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Back From Hong Kong And Taipei

Originally we hadn’t planned on going to Hong Kong this Christmas, but because my brother got married last year and wanted to have a family dinner with our relatives in Hong Kong, my family went after all. My brothers and Tina also went to Taipei for 5 days. We were kind of busy for the two weeks the trip lasted, so I didn’t even really have time to shop as much as I wanted to. On a related note, I have a growing suspicion that I may be addicted to shopping. Oh well, did get to buy some random cool stuff, other than that, mostly met up with relatives and friends and eating a lot. According to my Wii U Fit I gained about 3kg during the trip! The Wii U step counter estimated I’ve walked almost 100km in total, which is apparently not enough to use up all the food I’ve been eating.

Hong Kong was quite cold the first week, down to about 2°C in Sheung Shui where we lived! Taipei too was quite cold, but it got warmer the last few days we were there. Besides my brother’s wedding dinner, I didn’t really do much interesting in Hong Kong, so here are some random picks of my photos from Taipei:

My brother found this board game shop in Taipei, it was kind of cool and had quite a few board games! We could also try as many games as we wanted for 80TWD per person.

My brother found this board game shop in Taipei, it was kind of cool and had quite a few board games! We could also try as many games as we wanted for 80TWD per person. The shop is called Alchemy and you can find directions to it here.

Found this light gun horror game at an arcade in Taipei. It supported passive 3D glasses (the ones they use in cinemas)! The short demo video I watched really liked jump scares. Didn't try.

Found this light gun horror game at an arcade in Taipei. It supported passive 3D glasses (the ones they use in cinemas)! The short demo video I watched really liked jump scares. Didn’t try.

The hotel we stayed at in Taipei wasn't all that clean or high class, but it did have this awesome art piece! Apparently it's a print of the cover for Spider-Man: Timestorm 2009-2099.

The hotel we stayed at in Taipei wasn’t all that clean or high class, but it did have this awesome art piece! Apparently it’s a print of the cover for Spider-Man: Timestorm 2009-2099.

Bought this from Cold Stone Creamery just before I left Taipei, should've gone there more often! It's great! (Though not that cheap.)

Bought this from Cold Stone Creamery just before I left Taipei, should’ve gone there more often! It’s great! (Though not that cheap.)

"Pancakes" with red bean ice cream, bought at Jiufen

“Pancakes” with red bean ice cream, bought at Jiufen

New Year party near Taipei 101, though we didn't bother staying untill the countdown.

New Year party near Taipei 101, though we didn’t bother staying untill the countdown.

 

I was going to say that life back in Oslo has been rather uneventful, but I did go to a wedding, celebrate my father’s birthday, and have an operation, so I guess that wouldn’t really be accurate. The operation was extensive enough that I have to stay home from work for almost two weeks, and because of the pain and inconvenience of the operation wound I have just been staying home and will probably mostly stay there untill the two weeks have passed.

I have been operated.

I have been operated.

 

I started playing Puzzle & Dragons too, I agree that it is decent fun. Got kind of tired of Marvel Puzzle Quest that I had been playing before. I also tried Tower of Saviors which really seems like a ripoff of Puzzle & Dragons, but with better user interface and easier startup (you get more diamonds and it seems somewhat easier to get useful cards/monsters in that game for the starting dungeons). But I haven’t played it much since Puzzle & Dragons take enough time as it is.

Also I got a new phone at work! Nexus 5. It’s basically more powerful and has a full HD screen, not that I need that high resolution for anything in particular, but I guess web surfing does look better on that screen. At the very least it is certainly nice that I don’t have to wait several seconds before something happens whenever I tap something on the screen. Though factory resetting my old phone and not installing dozens of useless games and apps on it probably would have helped too.

Nexus 5

Nexus 5

 

Anyways, here are some photos of some of the stuff I bought in Hong Kong/Taipei:

In addition to this One Piece towel, I also bought a One Piece sweater and a One Piece hoodie. Because I do like One Piece, but also because they were the first "useful" anime merchandise I found, and I never got time to find more.

In addition to this One Piece towel, I also bought a One Piece sweater and a One Piece hoodie. Because I do like One Piece, but also because they were the first “useful” anime merchandise I found, and I never got time to find more.

I wanted to buy more MotionPlus controllers, and found those awesome Mario and Luigi Limited Edition ones in Taipei, so now I've got MotionPlus controllers in all kinds of colors!

