Another Job Opportunity

I have recently been offered another job through my Mum's recommendation. I actually told myself not to take any of my relatives' job recommendations too seriously since they have all failed to hook me up. But at this point in time, I have nothing to lose; even my job recruitment agent hasn't called me in weeks which is proof that I am unwanted.

The position is that of an admin assistant to a guy who deals in r/c cars (those expensive complicated ones that run on oil). I didn't know such a hobby was popular in Singapore; he even has his own race team and they travel overseas for competitions. Anyway, he has just relocated his office and was hiring help. My Mum told me to go have a look at the place first because it is not ready yet. To my surprise, the place was at Paya Lebar's GrandLink. She said the rent there was a whole lot cheaper than other shopping centres (which is both a good thing and a bad thing).

And so, I went to GrandLink to have a look. I didn't realize that the World of JJ outlet there was gone; it just goes to show what a lousy location GrandLink is. Anyway, it was a nice & simple little office with a front desk and a room in the back. The boss knew I was just there to take a look since my Mum called him beforehand. I asked him if I would be attached to some guy to teach me and he said he didn't have any other staff; most of his work (document-typing, website development, etc) were outsourced. I don't know whether to be honored or worried that I might be his one & only staff.

The boss seemed to be a DIY kinda guy as he was setting up everything by himself. When I was there, he was setting the computer and later on, a guy came to help him put up his signboard. He told me that, if I was interested, I could start work next week when the office is ready. I checked my calender and realized that 'next week' was 2006 already; I've been jobless for waaaaaaay too long. *sigh* Before I left, I told him that I will consider and I will most probably help him out.

So long as it is a challenging job and I get to learn new things (so I can finally write stuff into my resume), I guess I shouldn't have any complaints. After all, beggars can't be choosers.

Merry Christmas

Saturday (Christmas Eve)

On the night before, we stayed up late on MSN to discuss what to do for Saturday, but everyone had things to do. We ended up having no plans for the day.

For me, I woke up at around noon time and went straight to the post office at White Sands to send my package since they were opened for a half-day (I found it stupid that I was unable to buy toploaders for the past few days and yet I found two long-forgotten ones sitting in my messy drawer).

After that, I went to AMK since it was just another typical Saturday. Oh, I forgot they were having a YuGay tournament. JokerZ, Himura and gang were there, though. We waited over an hour until we finally had some tables to ourselves. We played some VS to pass the time and then Kyo SMS'ed me to tell me that they had plans for dinner after all. His SMS contained smiley faces which were unnatural and made me wonder if someone had hijacked Kyo's handphone. hehe. Orchi and the rest wanted to have dinner first so I joined them and had some carrot cake to tide me over until the later dinner. Darrell seemed like he wanted more and decides to join me for the later dinner, too.

Everyone else arrived at around 9-something; Akira, Brainy, Kyo, Fengo and Maggie. At first, we went to Breeks but their regular menu was replaced by some fancy Christmas menu with a super narrow selection of obscenely expensive set meals. We left the place and went to Pizza Hut instead. As usual, everyone shared pizza whereas I tried the 'Make-Your-Own Pasta'. Surprisingly, I liked it very much; it is not as soggy as the one from Pastamania. I also had dessert which consisted of brownie & ice-cream.

After that, we all went home. At night was more "what to do on Christmas"-type discussion and as usual, we couldn't think of anything fun to do.



Oh, and I received a Christmas card from Japan. It was from the Yahoo deputy agent who had helped me before with Japanese auctions. How nice of her to remember. The card had some sort of cotton imprint on it. I have no idea how it was made. At first I couldn't figure out what it was until I recalled that it was one of her store's mascot.


Sunday (Christmas)



I woke up at around noontime. Once again, the "what to do on Christmas" discussion continued till around 4 pm. Then finally, someone suggested eating at Han's at Parkmall. It was a last-minute thing and we agreed to meet at 6 pm.

Everyone was late. I got lost in the maze that is Dhoby Ghaut MRT station because it had so many staircases. Darrell managed to find me even though we were at different exits (the NE line and NS line). Then Mango came along and showed us where the Zone-X arcade is (*gasp* an arcade in the MRT station). We played a bit till the rest arrived then we went to Parkmall.

I didn't really know what Han's was like then I realized that it was a quaint little cafe. I had the chicken chop meal with soup and cake for dessert. It was a very simple & filling dinner, and the price was right (no GST or hidden costs).

After dinner, we were really stuck. We had no other plans for the day. We went to the arcade to play some more then decided to go walk-walk at Orchard. We took the MRT from Dhoby Ghaut to Orchard. We went to Borders for a while then began our aimless wandering from Orchard back to Dhoby Ghaut again. We didn't have any other better plan. Orchard Road was very mobbed and they had a lot of officers to help in crowd control. After that, it was time to go home.

Well, that's it for Christmas. Six days from now, I will be like "what to do for New Year" all over again.

Still Feeling Bored

On Wednesday, I stayed home all day and then left for Orchard to meet Darrell at around 6 pm. I was planning to go join the VS Hobby League at ComicsMart (Orchard Cineleisure). I had this strange feeling coming over me; this was the third time I was going to the town area to play cards (the other times were at Raffles City). It seemed funny going to such places for non-luxurious, non-classy activities. Oh, well. I guess I am a queer. But hey, better than staying home.

The two of us arrived at the place on time. I tried to call Akira since registration was closing soon but he didn't pick up. He came right before the first round of pairings began and the organizer, Leck Koon, was kind enough to let him sign up. I was surprised to see Brainy and Chaosmag tagging along. There were 8 people, so we played 4-round Swiss and I had a 2-2 score. I'd usually write about my matches but I played against mostly friends this time so it wouldn't be fun to write about since everyone was there.

The event ended at 9 am and we decided to go have supper at SubWay. I was quite interested since I've always seen advertisements of it while riding in the MRT. Brainy told me it was mostly healthy stuff and veggies, though. I had a Meatball Marinara and chose to have minimal veggies in my sandwich. There were two fairly large cookies included with the meal, too. I couldn't finish and brought one home but it became soggy at night.

As I took the MRT home, I actually found my missing EZVideo card tucked deep inside my wallet. I thought of going to rent a movie from White Sands on my way home but I forgot it was already 10+ pm and all the shops were closed.

I couldn't get to sleep as usual and ended up sleeping at 5 am. I only woke up at 4 pm on Thursday. I have recently begun trading at VSRealms and I logged on to check my private messages. I have managed to close the deal on a foreign trade but I remembered that I had to send it before the Christmas weekend or else I'll have to wait till next Tuesday. I went to the Post Office at White Sands to purchase bubble envelopes at around 5:30 pm which was just half an hour before it closed.

After that, I went to EZVideo since I remembered I wanted to rent something the night before. I looked through the shelves, trying to find Scary Movie but they didn't have it. It took me a while to spot American Pie (1 & 2) and Deuce Bigalow. Just as I was deciding, I accidentally knocked over a VCD and it dropped on the floor. The case fell apart and the CD dropped out. I was like "Oops" cos' the store assistant was watching it happen and the stuff dropped at his feet. He just stood there and watched. I thought he would help me pick up the stuff. In the end, it was another shopper who helped me. Gee, that shop assistant was a moron. Does he get paid to just stand around? In the end, I didn't rent anything.

I then decided to go to AMK to buy card sleeves and toploaders for my trade. It was also Thursday which meant a lot of new Japanese PS2 game releases. Auntie was out of top loaders, so I had to return on Friday again. I'll probably send off the mail at the Post Office at AMK (if there is one). I picked up Neo Geo Battle Coliseum for PS2. Since no one was at AMK (it was raining and all), I decided to go straight home. Although I like NGBC, I know it wouldn't last long. Arcade fighters don't have much singleplayer replay value. A few hours of playing and I was through with all the game modes; I was kinda disappointed that they didn't add any extras. Argh, sadness.

Oh, well. That was it for my day. The next few days should be quite busy and I know I am supposed to look forward to Christmas but I don't seem to be in the holiday mood. Something is missing and I feel very bored no matter what. Maybe I am still coming out of my angst-filled phase.

Hate~Hate~Hate: A Story of Angst & Hate

During the last few days, there had been a lot of angst building up in me. One particular day was all about hate-hate-hate. For one afternoon, I hated the world and I hated everyone and everything around me. I sat down and tried to find fault in every single thing; everything from the meaning of life, the way the world was run, the way in which the Singaporean society functioned and even the ways in which human beings behave. There was a lot of nitpicking for me to indulge in and I started developing hate-hate-hate for every single bloody thing that came off as 'flawed' in my mind. All things living or non-living, tangible or intangible would not be spared. In my dillusional state, everything else was screwed up and deserve to be erased from existence; on the other hand, my thoughts and will embodied ultimate perfection.

Sounds crazy? Looking back at that afternoon, I did sound like a mad god. What could've sparked off such an emotion in me? Well, there are a billion reasons that I could think of. Life for me hasn't been great. Maybe I am indeed unhappy with the world. But I have to admit, I was somewhat influenced by Vincent/Lucifer's blog where he regularly vented his hatred of the people around him. I think they all deserved to be hanged. Oops, there I go again, thinking about hate and violence.

I had a talk with Brainy and Darrell on MSN to share my hateful views and they know about my crazy hating spree. I am still trying to recover from it. Kyo suggests a full twenty-four hours of sleep. Meh, I remember how nice it was during the days which I fell sick and could actually lie on the bed for an entire day. Anyway, don't feel afraid to approach me on MSN during my period of angst and hate. I feel better talking to people and getting my mind off hate-hate-hate. Heck, ask me out if you even feel like it. Just don't mind me when I start spreading hate propaganda.

My Sunday: VS PCQ - December 2005

Today was supposed to be the first Golden Age VS PCQ in like six months and I actually missed it! Argh! I thought it started at 2 pm, so I left home at 1 pm. But then Kyo SMS'ed to tell me that it had already begun. I wasted my cab fare which I felt was a rip-off (S$12 from my home to Suntec? It's only S$10 from my home to AMK). Anyway, this reminded me of the dream that I had recently; I dreamt that I woke up late for an exam, so I guess it was hinting that I would be late for the PCQ.

