Psych

Finally after months of busy Sundays and bad timing Psych Games was finally a go. These games took root from watching tonnes of running man. There were many difficulties trying to find a time that suited as many people as possible and trying to book the church to use. Also as I thought booking it too early meant there would be straddlers like adults and their children. It gave me a little more time to setup but it cut around 20 minutes off our starting time.

Starting was a little rocky. I had originally only invited a few people just as a trial and so I wouldn't need to explain things to too many people. However there were some people still left who wanted to there but had no idea what was happening. The games was something that everyone who was there was suppose to join in so that if anything was embarrassing was done that least everyone had to be involved. Trying to include them was difficult because they didn't know it be 2 hours and there were those who had to leave in half hour to an hour so had to try spread them out on teams. Eventually it worked out however three of the original invited people were out getting lunch ... but I couldn't wait any longer to start.

The teams were randomized which was interesting. Some people suggested team swaps but the point of the randomizing was so people would work with new people. Each team had to come up with a captain and a team name. The names ended being Two Becca, Team Draw on Your Face, and Team Manda. You'll find out why one team was called Draw on Your Face later.

There were more bumps in the road as originally the games were designed for 9 to 12 people to play, however with the additional people there were 15 people not including those that had gone to get lunch. This made it difficult to run all in games so those had to be cut down. First game was Photo Jump which was quite the success. Thing is I couldn't get the photos to show up on the projector ... so hate using Macs ... think I'm the only person to crash a Mac twice in a row. Second game was Buzz Chat (aka Alarm Talk). This ended up going forever as there were just too many people. However it was really fun so I just let everyone play.

Chicken Fight and Ping Pong Hole in One (Beer Pong with a Paddle) weren't great. Chicken Fight was too tiring. Ping Pong took too long. Also the fact the lunch turned up. Took them a whole hour and by then everyone was starving so they took a food break. Bit confused what to do with the food break but before long we started back up again. Next was All in Dodgeball which was fun. I think last survivor was Michelle ... there one team which had a large number of surviving players but this made the other two team wipe them out. A game suggestion by Jason was Palm Blitz. This was quite a weird versus game but it was fun to watch people trying to dodge attackers hands.

Blind Man Catch was a game I created myself. This consisted of one person blindfolded trying to catch beanbags thrown to them. This turned out to be a great spectator game. How good is it watching a blindfolded person pelted with beanbags?!? However there was a bit too much pelting and some beanbags were sidelined. Well I did sew them myself and they were one of my first projects so they were bound to end up that way. Last game was suppose to be a mini running man elimination game with bracelets instead of back nametags but by this point people were tired. However everyone ended up volunteering to play Team Stretch. Everyone was trying to stretch their legs as far as possible on Friday for some reason so everyone thought of this. Ended up fun and sweet. However I did try to measure out the length and instead metal cut myself on the measuring tape.

Because people left early some people ended up escaping punishment which was Face Drawing. Winning team drew on last team. There were people who refused which wasn't much fun but there were also people who were good sport. Hopefully everyone had fun and I'll see to doing another one later in the year.

Seeing the Sea Life

So yeah part of my assessment was to go to places that ran programs for children so I picked the aquarium as one of the places to go to. Actually was somewhat voted by my company - Mikey, as he hadn't been to the Melbourne Aquarium before. Shocking right? By the way didn't know when it happened but apparently it's known as Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium. Didn't know when that started. So we both had something to do there. I was to get some info for my assessment and Mikey wanted to do some sketching.

Turned up early as possible but the line was still out the door. We could of got tickets online for a small discount but we were able to grab some vouchers from Fed Square which gave much more a saving but we had to buy it at the front door so was worth the wait. Walking in they took photo of us which was weird because they didn't tell us what it was for.

 

Originally when I thought of going to the aquarium I thought it would be the same thing but it wasn't. They have quite a few new things including the star attraction ... the "Mega Croc". Didn't think they had the croc from the movies and found just a large crocodile. That wasn't as very exciting but they had other exhibitions that were great.






