Of dwarf pimps and getting into trouble

No beard. No huge ax. No penchant for singing about gold. He prefers to keep it real by, oh, wearing the bling?

See, Beth and me are in a fix. We’re out of a job after working off our contract with Athenril, the elven smuggler. Athenril would have kept us on but though the money was good, dodging the guard and trying not to get killed by the competition? Not so good.

Then an interesting gig popped up.

Expedition to Deep Roads. Lots of treasure. Sounded good but we couldn’t get in. Bertrand, the leader of the expedition, was one surly dwarf. He said he didn’t need any more humans tagging along.

Guess what? Varric’s Bertrand’s brother.

Not that it meant instant access, no. Varric’s idea – we join as partners. Supply 50 gold sovereigns and we’re in. See, Bertrand may not need any more hands but he needs more money to fund the expedition.

All we need to do is raise the money, he says. So just like the old days me and Beth are doing mercenary work for gold.

“Oh, by the way…” Varric says we need maps too. Seems the best source of said maps is a runaway Grey Warden. Also an apostate mage.

Meet Anders. Tall, handsome, likes cats, has a pro-bono clinic for the poor.

There’s one little problem…that I’ll tell you about tomorrow.

Introducing my Alter Ego

After my first playthrough of Dragon Age 2, like any real addict I started again.

The earlier game, I played a virtuous warrior who was all good and diplomatic. But not opposed to putting a sword through pesky bandits when needed.

This time around, I decided to roll a rogue. Say hello to Isadora Hawke, future Champion of Kirkwall.

Why the obvious Caucasian model, Erna? Why not play someone/something against type?

Dragon Age 2 is set in Kirkwall and standard vanilla fantasy where mostly everyone is Caucasian-looking, even the pimp narrator dwarf.

My sister on the other hand always makes her Dragon Age characters look like her. With the added benefit of being able to cast fireballs.

Sadly, even in Dragon Age I'm saddled with an annoying sister. The game gave me a brother too, but an ogre smushed him. He was the whiniest in the family, so that's OK.

One cool thing about Dragon Age 2 is the character dialogue options, which mostly consist of:

a) nice and safe
b) snarky
c) I WILL CRUSH YOU

Option C will make your game, like, three times harder? I chose B for the LOLs.

I suppose I have some things in common with my dual-wielding rogue. If the pen is mightier than the sword, than I write like a rogue – always aiming for the jugular. Why settle for a sword when daggers are more fun?

BRB, the dwarf with a lot of chest hair just made me an offer I can't refuse.

Untitled

via DestroyTwitter

Untitled

via DestroyTwitter

Penang oh penang #YESPenang

Holed up at Vistana hotel. Serviceable place, clean and my room had free wi-fi so hooray.

Also had nice supper at gurney drive. Rojak pretty good though was too stuffed to eat stuff like kuey teow.

Pretty relaxed trip though have to start thinking about what to writefor goreng. Do uou say ues to yes? Hmm.

No i’m not on facebook…

…but i am in penang. As in just got to the bridge thanks to heavy rain.

Won’t be on/checking fb until easter comes around – these blogposts are autoposted to my twitter as well as fb.

This is view from back of cushy mpv. The group is on way to dinner at queensbay. YES 4G has been pretty consistent on highway – quite fun being roving group of mobile hotspot users.

A better writeup will go up on goreng but these are just random posts to amuse myself on long journey.

Tweetcha later!

Ipoh Mali – Yes4G chronicles

Seems part of our convoy ended up in Gopeng instead of Taiping. So we’re all heading to Ipoh now. Speeds are all right so far but disappear on the small trunk roads. But once you’re back on the tolls the signal comes back. The iPad as a mobile Net device is fun but for blogging the iPad 2 would be worth the wait. It’s because adding pictures to your post is tricky on the original iPad. Speeds so far peak at aroun 7-8MB. Slightly more reliable than telco signals though. DiGi disappeared in some areas as Lowyat.net’s Chapree would attest. Onward to Ipoh before finally heading to Penang.

Yes4g drama

For some reason, my Huddle was not workong properly. But thanks to expert tech support (thanks Terence!) my Yes4g Huddle is finally working.

In other news, am carsick and want my mommy. 😦

Yes penang roadtrip chronicles

8am. Painfully early time to be in kl but it’s all for the sake of work.

The objective: to see how Yes4g fares on a roadtrip along the north-south highway.

All us roadtrippers were handed yes portable wi-fi hotspots called huddles. Also have an ipad to test surfing on.

Still in bukit bintang as we speak and surfing wirelessly in traffic. Whoo-hoo. More updates to come!

You’ve known me forever

I’ve known Liz since primary school. We ended up being classmates for 11 years and she has been a much-needed constant in my life.

She’s one person I’d drop everything for when she comes down to KL. Liz’s patience, kindness and good humour makes her not just a great person but a great friend. But one thing I’ve always appreciated is her frankness and honesty.

In life, you need people to tell you what you need to hear and not just what you want to hear. Thanks for being one of those people, Liz.