I wanted to buy more MotionPlus controllers, and found those awesome Mario and Luigi Limited Edition ones in Taipei, so now I’ve got MotionPlus controllers in all kinds of colors! Above: Old “regular” controllers with stickers. The gold one is the Skyward Sword limited edition, and the black one is a “regular” MotionPlus controller from Wii U Party.

150 pieces, finished it in a couple of hours one evening! Thought I'd need longer. Maybe I should've bought a bigger one after all!

Totoro puzzle and photo frame. 150 pieces, finished it in a couple of hours one evening! Thought I’d need longer. Maybe I should’ve bought a bigger one after all!

 

Posted by on 2014-01-20 in Traveling

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Busy November month

Haven’t had time to post anything in November because I’ve been busy almost every weekend! The first weekend in November was the only weekend I didn’t have any plans. And the last weekend in October I invited some friends over to play Nintendo Land and also a bit of Wii Karaoke U, had a great time! Also we made dumplings.

Dumplings with colorful noodles

Dumplings with colorful noodles!

The second weekend in November I went to SpillExpo, which was way too packed on a Saturday. I originally wanted to go on Friday, but my brother didn’t want to go, so we went on Saturday instead… Meh, last time I go on a Saturday, next year if I go I’m going on a Friday, so maybe I don’t have to stand in line for an hour to try things. Nintendo didn’t come to SpillExpo either this year, but I guess I already know which games from them I am looking forward to anyways. We ended up staying at the expo almost all the time it was open, but a lot of the time was spent waiting in queues.

Some stall at SpillExpo with retro (and new) consoles

Some stall at SpillExpo with retro (and new) consoles

The best part of the expo was actually the indie stalls, where I could try out some cool games that I haven’t really heard much about before, and where there were almost no queues! I didn’t try all the games though, but I tried these:

  • Amphora by Moondrop – A physics puzzle game for PC where you can move things around with the mouse and also draw threads that can be connected to objects. In each stage you have to figure out what you need to do by looking at the characters and objects that are in the stage and how they react to your movements.
  • Little Big Mansion by Krisjet Game Design – A puzzle game for iOS where you control two magicians with different abilities: One of them can swap the location of two items, while the other can swap the sizes of two items. You have to move one or both of them to the exit. I guess it is somewhat similar to Escape Plan on the PS Vita.

Also got to try the Oculus Rift in a few stalls, but I feel like they probably had lowered the 3D depth/effect, because in my opinion the demos we got to try felt quite “flat”, things didn’t really pop out much. Since I’m used to setting the 3D setting to max on my 3D monitor at home when gaming, I was kind of disappointed. Still, I’ll most likely buy the Oculus Rift once it’s out, so I can actually adjust the settings myself.

Oh and on Sunday I made a “Father’s Day” meal for my father/parents. Fried chicken and baked chicken. Also an ice cream cake, but they said they had eaten a lot before so I saved the cake for later.

Father's Day meal

Father’s Day meal – Fried chicken, baked chicken, salad

Third weekend in November I went to Gothenburg to visit some friends. I also played through Heavy Rain, which had really quite an impressive story! I didn’t even notice that I had played till 2 at night when I finished the game. Besides that, I played badminton, ate at Super Rullband, went to church and the Science Fiction Bookstore. The food at Super Rullband isn’t really superhigh quality, but they had enough different sushi, Asian dishes, cakes and ice cream that I got super full after eating there! At the Sci-Fi Bookstore I bought Guild Hall: Job Faire, a stand-alone expansion that can be played without the original Guild Hall cards. I kind of like this game! Though I lost a few times when playing against my brothers…

All the caaaaaakes!

All the caaaaaakes! (At Super Rullband.)

Fourth weekend I had my birthday party at my house. I made almost the same food as for the Father’s Day meal, but also potato gratin, and I served the cake I saved, an coconut ice cream cake with chocolate pieces!

And then we played Wii U Party, more Nintendo Land and also some quiz games on Kahoot!, which was also kind of fun, because everyone can join as long as they have a smartphone and internet connection! But there weren’t that many “good” quizzes to pick from, and people also generally replied so quickly that it was hard to catch up once you were lagging behind in score. Anyways, had a lot of fun and got some nice clothes and other gifts! What I regretted most was not taking a photo with all my friends, oh well. I always forget…

Grilled and fried chicken, potato gratin, also salad

Grilled and fried chicken, potato gratin, also salad

The fifth and last weekend in November we had a costume party at church, the theme was “Superheroes and supervillains”. I actually ordered an anime costume from China, but it still hasn’t arrived as of now… So anyways I threw together a costume from mostly normal clothes, except I bought a costume hat and glued together some plastic and textile into a pair of goggles. The party was fun, we had food, a superhero quiz and some games, and took a bunch of photos that I will refrain from posting here in case anyone are embarrassed of being seen in their costumes, so I’ll just post my own selfie here.

