Slow Surfing~

I was playing WoW early Wednesday morning till around 2 am when I got d/c'ed. Following that, I realized that I could not surf any websites properly. Thinking that it was just Starhub free upgrade plan being put into action (all current Starhub users get a free plan upgrade this week), I decided to go to sleep.

I woke up the next morning only to find that the situation was worse. I panicked a little, thinking that both my computers got hit by viruses. It was then I went over to Hardwarezone and realized that everyone was experiencing the same thing since an Earthquake in Taiwan knocked out some Internet cables.

This is the second day already and things are slightly better. Though there are certain times of the day where I simply cannot surf or play WoW (possibly during the peak/busy hours). MSN is still a problem, though. There are times when I simply cannot log on.

Welcome to Azeroth

Christmas came early for me in the form of my new Asus laptop. Thanks to it, I was able to play WoW. I am so glad that it survived the first week of usage with only a few small problems. This is so unlike the other laptops that I bought. I hope it will be able to last me a long time. So now, I use both laptops side-by-side even though it is kinda putting a strain on my wireless.



As a result, I actually stayed home for the whole of the past week to play WoW. I did not even go to work. I just told my mother to "help me out" and so I was able to stay home and play WoW all day long. Yes, it is something I've never done before but it is so darn addictive. But I promise I'll be a good boy (am I still a 'boy'?) and start going back to work as for normal next week.

Shopping at SITEX 2006

It had been quite a stress-filled and hectic day for me. I woke up at around noon time and prepared to go to the SITEX 2006 at Expo. My mother gave me a ride in case I wanted to purchase a laptop home. I had done a bit of homework on the day before and was deciding between the Asus J8N and the Vaio C (C15GP).

I arrived at Expo at around 1 pm. Cars were having trouble moving in and the crowd of people was huge as expected. I tried to locate the Sony and Asus booth by walking along the perimeter but didn't manage to spot them at first because they were both close to the center.

At the Asus booth, I saw the laptop I wanted. A lady promoter tended to me and I asked her if WoW ran fine on it. She said that she didn't play games so she wouldn't know (Meh). I told her that I would think about it and then he wrote her name on my brochure, saying that she'd throw in an additional external HDD if I came back to get the lappy from her. Looks like she was keen on leaving a good impression and getting a sales.

I dropped by at the Sony booth next. The Vaio C was a lot smaller than I expected despite being only 1 inch smaller than the 14-inch Asus one. My first impression was that I probably won't be able to enjoy playing games on it. Lots of people were going crazy over its colourful and stylish look, though. I asked the promoter if it would work well with WoW and I got a definitive 'yes'. He said he would throw in a free RAM upgrade to 1 GB if I bought from him.

At this point in time, I couldn't really decide if I wanted to buy a new laptop today. I felt like I was being rushed into making a decision because it was the last day of the SITEX. I decided to go home empty-handed for now to put more thought into it.

Back home, I was beginning to feel stressed. I more or less made up my mind on getting the Asus but now the problem was whether to get it today or not. I began asking around anyone I could find on MSN to see if I was making the right choice. The couple of hours I spent at home passed by very slowly as I struggled to make up my mind before 6 pm. My main concern was bringing home a laptop only to find that it would be a repeat of my nightmarish experiences with both my Acer laptops. That was something that my feeble heart could not take anymore.

After a whole lot of consideration, I finally decided to get it today. My mother drove me down again and I picked it up. Too bad the lady promoter I met earlier in the day wasn't there to give me my HDD freebie but the guy I spoke to this time wavered the extra credit card charges.

The thing that surprised me was that they actually took the laptop out, installed the battery, turned it on for me to inspect and then put everything nicely into the carry bag for me to take home. I guess I am quite 'swakoo' but I thought they would just give it to me in a box.

It was the moment of truth when I got home. I flew into a panic at first when I saw that the wireless connection option was completely missing from the laptop. It was only around five minutes of tinkering later that I realized the laptop used some other program to connect to wireless instead of the standard Windows one. It was quite strange. I spent the next hour or so testing the laptop to see if it worked, with my main concern being the wireless connection.

I am glad to say that, it is now past the 2-hour mark and not a single d/c yet. I hope this will keep up. At the moment, I am trying to install WoW. It is very slow (supposedly takes over an hour). I hope that things will be fine or else all that waiting would've been in vain.

Overall, I am quite glad with the way things turned out.

Stress~ Feeling Stressed

I went to have my wisdom tooth extracted today. It seemed like a little operation with the heavy dosage of anaesthetics and all the strange 'power tools' I have never seen before. One more wisdom tooth left to extract and that would be in March 2007 followed by crowning. I am beginning to think the dentist is trying to milk some more money out of me and my family since my braces have been removed already.

I had planned to spend the day resting at home since I was at AMK for the past few days. As I rested, I starting thinking about the World of Warcraft game. I have reached a point where I really want to play it but it is not just a simple task of going out there and purchasing a new laptop. I need something called 'luck' or perhaps some blessing from a higher divine being. I believe many people have seen me complain numerous times about my horrible luck with computers. I think it is time I relate my unfortunate experiences right here in my blog...

1st computer: Compro desktop (1996). Kept d/c'ing from the Internet (56k). Technician concluded that graphics card had conflicts with the modem. He told me to disable my graphics card. I spent the next few years staring at 256-colour graphics. The computer was eventually killed by viruses/malware.

2nd computer: Toshiba Satellite (2001). Could not connect to the net when I signed up for broadband. Called SingNet and tried to troubleshoot all night but they could not help and told me to reformat. I was desperate so I did. It still did not work. I was depressed and had no choice but to give it up and pay the cancellation fees ($800+). Went to their branch at Tampines but the nice CSO tended to me and somehow helped to fix the problem from their side. Laptop was eventually killed by a combination of viruses (reformatted twice) and me spilling water on it.

3rd computer: Acer Travelmate (2005). Bought for final year project. Gave me a heartattack since the first day. Got killed multiple times by viruses/malware and had to be reformatted on an average of 3 times a week despite having anti-virus and anti-spyware. By the 3rd week, I chanced upon ZoneAlarm which helped keep it alive to this very day. The hard drive did crash after a year of use and had to be replaced. Switched to MaxOnline (wireless) and had problems with d/c's but it just disappeared for no apparent reason after several weeks of use.

4th computer: Acer Aspire (2006). Technically, it isn't mine. My brother is using it but I was the one who chose it. It experiences frequent disconnections. Another one of those inexplicable mysteries of IT that no one will ever figure out.

I have side-tracked for quite a bit there but I think that should give people a better understanding as to why I am so paranoid about computers. Growing up and being scarred like that is enough to be make anyone paranoid about buying his next computer. The point is, I want to play WoW but I am not sure if fate will smile on me. I thought of a plan, though: If anyone knows any friends selling 2nd-hand laptops that I can take home to try before I buy, please let me know. And I am not joking.

Back to the topic at hand: I kept thinking about my WoW/laptop dilemma so much that it got me stressed up. In the end, I dropped the idea of resting went to AMK again (7th day in a row?) just to take my mind off it. It did work, though, and I feel a bit better now. :) I still would want to play WoW if I could but I guess I'll take it slow for now.

On a little side-note, did anyone try upgrading their Blogger account recently? I am wondering if it is safe and worth the trouble.

Week of Warcraft: My Panax is Unstable!

That title came out of nowhere. But at least it sounds funny.

On Thursday, we went to Heartland Mall for the Onyxia raid demo. I thought it wouldn't arrive till next week but it looks like the UDE people got an exclusive set for themselves to demo. It was nice to see Javen and Danny from VS System performing the demo. It was comforting to know that the same UDE people who were in charge of VS System are also running WOW TCG. We can probably expect good things from them.

We played against Javen's Onyxia first. It was the four of us: me, Alvin, Jeremy and Michael. I felt something was amiss when all of us were pretty much in control most of the time and no one was in danger of getting eliminated. Onyxia was pretty much overrun by the four of us after an hour and I found myself dissatisfied. I wanted to experience the kind of insane difficulty that terrorized Gen Con participants (or at least, a fraction of it).

Which was why, after dinner at Yoshinoya, we were back to raid Onyxia again only this time with the standard 3 players. Danny was playing, and this time, we got thrashed due to a combination of really bad draws on our part and a seemingly endless swarm of Whelps from Onyxia. We lost but I was convinced that the Onyxia raid deck won't be just a cheap thrill that players can just effortlessly defeat without a strategy. I can't wait for its release to face it again. Even more so when I combine two Ony decks together.

The raid demo ended at 8 pm. It was early and we didn't want to go home. We ended up staying over at Michael's house with the partial reason to playtest for Saturday's WOW @ Serene Centre. I was still deciding whether to play Grennan or Senzir. I am more confident in using Senzir (since Hunters are sorta tried & true) but I like Grennan simply for the fact that he is a Tauren (favourite race <3) and his artwork (by Sam Wise, no less) is so cool, which was why I played him in the first place. haha.

Jeryl, Mog and I left Michael's house on Friday morning. After a nice breakfast at McDonald's, I was on my way home. I crashed on the bed and slept till evening when I returned to AMK for more WOW TCG.

The day finally game. I cabbed to Serene Centre (Someone please construct an MRT station next to that blasted place). I was quite amazed by the turnout. Despite this being a new game, there were 24 people who showed up. The whole thing lasted from 2 pm to 10 pm because the game itself was rather slow and the organizer did not call for time whenever the forty-five minutes was up. I managed to get into the finals and had a prize split with the other guy. It was an exciting day and I have never thought so hard since the last VS System PCQ a few months back. I was very very happy at my own performance with my Grennan deck. Though I have to say, I was lucky to not have met any Mage or Paladin decks as I perform pretty badly against those.

(*Note: My tourney report can be found in the blog entry below this one.)

ComicsMart Serene - WOW TCG (25/11)

The event wasn't a PCQ or anything but it was the first local WOW TCG event that was sanctioned, meaning it would be a good competitive environment to test decks and have fun.

I was deciding between my Grennan and Senzir deck. Senzir seemed more appealing at first since it required less thought to play but I decided to go with Grennan in the end since he was my favourite character in the set.

