Nathan Ng

Red Alert 3 Trailer

I must admit, this trailer makes this whole game seem worthy lol.  Not to mention there’s Tim Curry and the dood from Prison Break in this trailer alone!  There’s like a crazy list of actors in this game and the actress list is like just as strong – Taylor from O.C.!  I think that’s her anyway haha.

This is starting to remind of Transformers though lol.

Drooling over Storm hands-on

The blogs have gone up in arms with Paul Miller’s hands-on with the Storm… and I’m totally drooling. I previously had a hands-on about two months ago, but no software, just full hardware (and I totally won’t say who or what or where lol). Previously the screen was actually quite hard to press, and it didn’t feel right. The stupid ninja who had a hands-on, actually quite reflected what I was thinking.

But I’m REALLY glad to hear this thing is picking up momentum with praises (finally) about the screen.  I really liked the innovation.  Although I would like to say for my own egoistic reasons that I, actually, totally thought of that concept – but obviously, I’m in no position to implement anything like that =/ *sigh*. 

Coming out in November for the masses on Verizon!  And Telus!  And other Canadian carrier, says BGR.  I’m totally gonna pick this up one way or another.  I’ve been fighting for a reason to like it, and now I have lol.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/08/blackberry-storm-9500-hands-on/

Randoms #2

So a few quick blurbs to keep this updated.

I’ve been following The Daily Show and the Colbert Report throughout this whole American political campaign and though their opinions and their statements are made to blatantly to make fun of the press and the politicians, I’m finding more and more truths to what they have to say.  Honestly… a lot of their sarcastic statements are actually very down-to-earth and true.  why should we (Edit: Oh gosh, I’ve turned American) vote someone into office if the people just find them funny.

Oddly enough, Canadian politics are hardly ever spoken about.  (It was a while before I even FOUND OUT that an election was coming up).  And I’m finding that Stephen Harper is running our country GOOD-ENOUGH that our politicians and our media don’t make much comedy out of it.  Heck, I barely know anything about Canadian politics and I’m satisfied with it (which… might not be a good thing).  I just hate the heck out of Stephan Dion for unknown reasons.

Let me quote these few sentences from John McCain, cuz I laughed so frickin’ hard.  And note, these are all taken out of context and out of order, and totally should not be taken as advice or whatnot, but STILL:

“The fundamentals of this package are good, they’re strong”
“It shows the incredible influence of lobbyists and special interests”
“I think that this plan will produce a profit”
“Its insanity and obsenity because its a waste of taxpayers’ dollars”
“The taxpayers will be paid back first, which is an important provisionist bill”
“This is inside the belt-weight chronism of the worst kind”
“Coming back to Washington, getting the Republicans at the table”
“These pork-barrel projects, these outrageous procedures”
“Improving the bill”
“Its terrible, it really is corrupting”
“And I believe it will pass”

Jon Stewart: (Shows picture of Gollum):
“We LOVES the bill, we hates the bill, we LOVes, HATES”
“That is an UNFAIR JOKE” (shows picture of Gollum and John McCain in very similar portraits)
“Its an unfair joke, because Gollum is an old man on his quest for ultimate power and…”

HAHA.  Oh so great.

My last comment: Apparently, (story from the media) people still seem to believe that Obama might be a Muslim!? That just absolutely BLOWS my mind.  JUST because of that, I’d totally hate to be on the Republican side, because it just seems like anyone voting in that regard is the most ignorant person alive. 

Anyway, that’s my quick political blurb.

Nokia N78 Design Review

Warning: This is a shameless plug!

My first design review is up!  

Check it out over at Intehxicate.com: http://www.intehxicate.com/2008/10/01/nokia-n78-design-review/

Randoms #1

Alright I’m going to stop my long picture blog posts, because, quite frankly, I’m getting tired of writing articles.  So I’m going to post random shorts of fanatical nerve movements inside my brain.

1) I WANT AN HTC TOUCH HD.  OR AN XPERIA X1.  OR A T-MO G1.  OR A BLACKBERRY STORM.

2) New Macbook Pro leaks?  Dock on the TRACKPAD!  Pretty cool, kinda unsure of how its gonna actually play out.

3) Sweeeeeeeeeet (Look underneath).  The stuff they have in here is actually really useful for helping you to decide. Why doesn’t Canada have something like this? Then again, we don’t have Arnold either – for better or worse lol.
 

4) HEROES was FRICKIN’ INTENSE.

Clueless Travelling I: Santa Cruz Beach

Welcome to the new series: Clueless Travelling.  In this series, my roommates and I will not attempt to know exactly what we are doing and where we are going.  In this week’s episode, we present to you – the Santa Cruz Beach… one of them.  

So here we are!  Not really the nicest beach ever, and its rides rival, well, Ontario Place.  But hey, there are some AWESOME Gargoyles.  

Okay so we actually found something to do – something that I’ve actually been longing to do: VOLLEYBALL!  Not too many pictures, but enough to blog about it.

Yeah, these idiots are my roommates.

Oh yeah and I guess I should mention: doooood some of these roads rival some that I’ve seen in Initial D.  Okay not really full out hairpins, but there ARE hairpins… they’re just dragged out long enough that you can’t drift (… hmmmmm on second thought…)

Second Week: Lessons Learned

Here we go again.  I started work, and there were a whole ton of things I discovered.  Keep in mind, CDS told us we were going to be ‘culture shocked’.  Really the only shocking thing so far was the sheer number of boxydelic Scions and gorgeous Maseratis.  There are quite a few things that were interesting though.

