Wednesday, October 16, 2013

The weird and wonderful 1st week of October: Nintendo 3DS, Army-Navy etc

That was the most strangest week I've had since, a very long time actually. Probably since I had both an HD2 and iPhone 3G at the same day. But I've waited 2 years for this, and I say this feels a lot better than getting 2 phones that were actually useless to me lol (my hands are bad with capacitive screens, at least those old ones back then)

I knew on Sunday September 29, that it was going to be one crazy week. That day I was out very late taking care of stuff, it got so late it ended up as the second time I found myself in a mall well into closing time. In fact it was so late, I had to grab dinner at McDonalds, which actually made me iffy because that was the 2nd time in 20 days (not a  good thing to me).
Get ready for the zombiepocalypse :P

I also got meself a USB wireless adapter for my desktop at CDR King, which you might recall my desktop had nothing of the sort. Lucky for me, the Chinese-looking thing (like most of CDRKing's items) happened to be using a Realtek chip that supported AP Station mode, basically sharing an internet connection over wifi. Which meant I could use my USB 3G Broadband modem to stream it through the wifi to other wireless devices. Such as the 2DS I was planning to get. Of course, I didn't know it would be the 3DS I would get 3 days later:

I've finally joined the 3D race :D (or whatever the Nintendo 3DS group is called, for example PC gamers are "The Master Race" :P) The reason why it was unexpected was because I was originally out with someone to get computer parts (at the same area I got my desktop), but the deal was if the particular parts were not there, I could use the cash to get the 3DS instead. Which of course I was not expecting the parts to not be there, considering it was practically computer heaven. So I went into Game One Gadget and inquired about their 3DS price, and I was expecting it to be in the ballpark of the rival store, Datablitz's php7,600. Imagine my surprise when I was told it's php7,000, which is a little more than $20 USD cheaper. I just had to get that, especially when I consider that if I had pursued the 2DS and imported it into this country, it'd cost a heck of a lot more than that. What's even more complicated, was that I had planned to use my GameFAQ's earnings *cough* reward to get that 2DS, and they had just announced the July FOTM winners were going to be paid. In October! I then wrote off the 2DS because at that rate, it looked like I was going to be paid in January 2014.
It was a good meal...
...Made better by playing Flower Shop in a Krispy Kreme while waiting for a ride.

That night it was late (again), and I said forget McDonalds, twice in 4 days is a disastrophy. Enter Army Navy Burger and Burrito, which I have to say, if you've got one in your area, give it a try, really. Their Starving Sailor sandwich destroys Subway, at 8 inches I wasn't sure I was going to finish my Onion Rings. By the way, their fries are a blast, compared to that stuff at McDonalds :P

My ritual is safe once again.

Enough about food, you might have realized something about that day. I so wasn't expecting the 3DS that it didn't hit me until the ride home, that I didn't get a game >__< Aside from my DS games, but it's all about the 3DS games, right? 2 days later I went out and picked up Fire Emblem Awakening, something I was looking forward to ever since I made an avatar for a member at Animesuki (actually I've been looking forward to it since it's announcement, but the avatar piqued me further). I have to say I am impressed with Fire Emblem Awakening, and it's everything I was hoping it'd be. ( I made it even more hilarious by going to another Army/Navy for dinner, take that McDonalds, twice in 3 days :P)
That's how an adult Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière would look like!

I had originally wanted to get Dead Or Alive Dimensions as my first 3DS game, but they didn't have it at the store I went to (it wasn't where I got the 3DS). I'm serious, I was looking forward to that game 2 years ago, jigglies in 3D uh huh ;) That's actually one of the main concerns about my 3DS purchase, and you might be wondering why I was even considering the 2DS in the first place. You'll recall my left eye, and that I was very worried that it wasn't going to handle the 3D that well. It's one of the main reasons why I considered the 2DS, there's no one in this country that I know that has a 3DS, and I couldn't test the 3D effect on my eyes before making a purchase for the 3DS or 2DS. So it was a tense moment when I eventually got the 3DS, as you cannot test it before buying, the common rule in this country is that you can open it, and see if it works, but if it does work, you bought it already. And with no demo stations anywhere, I couldn't see the 3D without buying it. What's even more weirder, was that this particular 3DS was from Saudia Arabia, and although I was told it can plenty well play NTSC games, I wasn't sure, and the kind folks at the shop where i bought Fire emblem were kind enough to let me test it on my system before buying.
This is not actually my first Middle Eastern device. I had previously used a Samsung i600 Blackjack, which was the most strangest phone I'd ever used:

Check out that keyboard, there's not only qwerty, but symbols and Arabic! It was hilarious to type on XD

NO, I DON'T :P

Now I know what you're thinking, what's a guy like me with an old phone, shakey health, and a whole lot of no time, doing with a 3DS? Well, aside from the cash originally being for something else, I had already notified my superiors about my plans about dealing with my health once all projects are settled, so that's out of the picture. My phone, as ancient as it is, it's qwerty, which a lot of phones these days aren't, and if you hadn't figured it out, I'm not too sure about any decent phone out there for php7k that won't take a dump when my fingers touch the screen. And since I've really been looking forward to the 3DS for years now, it was a no-brainer. My eyes can handle the 3D effect perfectly fine, although I've not tested playing with 3D on for more than 20 minutes. If I can survive more than 1 hour of non-stop 3D, then that would confirm it is incoming light sources that my left eye has a problem with (every device I use is at minimum brightness setting, including my computer monitor.) It's why I do very little photoshop these days, it demands my monitor go up to at least 50% brightness for superior editing. Something I'm afraid I can't do for long periods of time anymore.

But what's that, my weird and wonderful week only went until Friday? Nope, the reason why that will forever be a ironic week is because the next day after getting Fire Emblem, GameFAQs paid everyone. Including me. Talk about irony. Which I promptly donated to the owner of the cash, which I have a mini rant, why the heck is it so difficult to spend USD online while in the Philippines? Always with this US phone number verification this, must have US IP that, I tell you the e-commerce landscape changed since I was last in the USA.

Yes I will get to that post about my BenQ S6. Don't mind that Nvidia sticker, okay? It's not like I went mad scientist and shoved a GeForce into there >__>