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TV Shows, Video Games And Baking Bread

I recently started watching the new Hunter X Hunter anime, it’s quite an enjoyable show. Even though I already know the story from the manga, it was still nice to see it again. I like hearing the characters thoughts and reasons for the things they’re doing, and how the characters change throughout the series. Not just the main characters, even the enemies are (sometimes) shown as more than just “people to defeat”, but as people with various goals and doubts.

Hunter X Hunter

On Netflix I’ve been watching Suits, Breaking Bad and House of Cards. My brother was saying how House of Cards is basically the same type of show as Breaking Bad, and I guess it is not a bad comparison. I found both of these shows enjoyable, but rather depressing to watch. But then again, some of my other favorite non-sitcom shows, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones are really quite depressing too, and Dexter isn’t exactly a happy show either.

I guess watching sitcoms once in a while is at the very least good for giving a bit more positiveness than those other shows do. I do enjoy watching How I Met Your Mother and Modern Family once in a while, and Sket Dance on Crunchyroll is also more of a feel-good show, though it does have some sad episodes, in particular the ones about the main characters’ background stories.

 

I’ve been experimenting with baking bread using the “no-knead” method, where you basically just mix together the ingredients and then let it sit in the bowl for a long time (12-18 hours) before folding it together with some flour with a spatula, proofing for another hour or so and then baking it in the oven. Some of it turned out well, like the following photos. I think they’re from the first time I tried it, if I’m not mistaken!

Mixing the bread ingredients

Mixing the bread ingredients

Folding the dough together

Folding the dough together

After baking the bread

After baking the bread

Finished bread

Finished bread

Other times the bread didn’t really rise properly, and I’m not 100% sure why. It could be either because the temperature in my apartment is too low, or I mess up some of the ingredient proportions (in particular the amount of water compared to flour), or it could be because the dry yeast I have is actually expired. I still use it because in general dry food should be okay even after expiration. Though the other problem with the dry yeast is that the box states that each sachet is supposed to be used within three days after opening, but this recipe uses so little that it takes many weeks or even months before I can use up even one sachet. Still, the last bread turned out OK after I added a bit more yeast and also put it on a lukewarm stove so it would rise more properly… Will have to experiment a bit more!

 

I’ve played quite a few games since last blog update:

  • The Wolf Among Us: Episode 2 – Still no closer to finding out who the killer is, though the end of the episode featured a rather shocking relevation! Looking forward to the next episode. Reminds me that I haven’t bought the latest issues of the comic.
  • The Room Two (Android version) – A puzzle game of the “escape the room” variety, with quite high production value for a mobile game! Just as good as, if not better than the first game in the series. Also available on iOS.
  • Lightning Returns – I enjoyed this game, possibly more than the previous two in the Final Fantasy XIII series! The combat/equipment/skill system felt more customizable and action-oriented than the first two games. It felt slightly ridiculous how many “garbs” (armor) are paid DLC though.
  • Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc – A visual novel type of game which really feels like a mix between 999/Virtue’s Last Reward and Phoenix Wright. You play as one of many students who are being held captive in a locked down school building. To be allowed to escape, a student has to kill another student without being found out by the rest of the students. So when a student is killed, the rest of them has to investigate the murder, and then have a “class trial” to try and find out who the real killer is. The thrilling part is that you don’t know who is the next to die or who the killer is, and also finding out the reason why the students are being held captive. Don’t want to spoil too much, though if you don’t like playing visual novels, they have also made an anime based on this game.
  • The Walking Dead: Season 2 Episode 2 – Still a great adventure game. I feel like I regret some of the choices I ended up making in this episode, but I’ll stick with them till the next episode.
  • Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea Episode 2 – In this one you play as Elizabeth, but without her rift-opening powers. So you’ll (she’ll) have to sneak around most of the time, and climb through air ducts. Kind of felt like the sneaking parts of the Batman: Arkham series.
  • Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright – Two of my favorite game series in the same game! It’s awesome! I’ve only gotten to the second chapter so far.

