They all thought hard. “I know!” shouted Milk. “I think I know the person who cut down the trees in the woods. Henry! It should be him. It can’t be Ivan; because if Ivan cut down the trees, there won’t be any noise so we won’t be hearing the clattering sound. But first, we need to find out more information about Henry and Ivan. All lumberjacks in this country must be members of the Lumberjack Club and we can check their resumes at the club office,” continued Milk.
Mango and Pomegranate volunteered to go to the Lumberjack Club to check if Henry and Ivan are members of the club. An hour later, they returned to Pomegranate’s house with good news.
“Okay,” started Mango. “We have good news. They are both members of the Lumberjack Club and here is what we found out about them.” She took out her note-book and read, ” Henry is now 57 years old. He was born in Dillenburg, Netherlands. And Ivan is now 53 years old. He was born in the lands of Kolomenskoye, Greenland.”
“And I have another good news,” said Pomegranate excitedly. “Tomorrow my father is going to Greenland and he is taking Pineapple and I along for a holiday. We’ll try to see if we can find more information about Ivan as our father will be meeting his old friend, a lumberjack named Tamingsari over there. Tamingsari was born in India but he now lives in Greenland. Our father said that some of Tamingsari’s fingers had turned crooked or pointy, I can’t remember which; so he wants to visit him and see if he can help Tamingsari.”
“Where was Tamingsari born, Pomegranate?” asked Milk.
“Agra, near the Taj Mahal. And I’ll try to ask him questions to find out if he came to Foodsland recently,” answered Pomegranate.
The next day, Pomegranate and Pineapple were very excited; they could hardly wait for the time to go to the airport. Their flight to Greenland would be departing from the Foodsland International Airport or WIAIR at 12 o’clock noon and they were going to the airport two hours earlier. Pomegranate and Pineapple said goodbye to Milk and Mango, and they promised to bring back something special from Greenland for their friends.
“When will you be back from Greenland?” asked Mango.
“We’ll be there for six days and we will be arriving back here at 7 o’clock in the morning on Monday,” answered Pomegranate. “I have never been to Greenland before and I hope that it is going to be fun over there,” continued Pomegranate. Mango and Milk said goodbye to Pomegranate, Pineapple and their parents as they departed for the airport.
Six days later at 7 o’clock in the morning, an aeroplane landed on Foodsland International Airport’s runway from Greenland. Fifteen minutes later, out came some Greenlander from the aeroplane. Then a boy with his little brother walked out from the aeroplane together with their parents, followed by an Indian man. It was Pomegranate and Pineapple and their parents. They came back to Foodsland together with their friend Tamingsari.
Two hours later, Milk, Mango, Pomegranate and Pineapple got together at Pomegranate’s house. They were so happy to see each other again. Pomegranate and Pineapple told Milk and Mango about their experiences in Greenland and gave them some beautiful Greenland Nesting Dolls, snow globes and some Greenland postage stamps. Tamingsari saw the children talking excitedly to each other in the garden, so he walked towards them. Pineapple introduced Tamingsari to Milk and Mango and as Tamingsari decided to join them, they could not discuss about the mystery. Looking at each other, they wondered, who could be the lumberjack who cut down the trees in the woods …

Meet Audrey...



...and her current Desktop picture.


Named after this Audrey from the obscure-in-the-US "64 Zoo Lane".




Audrey is a Gateway DX4375G-UW20 ATX tower PC with the following specs:

-AMD A6-5200 APU with integrated Radeon HD 8400 GPU
-Windows 8
-500gb Hard Drive
-6gb DDR3 RAM
-DVD-RW Drive
-Two USB 3.0 ports and six rear USB 2.0 ports
-Integrated Realtek audio and ethernet
-One PCI-e x1 and one PCI-e x16 slot on motherboard

Performance wise, Audrey has been wonderful. The quad-core processor is really a step up from Lilly's dual-core Intel Core i5, even though an AMD APU like the A6-5200 is technically below or around Intel Pentium or Core i3 processors. I can actually run multiple apps for long periods without slowdown, even my Adobe Suite. I still wonder why Lilly would basically collapse under the weight of iPhoto or iMovie, even though she has 8gb of RAM and a dual core i5. Perhaps it's OSX becoming bloated, but who knows? Anyway....

I mainly got Audrey to perform multimedia tasks with my Adobe Production Studio suite, namely Photoshop and Premiere Pro 2.0. I used to use these programs with Greta, who is also capable of running the suite, but being a laptop I sometimes worried that the intense processing of videos would be too much for her over time due to heat. Also, Adobe programs can have very limited viewing space on a 1366x768 screen. Audrey's 1600x900 monitor makes these programs more useable. Another neat feature is the two front USB 3.0 ports. Lilly has Thunderbolt, but there aren't really many affordable data storage solutions that use it. USB 3.0 is a more affordable solution, and now I just need that Toshiba 1TB USB 3.0 external disk.

Audrey came with Windows 8 pre-installed, and although I previously had some distrust for Windows 8, I'm actually starting to warm up to it now. I still think the Start screen is best used on a touch screen or tablet, but the desktop performs like the one in Windows 7 minus the Start menu, and I use it the most. I haven't really tried any Metro apps yet, and don't really plan to besides using the Start screen to open various apps I pin to the menu like Notepad or Paint.

As for included bloatware, it's mainly limited to Metro apps, and there are very few preinstalled desktop apps. The ones that did come preinstalled were the usual things like CyberLink PowerDVD 12, WildTangent Games, and Norton Internet Security. Even so, there is very limited bloatware, and as usual, you can easily remove unwanted software. However, they didn't have any CD/DVD burning software preinstalled. I assume they want you to use the built in Windows CD/DVD burning features for backing up data, but those tools are somewhat limited compared to a suite like Nero or Roxio.

One issue Audrey does have is a potentially buggy UEFI BIOS, which causes various kinds of issues with sleep and hibernation, making Windows 8's Fast Boot and Hybrid Sleep useless at the present time. You also need to press power three times to turn Audrey on. Other than the buggy UEFI, the system performs well without any glitches, errors, or BSOD's, and can be run for hours on end to boot. Hopefully Acer will put out a UEFI update in the future.

