Phew. What an interesting course from last year’s. Despite the additional 2 kilometers from last year’s run, I still manage to finish in around the same time: 1 hour 17 minutes. Pretty good considering I don’t like running uphill, and this is a darn hilly course.

In any case, I managed to bump into several old high-school classmates of mine, overtaking one during the race, and drove past one who was still running near the finish line. The queue for the goodies bag was horrible as usual, and despite having marked the lanes for participant to line up, people still formed additional lines, confusing those joining up from the back.

Overall, additional morning runs (for the past months) and stretching before the race did its work, a much better improvement compared to last year’s run. Next stop, Klang Pacers.

It’s time to oil ‘em rusty gears as this year my running season starts with BHP’s Orange Run at the Curve. Last year’s race there was a little boo-boo on the part of the organizers on the actual running distance, which turned out more than advertised (they were off the mark one or two kilometres…lol), and this year, the distance is stated as 11 km.

If possible, try staying away from the Curve and the Mutiara Damansara/Bandar Utama this morning from 7.30 a.m. to 9.30 a.m. You wouldn’t want runners to be part of your breakfast traffic rite?

I think it was last week that I formatted this machine and installed the latest version of Windows Live Messenger. I promptly forgot about the IM software as I’ve made it a habit not to switch on any form of IM at home, but tonight became an exception.

Naturally, messages started coming in, and as I remarked on how cool this version of Live Messenger was to a good friend of mine, he replied asking whether I’ve heard of the “legendary loss of entire contact list bug”. Apparently this version I’m using has a knack for losing one’s contact list and my friend’s colleague has fallen victim to the bug….twice!

I’ve since turned off the IM, and will be sticking to chatting during office hours instead (my work laptop has the previous version installed). Scary.

Need a power adapter for your brand new Nintendo DSi, or a cool pouch to carry the NDSi in? Well, you can find these and so much more in the newly updated Nine Over Ten 9/10′s Guide to Gerring Nintendo DSi (NDSi) Accessories. Check it out here.

On contrary to popular belief, being a multi-console owner doesn’t mean you’ll have them all nested under one roof. The girlfriend is heading to Johor for a week and will be bringing the Game Boy Micro (Happy Mario/Famicom Edition) along with her, with her favourite Super Mario Bros games.

My Sega Dreamcast is in exile in my childhood home in Sitiawan, Perak. I put it there so that whenever I go back, I’ll have some form of entertainment besides the radio. One of my SNES is actually somewhere in the Klang Valley, loaned it to a friend, while the other SNES is in the closet.

The Sony PSP that I bought for my brother, is somewhere around the Klang Valley as well, just not at home (he does events, so he’s out most of the time).

What I have at home though, is the stuff that matters. The Sony Playstation 3 and the Playstation 2 are sitting pretty with my LCD TV on the 1st floor living room, while the Nintendo DS  (with the massive library of games) and the yellow brick Game Boy are around in the bedroom.

So what about you dear reader, where are your consoles?

The F1 team that I support has, over the past few years, degenerated into bunch of cheats starting with the whole Ferrari spying scandal and most recently, lying to race stewards in order to get a podium position and a driver (from a different team) into trouble. Having a World Champion on board the team just make things worse and getting him to lie (willing or unwillingny) just shows how far down this team has fallen.

At least there’s another Mercedes powered racing and winning races without causing much of a ruckus (except for the fact that other teams, including the one above) are disputing the rear diffuser used by this team and 2 others). It even has a British guy driving and winning for them. Hmmmm. Brawn GP all the way babehhhhhhh….

Mario Kart merchandise never fails to amaze me. There are the gashapon (capsule toy) sets, mini R/C cars, racing sets, plushies (most of which you can find ‘em here), and now, fans can purchase the Super Mario Kart Advance Puzzle Course Set.

This puzzle course set consists of 4 puzzle pieces that can be assembled into a go-kart course. The set comes with a wind-up Mario on his kart, which can then travel around the course. Included in the set is also a bunch of accessories consisting of trees and power-ups as road signs.

The Super Mario Kart Advance Puzzle Course Set is available from Play-Asia at a discounted price of USD 12.90. Click here for details.

Joker, written by Brian Azzarello and art by Lee Bermejo, is perhaps one of the best graphic novel I have on my book shelf. While the Joker has been potrayed very differently throughout all these years in the comic books, from mass murderer to clown to being the dark void of insanity (he slices his tongue in Batman R.I.P), Brian Azzarello portrays him closer to the film (The Dark Knight) version played by Heath Ledger.

He even shares the same “Glasgow smile” as the movie version of the character. And like an extension to the movie, the graphic novel eschews typically outlandish comic book potrayals of villains such as Harvey “Two-Face” Dent, the Riddler, the Penguin, Harley Quinn and Killer Croc, and instead grounds them in reality as un-far fetched as ours.

The storyline though is still pretty much comic book fare, told through the eyes of an unwitting Joker henchman, Johnny Frost. Sent to pick up the Joker as he gets released from Arkham Asylum, Johnny is taken on a wild rollercoaster ride that isn’t about thinkin’ but it’s “all about doin’ “, with the Joker at the head of the pack.

Lee  Bermejo’s art compliments the slant towards the movie, and it’s like reading to a storyboard to a Joker spin-off. In fact, this would have made a great spin-off if Heath Ledger wasn’t dead. If you are looking for a book featuring Batman, you didn’t get the joke…I’m mean the title of the book. The Caped Crusader does make an appearance however, at the end of the book, with Johnny Frost remarking that there’s no cure for the Joker, only a Batman.

Do you need something “old-skool” to play with your Virtual Console games? Your prayers have been answered (and your wallet soon to be deprived) with the Super Famicom Classic Controller (Club Nintendo Limited Edition).

This official Super Famicom controller for the Nintendo Wii comes at a cool price tag of USD 74.90 with free shipping to certain parts of the world. It has proven to be a slippery fella to get whole off, sometimes sold out on Play-Asia. Now that its back in stock, hurry up and get one already. Click here for details.

If someone decided to take the Tamiya Mini-4WD experience and put it on the Nintendo DS, what would you get? In a nutshell, Trackmania. Like the real-life counterpart where it seemingly takes inspiration from, Trackmania can be a really fun experience.

Races are divided into three different categories and while each category features a different set of cars and tracks, each race is actually a fast sprint through several checkpoints in order to get from point A to B. And like Mini-4WD, control when going about a track is everything, and should you veer off course (and fall off a track), you can say goodbye to your race.

This makes for course memorization and lots of practice. While there are no guardrails to guide your car, turns have to be taken precisely and jumps, well, just becareful where and how you would land as you can just as easily lose control and veer totally off course.

Trackmania is purely racing without the flashy look and feel that was in Mario Kart. Functional graphics and sound aside, you’ll stay more for the racing and also for the Editor mode which allows you to create more diabolical tracks.

Do check it out. Trackmania is available at Play-Asia. Click here for details.