hurricane chow

Choco Banana Crap Drops

I love Sakuma Drops candy. The old school stuff had the requisite "fruity" flavors, and was sold in a neat tin. There's a new trend, offering different flavored candy drops, some limited to a specific locale. In addition to the eight cans pictured here, I've also tried the Japanese Sake and Okinawa Beer flavors.

First off, I'll explain opening the tin. You take any ordinary pair of scissors, close the blades beneath the lip of the lid (but don't squeeze too tightly), and lift slowly. The cap might go flying. Usually you'll only have to force the tin open like this once, and then you can replace the cap and simply open it without having something to pry it open.

All three alcohol flavors seemed off from what they actually taste like--since there's no alcohol in the candies at all. Booo. Here I wanted to get really messed up. I even bought more than one tin of Sapporo Beer, since I like the beverage so much. The sake tasted a lot like sake though, if I'd dump at least a whole sugar packet in before drinking it.

Next, I tried the Yaki-Curry drops. The smell was delicious. I've never had this specific dish, but the candy definitely smells curry like. It tasted... like the really spicy $0.10 ramen noodle packages we can get here in any US grocery store. Very salty. 

The Tokyo Noodles drops tasted awesome. Not too much sugar, and it tastes like lightly seasoned egg noodles. I have no idea if this is how noodles from Tokyo taste like; but if they taste anything like these candies, I want at least a month's supply.

I was told the Chikin Nanban drops taste like Japan's take on Chinese food. At first, I tasted a citrusy, orange flavor. Afterward, it tasted exactly like kentucky fried chicken and potatoes. Woah. No hint of sugar after tasting orange. Kinda bizarre.

Tokushima Noodle Drops taste a little like the Tokyo Noodles, but I can definitely taste onion, not so much egg. Not so much sugar either. These are okay, nothing to write home about. The packaging has a big ol' raw egg in the noodles, I have to wonder if this is how noodles are served. Are these drops supposed to taste like raw egg? Hm.

I've never had yatsuhashi, but I read that they're made with sweet red bean paste. So I'm pumped for this. I love sweet red beans. What I didn't know was yatsuhashi also had cinnamon in it, which was what these drops tasted like. I can't really taste the glutinous flour or red bean paste, all I taste is cinnamon. It's okay, I guess. If yatsuhashi taste like cinnamon and nothing but, these drops are spot on.

I tried looking up "kiri-dango" over and over on the Internet, but since I miss details so easily, I should have tried "kibi-dango". This is very sweet, I can imagine kibi-dango being made of glutinous rice flour if it actually tastes anything like these drops do. Sweet, but not to the point where it tastes like it's been slathered in sugar.

Finally, the choco banana crape drops. These taste the most "candy-like" out of any of the treats I tried. The banana flavor is very convincing of the real fruit, and I don't taste too much chocolate. I notice though... I'm sure the correct spelling is 'crepe', but....

It's not 'CRAP', it's 'CRAPE'. Pronounced like crappy. Hey, if that's Japanese slang for 'really tasty', they can call it whatever they'd like.

My favorites, by far, were Kibi-Dango, Chikin Nanban and Choco Banana. The Tokyo Noodles flavor deserves honorable mention, as is does taste like noodles... I don't know if I'd like to constantly snack on that noodle flavor, though. I might order more flavors soon, if only to create a neat drops-tin wall in my cubicle. The tin and labels are nice looking, by-the-by.
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I have a hard time with the question, "How are you doing today?" First off, many people just attach it onto whatever greeting they give me. So they don't expect me to answer or give me a break to, they just go on talking. "Hey, how are you doing today? I dropped my toaster in the bathtub and I haven't the slightest idea what to do now." Like that.

Sometimes it's deliberate. In this case, I'm forced to lie. What I'd really like to say is, "I could really use a beer right now. How about you?", or something along those lines. But that doesn't seem very professional, so I lie. I usually don't ask people how they're doing, either, because if they're calling technical support, they're probably having an awful day.

Just a moment of my own $0.02.


This post is in a similar vein to "A Morbid Taste for Bones", as I *~promised~* fresh_debonair that I'd also ruin either the newer BBC Sherlock episodes, or the Sherlock Holmes movie that was released in 2009. I went with the newer BBC Sherlock series. Since the series is still relatively new and I'm sure there are folks who want to watch but haven't gotten around to it, I'll have to declare a *~ SPOILERS WARNING ~* for any writing beyond the following LJ cut. I swear this will be the last time I utilize the generated rainbow text.

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I will have to cut this up into several parts, as I did not figure I would be able to come up with so much... material. Stick around for part two!
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Riffing "A Morbid Taste for Bones"

Oh I'm such a huge nerd I asked fresh_debonair to make me some LJ icons from the series "Cadfael", which was released back in the 1990's and never really saw the light of a strong fandom following. I took a few screen captures and thought they were kind of funny all on their own without any context, so I ruined the "Cadfael" series before fresh_debonair ever got the chance to see it. :j

Anyway, rotten fruit of my horrible labors goes under an LJ cut due to so many images.

