The Good Apple

When I paid for the January 2008 software update for the iPod touch through iTunes, it didn't work as expected. Usually when I bought songs and such through the iTunes music store, I can see almost instantly that the items are downloaded. With the software update, nothing seemed to happen and I was put back at the beginning. Unwittingly, I clicked the button to kick off the software update again, and this time, it seemed, the update started to happen. I was afraid that I would get charged twice. When I received confirmation email from Apple, the two references to the software update had the same reference number. I figured some human being caught the double-charge and corrected the dumb computer program.

When my credit card bill arrived, lo and behold I was indeed charged twice. I dreaded calling customer service, whether for the credit card company or Apple. I decided to contact Apple by email first. I explained that I was not happy that I got charged for the software update even though I just got the touch in December. Naturally, I was doubly upset that I got charged twice. Adding insult to injury, no? Fortunately, an Apple rep wrote back informing me that not only she gave me credit for the extra charge, she also gave me five free songs on the online music store. Whoopee! It is my first instance of dealing with Apple customer service and they sure did the right thing for me. I blew all five song credits on "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Ringtones Ring True

I've been playing around with the ringtones on my Razr. Unlike the iPhone, I don't have to pay extra to use any songs on the phone as ringtones. I was lazy and didn't trim the songs to have just the pertinent lines, but here goes...

• general incoming call: Call Me, by Blondie. Of course! It has to be!
  
• voice mail: Message In A Bottle, by The Police.
• calendar alarm: There's Always Something There To Remind Me, by Naked Eyes.
• text message alert: I've Gotta Get A Message To You, by The Bee Gees. Granted this Bee Gees tune can be used for voice mail too, but I don't get that much text message so best to have this tune for it. The idea of death isn't something to be reminded of too often.
  
• calls from my Mom: Mamma Mia, by ABBA. Mother by The Police may be a better choice, but it's one of the few Police songs that I hate, so no thanks.
• calls from home: 那裡是吾家? (Where Is Home?), by Sam Hui (許冠傑). Maybe in a few months I will change it to Homeward Bound by Simon & Garfunkel...
  
• calls from my boss: Trap (Platypus Boss 1), by Ben Daglish. Not that my boss has anything to do with traps, just that the tune is played in the game Platypus at the end of Level 1, where you have to defeat the boss to advance further. In video games, the boss level is where you have to defeat some character who can take more than the usual one or two shots to succumb.
• calls from the Wife: Life Made Simple, by Jessica Hsuan and Roger Kwok. The song is the theme song of the Chinese soap opera by the same name, or 阿旺新傳 in Chinese. The show is about a mentally retarded man who thinks his childhood female playmate is his wife, or something like that. Sometimes my Wife must think I am crazy not to be dishonest whenever the chances appear.

Some day when my Son has his own cell phone, I will no doubt have John Lennon's Beautiful Boy as his ringtone. Aah, let's hope that day won't arrive any time soon. The teenage years, I get a headache just thinking about them...

Berhala Hut

My sister CH visited my family a few days after Tết. Mother made a big meal and we talked afterward about many topics. Eventually we gravitated toward our refugee experience again. The question was, "How long were we at the various islands?" There was no calendar to tell the day, the weather was always hot, and there was no TV to watch our favorite show to make reference to a particular event. Hmm, remember one night some drunk set his hut on fire? Luckily his neighbors quickly put out the fire, lest it spread to their huts too. It was a Thursday because I was watching Naruto Shippuuden on the PowerBook. Yeah, right.

With the need to record more of this memory before it is all forgotten, I am resuming my "memoir" of the experience. It also helped that I received a positive feedback for my entry earlier about my refugee experience.

The drawing above is what I remember of my home on Berhala Island. As you may recall, my family was lucky enough to meet Grandaunt "Luck" to inherit the hut from her. Granny's family were scheduled to leave Berhala for Galang Camp when we arrived. They were among the first on Berhala Island and they did a great job of putting the hut together.