1) Canadian telecommunications SUCK (I assume everyone knows already).  I discovered that Americans don’t actually have to pay long distance fees.  You can call from California to New York and it’ll all just be local minutes.  WHY MUST YOU OVERCHARGE, TELECOM OVERLORDS.

2) American car rentals are sweet.  Since its paid by car size, you can switch cars anytime you want.  My roommate had a Sebring for the first week.  Not bad, but eh, in the end its a Chrysler.  So on the weekend, he traded for this:

Yeah, fitting 3 people in the car isn’t the greatest thing in the world.  But hey, we’re in Cali.  We got ta look good.

3) I really, really miss Tim Hortons.

Final comment: remember how I was raving on about zero clouds?  well they finally hit.  Mornings are now cold, clouds are in the sky, and evenings are cold.  Granted, anywhere from 12 – 4pm is still mad sunshine, but damnit, for the other 20 hours of the day, I’m getting friggin’ Toronto weather =/.

Churches in California

August 31, 2008

So… many of you know that I come from quite a small church in Markham, ON.  In all honesty, we’re quite lax and dare I say, not-at-all inspired/motivated people.  So two Sundays ago, my parents and I attended this baptist church called, North Valley Baptist Church.  We parked on the street and the FIRST thing I saw: a big African-American man fully-suited (a REALLY nice suit to boot) with tie and everything.  So I thought, whoa, must be chairperson or something.  As we near the entrance of the church, my parents and I, were fully shocked.  Groups of every sort of people – kids, teens, adults, seniors, of all ethincities – fully suited up and dressed as formal as you can be.  So naturally, my parents and I felt entirely out of place – we stuttered and decided to go in anyway.

We entered the sanctuary and we were totally in AWE (and VERY intimidated – picture below).  We found a seat amongst a thousand people and opened a really cool bulletin (on par with Creekside quality).  The chairperson started to lead through the service.  Each session was a jaw-dropping experience.  Let me list some of the ‘features’ of this traditional baptist church:

• MASSIVE choir
• 4 bright-shining, eye-hurting pearl white grand pianos. (2 full-sized, 2 smaller)
• 4 pianists (and a rotation with another 2 depending on the songs the choirs sang)
• Miniature orchestra, complete with a harp
• Four-man acapella group (with an ! asian!)
• Loudest sounding singspiration ever, complete with beautiful solos, orchestral pieces etc.
• One of the most insane hardcore sermons I’ve ever seen (imagine P. Andrew sermons x 10)
• Baptisms every week (2 people during the Sunday I went)
• Alter calls every week (5-ish people accepting Christ the Sunday I went)
• Services for hispanic, filipino, and soon, an indian service)
• Mornign, afternoon, evening and Wednesday services
• Lower deck, fully-packed with people
• Upper deck, half-packed with people

First Week: Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned from America (from a Canadian perspective, obviously):

.

1) $1 McChickens own everything. If I were to create the supposed company that owns all companies, I’d name it “One Dollar McChicken”.

2) Nice cars are essential to awesome lifestyles. If you were ever a mayor of a city, and you needed something to boost city morale, increase tourism, and create (an illusion of) a higher standard of living, the answer is simple: buy your citizens nice cars.

3) Americans love blue WAY more than Canadians. The logic is as follows: Canadians don’t wave their flags around. The Canadian flag is red and white. The American flag is red, white, and BLUE. Americans wave their flag ALL OVER THE FRICKIN’ PLACE (they literally sell them in home depot!). By process of elimination, Americans love blue. This one really isn’t a lesson though.

4) Silicon chokes the world.  Torontonians (and probably most Canadians) are probably more environmentally conscious than Californians. From the media, I would have thought that Americans were dead-focused on being green and saving the environment. Heck, all the presidential campaigns are fighting for our sources of fuel. In Toronto, I’ve grown up with recycling and the 3Rs have been so ingrained in me, that throwing a glass or plastic bottle into the blue bin is natural. In California, I don’t have an actual recycling bin… anywhere. Now, most people who know me know that I’m not exactly the most environmentally conscious person in the world. But even I feel bad about throwing a glass bottle of pasta sauce, into the GARBAGE! This baffles me.

5) Clouds suck. In other words: ZERO CLOUDS ROCK. Sorry I take that back. I would actually really love a cloud right above my window *fans self*.

More lessons later.

Day 5: Hollywoooooood

August 29, 2008.

I must say, Hollywood is definitely something. Keep in mind, this was a normal business day. Like seriously, back in Toronto, if you see a car shop on the street, you imagine its full of ricers or old broken-down family cars. In LA? You see this:

Aston Martin V12 Vanquish – Check
Bentleys – Double Check
Ferraris – Double Check
Lamborghini – Check
Porsches – Double Check
BMWs – 6-Series Check
Benzes – A Buncha’ Checks!

And you know, you start cruising down the streets and these things randomly pop up (that’s an angel on the hood of the right car btw – i.e. Rolls Royce):

Jag-fest! Of course, there’s much more (visit my Facebook album – BRABUS S-series!), but you’ll probably get desensitized by the end.

Finally, can’t leave Hollywood without a picture of it!

Oh yeah, and I own Chuck Norris. Good Game Chuckie.