So far, Audrey has been wonderful. If only Acer could fix the UEFI BIOS, then she would be perfect. And she is upgradeable too! A welcome addition to Eisbar Corner.

As for Lilly, I'm keeping her for Mac-related tasks and to occasionally build visual effects in iMovie, using GarageBand, or using MacNTalk. I do need a separate monitor for her though as I'm currently using my old 21'' HDTV as a monitor, and it doesn't have a good optimum resolution and the backlight is a bit weak.

“Look!” said Pineapple. “I think that these hand prints are totally different from those I had ever seen. They have some kind of pointy things on the right thumb. Totally different than mine, see? I don’t have any pointy thing on top on my thu ….”
“Stop!” exclaimed Pomegranate. “We’re inspecting these prints and we need to concentrate.” And so they continued inspecting the hand prints carefully. Suddenly Milk had an idea. He suggested that they should all go around Foodsland and check out who might have a pointy thumb on their right hands.
“Great idea!” shouted Pineapple. And so they all went out to get their scooters. They then rode their scooters excitedly around Woodland, looking for someone with a pointy thumb.
“First, check out for someone with abnormal hand or hands, then look at their thumbs,” said Milk. “When we’ve spotted them, I’ll snap their pictures and we’d ask the Foodsland Supermarket’s cashiers if they can recognise them. The cashiers might had met them since that is the only supermarket in Woodland. We’ll take pictures of three people before asking the cashiers. But if by an hour we could only find one person, we’ll go and ask the cashiers anyway.”
“I can see one of them over there,” whispered Pomegranate. ” He has pointy fingers on his left hand and he has a pointy thumb on his other hand!” After an hour, they could only spot two people with pointy thumbs. They then decided to go to the supermarket and talk to the cashiers. Pomegranate and Pineapple volunteered to go inside to talk to the cashiers.
The cashier was a very friendly man who knew the children very well. He told Pomegranate and Pineapple the names and addresses of both men. After thanking the cashier, Pomegranate and Pineapple went out of the supermarket. They smiled happily and Pomegranate, who was holding the paper with the names and addresses, handed the paper to Mango.
“Now, off we go to the addresses,” said Mango. “First man…,” she looked at the note and read out loud. “His name is Ivan James, also known as Vames and lives at House 23, Summerland. The second man is Henry Maurice also known as Herrice and lives in House 85, near the winter festival building in Chocolate place. So, who’ll be going over there?”
“Me and Pineapple,” said Milk suddenly. “Among the 4 of us, we are the best at tracking people.”
So Pineapple and Milk went to Summerland to investigate. When they reached the address, Pineapple and Milk rang the door bell and waited. After a while a woman opened the door. ”Good afternoon. We heard that there is a great lumberjack named Ivan who lives around this area. Do you know him?” asked Pineapple.
“Oh yes,” said the woman. “This is his house but he went out since this morning. He is a professional lumberjack and is very good at cutting woods. He could cut the woods without making any noises.” They talked to the woman for a few more minutes and headed to the second address.
At Chocolate Place, they looked for House 85. In front of the house, they saw a man carrying a chainsaw. “He might be a lumberjack,” thought Milk. Milk walk towards him asked him politely, “Hello, sir. Are you a lumberjack?”
“Yup!” he answered. “My name is Henry Maurice but people call me Herrice. I came all the way from Netherlands to work in Chocolate Place.” Herrice was very nice and friendly. They spoke for a while and Herrice invited them to visit him again next time.
Back at Pomegranate’s, Pomegranate and Mango were waiting anxiously for Milk and Pineapple to return home. “Pomegranate!” called Pomegranate’s mother. Pomegranate went to the kitchen and his mother told him to feed the animals. Mango followed Pomegranate to the barn and helped him to feed the animals. After feeding the animals they saw Milk and Pineapple walking towards Pomegranate’s house.
They all rushed to the garden table for a meeting. Milk told them about their investigation.”Both men are lumberjacks,” said Milk. “So, could it be one of them who cut down the trees in the woods?” asked Milk. “Henry and Ivan are our first two suspects.”

“Okay, we won’t be too late, sir,” said Milk to Mr. Apple. “So, where should we start?” asked Mango. “The man who lives in the woods, he’s a good friend of father’s. Let’s go and interview him,” Milk suggested. “But wait,” said Pomegranate holding Milk’s sleeves. “Look, the wood did not sink but the trees had been cut down.”
Just then they found footprints and wagon’s trails. Mango kept those pictures of the footprints in her mind since she left her notebook at home. “Now what?” asked Pineapple. Ask the man? Take a look at the stumps? Check out this nice chainsaw? Look at tha ….” Milk looked at Pineapple and asked, “A chainsaw? Let’s check it out!” “Worth a try,” said Pomegranate.
They checked the chainsaw, looking for clues but they found nothing except dust on it. “Perhaps this chainsaw had not been used for a long time. If not it won’t be so dusty and there will be fingerprints on it. But I heard that there are some tricks to cover our fingerprints,” said Pomegranate. Suddenly, they heard the clattering sound, like what Milk heard that morning. Milk announced, “We’d better continue our investigations tomorrow, it’s too late now and the gardener will be angry if we stay here for too long.”
The next morning, Milk and Mango ran towards the woods to continue their investigations. Meanwhile, Pomegranate and Pineapple had totally forgotten that they were supposed to meet and go to the woods. Milk wondered where were Pomegranate and Pineapple. So he ran to Pomegranate’s house and waved his magnifying glass in the direction of Pomegranate’s bedroom window as a signal. Pomegranate was looking out his window and saw Milk in front of his gate, waving the magnifying glass.
Pomegranate rushed outside with his little brother, Pineapple and they all ran towards the woods. When they reached the woods, Pineapple stood back just in case someone caught sight of them. Milk found out that the footprints had been brushed away by hands and he got the hand prints he needed. Fortunately, Mango could still remember the footprints. Milk took out his camera that he got for his birthday last month and took pictures of the hand prints. “There, we've got some clues and now we could go home and think of what to do next,” said Milk.
They all went to Pomegranate’s house to discuss about the hand prints that they just saw and the footprints that Mango drew in her notebook as soon as she reached home last night.