The view in the drawing is that from outside the "window". It's just a big, rectangular opening in the wall. Next to the window, there was a pair of chairs with a table in the middle. I don't know for sure if we had a teapot and cups on that table. There were two openings to get into the hut - to the left of the big column in the picture and to the right of the "window". The left "door" would be for getting to the street while the right one would be for entering the yard. Taking up a big portion of the hut was the bed. I don't recall us having pillows. I made believe we stuff some luggage bags with clothes for use as pillows. At night, my two sisters and I would share the bed. My parents and brother would sleep on the floor, on some tarp, to the right, while my uncle lie along the space between the bed and the tea table. In the right corner, we had our own shower room complete with a door that swung to the right. Water was stored in a metal drum and a scooper would float on top of the water. There was probably some long groove in the ground to drain water to the ditch in the back of the hut. We had our own well to draw water from, Granny Luck really made it easy for themselves and then us. The "kitchen" consisted of a hole in the ground with three bricks. There was plenty of trees on the island to supply fuel for the kitchen. I drew the "range" deeper into the hut, but in reality it was much closer to the "wall" of the hut, in the foreground and not shown. I think there was a sheet of metal to keep the occasional long tongue of the flame from setting the wall on fire. There was a shelf against the right wall and is not shown in the picture. We probably kept kitchen stuff like pots and pans, ceramic bowls and plates, spoons, chopsticks, etc. I drew those things near the kitchen, as if they were ready for washing, but in reality they would be cleaned in the yard. The ground was just dirt and the walls, as well as the roof, were fronds, perhaps from the many coconuts trees on the island. Other than the metallic barrel (thùng phi) in the shower room to hold water and the nails to hold the furnitures together, we were living in the Wooden Age.

Prior to the Berhala hut, our home was a top-floor condo with indoor plumbing and electricity. The floor was tiled and the walls were solid. The kitchen, interestingly, used firewoods, too, so that part of our life wasn't too different from the refugee experience. It was a big change for the worse to go from the condo to the hut, but I still consider ourselves lucky. We didn't have to spend any money to get the hut. We got food from some relief agency periodically, but we still had to provide for other expenses. I think we got by mostly from the jewelries that my mother sold, one by one.

Without electricity, cell phone service, or iPod, how did I spend my days on Berhala Island? That is a topic for another drawing on another day.

N.Wii.P.L.

I have been a regular user of public library ever since I found out about it. Living in Brooklyn, by default I frequent the local branches of the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL). When I started to work at home every week, I visit the library even more often, sometimes three times a week, if not to pick up reserved items then just to get out of the house for a while.

Since I started taking my Son to music class in Chinatown, I also go to the New York Public Library (NYPL) branches in the area. The materials available for borrowing are not too different from the BPL's. There are books, DVDs, VHS tapes, CDs, graphic novels, Wi-Fi Internet access, etc. just like in Brooklyn. The difference is that NYPL, I don't know since when, has console games. While it's true that NYPL has always had CD-ROMs for Windows PCs, I never had any interests in them. They are mostly kiddie games and, besides, I don't use PCs much at home unless I am working. But now that I have a Nintendo Wii, I am very interested in what the library has to offer.

The first time I saw console games in an NYPL branch it was in the Chatham Branch. Chatham is in the heart of Chinatown and is always crowded, so it was no surprise that there were only one Wii game available. There were some Xbox and Sega games, too. A few weeks later I visited the relatively new Mulberry Branch, further north near Houston Street. I picked up Super Mario Galaxy and The Bee Movie games, two being the limit per library card. Alas, when I tried to return the games, I picked up my own game, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic! Oh well, I will have to return it late on Monday. The good thing is I got the Hot Wheels Wii game. It is one of the games my Son wants, but I am pretty sure he would never get too far with the game. Borrowing from the library is the best way to go. Only if my Son gets really far with the library's copy will I buy the game.

tennai-denai-jutsu

Ever since I became a Naruto fan, I have thought of incorporating Naruto into one of my cartoon. No such cartoon has been made yet, but today I found an interesting store sign that I just had to snap. Right here in beautiful Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, there is a place where you can get your 1040 or 1099 tax form completed AND learn a new jutsu or two! I heard that the new tennai-denai-jutsu is pretty powerful and can make money grow on trees.

In the Naruto universe, chakra is the life energy that can be used for almost anything, such as making illusion, creating clones of oneself, or transporting objects to another dimension! Personally, I am not that much interested in balancing my chakras. I much prefer collect it into a ball to throw at my opponent.

Of course, if you do a quick research in Wikipedia, you would learn that, outside of the Naruto universe, chakra is more popularly linked to holistic health. I am sure this is what the CPA offers here, in addition to ledger-balancing.

All I Really Need To Know

...I Learned While Playing Yahoo!Games Daily Crosswords.

Well, it is far from the truth. I just couldn't help making reference to one of my favorite book, Robert Fulghum's All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten. I did learn a few new things of late primarily from playing crosswords.