I arrived and started doing a bit of trading. I passed Orchi the flyers that I printed out for the VS System trade forum that I had made (http://s14.invisionfree.com/sgvs). The idea came to me when I realized that there was no local trade forum like the other mainstream card games and felt that perhaps it was time someone made one. I gave out the flyers to quite a few people under the pretext that I was 'helping a friend' since I wished to remain anonymous. I passed some to Edwin (our judge friend) and the other Edwin (the head judge) saw me and added that there was already a Southeast-Asian VS forum (VSdojo.com). That made me feel like an 'extra', but oh, well, I'll just give it a shot. It doesn't really matter to me if my trade forum is a success as I just wish to be the facilitator and nothing else. Orchi was real helpful and helped me to pin the flyer to the pairings board. I left a stack of flyers there and was quite pleased when I came back ten minutes later to see that they were gone (I hope they were not chucked away).

I spent most of the day looking around. At one point in time, one of the judges got on the microphone and announced, "Please refrain from using vulgarities and making rude gestures at your opponent." It made everyone laugh. Around ten minutes later, Leck Koon scream out loud, "AAAH!!! @#$%^&! At this time and age, where got people still put Flame Trap in their decks one!" (He was using his trademark Wild Sentinels deck). Then moments later, the judge got on the microphone again. "This is a reminder. Please refrain from using vulgarities or rude gestures," He paused for effect. "Even if your opponent did use Flame Trap on you." And the whole room was filled with laughter again. It was real funny.

Soon, it was evening and the top 8 rankings were put up. There were a lot of regulars in the top 8 and it included Wai Leong playing his original Xavier's Dream variant. The top 8 were:
- Anti-Green Lantern (Bertram)
- Wild Sentinels (Leck Koon)
- Squadron Supreme (Yap Jing Yang)
- Kang's Dream (Wai Leong)
- Team Superman (Michael Chew, possibly one of the biggest Superman fan)
- Common Enemy (Don't know, but he flicks his cards loudly and point with his middle finger)
- New School (Don't know, but he always play New School)
- New School (Don't know)

Yup, it's pretty much an all-star cast. Seems difficult to play in, too. Didn't stick around to watch much, but I do know Wai Leong's match against the New School player was an auto-win for him (New School wants to go to turn 9 and win by doing nothing, but Kang's Dream wants to win on turn 6 by doing nothing. Go figure). I was like, "That'd teach those New School players for bringing such a god-awful boring deck to a PCQ." Props to Wai Leong. I was also actually kinda rooting for Michael Chew since he dared to be different by playing the deck that has always enjoyed.

All in all, it was a fun day. I didn't play but I learnt that my Common Enemy was tech'ed for the wrong match-ups. I was expecting some Curve Sentinels and Brotherhood but they were nonexistent. I would've died horribly to New School, Squadron, DIG and all the funny decks I've never playtested against before. Time to do more homework and I'd better not be late for my next 'exam' again.

For dinner, I wanted to have an extravagantly expensive dinner (Sizzler's Kenny Rogers, Cafe Cartel were all within reach!!!), but we settled for Pastamania which was still fine by me. Wee. It was a nice day. And even better, WWE Survivor Series screens tonight, so I'll have more things to do later on.

Dentist, Waiter, Steamboat

On Thursday, I planned to go to AMK to hang out with the guys. But before that, I had to go for my monthly dental appointment. It was supposed to be last week, but he was away on vacation. I could tell that he was probably trying to make up for lost time judging by the number of people queueing. I arrived at 3 pm and spent an hour in the waiting room SMS'ing random people until I was called in at 4 pm. The nurse began to work on me, cleaning my teeth for like 20 minutes. Then she left the room and I waited for the doctor, who only came in at 4:40 pm. Then he worked on me till 5 pm and I was so glad to leave the place.

I arrived at AMK real late. We were playing deck when Andy came out and asked for two volunteers for a one-day waiter job on a cruise. The pay was very good ($8 an hour) and I felt like going for it. But then I considered the many reasons why it wasn't a good idea (for one, my skin condition will worsen when I touch greasy/oily/dirty plates) and I dropped the plan. Oh, well, Akira and Mango are going together, so I hope they have a fun time double-dating aboard the ship. Wee. *Recalls what Max said about American Pie 4*

At night, Chris asked me along for supper. I decided to tag along since I was still hungry; I had skipped breakfast & lunch because it wasn't advisable to eat before going to the dentist. Andy came along, too, so it was the four of us. We went to a Chinese steamboat restaurant somewhere near Paya Lebar. Along the way, we passed by some hookers (?) who called out to us, "Shuai Ge, lai An Mo ba~" ("Hey, handsome, want a massage?" for those who can't figure out). Oh, well. The steamboat wasn't too bad, but it is a well-known fact that I am a 'banana', so I didn't know how to appreciate chicken that didn't taste like KFC or chicken chop. Nor did I know how to mix my own sause/seasoning. Heck, I haven't even been able to understand the logic of paying to cook my own food since the times I have spent at Seoul Garden. hehe.

When it was time to settle the bill, I was wondering how much I'd have to pay. Then Chris gave three blue notes to the waiter and I felt somewhat bad that he was treating and the steamboat was so darn expensive. *gasp* I'll go have chicken mozzie pattie next time (anyone wants Breeks? I miss Breeeeks). Oh, well. It was already 1 am, and along the way out, the hookers tried the same 'shuai ge' line again.

A Little Bump in the Road

I woke up today and anxiously checked my handphone to see if I had any missed calls. Nope, all was quiet; my job agent had not called, so it looks like I can continue to be free for the moment. I had nothing to do for the day. I have finished watching all the Justice League cartoons I got from Darrell. It feels sad to have nothing to do.

I was still very unhappy & frustrated about Saturday's incident during our VS Hobby League. It vexed me greatly to learn that I had zero control over the organization of VS tournaments and that I was not doing a satisfactory job even by my own standards. And everyone knows that I take great pride in the tournaments that I organize and I try to be a perfectionist at it.

After Himura remarked that they had "not much reason to come to AMK" anymore, it made me feel very bitter. I do understand his reasons, though. After all, on that day itself, Himura & gang were so nice to drop from the 14-man VS tourney at CCK to come all the way to AMK for mine, which turned out to be an atrocity. When people complain, I listen. And I listen good.

With less motivation, I think I will organize less Constructed VS tournaments at AMK. In fact, I encourage everyone to join tournaments at other places once in a while. It is really good exposure and we get to befriend other players outside of our community. I really wished to promote awareness of the game at AMK, but without the proper support, I am forever fighting an uphill battle.

I decided to take my mind off the matter by checking out other places that hold VS tournaments. Today, I Google'd around, found the ComicsMart website (just as Dave had told me the day before) and learnt that there was a VS tournament at 7 pm. And so, I took the MRT to City Hall and went to Raffles Place. On my way up to ComicsMart, I got quite a big surprise when I met Jess at the escalator. He also told me that he heard about the shop from a friend and this was his first time there, too. Wow, it seems like fate. What were the chances of meeting like that.

We arrived at the shop and stuck around. I admired the cool comics in the shelves, feeling somewhat guilty that I was downloading them instead of paying for them. The two people tending to the store were actually people whom I have seen before; Leck Koon (a regular PCQ participant) and Hairul (a PCQ judge). Leck Koon was demonstrating a new miniatures game that used plastic chips to a guy in office clothes. It was a weird game and he joked, "Even if you buy the chips and don't use them, they are good for other things, too. Like for throwing at Noel Neo." It was so funny. After the demonstration, they checked and saw that only the few of us were there for VS. Oh, well, it was still enough to have a small VS Hobby League. It was me, Jess, Hairul and the 4th guy in the suit (match report can be found in the next blog entry).

It was quite fun. Everyone was real nice and they even invited me to come back again on Saturday for another VS Hobby League. I'd probably try to attend some more VS tournaments this week if I can. Wee.

VS @ Raffles City ComicsMart (12/12)

It was a simple affair; just 4 guys hoping to play some VS. I actually hope that their VS tournies are as quiet as this since I welcome a more casual setting for a change.

Match 1: Vs. Brotherhood of Arkham (Hairul)

At first I thought I was playing against a mono-Brotherhood deck cos', before the tourney began, Hairul borrowed 4 Straight to the Graves from Leck Koon. Then the match began. I took a real thrashing cos' I kept a hand with all my early drops. For the whole game, I drew all-Fan4 characters and all-Doom plot twists. I couldn't make any meaningful plays and lost without putting up much of a fight. I recruited absolutely nothing on turns 5 and 6, which costed me the game. At first, I thought the deck was similar to the one at Metagame.com (Breaking Ground: Harley Quinn), but what I saw seemed to be slightly different. Basically, it gets out the Lost City Combo and utilizes Harley Quinn as the omni-powerup card in addition to Nth Metal. I am not even sure if it is viable, but oh, well, it seems like a neat idea.

Record: 0-1

Match 2: Vs. Curve Sentinels (Guy in Suit)

I saw Boliver on the first turn and thought to myself, "It's the age-old CE vs. CS match." I thought I would lose this one since I did not pack Betrayal. Meh. I got out Boris on turn 1, too, but he got eaten by the Hounds of Ahab on turn 2 when I failed to recruit anything.

On turn 3, he got out Mark II while I Signal-Flare'd for Medusa, feeling quite pleased for having anti-HoundsLock tech. The guy thought for a while, then played Search & Destroy (to my horror~), stunning both our 3-drops and proceeded to let his Hounds nibble on Medusa's carcass. By now, I thought I had no chance of winning. I recruited a lonely Dr. Doom on turn 4. Fortunately for me, he missed his 4th drop and recruited a 2nd Hounds of Ahab. Dr. Doom attacked Boliver and I passed. Mark II came at my Dr. Doom with a Beatdown, but fortunately, I bounced it away with Reign of Terror (and it was his turn to be horrified) to put an end to the Hounds lock.