When Milk Chocolate was about to go to sleep, he heard a man crying outside. He wondered what it was. He got up from his bed and he took a peek outside. Everything seemed normal, maybe it was just somebody crying in the woods. He took a look at the woods again and saw that something was not right. The trees looked as if they had sunk into the ground. Then he remembered the clattering sound that he heard from the woods that morning.
“Mango! Come here, please,” called Milk. Yoghurt Mango was his sister. “Anything weird out there?” asked Mango. “You see, I’m kind of sleepy. So, how about talking about it tomorrow,” said Mango as she went back to sleep.
Milk sighed and continued looking outside. “I’m going up, I mean I’m going out there to have a look at the woods,” said Milk while he put on his jacket. “Something is wrong, the woods is sinking.” “I’ll come along then,’ said Mango as she got up from her bed. “I’m not going to let you go outside all alone. But please ask for permission from Mum first, Milk.”
“Mum, can Mango and I go upside, I mean outside to take a look at something for a while, please?” asked Milk. “Alright,” said his mother. “Just don’t do weird things out there and do not stay out there for too long.” Milk and Mango went out to inspect the woods. “Hi Pomegranate Jam, what are you doing here?” asked Milk and looking at Pineapple he said, “And Pineapple Cookies, you are much taller!” Pomegranate and Pineapple were their neighbours but they had not seen each other for months. “What do you mean by upside, do you mean outside?” asked Pineapple. Milk sighed “Yes, I always make that mistake.” ”I heard a man shouting in the woods and I could not sleep,” said Pomegranate. “Well, did you notice that the woods look kind of weird? The whole woods seems lower as if the trees had sunk into the ground. So, I came upside to inspect it,” said Milk.
“Don’t waste your time, everyone. We must find out what’s happening over there,” said Mango. So off they went to the woods. Just before they reached there, “Stop!” shouted someone while putting his hand in front of the children. It was Mr. Apple Pie the gardener. “What are you children doing out here?” he asked. Milk answered, “Were just going for a tour in the woods and ….” Pomegranate give Milk a nudge and said, “What he meant was we’re inspecting what is wrong with the woods. It looks weird. That’s all.” Mr. Apple said, “Fine, you can take a look at the forest but don’t be up too late because it’s already time to sleep and it could be dangerous out there.”

My brother's desktop lately freezes randomly for unknown reason. What I mean 'freeze' here is that it totally hangs. Mouse doesn't respond, keyboard doesn't respond, and the only way to get out is to force shutdown by holding the power button. I have no idea what could have been causing this. The desktop is not even 2 months old yet. Anybody here have any idea?

Tea Blossom's friend, and the China counterpart of Peppermint Fizz. Her attitude is more or less a copy of Peppermint, and Peppermint herself got to taste her own rejection medicine when the two met for the first time.

Mint Tea is unmatched at handcrafting. She is able to craft beautiful accessories and make a perfect copy of any kind of accessory she sees within minutes. However, she is very shy about this talent so she never wears any accessories she has made, which had filled her jewelry box to the brim.

Quote:Year 1

Chapter 7: Cheated?


Days have passed after the day we had arrived at Fort Markash. Every bridges Wulfgar had tested had turned out to be fake. Because he hit the cliffside pretty hard whenever he fell down, about half the time he fainted and Boli had to pull him up, and then he had to rest for some hours. At the other times, he climbed the cliffside with Boli pulling him, got exhausted from it, and had to rest for several hours. Seeing that made me understand why Wulfgar had ordered Boli to stay put and not testing bridges. Wulfgar needed Boli to pull him up whenever he fell down. Meanwhile, me and Huck had been doing nothing other than watching and helping to move the campsite every night to the next intact bridge. At this rate, I worried that Wulfgar would not consider us helpful at the end of this hunt and refuse to help me in my project. It was already dusk of this day and Wulfgar had just destroyed another bridge.

"You have been working hard, your majesty," Boli said to Wulfgar, who was sitting on the ground and panting.

"I be cursed. Today three wrong bridges again. All I got are bumps and bruises!" Wulfgar said.

"Hang in there, your majesty! Only four bridges left! Tomorrow we will find the correct one!" Boli said.

"I don't know anymore. Twenty tries out of twenty four bridges, and all were wrong. Either I'm unlucky..." Wulfgar said. "Or all of them are fake."

"How can that happen? If all of them are fake, then how could the ancestors get across?" I asked.

"Perhaps memorizing which tile the trap trigger is and walk without stepping on it is the actual safe way?" Wulfgar said. "Can't ignore the possibility."

"Oh man, I'm starting to worry that it might be true," Huck said.

"Anyway, it's getting dark. Let's call it a day and sleep," Boli said. We then heard a rumbling noise.

"What was that? Another bridge collapsed?" I asked.

"No..." Wulfgar said. "That was my stomach rumbling. We haven't eaten for five days straight."

"I feel kinda the same," Boli said. "What about you two, boys?"

"I still can handle it," Huck said.

"I somehow don't feel hungry at all," I said. Perhaps worrying that I would not get any help from the dwarves had been suppressing my hunger.

"You can go back to the village if you want," Wulfgar said as we all sat down on our bedrolls.

"What? And missing your birthday? No way!" Boli said.

"Me too!" Huck said.

"Yeah!" I said.

"Is that day tomorrow? Crazy... I'm so hungry I have no strength to be angry," Wulfgar said as he lied down on his bedroll. "I only can remember how good you are at cooking, and that shows how hungry I am."

"Want dirt yam?" Boli asked, grinning a bit.

"No! I still would rather eat mud!" Wulfgar shouted.

"I have no objections, your majesty," Boli said, and we all went to sleep. While sleeping, I kept thinking about the possibility of all bridges being fake. If that was really true, I had to think of a way.

At the following morning, we all woke up not feeling too well. Probably because all of us had been living with only water and no food. Wulfgar seemed quite worse than us because he had been doing all the physical works and taking injuries in the process.

"Err... your majesty?" I said timidly.

"I told you to call me by name at this time," Wulfgar said. "What is it?"

"I think... I got an idea," I said.

"Really? Let's hear it!" Wulfgar said.

"Since there's a chance that the all the bridges might be fake, I think we better make our own bridge," I said.

"Good point, but how?" Wulfgar asked.