A total of 24 people turned up to play. The format was to be 5-rounds Swiss with top 8 finals.


Match 1: Vs. Dizdemona

The first round went by rather peacefully in the early game. I only saw a Sarmoth on his side while he spent a few turns Life-Tapping away. The later turns were quite funny, with him recruiting Infernal 3 times in a row after I kept taking him down in a variety of ways (mostly by Vanquish). He eventually attached a Curse of Agony to me but I managed to win by repeatedly attacking with 2 Mokos in play.

For round 2, his first few turns saw more activity this time, with Parvink, Crazy Ivgand and Sarmoth. Sever the Cord took out my Caydiem. Moko was once again my MVP as he repeatedly attacked for damage. I think he didn't get good cards or something. He used Missing Diplomat to tutor for a Magni Bronzebeard and put 2 Curse of Agonies on me as the game went by. It left him open for my Moko's attacks and I won.

After the match, I realized that he never used Dizdemona's hero ability to destroy any of my Mokos for both games. Maybe he forgot about it.

Result: 2-0


Match 2: Vs. Grennan Stormspeaker

My opponent was a rather cheerful person who spoke with an accent. Might be a foreigner but definitely not a 'black man' (inside joke). *Feels devilish horns coming out.*

The moment I saw Ghost Wolf and Thunderhead Hippogryph, I recognized it as the deck from the Gen Con reports. I just played normally and kept Vanquishes in my hand for Zy'lah. Ghost Wolf gave me a bit of trouble when I only had one ally in play. Caydiem kept me alive since his Ferocity allies left my health rather low earlier on. The second round went by quick as Moko helped me push for the win again.

Result: 2-0


Match 3: Vs. Boris Brightbeard

I was kinda demoralized when I saw that I was playing against a Priest. It was a stall deck with tons of fatties and recursion. My opponent was a very stern-faced guy and he did not smile at all despite some of my wisecracks. It led me to feel that he wasn't a friendly person. One thing to note, though, was he had doodled over his hero card, giving Boris a different look for his armor.

For the first round, I had no idea how the deck worked yet so I went about my usual thing. He did not recruit any allies for the first few turns and I was beginning to suspect he might not have any early drops at all. He managed to mess up my hand earlier by Mind-Spiking my 2 Searing Totems each time I got it out. His Mind Control even took my my Moko and I had no choice but to take it down myself.

The game lasted very long and soon, Grayson, Jaina and Magni Bronzebeard started appearing one at a time. Surprisingly, I managed to take them all down with the Vanquishes, Chain Lightnings, Caydiems and Moko but it left me with a dwindling handsize. When I had no more cards in hand, Medoc made an appearance and it was at this point, I felt he was saving it for last. The entire game went by very slowly and I counted he had nearly 15 resources. I top-decked, saw my next card and decided to concede. I was hoping for Panax but he never appeared.

I boarded out all my dead cards and in went Mildred, Gellrin, Ophelia and my 4th Vanquish. I decided that I would drop as many allies as I could for every turn. So long as I could have a sizeable board, I felt that I could pressure him since Priests did not have any AOE. I was delighted that my plan was working since I managed to knock him down to 6 health by turn 6 and he was forced to use his hero ability to get back to 12 health. I proceeded to get him down back to 5 health but time was called. I may have won the round by time up but he had the first win of the match so he was the winner. Darn, the first round took way too long.

At the end, we were packing up and he started chatting. He asked me why I didn't have Zy'lah in the deck (he must be a fan of fatties). I told him that I preferred Moko as my finisher because he gets the job done the moment he comes out. He remarked, "Moko is a poor man's Fury." Normally, that would be a joke but he never said it with a smile. One could interprete that statement in a lot of ways and none of them could possibly be nice.

Result: 0-1


Match 4: Vs. Senzir Beastwalker

It was Edward this time. Having played against him before, I felt that I was actually more afraid of Senzir than Elendril. The main reason being that Senzir's allies had 2 health which made it harder for Searing Totem and Taz-Ping-o to do their job.

The first round went by pretty quick. I traded my allies with his as much as I could so he didn't overwhelm me. I managed to pull off Chain Lightning on turn 5, destroying his Fury and other weenies. He ran out of steam and I won.

The second round began with Edward rushing. I did not manage to clear his board early as Ravenous Bite prevented my allies from trading and his Arcane Shot took out my totem. I was down to 6 health by turn 7 and things looked pretty grim. But I hung on and soon drew into Caydiem, followed by Deacon Johanna. I managed to heal up a whole lot and won the game as a result. Wee.

Result: 2-0

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Intermission

It was supposed to be a 5-round Swiss but it was 7:30 pm and ComicsMart was closing at 8 pm. The organizer decided to cut to the top 8 immediately. Since I was sitting at 3-1, I was in for the finals. Hooray.

And so, the top 8 was held at McDonald's. Normally, I think we would be chased out but this was Serene Centre we were talking about, so I guess the McDonald's staff didn't mind.

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Quarter Finals: Vs. Boris Brightbeard

It is the same guy again. I was hoping that he'd ease up and at least show me a smile since I have been all chummy with him. But nope, he was still so stern. The stiff probably needs to get laid.

Round 1:

I thought I was gonna lose since I felt couldn't do well without sideboarding. But then I saw my starting hand which consisted of a curve full of allies. Normally, this would be a bad hand but it was what I needed against his super slow deck.

I tried to rush him as much as I could, dropping down an ally every time I could for every turn. I even put down all my key Ability cards as resources (Chain Lightning, Searing Totem, etc) while saving up only Vanquishes. It was working as the look on his face told me that he was feeling pressured by my neverending wave of allies both big and small. "This is so annoying!"he commented. Mind Control gave me a problem along the way but he conceded the game when he ran out of ways to deal with my allies. I felt amazed that I managed to win.

Round 2:

I boarded in Mildred, Gellrin, Ophelia and 4th Vanquish again. I tried to do the same thing I did in the previous game. I was rushing well for the first few turns but I ran into trouble as a Lord Grayson showed up. I didn't have a Vanquish handy and went through a lot of trouble to take him down at the expense of my precious allies. It didn't feel good as the game seemed to be a reminiscient of the match I had with him earlier. The game went ultra slow and he went up to 15 resources. "Look, I can now play Rise to the Challenge," he said, though I couldn't tell if that was meant to be a joke. He began building up his board again and I saw Medoc. I had no more cards in hand and his fatties would all be coming back. I was stilll sitting at close to full health and was actually thinking, "Why isn't time called yet???" Looks like I wasn't gonna win by time up.

I had no more cards in hand and no allies in play. I top-decked into In Dreams and put it down. Medoc returned Magni Bronzebeard to his hand while he Resurrected Jaina and recruited a Parvink. I completed In Dreams on his end phase, thinking that there was nothing I could possibly do at this rate. To my surprise, I drew into Chain Lightning and Frost Shock. I checked Boris' life and he was left with 4 health thanks to my early rush. I launched both cards at his dome and managed to win. I believe he wasn't expecting it either. That was a relief. I didn't want to endure another round with him. He remarked that I won due to my top-decking In Dreams. I just kept quiet cos' I felt he was right; I did have mad top-decking skillz™.

It was at this point, I realized the guy was an M:TG player (he was wearing some PTQ shirt or something). Down with unfriendly M:TG players~

Result: 2-0


Semi-Finals: Vs. Grennan Stormspeaker

It was good old Ryan of the GBT. Haven't played with him in ages. I knew it was going to be a fun and quick game and I could see how his Shaman rush deck was like. "This is ridiculous," he complained, "We spent like 8 hours here today and 4th place is just gonna get ONE booster pack!" I actually agreed with him; the prizes kinda sucked when compared with the effort you have to put into winning them.

Round 1:

I saw Elder Moorf, Kagra and other 1-drops early. I traded my allies as usual. I played Searing Totem but he traded it with his own Searing Totem. We both had around 18-20 health when Barak the Shamed made an appearance. I bid 9 health for it, thinking that I may get it but he actually bid 13. I was quite shocked at his boldness. I managed to trade my Moko with his Barak. I managed to get the Draconian Deflector out which helped to blunt most of the damage and slowly attacking back for the win. "That Draconian Deflector came out of nowhere!" he laughed.

Round 2:

He boarded in some new cards. He started with Kagra, followed by 2 Gellrins. I had a very slow start and had to use Frost Shocks on each Gellrin on Turn 4. I got out Caydiem on turn 5, hoping to divert his attention to her but Karkas Deathhowl promptly cleared the way for more beatings. I was left with 6 health and he was over 15 when he recruited Barak again. I didn't dare to make any high bids (wrote down a 1) while he bid 7. LKY came by and teased Ryan, "Why did you bid a 7? Your opponent only has 6 life left; you could just bid 6." Then we all laughed. I was rushed to death following that.

Round 3:

The last round went by pretty well for me. I managed to trade my allies with him earlier and a Chain Lightning on turn 5 helped my board position a lot. Barak appeared again (which he bid for and won). There was one time when he played Kibler and I saw Elder Moorf and Karkas. He went for Moorf, much to my relief since I was holding Panax in my hand. I recruited Panax on my next turn and Frost-Shocked Barak when he tried to attack. I then blew Panax up the following turn to clear his board of 3 allies. He ran out of gas and following that, I got an assortment of allies out and managed to win. Overall, it was a fun game.

Result: 2-1

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Final Intermission

There was supposed to be a Finals but it was already 10 pm. No one wanted to play the last round or else it would last till 11 pm. My opponent was WayLong (sp) and he was playing Elendril. They suggested a prize split and we were all on our way. haha.

I enjoyed myself today except for that Priest guy. I was glad that I never ran into any Equipment decks. I learnt quite a lot and overall, it was a good experience. It was very tiring, though, since it was best 2 of 3 and some rounds lasted over 30 minutes. I was just kinda disappointed that I was not the only Shaman-lover around. hehe.

It's November!

The past two weeks had been all about the WOW TCG. The game had been great so far and, with the local UDE staff behing it, I can expect some good tournament support for it come 2007.