My opponent continued with his unlucky streak by having Boliver + Mark V on turn 5, hitting Bastion on 6, and then having Tri-Sentinel on turn 7. I matched him with Hulk on 6 and Mr. Fantastic with a Kevlar on 7. On turn 6, I managed to get my attacks in with the help of Beatdown to overcome Bastion's pumps. A Mysical Paralysis on turn 7 pushed the game into turn 8. I got out Silver Surfer and he had Apocalypse. Surfer went for Bastion and he used everything he got to pump Bastion to 20/20, but I played Beatdown to seal the deal. I then proceeded to attack safely to get rid of the remaining Apocalypse and Tri-Sentinel.

I was quite surprised that I managed to turn the game. It was due to my opponent's unlucky missed drops and the fact that I drew 3 Beatdowns during the course of the game to force my attacks through Bastion's ability.

Record: 1-1

Match 3: Vs. Avengers Reservist (Jess)

I took odds after considering the serious damage that Wonderman and Hercules could do if we got that far. Jess missed his first 2 drops, allowing my Boris and Luke Cage to deal direct damage. On turn 3, he got Black Widow + Rick Jones. I added Medusa to my cast and attacked for damage. I got off with an early lead and had a 10+ life advantage.

On turn 4, he recruited Hawkeye and immediately activated to stun my Boris. It was clear that my Boris couldn't run away since all 3 of my resources were face-up Common Enemies (hehe). I recruited Dr. Doom. He team-attacked with Black Widow + Rick Jones, stunning all my characters except Dr. Doom. On turn 5, I recruited Thing whereas he got She-Hulk out. Thing swung into She-Hulk and she powered-up for a double stun. Dr. Doom (with Doomstadt) swung into Hawkeye and this time, it was Avengers Mansion for another double-stun. Rick Jones was able to direct-attack me with Earth's Mightiest Heroes and the huge gap between our endurance was no more.

Turn 6 would be our final turn. Both of us missed our optimal drops. Jess got out Warbird, but I was able to maximise my resource points with a replacement Dr. Doom and a Kevlar on Thing. She-Hulk first knocked the armor off Thing. He then flipped up Legendary Battle in preparation for a team attack, but I Reigned away Rick Jones. He only had Warbird left against my unscathed Thing and Dr. Doom. Warbird took down Dr. Doom with a Flying Kick, leaving him with an all-stunned board and putting him at 17 endurance. I considered for a while and proposed Thing to attack with a Beatdown and a power-up for the win.

Record: 2-1

=========================

Oh, well. That was the end of it. Short and sweet. Jess, Hairul and I each got 2-1 and the winner was determined by tie-breakers. (Poor Sentinels got 0-3.) Jess came in 1st and I came in 3rd. Wee. It was one of the most fun casual VS Hobby Leagues I have had outside in quite a while.

My Wednesday Out of the House

I woke up at 9 am today after only around four hours of sleep. I had to go to Raffles Place for an interview with an agent from Recruit Express. It was about time I sought help from an agent. When I got there, I was surprised when I looked in and saw more than 20+ agents all squeezed in a fairly large office room with many cubicles. My agent was a lady named Gerlin; we talked over the phone on Tuesday evening. She was quite a nice person and said that she had one HR job available at Somerset and they are urgently hiring. Oh, well. I hope I fit the bill.

An embarrassing thing happened during my appointment, though. Before I saw Gerlin, I was told to fill up a job applicants form. It was attached to a clipboard and I filled up everything as detailed as I could on the front and back. Later during the interview, Gerlin removed the form off the clipboard and flipped it open down the centire; ARGH, it was actually 4 pages and not just two sides! Fortunately, the middle two pages were all about my previous work experience which would've been blank for me anyway, so it wasn't as bad. I hope I didn't leave a bad impression. So much for writing 'meticulous' as one of my strengths on the form.

I reached home at around 1 pm and lazed around. Both Miya and Max had asked me out today. I was still tired from lack of sleep so I went to take a nap. I woke up rather reluctantly near evening time and made my way to AMK. DS and Jeffrey were there in the earlier part of the day. Miya, Max, Akira and Kyo started arriving at night. I played Raw Deal and VS. It was a good way to pass the time on a boring weekday. Wee.

Unemployment - Take Two

I had so much fun over the weekends that it kinda alleviated my unemployment stress. I guess weekends do that to just about everyone. When I got home and started working on those cover letters again, I no longer felt pressured. I shouldn't be worrying so much because it won't improve my chances of landing a job. I wasn't even able to stick to sending out 20 applications over the weekend simply because there weren't that many jobs for me to apply to in the first place. Haha. I will just have to make up for lost time by routinely checking JobsStreet and JobsDB and keeping those applications flowing out. If I keep trying, I am bound to get a response sooner or later. Perhaps I should check the Straits Times now and then for a change, too.

Anyway, the first thing I did before I started on my next wave of applications was to get a new e-mail address. My Hotmail one probably sounded strange to all my prospective employers, so I applied for a more formal-sounding G-Mail address. And thanks to the Gmail Notifier that I saw Akira use, I can easily access it. At the moment, I shall not disclose it for fear that some bots will come by and add it to their collection of spammed accounts. I like my Gmail the way it is for now: Clean.

Out of interest, I also studied MS Excel with the help of online tutorials. I was getting a bit intimidated by the MS Word-Powerpoint-Excel triple combo required by most Admin jobs so I thought I'd better pick it up. Wow, the first instance of self-enrichment in nearly a year already.

Oh, well. I feel a lot better now. I hope I get some responses soon. My handphone will be close by my side from now on. At this point in time, aside from fun & games, I am running out of things to concern myself with so a job might be just what I need to fill the void in my life.

Bah! Unemployment Blues

Hurray, it is December, the holiday season. But it signifies the coming of the year's end and I am quite disappointed that I haven't found a job yet. I think I got a little lazy and pinned too much hopes on that one freight job (I was so sure I'd get it). It's kinda my own fault.

This 'unemployment depression' state of mine will probably last a while so better get used to it as it becomes a recurring theme in my blog. I think about it all the time when I am at home. I have reached the next phase in my life (i.e. getting a job) but I haven't even taken the first step so it tends to worry me (the next-next phase would be finding a girlfriend, get married, then finally settling down).

Now I look back to when I was in primary/secondary school and remember those typical 'What Do You Want to be When You Grow Up' essay topics. It's all lies. Being young and naive, we'd all write about the cool stuff; doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs. It's all so fake. If everyone aspired to be so great, who'd be the Administrative Assistants? The Telesurveyors? The Customer Service people? The Data Entry clerks? (Ah, yes, I am conveniently using those jobs as examples because I am applying for them.) Doh, I am not making any sense here.

Anyway, I have quite aware of why I am doing badly in my job search. Firstly, I have a Bachelor Degree from NUS, so naturally, employers will get turned off ("He's gonna cost more than a diploma holder.") Secondly, I have no work experience to speak of; I regret not taking any part time or temp jobs during my JC and NUS days. Times are tough. And next, I probably need to act more like my age even though I am a big kid at heart.

I have put off all luxuries for the moment until I can find a job. This means no asking Mom for money to buy a PSP or vacation money to fly to the VS System 10k tournament in Kuala Lumpur. Yeah, I'm still spending money on cards but at least I am exercising a little more control now.

Time is a-wasting for me so it is time to push the panic button. I shall go all out and send 20 job applications this weekend. If this doesn't work, I don't know what will. My aim now is to be employed before 2006. Wish me luck. And if I come out of it, I'll probably have good job-hunting stories & tips to share in future.

Sick Penguins Like to Have Fun

A little recollection of what I have been doing.


==/ SUNDAY /==

I fell sick over the weekend and wanted to see the doctor at night. It was a wasted trip as I didn't realize that both neighborhood clinics had closed early. Doh.

While surfing various blogs, I learnt that Max had gotten a new computer and Akira was going to drop by at his place. For no reason other than to find something to occupy myself with, I asked if I could tag along. But that was provided I was feeling better the next day.


==/ MONDAY /==

I woke up early and went to see the doctor. She said that my fever had subsided, so it looks like I was good to go. I contacted Max & Akira, and the three of us met up at Sembawang MRT station at noon before setting off for Max's home. While there, Akira got down to work on Max's new laptop. Max played Winning Eleven 9 on his PS2 and I was playing my NDS online using his wireless connection. I was envious of Max's new laptop as mine was so problematic. I felt like an 'extra' through the day while Max & Akira got down to the serious business of populating his new laptop with goodies.

At around evening time, Miyamoto SMS'ed me to inform me that he had nights off and was dropping by at AMK. I was thinking of going straight home to rest and had wanted to refuse him. But then, I remembered that my journey home from CCK would be a monstrous 2-hour MRT ride and so I changed my mind. I soon left for AMK while Akira stayed back to accompany Max for a nice home-cooked dinner (it smelled like fried rice or noodles, which would've been suitable for little sick me).

I arrived at AMK at around 8 pm and went to MOS Burger to buy takeaway. Despite having a sore throat, fast food was still the way to go for me. I simply bought nuggets & fries and went to meet Miya. We played several rounds of Raw Deal and I bought a box of the new expansion as I went home.

The day was filled with so much excitement for me that I had no time to rest. I shall make up for my lack of rest for the next few days and hope I recover soon.


==/ TUESDAY /==

I woke up on Tuesday in the afternoon, feeling excited that it had been exactly seven days again after the last time the recruitment agent had called me. I was disappointed when I checked my handphone and realized that all had been quiet. I'll give it a few more days before I call him up myself.

I tried to spend the rest of the day lying in bed to make up for the lack of rest on Monday. I left my computer on to download anime, but just as I was making myself comfortable in bed, I got the dreaded Blue Screen of Death error. I hope this is not a premonition that my laptop's days are numbered. Come on; I just reformatted a couple of days ago. Oh, well. I couldn't really get to sleep any more after that.

At night, I waited for the regular shows on TV. Normally, I'd stock up on Ruffles and Oreos, but not this time. I'll just have to be content with plenty of water as CSI came on. And now, here I am typing this. I guess I will occupy myself with Darrell's cartoons and anime until I go to bed. I hope I get well soon cos' I have not been getting as much rest as I should.