"I'm thinking of tying the rope to make a lasso and then throw it to the bridge pole across," I said.

"Fine idea, but the ravine is wide. The distance across is too far to throw a lasso," Wulfgar said.

"That's what the remaining bridges are for," I said. "If you can run about half the bridge before it falls, it should be close enough."

"Hmm..." Wulfgar said, seeming to be thinking. "Worth a try. Let's do it!"

Wulfgar then as usual tied a rope to the bridge's left pole and his waist, but this time he brought another rope which had been made a lasso and tied up at the other pole of the bridge. He then took a deep breath and began to run through the bridge. Soon, I heard a click and the bridge collapsed. Wulfgar threw the lasso before he fell down, and fortunately the lasso fell right at the pole across. Wulfgar grabbed the rope and moved across as the rest three of us cheered at him. After that, both Boli and Wulfgar worked together from each side of the ravine to set up a rope bridge.

Crossing the bridge was really scary for me. The webbing of the rope bridge was not that tight, so there were holes on it. Seeing the deep dark fall below the bridge gave me shivers and my legs felt like jelly.

"C'mon boy!" Wulfgar said from the other side.

"Hang in there, buddy!" Huck said from behind me.

"I'm... trying..." I said. It took me a great amount of effort until I finally reached the other side.

"Hate to admit it, but crossing this felt pretty hard," Boli said.

"That's because we're too hungry," Wulfgar said. "We're getting weaker and weaker as we speak. Let's not waste any more time."

We all then walked around the wall until we arrived at the front entrance. Behind the gate we saw that between the gate and the stone building there was nothing but a field of square stone tiles.

"The treasure is just right there! Let's go!" Wulfgar said, seeming very excited. He then ran straight towards the staircase of the building. However, when he stepped on a tile, the tile shattered, revealing a deep hole below it. Wulfgar fell down but he managed to grab the ledge of the floor and dangle there.

"Pull me up! Quick!" he shouted. We rushed to him and pulled him up from the hole. After that, all of us retreated back to the front wall, leaning and panting.

"Now what?" Boli asked.

"I don't know. Nobody knows how many of those tiles are traps," Wulfgar said. As he said that, I suddenly realized something.

"Maybe we can know," I said.

"Really? How?" Huck asked.

"See the things growing on the tiles?" I said.

"Hmph! Dirt yam! So?" Wulfgar said. Indeed there were dirt yam plants growing on several parts of the tile field.

"Tiles next to the dirt yam plants should be safe. Plants cannot grow without soil, can they?" I said.

"Oh yeah! You're right! Good job again, boy!" Wulfgar said. We then went to the bottom of the staircase by stepping only on tiles next to the growing dirt yams.

"Alright, what next?" Boli said.

"There should be no more trap," Wulfgar said, starting to climb the stairs.

"How can you be so sure?" I asked, following him.

"The treasure will be gone if the building falls," Wulfgar said. I actually didn't get his logic, but I kept following him anyway. The climb was tiring even though the building was not that high. Probably because none of us had eaten anything for days. When we finally reached the peak, there was an open door, and behind it was a room filled with a pile of treasure. What I found strange was that the treasure pile was located on a thick stone platform with a stone pillar at each corner of the platform. Above the pillars, there was another thick stone platform very close to the ceiling of the room.

"No wonder they made those dangerous traps," Wulfgar said. "This amount of treasure is enough to establish a kingdom."

"But why all these are put here just like that?" I asked.

"I bet they were confident with the traps outside," Wulfgar said, taking one jeweled necklace from the pile. Suddenly we heard a clicking sound followed by a rumbling noise.

"Run away!" Boli shouted, pulling Wulfgar with him. We did as he had said immediately. The room collapsed with a loud rumbling noise, and all of us made it just in time to get out and take cover at the stairs. Thankfully, the rest of the building still stood firmly.

"No," Wulfgar said. "No! NO!"

"Are you two alright?" Boli asked.

"I'm fine," I said.

"Me too," Huck said.

"Come and help me!" Wulfgar said as he ran back to the remains of the room. "We must dig the treasures out!"

All of us then tried to lift one large piece of debris away, but failed.

"This is useless... we are too weak," Wulfgar said, panting like the rest of us. "Once again, I failed because of hunger! ...and pride."

"Why are you saying that?" Boli asked.

"I have to be honest..." Wulfgar said. "I didn't immediately went down the hill after reaching the ground back then. I was so hungry I started digging out one dirt yam. But then I remembered that the yam was toxic if uncooked. I then swore not to eat it ever again. But now, I'm willing to pay any price just to eat one!"

"Let me..." Boli said before interrupted.

"Never mind. We will go back to the village and beg for food," Wulfgar said. "But please leave me alone for now."

"Alright," Boli said. "Let's go, boys."

"Are you sure about this?" I asked as the three of us left Wulfgar.

"Don't worry about him," Boli said. "Now I only need you two to do something."

"Huh?" I and Huck said at the same time.

Later, Wulgar was lying down on the pile of debris. He was so tired he had fallen asleep there. He had wanted to be left alone, so he could sit there daydreaming about the treasure he had been wanting for many years, which was just right there next to him but also very far from his reach. Another reason was that he didn't want to be seen crying over the treasure he had just lost. He had no idea how long he had been asleep, but what woke him up was a poke at his shoulders.

"Huh?" Wulfgar said, still half asleep.

"Happy birthday, your majesty!" Boli said together with me and Huck. On his right hand was a plate of a whole dirt yam with vapor coming out from it. Wulfgar was surprised seeing that.

"What? Isn't that... dirt yam? How?" Wulfgar asked.

"When we were separated at the village, I traded some of my food supplies for the recipe," Boli said. "It turned out to be easy, just boil it in salt water for half an hour."

"So you already know the secret?! Why did you left me to eat air for a week!?" Wulfgar shouted, seeming very upset.

"You yourself refused to eat it, remember?" Boli said.

"Well, alright. My bad then. But what about the boys?!" Wulfgar asked, still pretty upset.

"I actually cooked one for them after you fell asleep on the second night after we lost our food," Boli said.

"Man, better not remember that again," Huck said. "The taste was terrible indeed!"

