Travel | I Spit Hot Fire

Photos: Fun at Video Games Live, Kuala Lumpur

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

I’m back from KL! (see my earlier post http://www.ispithotfire.com/2010/03/19/going-to-video-games-live-kuala-lumpur/)

Here’s me at the Video Games Live concert in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday:

And here’s renown composer (and VGL co-founder/emcee/host) Tommy Tallarico with Norihiko Hibino, composer extraordinaire of every modern-gen Metal Gear Solid game except the Playstation original:

There was also Jack Wall (well known for composing the Mass Effect series) and Laura Intravia there, alongside the Malaysia National Symphony.

It was a good show. Jimmy had a blast, and Bobby and Ed said they enjoyed themselves despite not necessarily being big fans of gaming, though Bobby used to be a World of Warcraft whore.

I had more of an interesting view of it all. I felt like I could have enjoyed it more. Not necessarily that the performance could have been better, but maybe I didn’t get the best of it. Yes, despite sitting in the first row.

I’m a whiner.

Here are the notes:

It was a professional performance, and in that I mean everyone was professional, they knew what they were doing. Tommy had a good vibe with the crowd, very personable. As Jimmy said, it felt like it was a group meeting and we were all just part of the fun.
The same day of the concert, World Cyber Games and a PC Fair were going on in the same convention center. I am guessing the timing was done with a purpose even if they were run by different companies.
The audience for the afternoon show was really low, definitely not 50% capacity. I don’t know how well they promoted it, but I felt like it was a bit lackluster. You would think the Games and PC Fair stuff were a natural way to attract new ticket buyers, but you really didn’t see any note of Video Games Live anywhere. It wasn’t even that easy to figure out where to go to get our tickets and then find the right auditorium for our seats. I think there was a big opportunity lost there. Hopefully, the night show did better. I think the low audience really sapped my excitement during the show.
Jimmy and I were so close – very first row – that I noticed things I have never seen. For example, Tommy played the guitar for much of the show, with the guitar plugged into the amp or speaker (I don’t know much about these things). When he played it though, it seemed like he was playing a plastic guitar, and the speakers were playing music separately, almost like lip-syncing with instruments. I could actually hear Tommy flick the chords of the guitar, and then the music would come out separately from another area. I never knew this is how electronic music worked, and this kind of affected me. This wouldn’t have been an issue if I hadn’t been so close. This audio effect is how I felt about the whole symphony actually, being so close made me feel like the sound was off. We (or I was)were actually too close for our own good. Another negative about being that close is that speakers (I think that’s what those were) partially blocked (you can see it in the pictures below) our view.
Norihiko Hibino came on to play the Metal Gear Solid 3 theme on a saxophone. That was pretty bad ass. We saw him at our hotel (Concorde, next to Hard Rock Cafe) lobby on Sunday morning, just hanging out by himself.
Laura Intravia first came on to do the opera voice for Gods of War (Jimmy thought this was hot), and later did Zelda stuff.
Jimmy and I could have gone on stage for the Space Invaders activity, but we both chickened out- I think I avoided all eye contact. Tommy picked the guy next to to us. I kind of regret this.
2.5 hrs, with an intermission in between. Bang for the buck, for sure.
I recorded the performance. It sounded ok when I first checked it out, but a bit soft in volume. Will have to tune it and hope for the best.
We decided to skip the meet and greet- it seemed like it was going to be a long wait.
Would I go again? Yeah, I think so, but maybe to a US venue at full capacity and just sitting in fairly normal seats.

See all the pictures in my Smugmug gallery:

Tags: concert, kuala lumpur, malaysia, Music, Photos, Travel, Video Games, video games live

23.04.2010 Music, Photos, Travel, Video Games View Comments

Going to Video Games Live, Kuala Lumpur!

Friday, March 19th, 2010

I’m going to Video Games Live!

(Edit: There’s now a post with photos and notes about my experience – read it here: http://www.ispithotfire.com/2010/04/23/photos-fun-at-video-game-live-kuala-lumpur/)

But what is it?