With all the things happening to me recently, I might very well be experiencing depression soon.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

I recently realized that I have lost my MP3 player. I have always put it in the front pocket of my bag and it has been that way for very, very long time. It must have fallen out when I wasn't paying attention. I never thought I would drop something so noticeable and miss it. Argh, how careless of me. I don't think I will be getting a replacement, though. If I ever get a PSP, then it shall double as my new MP3 player.

Once again, I am blogging with a freshly reformatted laptop. Yes, it happened again. I think I deserve to be in the Guiness Book for having the most problematic computer in the world.

I just decided to update my Zone Alarm firewall today since the update notice had been pestering me for days. Halfway through the update, the Blue Screen of Death appeared and I had to reboot, but after that, I learnt that my Zone Alarm had completely disappeared. I tried to re-install it but couldn't because my computer still thinks it is there. I went over to the official forum for help and realized that people were complaining that the new update was buggy. Oh, damn. Before I knew it, my computer kept freezing whenever I tried to start any program and I knew it was time for a reformat. *Sigh* I still thank my lucky stars that this is all happening after I have left school. The only things I have lost are my comics and anime (once again).

The Weekly Penguin Report

Oh, no. I haven't updated all week. Basically, I have been experiencing half-day days since I wake up at around lunchtime. My eyes have been hurting a lot, probably from staring too much at the computer screen; so what else is new? I am glad there is still Optrex sitting in the bathroom.

i. Mario Kart (NDS)
I have been playing this game a lot recently. I bought it because it was the NDS' first online game. I may not have a wireless router at home, but I am able to detect the connection of several neighbors using my laptop so I thought I could piggyback on theirs. Little did I know that, upon getting the game, I forgot that the NDS' wireless range was only around 10 meters, so it could detect anything. Argh. Oh, well. At least I can play online at Chris' shop, using an unknown connection belonging to someone else. I even made a little 32x32 penguin logo (with the help of a program, of course) to be used as my online emblem. Wee.


While on the subject of emblems, some people have mentioned that there are a lot of obscene emblems used online. I am fortunate not to have seen any myself yet, but here is a little comic strip to illustrate my point: VG Cats 176 - Pimp Your Ride. (VG Cats is one of my favorite web comics that parodies video games; updates every Monday. Wee. Perhaps one day, I'll write about the web comics I read.)


ii. Regular Weekend Stuff

Nothing much to say. Just the usual card & arcade gaming at AMK.

On Saturday, I drafted VS and then watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was pretty good but super long as it lasted from 8:00 pm to 10:30 pm.

On Sunday night, some officers (not the police, though) took down our names for playing cards and our NDS/PSP at McDonalds. It was so lame; I told the McDonalds staff that they'd better put up warning signs for such things, though I wish I had been more forceful about it cos' I bet they won't do anything about it. Hey, if I can't play cards or video games at McDonalds, then no one else can.


iii. Finally, Some News
I have been waiting anxiously since my interview last Tuesday, hoping to hear from CareerTrends. I told myself to give it a week before I start worrying, and to my surprise, they did call me exactly seven days from last Tuesday. This time, he asked for some additional information about myself and told me that the company might arrange for another interview with me either this week or next week. Wow, I am now pretty deep into this job application; I hope that I will be finally landing the job and it'd be the end of my hunt.


iv. Darrell's Goodies
Darrell lent me his external hard drive full of various cartoons/anime goodies. My lost comics were also inside, too! I have begun watching the Justice League (wow, 4 seasons), skipping over some episodes that I've caught on Kids Central before. There is also Gundam SEED Destiny but I am hesitant to watch it since a lot of people say it is not very good. I was surprised to see that there was USA YuGiOh GX and I had a good laugh at how lame it was by watching the 1st episode; the card images were screwed up (censorship and localization) and Chronos was butchered till he is no longer funny or entertaining. Anyway, I believe this goodie stash will keep me occupied for a couple of weeks.

I Hope I Get It~

My job interview on Tuesday ended early so I went straight home. I only met the recruitment agency (CareerTrend Recruitment Service) that was doing the hiring for the company so I had no chance to sell myself (I actually memorized some lines the night before). All the guy said was that he'd call me if they plan to hire me.

There was one thing that happened, though. After I have filled out the form, I handed it to the receptionist and she muttered something while pointing at a line I have omitted. I realized that I had missed the box to sign my name cos' I have misunderstood it to be under the 'for Official Use' section. What was most shocking about this was that I thought I heard her say, "Do you have a problem signing your name?" She mumbled it out, so I can't confirm it and neither could I ask her to repeat it. If it was, I would have gotten pissed off and retorted, "Do you have a problem with being nice?" But anyhow, I just signed and got on my way.

When I got home, my Mum told me that my chances are probably pretty high cos' they were asking for someone to work 10 hours a day that Changi Cargo Complex and I was probably the most suitable candidate given where I live. Oh, well. I hope it is true, cos' based on the fact that they have advertised this post twice within three days, it seems like the company is quite urgent. In the meantime, I shall take a break from sending out resumes for a week in the hopes that I get a response.

Scored 1st 'Real' Job Interview

I received a call in the afternoon today. It was regarding my application for the Ops Freight Officer job at Changi Cargo Complex. I kinda messed up the phonecall but the person did schedule me for an interview tomorrow. I am not sure if it was a 'test' but he asked me, "Why did you choose to apply for this job?" and I fumbled with a lame answer. Later, he then explained that he was asking this because it was a logistics position whereas my degree was for computing Logistics? I thought they listed this under the Adminsitration jobs section.

Anyway, I kinda look forward to the job because it is one of the more unique ones I have come across as opposed to a typical desk job. Training is provided, the workplace is close to home and I get to stay up late every day because it is done in shifts and have uneven working hours. Oh, and the job name sounds authoritative (sort of).

This is the first proper job interview that I have scored myself (and not through recommendation or relations). I am quite pleased that Giant Hamster's critique on my resume was actually effective; I sent out 4 applications so far and had already gotten my first reply. I then went out to get my hair cut (even though I feel that I don't really need one) and photocopied my educational certificates. I hope things go well tomorrow.

The Penguin Goes to Suntec

It was another VS PCQ day. And I am running out of ways introduce my monthly PCQ blog entries, let alone coming up with a non-repetitive title. I woke up early to join the DJL Sealed event. It was quite tiring and my score was a sad 3-5 (The actual match descriptions are in the blog entry below as usual; I promise they are more concise and less long-winded this time.)

The SOR was there (namely Nuclear and KS), but I have grown to embrace their presence. CKTeacher was quite unfortunate to have passed away 2 Secret Origins from his boosters and, despite having a 4-2 record by round 6, he had to drop and leave for an appointment. Jess was around, too, and Mango surprised us all by popping up in the evening. Too bad the Mango wasn't accompanied by a Kitty; the purple ball of yarn trick no longer worked (okay, tagboard joke here). Mango joined me for dinner while everybody left. wee.

The DC Modern Age Constructed was pathethic with only 8 participants. Yup, the top 8 was already determined from the moment it started. There were 6 GLEEs, 1 Qward and 1 Superman Robot. Yong Siang from CCK played the only Super Robots in a field of GLEE decks, but I think he wasn't sure what he was doing and didn't do too well. At least he was assured in the top 8. I bet so many people who joined Sealed felt cheated. hehe. Hurray for Golden Age next month.

To my surprise, I saw Edwin (the AMK guy with problems walking) wearing a Judge t-shirt today. He told me that he got the job through Edwin (the UDE guy). He was given 15 packs for working 10+ hours with lunch provided. I chatted him during my breaks to keep him company.

At the end of the day, we were about to leave. Julian reminded me that I could redeem my Sneak Preview ticket/coupon for a DJL booster but I was lazy (since it was only 1 pack) and told him that I have 'lost' it. But after a while, I decided 'what the hey' and dug through my messy wallet. I finally located the coupon and went back to redeem that one booster. I rubbed the pack with my hand, praying that my luck would change and I would finally get my first DJL money rare. And then I was giggling uncontrollably like a little girl when I pulled Secret Origins. It was a lucky pack after all.

I took the MRT back and dropped by at White Sands to shop. I found that they had a Video EZY branch and went to browse. When I saw that they had Spiderman 2, I immediately signed up for a membership and rented it home. I must say that it is a great show; I wish I watched it earlier. It has moments of drama, anxiety, romance and action; heck, it has everything and it all ties up very well. I have a lot of respect for the series now.

VS PCQ - DJL Sealed (13th November)

There were 8 rounds of swiss today. The sound of it turned me off as I worried how I was going to handle fatigue through the day.

Deck Construction

I opened pretty good packs, consisting mostly of Secret Society characters and even Sorceror's Treasure. Too bad they will not be mine. Two seats away, someone was complaining that he got all crap. "Argh, I got so many copies of this guy. There's three versions of him; just too bad they will replace one another." I wondered what it was.

Then it was time for deck swap and we were told to pass our decks two places to our left. To my horror, I was on the receiving end of the pile that the guy was complaining about. I braced myself as I fingered through the cards to see what were the 'three versions' he was talking about.

Lex Luthor, Nefarious Philanthropist.
Lex Luthor, Criminal Genius.
Lex Luthor, Evil Incorporated.

Oh my god!!! Damn you, Lex Luthor! *shakes an angry fist*

I went and made a mess of deck since the character pool was too evenly spread out for me to focus on any dedicated team. I probably had 7 affiliations in my deck (including dual affiliations). If that is not a mess, then I don't know what is.

Oh, well. Here are my matches. I went 3-5 in the end. To keep things short, I shall post all my losses only cos' they are more fun and meaningful to read. The fun thing about PCQs are meeting people whom you have played with before; it made things feel more 'homely'. I had fun despite losing so much. Wee.

Loss 1: Mr. PMS II
I saw that my 2nd match opponent was Keng Yin and was like, "Oh, no. He's gonna remember that I lucked out during the Sneak Preview and would be mad at me." Fortunately, he seems to have forgotten and we played normally. Keng Yin was playing with the cards that I opened (gah, my Sorceror's Treasure!). Nothing strange happened except that he didn't allow me to retrace one of my moves, even though I requested it two seconds after performed it. "No, you can't," came the stern reply. That didn't cause me the game but it stung. Maybe he does remember.