It was good day to act like kids. You know those little domes for kids to go into to look ... yes we did that. They were so small with head bumping and lying on backs to get through the little tunnels. Mikey stamped his sketchbook with little stamps that the kids can get for their kids guide booklets. On our second trip in Mikey got a booklet. Yes we went in another time. He failed at stamping his book ... he pressed it through 2 layers of the booklet which filled the next space :P. But it was all fun mucking around.

With all the new random things it was pretty good. We saw the shark feeding and penguin feeding. Spent almost 5 hours there. It was worth going back because we figured out how to get these fish to spit at a sinker we found on the side of the pond. It was weird because they set up these fake flies on fishing lines and they were too far and small for the fish to see. Also all the kids would just swing the rods on hinge and wouldn't hold them still for the fish to concentrate to spit. 

It was a great day at the aquarium. You can find more photos from the day at my Facebook Photos.

Seeing what I've been missing

Been awhile since I last posted anything but thought it was time to return seeing how I haven't been playing games for awhile. Wonder if anyone is still watching this space. Actually wanted to write about other stuff but kept forgetting.

Anyways thought I'd watch Attack on Titan which came out this year which everyone I knew anime related was talking about. Surprising enough it was pretty suspenseful. It was quite extreme at the start and was soooo unpredictable. It was so engaging that I watched all 23 screened episodes at the time all in one night (till like 6am). It doesn't even seem to be ending but apparently the season is finishing at episode 25 ... so sad. Because the plot builds up each episode and saying too much would spoil it I would just mention how it starts. Giant walls surround a city protecting them from titans keeping them in peace for the last 100 years. Suddenly out of nowhere a giant titan appears breaking down the wall letting in the titans. Highly recommend people to watch.

Because of the impending end to the season of Attack on Titan I looked around for something else to watch. Had no idea what new anime had come out that was worth watching. Found a random anime called Blood Lad. Totally random starting a demonic residential world. A female human student finds herself in the demon world in a district belonging to a vampire boy. However this vampire doesn't seek to suck human blood. Instead his a total lazy otaku and is totally excited when he find out he will meet a female human. His short-lived meeting with the girl ends as she is eaten by a plant. However she ends up as a ghost. The vampire boy randomly volunteers to resurrect her with no idea where to start. I said it was random didn't I? Lots of demonic concepts which was quite interesting so I watched all of it ... it was only 10 episodes. Was quite shocked as the story actually doesn't end and these 10 episodes seemed more like a trailer to a longer show or something. So I looked it up and found out that there was never a plan to continue the series ... so sad. Not an anime I would recommend everyone and even less because it doesn't even end.

At the same time I found an anime that had an interesting name, Sunday without God. The story is set in a world where God left the human race on a Sunday. The effect of this was that no one could have children or pass on. Not passing on didn't mean immortality. Even if the heart stopped the spirit could not leave the body even with it decaying away. The only way one could move on was to be buried by grave keepers which were said to be the last gift he gave. The story follows a 12 year old grave keeper who goes out into the world, seeking to save it. Again I watched 10 episodes in one night ... however apparently 12 episodes have already been released. Couldn't find the last two episodes, might be because their not subbed or licensing ... it hasn't finished yet so might just wait to see those two come out. There's a few interesting concepts but think they might be trying to add too many things in one go. I'll have to see more before I recommend it to anyone.

So out of another anime that didn't end I decided to watch something that ends like an anime movie. Looked at top watched anime and found an old one called Princess Mononoke by the same people who made Totoro. All about forest animal spirit/gods versus humans, nature versus technology. However its more of a feudal era tech when they started using gunpowder. Plot is that a village boy defending his village defeats a demon but is cursed by it. He sets off on a quest to the spiritual forest to find a way to lift the curse. It's a nice story all and all. Ending was not a grand as I thought it could be. A good watch when you have time.

Okay so with that over I thought I'd look at a few older anime series and found 3 complete series I'm gonna start watching. They are Steins; Gate, Future Diary, and Darker than Black. I'll write about those when I finish watching them.

Got a lot of study to do coming up so hopefully find time to do both. Hopefully I find time to write again.

