered life) - so you can understand why I am typing this blog when I should be working and why I am typing it today instead of tomorrow.

As I mentioned yesterday, I am back in Beijing. Last night, after dinner, I headed straight back to the hotel. This was around 9:00pm at night so it wasn't very late.

Just as I got to the entrance of the hotel, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, a woman approaching me. I'm guessing she was going to ask me for directions. For some reason, everywhere I go, people like to ask me for directions. I have no idea why this is the case - maybe I have a wise face?

Before I actually get to her, she mumbles something which I couldn't hear. To be honest, I couldn't be bothered explaining to her that I wasn't familiar with BJ (as I said before, my mandarin is v poor) so I just said to her in English, "Sorry, I don't understand". I figured this would make her realise I wasn't local.

However, she immediately switched to English and said "oh, you no speak China". Admittedly, not great English but I did understand her meaning. Considering its a foreign language to her, its impressive that she can speak it at all.

Anyway, she then pulls out a business card and says to me "if you need a girl, call me"...

I swear to God, she had an actual business card!! I still have trouble dealing with this. I mean, what next - an IPO listing?!

Anyway, for suspense, I will stop the story here and not tell you what I did next.
:p

Dodgy Beijing taxi driver

I owe a huge thank you to my friend in Beijing.

You see, I am now back in Beijing. I got in last night and as usual, I took a taxi from the airport to the hotel (after all, the company is footing the bill). Normally, I wouldn't have a clue as to which route would be the best - which basically means that I am normally at the mercy of the taxi driver to take the best route. Its no surprise when I tell you that I have been conned by taxi's before.

Last time I was in BJ, my friend showed me a map of BJ and explained to me how the road system works. In Beijing, there are several major roads which run in concentric rings around the center of BJ. Basically, to get anywhere in BJ, you need to get onto one of these concentric rings and then follow the ring round. Which ring you go to depends on which road you need to get to.

Some roads will be served by several rings. In this case, taking one of the outside rings means that you end up with a significantly longer journey. Bear in mind that the outside ring, simply by virtue of the fact that it is further out, means that you will be traveling in a larger circle.

The airport in BJ is just outside Ring 5. The hotel I am staying in is right in the center of BJ. To get to the hotel from the airport means that you have to cross all 5 Rings. Normally, the taxi driver would take Ring 2 or 3 (or sometimes even Ring 4 if they believe there may be big traffic jams).

The taxi driver yesterday took Ring 5 - which means a pretty large detour.

I immediately asked him why he took Ring 5 instead of one of the inner Rings. He gave me some wishy washy excuse. At least, I assume it was wishy washy as he didn't sound very confident. I don't actually know what he said as my mandarin is very poor and the taxi driver spoke too quickly for me to understand.

I immediately started to practice my mandarin - preparing to argue with him about why I wasn't going to pay extra for his detour. However, when we were nearing the hotel, the taxi driver, once again, explained his (wishy washy) reason for taking Ring 5 and then said that I could pay what I pay normally.

End result - I payed what I payed last time and saved a chunk of money (relative to the actual price shown on the taxi meter). Granted, even if I had payed the taxi meter amount, I would have claimed back the amount as expenses. However, the point is that no-one likes being conned.

So - huge thank you to my friend for explaining how the road system in BJ works.

Game journalism

Over on my game blog, I have finally posted my review of Gears of War. I will be honest and say that I can't believe how difficult it has been to write a game review.

When I first started my games blog, it was mainly an area for me to write game reviews and talk about gaming issues and the game experiences that I have had. The reason that I put it in a separate blog was to segregate it from this blog as most of my friends aren't really into videogames - hence they wouldn't be interested in reading about them. Thus a separate blog allows me to voice my opinion while still keeping my main blog relatively interesting for non gamers.

Now, as I said above, one of the features of my game blog was going to be game reviews. The blog itself was started in January and my review of the game Gears of War was one of the first thngs I started to write. We are now nearing the end of March - 2 months later.

Clearly, I don't have the skills to be a video game journalist.

Having said that, trying to write a game review has really boosted my respect for gaming journalists and journalists in general. I don't play that many games (despite what my wife says!) and the games I do play are generally meticulously researched before I buy them. I read lots of game reviews before buying a game and I have always enjoyed reading other peoples reviews.

Their ability to make the review interesting and informative at the same time is truly incredible. Even more so now that I realise how hard it is.

Now, more than ever, I really miss Greg Kasavin.

Portable Power (Part 2)

Recently, I posted about Portable Power. Since then, I wandered over to Wanchai Computer City to see what brands were available. Turns out there aren't any available to buy over there.

Undeterred, I wandered over to Tsuen Wan. Unfortunately, the only brand they had for sale there was the Zap model which I linked to last time. The problem is that the Zap model doesn't cover enough of my gadgets to make it worthwhile.