Loss 2: I Hate Black Canary
In this game, I had a very rocky start and only my 2nd and 4th drops going into Turn 5 against my opponent's three characters. I recruited the 5-drop Black Canary in front of my 4-drop and considered my moves. Just as I was about to declare my attack, I glanced over my characters and suddenly realized that my 4th drop and 5th drop were the same person, despite one looking like an anime chick and the other like a deranged Barbie doll. "Sh*t!!!" I exclaimed loudly (which I rarely do in a card game, but this was too much for me to contain). The old Black Canary got KO'ed, the rest of the game was hopeless. He even had Amazo to come out to seal the deal with 22 ATK on turn 8.

Loss 3: The Misty Man
This was the guy whom I faced in the first match of the DJL Sneak Preview; the guy who loved using The Mist to move my guys. As the match began, he recognized me and joked, "Ah! It's you! I shall try to have my revenge." He chose evens, saying that his games usually ended on turn 6 for either him or his opponent. I was surprised that he used The Mist again. He kept it alive throughout the game with its Evasion and sent most of my characters into the hidden area. I died because most of his attacks were aimed directly at my noggin'.

Loss 4: See-Saw
This was a very exciting match. I pushed real hard in the first 3 turns, using practically all my pumps & tricks to hit hard and fast. I had a very good board presence by turn 5 and did not hesitate in letting Darkseid kill off my own characters just to whittle down my opponent's. I guess I was getting overconfident and becoming reckless since I was leading with 40 to 20 endurance. Turn 6 was the crucial moment; my 6-drop failed to stun his one due to all the cards he played to save it (2 Balance of Power, Shake It Off, Magnificent Seven, etc). I have used up everything up my sleeves so I took a thrashing from turn 7 onwards. I was kinda relieved that he had like 5 plot twists flipped face up, but to my horror, he had some more plot twists to use on turn 8. It was too much for me; his plot twists selection was just too rich.

Loss 5: The Ally Guy
This was my last match for the day so I planned to relax. That was until I saw that my opponent was a pretty noisy kid. Again, I started with the upper hand, with Scarecrow: Fearmonger eating all sorts of counters all the way till turn 7. Then his Rama Kahn came out. I managed to reduce his life to exactly zero, but he powered up twice to gain 2 life with Faith. The game went to turn 8; I was happy with my board having a 7-drop, two 6-drops and a 5-drop. It was his initiaitve and all he had was Rama Khan, 4-drop Black Canary, Faith, and an Illusionary Warrior. Then the nightmare happened; he powered up more than 5 times this turn using a variety of effects, triggering all his Ally abilities multiple times. My 4 characters exhausted without any hope of retaliation, he gained 5 life and he reduced my character's attack to prevent stunback. All he did was hit me once to put my life below zero and ended his turn. Evil Ally cheese turned the game.

The Penguin Ponders

Gee, the last week passed so quickly (thanks to my illness) that I did not have to bother myself with looking for ways to pass the time. Oh, well. It is a busy period for just about everyone that I know so I am back to occupying myself with the Internet, the TV and my PS2.

Life went on for me when, out of nowhere, Giant Hamster (the man who singledhandedly saved my final year project) popped up on MSN. He always seem to appear at the most opportune times like a fairy godfather of sorts. He talked about work; he was now a System Analyst at SingTel ("Damn programmer job," he remarks). I told him that I had sent a few resumes here & there, and he offered to have a look at mine. It was then I learnt that my resume was done totally wrong. He showed me his; it was entirely different but, hey, it made a lot of sense. I figured that my prospective employers were probably more interested in reading about my experience, skills and talents as opposed to which schools I was from and what I grades I've got. Oh, well. Looks like it's back to the drawing board for me. Giant Hamster also added that it's okay to get temp jobs first, even if it is just to fill up my resume and make it look good for future applications. I'll keep that in mind.

Looks like I've learnt something new today. I am once more another baby-step closer to accomplishing my goal of getting a job. Then maybe I can sleep better; those darned pills aren't doing a thing in improving my insomnia. Maybe if I get off my lazy butt and actually do something about it, I might hopefully be able to start working before 2006 rolls in. Yes, I know I am very lazy; I usually get motivated for a spur of the moment, then after a few days, I am back to idling without a care in the world.

*Starts spinning without a care in the world.*

Sick All Week

This may be starting to sound a little cliché but I seem to fall sick every time after a day at any VS event. Himura said that he kinda expected it, seeing that my eyes were all red at the JLA Sneak Preview. So evil of him.

On Monday, I stayed home in front of the computer and took some Panadol every meal time. I was supposed to go out with everyone on Tuesday so I tried to improve my condition by drinking lots of water and forcing myself to sweat (I hear that was supposed to work). It was all for nothing and I ended up going to see the Doctor on Tuesday which was Deepavali. This time, I told him about my insomnia and he gave me some 'relaxant pills' (not sleeping pills) cos' he attributes my sleeplessness to stress.

I went home and immediately fell asleep. I woke up in the evening to catch "Bend It Like Beckam" on TV. After that, it was more sleep again. On Wednesday, I finally felt better and got up to use the computer in the late afternoon. I even looked in the mirror and was like, "Oh my god! My eyes are WHITE!" Yeah, I was real happy. It feels good to have recovered. But now, I am unable to sleep as easily when I was sick, so I hope those relaxant pills come in handy.

Fun & Games: VS JLA Sneak Preview

The Justice League Sneak Peek was on Sunday. My previous Sneak Preview (the Avengers one) was ruined by my reservist mobilisation so I was quite thankful that I was able to enjoy this one without any worries.

The night before, I told myself I would try to sleep early but WWE Afterburn & Bottomline kept me up till 3 am. I though I'd be ready to sleep but I ended up tossing & turning in bed until I decided to get up and play Dragon Force on my PS2. Time passed quickly till 6 am and it was then I decided to go lie on the bed. I couldn't really get to sleep and woke up at around 7:30 am and prepared to go to Suntec City.

I arrived at Suntec at around 8:30 am and lazed around. Nulcear and KazuyaSato were really there so it looks like the SOR have indeed started VS (*shudder*). I signed up for the 1st Flight and it began at around 9 am. I was very excited as I cracked open my packs but, to my dismay, I had stuff that I could not foresee myself using. Now, everyone knows that I am an easily-contented person; I just wanted any rare that looked cool or could go into any one of my many affiliated decks (even the junk ones) and I'd be a happy man. But nope, I did not get any.

The 1st Flight lasted very long and I finished my four rounds by 1 pm (I have put the match descriptions in a separate blog entry; just scroll down). I was very delighted that I have managed to win the Martian Manhunter EA and I traded my booster packs for the deck tin. Everyone told me the deck tin was a waste since the play mat was more valuable and fast running out. I chose the deck tin because it was more practical; I still have the Green Lantern play mat and it is collecting dust under my bed (still wrapped up, though). I'll probably try for the play mat later if I have the chance.

We then went for lunch at the food court. Chicken chop with rice & mushroom soup. Yummy.

By the time we returned to the Sneak Preview, I was very tired. I was planning to join two flights today to increase my chances of winning the EA but, since I already have it, the sense of urgency was no longer there. I decided to sponsor someone to play for me since I was hoping that my luck will change and I'll get some good cards. Mango... I mean, Fengo, was the best man for the job since he was young and entitled to three additional free boosters.

Fengo got me some 'okay' cards this time though there were duplicates of crap I had opened during the 1st Flight. There was no more play mat (but I would later learn that they replenished their stock for later flights). I was a little bitter at the cards that I've gotten today and didn't want to go home 'empty-handed'. I went ahead and bought a 'Lookalike Squad' from David for $8 even though I fully know that it'll drop to $2 crap-rare status one month later (but if it doesn't, I'll still be thankful cos' it means that Team Superman has gone from junk team to tier 1). Oh, well. I just didn't want to go home without owning a card that I actually wanted. Fortunately, Orchi dissuaded me from going crazy and spending $20+ on some of the other card singles just to satisfy my impulsive needs.

I went home immediately after Fengo completed his flight since I was sleep-deprived. I reached home at around 6 pm, had a quick dinner and took a dive for the bed. I thought I would sleep all night but I ended up waking at 10 pm. (I actually thought I had woken up at 10 am on the next day.) I suddenly remembered Darrell telling me they were showing WWE: No Mercy at 12 midnight, so I stayed up to watch it. Wee.

Looking Back: JLA Matches

JLA Sneak Preview Matches

Deck Construction:

I joined the 1st flight of the day, so there was no deck swapping. Darn, I was cursing myself to get crap before coming. And yes, I did get crap. Aside from Wonder Woman (the one that was previewed at Metagame) which was really a borderline card, the rest were mostly mediocre cards that I would probably never use. I felt a little sad when the people around me were excited with the Hero's Welcome and Lookalike Squad that they got. How I wished I could swap with just any one of them.

I was hoping to build a deck using the Injustice Gang or JLA since I liked to play mostly curve. I was a little disappointed when I realized that my JLI character pile was the biggest as they were supposed to be weenie-based. With all the JLI/JLA dual affiliation guys around, I sorted out the better characters from JLA and JLI for my deck and added in a few good apes (Gorilla Grodd and Ultra Humanite) for good measure. I was quite delighted to find that my JLA were quite thematic with famous faces like Batman, Wonder Woman, Hal Jordan, Green Arrow and Martian Manhunter. It made me feel excited about playing it. For my plot twists, I was being lazy and just sorted out all the ATK/DEF pumps and power-ups that I could find. Thankfully, some of them were JLI/JLA-stamped so I didn't have any major headaches on what to take out.

Match 1:

My opponent had The Mist out on and I found it to be quite a pest. It traded stuns with my character and sent one of my guys to the hidden area. I also making a few mistakes in attacking, having forgotten that it actually has Evasion.