Update: Totally forgot also watched an anime movie called Sky Crawler. Was looking for an anime that was similar to Gattaca. However this wasn't like that. It started good but ended up to be really really slow ... However there's a few secrets that creep up that makes it interesting. Again not to spoil too much I'll just give a background to the story. Two warring sides have been attacking each others territories with fighter planes for a long time. Both sides seemingly lose many pilots in the process. A young man has just transferred to a forward base. He is placed in a hand down plane but is not given any information on who the previous owner was. Slowly getting to know the members of the base he comes to find out about the previous pilot that he replaced.

Kicked in the rear

Man this no talking famine sux. I've been getting kicked out of almost every online game because I have a mic and I don't talk ... can't talk through it ><. If only I had some sort of keypad for xbox ... stupid people on Left 4 Dead.

... I had highest damage count and I was still kicked when they started telling me to speak up or be kicked ...

Silent night

What a time to return ... does anyone still scope this blog??? So the most silent night of my life is when I decide to rejoin the world of blogging. Why is it the most silent night you might ask ... well I'm watching TV so its not that silent. No I mean my mouth ain't yapping. Why is my mouth not yapping you might ask ... probably ... well it's that time of the year ... 40 hour famine. So this year I'm giving up the use of my mouth.


Well the Gaffer tape was just so I didn't accidentally talk or eat :P. Somewhat told people I was doing it anyways so I better do it to get sponsors. I was well prepared to communicate armed with a mini whiteboard and a set of markers and duster. Just felt a bit clumsy juggling all of those in hand.


Oh yeah that's just the result of a little girl who forbade me to wipe it off.

Last year I did hands cuffed behind my back. Obviously it would be bad if I was left in a public place ... being mistaken for a criminal master mind (obviously I'm not the muscle). Thankfully I have friends who helped me around so I was never out in the open. Unfortunately this year I wasn't so lucky XD. Had to take the train home after youth group.

Lots of eyes on me which I'm used to ... and lots of opinions on what I was doing. The first approached me and asked if I was doing a student experiment. I used my trusty whiteboard to explain it was for 40 hour famine and he got the point. The other people who looked on weren't so forward. A few people looked like they thought I was a publicity stunt and kept looking at my whiteboard seeing if I was advertising something. No I'm not advertising photoplus ... that's another story why it's on my board. One lady seemed to think I was a silent protester and also tried to get a good look at my whiteboard. Quite a few big grins and hand gestures which seemed to indicate questioning on the pain that would be received from taking off the gaffer tape. Walking home brought out a few loud comments from surprised run-ins about a guy with duct tape round his face.

Thankfully now I'm in the safety of my home. Won't be leaving my house anytime soon. Now to brush my teeth ...

Update

Well I've been busy so I haven't posted ... okay not a complete lie, I've been busy but I still have time to play games and watch anime. So yeah thought I'd just post the game I've been playing at the moment ... this moment meaning the past sixteen hours that I've owned this game :P.


Loved the first Patapon. Couldn't get over it. Can't believe I almost missed out on this game because I didn't preorder and there wasn't such a big hype for this game other than me. I finished the first one in a week or so and tried to get everything so hopefully this sequel will entertain me for awhile. Also got the following which was actually the game I was planning on playing today ... but Pata Pata Pata Pon XD.

Ahhh my eyes

Okay some of the things on this website are a bit vile to even look at. Don't know how people manage to eat stuff shown on this website. So yeah you can have a look at it on the top link but be prepared. I've dropped a few links from the website below.


So here's some sculpturing ... if you can call it that.


This is interesting ... it's apparently deep fried coke ...


Some mega sized version of some of our favorites XD. If you don't know that's a rice krispy treat and a kit kat.



And this is just ... unimaginable but this is suppose to be a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey wrapped in bacon.

I just lost my appetite ...

Shake it

So I'm not really that into spending my time blogging. Even though I was sick and didn't play games sort of hard to blog with a throbbing headache. Luckily for me it just lasted like two days.

