Today, I went back to NUS to do a survey based on the last project that I did. I usually wouldn't bother myself with such things. However, just this once, I decided to just go for it when I learnt that I would be paid (S$10) and that an old friend of mine was in charge of the whole thing for his honors year project.
I met up with my project mates before we proceeded to the room. Only AL, KH, and JN had made it. We went up and I saw Augustine and Darren; two fantastic people whom I spent two semesters with on another project. They asked me where I was working, to which I awkwardly replied, "Still job-hunting". Anyway, after the survey was over, we were wondering where we could go have our lunch, and Augustine to suggested checking out the new cafe in the school that has recetly opened.
Good thing AL knew the way and led us there. The place was called "Coffee Ground" and was nice & quaint little restaurant. We were wondering what they served, but the moment we saw 'pasta' on the menu, we just walked right in. The price was just right, too, with most of the items on the menu costing less than S$4. I bought a Black Pepper Chicken and for dessert, a Brownie Delight.
Notice
I have moved to Wordpress:
http://penguinsnest.wordpress.com/
However, this Blogspot will still be used to try out new template designs and serve as a back-up.
Monday, February 28, 2005
Monday, February 21, 2005
VS System PCQ (20th FEB)
I couldn't remember when was the last time I've had twelve hours of sleep ever since I've had insomnia. When I came home from the PCQ, it was around 10 pm and I told myself I'd go lie for a while before posting my thoughts. Next thing I knew, I only woke up on the next day. I guess I was really tired.
On Sunday, I had planned to go for the Sealed event which starts at 10 am. My main aim was to hopefully get some great cards for Marvel Knights out of the packs I drafted. I was unable to sleep the night before as I was restless and kept reading through the MMK cards I got. In the end, I went to bed at 7 am, slept for an hour, then woke up at 8 am to prepare to leave home for the PCQ.
I arrived at the same old room and there were traders there already. Most of them have whacked MMK the day before, so I browsed around and tried to learn the prices of the more expensive cards (for the curious, it's: Wild Ride, Mystic Chain, Weapon of Choice, all around $15-$20. Some guy was even selling Weapon of Choice for $25). Soon, the event was starting. I went to sign up and thus began my first VS sealed tournament.
First up was registering the cards. We were all seated at tables while the judges passed out 5 packs and a MMK checklist to each person. (I studied the checklist and found it to be exactly like the one that was put online during the American MMK pre-release.) When everyone was ready, I cracked opened my 5 packs, sorted them according to affiliation, and started filling up the checklist.
I was rather delighted as I opened my packs, since I knew I was not going to be the one using them. I got crap card after crap card, with nothing exciting at all in my 5 packs. There wasn't even a team-up card. "Good luck to the person drafting my packs," I said to myself. Somewhere across the room, a guy was cursing aloud because he got power rares in his packs (I later learnt it was foil Wild Ride, foil Doop and Mystic Chain). Everyone laughed at his outburst.
Finally, time was up, and the judge announced everyone to pass the packs to the person sitting opposite them. I looked up and saw that the guy opposite me had a foil Professor X: Mental Master on the table. David (the office guy) was sitting nearby; he knew the guy opposite me and remarked, "Lucky Kelvin! You're gonna get the Prof. X." It felt comforting that I'd get at least one good card.
Everyone then started passing their cards, but the guy opposite me seemed to be very slow in filling up his checklist. The judge allowed him a bit more time, but he was still taking an eternity. In the end, I traded cards with someone else. In the end, the guy opposite me did not have to pass his cards at all; he just played with whatever he got. David went up to him and asked, "Eh, how come like that?" to which the guy just smiled. Somehow, I feel that he planned it all along. He was deliberately slow because he knew he would keep his stuff. After all, he knew David so he could not be new at this. Heck, this is my first time in Sealed and I filled my checklist faster than him.
Anyway, I looked through the cards I got through the exchange. First, I looked through all the rares and to my dismay, they were all crap; just like the ones I started with. I was a little disappointed and went on to sort out my cards. To my horror, my selection of cards were very weak. To sum it up, the deck I made was a mess. It was a Crime Lords/Marvel Knights deck with an unstable character curve, no team-up cards and zero offensive pumps. (You'd think I'd at least get one of the three MK pumps, but nooo). I had no confidence in my deck at all and told myself that I would probably drop out soon to join the Constructed event or something.
And so, the matches started. The format was was 8-round Swiss, with a lunch break after the 4th round.
