Taiwanese Bureaucracies & Dragon Age

Dragon slayer via Mugley

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I’ve got issues with bureaucracies. In the past, a few years ago, it actually made me quite angry. I’m not like that anymore, but it just gets frustrating. Today, the plan was simple. Pick up my health check, get some documents from NTNU and go to the NIA office. This was what I was told to do. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out as planned.

When I arrived at the hospital, I was informed that I didn’t have the measles antigen, so I would need to be vaccinated. $20 and half an hour later, it was done. The woman from whom I had to pick up the health check realized that a part of my health check wasn’t done. She wanted me to come back next week. I saw no deal. I came to the hospital on the 17th to get it done. I was only here for a pick up. Now she wanted me to wait even longer?

Dragon Age: Origins 60 Hours In

Dragon Age Origins cover

It’s been a few weeks and I’ve played about 63 hours. I’ve wanted to play more, but haven’t had the time. I also appreciate how this game lets me completely disconnect from work and school. It makes me go offline. Well, that’s not true, but my FF tabs aren’t open, so I don’t read feeds, tweets, nor email, which is basically offline.

There is a fine line between being a Diablo-like game and something more of an RPG. There is no doubt that from time to time, DA becomes a little too much like Diablo¹, but the fact of the matter is that it’s more of a game like Oblivion.

Notebook Addict

This blog and I have been mentioned as notebook addicts over at Notebook Stories. I agree, I love my notebooks and the written word. Oddly enough, I haven’t taken any photos of my recent additions, nor of my notes, so I’ll have to oblige later in the week.

I’ve noticed a couple of great posts about notebooks by Range over at Memoirs on a Rainy Day. I love it when people can just talk about their notebooks and why they like them and how they use them, as in this post: Notebook Obsession and Rhodia Love. He doesn’t have a photo of his whole collection, but he seems to be using 10 notebooks concurrently, as described in a post called Never Enough Notebooks, which I’ve excerpted below.

I also just received some swag from Karen at Exaclair, for Clairefontaine which makes Rhodia and Quo-Vadis. I’ll run some tests over the next few days, with some pics and post them. I was surprised at how small the webbie was, but it was oh-so-pretty in orange.

Today was a great day. I caught up on some grad school work, received some swag, finished early and ate a Vietnamese beef soup. I also played some Dragon Age: Origins. I’ve been wanting to play all week, but didn’t have them time. I’m about 44 hours in and completed 18% of the game. That gives you an idea how long it is!

Dragon Age: Origins Initial Impressions

Dragon Age Origins cover

Since last Friday, I have been playing Dragon Age: Origins. It’s been a while since I played any PC games, but this one was pretty interesting since it came from the makers of Massive Effect and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, two games which thoroughly engrossed me.

This isn’t a review, I’ve just noted down my initial impressions on the game. I’m about 22 hours into the game and it has been challenging at times as well as frustrating. I’ve noticed a few bugs, but all in all, it’s a great experience.

Warning: These impressions include spoilers, so if you are planning on playing the game, be forewarned. I cover the Brecilian Forest missions here, so there are spoilers ahead.