• Eero Saarinen was the architect responsible for the St. Louis Arch. Sure I was there twice and maybe even read his name on some plaque but now that it took me a few seconds to look him up in Wikipedia, the name will stick better in my memory. The clue wisely read Young Saarinen because Eero's father Eliel was the designer who influenced him in sculpture and furniture design. Eero, a name any crosswords makers must love. Chances are my sister in St. Louis knows all about him already.
  
• Eider is a type of seaduck. Supposedly, the quack is famous for its down (feather).
• A hasp is the metal plate, one end hinged, the other end usually rounded at the corners, and slotted in the middle for the thingamajig to pass through, through which a padlock's whatamacallit would then go through. The clue simply read padlock adjunct. I didn't solve it directly but rather through the connecting words. I had to look it up in the dictionary afterward.
• Ides, not to be thought of as the plural form of ide (whatever id is), is the middle of the month, in the Roman calendar, i.e. the 15th day for some month and some other day on shorter or longer months.
• for the nonce means for the time being. Never heard of that phrase before. Maybe I should go out more often. Of course, it could be just things that only happen in crosswords, such as some words in Scrabble. For the life of me, I can never fully understand the word qua or when to use it. I think the teachers in Snoopy movies say it all the time, usually five in a row.
  

Yahoo!Games Daily Crosswords

It is interesting how one's opinion on a subject can be changed after one actually becomes more familiar with the subject. Some time ago when I was looking for software on the Mac to create crossword puzzles, in no time I came across online crosswords. I thought, "Why would anyone want to play crosswords online?" I thought of crosswords as something one do while waiting for the train or while commuting, just to while away the time. Usually you would not have a computer with you, so the idea of playing crosswords online just did not appeal to me.

Just a few weeks ago, the release of Flip Words 2 got me interested in computer word games all over again. At the end of the 60-minute demo, I wanted to play more word games. One game after another, I ended up at Yahoo!Games Daily Crosswords. It's just like your everyday newspaper puzzle that is not too hard. I play the standard level and the answers are just clicks away. Of course it is no fun if you use it too much, but there are times when, while doing the physical newspaper puzzle, I simply couldn't get it right. One disadvantage of not working in the office five days a week like most office grunts is that I don't get to pick up AM New York newspaper everyday. The Wife picks them up from time to time, but not always. Thus, a few times I would do most of the puzzle but simply did not know the very last answer because I would not have the next day's papers. With the online game, all that is history.

One thing I like about playing the daily game is that even if you are really hooked on it, there is only one game you can play per day. Getting hooked on other computer games may mean hours wasted trying to go past a certain level. Not so with the Yahoo! Daily Games. Of course, if I find myself waiting for the clock to strike midnight just to play a new game, then I will seek counseling right away...

Lost-and-Found Works

Lost-and-Found centers really works, believe it! If you ever lose something and suspect or know where you lost it, go back to the place and ask. Just the other day, after visiting the public library in Chinatown, out on the street I felt the strong wind blowing over my uncovered head. I was sure I had a hat with me getting out of the house, but I also thought I left the hat at the music studio where Son was taking his gu-zheng lesson. Still, I went back to the library and traced my way but no dice. Back at the studio, there was no hat to be found, so back to the library I went. I asked the library person at the return counter and he asked around. They had this paper box for the various items people lost in the library. Sure enough, the lady who checked the materials out for me earlier knew where it was. It was not a brand new hat but it had the flaps for the ears. Talk about "Seek and Ye Shall Find"!

Some weeks ago Son lost two sweaters. Somehow one of his friends had the sweater. The other one I found after rummaging through the school's Lost-and-Found box. Interestingly, the Lost-and-Found box used to be in the school's main office, but perhaps because there were too many items, the two boxes were re-located to the cafeteria. When I was going through them, there were even uneaten sandwiches and a fruit or two.

Son managed to also lose a glove shortly afterward and I told him to look for it in the L-n-F. He attends an after-school program and spends some time in the cafeteria. He never bothered to look. One Friday after dropping him at the Boy Scouts meeting, which is also at the same school, I took a quick look through the L-n-F. Sure enough, the lone single glove was there.

Lost-and-Found works, believe it!

Fleeced

When Apple started selling the package of apps for the iPod touch, my rationalization was that, "Hey, I got the thing for Christmas, it is OK to spend some of my own money for it." I regret I bought it. It was one of the few time I bought something impulsively instead of waiting for reviews.

