The Aquila-X, is it good?

The Aquila-X is one of the entry level gaming mice from Armaggeddon. Originally I had purchased this mouse because my older supposedly "gaming" mouse was supposed to last me a while, though one year is hardly lasting for me. Priced at RM 69.90 from the store I bought it from, it was quite a hard choice for me as there were many other cheaper mouse which I could have easily picked but I decided to try out gaming products from Armaggeddon. 

Going over the cosmetics first, the mouse comes with a matte finish covered with a soft touch feel. As you can see from the images above, the mice also has LED lines along both sides of the mouse which light up red on my model, but most other models light up blue. Though the mouse comes with many other patterns on the mouse itself, and different colours as well, like red (as shown above), green, yellow and blue, though they're LED lights are either blue or red and you cannot change the colour of the LED. And as you can see it is very apparent that this mouse does not come with macro keys like other similar looking gaming mice such as the Steel Series Kana, Sensei and Kinzu, while not having the two side thumb buttons of the Kana or the Sensei. It also shows that this mouse is suitable for real-time strategy games like Starcraft II but work well on other genres like first-person shooters too, more on that later. The scroll wheel has a textured surface, adding a more expensive look in my opinion. It also has an ambidextrous design making it a just as comfortable for left-handed users, but this also leads to a less comfortable design compared to mice like Func's MS-3 or the Razer Naga which has a place for your pinky finger to rest comfortably.

The button below the mouse changes the CPI of the mouse. The basic four different CPIs are 400, 800, 1600 and 3200, and the colour of the CPI button changes accordingly, starting from off to red and ends at the blueish green. It's not really a selling point, and maybe some of your OCDs will be tested seeing green and red, but its nice to know what CPI setting you're on, and you can play around with the software which you will have to install to change certain settings on the mouse.

There are a few additional features that come with the mouse, the software would be one of them, which does let you change how bright the LED lights shine, and also allows you to add breathing effects. The software also lets you set macro-keys which will be brought with the mouse itself since it does come with 64 KB of Onboard memory, and it lets you set up to 5 different profiles. It's cool that they let you set up custom keys for the mouse but since they are just 4 different buttons on the mouse. A braided cable is a welcome feature which they have added to this mouse, which does make your cable last longer and not suffer too much damage from animals like cats (I have 4 at home, and previously I had lost 2 devices because of them, love them though). 

On to the overall feel, it is very comfortable to hold and use, and we have to thank the soft touch feel for that. It also makes it easy to grip the mouse and also prevents it from slipping off your hand while you're in those stressful gaming situations. I would recommend this mouse for those who like to claw-grip their mouse, users who like to palm-grip might consider opting for a different model. The mouse also has three large teflon feet, and they glide across most suitable surfaces quite smoothly. The left and right buttons are just as they should be, and are just as comfortable.

I tested it out on a few games, and very clearly it shows you which group of gamers it is aimed at. It mostly for those that prefer to use the mouse without additional macro-keys. It works superbly on Starcraft II, I played a few games and also was still comfortable to use over those long periods. It worked fine for Dota 2 as well but for games like Blacklight : Retribution, which I had already set my previous mouse's thumb buttons to weapon slots 3 and 4. And though it does take some time getting used to, not having the thumb buttons make it a little harder to access my grenades which are on weapon slots 3 and 4 (yes, I carry 2 grenades). I had also played Hawken with it, and works fine as well. 

This mouse is well-made, and the soft touch feel and matte finish keep the mouse from looking like a cheap product and adds a certain premium feel to it. And although it is an optical mouse, using a suitable surface won't present any problems with using it. I did face only one problem with it, which is the mouse suddenly starts trailing randomly (not across the screen just a small area) when left for a while. This does not happen while you are moving the mouse, only after you leave it for a while which happens a lot while when I watch movies. And what surprised me was it only happens when I leave it on the mouse pad which was also a product from Armaggeddon, and not on the black table the mouse is resting on in the pictures. But since it doesn't affect me when gaming, it might just be me. As a final verdict, it is a good mouse and for the price if you want a gaming mouse, at a cheap price, bare minimum, no bells and whistles this is an excellent choice, but that is pretty much as far as this mouse goes.

