Advance Wars: Days of Ruin

I just got a new game that I have fallen in love with, Advance Wars: Days of Ruin. This is an edgy re-make of the previous turn-based strategy Advance Wars: Dual Strike game. In this revision the story has a bit more depth, the cut-scene graphic design is updated, and the overall gameplay is updated to focus more on strategy than on an all out melee.

If you are unfamiliar with turn-based strategy games, you need to think of a war based strategy game where you need to plan your next turn by moving, attacking, building, or repairing tactical units of different strengths on the battle field. After you take your turn, your opponent (the computer) then moves all of their units to do the same. Think of a chess game where you can move all of your pieces once each turn.

One of the final innovations over the previous version is the fact that they have added WiFi gaming to the mix. Online play tied with the ability to create your own maps and terrain provide you with unlimited play options at all skill levels. Play your best friend across the street or strangers who live 5000 miles away (anonymously, of course).

Tomato Basil Chicken Pasta

Two or three weeks ago I was going out with a few co-workers to lunch and I really wanted to go someplace new. We walked down An-He Road past a cafe called Swing (which will have another review later) and found a new place called Bedroom where a cafe named Postop used to be.

We went in and all ordered our sets. Now the menu was a bit eclectic, with some classic Italian dishes and a few East-Asian curries and I opted for the Tomato Basil Chicken pasta set (around ~5.57 USD).

The first dish was a salad, which I offered to one of my co-workers. Next came out a miso-soup, a very un-Italian soup, but it was still good for a miso soup. Last came the pasta, which was really good – surprisingly so. My co-worker who ordered the Salmon in Cream Sauce gave a thumbs up, as did the other co-worker who ordered the Shrimp pasta (although the shrimp were high-maintainence because they were not un-shelled. All-in-all this was a great find that I have already gone back to another two times.

How many episodes are left due to the writers strike?

OK, OK, I am in Taiwan, but this doesn’t mean that the Writers Strike that is occuring in the US isn’t affecting me.  I do regurlary download episodes from iTunes and watch them on my iPhone or iPod, so yes I need to stay on top of this.

So what shows am I really into lately? Well honestly I can care less for Heroes.  For some reason I feel “tired” after watching those episodes (too many pointless plot twists), and iTunes stopped carrying season two anyway, so no big loss.  I am however watching Kyle XY, a show about a cloned boy who was brought out of the artificial womb at the age of 15, an subsequently has the emotional and mental abilities of Data on Star Trek.  I am also digging the newly released Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, but the problem is when will all the “good” shows stop airing?

Well I found a regurlarly updated page that is going to be your salvation.  Find out how many more episodes of your favorite show are left on  the page Effect of the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike on television.

Dominos Pizza Delivery Scooter

Dominos Pizza Delivery Scooter

Steven and I tend to order pizzas allot when it is rainy and we don’t go out. When we order them, I don’t really think about how they get here, but it turns out that some poor guy needs to ride a scooter to deliver pizzas. At least there is a plastic compartment to keep the pizzas dry.

Triple-Breasted Male Monchichi Hobo God

Taiwan still amazes me with lucky finds like these. This 5 foot tall stature was outside a small restaurant in a back alley near my home. For some reason the statue is partially clothed, but still showing his three breasts and his junk. He is ready to travel anywhere with his trusty walking stick and a bottle of booze. I therefore believe he is honoring the famous Monchichi Hobo God.

Somehow I think this is Japanese, it’s a bit too perverse for conservative Taiwanese to come up with.

Get Your Gel On

These gel drinks are sold as healthy and refreshing, but seem like a bag of watered down sandwich jelly to me. These were originally popular in Japan, but they finally made it to 7-11 in Taiwan.

I haven’t tried one here, but I did try one when I was in Tokyo. They taste like room-temperature Jello made with too much water.If you are a vegan, I wouldn’t recommend you drink (or is it eat) these, since they are probably made with animal gelatin.

High voltage sign

This is small sign posted on a chain link fence near in the high speed rail station. Unfortunately they place this above a metal hand-rail next to the curb where you wait for Taxis. Well at least they can claim that they warned you if you electrocute yourself trying to hold on to the hand rail.

Fake iPhone / iPod Touch

I took this photo at a local 3C (Consumer Products Shop). They sell Apple Products, and fake Apple Products in the display case next to them. This fake iPhone or iPod Touch is about the size of an iPod Classic and is a steal at around ~68 USD.

Epson C90 Printer Settings for OS X Leopard

About two months ago my apartment experienced water damage due to remodeling going on to the unit above me. Nothing really serious happened, but I did find a constant dripping into my old inkjet printer and about .25 liters in the printer chasis.

The very next day I contacted the remodelers and they apologised. They said we can get a new printer and they would pay for it. I wasnt looking for something expensive, just something that was like my old printer and I found the Epson C90, which even had Mac drivers.

We uppacked the printer, attached it to the Airport router, ran a test print on XP and went to install it on the Macs and low and behold I find out that there is a printing error. I go online and find out a lot of people are having problems with networked ink jet printers and I give up – until I find someone who uses Linux and see how they solved it.

Well many Linux users use CUPS printer drivers, and it just so happens Apple owns CUPS and licenses it to the opensource community. I found the driver in the most recent release of Gutenprint and select the driver, and printing is now A-OK.

I can’t really blame Apple for this problem, but I do blame Epson. You would think a printer company would QA the drivers properly before releasing them.

Gmail, the king of online email

Everyone by now should know about the Gmail, the free web mail service with ~4.5 GB of storage offered by Google. The amazing thing is that they keep adding more and more customer oriented features to the service.

Just recently Google added IMAP support to Gmail. This allows easy email/folder/label syncing between multiple computers and Gmail.

When you have an IMAP account, you can leave messages on the server until you would like to delete it. Additionally, if you have multiple devices / computers accessing the same account, information such which emails you have read and sent mail are synced to the server. Lastly, unlike POP3 (another standard), IMAP only needs to download a portion of the complete email. For example, it will only download the subject, until you ask to read the full email at which point Gmail will stream the email to you. This is a much desired feature allowing users to keep all of their email on a managed server and have the user experience of a desktop mail client.