I was itching for a note-taking app so I jumped at the chance when the January Software Package was offered. Nice-looking as it is, Notes is a disappointment. Since I plan to replace my aging Visor Deluxe with the touch, I inevitably compare the apps on the touch to that found in the Visor. For starter, the lowly 8-MB Visor comes with the Memo List, free of charge. You write memos on the thing and next time the device syncs, you have a copy on the computer. From there you can highlight the text and copy it to elsewhere. I've written a few blog entries or ATPM software reviews in that fashion. The same cannot be done with the touch's current Notes app. No syncing of any kinds happens as far as Notes is concerned. The only way to get the text out of Notes is to send the whole thing as an email. It is a very incomplete "solution", if it can even be considered as such.

Mail is a decent email client, although I was already accessing my Gmail through the mobile Safari. Of course, writing and reading email via Mail instead of the web browser is a better experience. Yet I cannot shake it that I paid $20 for the package. Not taking the feeble Notes, I did not get something that I could not do before. It is nice that Mail can also pull my .Mac email and Yahoo!Mail but I don't use those two much nowadays. Yahoo!Mail account gets mostly spam and there are thousands of messages in the Inbox. Thanks to the Mail-enabled touch, I now can clean up those spam messages, if I ever in the mood to.

I don't play the stock market, don't need to know too much about the weather, and find the map program a bit weak, so the rest of the January Package is not that appealing either. If Apple had to charge for the package because of accounting practices, I think $5 or $10 would be more reasonable. Instead, the iPod company prefer to fleece their loyal customers for twenty bucks.

I am curious if there will be quarterly, or more frequent, software packages for the iPhone and the iPod touch. Here's my wish list for improvements:

• A device-wide search function. Regardless whether it is an entry in Notes, Calendar, or Mail, etc. if I search with a keyword, all those apps' data should be looked into. The Visor has that years ago.
• A simple To-Do List that I can look in one screen and filter based on completion status, dates, etc. Again, it's something that the old Palm OS app has.
• A way to highlight text for copying and pasting. Data entry in any device should be kept to a minimum. Copying and pasting is a very basic computing requirement, how the iPhone platform cannot handle is perplexing.
• All these upgrades should be free!
  

Wardriving

Wardriving is the act of driving in a car looking for open wireless network. The "war" part of the word comes from the movie "War Game". Back when the movie was new, personal computers "talked" by calling each other over the modem via phone lines. Supposedly one can dial numbers a whole series of numbers, or wardialing, just to see which numbers end up connecting to a computer. In the movie, some kid somehow hooked up to a Pentagon computer and almost started a war.

I never cared about open wireless networks because I didn't have a mobile device. Sure, my laptop is wireless-capable, but it is still too big to carry around. Now that I have the iPod touch, that all changes.

I practice what is better known as warwalking, since I walk around with my iPod touch instead of driving around. It has been a while since my company blocked out access to web mail accounts like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail, so the touch comes in handy, if it can sniffs out any wireless networks. Up until last week, on days that I work in the office, I would walk over to the Brooklyn Heights Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library system to use the free service. I already go to that library almost every week to borrow Shonen Jump magazines anyway so it's not a big deal. However, recently I stumbled upon the MetroTech Public WiFi service, available in the grove of trees known as The Commons, at the center of the MetroTech complex, between buildings #2 and #5 (which is part of Polytechnic University). Nice!

One thing I've discovered in my warwalking experience is that most people have their networks locked. Either people are now more tech-savvy or the default settings on the wireless access points come better protected. In my own neighborhood, I did stumble across a few open networks. Even in my own home, in certain parts of the house by default the device, either the iPod touch or the PowerBook, sometimes automatically connects to one of the neighbors' unrestricted wireless network. The signal is weak and after a minute or two I would notice how slow the web browser is and would switch back to my own network. Whether my neighbor is ignorant of the technology or is a nice person who shares out his 'Net access I wouldn't know.

ARROWOnline.org Re-launched

For years I was the webmeister for the green group Astoria Residents Reclaiming Our World, or ARROW for short. I know, it is an ambitious-sounding name. I was not the first webmeister but rather inherited the design from someone else. Over the years, I kept the site mostly up-to-date, reflecting a few changes with the Board Members and the occasional event announcements. Life changes took a toll on the Board Members and much as we wanted to do more for the environment, other responsibilities took higher priorities. Somehow, even with the convenience of email and the cell phone, I didn't get frequent enough updates to put on the web and for a long time the web site was idle. One day, my ARROW friend SR came across some MAWebCenter person. The software sounded promising, with the possibility that SR and others can just update the web site themselves. I didn't make any changes to the original web site design so it was about time the site got a face lift.