The Burger Adventure!

First of all, I did accidentally post this before it was finished and checked, for that I apologize, this is the completed post.

This is something completely off most of the topics I actually discuss in my blog, however, it was a nice idea that my older bro came up with. He suggested that we go around and try some of the most basic but homemade burgers in Miri. And that was an awesome idea he came up with, so at least if you guys come to Miri for a holiday, or you're just looking for nice places to try out some burgers, we can name a few nice places to check out. While this was a burger adventure, we had to taste and try out each burger following a procedure (they're just burgers, why go through the trouble you may ask, well let me tell you!) so that we can, in our best efforts, give the most honest opinions for each one. First of all, a gulp of water before and after trying each burger, so that our tongues are at their neutral state. And also, we bought one beef burger of their specialty (because some stalls come with two choices of beef burgers, the ones that are homemade and the ones bought from stalls), as stated by each shop's menu, and rated their burgers based on that. The number of burger stalls we had found surprised us, because some we pass by everyday, never having a thought of trying them out, while others are well known among Mirians. We had managed to find 9 different burger stalls or shops, and from each, a humble beef burger of their specialty, to decide the rating at which whether it deserves to be known, or be amongst those, who tried, but failed. DUM DUM DUMMMMMMM!! (suddenly sounding like one of those game shows)

OLD MAN'S GRILLED BURGER :

The burger stall that sold this burger is located along Bintang Walk, one of the first stalls which you see to your right as you enter the junction. Previously, this stall was known as Sam Burger, but the name has recently been changed to Old Man Grilled Burger. The first thing you might notice is that this burger was one of the few very nicely packed. The way they pack the burger doesn't squash it or causes the sauce to spill out and for that you can enjoy a still nice burger. One of the things that stand out the most for this burger when you take that first bite would be how nice and thick the patty is, however, the patty might have been cooked for too long, leaving the patty dry. One of the best thing about this burger would also be the generous amount of vegetables they put in the burger, the cabbage is also given in pieces and not the mangled, slices that was opted by few other stalls. The sauce used was fairly regular, but as a conclusion, and also with comparison to the other burgers we tried out, this burger is one of the few that stand out from the others.

Price : RM 5.00

Verdict : Recommended

Pros :

- Nice and thick patty

- Generous serving of vegetables

- Packing keeps the burger looking good

- Nice choice of burger bun, doesn't get too soggy even after a while

Cons :

- Fairly regular choice of sauce

- Patty is not juicy

JOHN MADU :

The stall selling is burger is located near Old Man Grilled Burger, known as John Madu. What makes this burger stand out as soon as you take the first bite is that they added baked beans. The packing of this burger is also one of the best things about this stall, they keep the burger looking nice, and this does help. The patty that they cooked is also very delicious, and in no way spoils the overall taste of this burger. The buns they selected for the burger are also of admirable quality, and this also improves the overall taste as well in my opinion. The amount of vegetables put in this burger are not as generous, however, they're not too stingy either. You could say, it's a nice amount of given vegetables. Other than that, they sauce they used for this burger is also fairly regular, however, it has a slight edge due to the added taste of the baked beans.

Price : RM 4.00

Verdict : Try it if you want

The Pros :

- A delicious patty as well

- Good quality buns

- Baked beans adds to the overall taste

The Cons :

- Dry patty

- Nothing exceptional

ALAIZ :

The stall selling this burger is also conveniently located nearby the previous two stalls, known as Alaiz Burger. However, this burger doesn't share much of the same positive points as Old Man Grilled Burger or John Madu. At first glance, you can see how squashed the burger is due to their method of packing. While this is not a major turn off to your appetite, it does affect it a little bit. And secondly, while a main problem with most of the burger would be the generous amount of tomato or chili sauce given, there are times when they can be too generous. And this plagues the overall taste of the patty, which I was barely able to taste due to the amount of sauce. The patty was probably the best things about this burger, as it does taste quite nice, but that is pretty much they only nice thing I can say about this burger.