Oh, this! Video Games Live™ is an immersive concert event featuring music from the most popular video games of all time. Top orchestras & choirs perform along with exclusive video footage and music arrangements, synchronized lighting, solo performers, electronic percussionists, live action and unique interactive segments to create an explosive entertainment experience! – From the official site: http://www.videogameslive.com/

So that means it’s a video game concert playing some of the best music from the best games in the history of video gaming. I’ll be going to Kuala Lumpur for the 2:30 PM concert at KLCC on April 17th with Jimmy Thong Tran.

It’s basically a $300 concert for me when you include the flight ($150 through Air Asia), tickets, hotel, and food. I guess that’s why it’s good to be anti-social/lonely like me- spend less money on seeing friends, going clubbing, and drinking beers, and go spend all the money saved on video game concerts. Nerd.

But at least we’re in the first row! (see below)

The tickets weren’t so bad. Those best-in-the-house (hopefully) seats were $75 USD, which is quite good.

This will be cool to go to I think. This concert series started in the Bay Area (where I’m from) about 5 years ago and has grown in popularity, adding more cities and events each year. Since I have no idea if and when I’ll return to the US or have an opportunity to go see this, this was the time to go. Plus, Jimmy and I will be in KL all weekend, so we’ll cruise round, doing whatever. I have this Banana Leaf Rice Place in Bangsar in mind that I’d like to go to for lunch.

I don’t know what to expect, but I think that’s a good thing. I’m hoping they’ll let cameras in, and I hope there’s cool stuff surrounding the event- some arcades, some cos-playing, maybe sales of video-game toys/posters/etc. I have no idea if that’s possible since the Symphony at KLCC is part of the Petronas towers and not in its own building, so not sure about the space available. I’m definitely down to buy random crap though.

Some of my wish list items for the actual concert would be to hear stuff from Halo, Donkey Kong Country (I never played much of the game, but I do like the soundtrack), Super Mario World, Sonic, Super Double Dragon, and Street Fighter 2. The event is still a month away, but I’ll write about it and post pictures once I go!

If you’d like to go and purchase tickets, try TicketPro: https://shop.ticketpro.com.my/en/Event/Detail/697/video-games-live

Edit, March 31:

Been tracking this thread on the official Video Games Live site for info on the KL event: http://www.videogameslive.com/forums/showthread.php?p=30466&posted=1#post30466

The recommendation is that you come an hr or two before the event for all the fun pre-show stuff, but not super clear what’s there and what time.

For the meet and greet, looks like only the main people will come:

COMPOSERS:

Tommy Tallarico

(Earthworm Jim, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Metroid Prime, Advent Rising, Aladdin, Cool Spot, Spider-Man, Time Crisis, MDK, Unreal 2 & Tournament, Blood Rayne, The Terminator, NFL Blitz, Prince of Persia, Pac-Man World, Knockout Kings, Madden Football, Twisted Metal)

Jack Wall

(Myst III, Myst IV, Mass Effect, Splinter Cell, Jade Empire)

Norihiko Hibino

(Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns Of The Patriots, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Zone Of The Enders, 1942: Joint Strike, Ninja Blade)

PERFORMERS:

Laura Intravia

(Flute Soloist)

Tags: concert, jimmy, kuala lumpur, malaysia, Music, Travel, Video Games

19.03.2010 Music, Travel, Video Games View Comments

Hacks to Avoid Jetlag (USA to Vietnam)

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Image by miss_rogue via Flickr

I’m back in Vietnam, and it’s time for my follow-up to my article, Hacks to Avoid Jetlag (Vietnam to the USA)

This was my sixth time doing this, and I’ve always felt that going from the US to Vietnam is much easier than coming back to the US.

I always take the Vietnam Airlines flight which lands in Vietnam between 9 and 11:30 AM (depends if you are landing in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City), so the key here is staying up all day until you can sleep at normal hours.

To stay up, you have to stay active. If you just sit around or watch a movie, you are toast. But if you can get to work (outside of home), talk to people, you can keep yourself up. It also helps to be outside because the sunlight can help your body rethink trying to sleep.

Day 1: I got into HCM this time around 10:30 AM, or 7:30 PST in California. If I could stay up to 9 PM, it would be 6AM in California. Tough. But got home, unpacked my stuff, went to office in the early afternoon, had dinner out, got back home, and it was 9:30/10 before I finally went to bed. Woke up at 5:30 AM. Not bad for my first day.