It is a few months later and the new www.arrowonline.org is up. For SR, the software isn't as easy to use as advertised, but I think the site looks pretty good. ARROWOnline's goal is to disseminate useful green news, be it recycling, re-using, or reducing, focused on local organizations. Check it out and learn a thing or two about the green movement!

Touched by the iPod... touch

For Christmas the Wife got me an iPod touch. I was in the market for a new iPod, since my 10-GB player is constantly low on space. Unfortunately, the highest capacity the touch product line has only 16 GB and that's what Wife got me. I wouldn't get it myself, as I wanted my next iPod to be a big leap in terms of capacity, perhaps like the 160-GB iPod Classic. Still, after a few days of using it, the iPod touch has grown on me.

Like most new iPods, the touch can handle, in addition to music, movies and photos. It is great to finally be able to carry around my cartoon collection to show them off when needed. Oh, and family photos, too. The iPod touch looks like an iPhone but it lacks the iPhone's camera, speaker, and of course, phone. The touch interface takes a little getting used to, but it has its merit. No more worrying about losing styluses. I had my share of losing a few when I actively used the Palm PDA.

Wi-Fi web surfing, albeit limited, comes in handy, as nowadays I often have to compete with my Son for the use of the PowerBook. One time I had him use the company Dµll laptop but he hated the control. The Dµll's touchpad leaves much to be desired, nowhere near as comfortable as the PowerBook's. With the iPod touch's Wi-Fi capability, I can now check my Gmail inbox with the touch while Son feeds or plays with his pets at ClubPenguin.com.

I already started to use the touch as a PDA and getting away from the Visor Deluxe. Lesser use of AAA batteries is one good reason. Still, the Visor has tons of apps for it while the touch has nothing other than what Apple provided. Since I don't like to install software hacks that most likely will be wiped out with the next Apple firmware upgrade, I'll just have to wait for official apps developed for the iPhone/iPod touch product line. Here's hoping the software development kit (SDK) promised for February 2008 will come through! Last but not least, I think it's misleading that Apple proclaims the web browser on the iPod touch "full". Lacking support for Javascript and Flash, it is far from being full. Many web pages don't work with the touch. Mobile Safari may be a fully-featured web browser if this is the 1990s. But it is already 2008 so the lack of support for JS and Flash, among others, makes this version of Safari fail to meet the average consumer's expectations. For now, I'll just have to make the most of it and again hope for software upgrade to cover the gap.

R€$0£UT10N$

Maybe it is a sign of old age creeping upon me, but this year I've decided to make a list of New Year Resolutions. Here they are in order of feasibility...

1. Draw at least one new cartoon every two weeks. The topic can be anything. If it's work-related, the usual audience can see it. If it's Mac-related, very possible ATPM can use it. Anything else can go into Flickr. Exposure in every way.
   
2. No staying up late past 11:30 p.m., unless it's some kind of work emergency or scheduled work.
3. Get up early to do exercise or better yet, to run 2K or more at the nearby park.
4. Lose 20 pounds. This is a tough one...
   
5. Go vegetarian one lunch per week. I've done it before for about one year and didn't particularly enjoyed it, but let's give it a second try.
6. Get handier with (physical) tools, to fix broken things around the house, to put up shelves, etc.
7. Keep in touch better with friends and family. Hopefully my handy iPod touch can help me in those moments I need to write a message and my Son is hogging the PowerBook.
   
8. Win the lotto jackpot so I can quit my day job and actually follow through the above items.

That is all, just eight items. I do not like to make up resolutions just to fill the list. Let's start by going to bed before 11:30 p.m. today!

Pay Your Water Bill

New York City was recently spared a raise in water rates. Instead of sticking the 18% rate hike to NYC residents, the government will track down water bill deadbeats and make them cough up the dough. The question that immediately came to my mind was, "Do you know anyone who refrain from paying for water use?" Every now and then someone would tell me that they have to leave the place where they are at to "go pay my water bill." Some Chinese I know even say the exact same thing in Chinese, namely, "去交水費". So how can there be water bill deadbeats if so many people I know always pay their water bills. Where did those people go when they said they went to pay their water bill?

It is a strange world ;-)

The Story Behind Platypus

I liked the game Platypus so much I started to Google for more info about it. I learned that there was a sequel called, uh, Platypus II, for Windows only for now. Then there was also a Platypus for Sony's PlayStation Personal. Eventually, I came across the web site for Squashy Software, Anthony Flack's company. It was there that I learned about the story behind the game.