Price : RM 3.50

Verdict : Requires improvement

The Pros :

- If you can taste it, the patty is nice

The Cons :

- Too much sauce and mayonnaise

- Squashed during packing

- The bun is of poor quality as is was soggy

PAK KASSIM :

Just by looking at the photo above, you can guess that this burger also suffers from too much sauce. The stall selling this burger is also located near the others and along the stretch of Bintang Walk, known as Pak Kassim. Due to the sheer generousness of the sauce, the taste of the patty is greatly overshadowed. And to tell the truth, I could bare taste it at all. The packing of this burger was also very poor, as they would squash the patty and leave a mess made of sauce and soggy bread. The buns used for this burger are of fairly poor quality, and this also makes this burger less of a joy to eat. However, to give this burger a positive point, they gave a generous amount of vegetables.

Price : RM 4.00

Verdict : Requires improvement

The Pros :

- Generous amount of vegetables

The Cons :

- Too much sauce

- Burger is squashed during packing

- Bun is of poor quality

PERGH GRILLED BURGER :

The stall selling this burger is also located along Bintang Walk. The stall is known as Pergh Grilled Burger (a slight mistake in the picture above). This burger is definitely one of the burgers that really taste good and are worth remembering. First and for most, this is one of the only burger stalls that actually use a real grill to cook their homemade burgers. Added to that is a black pepper and chili sauce combo which for this burger works surprisingly well. This stall does not suffer from too much sauce, so you can taste every bit of the patty and the bun as well. The vegetables are the standard cabbage and diced up onions which in my opinion don't really add much but complement the burger well. The real highlight of this stall would be how different the taste of the patty for the burger is, and after going there again, they actually add a little sour sauce (kicap) while the patty is cooking as well. Although the buns used are nothing special, because of how the burger is stacked with the sauce, the buns don't get soggy, and the burger isn't squashed. And this stall has its own Facebook page, check it out (Pergh Grilled Burger).

Price : RM 5.00

Verdict : Recommended

Pros :

- Distinctive tasting patty

- Packed very well

- Burger buns don't get soggy because most of the sauce is between the 2 cut patties.

- Delicious patty

Cons : 

- Dry patty

BURGER INC. :

The stall known as Burger Inc. is also located along Bintang Walk, however, much closer towards the masjid as well as the primary school SK Syed Othman. The burger sold by the stall not only suffered from the same problem as Pak Kassim and Alaiz which is too much sauce, but in this case mayonnaise. Other than that, this burger has nothing else to offer, the patty tastes fairly regular, if you could taste it at all.

Price : RM 3.50

Verdict : Requires improvement

Pros :

- Unfortunately, none over the competition

Cons :

- Too much mayonnaise

- Fairly regular 

HASMAS KENYALANG :

This burger stall is located at Pasar Malam Saberkas, meaning it is only available on Thursday to Saturday. The verdict, the amount of stalls providing too much sauce is high in Miri, and this stall is no exception. However, it does come with a generous serving of vegetables. Other than that, similar to Burger Inc., it's a fairly regular tasting burger, with a fairly regular tasting patty.

Price : RM 4.00
Verdict : Requires improvement

Pros : 

- None as well

Cons :

- Fairly regular

DLAH BURGER :

Unfortunately, this burger stall, just like Hasmas Kenyalang Burger, is also located at the Pasar Malam Saberkas. And unfortunately as well, it shares the same flaws. And overly simple burger which although does not overload on the sauce, is fairly average and forgettable when compared to some of the other highlights on this review which I will state later. It is however, the cheapest burger on this list, so if you are tight on money and want to eat a burger, this might be the burger for you.