"I say beyond horrible," I said. "After that, every time I remember the taste, my hunger just disappeared."

"Heh, alright then," Wulfgar said, taking the dirt yam from the plate. "The taste sure will be disgusting, but I need strength to dig out that treasure."

Wulfgar then slowly, full of doubt and fear, bit the dirt yam. He then chewed it and was immediately surprised. He then ate the yam viciously as if it was very tasty.

"The taste is... great! How?" Wulfgar said, still eating the yam.

"The accessories in my waist bag are actually my seasoning set," Boli said. "Every night, after everyone fell asleep, I cooked a dirt yam trying different combinations with the recipe until I find one which gave a good taste. I found this combination last night."

"Good job! Have you all eaten this as well?" Wulfgar asked.

"Unfortunately, all those experimenting on the recipe depleted the seasoning set I have," Boli said. "The one your majesty is eating is the result of last night, just heated up."

Right after Boli said that, Wulfgar froze in place. His mouth stopped chewing, and his eyes then looked at the half-eaten dirt yam. The silence lasted for some more seconds.

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" Wulfgar shouted. "Who am I to eat in front of hungry people?! Go eat the rest!"

"Don't worry about us," Huck said.

"All three of us ate a regular dirt yam before going back here," I said. "Still tasted terrible, but hunger kinda helped."

"That, is the birthday present from us," Boli said. "Happy birthday once again, your majesty."

Wulfgar stood in silence after hearing that, and then he ate the rest of the yam in his hands.

"Alright, no more slacking! Get here and help me move all this debris!" Wulfgar shouted.

All of us then worked together to move the pile of debris little by little. It took several hours until we finally managed to move the last rock obstructing us from the treasure. It was quite a surprise seeing that the entire treasure pile was still intact, but I understood why.

"So that's why there was a second ceiling right above the treasure," Boli said.

"Indeed," I said. "It was built to protect the treasure in case someone triggered the trap."

It took us another several hours to move all the treasure across the ravine. By the time we finished transporting the last of the treasure, it was already dusk. We then set a camp right next to the treasure pile we had transported.

"I will stay here to watch over the treasure. You go back to the village and tell them that they can come to take their share of the treasure," Wulfgar said.

"Alright, I will be back by morning," Boli said. "What about you, boys?"

"I'm kinda too exhausted to walk down those stairs," I said.

"To be honest, me too," Huck said.

"Alright then," Boli said. "By the way, there's a dirt yam in the cooking pot if you get hungry. Made with the remaining broth of last night."

"Bleh!" Wulfgar said after he noticed the cooking pot near him. "I ate that because I was starving, not because I liked it! And the acual present I want is the treasure, not that yam! Remember?"

"I see. Then I'll take my leave," Boli said, and he left us. I and Huck went to sleep immediately because we were very exhausted. However, I was not fully asleep yet when I heard a few things.

"Of all vegetables I have eaten, dirt yam is the most disgusting of all," Wulfgar said to himself while shivering. "And now I'm hungry again..."

After Wulfgar said that, he stared at the cooking pot for a while. He then took the dirt yam from the pot and began eating it.

"Ah well, I'll just eat this. Pretty good actually," he said. "I must thank everyone for the best birthday present of my life."

I felt somewhat happy hearing that. Wulfgar was a good person at heart despite the few downsides I had seen or Boli had mentioned. I was still a bit worried on how he would decide on helping my project, though.

As Boli had said, he returned by morning bringing a number of young people from the village below. Everyone then brought the treasure to the village chief's house, and then they split the treasure as Wulfgar and the chief had agreed upon. Every people of the village looked very happy, knowing that their life of poverty was about to end thanks to the brave old treasure hunter.

One week later, we were already back at Dwarven Capital. King Wulfgar immediately put all the treasure he had obtained into his private stash in his castle. After that, he brought us, including Boli, to the conference room to talk about his decision on helping my project.

"So... you once said about needing a help from us for your project," King Wulfgar said once all of us were seated. "What kind of help?"

"For now, I think I need a power source. A generator," I said.

"Generator? What generator?" King Wulfgar asked.

"Uhh... electricity generator?" I said timidly.

"Electricity? What is that?" King Wulfgar asked.

"It's a type of power. It's like..." I said, having no idea how to explain.

"Maybe we can say that electricity is like small lightning?" Huck said.

"Oh, you mean shock power?" Boli said.

"Well... maybe?" I said, unsure of what Boli had said.

"If that's what you mean, I can have one ready for you within a week," Boli said.

"That's good to hear," I said.

"Do you approve this, your majesty?" Boli said.

"All the help repaid with one shock power generator. Why not?" King Wulfgar said. "Alright, dismissed. Talk to Boli if you need to discuss anything more. I'm taking my leave."

After saying that, King Wulfgar left the conference room without looking at any of us.

"What's up with him?" Huck asked.

"His majesty was trying hard not to scream out of happiness," Boli said.

"Huh? Why is that?" I asked.

"A shock power generator is actually quite cheap and easy to make. Your help back then can worth a thousand generators at least," Boli said. "You only asked for one, and his majesty is always happy to pay cheap for big gains."

"What?! Why didn't you tell us earlier?" Huck said.

"I'm really sorry, but if I would have done that if I could. Saying anything that ends up raising the king's expense without raising gain is a crime punishable by life sentence," Boli said.

"That's just... doesn't make sense," I said, feeling really upset.

"I already told you that he was quite greedy, didn't I?" Boli said.

"I had better thoughts of him, but not anymore after he cheated us like this!" Huck said, seeming very angry.

"No! He did NOT cheat you!" Boli said in loud, angry voice. "You helped him, he agreed to help you, you asked for one generator, and you get one generator! Which part of that is cheating!? ANSWER ME!"

"But I... we..." Huck said, seeming shocked by Boli's reaction.

"Oh... I'm sorry. I should have not said it like that. Please forgive me," Boli said.

"I... I need to go out for a while," Huck said, quickly leaving the conference room. I could guess that he went somewhere quiet, a place where nobody would see him crying.

"Please... try to control your temper for us..." I said, trying to hold my own tears. "We are... not... your fellow... dwarves who are used to such temper.... We are humans, and we're still kids..."