There are two stories of note on the Squashy Software web site. The first, also discussed elsewhere on the web, was that Anthony was an up-and-coming game developer. Along came software publisher iDigicon offering Anthony a lump sum for the game Platypus. Like many people starting out, Anthony didn't have much money at the time and took the offer, signing away all intellectual property rights that would be associated to the game. As yet another item in the traditional brick-and-mortar stores, the game didn't fare well at first. Then Mike Boeh obtained the rights to distribute the software from iDigicon, made some improvements to it, and re-released it online as shareware/demoware. The game was a big hit, but unfortunately, all Anthony Flack got out of it was the original sum iDigicon offered him (plus the completion bonus). Well, for a short while, through arrangement with Mike Boeh, Anthony was able to offer the game from the Squashy Software web site, but then iDigicon canceled the deal with Boeh and the action nixed the Squashy link as well. That was Feb 2006, something might be different by now because Boeh's web site, www.retro64.com, does offer Platypus for download, but Squashy Software doesn't.

Scott Adams of Dilbert fame once wrote that to be successful in business you would need to be a business person. He attributed his success in the cartoon syndication not so much because of his drawing skill, but rather from some other business angle. The world can be a complicated place sometimes. I identify with Anthony because I am not business-savvy. I like drawing cartoons and hope someday to make a living out of it. I dread ending up like young Anthony Flack of yesteryear, taken advantage by some lop-sided business deal that, at the time, was better than nothing.

The other point I find interesting is how having a backup offsite makes all the difference. While young Anthony was working on putting out Platypus, a fire in his building consumed everything he possessed except the clothes on his back. Luckily, he had a backup of the game stored outside the apartment. Wow. It is not only important to have backups, but the backup must be offsite, physically away from the original. Anthony had a hard time finding plasticine to continue making clay models, but at least he had the backup to continue the work.

Anthony Flack has been working on the next game, Cletus Clay, for a while. There is much anticipation in the indie game developer community, but Anthony doesn't have enough time to devote to it. Let's wait and see.

BTW, I learned today at http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=34737 that Michael Reitzenstein did the conversion for the Mac platform for Platypus.

Besides the story posted on www.squashysoftware.com, you can also get info about Anthony Flack from an interview he granted to Indie Game Developer's Podcast:

http://www.indiegamepod.com/2006/10/squashy-software-interview-part-i.html
http://www.indiegamepod.com/2006/11/squashy-software-interview-part-ii.html

Platypus

I am on the mailing list of a few game publishers, both to keep up with the news and for the occasional freebies. Recently, Macgamestore.com gave away the game Platypus to its subscribers. At first, I thought, great, a shoot-em-up game. In recent memory, I bought the game Jets 'N Guns, also of the shoot-em-up genre, because of its great music and impressive graphics, but the game is so hard I never got beyond level 2. I've been looking for
another game in the shoot-em-up category. Platypus is just what I want.

The game is relatively easy to play. I was able to get past a few levels the first time I played it. Work with a second player and you can advance even faster. (In the screenshot, Player 1 (yellow) hasn't re-materialized yet after being blasted into smithereens earlier.) I am currently stuck at Level 2, Area 2, so it is not that easy that I can finish in one seating. The music by Chris Abbot is nice, too. I wasn't into computer during the Commodore 64's heyday so I didn't readily recognize Abbot's music, but there is some similarities to the music I heard in some Commodore Amiga games. Unlike Jets 'N Guns, there is no need to buy and sell stuff to arm your spaceship. Just blast a wave of enemies and they become stars for you to collect. Shoot the stars a few times more and the power-up changes - wide-shooter, autofire, sonic wave, rocket, and lightning.

What really sets Platypus apart from many of the games out there is its claymation-based graphic. I think there are some game building packages out there that are used by the people who supply games to publishers like Game House and Big Fish Games. It's probably the same people using the same artists, such that they all look similar. The way the games are played maybe different, but still they do look the same. It's like cartoons from Pixar or Dreamworks. Impressive and beautiful as they are, the look in all those cartoons are the same. Not so with Platypus, because its creator, Anthony Flack, had meticulously made everything from clay and animated them. Think Nick Park, Creature Comfort, and Wallace and Grommit. Even though I am good at drawing, animation, computer-assisted or not, is just too tedious for me. My hat goes off to Anthony for the great work. The clay appearance simply gives the game a unique look that I haven't seen in any games.

Next time: The sad story behind the game.

Him, Him, Him!

I just bought Rupert Holmes' Partners In Crime album from the iTunes Music Store. I didn't buy it for The Pina Colada Song or because I like the plays that he wrote - not that they are bad or anything. In my little corner of the world, Holmes' song Him holds special significance.