I am happy to say that I got through another mobilization period earlier this month without being activated. When I was at home on Saturday and saw the call signs flashing on TV for other units, I told myself, "It's gonna be my turn tomorrow." I was pretty sure they would push the button this time. Even the Area I/C called me to brief me on what to do a week before, which no Area I/C had ever done before in the past year or so. I stayed home on Sunday, waiting for the ominous phone call but the day passed peacefully and, by the time it was 5 pm, it was clear that the NS men of Singapore had once again averted another mobilization.

I went for another job interview a few weeks back. This time, it was for Ken Air, a travel agency. The boss spoke to me for like an hour and at the end of it, I felt that I was not at all suited for the job. They wanted either a sales promoter or some IT guy. Plus, he mentioned that my colleagues are 'unfriendly' (they are afraid you'll take over their job) and during the on-the-job training, they are not obligated to help you in any way since they are busy with their own work. Now that's what I called being frank. Back to the part-time secretarial job for me.

Time has flown pretty fast this year and it is now November already. I wouldn't have realized it if it weren't for some of the stores selling Christmas Trees and whatnot.

A WOW-derful Weekend

The past few days had been nothing but pure excitement for me as the WOW TCG was finally released. We shared a case of booster boxes and drafted over the weekend. I had some savings for a rainy day such as this but never expected a storm instead. I practically blew most of my month's expenses on this newfound hobby.

The release celebration held at FunZ Centre was pretty much a success as seen by the overwhelming turn-out (well, 22 participants seemed like a lot). Other than some slight complications and the fact that matches took waaay too long, it was a lot of fun. In addition to close friends, the crowd consisted of familiar VS System players and a few of the regular M:TG guys.

Having played the WOW TCG at last, I was quite delighted about its overall feel. UDE certainly has a winner on their hands. The Warcraft license is well-known and any gamer will at recognize it in one way or another. The gameplay is a mish-mash of various other TCGs and most importantly of all, the card effects have very good flavour. There are even official multiplayer formats for this game. My only complaint is that the game might be quite expensive due to its hard-to-get cards and rather extreme rarity ratios.

I can't wait for the Onyxia Raid Deck coming next.

WOW @ ComicsMart

I was so anxious about this weekend's WOW release that I decided to write to ComicsMart to confirm the event. This is the reply:

This Saturday, the WoW will be at our branch at Orchard Cineleisure (tel 68369069) beginning at 1 p.m. On Sunday, it'll start at 12 noon at Serene Centre (tel 64664213). (Complete address details may be found at www.comicsmart.com) The person in charge is Kevin Heng.

We have the kits, but are waiting for the cards proper to arrive for play. There is a slight chance that the goods may not reach here in time, so please call us on the day of the tournament so that we may confirm that the tourney is still on. Thank you very much!

Carol Tan
Comics Mart

I didn't like the sound of the last line. But it looks like I may want to make a trip to Orchard Cineleisure this Saturday before dropping by at FunZ. The earlier the better~ :)

Waiting for Warcraft

The weekends have been fun. I watched Death Note with the rest. The series had always been popular amongst anime/manga fans so I am sure it needs no introduction. I didn't read the manga to the end so I was looking forward to the movie. The show was two hours long and was very enjoyable. There are little differences between the movie and that of the comic to keep things fresh. Watching 'L' was pretty amusing since his strange antics in the manga are a lot more funny in real life. Can't wait for the sequel.

Mondays and Tuesdays were holidays for most people (it's Hari Raya, right?). I stayed home on both days, eagerly awaiting my two favourite weekly shows (Scrubs and CSI Miami) but they were showing holiday night movies on the TV instead. *sigh*

Like most people, I can't wait for the World of Warcraft TCG release celebration this weekend. I don't even know how I am going to get through the next few days.

Solitaire Owns Me~

I have been playing a video game where Solitaire is one of the challenges. I've never played Solitaire until now. I've only known it as "that single-player card game that comes with every PC".

After reading the rules thoroughly and a few trial games (that were never completed), I sat down one night to play Solitaire in my game. I began playing at 12 midnight and must have retried it tons of times. I looked at the clock and realized that it was 3 am already. My mind was like, "This **** is ball-bustingly hard™!!!" I hopped on MSN for help. Realized that Solitaire wasn't meant to be such a long game. It was just me. >_< I got some small tips and went back to play. I finally managed to get it done by 5 am. Wow, I took all night. Good thing I had no work the next day.

A few days back, I had to attempt that same Solitaire challenge again. I thought I would be able to make quick work of the game since I had like hours of experience. I started at 12 midnight again. This time, I finished at around 5 am. Five hours!!! Now I know why my campmates were always playing Solitaire on the computer during long work hours back in NS. Anyone here actually good at this game that was obviously designed to inflict self-torture? <_<

Weekends Again - No More RT

Hooray, my RT has finally ended. Yesterday was the first Saturday I could stay up late and it felt good.

I decided to stay home on Sunday because of the haze but it actually cleared up. Oh, well. I spent the day cleaning my room and tossing away junk. It was quite hard deciding what to throw and what to keep but I am working on it. My mother had already replaced the furniture in the living room already and it looks pretty nice now. It will probably be my room next in a couple months.

As I was browsing for torrents, I came across one new episode for South Park entitled "Make Love, Not Warcraft". I don't usually watch it but the title was interesting enough to make me want to check it out. Surprisingly, I managed to find the full episode on GameTrailers (someone uploaded it; it might be taken down, so catch it quick). In-game WOW graphics were actually used for more than half the episode! It's quite amazing to think that Blizzard helped in developing this episode (unless it was not developed in-house).

Another Week Had Gone By

... and it's October already! We're pretty close to the end of the year, aren't we?

The past week went by without much interesting developments. I got pretty sick of my current job and got a recommendation to work for Chan Brothers. I spent a great deal of the week updating my resume. I had a lot of work on my hands cos' last time, I sent out over 20 applications and only got 3 replies, so my resume probably sucked a lot. I asked around for friends' resume samples. I tried to make mine less "IT'ish" by removing the technical stuff that I had written about my experience in computing. I didn't want them to think that I wanted a job in their IT department or something. That left me with a lot of space, though. Good thing I could now include my current job into my resume and it no longer looks so lame and miserable. I haven't received a reply yet so I guess I'll just have to wait.

The 'new' maid arrived yesterday. Her name is Gigi and she had actually worked for our family before a few years back. I still remember my mother had fired her cos' she made $1000 worth of overseas phonecall every month. Let's hope she has changed for the better. Anyway, Gigi was rather happy to be back here as she had trouble finding a good job in the Philippines. She remarked that I had graduated already when she saw my graduation photo. I didn't realize it had been that long.

Coming up: the usual highlights of the week for me.

Stay Alive (Movie)



I watched "Stay Alive" with Orchi & friends, Darrell and Yonghao. The trailer was shown several months back but it was delayed till now. It is a typical slasher movie where people die horrible deaths. The story is about a group of friends who started dying one-by-one after playing a video game named "Staying Alive". The characters would die in the same way that they died within the game. As with such movies, the plot was nonexistent and the ending was abrupt.

Unfortunately for us Singaporeans, I found out that the movie was heavily censored. I learnt from a local forum that people who downloaded the show say that the death scenes were shown in full gory detail (there was one where a guy's jaw was ripped off) as opposed to the split-second deaths I had witnessed in the cinemas. The uneditted movie was supposedly 15 minutes longer. No wonder Stay Alive had a 'friendly' PG rating in local cinemas.

On a side-note, there was a movie poster of a new computer-animated penguin movie at the cinemas. It's called "Happy Feet" and seems to be about, uh... singing penguins. It seems somewhat goofy and made my hair stand. The videos can be found on YouTube if you want to have a look.


Legion of Super Heroes (Animated Series)

Just when I thought the new Fantastic Four animated series was pretty cool (the story got better beginning with the 4th episode), cartoon fans got another surprise in the form of Legion of SuperHeroes. Only two episodes out so far but it is already quite fun to watch. Is this a coincidence or are they releasing new cartoons to coincide with VS System releases?

The catchy opening movie can be found here at YouTube.


God Hand (PS2)


I recently bought the long-awaited God Hand for the PS2. The promotional videos got me so hyped up over the past few months that I was glad the game lived up to my expectations. It's pretty good but short and a little simplistic. The story is interesting. The bosses are stylish. The dialogue is humourous and very witty. The rock/heavy metal music is simply awesome. The game was touted as being 'ball-bustingly hard but fair' and it is exactly that. It feels freakishly difficulty but it's darn cool. Even regular enemies can kill you in a few hits so the game is all about twitch reaction.

Since the PS2 is near the end of its life cycle, most US games are now priced like budget titles, so do yourself a favour and pick up the US version of God Hand at a mere USD$30 (according to online sites) when it releases this month.

I'll leave everyone with a sample of one of the game's more famous soundtrack. It's the one that plays in all the game's trailers.

Yet... Oh See Mind <- click here
(According to the composers, Grasshopper Manufacture Inc., the song's name is actually a pun of a Japanese phrase I can't read. 'Yatte-oshimai' or something.)

My Own Digital Camera

I got a new toy recently. It's the Kodak EasyShare C530.



My mother got it free from some discount or promotion from one of her shopping sprees. The thing is quite small and and fits in my hand. It's nice to finally have a proper camera though I still wished my handphone had a good built-in one instead.

Now I just need to go on a holiday or something to use it. I just missed the Tokyo Game Show.

Today Had Been Quite a B1tch

Bah, today had been one of those screwed up days.

I had been having insomnia so it is quite difficult for me to get to sleep. I went to bed at around 4 am but then I woke up to the sound of dripping water. It was my air-conditioner dripping again. I looked at the clock and saw that it was only 7 am. I could not get back to sleep and it pissed me off real bad. I cursed, swore and shouted at the top of my lungs. No one was at home to hear me vent, though. I just got up and turned on the computer as usual while the aircon continued to noisily discharge water into the bucket below it.

When my mother came back, I quarrelled with her over my leaky air-conditioner (like why the heck did she get people to fix the toilet instead of my damn aircon). I was really cranky and blew things up by carrying on to express my unhappiness with my current crappy job at her friend's face (but to be fair, I kinda like it cos' it is so slack). Maybe I just felt like being a giant pr1ck for that moment.