 

As for socialization I guess the last few months I haven’t really spent as much time as I could have on socializing, though I still go to church twice a week. I invited Vilhelm over to play Mario 3D World last Sunday, trying to get all the stars and other collectibles, that was quite fun! We also had a “boys’ night” with the boys from church. Made a big burger. (That we cut up and shared.)

Boys' night

Boys’ night

Unfortunately had to skip out on the swimming trip and the ski trip because my operation wound hasn’t fully healed yet. But it feels like it’s almost there! Hopefully this time it’ll stay fixed so I don’t need another operation and no longer need to clean the wound twice every day.

 

Posted by on 2014-03-29 in Rambling

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My Brother Got Married!

My brother got married!

My brother got married!

Congratulations little brother and wife!

On the wedding day it was raining rather heavily, even though the rest of the week (or summer) had been very sunny. Though some people say it’s good luck to have rain on your wedding day! A lot of relatives came for the wedding, and we went travelling around Norway with my two cousins from Hong Kong. Went to Sognefjorden and also to Preikestolen.

And we had a trip to Tusenfryd, haven’t been there in years! It was actually quite fun. Ate at the BBQ buffet again at their cowboy street, it was decently delicious. Finally got around to try out the rides. The Thor’s Hammer ride was just a simple rail ride with 3D cutscenes at certain points in the ride (you get 3D glasses), and the new ghost house/ride Nightmare is also a 3D movie ride with 3D glasses, but you get a gun and can shoot things, though I had a hard time knowing if I had hit anything or not. Still haven’t tried the waterpark part of Tusenfryd though.

My cousins and me at Tusenfryd

My cousins and me at Tusenfryd

So I’ve been busy most of the days after summer camp, didn’t get enough time to finish Persona 4 until last week, and Tomb Raider this week.

I bought Last Window: The Secret of Cape West, an old DS game that I never got around to play. And I also bought Persona 3 and 2 in a bundle because I was looking them up after playing Persona 4, and they were on the last day of a sale. Will probably wait a bit before playing Persona again after 4, since it takes such a long time! But some people say 3 is the best one.

 

The summer in Oslo has been quite good this year, even now it’s still quite hot outside when it’s not clouded. I eventually decided to buy a small inflatable pool and just leave it on the balcony to cool down after work. (Covered with a tarp when not in use.)

Pool

Pool

Been watching quite a bit of shows on Netflix and Crunchyroll too whenever I’m doing laundry or dishes or so. Finished season 3 of Fringe, season 2 of Modern Family, and all 12 episodes of Another.

I started watching RWBY, an America-produced web-anime made by Monty Oum. When I first saw the trailer I couldn’t remember where I had heard the name, but once the girl started fighting monsters remembered seeing his old Haloid and Dead Fantasy videos. He makes some great fight scenes, with people using all kinds of cool moves! Unfortunately the first few episodes of the show feels mostly like a generic warrior school anime, and it feels somewhat strange to watch an English voiced anime. But then again after Persona 4 I’ve gotten kind of used to it. Anyways I look forward to when the show will actually have some more battles.

Also I started watching Lost again because I never got around to watch the last few seasons after I lost interest. Figured that I may as well watch the rest of it.

 

Posted by on 2013-08-24 in Rambling

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Hong Kong and Taiwan

I went to Hong Kong and Taiwan with my parents the last two weeks of March this year, had a good time eating and shopping! It seems like spring is a perfect time for going to Hong Kong since it’s warm but not too hot. At least the first week – the second week was rainy and kinda chilly though.

Siu Mei and bunny bun

Siu mei and bunny bun bought at a night market in Kaohsiung

Went sightseeing in random places in Kaohsiung and Taipei, and didn’t really do much sightseeing in Hong Kong since we were there for such a short time. Spent most of the time seeing my parents’ friends and shopping.

Strawberry (sweet and sour) ribs!

