Twenty Questions by Mr Mint

Twenty questions from Mr. Mint. I was stuck for a while because my answers were kinda awkward. haha.

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1. Who is more important to you?
My mother I guess.

2. How often do you think of committing suicide?
Lots of times during National Service, especially the first few months. And during my Final Year in NUS.

3. Do you think you have enough confidence?
Nope, I probably need more.

4. How many babies do you want?
None at the moment.

5. Do you believe in seeing the rainbow after the rain?
Sometimes.

6. What is your goal for this year?
If we are talking about 2009, I seriously haven't thought about it yet.

7. Do you believe in eternity love?
Kind of.

8. What’s a perfect girlfriend/boyfriend like to you? (List 5)
Understanding, funny, intelligent, diligent and cheerful.

9. List 3 characteristics of your best friend.
Don't really know because I always treated everyone as my 'best friends'. They are all nice, cheerful and fun-loving people. hehe.

10. What is your bad habit?
I might have mild OCD.

11. What is your opinion with distance relationship?
Difficult to work out but achievable.

12. What does flying mean to you?
Traveling overseas!

13. What do you crave for the most recently?
Pizza.

14. Are you single/relationship?
Single.

15. Describe the person who tagged you in 7 words.
"Nice, conservative guy with nerves of steel."

16. What have you done to yourself to make yourself happy?
Play video games. And planned my leave properly this year.

17. What will you become in another 10 years to come?
Older.

18. Where are your desired destinations?
Home.

19. Have you cried recently?
No.

20. What's the worse thing that you think can ever happen to a person?
Becoming disabled or handicapped.

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Instructions:
Remove one question from the above and add in your personal question. Make a total of 20 questions and tag 3 ppl.. List them out at the end of the post. Notify them in their cbox that they have been tagged.. Whoever does the tag will have blessings.

Kelvin's Question (To replace Question 4)
21. Name a recent achievement that you're happy about.



Picture is... kinda related. haha

Now I have to find 3 people...

And Rounding Up the Xmas Goodies...

I picked up some more stuff today to round up my own Christmas shopping!



With the Watchmen movie coming out next year, there seemed to be quite a bit of hype surrounding it. I've seen it being mentioned at various forums and magazines so I thought I would pick up the graphic novel first to tide me over until the movie's actual release.




I managed to chance upon the Halo Legendary series Arbiter figure at Bugis. I kinda hesitated but still bought it in the end. When people see Halo, they think of Master Chief. Well, I like The Arbiter! hehe. At the moment, I don't have a proper way to display it which is why it still in its package (it looks like this).

Seasons Greetings 2008

Merry Christmas to everyone!

My Christmas joy started early when I was given half-day off on Wednesday. This meant that I have almost the entire week off. It was pretty amazing since it has been ages since I had so much free time. I have been staying up late and loved the fact that I didn't have to get up early. It was a strange feeling. And it was not long before I remembered that this was that same feeling I had when I was not working and played WoW all day. haha. It actually felt great.

I didn't have any plans for my long break though. On Thursday, I planned to go to AMK Hub to pick up some new games and had an impromptu dinner with Mango (he lives!), Akira and YongHao. Today, I went to White Sands to rent some DvDs.

Stuff to keep myself occupied:

Mirror's Edge, Harold & Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay and Get Smart (both rented)

What I really wanted for Christmas was a Prinny plushie! Should've spent some time looking into that the same way I got my Pesoguins last year. haha.

I guess the rest of my break will be spent at home playing games, surfing the net and resting. Maybe I should try to go out and shop around. I shouldn't stay home all day. haha.

I Thought You Were on Leave Today

I was at work today as for normal when my Manager called me. She sounded surprised and went, "Huh? You're here? I thought you were on leave today."

I was a little puzzled myself because I remembered discussing leave matters with my boss last Thursday. We talked about me taking one day off this week but nothing was confirmed so I didn't pick a day yet. I did mention that I might want to choose Monday but I didn't tell her in time so I just treated it like any normal Monday.