From here, it was just a question of maintaining:

Day 2: Slept around 8:30, woke up at 2:30 AM. This wasn’t so good, not because I woke up so early, but because I didn’t get 8 hrs of sleep. I tried to sleep again around 6 or so, but it didn’t happen, so I knew I was in for a tough day. Somehow, I ended up being ok the entire day, and slept at 8:30 again.

Day 3: After sleeping at 8:30, I woke up at 3:30. Took a nap from 9 to 12 AM, and was good for the rest of the day.

Day 4: Slept at 10 this time after coming home from basketball. Woke up at 6:30.

Day 5: Slept at 10 again, woke up at 4:30. Don’t think this is due to jet lag, I seem to have crazy dreams every night. Decided to stay up and do some stuff.

It doesn’t matter so much to me when I wake up, as long as I can stay up and sleep on time, stay in good patterns. In fact, I hope I can stick to sleeping at 10 AM each night.

Tags: hack, jetlag

14.01.2010 Travel View Comments

Bay Area Tales

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Image via Wikipedia

I’m in the Taipei airport right now, waiting to board my flight back to Vietnam. A recap of my two and half weeks of California, USA fun:

Adventures:
- Six Flags Magic Mountain on New Years Eve – X2 is still a fantastic ride, even if only for the first 15 seconds, but Batman and Goliath were closed
- 49ers vs Lions, lower deck seats – 49ers win!
- Warriors vs Suns – Warriors win!
- Warriors vs Celics – Warriors win!
- Sherlock Homes – might enjoy it more if I saw it again as I fell asleep towards the end (that only happens when I see movies soon after my returns from Vietnam, gave it 6/10)
- Up in the Air – a movie that reminds me why I have to continue working; I can’t let someone fire me (gave it 8/10)
- Star Trek Exhibit at the Tech Museum in San Jose – interesting, but way overpriced
- Saw UFC 108 at M Cafe with Kyle, Tay, Midland, and Mike – great setup, a ton of TVs
Food:
- KFC – The new grilled chicken is pretty good; it definitely has that picnic chicken taste to it. Great to have biscuits again…yummy, biscuits
- Albertsons/Lucky’s Fried Chicken – traditionally my favorite fried chicken for taste and value, it didn’t hold up this time around.
- SmokeEaters – formerly Cluck-u near Santa Clara University, had good wings and fries one of my first nights back meeting up with Andrew
- Fiesta Del Mar – Mexican food! bBurrito during lunch with Kyle
- Fenton’s Creamery & Restaurant - this is the famous ice cream place mentioned in Pixar’s movie Up. Had my favorite, cookies n’ cream in a cone.
- McDonalds – McChicken, fries
- In-N-Out – cheeseburger and fries, and then a double double with fries. Both times were subpar for me. I’m a bit worried about their quality, and maybe it’s just in my head, but after reading In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules by Stacy Perlman, I am very, very concerned about their future.
- El Pollo Loco – chicken and CHURROS! (best ever)
- Costco – chicken warp (not as good as some would have me believe) and churro (not as good as El Pollo)
- Harris Ranch – ordered ribs after heading home on I-5 with Mike on the Magic Mountain trip. Fries and Ribs were good, as they should have been for a $30 meal.
- Mountain Mike’s – had pizza there while watching Cal lose their bowl game. Substandard, a bit dry, maybe a bit hurried. Wasn’t cheap either, I think it was near $20 for a medium.
- Thai Pepper – my pad thai wasn’t so great, but maybe other items are better there.
Other:
- Tried out Redbox to rent movies – $1/night’s a great value and very convenient. Probably not coincidentally, Blockbuster is closing a ton of brick and mortar stores, including one in downtown San Jose. How can they compete with Netflix and Redbox?
- Used Yelp to research places to eat and go – my sister remarked, it feels like it’s early success came from Asian popularity, where you can feel that much of the writing comes from Asians
- Tried out dad’s GPS tracker on the Magic Mountain trip. GPS is brilliant! Almost makes me want to move back to the US just to go on trips and have GPS lead the way.
- Did some work. Poop.
- Had light basketball workouts 7 times over the 2.5 weeks. Hopefully, I’ll be better for the mean courts of Vietnam (no joke, it’s tough out there)