Price : RM 2.50

Verdict : Requires improvement

Pros :

- Cheapest burger

Cons :

- Easily forgettable

KINKY FAT CHEF KITCHEN :

The restaurant selling this burger is known as Kinky Fat Chef Kitchen, or KFCK for short. Well known among the Mirians who enjoy a burger from time to time, its hard not to know where the restaurant for this burger is located, you might be able to ask just any random Mirian, and they will pin point you to the location. The reason why I called it a restaurant is because this is well established as a restaurant, complete with tables on which to enjoy their burgers. And looking at how well it is doing, you can expect the same from its burgers. You could say that this restaurant would have the best packing available to them, keeping the burgers ready to eat and squash-free. The sauce used for this burger is homemade, and of course has a unique taste of its own, and it doesn't stop there, you have a choice of three different sauces, their original sauce, cheese or black pepper, which are all homemade but of course for this review, we ordered the original sauce. The patty is also dry, but thick, and the vegetable provided in this burger are pickles, diced onions and cabbage. And also for the price, it comes with cheese, the only restaurant among the others that provide cheese for their basic burgers. This restaurant also has its own Facebook page, check it out (Kinky Fat Chef Kitchen).

Price : RM 5.00

Verdict : Recommended

Pros :

- Nice and thick patty

- Homemade sauce is delicious and unique

- Includes cheese for the price

- Good packing

- Good amount of vegetables

Cons :

- Dry patty

THE FINAL VERDICT

Among all 9 stalls that we (me and my brother as well as my uncle) have tried, very few standout, and although all suffer from having dry patties, we rated their overall taste and price to value. In my personal opinion, those burger hotspots would be Kinky Fat Chef Kitchen, Sam (now known as Old Man Grilled Burger) and Pergh Grilled Burger. Each stall offers its own unique selection of burgers. Though they do lose quite a bit when compared to the well established KFCK, they put up a good fight, and for that they are worth trying out as well. I rarely have favourites, because that would mean only one of the 9, and the hard part is, I enjoy eating at all three stalls, at any given time, and it would be nice to see them establish themselves as well. To the other stalls that we have tried, we hope you come up with your own unique style of burger, so that we can add you to the list as well.




Farid

The "Thing" About DotA 2

I has been a while since I had played DotA, and ever since Valve had helped make a more balanced and stable DotA, we now have Dota 2. I know there are some of you out there that may argue League of Legends or Heroes of Newerth are much better titles compared to the late comer which is Dota 2. But undeniably, the two different versions which are from the original modders of DoTA would be League of Legends and Dota 2, League of Legends which was worked on by game designer Guinsoo and Dota 2 whose game designer was IceFrog.

Videos regarding how DotA started :
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3 (Big thanks to Machinima)

I never really played any of the other variances, and to be honest, I never played the mod that started it all, Aeon of Strife, which was a modded map for the original Starcraft (was really popular back then, still is now too apparently). I only started playing because it was very popular in my school back in the day. And being not as knowledgeable in games and all this kind of stuff, I thought that DotA was a stand alone game, and not a modded map for Warcraft 3, which made my entering of the genre a bit shaky. And also, back in the day, I never really played DotA to a competitive level, not to the level at which I play Starcraft II. I had only started playing this, which I thought was a dying game genre (in my school maybe, but certainly not dying anytime soon) as they had released the new Dota 2. And after watching a few videos on the game, I suddenly wanted to play it again. Long story made short, now I am playing it quite often with my sister, my brother and a few of my cousins and friends.

(Above) The DotA for Warcraft III which was what made the genre explode and has been popular ever since.

Now to get to the before mentioned "THING" about DotA, or now Dota 2 since I am experiencing all of these while playing it is how unforgiving players can be in game. For those of you who don't know, DotA is a game where 5 players on each team (meaning a total of 10, math people!!) duke it out to see which team is better. And in game, since I had been playing alone a lot, you get matched up with random people. And again for those of you who don't know, DotA has a very, and I mean VERY steep learning curve when compared to other competitive games like Counter Strike, or Starcraft. This makes starters, or people who are getting back into the genre (people like myself) have a really hard time with not the enemy team, OH NO NO NO, not them but your own teammates. This was just one (okay, maybe more) experience, but sometimes I get worried that one bad experience maybe ruin it for someone who wants to start playing and enjoy the genre, or even become a fan of these kind of games.