I settled down a few hours later and went to sleep at around 11 am. I was supposed to meet a guy at 3 pm to sell him some PS2 games at Bugis Junction. I overslept and had to take a cab. As luck would have it, I got stuck in a freakin' traffic jam along the expressway from Paya Lebar to Kallang. It didn't help that the buyer constantly SMS'ed me and even called me while I anxiously watched the meter tick with every passing minute. The jam was due to a car accident and, as the cab drove pass the accident site, I glared furiously at culprits of the accident (it was 3-4 cars) for ruining my day. My hand was on the window lever and I so felt like opening the window and shouting at them, "F**k you all, don't know how to drive, all go accident and die lah". But of course, I didn't. I arrived at Bugis Junction 30 minutes late and closed the deal. It was late and I felt so lazy so... Oh, f**k it, I just took the cab again to Ang Mo Kio. There went half the money I earned from selling my games.

By the time I reached Ang Mo Kio, I had already lost all mood to do anything. Half of my day was pretty much ruined and my mother kept SMS'ing me to tell me to come home early cos' I had RT the next day. Now that was something I could not blame her for cos' I know it is for my own good. And so, I left Ang Mo Kio earlier than usual. I didn't really have the mood to do anything for the day.

I Love My DS Lite <3

I finally got my DS Lite after a week of contemplating . I just did not like any of the bundle games so every time I dropped by at FunZ Centre, I'd stare at the glass display and try to pick the least crappiest game of the bunch. I finally made up my mind last Sunday.

The brightness on the DS Lite is simply amazing. It makes all my old games look better with vibrant, well-defined colours. I can affirm that the reputed "kill-your-eyes" brightness setting is here (of course, I didn't try it for too long). I am quite delighted now since I can play the games the way they were meant to be. And no more getting funny looks when playing in public. Now I just got to sell off my old phat DS.

Welcome Back to the RT

I was a little depressed over the weekend as I was finally going to resume my RT again after a month of deferment. My foot had recovered at last. But I couldn't withstand Sunday's strenuous training. I had to fall out and concussed on the bed the moment I reached home. That's what I get for being out of shape. One more month to go; I want to get this over and done with.

I spent the weekend at Ang Mo Kio as usual. I have been eating at the little restaurant called the "E-Inn". It's a very small place and located in a very deserted corner, surrounded by coffee-shops and hawker centres. I have no idea how they can make ends meet. What I do know is that I like baked rice and they serve it. It's a nice change cos' I was getting very sick of eating at Ang Mo Kio.

My maid had recently left and returned to the Phillippines. She had stolen money from us again despite being caught once before several months ago. My mom should've called the police but she didn't and chose to have her sent back tactfully. I am quite surprised that she would steal despite being with us for four years. I am gonna miss her, though. Just a little sorry that I didn't see her off.

Fantastic Four 2k6 TV Series

The new Fantastic Four cartoon is being aired in the USA. The first episode was out just a few days ago and someone already uploaded it on YouTube. Check it out here. I hope it is still there; it got deleted once possibly due to copyright issues.

It's not great but it is fun to watch. The show promises a lot of cameos as synopses on various sites already hint at the Hulk, Iron Man and other Marvel characters appearing. Oh, well, we get the Kree for this episode. I can't wait for the next episode to see how Dr. Doom is portrayed.

Food~ Food~

The weekends had been fun. On Saturday, I went to Simei to draft VS with the rest. It lasted longer than we expected. After that, we shared several cabs to Marina Square since Orchi and the CCK gang were having a meal to celebrate DS & Jeffrey's birthdays. However, we arrived too late; it was already 9 pm and Yuki Yaki was closing. We had to go to Suntec for steamboat at Joaquim instead. It was pretty good. When the thing was over, I wanted to go to the washroom but ended up going all the way to the 3rd-storey toilet outside the "PCQ room" (1st storey closed for cleaning, 2nd storey cordoned off possibly for IMF or IT show). In the end, I realized there is a toilet in the restaurant itself.

On Sunday, I just dropped by at Ang Mo Kio to check out games and have dinner with Hobbes, Brainy and Darrell. We ate at a very deserted shop named called the E-Inn near the old cinema/Raiders. It's not bad since it was different from all the usual junk.

Oh, yes. This post reminded me that I had forgotten to talk about the previous week's Galactus sneak preview. Oh, well, too late now. It was held at the Pan Pacific Hotel and ended so late that we had trouble finding a place for dinner because it was 10 pm. Fortunately, Cafe Cartel opens late.

It's September already. My long break is now over and my RT resumes this Sunday. It's back to time-wasting and torture.

Playing Myth War Online

I have recently been playing Myth War Online. There wasn't any particular reason behind it; I just I saw the system requirements and was like, "Oh wow! Something that my laptop can run!"


Despite its rather archaic-looking 2D graphics, the game is rather addictive. It's an MMORPG but battles are not real time; you get random encounters while exploring dungeons and the battles are turn-based a la console RPGs. This means that I can surf the net and chat on MSN while playing the game in its windowed mode. There's quite a lot of content, though, so it's not mundane. This is one of those few games where partying is almost mandatory. It's a fun diversion to add to your list of "things to do while sitting in front of the computer". And did I mention it's free? Check it out at: http://mythwar.igg.com/index.php

Sleeping Late Every Night

This week had been all about Priston Tale for me. Hobbes introduced me to a private server for the game at PTNation. I have been playing it together with him, Kraazg and Brainy. I was rather surprised that this five-year old game can still be fun. I played every night and there was even a day when I overslept and missed work. Looks like the game has given me back my insomnia. Playing PT reminded me how much I enjoy MMORPGs. Perhaps it is almost time for me to get a new laptop so that I can play the more recent games.

During one of my late nights, I was surfing around and came across a series of outrageously funny Yu-Gu-Oh spoof videos on YouTube. Dubbed "Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Version", each video is a 4-5 minute parody of the actual anime episodes. The video editting is top-notch, the voice-acting is funny and the jokes are ingenious! Go watch it here (Episode 1; trust me, it gets better). There are 8 episodes out at this time of writing, with a new one being released every week.

Hectic Saturday ~ RT Deferred!

Another delayed post. Saturday was a super-hectic day for me. I was always on the move and didn't have much time to rest.

I woke up in the morning and went to East Shore Hospital to get an x-ray for my foot. I had actually come the night before but the radiology deparment was closed. Anyway, this was my first time visiting a private hospital (I was under the impression that all hospitals were government-run) and it was very 'classy'. The staff were all smiles and very friendly. There was even a 'bellboy' standing at the entrance opening doors for cars, I thought my mother had taken me to a hotel by mistake. I am such a mountain turtle. Anyway, they had x-ray me twice because the herbal medicine in my bandaged leg was showing up on the slides.

They had to remove my bandages so, when everything was done, I had to go get my foot re-wrapped at the Chinese physician opposite my home. After that, I rushed over to White Sands at 1 pm to meet a guy for a deal. I was selling him one of my used games and he actually volunteered to come all the way from Woodlands. Oh, wow.

Meanwhile, Alvin SMS'ed me to invite me out for dinner at Breeks. He said the magic words so there was no way I'd refuse. hehe.

I went home and rested for a while before setting off for Bedok Camp. I went to the Medical Centre at 3 pm to try get my MC from East Shore endorsed. Me and some other guys waited and waited but the MO did not show up. In the meantime, I watched like 2+ hours of Lost on the TV there. The MO finally arrived at 5:30 pm; it turned out that the regular MO had fallen sick (hehe) so they had to find a last-minute replacement. What a waste of time. Anyway, after that, I went to see the 2IC for my RT and, at last, I got my deferment. No further RT until the 10th of September! My poor foot can heal! Happiness~

Once that was settled, I went home and then proceeded to Ang Mo Kio. I met up with Alvin and the rest for dinner at Breeks (Happy belated birthday to Alvin~). Haven't had Breeks in ages; I miss the food.

It had been quite a very hectic day. I still played Priston Tale when I got home after that. Yup, Priston Tale, that super ancient game, but this time on a private server. I have been playing it for the past week with Hobbes, Brainy and Kraazg.

I Wanna Get Better~

It has been a week and my foot has not healed yet. I went to see the MO during RT today and I got an MC for one week. I was thinking of deferring the remainder of my RT to a month later but the evil OC did not approve of it. Instead, he just told me not to come for one week and do make-up later. *Sigh* I hope my foot recovers soon. It is starting to get irritating and inconvenient. I hope my foot will heal by next Saturday. My weekend is burnt. Saturday + Sunday RT~

After returning home today, I started watching Gundam SEED Destiny which I borrowed from Himura. I guess I was in a Gundam mood and wanted to watch it for the sake of completeness. I heard a lot of people say that SEED Destiny was quite a bad show so I shall be watching it with an open mind.

At night, I met up with a guy at Kallang to sell him my SNES/N64 game cartridges. I was trying to get rid of them in bulk and just nice, this guy was interested in collecting old games. I still remember I had the unhappy memory of lugging my games to Cash Converters only to get turned down. I sold over 35+ game cartridges for around $60. This is probably a lot less than Ebay prices but I would've dumped some of the games anyway. Besides, I don't think there is a local market for such old & useless 'antiques'. At least now I have cleared a huge chunk of space in my room. It's quite a good feeling.

Resting for the Week

I have been given off for the whole week because I sprained my ankle. I have been going to see the Chinese doctor across the street and my leg is well on the way to recovering. I imagine that if I went to a private clinic, the doctor will just give me a jab and bandage my foot. The Chinese physician rubs some kind of herbal medicine and massages my foot every session; it's actually very comfortable. =)

Movie: Click

Click is one of those movies that take a mediocre-sounding concept and turn it into something highly entertaining. Trailers for the show seemed to promote it as a mindless slapstick comedy with no plot. The mysterious remote control was like a pseudo time machine (time-traveling movies have been done countless times before) and seemed very lame.

But after watching the show, it was nothing like the above at all. The jokes littered throughout the movie are refreshing, well-written and cleverly thought-out. And beneath all that, there is actually a good plot that teaches viewers the value of life and family. Definitely check this movie out.

I find it coincidental that I watched Click on Saturday and when I got home at night, Anger Management was showing on TV. It was great fun to watch, too. Looks like it was Adam Sandler day for me.