Strawberry (sweet and sour) ribs

Mostly bought two pairs of shoes and clothes. But only because some of my older shoes have started falling apart. I need to make myself throw them away and only use the new shoes. Also bought some snacks, some computer stuff and a few things that I thought were funny/cute.

Bought a new lid for my coffee/tea cup because the one I used before stopped sitting properly on the cup

Bought a new lid for my coffee/tea cup because the one I used before stopped sitting properly on the cup

 

I finished playing through Dead Space 3, also the story DLC “Awakened”. I must say that it’s mostly correct that it’s not really much of the horror feel of the first game left, it’s really much more an action game now. While it did have a few jump scares that got me, it just doesn’t quite feel like the first game where you would walk around in suspense because you have no idea what would happen next. Though I guess it might be harder to surprise people in the sequels since the players already know about most of the monsters and what happened before…

Isaac Clarke needs a new job

“I need a new job.”

Still, it’s kind of interesting to see where the story goes, even though the ending is somewhat sad. And then I played the DLC, where the ending was even worse. Kind of reminds me of Prince of Persia (2008). Well I guess now I’ll probably buy Dead Space 4 if it comes out, no matter how many people say that EA has ruined the game, just to see if Isaac will ever get a break.

Ni No Kuni took surprisingly long to finish! I thought I was almost finished about 35 hours into the game, but I was completely wrong. I think the save for my finished game was about 60 hours. Not counting the couple of times I died and didn’t want to save I guess. Anyways the story was enjoyable and quite Ghibli-like.

Ni No Kuni cutscene screenshot

“Not another monster encounter! The last one almost killed us!”

My biggest gripe with the game is the difficulty… Even after I thought I had “leveled up” quite a bit, I still got my ass kicked whenever I finished an area and went to a new one! The helper characters AI isn’t really helping much either, tending to spend all the MP on spells so that they don’t have any left for healing when needed. Oh I already wrote a bit about this in the last post. Yeah the boss battles weren’t the only battles that were difficult in any case.

Started playing Bioshock Infinite now too, it really looks quite good, and the story is very good! I really want to continue playing because I want to find out the reasons/answers to some of the mysteries in the game.

Elizabeth, the girl you're trying to kidnap in the game.

Elizabeth, the girl you’re trying to kidnap in the game.

I wish the game would work with Nvidia 3D Vision but as far as I have found out online there is no real way to get it to work properly. Oh well, it’s not as if I ever complained when I played Ni No Kuni and it didn’t have 3D either. Still, the graphics are so well designed in Bioshock Infinite that I would’ve loved to see it in 3D!

Went to Bergen last weekend too, it was nice meeting friends there and eating with them. We watched Oblivion, which has nothing to do with Elder Scrolls, but has Tom Cruise saving the world from aliens again. The story had some twists some of which I already guessed from watching the trailer, but some other twists were slightly unexpected. Still, I kind of feel like the movie tried to get a happy ending in a way that was too forced or too “simple”. It was okay entertainment, slightly smarter than most generic action movies but still taking storytelling shortcuts.

Oblivion Movie screenshot

Microsoft PixelSense? (Formerly Microsoft Surface, before they decided to use that name for their tablet instead.)

I have also spent a lot of time watching YouTube lately instead of trying to catch up on 24 on Netflix. Been watching Strip Search (a reality show where web cartoonists compete against each other, created by Penny Arcade), PewDiePie‘s playthrough videos (mostly the Pixel Horror series) and also various Geek and Sundry shows. Maybe I should reconsider my Netflix subscription… Though I did watch a few movies so I guess at least I haven’t left it completely unused. Still watching Gintama a lot on Crunchyroll.

I considered subscribing to HBO Nordic to watch Game of Thrones, but in the end it just doesn’t feel like it’s worth it because the subscription model doesn’t allow for flexible pausing/resuming your subscription. It’s just too expensive subscribing just to watch one show. Maybe I’ll wait for the DVDs/Blurays and buy those instead. *sigh*

 

Posted by on 2013-04-14 in Rambling

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