"Yeah... you're right... I'm sorry," Boli said. "It's just that despite being greedy, he gained all the wealth he has through legitimate means. He never, ever, resort to deceit and trickery. That was why I got upset when your friend said that his majesty cheated you. His majesty did not cheat you. The problem was that you did not know the value of what you have done for his majesty."

"I guess we just have to move on then," I said.

"Indeed," Boli said. "By the way, what will the generator be fueled by?"

"Gem berries," I said.

"Gem berries? Oh, that's a different case then," Boli said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" I asked.

"A generator powered by gem berries is very complicated to make and costs a massive amount of resources," Boli said. "The resources needed for making such generator can be used to make about three thousand steam powered generators."

"How come?" I asked, being surprised at what I had just heard.

"I better not explain that. Too complicated," Boli said. "Anyway, with just one gem berry the generator can run for about a whole week without stopping."

"That's incredible!" I said.

"Heh, so in the end you're the one who gets the better part of the deal," Boli said with a bit of a grin.

"Will the king be angry about this and stop us?" suddenly Huck asked. He had just returned from wherever he had just been.

"No. His majesty is a man of his word. The deal was 'you want a generator, you get one generator'. What kind of generator is never mentioned," Boli said, still grinning.

So, as Boli had told us, what was supposed to be a bad deal for us turned out to be a very good deal for us. Right after our conversation, Boli took us back to Emerald City with his car, saying that he would deliver the gem-berry-powered generator within a month. When we arrived, all our friends welcomed us, eagerly asking about how our adventure had been. I then told Henry about the new generator, and he seemed very happy with it. I really hoped the new generator would be a stepping stone to move another step forward, towards Strawberryland.

-End of Chapter 7-

Even though I love new technology (with the exception of Windows 8 for obvious reasons), I still have a soft spot for CRT TV sets. Sure, they can't display HDTV or 480p content, but they do excel at displaying standard definition content such as old VHS tapes, SD TV programs and retro video games. However, one place where a CRT will never return is a computer monitor. LCD > CRT for computers these days. But I digress...

You may remember that I recently got a 19'' CRT which was originally intended for retro games. Well, I found a better one...



20 inch "Sylvania" CRT TV from 1991, which I recently scored at an auction. It's a charming little set with a great picture, perfect for my mostly standard-def content and retro games. The name? It's named after this one-shot character from a certain show featuring a young polar bear doing stuff at the North Pole...


Meet Nanouk! Husky puppy one-shot who should have became a main character in DKE, but since the series lasted only 13 episodes, you could only do so much I guess.

What does this mean for Anna-Lena? She will be an480p and HD content monitor, perfect for my forthcoming Wii U. She will also monitor my DVD recordings as well. Basically, anything component and upwards in terms of video quality. As it stands, both sets can view my satellite receiver output, but I don't plan on viewing both at the same time. As crazy as my current set up is, that is a tad overkill.

But, once I get an apartment, these two sets will go to their intended places. Anna-Lena in the bedroom for my Wii-U and whatnot, and the CRT in the main room. A less crazy setup indeed.

Final word... being made in 1991, Nanouk does have a very simple way of a menu system...


Yeah. You just hit the menu button on the remote and cycle through very primitive looking color sliders and other settings. One weird feature is that he has a "reminder" feature. Turn it on, and you can always have the channel number in the lower left corner. :?:

Quote:Year 1

Chapter 6: Fort Markash


"Alright, listen up, boys!" King Wulfgar said while we were still on the way to Fort Markash with Boli's airship. "I need to do a briefing before we begin the hunt!"

"Yes... your majesty," I said, kinda timidly because I was not sure how I should address him.

"I'm not a king now," King WUlfgar said, getting off from his seat and walking towards the back of the airship. "I'm just an old treasure hunter trying to hunt a treasure I once couldn't get, so call me by name!"

"Uhh.. Yes Wul... no, this doesn't feel right," I said, following him with Huck to the space at the back of the ship. I saw four backpacks stored there, two were considerably larger than the other two.

"Heh, if you were older, I would have you drink together with me until you call me by name," Wulfgar said, taking a large scroll from one of the larger backpacks and spreading the scroll over the floor. "Anyway, here's the map of Oz."

After WUlfgar spread the scroll on the floor, I looked at the map which was almost entirely covered by a single continent. The continent bordered an ocean from South to East part, and there was a pretty large island, covering about one-tenth of the map at the southeast corner. There were writings on the map, probably the names of the places. However, the writings were not in alphabet, instead they were in characters I could not recognize.

"Is this the map of the whole world?" Huck asked.

"No, this is only a continent map," Wulfgar said.

"How many continents are there in the world?" I asked.

"Nobody knows for certain," Wulfgar said. "Hey! Are you trying to distract me?"

"Oh, sorry your maj... I mean... Wulf..gar," I said timidly.

"Heh, whatever. Anyway, this is Emerald City," Wulfgar said, putting his index finger at a black dot roughly at the center of the continent. "And this is Dwarven Capital."

The distance between Emerald City and Dwarven Capital shown on the map was surprisingly close, only about two centimeters, while the map was at least two meters wide and one meter tall. I was quite astonished to see that Oz was very large, and it was still not including other continents out there.

"Fort Markash is located in Granite region, which is right here," Wulfgar said, pointing at a region about 15 centimeters Northeast from Emerald City. "Walking there would normally take months, but thanks to this airship we will arrive there in about eight hours."

"That's good to hear," I said.

"Not so easy, boys!" Wulfgar said. "This airship does not have good resistance to harsh weather, and the winds in Granite are very unpredictable and unfriendly!"

"Oh man," Huck said. "So what should we do?"

"We will land just outside Granite, and from there we will switch to land route!" Wulfgar said, pointing at a place away from Granite.

"So we are going to walk all the way to Fort Markash from there?" I asked.

"Of course not!" Wulfgar said. "Why do you think this airship is this large?"

"Uhh, no idea," Huck said.

"Oh, to bring Boli's..." I said before interrupted.

"Exactly! The land vessel is in this ship as well!" Wulfgar said. "Though he told me the name is... what was it... kat, cah, cas?"

"Car," I said.

"Yes, that one," Wulfgar said. "Simple indeed, but I have no idea how he got that name. He usually just name his vehicles like how they are used. Like this 'airship', a ship but in the air."