Penguins Don't Just Walk; They Slide on their Tummies

This had been a good month for the PSP. Several new game releases kept me away from my computer so I haven't been able to bring myself to blog for the past two weeks. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth, Tekken Dark Resurrection and G-Generation Portable have been eating up most of my time.

I am now nearing the end of my first month of RT. The next session would be the IPPT itself, but unfortunately, I sprained my ankle during today's training. Some moronic PTI was gonna ORD soon so it was probably customary that he whacked us real hard today for no apparent reason other than for his own enjoyment. It felt like I was being tekan'ed back in BMT again, doing one set of exercise after another for like thirty minutes. My body couldn't take it, and when the exercise was over, my legs gave way like jello. At first, I didn't feel a thing but after I got home, my ankle started to hurt. Gee, my body has suffered so much abuse before and never once did I ever get a sprained ankle. Why now~

I was still good to go and made it to Suntec just to check out the monthly VS PCQ. CKTeacher, Jeffrey and Edward all managed to top-4 for this last Silver Age event. Akira surprised me by showing up; I thought most NSFs liked to sleep at home on Sundays. hehe. After that, it was a simple dinner and we all went home. Anyway, I saw banners advertising next week's WCG Asian event. I wonder if anyone will be going to check it out.

My mother gave me a ride cos' my ankle was now beginning to hurt like mad. She had planned to take me to a Chinese doctor or something, but all private clinics were closed on a Sunday night. Looks like I will have to try again tomorrow.

Short Weekend

Last Friday, I went to FunZ first then went over at Miya's house to play PS2. Kyo and Michael were there, too. I watched the Ghost Whisperer in his living room because I didn't like missing it. Miya's two dogs started to gather around me when I sat on the sofa so I sat on the chair instead. As it was getting late, I realized that it was pointless to go home so I stayed over. Lucky for me, I could surf the net on my PSP. Just too bad I could not use Web Messenger on it. I also filled my HDD with goodies from Miya's computer.

When it was Saturday morning, I took the bus back to Tampines since no one wanted to have breakfast. I picked up MacDonald's on the way home and ate my Hot Cakes before going to bed. I only woke up at around 5 pm and then went to FunZ to get Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (PSP). I reached home at around 11 pm and went to sleep at around 2 am. It felt like a very short day for me as I slept a lot and didn't have much time to do other things at home.

The next morning was RT again at Bedok Camp. It was quite horrible as I had to fall out already during the first exercise due to dizziness. I went to rest with the medic and only joined in for the last exercise but I had to fall out again cos' I still didn't feel well. This is very bad; I hope this does not happen too often as I still have like 17 more sessions to go. After I got home, I unwrapped my new game and played it for the rest of the day.

Welcome to the RT

I have stolen Akira's trademark tagline! It is so catchy that I could not resist it.

My first real RT session on Tuesday was pretty horrible. I got assigned to the 'yellow' group (people who failed their pull-ups). The PTI made us do assisted pull-ups first before proceeding to the gym to train on the various machines. I felt kinda strange that I had to set all my weights to one notch above the minimum. Have I really become so feeble? = (

Time passed pretty quickly, then we were told to go to the track for a 2.4km run. At first, I thought the PTI was joking (I mean, we were the 'chin-up' guys after all) but, to my dismay, he wasn't. In the end, I didn't run the full 6 rounds cos' I felt real sick. I didn't feel better until I reached home and lay down on the bed for 20 minutes. I had no problems sleeping that night cos' I was burned out.

World of Warcraft TCG Preview

Brainy managed to find scans of the 5-page World of Warcraft TCG preview from Inquest magazine. It's worth reading:
http://www.wowcards.org/news/142/inquest-gamer-previews-the-world-of-warcraft-tcg.php?s=a42bb0476301705ffb3bee2676bd19d7

Most of VS System's game designers are working on it so we can probably expect a lot of good things. Considering the local fan base for the WoW game, let's hope it overthrows M:TG's reign. =)

Boring Sunday ZzZ

I just went for my first RT session today. Bedok Camp was nearer than I thought; only 10 minutes by cab. That's even nearer than my reservist camp. Since it was the first day, it was mostly just in-processing and briefing so nothing strenuous yet. I was quite delighted when the PTI pointed out that each RT session is only around 2+ hours long instead of the full 4 hours printed. But of course, if people ask us, we'll just say it is 4 hours. They scratch our back and we'll scratch theirs. hehe.

Other than that, today was a boring Sunday. I came home earlier than expected and wondered what I could do. But alas, I was lazy so I spent the day rotting at home. The TV programs on Sundays always tend to suck.

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest

I watched "Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest" with Orchi & friends on Friday. Normally, I would stay far away from Disney movies but I saw the first one on Channel 5 the week before and realized it was actually a lot better than I thought. I was actually very glad that they screened the first one on TV because this sequel continues from where it left off. It has many returning characters and lots of references. If I had just watched this sequel, I would not have enjoyed myself as much.

Anyway, the movie was more than two hours long. The story was very good and refreshing; more of the same style of action & comedy you'd expect. The only letdown was that the ending was abrupt and it will surely be continued in the next instalment of the series. This movie is definitely a must-watch for those who have watched the first one for the sake of completeness. I definitely look forward to the next Pirates film.

RT is Coming~

My RT (Remedial Training) begins this Sunday at Bedok Camp. I have booked for a Sunday and Tuesday slot (it was either Sunday or burn my Saturdays). It will last for around 8 weeks.

I still remember 4-5 years ago when I just ORDed and was in NUS. Shortly after, I failed my first NSmen IPPT then immediately got called up for RT. I still remember how depressed I was about having to go to Maju Camp for what seemed like an eternity of torture till I could pass (not likely to happen). It was like, I just ORDed but now I am going back to army camps again. The long traveling time was a real killer, too. Then, at the end of the first lesson, fortune smiled on me as they learnt I was studying fulltime and removed me from the program. They should've just mentioned this somewhere on the NS website or something. Even today, I see lots of innocent fulltime students attending RT & ICT because they are unaware that they can actually defer it if they want to.

The feeling is kinda different now. My RT is in Bedok so it is not so bad. And having attended that one fluke session, I more or less know how it operates. Even though each session is around 4 hours, a medic friend, Kaijie, said that they don't usually train you for the full 4 hours. That's quite a relief. Though I really hate the RT experience (it's generally a big waste of time; some people just can't pass no matter how hard you push them), I guess I can treat it as a way of keeping fit.

A Strange Visit

A strange thing happened at work recently. My boss was out so I was alone at the front desk surfing the net on the computer. Just then, an Indian man came in and asked if my boss was around. I thought it was one of his friends or customers. I told him the boss was not around.

The man started chatting with me. He remarked that I looked cheerful & happy on the outside but, in fact, I had a lot of worries. I smiled and nodded. He was right; I did have a lot of things on my mind (quite a lot in fact, but I was really thinking of my damaged television at that time). He then asked for a piece of paper and scribbled some things down. I thought he was going to leave a message for my boss. He then folded it and gave it to me, telling me to 'hold it in my palm'.

He then asked me to name a flower and told me to select a number from three choices (4,5,6). It was then I realized he was not specifically looking for my boss. He was some sort of 'fortune teller'. I just thought I would be polite and play along. I named "rose" and any-how chose one of the numbers, then he told me to open the paper I held in my hand. To my surprise, my flower and number choices were both written inside.

He then took my palm to read my fortune and gave me some advice. He even scribbled some numbers and told me to buy 4D two months from now. Before he left, he showed me a talisman/card that indicated the temple he was from (he's a Buddhist) and asked for a 'tribute'. I knew this was coming but since he kinda made my day, I didn't really mind. It was then he showed me a paper with the values $30, $60, $90, saying it's tribute for good luck. I couldn't bear to fork out that much, though. I just passed him $10 and thanked him. He just told me that I will have a chance to pay him the remainder in future.

Okay, that was totally weird. But I guess I will take his advise on matters seeing that he seemed somewhat sincere. I must remember to buy lucky numbers two months from now even though I have never bought 4D before (this entry will serve as a reminder to myself).

Superman Returns

And here's the belated Superman Returns topic. I didn't expected the movie to be very long; it lasted 2-and-a-half hours. Before I watched it, I had a feeling that this would NOT be an action-packed movie since there were no 'super-villains'. That held true as the movie seemed more like a romantic drama of sorts. I read that this movie continues from where the old Superman 2 movie left off so it kinda retcons everything else.

The movie has a very 'old-school' feel to it. Superman flies around, saving the people in need, accompanied by grand orchestral music and the cheers of adoring fans. It was very well-done so it did not feel one bit cheesy at all. I found myself engrossed and somewhat touched by the people who are routing for him.

But then, I almost cringed when I realized it was kid-friendly show. Thugs can fire gigantic gatling guns at cops, destroying cars and inanimate objects but no one dies (with the exception of one scene). Well, cos' Superman is there, no one ever gets hurt. It kinda takes away the excitement. Never mind, I always have high hopes for superhero movies. Let's hope there is a sequel and they make it a little more action-packed.

It's a Quiet Week at Home

Earlier this week, I went to the dentist to get a filling done. It was quite painful. It felt like he was scraped out the inside of my bad tooth then put in a metal screw and some paste that hardened after it dried. He told me that if my tooth hurts, then he will probably have to remove the filling and perform a 'crown'. Thank god my tooth stopped hurting after the second day or else I will get sleepless nights.

The dentist also mentioned that my braces should be ready to be taken off in a few more months. I am wondering if he is serious because every time I look in the mirror, I don't feel that they are ready yet.

This week has been a typical work week. I go about with my usual net-surfing and video-gaming. Unfortunately, my three-month-old television set appears to be spoilt. Every few minutes, the picture would go fuzzy and there would be a loud buzzing sound. I suspect that my TV got damaged because my old air-conditioner started leaking again. It's the same problematic air-conditioner that killed my previous television set when it dripped water all over it. I should've asked my parents to get it fixed a long time ago. At least I can still play the PS2 with no problems. I'm currently playing Monster Hunter 2.