So, can anyone recommend a model of Portable Power for me? Also, where can I go to buy it?

The gadgets which I need the Portable Power for are:

1. Palm Treo 650
2. ipod nano
3. NDS

Also, ideally, the Portable Power would also be able to charge a Moto or Nokia phone.

Any suggestions?

Badminton VG

For those who bothered to read my profile - you would have noted that I only have 2 interests written down. One is badminton. The other is video games.

Now for some reason, these 2 hobbies seem to be mutually exclusive. Almost every other sport seems to have video game versions available - eg Football (Fifa, Winning Eleven), Tennis (Virtua Tennis, Top Spin), American Football (Madden, Blitz), Basketball (NBA Live, NBA 2k), Golf (Tiger Woods, Panya) etc and so forth. The list is almost endless. Even table tennis has a video game (more than 1 in fact!). Even for sports which don't have commercial video games available, you will often find several flash versions available online somewhere.

However, trying to find a badminton game is almost impossible despite the fact that badminton is the second most popular sport in the world (Football is numero uno). So if badminton is so popular, how come no one ever made a badminton video game?

Well, fret not sports fans cos the Meister has you covered! I was finally able to locate a badminton flash game (actually, I got sent the link ages ago - but hey, same diff. Besides, I needed some time to master the game).

Unfortunately, after playing it, I think I can understand why badminton games are so rare.

The problem is depth perception. In badminton, you need to be able to tell instantly whether the bird is flying high or dropping low (or in english, whether the shuttle is a high clear or a drop shot). Unfortunately, due to poor depth perception in video games (which are inherently 2d), it is very hard to tell this onscreen. Go ahead and try out the flash game if you don't believe me.

So whats the solution? To be honest, not sure. The first idea I had was to make the game slower so you had more time to judge the flight of the shuttle. However, this seems to defeat the purpose of badminton (did you know that shuttles have clocked in at over 200mph?!).

Another idea I had was to have the viewpoint low down and just behind the player (in effect, simulating what you would see in real life). Unfortunately, this wouldn't work either as you often have to run up and down the court in badminton. Can you imagine how frustrating it would be if you lost sight of the shuttle everytime the opponent played a high clear when you are at the net?

My last idea was to have the viewpoint low and far back ie behind the court. Unfortunately, I'm not sure this would work either. Unlike tennis, the net in badminton is very high. If you have the viewpoint far back, the net would basically hide your opponent which would make it very frustrating during net play situations.

So basically, my conclusion is that a video game version of badminton (that is fun to play!) is impossible. Hence none have ever been made.

I told my friend the above story but he had a different conclusion. His conclusion was that I should stick to playing games and leave the game design to professionals.
:p

Scary Movies

When I was a kid, I used to love watching horror movies. I would deliberately stay up late and watch old reruns of the Hammer Horror films. As time passed, and I grew older, I grew less fond of watching horror movies.

However, this isn't because I dislike the genre. The problem is that most Hollywood horror movies follow a very basic formula. Every time you hear creepy music, you know something is about to unexpectedly pop up on screen (be it ghost or pet). This pop up on screen is invariably followed by a loud screeching noise.

In short - most horror movies today are more about shock than actual horror. Granted, there are exceptions but most horror movies just don't feel very scary. To be honest, the old Hammer Horror movies probably aren't very scary either - but its amazing how easy it is to please a kid. I guess as an adult, its not so easy to be scared by a horror movie.

Anyway, the reason I brought this up is that I have recently been playing F.E.A.R. on my X360. You can read about my impressions of it by checking out my gaming blog (link on the right). Alternatively, you can go direct to my F.E.A.R. impressions here. Now, as I said above, most horror movies don't make me feel scared. In fact, I can't think of any horror movies which make me feel scared although there are several which make me feel a little creepy. However, F.E.A.R. is a genuinely scary game (also packs in lots of creepy suspense).

I've been thinking about this and I think its to do with the interactive nature of a videogame. You see, F.E.A.R. is a first person shooter. What this basically means is that you only see on screen what the character in the game sees. The idea of this is to put you in the game - make you feel as if you are the one firing a gun, dodging bullets etc.

However, in F.E.A.R., this also means that I feel as if I am the one creeping around in dark corridors, frightened that at any moment, Alma is going to pop out and blow me 30 feet through the air. And its amazing how scary that can be.

And guess what ... it feels just like being a kid again.

Ruth's Chris Steak House

Apologies for the late post - didn't get home till very late last night and was too tired to post.

The reason I was out so late was because my wife and I, for no particular reason, decided to go out for a nice meal. As we hadn't had steak in a while, we decided to go to Ruth's Chris Steak House - my favourite steak joint. Admittedly, I haven't been to every steak house in HK - but of the ones I have been to, Ruth's Chris is far and away the best.