Tags: bay area, Food, redbox, san jose, Sports, Travel, yelp

06.01.2010 Food, Sports, Travel View Comments

Star Trek Exhibition at the Tech Museum San Jose [Review]

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

One of the first things I did after coming back to the US was go to the Star Trek Exhibition at the Tech Museum in downtown San Jose. Here’s the official information:

STAR TREK: THE EXHIBITION – the world’s most comprehensive collection of authentic Star Trek objects – features over 200 artifacts including:

An authentic replica of the bridge from the U.S.S Enterprise NCC-1701 as featured in the original Star Trek television series

Iconic gadgets from the Star Trek universe: a tricorder; a phaser, and a communicator – all from the original series. Devices that have inspired innovators of today.

The actual shooting model for the Borg Cube, as seen on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Voyager and in the movie Star Trek: First Contact

A chance to ride through a Star Trek adventure in a full-motion flight simulator (extra fee)

Sounds good right?

Unfortunately, I left disappointed. Even Mike, who is a much bigger Star Trek fan than me, wasn’t too happy with it.

I think the biggest negative to the exhibition is its price, $25 per person. That is a lot for a museum.
While it does have a lot of the gadgets and a ship bridge and the transporter, you’re not allowed to take photos anywhere. My sister snuck one in (above), but the security told her to stop. They offer a service to take photos at the bridge and the transporter for you, but those cost $28 EACH. To me, if you’re paying $25 per person, one picture should be free. I really wanted to buy a photo, but $28! I would have done it for $10.
It’s supposedly a 2 hr exhibit, but that’s only if you read everything. Carefully. It took us 45 minutes max, but maybe more like 30 minutes. 15,000 square feet for an exhibit is not as much as you would think when it’s mostly used for free roaming space.
There is not as much stuff as you would think.
I wanted to go on the flight simulator, but after seeing how much the pictures cost, I got disheartened.
The $25 per person does include the normal Tech Museum stuff, but after you do the Trek stuff, you so thoroughly feel like you were ripped off, you just want to go.
The gift shop is a great way to get people to buy stuff, but they were charging $40 for the normal bare bones edition of the DVD. You can imagine what other things might cost. My sister ended up buying a $3 can of Vulcan Ale (energy drink), but that’s it.

The price of having just one memoir (28 + 25 = $53) to remember the day was enough to make me not recommend this to others.

Tags: Movies, museum, Reviews, san jose, star trek, Travel

23.12.2009 Movies, Reviews, Travel View Comments

Hacks to Avoid Jetlag (Vietnam to the USA)

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Image by Loving Earth via Flickr

So, I’m back in the US on vacation. One of the big things I hear about for people traveling between Vietnam and the USA is the jetlag. The first time I came back from Vietnam, when I was 13, I would sleep at noon for a week before I got back to normal. I can’t really afford to do that now, so time for shortcuts!

It’s a 15 hour difference if you’re flying to the west coast, a 12 hour difference to the east coast, so I always like to think of living in Vietnam as living in the future. Case in point, I saw Avatar at Megastar at Hung Vuong, Q5 in Saigon last Friday, basically before it opened in the US.

But back to jet lag, there are some easy body hacks you can do to et yourself back to normal as quickly as possible.

An example, me on this most recent trip:

Day 0: I flew on a 5PM flight from Vietnam that arrived in California at 5:30 PM, with a stop in Taipei. Some flights get you to the US in mid-day, I’m only used to the the VN/China Airlines schedule. On this flight, however, you want to sleep as little as possible. This past weekend, I slept 3-4 hours total. Why? You want to be tired and able to sleep when you arrive in US. I got in to the US at 5:30, got home around 7:30. I had some dinner, and by 10:30 I was tired enough to go to sleep.
Day 1: I woke up at 4:30 AM, almost 6 hrs of sleep. If you keep in mind I slept the previous night at 10:30 PM (1:30 PM in Vietnam), and now woke up at 4:30 AM (7:30 PM in VN), I’m making really good progress in resetting my body clock. It’s hard to last a full day without getting tired, so it’s not the best day to go partying. I avoid booze and do anything too exerting. I also took a one hour nap around 2PM to make sure I can last through the night. I end up sleeping around 11 PM this night.
Day 2: I woke up at 7:30 (basically a full 8 hr sleep) AM. I’m BACK! The key now is take a very short nap (if you do a 2-3 hr nap, you’ll definitely screw yourself up) if you need it, and just exert yourself normally throughout the day. In previous trips, I always take it light the first few days, so as not to risk sleeping too early or too late that might make my body remember its Vietnam timing.
Day 3: Messed up here. Got super sleepy (easy to when you’re just hanging out at home), so took a short nap around 4 (about an hr). After dinner, started sleeping again in my sister’s room around 7. Woke up at 1. Did some stuff, took a 1 hr nap at 6AM. Now, the key will be staying up and sleeping at normal (10PM or later) time…..
Day 4: Woke up at 4:45 after sleeping around 10:30 or 11 PM. I get super tired during the afternoons, but still getting there…slowly.
Day 5: Slept before 10, I think, woke up around 7. Feeling good, but do keep sneezing all the time. Brrr, it’s cold out here. I’m a tropical boy now.