Scary Movie 4

I watched Scary Movie 4 on last Friday. As expected of the series, it is very funny & entertaining though the plot makes no sense and the ending is abrupt. The thing I like about the Scary Movie series is that it spoofs other movies and sometimes, it makes me want to watch or read up about them. This time, the main plot follows War of the Worlds. Good thing I watched that before so I could grasp the jokes. The show also pokes fun at the Grudge, The Village and Saw (I went to read about Saw at Wiki and it is a totally sick & sadistic movie).

The most funniest scene to me has got to be the 'boxing match'. haha. I was still laughing non-stop minutes after the scene was over. It was hilarious. The show really makes me want to re-watch the first 3 Scary Movies. I wonder if anyone has any 'lobangs'.

Anyway, this is the second movie beginning with 'S' that I have watched this month. The last 'S'-titled movie will be out this week. hehe.

Silent Hill

I went to watch Silent Hill with Darrell, Calvin and Wende yesterday night at Cineleisure (since not all cinemas are showing it). Every time I see the movie poster, I am somehow reminded of this emoticon. :X

The show lasted 2 hours and was quite intense. Most of the scenes were intended to be freakish rather than scary. I felt that the plot was pretty good and, at the end, all the questions are answered. I think I have not watching a movie in Cineleisure in a looooong time because I didn't realize that there were toilets in each cinema. This is great for people like me who needs a toilet break during long movies and not miss out too much.

This is the first of the trio of movie titles beginning with 'S' coming out this month that I plan to watch. I think everyone can pretty much guess the other two.

Monster-Hunting Addiction

I am still addicted to Monster Hunter Freedom. I even changed my deskstop wallpaper recently. I think it's kinda nice. Sorry, nothing else to type but I just didn't want to see my blog empty.

Everything Back to Normal

Oh, well. Things have returned to normal now after my ICT. I have gotten the week off so I am quite free. I am wondering what I can do to pass the time again.

I am still addicted to my PSP. Clocked nearly 150+ hours on Monster Hunter Freedom but so long as there are friends to play with, I don't think I will ever get sick. hehe.

There seems to be several interesting movies this month; Silent Hill, Scary Movie 4 and Superman. I hope to be able to watch at least Scary Movie 4 and Superman. hehe.

Starting from next month, I will be going for RT. I hope it is not too tough. I know I will never be able to pass my IPPT but at least I hope I can lose weight through RT.

Hell Week is Over

Finally, the hellish week was over. No more ICT till next year. Wee.

[ Monday ]

Booked into camp. Morale was very low. At 1:30 pm, we loaded stores and boarded the 3-tonner. We arrived at the site at around 3 pm. The near-bank TCPs (Traffic Control Points) deployed first. Mine was TCP23, the last checkpoint before the river crossing. It's just a sandy road leading to the harbor. We are also in charge of a Holding Area, which is just atop a hill for people to park their vehicles before they cross.

We started operating at 6 pm. My duty was from 10 pm to 12 midnight. Since it was the first day, no vehicles attempted to cross the river. The 2 hours passed veeery slowly as I chatted with my section I/C, Andy. The motorcycle platoon smuggled in chicken rice. It was heavenly. At night, I tried to get some sleep on my groundsheet. It was horrible; every few minutes, I would hear mosquito buzzing around my ear and I would try to swat them away. This repeated throughout the night and I don't think I got any sleep. At 2 am, some tanks came into our Holding Area to do practice support fire.

[ Tuesday ]

It began to rain very heavily from 8 am onwards. The weather was reported CAT1. Everyone stayed in the 3-tonner and chatted for hours. Thanks to the rain, I skipped my 10 am duty. Everyone prayed the rain would last all day and it'd be an 'exercise cut' but I guess it is wishful thinking on our part. The rain finally stopped in the afternoon. No vehicles again for the whole day. It was a waste of time.

At night, the first convoy came by and everyone was real busy. I was very nervous during my duty at 10 pm. Andy told me to man the telejay while he halted and directed traffic. It was quite horrible as the convoys arriving did not tally with our vehicle sheet; seems like commanders switched convoy numbers at the last minute. It was hell. One senior guy named Wong came out to assist us cos' two guys were simply not enough. The telejay kept ringing every five minutes and it was stressful relaying information between my section-mates and the Exchange. Our PC complained that we needed more men at the Holding Area, so everyone who got off duty had to go there for... even more duty. I slept at around 2 am but could still see and hear convoys coming in.


[ Wednesday ]

I woke up and was surprised to hear that we were down to the last few convoys. This means that vehicles kept constantly coming in throughout the night while I slept. Unfortunately, I had food poisoning. My tummy was hurting like mad. Had to go do my business on a hillside and I saw pieces of tissue everywhere, too.

My duty was at 10 am again. It was quite busy. As usual, the telejay buzzed like crazy. There was a miscommunication and I almost got F'ed by the Exchange. The senior, Wong, was still around and helped talked things out with them (I would later learn that Wong actually was being a super-man by assisting every single duty personnel that needed help, in addition to his own duties.) With a lot of help, the last convoy left to cross the river. The exercise was cut soon at around 1 pm. Everyone was elated. My tummy was hurting. On the way back to camp, I almost puked due to motion sickness. We were allowed to go home at night.


[ Thursday ]

Returned to camp in the morning to do washing and accounting of stores. Nothing happened. Spent most of the day sleeping and booked out at night.


[ Friday ]

Alas, the final day. Everyone was in high spirits until a series of major screw-ups happened. We were supposed to out-process in the afternoon at around 2 pm. Suddenly, it was reported that the Medic platoon lost like 5 stretchers (the thing is so big, how is that even possible?!). Everyone was held back in the training shed while investigations were going on. Time passed very slowly. We did nothing and idled till around 6 pm (that's 4 hours!). It didn't help that one idiotic Captain kept pestering us to do area cleaning 3 times. One of our guys finally broke down and openly said he was going to lodge a complaint since it felt like the Captain was doing it on purpose. With everyone's low morale and bad mood, a few sided with the guy and started hurling abuse at the Captain. It was a nightmare for me; I just want to book out and what they were doing weren't helping. Our PC & PS came to help calm the situation.

Finally, at around 7 pm, we were allowed to go. After each person forked out $2 to pay for the lost stretchers, of course. It was so late already. What a waste of time. I just hope what the 'complaint guy' did will not make the unit condemn us when we come for our next ICT.

ICT - The Finale!

*Sigh* I am having the same feeling as last Sunday all over again. Feeling scared as well as having low morale. Thanks to everyone who spent the day playing MHF with me.

Tomorrow I will be going for my outfield exercise. I will probably be back by Friday. I am just scared that I will screw up my duties. I hope that I will be back safely. We'll meet again next weekend.

Weekends Are Here! A Break from ICT

Friday was quite hectic for me. While in camp, we mainly loaded stores and made other preparations for Monday's exercise. We were able to book out at around 5 pm My mother came to pick me up. I thought of asking her to fetch me to Ang Mo Kio while I changed clothes in the car, but then I asked her, "Do I smell... really bad?" She just nodded and it was then I decided it was better to just go home and take a bath first. I arrived at FunZ Centre at around 6:30 pm and immediately started playing MHF with Orchi, Darius, Calvin and Michael. It has been a week since I have come out to play. It was really refreshing and a fun.

On Saturday, Himura invited me to his birthday dinner with Lionel, Orchi, DS, JokerZ. It was a buffet at a Chinese restaurant whose name escapes me for the moment. This was unlike other buffets I've attended; we just ordered whatever we wanted off the menu and the waiter would bring them to us. It was very filling. I was glad to have a good proper meal after one week of ICT.

Tomorrow is Sunday already; my last day to enjoy myself. The past week in camp had been super-slack but Monday will be the real deal. I think I am going to be worried sick over it. Coincidentally, though, Miya told me that he will be involved in an outfield exercise next Monday and it happens to be the same as mine (EX Tiger Strike aka Giant Buaya). I will be on MP duty at TCP 23 and Holding Area 9 for 3-4 days. I wonder if I will be able to see him. hehe

Middle of First Week ICT

The past few days in Seletar East Camp has been very slack. Tuesday was especially crazy; we booked in at 8 am and the commanders had nothing for us to do. We slept all the way till 4:30 pm and booked out. I have never felt so sick of sleeping before. Now I know why people say ICT is a good way to take a break from working life.

Anyway, this lull period in ICT is going to end soon. For Thursday and Friday, there will be a lot of work to be done and preparations to be made for next week's outfield exercise. To be honest, I am actually quite horrified of it. I can't imagine spending four whole days in the jungle doing standard MP duties. It's something that I wouldn't mind if I was still an NSF but, for god's sake, we are reservists! *Sigh*

Oh, well. I better treasure my time this week. My ICT isn't as terrible as I thought it was. At first, I thought it would be torture everyday for the whole of two weeks. Now I realize it is basically slacking for the first week and extreme suffering for the second.

ICT~ ICT~

Yes, I am at home. It turns out that my ICT does not require us to stay-in for the first week. The hint came when the CSM said that dinner was not indented and we were not issued any pillow cases or sheets for our beds. So this means every night, I can book out and return the following day before 8 am. However, the real deal is next week when we go for the 4-days 3-nights field camp which means no one can go home. There is even a possibility we have to move out this Sunday (please, not Sunday). I dub it hell week. I still can't believe that the field camp is so long for reservist. Damn.

I finally know that I am with 316 SCE's Provost company. I talked to a few seniors and learnt thta we were there mainly to give support to the main body who will be executing Exercise Giant Buaya. So at least I am not the one building bridges and crossing rivers.

Everyone spent the whole day at Seletar Camp doing in-processing. Basically just idling around, going to the e-Mart or canteen and then finally being assigned a platoon/section. I managed to befriend two guys, Andy and Zee. I am not really close with everyone else probably because of the age gap. So many old bird reservists and I am a freshie.

Oh, well. I have to go to sleep at 1 am every night now so I can wake up early. I think I am quite fortunate that Seletar East Camp is 20 min from my home by car. hehe.

Sunday - Last Day Before ICT

Today was quite a hectic day. I actually wanted to stay home but then I decided to go out. I went to get my hair cut first at 12 noon, then after that, I went to FunZ to meet the usual group to play more MHF. Even in such dire times, I am still addicted. MHF has consumed my soul.

