Malay Mail Big Walk 2007

This morning's Malay Mail Big Walk was rather interesting. I arrived at the Dataran Merdeka on a cold and wet Sunday morning at around 5.45 a.m., having parked my car at Central Market. I don't know about you, but why does the pre-start ritual of every marathon/race event I've attended so far involves the announcer screaming/shouting instruction to participants via the PA system?

I guess some participants don't understand plain simple English that there is no registration on race day. Simply report yourself at the starting enclosure and get inside before the race starts.

The race started at 7.10 a.m but not before the start of the National Men and Women events. My friend registered me under the Men Senior event, instead of the Men Junior event. Both events start at the same time and cover the same distance (10 kilometers), the only difference is in the qualifying time (Senior - 1 hour 50 minutes, Junior - 2 hours - If I remember correctly).

The first part of the course took us along Jalan Parlimen and Jalan Duta and this first stint was pretty long. I developed a bad cramp on my left foot after 3 kilometers and I had to stop and remove my shoe for around 10 seconds (before putting it on again) as it felt like I had a plank tied to my foot. Places of note: Tun Razak Hockey Stadium, National Sports Council.

That stop actually helped alot in diminishing the cramp and I was able to continue at full speed right into the 2nd part of the race, which brough participants into Taman Tunku. Alot of rich folk live in this area, as it was evident in the number of lavish bungalows and houses. This was the half way mark of the race and the water station was situated there. Places of note: Water station :P

It was up and down again during the third part of the race as participants walked into Bukit Tunku. I enjoyed this stretch the most and was able to carry most of the momentum of the second part of the race into this stretch. Training at the Taman Rakyat in Klang paid off with the snake like road providing some much need variety compared to the long highway stretch in the first part.

The final part of the race brought us back into "civilization". Upon exiting Bukit Tunku, I was in a part of KL that I'm not familiar with. The landmarks of note however are a University Malaya City Campus, and the memorials of Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn. This stretch brought us to the vincinity of Bank Negara and the end of the race at the very muddy Padang Merbuk.

I finished the course in a time of 1 hour, 38 minutes and I got another certificate of participation to add to the KL International Marathon certificate. I find that a walking race is much more streanous compared to that of a running race, and I'm practically in pain after the race. However, this is a pretty good experience and I hope to join the event next year.

Note to the Malay Mail: Next time, end the race at the Dataran and do have more people to distribute the goodie bags.

Up and Walking

I'm up rather earlier, it's a quarter to 4 in the morning, and I guess other participants of the Malay Mail Big Walk will be doing the same as well. The reporting time for the Men's Senior Event is at 6.20 a.m. and from the what I heard, some 10,000 people will be participating (It's hear say, I know). It's gonna be a blast!

But I won't have my hopes up for people to come dressed up in fancy costumes, like the participants of the recent London Marathon:

A Guide To NSMB

If you have trouble playing New Super Mario Bros like me (I know, being sucky at platform games like Mario, sucks), don't fret anymore as IGN has a free guide to NSMB, with PICTURES (beat that GameFAQs)! Go get it here.

Quotable Quotes on the Wii

The Wii is Nintendo's cash-cow nowadays, but I'm not really a fan of the console. However, I must admit that Nintendo did something right this time, compared to the whole Gamecube thing. The following quotes came from me, from just one conversation earlier tonight:

"I don't like the idea of waving my remote at the television; I only do that when it's out of batteries" - referring to how some games require you to move the Wii-mote around.

"I jog twice a week, play badminton and do weight lifting, no Wii is gonna give me that" - replying to the misconception that the Wii is an exercise machine.

This is Club House Games!

Somehow, the title seems wrong, but Club House Games for the Nintendo DS is, in a word, fun. Basically a compilation of a tonne of casual games in a tiny cartridge, players will be hard pressed not to find more than one game to like. Out of the astonishing 42 casual games on offer, the bulk of it are card games, ranging from simple ones such as Memory to the more interesting ones such as Texas Hold 'Em.

There are also board games that range from the normal (Checkers), to the more exotic like Shogi and Ludo. Rounding up the rest of the games are variety, action and single player games such as Dominoes, Bowling and Solitaire.

On a single player basis, Club House Games is a perfect time waster, for say, when you are commuting in a train, or while waiting for your date to get ready. I played Blackjack and President during the commercial breaks in betwen the live telecast of American Idol. :)

However, the best is yet to come in form of the game's multiplayer gameplay. Playing Blackjack with 3 other flesh-and-blood people in a local multiplayer match is certainly more interesting compared to playing against the AI, and yes, this game is WFC enabled.

This feature allows you to play the bulk of the games with people all around the world!* (*Suitable WiFi connectivity required, Friend Codes...optional).