"So, how long will it take to arrive at Fort Markash?" I asked.

"The distance from landing point to Fort Markash is about two thousand kilometers," Wulfgar said. "And before you comment on it, yes it's very far. Even with the car, it will take about a week to get there. Any questions?"

"Does the car have enough fuel for the trip back and forth?" I asked.

"I got it covered! No worries!" Wulfgar said.

"Enough food and water for all of us?" Huck asked.

"Check!" Wulfgar said.

"I guess no more questions then," I said.

"Cheers for a successful treasure hunt!" Wulfgar said.

"CHEERS!" All of us, including Boli, shouted.

Eight hours later, Boli landed the airship right in the middle of a grassland. Then he took his car from the storage space at the back of the airship. After checking that everything were ready and not forgotten, Boli took four cube things from one of the larger backpacks and put them a few meters away from the ship in rectangular formation. He then pressed a button on the last cube he had put, and all four cubes suddenly erected metal bars to other cubes. Everything happened very fast that within seconds what I saw was a large metal cage fixed to the ground, with the airship inside it.

"We will be leaving it for at least two weeks. Can't be too careful about it," Boli said.

"Are you going to drive in the dark?" Huck asked. Indeed it was already near midnight.

"Of course not!" Boli said while laughing. "We will set up camp here and depart tomorrow morning."

"Oh, I see," Huck said. "I must admit that I'm not to good at setting the tent."

"Me too," I said.

"Tent?" Boli said, and he laughed. "I have never said that we will use a tent!"

Boli then took another cube thing from the same backpack. This time the cube was a bit larger than the previous four cubes. He then walked to an open space, put the cube on the ground, and activated it. He then ran away from the cube, and then there was a small explosion which left a lot of smoke around where the cube had been placed. When the smoke cleared we saw a house, the shape of which was similar to an igloo but made from metal.

"Hmph! I've never had it this easy back then!" Wulfgar said. "I didn't even have a tent! I built my own shelter with anything I could find around!"

"But now we have this, so let's just live with it!" Boli said. All of us then entered the instant house to rest for the night.

The trip to Fort Markash went by without anything significant happened. We rode the car during the day, making a stop every lunch time and dinner time, and set up camp once night arrived, making the sky almost completely dark. During this trip I learned a few things about Oz, such as the wildlife which was not much different than our planet, and the seasons cycle which was also the same with our planet. After one week, we arrived at a village under a tall hill, which seemed to be the village shown in the projection before. It was already dusk when we arrived.

"Fort Markash is right at the top of that hill," Wulfgar said.

"And that is the village you told us about, right?" Boli said. "Let's go there."

"Why should we?" Wulfgar asked.

"To make sure your deal with the village still stands," Boli said.

"If you say so, alright," Wulfgar said, walking to the village.

"You two, accompany him," Boli said.

"Huh? What about you?" I asked.

"There's something I must do," Boli said. "I'll meet you again at the other side of the village."

"Alright then," Huck said.

The two of us then followed Wulfgar into the village. The village was a really poor village, looking at the dilapidated houses and the inhabitants who didn't seem to have any meaningful activities.

"This village is still as poor as the last time I was here," Wulfgar said. "That means the treasure is still not found yet."

"Hey, that dwarf looks familiar," Huck said, looking at an old dwarf who was sitting alone.

"Isn't that... the village chief?" Wulfgar said. "Wait here. I'll go talk to him."

"Alright," I said. Wulfgar then approached the old dwarf.

"Treasure hunter...?" the old dwarf said, seeming to recognize Wulfgar.

"Yes, it's me. You still remember our deal back then?" Wulfgar asked.

"Of course I still remember," the old dwarf said. "Pity you didn't make it back then."

"And now I'm here to try again," Wulfgar said. "This time I will come back with the treasure!"

"Best of luck, friend," the old dwarf said.

"Let's go," Wulfgar said to us. We then walked to the other side of the village. We then waited there for a few more minutes because Boli was not there yet.

"Sorry to keep you waiting!" Boli said as he arrived.

"Where have you been?!" Wulfgar said.

"Just a few small things," Boli said.

"Whatever. Let's just go now," Wulfgar said. "Despite the available path and stairs, climbing this hill will take a while. I want to arrive at the top before dark."

We then climbed the hill through the path and stairs. The climb was very tiring for me, to the point that I almost couldn't feel my legs. I really wondered why Huck seemed to have no problem climbing for what seemed like hours, and the two dwarves climbed carrying a very large bloated backpack each.

"I wonder why you bought so much food from the village we passed by yesterday," I said, trying to divert my attention from my exhaustion.

"I don't want to repeat the same mistake," Wulfgar said.

"Mistake? What mistake?" I asked.

"Less talking, more climbing," Wulfgar said. "If you're tired, have Boli to carry your backpack."

"No thanks. I'm good, I think..." I said, although it was very clear that I was almost at the limit of my strength.

"The peak is just around that corner," Wulfgar said, pointing at a corner of the path. "Hang in there, boy."

"I'm... just... fine..." I said, struggling to keep my pace.

"It's been so long that..." Wulfgar said as he turned around the corner. "...I forgot how it felt to be here."

When I finally made it to the peak, what I saw was the view of a stone wall with a very deep ravine in front of it. Behind the wall I could see a stone building, which seemed to have a shape of a pyramid with the center of one side having a long staircase to the box-shaped peak. With further observation, I noticed that every side of the building was surrounded by both the stone wall and the ravine. What I found a bit strange was the fact that there were many stone bridges around the building that could be used to cross the ravine. I also noticed that four of the bridges had collapsed, which gave me a bad feeling.

"We will set up camp near the first bridge that is still intact," Wulfgar said, and we walked to the nearest intact bridge and put down our luggage.

"Too bad this place is too uneven and rocky to place the instant house," Boli said. "Let's live with bedrolls and campfire then."

"This ravine sure gives me chills," Huck said, carefully looking down the ravine.

"There sure are a lot of bridges," Boli said while he lit a campfire. "Don't tell me that..."

"Yeah, only one bridge is correct. The others will collapse if you try to cross it," Wulfgar said. "That's what happened to the treasure hunter's team. I myself made three other bridges collapse."