I left early, though. I reached home at around 7:30 pm and began packing and sorting my stuff. My brother reassures me that reservist will be very slack but what I have is fear of the unknown cos' I have absolutely no idea what I am in for. Some people may feel that I am being paranoid over nothing. That is true to a certain extent but I also don't want to be overly optimistic about it then go there to find out it is a living hell.

I played more of MHF to pass the time at night. I managed to hit my target (i.e. completing single-player 5-stars) before putting my PSP to rest until I can touch it again the next time I come home. It is quite late now. I have to report to Seletar East Camp at 7:30 am and I am planning to sleep at 1 am then wake up at 6 am. All my stuff are ready and I am still very scared. I hope that everything will turn out fine.

The past week had been very fun for me. Thanks to everyone who had made it very enjoyable, especially the MHF gaming sessions.

I will post again when I get a chance to book out, which I hope will be the following weekend.

Saturday - Feeling Down

I was quite excited today as it would be a fun-filled Saturday. I went to FunZ early at around 12:30 pm. I hung around and waited till Orchi and Darius came before going to McDonald's to play MHF. We were joined by Calvin and Michael later for more gaming fun. I didn't realize before how time flies when playing MHF. We did several quests and it was already 5 pm.

In the evening, Himura came with Joker, Jeffrey and Darrell. We went to watch X-Men: The Last Stand at 6:50 pm. The movie was pretty alright. There was a lot of action and it was great but I felt that the way they handled some of the charaters was pretty wrong (from a comic-book fan's perspective). Overall, the show was quite dark & sad.

After the movie, I began to feel moody. Maybe cos' I was back to reality. It was night already and I was beginning to feel the pressure that I had one day left. At first, I thought I was imagining things but even Himura pointed out that my face looked pale. I am back home now; I can't really explain my feelings. I had planned to stay home on Sunday but I think I may want to go out one last time and reach home early to make preparations.

Friday - Still PSP Gaming Day

I was supposed to post this last night but I was playing MHF all the way. hehe

I actually planned to go to Beach Road in the morning to buy new army stuff. My mother volunteered to fetch me there. But then, I woke up at 11 am and realize that she was not at home. Even my shopping list which I had left near my pile of army junk was gone. I called her and it seems that she had already gone to help me buy my stuff. I guess Mothers are one of the best things in the world after all. *sniff*

I went to AMK again to play more Monster Hunter Freedom. This time, my PSP managed to last the whole day thanks to the external battery pack. Played with Orchi, DS, Calvin, Darius and Michael. It was totally awesome.

Today, I will be going to AMK early for lunch, then play some more MHF before catching X-Men III.

Thursday - Three More Days

I had planned to go to Beach Road today to shop for army stuff but I haven't even checked my gear yet. I only did it at night. Most of the day was spent playing MHF. I chatted with JokerZ on MSN about ICT and it helped to make me feel a bit better. The weekends are very close now. I am beginning to worry.

Tomorrow, I will go to Beach Road early then I can drop by at FunZ for more MHF gaming. Saturday will be X-Men III and I guess I'll spend my Sunday being all gloomy.

Wednesday - PSP Gaming Day

I woke up at around afternoon today. Orchi SMS'ed me that he will be meeting Darius for lunch after school before going to AMK to play MHF. I had just woken up so I was not ready yet. I only left home at around 1 pm.

I arrived at FunZ at around 2 pm. Orchi and Darius were there and surprisingly, so was DS. We played for around 2+ hours and this was when we realized that the PSP had truly craptacular battery life when playing wireless. We decided to proceed to Darius' home to continue but I think his socket has a problem or something. The PSPs can only run on the electricity but cannot recharge. We ended up passing the adaptor around to whoever's battery was dying.

At night, I followed Orchi and DS back to FunZ and we each bought an external battery pack for the PSP. Just nice, Calvin came along and he lent us his own battery pack to play a few more games before going home. It was a very fruitful day as I had gathered lots of materials for my character. I wish I can do this again in future.

In case people haven't figured it out yet, Monster Hunter Freedom is the reason to own a PSP. Whenever I check the FunZ forum and see people selling the game only a day after they played it, I laugh at them for being such a big wuss. Yeah, the difficulty may be a little extreme but the sense of accomplishment from playing will be greater. I know I will keep on playing the game until I get really stuck that I cannot progress anymore.

Tuesday - Still Feeling Fine

I woke up at around noon-time today. I chatted a bit with Benedict on MSN; he is at the office as he will be helping out at my workplace while I am at ICT. I thought of filling up my service pay claim for ICT but then, I remembered that part-timers don't get paid. Damn. Anyway, I was supposed to be checking my army stuff and seeing what I need to buy but I feel very lazy. I am always a procrastinator; I'll probably do it on Thursday or Friday.

I felt like going out today but I wanted to stay home because Tuesday night is TV night! I watched ABC-DJ and then waited for CSI but was a bit disappointed that they were showing a retelecast of the Singapore Idol auditions instead. I should have checked the TV listings in advance.

I spent most of the day playing Monster Hunter and surfing the net. I guess I will be going to AMK to play Monster Hunter on Wednesady. I just realized it is almost midnight, and all of a sudden, the 29th seems way too close for comfort.

Last Week Before ICT. I'll Miss My Freedom.

This is my last week before ICT. My mother helped me to put a good word to my boss to give me the week off. I planned to use a few days to go shop for army supplies at the SAF e-Mart but then, I learnt that all their branches are located within the various army camps in Singapore (how the heck can outside-people buy stuff like that!). Looks like it is Beach Road for me.

Basically, I will be trying to make life as pleasant for myself as possible this week. However, the stupid unit decided to spoil my freedom by giving me detachment I/C duties again. How frickin' inconsiderate. I was cursing & swearing when I saw the envelope first thing in the morning. But no choice. I'll try to get it over and done with.

I plan to watch X-Men III this week. Perhaps on this coming Saturday, but my morale would be extremely low by then. I don't even think I will have any mood to do anything on Sunday before ICT. My stress has been growing as I have been sleeping at 4 am for the past few days.

I still spend most of my time playing Monster Hunter Freedom though. If the game had online mode, I know I would be very well playing it from dawn to dusk. It's a lot of fun but getting stuck is highly frustrating (and considering my current state of mind; demoralizing~). Over the weekend, I spent 4+ hours retrying a quest (the 'Urgent' Rathalos quest for those wondering) and finally beat it on my 5th try. Yeah, I was totally elated, but after that quest, I am stuck again since I can't beat the next harder wyvern. I think I had the most fun playing multiplayer with Darius, Orchi, Calvin & others; it helps to make the quests a whole lot easier, less annoying and more enjoyable. Since your character doesn't level up and plays by the "slay monsters -> gather rare drops/materials -> upgrade equipment" cycle, if you can't even slay the tough monsters to begin with, you are stuck. haha.

Oh, well. I shall go and finish off my detachment I/C duties so I'll have more time to enjoy myself this week.

Hunting Monsters

I have not been blogging much for the past week and when I am on MSN, I sometimes put on the 'Away' sign. That is because I have been playing Monster Hunter Freedom (PSP) all week. It's extremely addictive. Possibly one of the best games for the PSP released so far.

It is quite hard to describe the game accurately; even I thought it was a hack & slash dungeon crawler until I popped the UMD in. Some call it a 'hunting simulation' but I would say it feels like an action game with MMORPG elements. You take on various quests and earn money/materials to buy/craft your items & equipment. It is essentially a grind game. The wyvern battles are the game's main attraction and they can be frustratingly difficult, requiring lots of preparation, good reflexes and pattern memorization. The size of the game is amazing; there are so many things to do and a lot of people have clocked several hundred hours of game time on the Japanese release. It's definitely not a game for the impatient.

I have been going to AMK just to play multiplayer with Darius, Calvin and Orchi. It is a whole lot of fun. I am playing the European version though, so if anyone wants to join in, I am afraid you may have to pay a bit more compared to the US & Asian versions.

HappyHappy Sunday

No updates for the past week again. As usual, I surf the net all day when I am not at work. Life is boring. Grr, it's Monday already. Countdown: 14 days left to ICT.

I went to the VS PCQ on Sunday. At first, I felt very lazy about going but I recalled a certain Metagame article that I read last week. It was quite inspirational and so I decided to attend this last Modern Age PCQ for the year. All the usual guys were there. They actually changed the room this time and I took quite a while to find it. I played X-Mental and was very happy that I managed to top-8 this time with several of our friends (Himura, Jeffrey, Darrell). I got to the semi-finals and wanted to negotiate a prize split with Jeffrey, Yap JY and a CCK guy. But unfortunately, Yap turned us down and we played all the way to 9 pm. We were supposed to go for dinner but everyone was tired (especially Jeffrey who was here since 8 am). Those that remained were me, Darrell and Darius, so we went to have dinner at Pasta Mania before going home.

Darius dropped by to pass me my Monster Hunter Freedom (PSP). I played the game at night; it's a mix of an MMORPG and hunting simulation. It is not bad but the pace of the game is very slow. It's quite addictive, though, so I hope it will keep me occupied for quite a while.

