All Posts by ‘George Chen’

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Hitting the big 5-0

May 26, 2004

{Congratulations!}

That’s how my party reacted when I hit level 50 with my Red Mage in the MMORPG Final Fantasy Online the past Sunday.

I’ve been playing the game since last Nov, and only took 2 weeks off when I was off to Hong Kong. It took roughly 5 months to get to this point in the game. When the game was first released 2 years ago in Japan, level 50 was the cap, since then the level cap had been risen to 75.

My current sub is Black Mage and I am only 200 experience points away from maxing my sub (to Lvl 25) which I can use Aspir…

I know it sounds like foregin to some, but it’s truly an amazing experience playing this game. I converse with a lot of European, Japanese, people from East Coast, Mid-West, and a lot of the times I party with Hawaiian since I usually play late at night (which is their prime time). We all try to block out the daily crap we have to deal with and just enjoy ourselves in this alternative world… I know it sounds so Matrix and geekish, and it is.

Anyways, the picture you see here is me “farming” a giant for drops and gil (money) a few weeks back. I look rather good in it, but since then I have been upgrading my equipment to more “Level 50 like”. But all I can afford to pick up are some lame Mage specific stuff… I mean, those stuff looks great maybe on a {Mithra} or a {Taru}, but shit… those crap are so GAY on me!

Send in the Fashion Police in MMORPG!

To dos:

– Rank 6 Mission
– Finish Genkai 1 (just need one more item)
– Finish the Ninja Quest – Be a Ninja blink tank – which is completely a different style for me to approach the game
– and much much more…

See you in Vanad’iel /wave

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Cheap Thrill – Nokia N-Gage QD

May 26, 2004

So, the Nokia N-Gage QD is no Sony PSP, but at least it will tide me over till late 2005 when we see the release of that.

Bluetooth (read Apple iSync), GPRS Data, GSM phone, and a decent handheld game console all combine into one makes Nokia N-Gage QD (the second generation) pretty interesting. Not to mention the “cheap thrill” price tag of $200.

The first gen. N-Gage is a joke to most gamers. Lack of decent game I think is still hurting the platform, but there’s some serious issue with the ergonomic industrial design front – you have to hold the “side” of the device when you are using it as a phone. Not only it “looks” wrong… well, ok, that’s the only thing “wrong” with it… but the “wrong” design that makes the user looks like an idiot is certainly a good way to kill a product. Just about the time I am getting tired of my SE T630 comes the new N-Gage… I’ll probably get my hand on it soon when it release late June… We’ll see.

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Soul Plane

May 24, 2004

Other than 2046, another movie I am totally looking forward to is this weekend’s release of Soul Plane. Maybe I will catch it when I am at Maui this weekend….

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2046 is coming

May 17, 2004

By Thurs. we will see the premier of the long awaited Hong Kong film 2046 at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie took about 4 years to make (on and off) directed by Wong Kar-Wai (one of my favorite film director).

Not a lot is known about the movie except it’s set in the future 2046. Wong also hired some of the best know Asian artists out there for the project, such as Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Takuya Kimura, and Zhang Ziyi.

In typical Wong’s fashion, he shot the film with NO script at all. The stars usually learn their lines when they arrive on the set.

I recently purchased an essay collection about Wong’s film, as one of the writer noted, Wong’s pretty much “telling the same story” through his various films. I don’t think the writer meant it in a bad sort of way, but makes you wonder about the whole creative process.

Wong’s family is Shanghainese and moved to Hong Kong in early 1960s’ (similar to my grandparents), so whenever Wong uses Shanghainese dialogue in certain domestic scenes I feel very connected to his films which I don’t find in most Hong Kong movies.

Why 2046? 1997 + 50 = 2046/7. 1997 was the year Hong Kong handed back to the Chinese after 100 years of British colonial rule. The 50 years came from the famous Dung Shau-Ping line, “50 years of stability” meaning China won’t change the Hong Kong’s way of life for 50 years afterward. I don’t think Wong’s movie will be about politics, but the year 2046 is certainly the year to look forward to. The movie too.

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Sony’s PSP@E3

May 11, 2004

I love the name brand “Playstation”.

Back in the days of mid 80’s, high-end computers were once called the “Workstation”… when Sony’s “Playstation” came on to the marketing, the name itself right away give you a sense of “hightech-sexiness”. Starting next year, you can take the sexiness with you just like your trusty iPod.

The most interesting part of the device is the 480 x 272, 4.3 inch, 16:9 wide screen TFT LCD. In many ways, it will change how game designers approach game design on such a small device… Just image a game like Ace Combat 5 that’ll give you a true to life fighter pilot point of view… how cool is that?

What’s also stands out is the built-in 802.11 support, which turns the game device into a “Trojan Internet Appliance”. I haven’t got so excited about a gadget for a while (since the Sony/Ericsson P800), I am certainly looking forward to get my hands on it next year.

You can find out more about the PSP here.

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WWII style pin-up art with a twist

May 7, 2004

Randomly came across Andrew Bawidamann’s web site and his work. Really good stuff! This guy got some serious talent…. My fav. ones are the pirate girl (in red) and the Navy SEAL/UDT diver girl. His style also reminds me of the mid-90s’ Warner Bro. Batman cartoon…

It’s also interesting that he does “Rock Poster” as well.

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Magnatune

May 3, 2004

I first discovered Magnatune via the classical radio area in Apple’s iTune application. The stuff are the usual monk chant, baroque, and chamber music. Nothing grand nor crazy. What’s interesting, is that, I have been “blasting” their music whenever I am playing FFXI online mainly because Minge Migs will not fit the mood, nor Chinese pop diva like Sammi Cheng.

I have since downloaded 2 “full album” at Magnatune which give you full access to the CD quality WAV files as well as the usual high quality non-drm mp3/AAC.

If you have iTune on you computer… try it out, you might like what you hear.

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Los Amigos Invisibles in San Francisco (again)

April 30, 2004


The boys from Venezuela are back once again. I think in the past few years, I have at least check out there live show 5 times in San Francisco… The are no doubt one of the coolest “guy band” out there. Funk, soul, dance, disco, latin… Although, I don’t speak Spanish, I still love to sing along to there songs. They will be at Bimbos 365 SF once again on Friday June 11. Do check them out if you are in town.

The are very, very entertaining live.