I recruited Wonder Woman on turn 4 and my opponent named "Rallying Cry". I had no idea what it was until he attacked his 3-drop into my Wonder Woman and flipped up 2 of it. I picked up the card, saw "+2 ATK / +1 Def" and went, "Oh wow". Wonder Woman's Cosmic counter dropped off.

The game went to turn 6. He boosted out Scarecrow: Psycho Psychologist which forced me to draw 3 cards. He used its ability and burnt me for 8 damage since I had 8 cards in hand. That was very, very painful. He collided The Mist into my largest drop and sent it to the hidden area to allowed his biggest guy to direct attack. I was in for a lot of pain, but fortunatel, I managed to bring his life below 0 during my attack.

Side-Story: Mark to my side was playing with Scarescrow: Fearmonger and was having a lot of fun eating his opponent's +1/+1 counters, Cosmic counters and whatnot. He had a huge board with many counters. Somehow, I felt that UDE featured quite a lot of Cosmic in this set just so that Scarecrow can eat them.


Match 2:

I got out Wonder Woman on turn 4 and every turn, my opponent would name 'Token Resistance'. I had no what it was, but my Wonder Woman managed to survive till turn 6 with her Cosmic intact. I think that probably saved me a lot of unnecessary headaches.

I realized my opponent was playing a 4-resource deck; he reservist-recruited Black Canary out on turn 5, followed by Tasmanian Devil on turn 6 without replacing a resource to keep himself stuck at four. All I knew was that, even though he did massive damage to me, his characters always stunned on the attack since I curved up progressively, allowing me a couple of direct attacks for the win.

Side-Story: Poor Himura was playing against Oreo (Orry). Oreo seemed like he was having PMS, trying to find fault with every move Himura played and just plain rules-lawyering.

I met David and we talked. I told him that I was nervous as I had 2 wins already and just needed 1 more to get the winner's EA. David told me that I could try to 'negotiate' if I had to. Like, if I wanted more packs, I could offer to concede to my opponent in exchange for his prize boosters or vice versa. He says that sometimes, the people may want the boosters over the EA . That's interesting. I hope I don't have to try such a thing.


Match 3:
My opponent was Lee Keng Yin. This is probably the first time I got to play with him. He was a very friendly casual player for the first few turns... until things didn't start going well for him. Meh.

I mulligan'ed away a hand with several 6- and 7-drops and got... another hand with 6- and 7-drops and several plot twists (the plot twists were pumps, though). I thought I was gonna lose this one. I managed to draw into a Blue Beetle on turn 2 and used him to tutor for Booster Gold. On turn 3, I drew into Aquaman was very relieved as his sizeable 6/6 body fended off attacks. My top-decking luck continued as I drew into my 4-drop, John Stewart and played Roll Call to gain 3 life and cycle 2 cards (so far, everyone who have seen me play this card said it was 'nuts'). I discarded a pump for Roll Call and he remarked, "Wow, if you discard that, it means your hand must be good." Well, I had no choice since I was in dire need of keeping my later drops. Keng Yin team-attacked into John Stewart but I managed to get away with a defensive pump (Shake it Off). He sighed as it failed. I struck back and he, too, had a defensive pump (Wall of Will) but I had a Glass Jaw ready. He commented that I had "a lot of good cards" and "all the answers". On turn 5, I missed my drop and recruited a 2-drop and 3-drop. At first, I thought that this was a 'bad play', but then I realized that I had the Justice League Force team-up that granted bonus to my team-attackers. I managed to stun most of his characters. On turn 6, I got out Hal Jordan. He tried to attack but I powered up with Reform the League. He was a little sick by now and Oreo was watching and agreed that I indeed had "all the answers". "I might have a chance if you miss your 7-drop," Keng Yin said, "You have been curving almost perfectly." But I had my 7th-drop since turn 1; I recruited my Guy Gardner and attacked for the win.

Oh, well. Who cares if I am a luck sack. I was just making the best of what I drew; not like I can just pretend I didn't have all the pumps.

Sidestory: Oreo had dropped so I was the only one left with straight wins. I decided to stay on, since I had a chance of meeting Himura. If so, I might throw the match to him so that he can get an EA, too.


Match 4:

My opponent was not Himura, but I was in quite a good mood. I told him that for our game, no matter who wins or loses, I could report him as the winner if he wanted. He misheard me and exclaimed, "You want ME to concede to YOU?!" (Okay, even I would be pissed if someone asked me to do such a ridiculous thing.) I tried to explain myself again, but it seemed that my opponent was quite a righteous person and tried to dissuade me from doing such a thing. "Okay, I guess we'll just play normally then." I said.

I mulliganed and got a handful of characters but they were all big drops. He did an interesting 'combo' on turn 3. He recruited Booster Gold with a boost to get Blue Beetle, then used Blue Beetle to get a 1-cost Equipment to make use of the remaining free resource point from the boost effect. I managed to recruited Mr. Miracle who was promptly stunned. On turn 4, I cringed as I failed to recruit any drops at all. I got smashed for tons of damage. On turn 5, I drew into Martian Manhunter and under-dropped with him. He got out Steel and it tutored for an equipment with it. *gasp* It was an equipment deck.

I considered my options; he had all his drops from 1 to 5 versus my 2 lonely guys. I was thinking of trying to force him to reinforce his small guys and went for his 1- and 2-drops. At this point, he stopped me and asked, "Hey, are you deliberately trying to lose the game to me?" I was kinda surprised and he pointed out his equipment to me. I read it and realized that the High Tech Flare Gun allowed him to attack hidden characters, namely Martian Manhunter. I re-assured him that I wasn't trying to lose to him (though actually, my original plan was just to try to bully the small guys). This guy was obviously quite strict about his morals, so he allowed me to re-trace my steps and I did a 'proper' attack on him.

I got out Hal Jordan on turn 6 and moved away Steel who was protecting a 2-drop. After he attacked my guys and passed to me, I decided to go for massive breakthrough to bridge the huge gap in our life. I made Hal Jordan go for his 2-drop, but to my surprise, he flipped up a Location (The Castle) and promptly reinforced it.

Turn 7 was his initiative, but my Guy Gardner was too much for him to handle since all my drops from 5 onwards had willpower. His equipments were simply not enough and he couldn't attack effectively. I struck back on my attack step and won.

Sidestory: The match was over and I offered to report him as the winner. He asked why I was doing this (probably suspicious there might be some strings attached) and I simply said that "two happy guys are better than one". He finally realized that I was not trying to squeeze any benefits out of him and thanked me as I reported him as the winner.

Oh, and Himura was playing against Keng Yin with Oreo watching. Poor Himura suffering more PMS bursts. hehehe.

Conclusion:

Anyway, I was extremely pleased with my performance and my prizes (the Martian Manhunter EA and the deck tin). It was an immensely satisfying feeling to off-set the fact that I just paid $40 and opened totally crap cards from all my boosters.

No ICT for Penguin This Year

I e-mailed PlayWorks for the journalism job and, at the same time, my cousin SMS'ed me to tell me that she had just forwarded my resume to her business contacts. (I was hoping she'd forget.) I guess I should be expecting some replies over the next few days. I just hope PlayWorks get to me first cos' it is rare a job that meshes with my interests.

I woke up today and got an SMS from Mindef informing me of an upcoming annual ICT (In-Camp Training). This would be my very first reservist training ever since I ORD'ed in 2002. I have been wishing that the notice would never arrive but alas it did. I logged onto MIW to check and, to my surprise, my ICT was scheduled for May 2006. Hurray, I am spared from all army nonsense this year. Wee.

Oh, well. Weekdays have always been a great challenge for me in finding things to do to tide me over till the weekends. It is extremely difficult to pry people away from the comfort of their homes and it will be even more so come November when everyone is busy with school and exams.

The TV is my best companion on weekdays. I wonder what is the program that everyone catches without fail. For me, it is always C.S.I. on Tuesdays and the Amazing Race on Wednesdays. Other than that, I have nothing to watch. Poor me.

I have been downloading more comics to rebuild my lost collection. I have started on the massive Infinite Crisis storyline and Avengers Disassembled, both of which are very dark, gloomy and sad.

I have also been playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (a PS1 game) on my PS2 (I never realized the importance of backwards compatibility till now). It's such an old game but I decided to play it again since I was dying for more Castlevania goodness after having completed Dawn of Sorrow on my NDS. But hey, the game was a massive hit in 1997 and, to me, it is still just as good today.

I have now reached the middle of the week. The weekends are getting close and I can smell it. I am very much looking forward to the VS System JLA Sneak Preview on Sunday.

There Goes Another Week~

Grr, I am going from bad to worse. This time, I only update seven days later.

Anyway, I spent the entire week at home indulging myself in all the excitement generated from the VS System JLA card previews. For some reason, the daily card spoilers were enough to keep me glued to the computer every day whenever a new one gets released. The ensuing discussion that followed, be it those of my own or those on the various discussion forums, were enough to keep me occupied all day.

I looked forward to Friday when I was supposed to go to Darrell's house with Max. They were supposed to play Winning Eleven 9 and I thought of tagging along. But in the end, I felt lazy and thought that they were better off playing PS2 all night without me so I didn't follow them in the end.

I hitched a ride back home with Uncle & Auntie. Uncle almost took a wrong turn in Pasir Ris and I joked, "Are you thinking of dropping by at Burger King for supper?" To my surprise, he took my joke as a suggestion and drove up to Pasir Ris Resort. I thought Burger King would be closed since it was already 11:30 pm, but to my surprise, they close at 12 midnight on Fridays. I ordered the Chicken Sandwich (no more Mushroom Swiss; bad for the tummy) and Taro (gotta love yam pie; everybody loves yam pie... I think?). As we ate, Uncle Chris recalled that he saw a job opening posted at the GamerSquare forums. Auntie remarked that someone replied, "Sounds like you're looking for Superman" to that post. Anyway, they told me that I could try out for the job.

I checked it when I got home and found out that they were looking for Content Creation for Web & Print. So basically, they needed someone to write gaming-related articles, cover events and other kind of stuff that reporters/journalists do. I looked through the requirements and was like, "Hey, I meet more than half of these requirements. Maybe I could be the 'Superman' they were looking for." (Wait a minute, Clark Kent was a journalist, too...)