"How come?" I asked. "I mean, how did you manage to stay alive?"

"I'll show you tomorrow," Wulfgar said. "It's getting dark. Let's have dinner and then get some sleep."

All of us then ate our dinner while sitting around the campfire. It was the very first time for me to camp without a tent. Fortunately the sky was clear so I didn't worry about rain.

"Let's sleep for tomorrow," Wulfgar said.

"By the way, have you seen the dirt yams growing around here?" Boli asked. Indeed there were some dirt yams around us.

"Yeah! And if you dare to pick one up I'll smack you!" Wulfgar shouted.

"Your voice is law," Boli said. All of us then went to sleep.

In the morning, after having breakfast, Wulfgar immediately prepared himself to cross the bridge near us. He tied a rope to the bridge's post near at the edge of the ravine, and then to his waist. He then started to tip toe through the bridge.

"Do you need help?" I asked.

"Stay back! Or you might fall!" Wulfgar said, slowly walking. "I'll let you know if it's safe!"

Despite what he had said, I couldn't help coming close to see what was going to happen. Suddenly, I heard a clicking sound. The bridge then vibrated hard and all of the stones making the bridge were thrown upwards like being launched by a catapult.

"Watch out!" Huck shouted at me. Quite an amount of stones launched from the bridge fell down towards me, and I could only stand stiff. Fortunately, I was saved by Boli at the critical moment.

"He told you to stay back, didn't he?" Boli said.

"Sorry..." I said, feeling really ashamed.

"Oh no!" Huck shouted.

"I don't like the sound of that," Wulfgar, who had been climbing the rope he had tied to the post, said as he reached the edge of the ravine.

"Don't worry, we're all fine," Boli said.

"Aaaargh!" Wulfgar screamed after he realized the bad thing Huck had seen. The stones from the bridge had fallen right on our backpacks. Mine and Huck's were fortunately safe, but the two large backpacks were crushed. "But our food are all crushed! Help me, maybe we can still save some!"

Wulfgar then rushed to move the stones away from the backpacks. The rest of us helped, but the stones were too big and heavy for me and Huck, who were just two little kids.

"No good! All the food is absorbing the water!" Wulfgar said. "What about the other backpacks? Do they have any food?"

Both me and Huck opened our backpacks, and found only water bottles inside.

"I filled their backpacks only with additional drinking water supplies," Boli said. "I thought that we brought more than enough food already."

"And your waist bag?" Wulfgar asked, looking at Boli's waist bag which he still wore.

"In here there are only... accessories," Boli said.

"No choice then! Eat all you can! They will be spoiled by this night!" Wulfgar said, rushing to eat all the crushed food.

"Hey, calm down, your majesty!" Boli said, stopping Wulfgar. "Don't panic just because of food problem."

"You don't understand!" Wulfgar said. "Hunger is the deadliest enemy! It was the cause of my failure back then!"

"Let's sit down and calm ourselves," Boli said, and all of us sat down around the pile of crushed food.

"Would you tell us your story about that?" I asked while picking some food that was still pretty much intact.

"It all started right after I spat out that dirt yam," Wulfgar said while also doing the same thing. "All my food supplies had been exhausted one day before. I had thought that I could resupply at that village, but that dirt yam... I'd rather not talk about it again."

"I see. But you continued anyway?" Huck asked.

"Yeah, I thought I still had enough strength, so I climbed here," Wulfgar said. "When I got here, I knew that something was suspicious with all the bridges, so I took some time to examine one of them, trying to find anything suspicious. However, it was in vain. I couldn't see the trap trigger. I then had no choice other than walking through it using rope as my lifeline like what you saw. You know what happened next."

"And that happened three times?" I asked.

"Yeah, but the third time I fell down, I realized my mistake," Wulfgar said. "I had become very weak because I had neither eaten nor drunk for nearly two days. I couldn't climb up and my head felt really dizzy."

"How did you get out of there?" Huck asked.

"I had no choice other than pulling myself up little by little, and that took hours," Wulfgar said. "I finally managed to reach the ground again, but I felt like I could faint anytime, so I went down the hill and really fainted when I reached the bottom. The village chief found me and took care of me, but as soon as I woke up I decided to leave the place immediately."

"Because he served you more dirt yam?" Boli asked.

"You guessed it," Wulfgar said. He kept eating everything he could eat from the pile until his stomach bloated, meaning he ate too much.

"I don't understand. Why don't you go back to buy food and try again?" I asked.

"I'm ashamed, afraid to become laughing stock of the village chief," Wulfgar said. "Alright, now I'm full and ready... Ugh, I ate too much."

Eating too much caused Wulfgar to have a bad stomachache. He had to rest for half a day until he could stand up again.

"If we conserve our water, we still can last six more days," Wulfgar said. "Boys, you better don't move around too much. Boli, you too."

"Why me too? I can understand for them, but I'm strong enough to test the bridges," Boli asked.

"I need you to conserve stamina for later," Wulfgar said.

"We can go back to the village down there for some food and water," Boli said.

"Heh! I don't want to go down there empty handed a second time!" Wulfgar said, tying a rope to his waist.

"The water we have is only enough for six more days, until your birthday," Boli said.

"Don't mention that word again!" Wulfgar said, seeming very upset. "The only present I want is the treasure!"

"Your desire is law," Boli said as Wulfgar tied the other end of his rope to an intact bridge's pole. "Be careful."

"Stop being fussy!" Wulfgar said, starting to walk through the bridge. "Taking risk is my way of life! And I always rise again whenever I fall!"

Right after Wulfgar said that, I heard a clicking sound, and then the bridge collapsed. Wulfgar fell down and the rope kept him from falling all the way down, but the swinging movement from the fall caused him to hit his head hard to the cliffside. We pulled him up and found him almost fainted.

"I feel really old. In the past, I hit the cliffside with my face..." he said before he fainted for real. He finally woke up a few hours later, and moved on to the next bridge. This time, he tried crawling while rubbing the stones on the bridge with his hands. However, that method didn't work. I heard another clicking sound and the same thing happened again. I really hoped he would find the real bridge soon before he hurt himself really badly.


-End of Chapter 6-