I've lost count how many times I've said this for other games.. being a Touch! Generations title, Club House Games is playable entirely using the stylus and is pretty easy to pick up, regardless whether you are a pro gamer, casual player or someone who has never used a DS before. Presentation wise, it's a bit spartan, but is perfect for this kind of compilation. For those of you expecting fancy stuff such as 3D avatars, the following image comes to mind:


I got this game for a bargain price of RM 70 (used) and although Play-Asia doesn't have this title in stock anymore, it shouldn't be a problem finding the game at a retailer near you or on Ebay. This one's a keeper!

Animal Crossing and How to Market Stuff.

Toy/collectible retailers anywhere can do themselves a favour by being a little bit more descriptive with their items and post up more pictures. Otherwise it's easy for potential customers to overlook it, and please, don't give the product a generic name.

Case in point, Play-Asia's Animal Crossing Figure Collection (Theather Version) (on the left) and XL-Shop's Animal Crossing Planet Trading Figure (bottom picture). Both are actually the same thing, but judging from the description, pictures and even the title on both sites, you probably wouldn't realise it as well. I would have bought it earlier had I known it was already on Play-Asia but I only came to know about this globe collectible from XL-Shop's website last month.



In this case however, not buying from Play-Asia turned out to be a blessing in disguise and the reason boils down to simple math. The entire collection if purchased from PA costs around USD 44 while buying it from XL-Shop's brick and mortar store will only set me back at USD 40. Nice!

On to other stuff, a friend of mine called my attention to some really cool looking metal touch pens for the Nintendo DS and DS Lite. Produced by TakaraTomy, these "Touch Metal Knock Pen" are available in silver and black for USD 4.99 each. Do take note of the Nintendo logo on the packaging, that is so old-school! I like...


Purchase details are available on the links provided in this blog entry.

i am 8-bit?

What happens when you pair modern day artistes with oldie but goldie games such as Pacman, Mario, Metroid, Centipede and etc? You get the i am 8-bit art exhibition currently being held at Gallery Nineteen Eighty Eight in California.

Featuring over 200 works of art by over a hundred artistes, this is a showcase of their take on gaming icons and themes. I wouldn't say that the games are retro, as some of them (such as Earthworm Jim) don't qualify in my book. One thing is for sure, I wish I'm there now to attend this exhibition (it's FOC by the way). Here are some of the works on exhibit, taken from the gallery's website.

What's the next best thing for those of us who can't make it to California? Well, get the book, but the only problem is that it is a little bit expensive at USD 40 + inclusive of shipping for international customers but what you are getting for that kind of money is a signed book! In any case, Amazon has the book (unsigned) as well, and it's going for around USD 15, shipping not included...yet.

Stuff for Sale

I just ordered an entire set of Mario Kart DS Racing Collection Part 2 Gashapon from Play-Asia for USD 14.94 earlier today (details here). Some of you may have recalled that I've ordered the same set from eBay on behalf of a friend for double that price several weeks back. I guess the wait finally pulled off.

This new set consists of Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Wario, Bowser and Donkey Kong. This purchase, however, will leave me with duplicates of Mario, Luigi and Bowser, as they already exist in Collection Part 1. I'm putting up Mario and Luigi for sale at RM 8 each and I would preferably sell them off as a pair. Afterall, they are brothers, aren't they?

Since I've already got the ball rolling, I'm also putting up my duplicate set from my Animal Crossing Houses collection for sale. The items for this duplicate set are still under wraps but which set am I refering to? Answer: The set on the lower left corner boxed in Red (otherwise known as the PMS Mole, I mean, Resetti set):

This set is going for RM 10, but please note that all prices quoted here are do not include the shipping price. Or maybe I should sell these guys on eBay...hmm.

Lucky

Two things went through my mind when I landed akwardly and somehow twisted my ankle while playing badminton earlier this evening. The first being will I be able participate in the Malay Mail Big Walk this weekend, and the second being whether this will be a recurring problem during the Penang Bridge Marathon in June. I got up, bent over for half a minute until the pain subside, and then continued playing. It wasn't that bad after all.

Condolences to the family and friends of the guy who passed away after completing the London Marathon. I understand it was rather warm for the participants at 21 degrees Celsius and hopefully everyone else turned out just fine.

Aside from the tragedy and the fact that one more person is hospitalised under critical condition, you really have to hand it to the participants, especially those who made an effort to dress up and run the course of the race. The following pictures were obtained from the BBC website.

Rather tarty for anybody's taste.

These guys were just convicted to run the race

Passion Week may be over, but it ain't over for this guy.

I wonder if anyone dressed up as Mario, or Sonic or any other videogame character. You know what will be cool? A muscle-bound dude dressed up as Duke Nukem running the marathon.