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On a somewhat related note, does anyone know where I can get images hosted so I can hotlink them directly for shenanigans like this? I just want something hassle free, I am even willing to pay for it. Photobucket is becoming frustrating and difficult.

Today I played RO.

 I'm over on this server. 

Since I don't work this Saturday (for once) I stayed up all night playing RO. So this server, and as I've come to understand most every other private server, may have Renewal content and emulate some skills from third classes, but still fall a bit short from official server content found on kRO, jRO, and even iRO--just because the game's emulator hasn't caught up in development. So while we get neat shiny stuff to look at, the game mechanics aren't quite altered, and I won't experience stuff like mob spawns being jumbled up and the likes. There are good parts and bad parts to this. 

Anyway, I made a merchant named Giricco. He's already a blacksmith at level 87/52, and I've pretty much accomplished that by purely Cart Revolution-ing mobs, since I did not have the money for gear. I read a few guides on this server's forums and I had to sit here and think, "Well what the hell, why did this person wait until they were blacksmith to even get a cart?!" Once I got Pushcart to 10, I loaded it until weight limit and leveled thusly:

( Level 30's~60's, Merchant ) pay_fild02, mob Wolf. Most especially useful since these guys drop strawberry 100%. i recommend hanging onto the strawberries, since spamming CR is going to eat away at SP. 

( Level 60's~75?, Merchant->Blacksmith) moc_pyrd03, mob Mummy(s). Attack Verit and Drainliar, avoid Matyr and Mimic (in early levels). Actually, if I had better gears--stuff that would allow for more flee, this would've been less of a pain for me, but persistence paid off. These mobs drop all sorts of goodies--I managed to get a Mummy card today (I'm keeping it). This became really less difficult once I jobchanged on over to Blacksmith and got all those initial buffs put into his build. 

( Level 70's?~80 Blacksmith) I tried xmas_dun02, and if it were any other time of the year, I would have switched off the background music. But since it's Christmastime, the BGM was more appropriate for the season, so i didn't mind. Mystcases were fun to smack around, but this map is Player-Kill due to the MVP on this server. So I also had snipers trying to kill me off in addition to mobs, but...

... lol, I don't think the average player is very knowledgeable at this game, or at least not PvP elements to it. Despite the fact that there weren't any armors besides a pair of NPC-bought boots equipped on Giricco, the dude still had trouble trying to kill him off (he didn't succeed). Giricco's VIT at the time was 50 something, I mean, geez. In addition to dopey snipers all over the map, I had trouble dealing with all those Cruisers everywhere due to low flee. 

But wow, this whole dungeon is messed up. Santa sends you to this cheerful and merry, pastel colored workshop to KILL EVERYTHING IN SIGHT. FOR CANDY. AND CAKE.

( Level 70's~80's Blacksmith) Okay, leveling at iz_dun02 was mostly for financial gain due to the server's raised drop limits, somewhat for the snazzy BGM music, and a little bit for the nippleless boobs. Thanks to the drops I was able to make my first big equipment purchase, a slotted War Axe. But anyway, leveling would go quicker if the Obeaune mobs lacked the Silence skill. Unfortunately I found myself having to break away many groups to pick them off one-by-one. I got bored quickly, especially with those Hydras everywhere and Giricco's still depressingly low flee.

( Level 80, Blacksmith) I revisited the Pyramid dungeon, but a map level lower--moc_pyrd04. Having sufficient flee is becoming less of an issue when it involves certain mobs like Matyrs and Mimics, and mobbing up Isis was easier while I gained levels. I actually did not have to start using white potions until level 85, and thankfully the drops here NPC out enough zeny to continue leveling here--Isis still gives me about 10% experience. I can CR about 5 at a time without difficulty. So after finishing off two mobs, I get a level up. Nice!

There's an MVP on this map--Osiris, but I experienced less stupid during my time here. It's a very quick mob, you rarely have the time to teleport away once you see it. 

Now, I tried the Rachel Sanctuary map, but without any significant offensive/defensive equipment against the demi-human mob class, it's a  really tough map--most especially without enough flee (once again). So leveling to 99 on that map is pretty much out of the question unless I get the right equipment. I heard Hill Winds are supposed to dish out great EXP, but I forget what map they're on. I might be faced with grinding until 99, not something I'm really looking forward to. 

Also, lol. I don't know if this is purely the private server, eAthena or Gravity's doing; but here's the new animation for the Adrenaline Rush skill:

... Yeah, that's a hypodermic needle. Apparently the 'smith class of RO are all junkies, now. 


RO woes

Still trying to get kRO on either of my computers. No such luck.

In the meantime, on iRO...


o-oh, I see....