The steaks there are juicy, succulent, tender and have a great beef taste. In addition, when you ask for your steak medium rare, they actually deliver the steak to you as medium rare! You will be surprised at how many restaurants can't even do this simple thing.

So, last night, we went with the set meal. I ordered a 16oz New York Strip (hey - long time no steak!) which was delish. As I mentioned above - juicy, succulent, tender and a great beef taste!

As part of the set meal, we also got an apperitif, a soup (cream of tomato - very smooth and creamy - delish!), desert and tea/coffee. The desert was originally meant to be ice cream. However, we paid extra and I upgraded to the creme brulee. The creme brulee, as with everything else in Ruth's Chris, is superb. It is very smooth and creamy.

All in all, a superb meal. If you are looking for fabulous steaks and don't mind paying through the nose, you really can't go wrong with Ruth's Chris Steak House.

Instincts

I'm a firm believer that the subconcious mind picks up and processes a lot of data that your conscious mind doesn't (while doing it much more quickly to boot). Subsequently, your subconscious passes this info on to you via your instincts. As such, I tend to trust my instincts.

Of course, being a typical boorish guy, my conscious mind can only contemplate 2 things so its not like I have much choice (in case you're wondering, those 2 things are food and sex - and not necessarily in that order!).

This manifested itself recently when I was playing F.E.A.R. on my X360. I only recently acquired this game although I had played a little on my brother's PC when I was in Singapore. You can check out my initial thoughts on the PC version here (I'll post my thoughts on the X360 version later). I know I promised to keep my gaming comments in my gaming blog but bear with me.

I was in a shootout with a bunch of super-soldiers (doing quite a good job too, thank you very much). There are a couple of them holed up in a large room and I occasionally step out from cover and drill one with bullets. However, at some point, my instincts kick in. For some reason, I am 100% sure that there are bad guys behind me (and its not because I got shot in the back).

I spin around and sure enough, there is a soldier who circled around behind me and is about to shoot me. Quickly activating my bullet time, I manage to take him down before he does any serious damage to me. However, afterwards, I got to thinking - how did I know he was there?

Thinking back on it now, I can spot the various clues which gave it away. For example:

• the faint sound of footsteps from the speaker;
• a yell of "flank him" from the soldiers earlier on in the battle;
• a couple of soldiers running around inside the room - but not running at me;
• an ambush in a similar situation before when I was playing this game in Singapore.

Looking at the clues above, it is obvious that I was about to be shot in the back. But when I was playing, I didn't have time to slowly analyse the situation. All I had was a split second where my instincts were telling me to turn around.

And I trusted them.

Portable Power

Nowadays, I tend to do a lot of traveling. In the past, my business trips were mainly to Shanghai once a month. However, in future, I will also need to travel to Beijing more regularly.

Although this has its upside, there are certain undeniable downsides. Of course, the obvious one is that I get to spend less time with Gerry (Its amazing how much I miss him even though I only travel for a couple of days at a time - just look how cute he is with his little biscuit!).

The other downside is that I have to carry multiple multiple power adaptors for all the different gadgets that I use. In addition to being a pain to carry all that extra baggage, it also raises the risk of me accidentally losing one of my adaptors.

The last time I was at the airport, I had some spare time so spent some time wandering around the shops. I came across a portable power adaptor. Basically, its a rechargeable battery that you can use to recharge other gadgets (you can find a sample power adaptor here). If I buy one of these, I no longer need to carry so many adaptors around with me when I travel. The problem is cash. These things cost around HK$400-HK$600. Although not expensive, its enough to put a dent in my wallet.

So here's the crux - is the extra convenience of only carrying 1 adaptor worth the cost?

Beijing Kao Ya (Part 2)

As promised - here is my review of the Peking Roast Duck I had.

My friend took me to a local restaurant which apparently is quite popular with HK people (Unfortunately, I don't know the name). The main reason for this is that, unlike many of the other Beijing restaurants, the duck in this restaurant is less fatty but still very delicious.

The first thing to note is that the Peking Roast Duck you get in Beijing is a very different style to the one you get in HK (assuming of course, that the restaurant I went to is representative of Beijing). Before I go on, I guess I should explain what a Peking Roast Duck is (for all one of you who have never had one!)

To start with, the chef takes a duck and, after appropriate seasoning, roasts it until it turns a nice shade of brown. Then the duck is sliced into even pieces - which is how the dish is served to the customer. The customer takes up a slice (or two) of duck, dips it into the accompanying sauce, and places it onto a pancake. Next are added some sliced cucumbers and onions. This is then wrapped up and scoffed down!

So now that you are suitably up to speed on the HK style, how does the Beijing style differ?