I didn't know what happened, but I was pleasantly surprised when I won my first 4 rounds and had a clean 4-0 record. This was something I never expected out of the mess of cards I was carrying in my hand. It was also very comforting when I checked the standings and found that I was currently ranked 3 out of the 47 participants that day! All of a sudden, my morale was high and I told myself that I actually stood a chance of advancing if I won at least one more round.
From then on, things changed and my fairly-tale dream ended. I began losing my matches, and before I knew it, I lost all my matches to the end, putting me at 4-4 and 19th place.
I was in a pretty bad mood after that. It was almost as if the heavens was making a fool out of me. I originally planned to drop, but since I was blessed with the 4 straight wins, I carried on, but only to lose the remainder of my matches and wasted my time. My original plan of getting good rares from draft was also down the drain because I ended up with crap that I already got since the asshat sitting opposite me schemed to keep his cards.
Overall, I was very pissed. It was a complete waste of time. After this, I don't think I will ever dare join another Sealed event again.
On Sunday, I had planned to go for the Sealed event which starts at 10 am. My main aim was to hopefully get some great cards for Marvel Knights out of the packs I drafted. I was unable to sleep the night before as I was restless and kept reading through the MMK cards I got. In the end, I went to bed at 7 am, slept for an hour, then woke up at 8 am to prepare to leave home for the PCQ.
I arrived at the same old room and there were traders there already. Most of them have whacked MMK the day before, so I browsed around and tried to learn the prices of the more expensive cards (for the curious, it's: Wild Ride, Mystic Chain, Weapon of Choice, all around $15-$20. Some guy was even selling Weapon of Choice for $25). Soon, the event was starting. I went to sign up and thus began my first VS sealed tournament.
First up was registering the cards. We were all seated at tables while the judges passed out 5 packs and a MMK checklist to each person. (I studied the checklist and found it to be exactly like the one that was put online during the American MMK pre-release.) When everyone was ready, I cracked opened my 5 packs, sorted them according to affiliation, and started filling up the checklist.
I was rather delighted as I opened my packs, since I knew I was not going to be the one using them. I got crap card after crap card, with nothing exciting at all in my 5 packs. There wasn't even a team-up card. "Good luck to the person drafting my packs," I said to myself. Somewhere across the room, a guy was cursing aloud because he got power rares in his packs (I later learnt it was foil Wild Ride, foil Doop and Mystic Chain). Everyone laughed at his outburst.
Finally, time was up, and the judge announced everyone to pass the packs to the person sitting opposite them. I looked up and saw that the guy opposite me had a foil Professor X: Mental Master on the table. David (the office guy) was sitting nearby; he knew the guy opposite me and remarked, "Lucky Kelvin! You're gonna get the Prof. X." It felt comforting that I'd get at least one good card.
Everyone then started passing their cards, but the guy opposite me seemed to be very slow in filling up his checklist. The judge allowed him a bit more time, but he was still taking an eternity. In the end, I traded cards with someone else. In the end, the guy opposite me did not have to pass his cards at all; he just played with whatever he got. David went up to him and asked, "Eh, how come like that?" to which the guy just smiled. Somehow, I feel that he planned it all along. He was deliberately slow because he knew he would keep his stuff. After all, he knew David so he could not be new at this. Heck, this is my first time in Sealed and I filled my checklist faster than him.
Anyway, I looked through the cards I got through the exchange. First, I looked through all the rares and to my dismay, they were all crap; just like the ones I started with. I was a little disappointed and went on to sort out my cards. To my horror, my selection of cards were very weak. To sum it up, the deck I made was a mess. It was a Crime Lords/Marvel Knights deck with an unstable character curve, no team-up cards and zero offensive pumps. (You'd think I'd at least get one of the three MK pumps, but nooo). I had no confidence in my deck at all and told myself that I would probably drop out soon to join the Constructed event or something.
And so, the matches started. The format was was 8-round Swiss, with a lunch break after the 4th round.
I didn't know what happened, but I was pleasantly surprised when I won my first 4 rounds and had a clean 4-0 record. This was something I never expected out of the mess of cards I was carrying in my hand. It was also very comforting when I checked the standings and found that I was currently ranked 3 out of the 47 participants that day! All of a sudden, my morale was high and I told myself that I actually stood a chance of advancing if I won at least one more round.
From then on, things changed and my fairly-tale dream ended. I began losing my matches, and before I knew it, I lost all my matches to the end, putting me at 4-4 and 19th place.