My half-assed Spider-Man Noir costume.

My half-assed Spider-Man Noir costume.

Besides all of the things I did, a lot of great games came out over the last month! I bought Pokemon Y (which I still haven’t beat because I got into all those other games), Ace Attorney 5 + DLC, The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Super Mario 3D World, and Vilhelm said he would buy Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy, but I don’t think he has yet, which is fine by me since I still have all those other games. I even bought Assassin’s Creed 3 (Limited Edition, came with a coined medal/coin/thing) for the Wii U because it was quite cheap by now, but I don’t know when I will have time to play through that. Only played through the first chapter or so to test it out.

Pokemon X & Y and Assassin's Creed 3

Pokemon X & Y and Assassin’s Creed 3

And for fun I bought Pokemon Typing Adventure, a DS game which comes with a keyboard. The keyboard can actually be used as a normal Bluetooth keyboard with f.ex. your smartphone or your tablet, so if you find this game cheap somewhere it’s actually not a bad deal! As long as you can live with an English keyboard layout.

 

Learn With Pokemon Typing Adventure!

Learn With Pokemon Typing Adventure!

 

Ah, it doesn’t seem like I wrote this in my blog before, but I bought an ice cream machine with an actual motor for freezing so I don’t need to waste space in my freezer to pre-freeze a cooling bowl. This also means I can make bigger batches of ice cream at the same time! Anyways I’ve been using it almost every week after I bought it, and I’ve tried making various ice cream types.

"Chinese Triple Ice Cream" - Black sesame, green tea and coconut ice cream

“Chinese Triple Ice Cream” – Black sesame, green tea and coconut ice cream

Norwegian "gløgg" ice cream with raisins and almonds

Norwegian “gløgg” ice cream with raisins and almonds

In addition to those two examples I’ve also made:

  • Pineapple sorbet
  • Apple sorbet
  • Pineapple and cinnamon ice cream

And just to point it out: Making ice cream yourself is most likely not going to get you “cheaper” ice cream, especially when making it with actual cream, which in Norway is quite expensive. I guess making sorbets can be quite cheap if you buy fruit that is on sale. Anyways I’ve mostly been trying to make the kind of ice creams that you can’t easily buy in Norwegian supermarkets. Not all of them turn out all that well, but nothing has turned out inedible at least till now!

 

Posted by on 2013-12-05 in Rambling

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Summer Camp 2013

Went to Training Week and Summer Camp for a total of two weeks, it was fun! Had fun with lots of youth, and pastor Enoch’s sermons are always great listening to. But unless I actually change my life according to the things he’s preached I guess it’s no use talking about how good or bad the sermons were… I’ll have to do my best to remember the things he’s said and try to apply them to my life.

Pastor Enoch and me

Pastor Enoch and me

I must admit I haven’t been keeping up with devotions for quite a while. They were selling “My Utmost For His Highest” at our youth camp’s book store this year. I already bought a copy of this book a few years ago, but I never finished reading it. So I started reading it again to try and at least read some bible verses every day. It is supposedly a very good devotion book, but even this “updated language” version does have some sentences that are somewhat hard to understand. Each devotion is quite short though, so even reading through them multiple times to try to understand them doesn’t take that long.

My Utmost For His Highest

My Utmost For His Highest

Also I saw some sheep at the camp. I thought they were supposed to be fenced in? Too bad they ran away, never saw more sheep after that. They must have figured that staying around Chinese people was a bad idea.

Don't run away, sheep!

Don’t run away, sheep!

 

This week Oslo has been quite hot, around 25°C almost every day. I’ve been relaxing out on my balcony on my foldable hammock for half hour or so every evening, it’s sweet! I still haven’t tried to eat while lying on the hammock. I’m 79% sure that it would end with me falling off the hammock and dropping the food on the floor. So I just eat first and hammock later.

It's hammock time!

It’s hammock time!

 

Posted by on 2013-07-19 in Traveling

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