And so, I spent a great deal of today re-working my resume to match the job requirements. This is actually the first time I am keen on being hired as opposed to the "please don't pick me" attitude.

This Week on the Penguin's Nest

It's a cool and rainy Sunday so it makes it ideal to stay indoors and find some time to blog. I find it funny that my blog is always left unattended when I have nothing to blog about and, even if I do, I would be too preoccupied to actually blog about it. I shall now try to bridge the huge one-week gap between my last entry and this one.

Miyamoto returned home from Brunei last last week, so I spent most of my time playing Raw Deal with him and visiting the usual Raw Deal hangouts at Bedok and Tampines. I realize how I actually miss playing Raw Deal. It's a fun casual game and a great diversion to the highly competitive nature of the VS TCG. So far, I have only played Raw Deal with Miya and Shoujing. We may go to other stores and see other players but I am usually shy and don't really want to play with some of the strangers that look a bit ah beng'ish. I realize that I have planned to devote one blog entry to my foray into Raw Deal, but never got about to doing it. I really should work on it one day.

We celebrated Orchi's birthday with him at Seoul Garden on Saturday (8th October). I actually didn't know about it at first. Orchi just came up to me on the day itself and asked me if I wanted to join them for dinner at Seoul Garden. I turned him down at first (I hate cooking my own food; it's a waste of time), but when I realized it was his birthday celebration, I was like, "what the hey". And so, I abandoned Miyamoto and Shoujing at AMK and went to Seoul Garden with Orchi, Himura, JokerZ, DSummon and Jeffrey. I didn't eat much because I was terrible at cooking my own food (and maybe cos' my arm was tired from doing it). I took mostly chicken, noodles and had samosas. The ice cream was great, though. No offense to anyone, but I told myself never to go to Seoul Garden again for meals. (Coincidentally, Brainy celebrated his birthday a week later at AMK's Seoul Garden, too.)

In that same weekend, I bought Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow to play on my DS. I initially told myself not to get it because it'd just be another rehash, but this one was different enough to warrant a purchase. It's truly an amazing game and worthy of all the hype and acclaim surrounding it. I was kinda sad when I got to the end, but it still has a good amount of replayability and I have been glued to my DS ever since. And thus, I spent a great deal of my weekdays at home.

Anyway, on Friday, I decided to drop by at Darren's Place at Tampines before going to Ang Mo Kio. It was there that I met Jess and Benjamin. I didn't even know they frequent the place, especially since they live so far away. Technokia recommended me direct bus from Tampines to AMK and I decided to give it a shot. He said that I would be able to arrive in 30 minutes, which is a lot better than my 1 hour journey by MRT. I boarded bus 22 at 6:15 pm and was on my way. At around 6:30 pm, I was somewhere at Ubi and realized that the bus was not moving. I thought, "Okay, maybe it's a little traffic jam". Twenty minutes later, I looked out the window and was still staring at the same coffee shop, meaning that the bus wasn't even moving much. This sucked. The bus finally started rolling again at around 7 pm. I was pretty relieved but I arrived at AMK at around 7:30 pm. Oh, well. Perhaps I should try it again next time.

Over the weekend, I organized my first 'public' VS Hobby League since Chris had a laptop handy. The atmosphere was definitely different from Chaosmag's place; I don't know how to describe it, but I'd say, er... a little less 'lazy feeling' and a bit more competitive. And we had a few more outsiders participating (Jimmy from CCK, Wai Leong and CKTeacher). Now I am actually fine with that; it definitely injected more variety to our usual gaming sessions, but the horror came when some of the 'undesirable people' were watching us and I could tell that they were interested in joining, too.

I am talking about those AMK DM players who started playing VS recently. I may sound like I am biased, but I don't like them. The 'Hit List' in Brainy's MSN blog summarizes everything there is to dislike about them. And if they think that they can 'own' at VS by believing in the 'heart of the cards' and topdecking broken cards from a deck full of singles, then they are playing the wrong game. In addition, I feel that CKTeacher coming in first place may convey the wrong message to those morons. Their little heads must be thinking, "Hey, CKTeacher is a newbie and he won. VS isn't so hard. Let's all join!" And this will turn our casual Hobby League into a not-so-casual Hobby League. I thought I was done with such idiots the moment I've quit DM, but alas, my movement against noobtards are eternal and continue even in the world of the VS TCG.

Meh~ I Feel Tired

I have been feeling very lethargic for the past few days. I feel tired/sleepy all the time and it makes me wonder if I am turning into an 'old man'. Then I recount what I have been doing for the past few days and realize that, well, I've just had a busy week.

Perhaps I owe my laziness to the aftermath of my lap top crashing on me. I definitely feel tired re-installing all the programs and figuring out what else I still needed on my computer. Then there is the job incident, with my cousin pestering me to send her my resume.

I actually spent the past few days playing my NDS through the night. I bought a new RPG entitled "Lunar: Dragon Song" and due to my hard-core playing, I finished it in less than 20 hours. Oh, well. It was good for the 3 days while it lasted, but I really needed something longer.

As I played my NDS through the night on one of the days, I realized that my room has been invaded by cockroaches of all shapes and sizes. I've seen the cockroaches in the kitchen pretty often whenever I go to get a drink at night, but I didn't like seeing them scuttling around my room and some even on my bed. I quickly took the Sheltox and sprayed at them all. Some of them ran under my table and I could not reach them through the small opening (my maid helped me remove the bodies with a broom the next morning). Oh, well. I told my Mum and she brought me clean bedsheets. She said it is because I always leave my door open and the cockroaches from the kitchen came into my room (my room is the nearest to the kitchen). Well, for me, I think it is because I always bring all my meals into my room. It's a bad habit, but I need the TV and the PC while I eat. I slept really late that day.

On Thursday, I met up with Max who came back from Egypt. He actually blogged about it (link to Maxie's blog here). Brainy and Max went to AMK together and, since there was nothing else better to do, we just played VS, VS, and more VS, and kept things varied by exchanging decks to play. I went home feeling very tired, but for some reason again, I couldn't sleep through the night. I just spent time surfing the net (and feeling a little sorry that I've finished my new game too quickly and now have nothing to do).

I realized that it was Friday morning when my mother bought me breakfast from McDonald's. Then I noticed that Miyamoto was online and realized that he had returned from Brunei (he blogged about it, too). First Max, then Miya. (Is it 'homecoming day' or something? I do know the WWE is having a Homecoming event with Triple H and others returning...) Anyway, my Raw Deal deck was collecting dust and I was quite glad that he returned. We met up at AMK to play some Raw Deal, then met up with Max and Kyo at night for dinner.

Yes, it was quite a hectic week. And now I am feeling very tired. I hope it will help me in sleeping tonight. Perhaps it's time to be a good boy and sleep early for a change.

Jobs Again

Every time my Father comes home, he'd see me in front of the computer and go, "Hey, why aren't you working?" Then I'd tell him I am waiting for Mummy's job offer, but he doesn't buy it. (Looks like I joined that company at a bad time; the boss is away on a long business trip, and being a small company, they have no plans for me and so I am always at home.)

Once again, my Father decides to take matters into his own hands by getting my cousin to hook me up with some of her job contacts. Normally, I would be grateful, but it seems that I have grown overly accustomed to my lazy carefree lifestyle that I started feeling resentful instead. Oh, this is so wrong.

Since Saturday, my cousin, Aiti, has been SMS'ing me several times a day to update me on the job offers she has found for me. I dread it every time my hand phone buzzes. She'd repeatedly remind me to send her my resume. Well, my resume is gone after the hard drive crash so I am redoing it. Thank god Darrell had Windows Office or else I'd be doomed on such a short notice.

The constant SMS'es are a constant reminder to me that it is time for me to wake up. It has totally killed my mood to have any sort of fun cos' I know all that will be short-lived once I score a job interview and get hired. I am kinda ambivalent about all this but I shall see how it goes.

Recovering from the Crash

My dear Mum helped me to send my laptop to the Acer Service Centre at Jurong East today. I wanted to tag along, but she said that she'd be able to do it faster since she leaves for work at 8 am. This allowed me to sleep all day as I was feeling feverish. (I hope it was not because I was worrying over my laptop; it makes me feel so dependant on it.)

She came back at around evening time with my laptop and a receipt. It turns out that my hard drive had crashed. (At least it wasn't a virus this time so I can say it was not my fault.) I have always wondered how such things happen. I hope it was not becasue I was over-stressing my laptop or something, leaving it on the whole day. Anyway, my Mum told me that the warranty for my laptop had expired by one week and that we were supposed to pay $400+ for the replacement hard drive. Fortunately, the technician was kind-hearted and waived the charge since it was our first time and we were only a week late for our warranty. Wee, such a nice guy.

I am slowly putting back all the stuff on my laptop again. This time, I installed AVG Anti-Virus and Zone Alarm first. Next is MSN, and maybe, I guess Maple. I am gonna miss all the anime and comics I have downloaded; some of which I haven't even read yet. Oh, well, I should be glad that this happened after I have graduated; it would've been a nightmare if I had to re-install JDK, J2EE and all the various development kits.

My Laptop Seems to Die Once a Year

It was just like any other day. I was just playing Maple Story, then all of a sudden, my PC froze. When I reset it, it takes ages to load up and then tells me that my Operating Systems was missing. Holy shit, what happened? I was quite sure I didn't get hit by any virus. Never mind, I thought, I'll just reformat it. Then it turns out that the laptop now has an error reading from the disc drive.

Argh, I am screwed. Good thing I still have this age-old laptop, otherwise I will die of Internet withdrawal. I'll try to get things fixed ASAP. :( :( :(

Time for New Wallpaper

Spiderman and Venom have graced my desktop!

I was surfing around IGN's video game section when I came across this 'screenshot' under the Ultimate Spiderman game section. Well, it turns out that it's not a screenshot but a cool wallpaper. The colors and shading are very good, especially on Venom's symbiote costume. And so, this gave me an excuse to try out Blogger's new image upload service. (You can click on the image to view the full thing.)