VS PCQ - May 2006 (Marvel Modern)

I decided to play X-Mental since I felt it was a good choice in a field of mostly Squadron decks. I did not include cards that were normally good in other matchups (System Failure, War of Attrition, Mutant Massacre, Turnabout) and concentrated on just the straight stalling/brickwalling theme. With the deck built that way, I felt that I had a good chance against Squadron but would have trouble against X-Faces and Hellfire Club (I'll just hope the Squadron guys eliminate the Hellfire Club decks or something)

Match 1: Vs. CCK Guy Number 1 (X-Faces)
One of the first of many CCK guys I would face today. I played him a few times in Hobby League but I can't remember his name. I was quite disappointed that my first match would be against X-Faces since I knew I was going to have a hard time without any tech. However, I was quite fortunate as he did not get any pumps or Faces of Evil. By turn 5, he just conceded.
Result: 1-0

Match 2: Vs. CCK Guy Number 2 (Squadron)
Another familiar face. And the deck that I was prepared to face! I got rushed in the early game, but regained life with Eye of the Storm and kept on flipping it down every turn with Emma Frost. I also tried to brickwall attacks with my Shrinks and Duck & Covers where possible. When it was my attack step, I tapped down Nuke with X-Treme Manuever. The life gain and stalling was enough to get me to turn 7 and I played Exodus as my finisher. (Actually, most of my Squadron matches end up with me doing essentially the same thing.)
Result: 2-0

Match 3: Vs. Himura (Squadron)
It was quite sad to meet Himura so early. I knew he was one of the more experienced Squadron players so I was more nervous than usual. Fortunately for me, I managed to survive through life gain and won.
Result: 3-0

Match 4: Vs. Jeffrey (X-Faces)
I was now sitting at the top table! I was pretty excited but Jeffrey was an experienced X-Faces player and once again, I didn't think I would do well against X-Faces. However, this ended up being like a repeat of my first match as Jeffrey did not draw any Beetle: Armorsmith. I won another X-Faces match owing to my opponent's bad draws which felt kind of wrong.
Result: 4-0

Match 5: Vs. CCK Guy Number 3 (Squadron)
Now I was really excited! I think I have secured a place in the top 8! But just in case, I would continue to play normally. Alright, this is the 3rd Squadron deck I have faced today and against another familiar face. This guy surprised me by playing Avengers Disassembled on turn 6! I had my full curve from 2 to 6, so my Sage and Tarot went down. However, my life gap was already too large by then so I survived that turn, went to turn 7 and dropped Exodus as my finisher.
Result: 5-0

Match 6: Vs. Noel Neo (Squadron)
I felt that my place in the finals was assured now. This match was more or less just for fun but then I saw my opponent was Noel. He had such a serious look so I tried to ease things up a little (even though he was known for being nitpicky). Well, at least he smiled when I had no recruits on turn 3. He rushed very quickly and I was quite worried when I had less than 25 life at the end of turn 4. By turn 6, I had 8 life against his 11. However, his board wasn't very favourable with Nuke exhausted due to an X-Treme Manuever. His Songbird took out my Prof. X, putting me at 4 life. He then team-attacked the rest of his guys into my Jean Grey but Exodus made her invulnerable. I took no damage and after some consideration, he decided to concede. It was a very close match indeed.
Final Swiss Result: 6-0

I was very pleased with my results (Oh, wait. I lied. I was totally over-joyed!!! Wee!) Out of 6 matches, I faced 4 Squadrons which was the deck that I was gunning for. Good thing I did not come across any Hellfire Club. For once, I was very happy with my deck choice.

The top 8 were as follows:
- Me (X-Mental) vs. Himura (Squadron)
- Jeffrey (X-Faces) vs. Darrell (X-Mental)
- Yap JY (X-Mental) vs. CCK Guy (Hellfire Club)
- CCK Guy (X-Faces) vs. Noel Neo (Squadron)

Yup, it's not nice that all those who I know are facing each other and gonna eliminate each other. In other news, Jess had top-8'ed in Sealed, too.

Quarter Finals: Vs. Himura (Squadron)

Round 1: Himura rushed me very quickly in the early game and I did not see any Eye of the Storm. I was going to concede when I missed my 5-drop but then, Himura missed his 5-drop, too. Then the game went awry and we both missed our 6th and 7th drops together (we were both under-dropping with 1- and 2-drops). I managed to hang on and when we got to turn 8, Magneto was too much for Squadron to handle. (W)

Round 2: This was another close match. He rushed me silly but multiple Eye of the Storms kept me alive. I was hanging on with 5 endurance on turn 5. Himura's Nuke attacked my Prof. X but when I reinforced, he played Other-Earth. That would've been the end for me but a Mind Control saved my life and I was left hanging at 1 endurance. I managed to win on turn 6 by attacking and tapping down Nuke with X-Treme Manuever. (W)

Result: Win


Semi-Finals: Vs. Jeffrey (X-Faces)

Round 1: My deck decided to burn out. I mulliganed into a hand full of blues. I had no recruits on turns 1-3 and but managed to play Professor X on turn 4. On turn 5, my hand was still all-blue and one Jean Grey. I decided to concede. Considering what happened to Jeffrey in the Swiss rounds, we are now even. (L)

Round 2: I just did the usual stalling and life-gaining. I managed to save my defensive pumps and brickwalled a crucial attack. By turn 5, we both had ove 30+ life so I was in pretty good shape. I managed to win by combat when we got to turn 7. (W)

Round 3: Jeffrey hit the proverbial 'nutz draw', flipping up 3 Amsterdams on turn 3 to find 3 Faces of Evil. He dealt crazy amounts of damage to me on turn 3 and I was left with 20+ endurance. On turn 5, he played Null Time Zone, naming "Shrink". I was holding 3 Shrinks and 1 Duck & Cover in my hand and felt very sad (Grr, why didn't he name Duck & Cover!). I was not able to survive the attack and lost. (L)

Result: Lost

Oh, well. That was it for me. I enjoyed myself very much. The fact that I met mostly familiar faces today helped to alleviate the stress a lot. Jeffrey went on to face Yap JY in the finals but he lost because Yap JY's X-Mental had War of Attritions in it.

Nevertheless, I was still very happy for the day. I was glad that I was able to enjoy myself like this before I go for my ICT in two weeks.

Lonely Sunday

The first week of May is over. Three more weeks left to doomsday. I actually spent some time posting at the National Service section at the HWZ forums. I got some little hints on what I may have to go through. I think I may find myself having sleepless nights from now on.

On Sunday, I watched a movie called "Frequency" on channel 5. It was about how a weird phenomenon in the sky allowed a man to communicate with his future son via wireless radio. The son warned the man of an accident that killed him and it was avoided. The man lived, but other tragedies happened and his wife was murdered instead. It was quite an intriguing and somewhat creepy show.

In the evening, I went all the way to Orchard just to sell one of my PSP games (I seem desperate for money). After that, I had nowhere to go. I went to Kinokuniya and look at some of the comics. I met Michael there and he was with Ange. At first, I thought of asking if I could join them for dinner but I was afraid I might be intruding on their privacy so I just kept quiet and went straight home. hehehe.

I went home and did some net-surfing. My Starhub wireless is quite problematic and I have to reconnect/repair the connection at least once a day when it stops loading pages. I asked quite a number of people and it seems that this is 'normal' with Starhub. Grr.

Anyway, I disturbed DS online on MSN at night. It was past 1 am and he told me he was waiting for his Hokkien Mee to be delivered. I thought he was joking then he showed me this website: http://www.dabao.sg

Oh, wow, I didn't know there was a delivery service for such food so late at night. Maybe I should try it one day. Beats making boring old cup noodles at 1 am in the morning.

Let's Talk Comics

After several months of excitement, DC's Infinite Crisis storyline has finally come to an end with the recent release of Infinite Crisis #7. The ending ties things up nicely and will not disappoint. All in all, it was a great story and one of the most memorable comic events that I had the joy of reading.*

For those wondering what's next, DC will be following up with 'One Year Later' (after Crisis, storylines in most DC series jump forward by one year) and "52" (books that detail this one-year gap). I don't think I will be able to read that.

Anyway, with that aside, let's talk about the Infinite Crisis expansion in VS. After much examination (and much controversy on some forums), I realized that the Infinite Crisis expansion is 'incomplete'. Most of the cards from the expansion mainly covers the events from the old Crisis on Infinite Earths (i.e. the Crisis team), a bit of Identity Crisis** and the 6 Crisis mini-series. None of the stuff from Infinite Crisis #1-7 are mentioned at all (except for 2 minor spoilers***). This is quite disappointing; some fans even felt that the set should be called "Crisis on Infinite Earths" instead. Oh, well. Never mind, there is always hope for future legacy cards. Maybe then we can see the psychotic evil SuperBoy Prime in his full glory.

*For those who missed out any Crisis books, you can find me on MSN and ask me to send them to you.
** It's a 7-issue story released in 2004. Reads like a mystery novel. Very dark and sad. Worth reading.
*** One is Alexander Luthor (which was needed to avoid confusion) and the other is more of a preview for Speedforce

A Penguin's Crisis!

This month is going to be quite a sad for me. My first ever reservist ICT (in-camp training, for those wondering) will be on the 29th May and will last until the 9th of June. A lot of people keep saying that reservist will be very slack but then I keep reading about people who say it is very tough. I guess it really depends on what your vocation is. I don't really know what to expect but I fear it will involve outfield exercises.

I feel as though this month is like my last chance to have fun before I get tortured. I have already begun thinking of the things that I want to do this month. Like, I wanna watch Mission Impossible III. I haven't watched a movie in aaaages. Whatever happened to Scary Movie 3? *sigh* At least there's X-Men III: The Last Stand, out on the 25th of May. The official site is up. The trailer makes the movie seem quite dark & grim. Check it out at: http://www.x-menthelaststand.com

I guess I'll also play more cards and video games. I have been quite busy with work lately, too. I mentioned before that my boss has sacked his other assistant so I am now the only guy in the office. Oh, well, I will leave my Web Messenger on whenever I can if I am not too busy. hehe.

Sneak Preview: Infinite Crisis

I realized I had failed to post anything for the whole of last week. I saved several drafts but none of them were worth publishing. Anyway, nothing much happened. I was a little ill but that was it. I was also slightly more busy with work but I'll save that for another time.

Sunday was the day of the Infinite Crisis Sneak Preview. I was so excited that I could not get to sleep the night before. I ended up sleeping at 5 am and then waking up at 7:50 am to take a cab to Suntec. I arrived at the usual room at around 8:30 am and joined the first flight at 9 am.

I played a total of three flights for the day. I managed to get the winner's EA and got one of each prize item. I also got to say the magic words whenever little Billy had to transform into Captain Marvel. It was a riot. All in all, the new set felt pretty average but that is probably because the previous set was just so good. I am a little disappointed that my favorite team (Villains United) isn't as good as I hoped they would be.

Time passed very quickly for the day. I kept telling myself to break for lunch but I didn't and stayed in the room all the way till 7+ pm. At night, we had dinner at Carl's Jr. They serve humongous burgers and have free-flow soft drinks. My tummy was hurting like crazy after that.