It was the early 1980's when I first settled down in the U.S., a mere lad in a family of six. We just arrived from the refugee camp and started adjusting to the new life. I had about one year of private English school but it wasn't enough to carry out fluent conversation. Someone, whether my late father or a cousin I cannot remember, said that when my English was good enough, I would be able to comprehend what was said or sung on the radio. Sure enough, whatever on the radio sounded so fast I couldn't understand much. Still, as I explored American music I discovered that, unlike Vietnamese music, there was much repetition as far as the lyric went. Even though I didn't understand all the words of a song, there was always certain phrases or words that were repeated over and over. As we didn't have a TV and I didn't read the newspaper, there was no way to confirm it but I was sure I knew the names of certain songs, simply based on the repeated words or phrase. One of the songs I like in those early days on American soil was Holmes' Him.

I didn't catch the lyric enough to know the entire story, but just hearing "Him! Him! Him!" and "It's me or it's him" I could interpret that it was about some guy telling his gal to choose one guy or the other. Love songs are usually about pain and suffering, universally.

I knew there was some reference to the window in the first line. I don't recall knowing back then what do without someone means, so even if I caught the phrase She's gonna have to do without him, I doubt I would know what it meant. Especially the gonna part, as it was a while before I learned the slang words.

Back to the present, I now can easily pick up the whole lyric for Him. I can even detect wrong lyric on some web site. I could have bought the song on CD elsewhere on the Internet but buying through the iTunes Music Store and have the song synchronized to the iPod has special significance. It's amazing how much technology changed over almost thirty years. Years ago I first listened to the song on some low-quality radio, now I have the song on an MP3 player the size of a pack of playing cards, along with many other songs.

My First Thanksgiving Parade

After living in New York City for so long but still haven't gone to a single Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I agreed wholeheartedly when Wife suggested that we go this year. The weather was great, not raining and not cold. There was only one problem - time. We didn't bother to get up early and got to Columbus Circle around 10 a.m. The video above pretty tells the story. Layers and layers of people lining the streets, even the side streets. Sure you can see the big balloons quasi-floating in the air, but there were much other things to see on the floats, too. Some people, perhaps living near the parade route, brought 2-step ladders to get themselves above the wall of people. Good move, I will consider lugging one along all the way from Brooklyn the next time I go, if I ever go again.

I thought the Border's Bookstore in the New York Coliseum, uh, Time-Warner Center, would be open, so last night I told my Son that we would visit the store after we were done with the parade. Son re-prioritized the whole thing and was a nag the whole time, complained that the parade was boring and that we should go to the bookstore instead. After running south a few streets in hoping of catching a better glimpse of the parade, I gave up and broke from the group (Wife and In-Laws), and went to Border's with Son. The store was closed, it was Thanksgiving Day after all, what was I thinking? Not giving up, I trekked uptown to the Barnes & Noble just outside Lincoln Center, only to discover that it too was closed. The only stores that seemed to open were the ten (I exaggerated) Starbucks I came across during the trip from Columbus Circle (around 57th Street) to Lincoln Center (around 65th Street). Not to waste a nice chance to be alone with my Son, with no other kids to fight with him, I bought tickets to see a 12:45 p.m. show of The Bee Movie. We had about two hours to kill so I took Son over to Central Park and let him roam the two playgrounds at West 67th Street (Adventure Playground and the unimaginatively named W. 67th Street Playground). With about 45 minutes until show time, we each had a hot dog for lunch, eaten on the bench just opposite the hot dog stand. Not only Son enjoyed Bee Movie, I too had a few good giggles as it has many jokes for adults, like a mosquito that ended up being a lawyer said it was an easy move for him because he was already a bloodsucking parasite in the first place.

It was a great day to spend with my Son, but there was one big issue. In the morning, fearing my weak bladder would cause troubles while watching the parade, I skipped both my OPC-3 drink and, more importantly coffee. I was supposed to pick one up at a Starbuck's later on, but didn't. Combined with a dubious egg-filled pastry piece for breakfast and just the hot dog for lunch, topped with the stale air in the movie room in the basement, the lack of coffee gave me a nasty headache by the time the movie ended. I spent the rest of the day feeling awful and sickish, but otherwise it was a great day, parade or not.

Lanyard, I'll Tumble For Ya!