I wonder how often do people change their wallpapers. For me, I change it like once every 4-6 months. My previous wallpapers were Shining Force Neo (March 2005) and before that, it was Shining Tears (November 2004). I usually just get whatever currently interests me.

Speaking of Spiderman, actress Kirsten Dunst accidentally disclosed the villains for the movie Spiderman 3 (which will be finished by 2007; that's a long wait).

Maple Story Redux

I have recently started playing Maple Story again. This is quite a surprise even for myself as I tend not to return to a game that I have quit. I guess I must be really bored from surfing the Internet all day when I am sitting in front of the computer.

I started playing on Sunday and the beginning was quite boring for me because I was using the same class and my goal at that time was to reach level 4x ASAP so that I can continue from 'where I last left off' in Maple Global. It was starting to be a chore but now that I am on my 2nd day, I stopped thinking like that and it helps. This is no longer the same Maple Story as the old one so I should try to play it for what it is. I really should've picked a different class this time round for a totally new experience but instead, I guess I will be a Fighter again. Bahamut chose a different class and he seems to be enjoying himself.

Somehow, I think the game is full of kids. On Sunday, the servers were so full and near-impossible to find a good map to train. When it gets past midnight, the number of players were noticeably less, and when I logged on at 4 am in the morning, I had the whole place to myself. Monday was okay until around evening time when it starts to get full again. I think I probably spend as much time switching maps/channels as much as the time I spend training.

Oh, well. I managed to get past level 20 on my second day of play. I'll see if I have it in me to get to level 30 soon cos' that is when the fun starts.

Darren's Place

MidiSoft has undergone renovation and is now known as "Darren's Place". I went out to play Raw Deal yesterday with Shoujing and M4st3r (anyone remember this guy? hehe) and they suggested going to Tampines for dinner. Dinner at Darren's Place.

Darren's Place is now half-hobbystore, half-restaurant. It kinda reminds me of a neighbourhood version of Settlers Cafe. Darren still sells his usual stuff and his partner is a lady whose foodstall takes up like more than half of the shop space (I guess she is the bigger shareholder in this). There are tables inside and outside of the store for gaming and meals.

Anyway, the place serves Western and Japanese food, so I have no complaints here. I had chicken cutlet with rice and the price was right. This is so unlike Settlers' outrageous posh restaurant-style prices.

All those who frequent Tampines Central often are very lucky people.

A Series of Movies

Once again, this is another blog entry that makes up for the days that I didn't have time to blog. Over the past week, I have watched several movies (home and outside), so here are my somewhat belated reviews for each of them.


1) Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
================================



Yup, I believe millions of people all over the world couldn't control themselves and downloaded this shortly after its release. Most people know me as a person who strongly supports originals. That is only half true; I support buying original video games, but not movies, anime, etc. Oh, well.

My memories of the FF7 game are very, very vague. I completed the Japanese version of the game at a time when my Japanese was still at the learning stage, so I knew absolutely nothing about the story and didn't know how to read the items. I even foolishly fought the final boss without managing my Materia (I was level 99, though), resulting in a near 2-hour long battle in which I thought my game was bugged. You could say I was playing the game just for the sake of playing it. (Boo to me; I wish I could pick up the game now and play it for the sake of truly enjoying it.)

Anyway, the movie was great. The plot was rather bland and, though it was nothing deep, it was simple enough to follow. (And even though everyone has probably watched it by now, I still won't give spoilers.) The action sequences were simply astounding, with gravity-defying moves and swordplay/gunplay. The characters are great, too; Rude and Reno have been great and Rufus was totally bad-ass. The music fits the movie well and it made me wish that I was watching the movie in a cinema instead of on my little laptop.

This is definitely a must-watch because it is a computer-generated visual eye candy fest and well, because it is Final Fantasy.


2) Brothers Grimm
================


On Saturday, JokerZ, Amerell and I went to the movies. We were deciding on Jubilee's somewhat limited selection of movies and we were down with "A Sound of Thunder" and "Brothers Grimm". We decided to go with the "Brothers Grimm" since it was supposed to be a comedy and "A Sound of Thunder" seemed like a futuristic "Jurassic Park" clone.

As the movie began, I felt an uncomfortable tingling sensation down my spine. It opened with a totally lame and unfunny scene. Okay, not a good start. Then the cheesy European humor continued and I was like, "God forbid! Not another Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy!" (for those wondering, that movie won my personal 'Crappiest Movie of the Year Award' seen in this blog entry).

To summarize the plot, the Grimm Brothers are con artists who pretend that they can solve supernatural mysteries and make money off gullible people. They soon stumble across the real deal and must learn how to fight it. The strange thing about this movie is that its premise is in the middle of nowhere: 1. It is not an action movie because the fight scenes aren't like impressive. 2. It is not a comedy cos' the jokes are lame European-style humor. 3. The mysteries are actually parodies of children fairy tales (e.g. Red Riding Hood, Gingerbread Man, etc), so they aren't particularly deep or engaging and therefore, can't be taken seriously. I really felt like walking out of the cinema halfway, but then they introduced a female lead character and only then, it became remotely interesting.

If the Hitchhiker movie didn't exist, then Brothers Grimm would have been the worst movie I have watched this year. Avoid this movie unless you want to see how bad it is.

3) A Sound of Thunder
===================



On Tuesday, I watched Sound of Thunder with Darrell since he wanted to watch one good movie before he went for his operation (and well, Brothers Grimm wasn't it).

A Sound of Thunder is set in the future where time traveling is possible and a company named Time Safari makes money by sending wealthy clients on trips to the past to hunt dinosaurs. The various clients are actually killing the same dinosaur over & over again, so it does not alter the course of time since that particular dinosaur was about to die a natural death. One day, something bad happens during one of these trips to the past and it totally alters the future when the hunters return. As such, the fate of the world (or time) lies in the hands of Travis and his group of adventurers attempt to fix the mess that was caused.

At first, I thought it was a Jurassic Park clone, but then I realized that they weren't chased by dinosaurs in the alternate future. It was ugly-looking babboon mutants. Yup, of all the cool monsters they could have come up with (dragons? wyverns? wolves? Aliens?), they had to model it after a damn monkey. Sorry if I spoilt it for anyone, but that was my only gripe with the movie. If I were a character in the movie, I would've been insulted if I was ravaged to death by mutant monkey thingeys.

It is a good show, though. There is a lot of talk about the ethics of time travel and the sense of urgency is ever present throughout the movie. It keeps the viewers wondering if they will ever succeed in fixing the mess or will they all just perish in their valiant attempts. With the rather pitiful selection of movies in recent weeks, this movie is a good one to take in while you are at the cinemas.

Another Sunday (VS System PCQ)

I realized that I have been meaning to blog about a few things, but I kept missing my chance due to lack of time. This means I have to make up for lost time. I guess I'll start with Sunday.

Sunday was the day of yet another monthly VS System PCQ. It is a good chance for me to sell my cards since it is probably the only time when there are actually plenty of people to buy them. I learnt my lesson from the last time (I sold practically nothing), so this time, the moment I arrived, I picked a good spot and laid my wares (both albums and my box of foils) out on the table. And then the customers started coming in. Most of the people who bought crap rares/foils were those who were armed with checklists to complete their play set. Thank god for them. I sold more than 1/3 of my cards and left feeling a happy man.

The rest of the guys were playing in Sealed and Draft and Chaosmag surprised us by dropping by. In Constructed, it was DC Modern Age, possibly the most boring format at the moment. It was all GLEE mirror matches and whoever was unforunate enough to face a Superman Robots deck would just lose. I didn't bother paying attention to the top 8.

In Sealed, Akira managed to get into the top 8 with an impressive 7-1 score. He lost in the quarterfinals, though, and I felt it was kinda weird. They called for 'sudden death' when Akira and his opponent, Timothy, were both at 1-1 when the one-hour limit was up. I felt that the rules for the sudden death were kinda iffy (was it even an official thing?). Akira lost that. Oh, well.

I went with Akira and Amerell to Pasta Mania for dinner. I haven't had a good western dinner in a long time. I shared a Chicken & Mushroom Pizza with Akira. It was a good way to end the weekend.

Writer's Block~

Gah, I have had blogger's block recently. I just can't think of anything good to write. And there have always been problems that I always consider when I blog, such as how deep I should touch on a topic without making people lose interest. Too deep and it might put people off; too little and it will sound very bland and superficial.

Then there are things that sometimes I wonder whether if it worth blogging at all.

Help~

Warning: Moron Ahead

On Sunday, I met Dave while I was at AMK. It was a rare sight, considering the fact that there has been no other VS player from other places at Chris' shop for months ever since Kelvin Soh got into M:TG again. Too bad nothing good came out of our meeting.

I was browsing through his album and he had quite an impressive collection of cards from the new Avengers set. I asked him about the value of several cards just to gauge their prices first before settling down on the trades I was interested in.

I wanted System Failure and I asked him to quote his price. He asked me to quote first instead but I told him that I have no idea how much it is worth since I have never bought one before. He still insisted that I quote first. Again, I said no, stating that if I would surely quote low and he might get mad at me. This continued back-and-forth until it felt awkward, so I gave him one last warning that he might not like my price before started quoting. I thought for a while, and seeing that System Failure did not see much play (perhaps none at all) at recent reported tournaments and the fact that it was not a hot card like any of the Avengers stuff, I said, "How about slightly above the pack price?" Well, he definitely was pissed and he used the same line that I always use on everyone else who underquotes me: "Then you sell me at that price; I will buy every copy that you have." I ended our conversation, but hey, I was pissed, too. I did my best to warn him that I would quote a lousy price. But did he listen? No. He was practically asking for it and I got scolded for nothing just because I did what he told me to. I couldn't help but feel that he suckered me into the whole thing on purpose just so that he can pull the old "I'll buy all that you've got" routine.

Now this is so wrong. Someone asks you to punch him hard in the face, and you say 'no way', but he keeps on egging you on. You finally give in to his request and punch him hard, but he gets pissed at you? What the f**k is wrong with these people? Hell, I really should have punched Dave's sorry ass face anyway.

Just to show that there are idiots with freakin' problems.