I’ll write another article in a couple of weeks with how I go from the USA to Vietnam.

Tags: hack, jetlag

21.12.2009 Travel View Comments

Habitat Hostel (Singapore) [Review]

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

During my F1 weekend in Singapore, I stayed in a hostel for the first time, Habitat Hostel in Singapore (http://www.habitat-hostels.com.sg/). Habitat is well located near the Somerset MRT exit (which is near Orchard and all the main downtown stops- in fact you can walk to anywhere downtown within an hour).

My stay was about $62 USD per night, (booked through http://www.hostels.com/) which at first glance is really expensive for a hostel. But when you consider two things, 1) It was F1 weekend 2) Singapore is expensive for housing- the cheapest hotel for F1 weekend was about double the price, and that was when I had checked prices over a month before the actual weekend, it was not such a bad cost. At the same time, there are cheaper hostels in Singapore, and the costs don’t work out so well if you’re going with multiple people.

Not an issue for me, however, as I went alone.

Habitat Hostel bills itself at a boutique hostel, and that’s what made me try it out. I don’t feel like I’m really a backpacker type guy, and was always afraid I’d be uncomfortable at a hostel, but this sounded like a good middle ground for a first timer.

I really enjoyed my stay. Yes, I was only there to sleep basically, but the double/queen sized beds were really comfortable, and overall the atmosphere is quiet. There’s breakfast available any time in the kitchen, and there’s always a comfort of cleanliness everywhere in the house (in fact, you’re asked to take off your shoes before you walk in).

The staff is really nice (and remember your name) and understanding, and the people I stayed with were pretty cool too. No one was a jackass or anything. From their website, even for a person who had never stayed in a hostel, it sounded like they really paid attention to the details of creating a good experience, and after staying there, I can say it’s basically all true.

A very nice place I would certainly recommend assuming the price is within your means, and something that will open my mind to other hostels in the future.

Going through their website again for this review, I completely forgot they had a movie room (wasn’t shown to me while I was there)!

Their official description and some pictures I took below: (to see more photos, see my Smugmug: http://ispithotsoleyman.smugmug.com/M-2009)

HABITAT HOSTELS, Singapore’s only boutique flashpackers hostel, is the best choice for budget travelers looking for an environment of personal service, pampered luxury and chic furnishings, coupled with an excellent location.

Our fully air-conditioned rooms feature the unique first-of-it’s-kind pod dorms (to follow the Japanese pod-styled capsule idea) to provide backpackers with unparalleled privacy and personal space. The pod is self-enclosed while remaining spacious, and features its own reading light and a small ledge for personal items.

Capitalizing on personal service that includes regular social activities, games, outings and in-house themed parties (Popiah party, anyone?) will serve as an excellent icebreaker amongst guests at the hostel.

Habitat Hostel is housed in a 3-storey pre-war shophouse with a charming Chinese Baroque façade. We are the only hostel strategically located at Devonshire Road, just a 2-minute walk to Orchard Road – the epicenter of Singapore’s premium shopping and entertainment belt. Being located a stone’s throw away from Orchard Road and Somerset MRT stations gives Habitat Hostel the advantage of being easily accessible yet being away from it all. It’s rich heritage, charming ambience and relaxing atmosphere makes this the perfect location for a boutique hostel concept.