(Above) It's when your team plays like that, especially with your friends, you guys will have a lot of fun!

"Experienced" players can be very unforgiving to new players who want to try out the game. And by saying quote experinced unquote, yes, Sheldon, that was sarcasm. They bash you non-stop in game for that one death, or that one time you didn't help with a push, and you suffer throughout the entire game. However, these players forget that they play a role in teaching and helping starters. For me, Starcraft is very easy to learn, build this, build that, make workers, make an army, and then, send them to battle. That's pretty easy to do. However, DotA has a large pool stuff to do, stuff to learn and not to mention the reflexes that players need to have that might change a gank, into a full team wipe. I recently played a game, which was also why I posted this so that any of you readers who want to try out DotA know a little of what to expect. My hero got killed once because of my carelessness. And instead of forming a strategy, or telling me to do something, the player whose hero was in the same lane as me started swearing. And he continued this throughout the entire game.

And you might say, "Oh, you're so touchy~" Think about it this way, your team is losing, you're getting killed a lot, and of course you get more frustrated, then you have these "teammates" of yours who at the same time make it harder for you to concentrate is a whole recipe for disaster. And add in the fact that your teammates over extend a lot (over extend means biting off more than you can chew, or in DotA terms 1 hero versus 5, and you're not even fed) you know very well you're going to lose the game.

(Above) If you're that Undying and you think you can take on all 3 heroes, that would be over extending.

(Above) So true!!! Hahahaha!!!

If you play DotA, or Dota 2, make it easy for starters, give good strategical advice if possible and don't swear or blame other people in-game. DotA is a team game, you play a role too, not only your allies. Dota 2 does include a way or reporting people for abusing the chat and also a way of commending people for being friendly or teaching you how to play. It is a nice way to keep bad players off the game, but of course it has its flaws.




Farid
(Wow, my first ever rant post!)

The Pokemon Y (and X) Update!

This update has been out for quite a while now actually, and this was due to the fact that saving in Lumiose City would cause the game to fail to load when turning the game on again. The reason for this might be that the city is so huge, loading the textures and models might be too much for the console to handle. However, Game Freak has released an update which apparently has fixed this problem, and no I am not going to sacrifice my game knowing that the possibility of the game failing to load was there. This problem however, I did not face thankfully and mostly due to the fact I that I always save in Pokemon Centers. It kind of been a habit I had that started ever since they added the Poke Ball symbol in the Pokemon Center, between the entrance and the Nurse. 

here

here

and here XD

The nurse who will say please come again. I mean that just like saying you’re hoping the trainer whose Pokemon he has brought to the Center to be healed, are going to get beaten up, or exhausted, again, and be brought there! EVIL!

Well, aside from a little side tracked there, it’s nice to see that they dealt with the problem at hand as quickly as they could. And before the update they showed the locations where the game would fail to load if you saved there. However, if I can safely say myself, the game loads fine in any other area of the game where you choose to save.  Be it in the forest which you will later come across or even in the Victory Road as well as the halls where you will battle the Elite Four! 

The topic at hand

And no, this is not just a post about the bug fix patch. It’s also an update on my current whereabouts in the Pokemon World! After finishing the gym, most of my work has been exploring the places I missed out for hidden items and stuff like that as well as the hard and painful task of completing the Pokedex. While a majority of my time was breeding the evolved caught Pokemon, I had also the pleasure of leveling up Pokemon, by just battling in the Victory Road. 

I had also found out that now it is beneficial to add more friends to your game (well of course it is good to have friends, well in terms of the game). There is a thing called the Friend Safari which for each friend you will be able to catch 2 Pokemon of one common type, like grass or water. I had the luck of getting an Ivysaur as one of the grass Pokemon I could catch. This was, it is quite easier to catch some of the Pokemon before you can transfer the Pokemon you have caught from your old game to the new X and Y. Till then, and have a nice day~

Farid

The Zaku II, The Completion!!!