With my new cell phone, I made a change to the way I carry the device. Up to now, I have been carrying phones on the hip. Now I use a lanyard to dangle the phone from my neck. For me, the hip is the worst place to carry a cell phone, pager, or PDA. So many times I suddenly discovered that the phone was no longer clipped onto the belt and had to scramble about finding it. I have been lucky so far and always found the cell phone either in the car or at home in some places that I recently knelt down, perhaps to tie shoelaces. I still remember the time the nice $50 PDA Skins flew off the belt, the clip completely ripped off, when I squeezed through a conference desk and an arm chair too fast. Then there was the time the PDA, in some belt-clipped case, fell from the belt unnoticed. I discovered it absence shortly afterward, but only after I ran over it with my own car!

Hopefully with the lanyard such disaster will not happen. I do have to be careful not to swing the Razr² against some hard object. For now, with the cold weather, I can ensure that won't happen by nesting the phone between the layers of clothes I wear.

I like the fact that the lanyard sports a breakaway connector. It is a safety feature involving a mechanism that when pressed releases the device from the lanyard. Good thing to have, in case one's device get stuck between a subway car's closing doors. Better lose the gadget than your life, no?

One thing I am tempted to use is a Bluetooth headset. When the lanyard is used together with a wired headset, the two tends to tangle up. A Bluetooth headset would solve the problem easily. I vow not to become one of those annoying lunatic talking on their Bluetooth headsets in public. I think those people should be made to wear a sandwich board that declares, "I am on the phone, I am not talking to you" whenever they use the headsets, so that passersby can safely ignore them instead of responding to them out of courtesy, only to be embarrassed.

Razr2 v8

The pleasant surprises in life, I love them. This past weekend I went through the bi-annual ritual of selecting a different cell phone plan and upgrading the device. I am aware of the unnecessary amount of trash generated by cell phones that got discarded simply because they lack certain whiz-bang features. I plan to eventually donate my old phone via Staples. For details, visit http://www.collectivegood.com/donate_phone_Staples.asp

I would rather keep using the old cell phone, even with a cracked outside screen a few weeks after I had it. Napping on the couch with a cell phone clipped to the belt is not a wise thing to do, trust me. But then some of the number keys were falling off, the antenna came off a few times and had to put back with Crazy Glue. Worst of all, the device had so little memory. For a while, I was using it as a personal digital assistant (PDA), entering notes, reminders, alerts, etc. but the phone quickly ran out of memory. With the new Razr2 v8's 2 gigabytes of memory, I am sure I will finally have a decent PDA to us one-handed while riding the subway or waiting on the platform. I still keep the Handspring Deluxe for other PDA tasks, but for simple tasks likes reminders, I would rather save on AAA batteries by using the cell phone's rechargeable battery.

The last time I changed cell phone, I didn't care too much about cell phones and regarded them just as tools, something to get a job done, i.e. stay connected. The iTune Phone was just out and the phone rep suckered me into getting a rip-off phone, from Motorola but not the real thing. There was some problem with it, besides the inability to easily load and play music, and I traded in for a Nokia phone. It served its goal, albeit I could use more, lots more, memory space.

Two years later, the iPhone, the real McKoy, is out and much as I love it I am not too keen on paying the premium it demands. A couple hundred dollars for the phone, stuck with AT&T possibly forever, limited number of apps, plus the costly monthly fee. This time next year maybe there will be more apps to make the device more useful, but for now I am not ready for it. I just wanted a cell phone with lots of memory to store my notes and calendar entries. The rep suggested the Motorola Razr2. I heard about the Razr before but never researched about it.

Ten hours after the phone was charged I started to play with it. It has one port mini-USB port for everything, from power to headset to data transmission. At 2 megapixel, the camera is pretty decent. My first digital camera was 2.2 MP. The nice thing is iPhoto readily recognized the phone's camera. With my old phone, I had to email myself photos taken with the phone camera, incurring whatever cents that do accumulate over time. The best feature I like so far is the ability to play music on the device. Bluetooth provides a somewhat painless way to send the music files over the air. I probably will explore the possibility of using the USB cable to send tons of files to fill up the 2 GB of memory quickly, but for now I don't mind sending songs one at a time. I get a peek at how iTunes categorize my music by digging into the its folder structure.

I especially like the Razr's ability to use any music files as ringtones or alarm sound. In these dark days of Digital Rights Management, it is probably illegal to do so, but at least there is no technical hurdle to overcome. With the iPhone, one needs to shell out $1 for the song then another dollar to convert it to a ringtone. Or rely on hacks and fight a game of cat-and-mouse with Apple.

My goal for now is to load all the songs in my son's playlist on the iPod to the Razr. It is only about 200 MB so in between I also sneaked in some from my own list. Now only if the Razr came with some decent full games instead of the lame demos...