Refraction

So today I headed out to university at the ungodly hour of 7am. Catherine’s adventures of the day:

The guy I met at the bus stop seemed incredibly lost. Surprisingly, he was in third year Biochem. Oops. First lesson of the day: Don’t make assumptions.

I am not going to enjoy walking over the field from the bus loop once the rain comes down in earnest. It’s going to end up torn up, anyway. I kinda feel sorry for anybody who has to use it.

My Bio class is too FULL for a class that starts at 8am in the morning. The guy sitting next to me lives in residence and although we were exchanging semi-snarky comments about the course, we never got around to introducing ourselves. Nice chairs, though.

On the other hand, Chem looks like it will be fun. Except for that quantum chemistry stuff which makes up about half the course. As long as the demo guy comes back and blows things up… I’m happy.

Physics is taught by a woman who seems to love Physics too much. I’m scared. The theatre setting’s a little intimidating, too…

Don’t get me started on Math; it seems no one can understand our instructor. *sigh* Not only that, even I can’t understand him sometimes, and I’m Chinese. The seats are the coolest, though–even though they don’t stay still.

I’m sure English will be the most entertaining class of the day. Except when the Chem demo guy comes and blows things up. Then Chem wins.

“He’s dead, all right. Dead as Pauly Shore’s career. . . . This SUCKS! Like Pauly Shore himself.”

And that, my friends, is what is in store for you if you play A Case of the Crabs. This is one of those point-and-click Flash games, but this one is GOOD.

In general, point-and-click Flash games have one objective: use your wits and the objects around you to achieve your goal. It’s generally escape from some kind of confinement. A quick rundown of all the games of this genre I’ve played:

The Mystery of Time and Space. A very long, good game, but rather difficult. I had to look for a walkthrough for this one.

Crimson Room. Not bad at all, really. It does suffer from some annoying camera movement and “click within a 10 pixel radius” disease.

Viridian Room. It’s the sequel to Crimson Room. More complex, a little freaky, even, but I found it quite random.

Milki W. A little bit TOO straightforward. Entertaining, though, in that sound is really important in this one.

Of all of these, I prefer the Nick Bounty game. It has dialogue, a storyline, and most importantly… a clear sense of direction. You’re never overly lost. You know what you want or need, although you may not be sure how to get it. The steps you take are logical, for the most part. None of this “Oh, let’s use the lighter to burn this hair sample I found for absolutely no reason.” It’s humourous, too, in its dialogue and story. (“Step One: Make sure the victim has hands. Check. The victim has hands.”) The actors did ham it up a bit, but since the game isn’t really serious at all… it worked. The film noir look was very appealing, and it reminded me of the “Detective Story” short from The Animatrix. Except it was funnier, and didn’t have any references to the Matrix at all.

I guess, in short, the Nick Bounty game has personality, and the others… don’t.

It’s been an interesting day or two for me and the Taiwanese band F.I.R.

A few days ago, I heard the very distinctive opening to “Lydia” on the Chinese radio, and today I saw them on some Hong Kong variety show, performing “Lydia.” I love “Lydia”–it’s a great song–but I have to wonder if they’ll be relegated to one-hit wonder status because of it. It’d be a terrible pity, since F.I.R. released a pretty strong debut album.

What struck me the most about their performance was how much like CORE OF SOUL they were. All the ingredients are there: a strong female vocalist, and two guys, one on guitar, the other on keyboards. Fukiko and Faye even seem to command the stage (inasmuch as there was one) in the same fashion. All in all, it was really rather scary.

And, if nothing else, the interview pointed out some obvious facts about “the background” behind “Lydia,” and gave us the story of how this group was formed.

Well. See. I’m a bit of a perfectionist.

So I decided to drop all the tables and do a clean import of my greymatter entries. I still couldn’t get the page to load on my machine (grr… why?!) but I found someone to hit “okay” for me ^_^

Anyway, for my first real entry here… I’m doing a survey!
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And here begins the WordPress blog. Wheeeeee!

I love WordPress.

This is a final test post for Greymatter. See you all later!

This is a final Greymatter test post. See ya!

Hopefully, most fans of Japanese music have heard that Hikaru Utada will be releasing a North American album sometime in October, under the name UTADA.

And being the weird rabid filesharing people that we are… Her first radio single, “Easy Breezy,” was somehow leaked onto the Internet, and since then, things like “Devil Inside” and “Exodus Mix” have been available.

I’m not very fond of “Easy Breezy.” Whenever I hear it, I think of Cover Girl cosmetics. (I guess that means they’ve done a pretty good job with their advertising.) As far as I’m concerned, it’s a below average song that still manages to be annoyingly catchy. I’m not sure it’s such a great choice for her first radio single, either. Cheesy lyrics. O_o; And the microphone business at the end makes no sense.

On the other hand, “Devil Inside” has received more favourable reviews. I’m ambivalent about it, myself; it’s a good dance track, and it’s certainly better than “Easy Breezy.” It seems to me that it’s lacking something, though…

What I know is, this isn’t Hikki from Japan. I’ll still be buying the album, of course 😛
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Sometimes it really helps to read things aloud. Case in point: Harry Potter. I didn’t notice the Diagon Alley / diagonally pun until last summer. Grimmauld Place didn’t strike me as odd until I read a snippet of the Harry Potter Lexicon. “Ah. Grim old place. That makes sense.” The latest in the line of these horrendously late epiphanies? Knockturn Alley / nocturnally. And for a person who’s as fond of puns as I think I am… it’s not a good thing.

This makes me wonder what other puns I’ve been missing… Ah, all the more reason to reread a few of the books, I guess.

I’ve been slip-sliding on our previously-carpeted-but-now-hardwood living room floor. It’s a definite change after 16 years of the same carpet. That being said, the new floor is nice 😀 I don’t know if it’s purely psychological, but the room seems cooler without the carpet. Our bedrooms have been newly carpeted. I don’t care much for it now, but I’m sure I’ll be much more grateful in the winter.

Over the years, we’ve managed to accumulate more and more furniture, meaning our house has become more and more cramped (I look at old photos and wonder where all the space went.) This week, we got rid of our ratty old sofa and armchair, and also an ancient TV. As a result, there’s a lot more room, and… well… I like it. It’s only temporary, though; on Wednesday we’ll be getting more furniture and it’ll soon fill up again. *sigh*