I know many of you will be saying “what’s the point of gaming out there? You’re suppose to clear your mind, etc.”, well unlike you guys, I love my job and I don’t want Lochal Archade to be inactive while I’m away. My problem with playing video games here is that I barely have the time to play anything. I’m usually out walking around the island listening to podcasts, having yoga classes, having acupuncture or being oiled while wearing a loincloth (long story).

If I’m taking too long to post anything, it’s because of the following issues:

Computer:

I was later given a multipin plug to make it a little more accessible with my gadgetry. The biggest problem was the MacbookPro’s STUPID battery charger that truly is “design over function”, the charger was so big and heavy that it couldn’t stay in place. To my luck, the earthling design of my Lenovo’s battery charger had a decent extension, but then I was luck that I forgot to take a similar pin with me for it.

So basically the better machine is inactive due to low battery and I’m depending on my very slow netbook. Better than Nothing I suppose.

Edit: got a cable from dad so I can use the macbook pro, yay!

Internet:

Internet is a bit of a pain here, the hotel charges 50 rupees (insert any Zelda music here) per hour (that’s roughly 4 AED), but it drops a lot. My Indian sim card gives me 2GB for 95 rupees (7 AED), either I abused that 2GB during tether (forgot to close steam on my netbook, whoops).

By the time I’m done with this post, I would have gotten some credit to use as the hotel connection is absolutely useless, it doesn’t work in my room, it keeps disconnecting every few minutes and is mind numbingly slow. My solution is since I downloaded Dark Room on the netbook is to write while offline, then post it up once I’m done.

Podcast:

So far, the only thing that has any sense of devotion is listening to podcasts. Whenever I’m out walking around the lovely parts of the island, I have my phone playing whatever podcast that is next on my long list of podcasts to listen to. So far, I have been able to finish around four +1 hour episodes in just 2 days. I have been catching up on Giant Bombcast, Japanator, HP Podcraft and 1UP’s Active Time Babble. In case you have not heard of them, you should.

Listening to more gave me a few more ideas for our podcast. As I mentioned to a few community members, the new podcast will be getting overhaul once we’re done with the website, the podcast did not die. We still have big plans on podcasting, even planning to bring back the video podcast and give more chance for our members to join in on our main podcast.

Gaming:

The only two games that found anything remotely considered “play time” are the least gamey games in this collection, Animal Crossing: Wild World and Personal Trainer: Walking.

Recently, I’ve been trying to find chances to start a new page with Animal Crossing: Wild World as I have invested so much in the game a long time back. While I did not have so many people playing with me back in the day, I had a good time playing it with whoever was there, Internet play is hopeless on my side and had already came into terms with it. I may give online play another chance if I have enough people interested in going back to it.

Personal Trainer: Walking is another game that I have neglected after a long amount of play time. It’s that game that came with the pedometer before Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver. Nintendo being nintendo had given it a bit of a Wii treatment, I imported my mii a long time back and started using it. The pedometer counts the number of steps, and later you use the DS game to score yourself and unlock items in a small series of minigames that involve your steps.

I think I should take advantage of the time and review Personal Trainer since I’m playing it the most here. I should be playing Dragon Quest IX for review too since I’m pretty far in it.

Am I happy here? I’m definitely having a good time, but I’m not exactly comfortable with the amount of time I’m spending away from the site and leaving little to no activity on it. All I’m saying don’t expect much updates for the next few weeks unless the beta testers contribute with their reviews and articles (would take me some time to post up but I will update as soon as possible).

2 Comments

1. 

   Mohammed Khoory
   16 Apr 2011, 8:13 pm

   I always thought the Macbook pro had a good charger. Magsafe + small power brick. Though I don’t have a macbook so I wouldn’t know, but this is based off what I’ve seen with other people’s macbooks
2. 

   Mohammad AlHuraiz
   17 Apr 2011, 2:08 am

   it’s fairly larger than the old charger that the powerpc based machines had, that’s for sure