I was in a pretty bad mood after that. It was almost as if the heavens was making a fool out of me. I originally planned to drop, but since I was blessed with the 4 straight wins, I carried on, but only to lose the remainder of my matches and wasted my time. My original plan of getting good rares from draft was also down the drain because I ended up with crap that I already got since the asshat sitting opposite me schemed to keep his cards.
Overall, I was very pissed. It was a complete waste of time. After this, I don't think I will ever dare join another Sealed event again.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
PS2: Devil May Cry 3
I bought "Devil May Cry 3" to play during the weekend. It lacks the feel of the classic DMC1, but definitely a million times better than DMC2. The free-style combos are back and so are the small interlinked stages. The story this time round is very, very cool, though. Some of the action cinematics are even more absurd than what you see in the Matrix movies.
I am now going through the game on Easy after realizing how hard Normal is (took 5 retries to beat the first mini-boss). I am near the end, and even though I enjoy playing through a game without being stuck, Easy mode seriously lacks any serious challenge at the moment. I foresee I am going to have a frustrating time on the harder difficulty levels.
I am now going through the game on Easy after realizing how hard Normal is (took 5 retries to beat the first mini-boss). I am near the end, and even though I enjoy playing through a game without being stuck, Easy mode seriously lacks any serious challenge at the moment. I foresee I am going to have a frustrating time on the harder difficulty levels.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Chinese New Year Outing
It is only the second day of the Chinese New Year, so most of the stores in Singapore are still closed. I was already bored stiff of staying home. I thought that it would be a good time to catch the movie "Constantine" and so arranged a little movie outing with Orchi, Kyo and Bahamut.
We were supposed to catch the 3:50 pm show at Bishan, but little did I know that hundreds of other people had the same plan as me. The show was fully booked all the way till 9:00 pm, so we decided to try our luck elsewhere. In the end, we managed to get tickets for the show at AMK Jubilee at 5:00 pm. wee.
The show lasted till 7:00 pm, and we were a little lost after that, cos' there was absolutely nothing to do since all the stores around were closed. I hate this. Oh, well. Everyone went home after that. Tomorrow will be a regular day again. wee.
Anyway, Constantine is a great movie (It's based on the DC comic title "Hellblazer", but the name was changed cos' it sounded similar to other movies with 'Hell-xxx'). I did not read up on any spoilers or sypnosis on what it was about, so I was surprised/intrigued/amazed every step of the way. To sum it up for anyone who is considering it, the show is about a guy named John Constantine who hunts devils/demons. Other than that, I highly recommend that you catch the show.
We were supposed to catch the 3:50 pm show at Bishan, but little did I know that hundreds of other people had the same plan as me. The show was fully booked all the way till 9:00 pm, so we decided to try our luck elsewhere. In the end, we managed to get tickets for the show at AMK Jubilee at 5:00 pm. wee.
The show lasted till 7:00 pm, and we were a little lost after that, cos' there was absolutely nothing to do since all the stores around were closed. I hate this. Oh, well. Everyone went home after that. Tomorrow will be a regular day again. wee.
Anyway, Constantine is a great movie (It's based on the DC comic title "Hellblazer", but the name was changed cos' it sounded similar to other movies with 'Hell-xxx'). I did not read up on any spoilers or sypnosis on what it was about, so I was surprised/intrigued/amazed every step of the way. To sum it up for anyone who is considering it, the show is about a guy named John Constantine who hunts devils/demons. Other than that, I highly recommend that you catch the show.
Monday, February 07, 2005
Chinese New Year is Coming!
The Chinese New Year is coming. I went to Chris' shop today one last time because they will be closed all the way until Friday.
I accompanied him to Bishan Junction 8 to shop around and realized that the place have changed a lot because there is a new building extension. It seemed like most of the stores have had major renovation works. Those who used to frequent Bishan may want to check it out and be surprised at all the locations of the various stores being shifted around (like BreadTalk, KFC, Mos Burger, etc).
Now I am wondering what to do until Friday. I dislike having reunion dinners and visiting relatives. My brother took the easy way out by volunteering for guard duty during the Chinese New Year period. How clever of him. And he will be compensated with day-offs.
I accompanied him to Bishan Junction 8 to shop around and realized that the place have changed a lot because there is a new building extension. It seemed like most of the stores have had major renovation works. Those who used to frequent Bishan may want to check it out and be surprised at all the locations of the various stores being shifted around (like BreadTalk, KFC, Mos Burger, etc).
Now I am wondering what to do until Friday. I dislike having reunion dinners and visiting relatives. My brother took the easy way out by volunteering for guard duty during the Chinese New Year period. How clever of him. And he will be compensated with day-offs.
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