Yes, at last I have completed my SD Zaku II model, and with which I am utterly satisfied with the outcome of, well, pretty much the whole thing. At first I was a bit doubtful about how the colours would work together, and also, with this one having a lot more complications with the backpack and a few other parts.

Part 1
Part 2

Part 3 (This post XD)

(Above) After initially looking at the sample, I tried my best to get the same colour as shown, but then the blue turned out to look a little too bright for the build itself.

(Above) Cried while looking and doing this as the part just looks horrible after all that thinner and having to crave out the very, very thin lines in which I would have to panel line later.

Well after much sanding and repainting and asking about what the best colour combination would be, I had finally got the right colour to make the back pack look at the very least acceptable to me. But some people might find it absolutely horrible.

(Above) It looks something like that, not too bad, but hopefully I will not make such mistakes again.

It has been a while since I have built SD models before, so long in fact that I forget how much of a joy building one can be. Although they are not full sized models, just having a smaller bite sized I would like to call them, models do give you about the same amount of satisfaction the normal HG or even MG models can. This is however an older model, and the parts do lack the articulation and detail of the newer SD models. Some of the newer ones have leg parts with 2 articulation points, and given the size of the SD model, that is pretty cool. This model is some what one of the much newer SD kits which have a fully movable arm and hand articulation, which although is quite a challenge to paint, since you have to paint the parts which are on the inside and then glue them together and then paint that part as well. Reading through some of the Gunpla Hobby Magazines, I realised that they make those parts removable, like joints which can be removed from the arm and shoulder to be painted and then fitted back in to look seamless. Well, on to the finished model!

(Above) As you can see in the pictures above you, I have put quite a large amount of decals for an SD model in my opinion. It is my first time using water slide decals and I find them quite a joy to put on the model. They are however extremely delicate and can tear very easily. But thankfully none of the decals I had put on tore and gave me any trouble. The gold detailing was something I considered completely skipping since I'm not at all planning to open up the top piece and allow people to see them, but looking back at the samples they were some I just had to add to the model.The tubes on the face of the model and around the waist was also quite a challenge to complete. The tube were originally light green if you have read the previous post, and apparently the easiest method of having the grey sections done were to fully paint the entire thing Medium Grey and then apply the grey inside. After that all that's left is a little cleaning up. The reason why that method was most easy, was mainly because how very easy it was to remove the grey paint which overflowed out by simply lightly sanding them out and then touching them up with model Medium Grey. A Top coat was applied to the model, and to my surprise, the top coat also smooths out the brush strokes which I have tried so hard to make as hard to see as possible. 

The colour mixtures used :

The eye : Tamiya Enamel Paint Red (1 part)

               Tamiya Enamel Paint Flat White (4 parts)

The light brown on the majority of the parts : Tamiya Enamel Paint Medium Grey

The brown on the body areas : Tamiya Enamel Paint Flat Brown (3 parts)

                                               Tamiya Enamel Paint Flat Green (1 part)

                                               Tamiya Enamel Paint Flat Black (1 part)

                                               Tamiya Enamel Paint Medium Grey (2 parts)

                                               Tamiya Enamel Paint Flat White (5 parts)

The black on the feet and the chest armour : Tamiya Enamel Paint Flat Black (3 parts)

                                                                   Tamiya Enamel Paint Medium Grey (1 part)

                                                                   Tamiya Enamel Paint Flat White (1 part)

The back pack : Tamiya Enamel Paint Medium Grey (2 parts)

                          Tamiya Enamel Paint Desert Yellow (3 part)

                          Tamiya Enamel Paint Flat White (1 part)

The joints and inner parts : Tamiya Enamel Paint Dark Grey

(Above) The top coat used, I highly recommend this, but when applying it on the model, apply a very thin layer by spraying from about 30 centimeters away from the model.

And as usual, no stickers were used in the making of this model! Hahaha, and to you reader, have a nice day~

Farid