I never thought I'd feel the earth move under my feet but it happened. Actually more like the floorboard of my room. It didn't happen in Box Hill but it was strong enough to feel so hopefully wherever the epicentre is isn't too badly damaged. It isn't the first time that I was in the vicinity of an earthquake though.
It had been awhile since I'd been back to Taiwan so a holiday was in order. Coincidentally it was during the Jiji earthquake / 921 earthquake which measured 7.3. Fortunately was residing in a older building built during times of constant earthquakes in Taiwan so was made with shifting foundation ... so I was told XD. However I was asleep during the quake so didn't really notice it. I did wake and look out the window at the commotion outside but without my glasses so I just went back to sleep. Next morning find out that there's no electricity and so we are stuck in Taiwan with no electronics ... that's just wrong. So finding stuff to do was a pain. My brother and I started with cards for quite awhile much so that we missed noticing the 5.3 aftershock. Then that got boring so we walked around and found a mini basketball set. We started off playing friendly but it got pretty ugly and I was left with bent glasses and my brother a crack in his skull :S. So he had to get it stitched up in the dark. Also there was a small pool of blood left where we were playing ... so it wasn't much of a trip :P.

So all that and I don't experience an earthquake till now.

Then again a shudder isn't much either XP.

PS. Finally 20th post.

Side Quest

Surprise I'm still alive. Lol yeah well just haven't blogged in awhile. Was just bored for along while so just watched a lot of television.

Anyways this weekend had a church camp at Mount Evelyn. Really close campsite just out near Lilydale. Quick drive up. Was a bit frustrated though because Chinese group did a botch job of organizing and just push the responsibility to the English group at the last minute. Being in the AV coordinator I had to throw together random stuff together from the English equipment which is lacking because the budgets all done by the Councillors and they are all Chinese group people. So now I'm going to have to tell them off for not giving us a budget ... again.
It wasn't all bad. First night getting there we just messed around with games and running around. Sleep was pretty terrible though. One of my roomies kept rolling on the top bunk and the beds had those tough covers that make those scrunchy sounds. So everyone else in the room went to the next room and family guy and wait for the noisy roomy to go sleep. We watched a few episodes and came back to find he was completely awake. So he kept me up some more. He apparently couldn't sleep so got up a few times which kept me up even more. To make it was by the time it was five he went and took a shower which could be heard within two rooms. So guess desperately tired isn't the best way to start a camp.

This was a church camp so didn't expect to have to much mucking around fun but it was still good to hear messages from a reverend who was effected by the fires. The day events were decent but the timetable was pretty mucked up. The night was was the fun time. Played a bit of mafia. If you don't know mafia it takes too long to explain so just assume secrecy and citizen versus mafia with a few special characters. First game as usual I was dead in the second round because no one trusts me and what's worse was I was killed by both the mafia and the vigilante. Second game I actually survived to the end where we had the usual who won because people were falling asleep and not sure who pointed to who or killed who. So we decided to change to playing spoons. If you don't know the game it's basically making four of a kind by quickly passing around cards and then grabbing a spoon from the middle. Everyone grabs one after anyone completes their hand and whoever misses out gets a penalty. Whoever gets three does a dare. That was the fun part. It got pretty competitive and a girl even broke a nail doing it. Went through three pretty cool dares and surprisingly I wasn't the person doing them. Got one of the dares on video so that was pretty funny. Got told off for laughing to loud but that's expected of me. Pretty tired from all that so slept a bit better.
Next day was basically like another church day but we were already there. Summary for the camp was a bit sleep provoking because all these Chinese ladies wanted to share and translator didn't get time to translate before all the Chinese people would cheer for some unknown reason to me.

Overall camp wasn't a complete disaster. Had its moment.

Snipped

Got a haircut yesterday. Sounds pretty boring XD. It's just that it's my first of the year. Don't remember a haircut being so painful. Even thought they washed my hair beforehand, the comb didn't run through my hair properly and pulled out hair :S. Also the way I wanted it be cut didn't come out the way I liked it. Guess it got lost in translation. That's what I get for going to a Honkie place. My hair did end up pretty Honkie too. Box Hill's becoming quite the place for haircuts. Was walking down Whitehorse Road and noticed two more haircut places that just opened up. Just on Box Hill Whitehorse Road stretch there's now five haircut places. There's also Good Morning in the back road. There's two down Main Street which are in cahoots because if they have two many customers they take them to the other one. There's one in Whitehorse Centro. There's two in Box Hill Centro. So yeah that's a lot of places. I guess it's got its good point seeing how the usual place I get my haircut cut its prices. So in the end I win :D.