Finally!

A big thank you to all of you who left comments with well wishes because with your encouragement, I managed to pass level 500 today and caught up with the game developer's release schedule. Now will wait for new levels to be released.

For the record, I did not use any real money to get special items and extra moves. Not that it matters anyway although it is better for the game developer if I did that. But I must confess I did use 20 virtual gold bars out of the foc 30 virtual gold bars that were given by the game developer to get extra moves to pass level 419 on 25 Sept 2013 (Wed).

The longest time that I was stuck on a level is for about 1 and a half months (from end July to early Sept) on level 410. That was the toughest level for me. I thought I would never pass it.

As to why I play this game: I find it very relaxing to play this game after a long day at the office. The candies are so colourful and pretty.

Once again, thank you all for your support! :D

First walk

When I was in Hong Kong, I like the convenience of using the Central–Mid-levels escalators and the Central Elevated Walkway to walk from one place to another and wish that such a facility exists back home. So I was very happy when I read that a covered air-conditioned walkway was launched early this year, connecting the Pavilion shopping mall located at the Bukit Bintang road to the KL Convention Centre which is in turn linked to the KLCC shopping mall via an underground walkway.

Last week, I had the opportunity to see for myself what this walkway is like. It took me about 8 mins to walk the whole stretch of 562 meters from Pavilion to KLCC. Unlike Hong Kong, there was no travelators (moving walkway), only escalators for the exits and entrances so after all the window shopping in KLCC, walking back was a bit tiring.

All in all, it was a pleasant walk with security guards along the way to help out with people who are lost and also to make sure that no one is up to any mischief. Below are some photos I took along the walkway.

The green line in the map below is the route of this KLCC - Bukit Bintang Walkway.

The floor plan of Level 3 of the Pavilion shopping mall showing the location of the entrance to the walkway (green box).

Floor plan taken from the website of the Pavilion shopping mall

Entrance to the walkway after exiting the Pavilion shopping mall

Close up photo of the sign above

Escalators - exit to Raja Chulan road

Close-up photo of the sign above

Branch off left to exit to Wisma Cosway and Raja Chulan monorail station

The covered walkway is not connected to the Raja Chulan monorail station. One would have to exit the walkway and stroll under the hot sun to reach that station.

Just keep on walking

Finally reach KLCC

Looking back, up the escalators

Correct?

After 1 week of staring at the jigsaw puzzle, I think this may be the answer. All Mickey's friends are playing a musical instrument except for Donald Duck. He is blowing air through a straw into a glass of liquid he is holding in his hands/wings and I can just slightly see the bubbles coming out from the glass. So do you think this is the mistake?

What mistake?

Jennifer's post entitled "I love jigsaw puzzles" jogged my memory that I have a similar jigsaw puzzle (undone) lying somewhere in the house. After searching for a while, I finally found the puzzle that I bought 3 years ago. Without further ado, I started putting the pieces together.

As with the usual practice, I put together the border first. To make it a bit more difficult, I only looked at the picture on the cover of the box once and then proceed to put the pieces together without referring to the picture again.

When I reached this stage, it was getting harder and harder to find the right piece as each small piece contains a variety of colours so without referring to the complete picture, it was difficult to know which piece goes where but yet I persisted to do it without referring to the picture again.

Finally I did it! The key to putting the puzzle together without referring to the picture again is to group the pieces that have roughly the same colours together and then assemble the pieces by their groups.

Maybe I should complete a black and white jigsaw puzzle this way which should be very difficult. Or maybe I should ask my spouse to get me a jigsaw puzzle and let me try putting it together without me knowing what  picture is at all. The latter should be more difficult. But more fun!

For this puzzle, I am supposed to find the mistake but after scrutinising it for hours, I still couldn't figure out what the mistake is. What mistake?!

Lara's sidekick

From today onwards, I have to report for sidekick duty for at least 1 hour daily until the mission is completed. I play Totec in "Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light" and I have to assist Lara in her adventure. So far, Lara has taught me how to handle my spear, jump and walk on her rope and carry my shield above my head so that she can stand on it to jump to higher places. I am not skillful yet so I get scolded by Lara quite often. When there are many enemies around, I get too excited and forget how to fight so I simply plant and detonate bombs until I blow up Lara. Ah, the joy of cooperative game play between a skillful and an unskillful player. And who says playing games together strengthens the relationship?

The Guild

My spouse got me hooked on this web series entitled "The Guild". If you are a gamer or know someone who is a gamer, then you may be interested to watch this show. It is a comedy about a group of online gamers and each episode takes only about 5 to 8 minutes. We have been watching season 1 to 3 on youtube and season 4 on www.watchtheguild.com during the weekend.

The story behind this web series is very inspiring. It is created and written by Felicia Day, an avid online gamer and struggling actress in Hollywood. The first few episodes were self-funded and then the money ran out so the next few episodes were financed by donations via PayPal. More information available here. What's important is that some people are inspired by what she has achieved to start doing something about their dreams without waiting for external funding.

I wanted to know more about how she is living with her success now so I found and read two articles: "Farpoint 2010: A Conversation with Felicia Day" and "How Felicia Day Recruited Millions for Her Guild". Very interesting.

A new hobby

My spouse and I started this hobby together. Now he is the one diligently tending to it while I just provide emotional support.

Balls, balls, balls everywhere

For the past one week, my spouse and I have been kicking a football, virtually that is. We have just finished playing one round of 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament on PS3. For the group stage, with 4 teams in 8 groups, we played 48 matches to get to the Round of 16 where we played 8 matches to get to the Quarter-finals where we played 4 matches to get to the Semi-finals where we played 2 matches to get to the World Cup Final. So we played a total of 62 matches over one week which means I played around 7 to 8 football matches every night with my spouse until I was kicking balls in my dreams. For completeness, we even played the 3rd place match. At last, we reached the Final - which was between Brazil and Spain. My spouse was Brazil while I was Spain and Brazil won just because I kicked an own goal :( but anyway I am hoping that Brazil will win this 2010 World Cup for real!



So with HD on Astro, we are all ready to stay up at 2.30am to watch all the matches in June 2010. Just can't wait!

Non-stop battles at home

Barbaric, brutal, bloody, gruesome, violent, savage, horrific. The battles go on and on.

Source (Images above are copied from): http://www.gamespot.com/

My spouse has just got his hands on God of War III, a third-person single-player action-adventure PS3 game and has been enjoying himself playing it for the past few days. This game concludes the God of War trilogy. The ESRB Rating for this game is M (Mature) so that means it is not meant to be played by anyone below 17 of age (ESRB = Entertainment Software Rating Board) but I don't think parents here adhere to this guide though I hope they do. This type of game (bloody battles) is not for me but I enjoy the overall story and the superb visuals. In God of War II, I even helped to solve some of the puzzles. This time, I have informed my spouse to let me know whenever he encounters any puzzles. Let's see for how many weeks this game can keep him occupied.