To start with, when they slice the duck, they deliberately slice off a section of skin. This skin, which has no meat on it, is then presented to you for separate eating from the pancake. You pick up the skin and dip it into some sugar. This gives the skin a sweet and savoury taste as the skin melts in your mouth - delish!

The condiments also differ in Beijing. The onions and cucumber are still in evidence - however, they are sliced into very thin slices in Beijing. In addition to this, you also get some other stuff which I wasn't able to identify (with the exception of 1 dish which I managed to identify as crushed garlic).

Finally, the duck bones in Beijing get used to make a soup which is served to you at the end of the meal. In HK, after cutting off some slices of meat, they just take the bones away.

All in all - very nice! Although not the best duck I have ever had (in fact, my friend was disappointed as he said that the duck there is normally better - possibly they were too busy that night?), I still enjoyed it very much - especially with the different style to HK.

Can't wait to go back to Beijing and eat more duck! Next time, I might even get a whole duck to myself!
:)

PS Many thanks to my friend for showing me round Beijing and taking me to so many nice restaurants!

Scott Adams Dilbert

Scott Adams Dilbert

I just want to take this opportunity to say Hi to Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert and all round comic genius!

In case you don't understand the above, check out this blog post by Scott Adams.

For those too lazy to read the link, here is a summary. Scott Adams has subscribed to Google Alerts. Anytime someone uses the keywords above (ie Scott Adams Dilbert), Scott will receive an update with a link to the blog which had the words.

In other words, Scott Adams could be reading my blog - right now!! :)

Or at least, he could have been if it weren't for the fact that by now, everyone and his dog have already created blog threads using those keywords resulting in a gazillion hits, all in a vain attempt to get Scott Adams to read their blogs! Damn. Stupid fanbois!

Still, it was worth a try, right?

PS For those waiting my comments on the Peking Roast Duck - apologies as it was hijacked by this post about Scott Adams! I will post my review on Friday.

Beijing Kao Ya!

People who know me know that I like eating (or to use a more appropriate term - stuffing my face!).

One of my fav foods is the Peking Roast Duck. I love a nice Peking Roast Duck - nice succulent meat, crispy brown roast skin, onions and sweet sauce all wrapped up in a soft pancake. Yum. Makes me hungry just thinking about it!

Which makes me very happy that I finally get a chance to travel to Beijing today. In fact, this post is brought to you via my Palm Treo 650 (again) as I am currently at the airport. This is also my very first trip to Beijing so I am very excited!

Luckily, I have a friend in Beijing who says that he knows a really good place for Peking Roast Duck. I've been told that most of the local restaurants in Beijing do a Peking Duck for the local customers - and as a result, most people from Hong Kong don't like them (due to different taste preferences). However, my friend assures me that I will like the restaurant he is taking me too. :)

I wonder which restaurant he is taking me too? According to Wikipedia, there are 2 restaurants in Beijing which are famous for doing Peking Roast Duck. One is called Quanjude and the other is called Bianyifang and both have a history of over 100 years!

Most probably, we are going to neither of them. Either way, look forward to another restaurant review on Wednesday!

Papa razzi

Wow - posting quite late today. The reason is that I'm only just back from dinner. I went out for dinner today with a group of old friends. Basically, we meet up 4 times a year - once for each of our birthdays.

We went to a restaurant called Papa razzi, located in Knutsford Terrace in TST. Knutsford Terrace is basically a strip of multinational themed restaurants. There is a huge variety of different foods available there including Italian, Chinese, Turkish, Aussie grill, Oyster bar etc. There is even a cigar bar there.

Papa razzi, as you can tell from the name, is an italian restaurant. Very limited pizza selection - mainly focusing on primo and secondo piatti. The place is quite expensive - we paid HK$970 which didn't include any wine. Having said that, the food is very nice (not the best pasta I have ever had but still nice).

For starters, we had some garlic bread - which arrived hot from the oven (very nice) - together with some deep fried seafood (antipasto portion). This was followed by ravioli (I'm not a huge fan of ravioli but the birthday girl wanted to try some as she had never had ravioli before) in a mushroom sauce, seafood pizza and a fillet of beef wrapped in bacon.

Of the above, the only thing I was disappointed with was the fillet of beef. We had asked for the beef to be done medium. However, when it arrived, it was probably closer to medium to well done - which was a shame as I think the beef was just a bit too dry. Other than that, we were very happy with the food. The ravioli was soft but firm (like good pasta should be in my opinion). The pizza was thin crust obviously as they were trying for an authentic italian style and it was crispy and quite juicy at the same time.

The service was good - very friendly staff. Although maybe a bit too friendly as I got a hug from the waiter! How come waitresses aren't that friendly?
:)

I have to say, despite the price, I would go back - which I guess is the acid test for any restaurant. Thumbs up!