I continued to do my work as usual when Mr. Bossman came in. "I thought you were on leave?" he gave me a puzzled look. Right now, I started to feel that I really should've stayed at home today. haha. Since everyone thought that I was on leave today, I decided to take the rest of the day off. I went on to finish my work on hand and was about to call my Manager when she stepped into the office. After a brief chat, I left for home in the afternoon.

Hooray, leave on a Monday. I kinda needed it, too, since I have been feeling very tired. I spent the rest of the day playing games and surfing the net as usual. Tomorrow will be another normal day but at least it's a another short week.

It's the End of the Year! Time to Clear Leave

It's December at last! I had actually planned to take several days of leave in December but then my boss needed me to be at work during the last few busy weeks of the year. Now I know why some of the admins cleared their leave over the last two weeks.

I managed to get my leave on the 26th of December (which is a Friday) and the rest will have to be in January. I'm already planning on taking it on the 2nd and 5th of January to create my own super-duper long weekend.

Anyway, things have been pretty much the same for me. Everyday, it's work then games. At least the crazy holiday games releases are now over. I can finally stop saving and start spending.

Attack of the Giant Prinny

This article is so cute!

Link: Giant Prinny Attacks San Francisco

I love the part when it the article mentioned:

The Thing Was So Cruel That it Left its Children in the Car


I can't wait for February 2009. haha.

Finish Him!

I have been playing Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. And just nice Maxim did a feature on the "MK announcer guy", asking him to say crazy & funny stuff for our enjoyment.

Click on the soundboard below and have fun!



I always felt the announcer had a memorable voice. "Epic Fail" sounds pretty epic the way he says it. haha.

My Little Visit to the AFA

I went to the AFA last Saturday. I really wasn't sure what to look out for but such events are always fun and this was probably one of the first major anime events in Singapore. The one thing I noticed was that it was not ridiculously overcrowded thanks to the admission fee. haha.

I went straight to Suntec after work to meet up with Akira & Max for lunch. After that, I had to go to Raffles Place to settle something before before going back to Suntec again. By then, it was already evening so I just did some quick browsing so as not to keep the two them waiting.

I caught a glimpse of the Singapore Arcade Showdown competition going on and had fun checking out the various figures/model kit booths. I managed to find some Halo 3 figures on sale! I absolute love the character known as The Arbiter but they only sold him as part of a full set for $150++. Such a pity. I still wanted to take something home, though so I bought a little Combat Elite figure.



Before I left, I passed by the FunZSquare booth and bought Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe (Xbox 360) to satisfy the comic book fan in me.

It was quite a fruitful trip. And yes, and I do realize that it is very strange for me to be picking up Western merchandise at a Japanese anime convention. haha. Actually, the other thing I wanted to take home too was the Capcom Maniax Felicia figure but I think it is a bit too daring for my room. haha.

The New Xbox Experience

Last Wednesday was a very exciting day for me as Xbox owners all over the world got the new firmware update known as NXE (New Xbox Experience). After patching, I was prompted to create my avatar. I tried to make it look like myself. haha.



The NXE is more or less a cosmetic upgrade for the Xbox's firmware but the biggest and most important addition to me is the game installation feature. This is also the reason why I couldn't control myself and bought a brand new 120gb hdd despite its ridiculous price. So it's goodbye to my pathetic 20gb hdd. Now I am happy installing my games and enjoying faster game loading.

Back in the Saddle

My Xbox 360 came back last Thursday, which was a day earlier than expected. It really made my day. It was just in time for the crazy number of releases this month. This recent Penny Arcade comic strip sums it all up. I have unknowingly amassed quite a backlog with still more on the way. Again, WTB holiday. :(



Yes, Guitar Hero World Tour is in the house. The drum set is taking up a lot of floor space.



My mother helped me to pick up GHWT from FunZ. The box was huge and she said a very nice young man named Michael helped to carry it to her car. We shall try to show our gratitude to this Michael one day. *wink*

Last Friday, I went over to Dhoby Ghaut to have dinner a Fish & Co's with Raccon, Justin & friends. They were picking up their own GHWT from E2Max and we all got our Gears of War 2. I went home and played GHWT till 3 am even though I had work on Saturday. haha.

Rhyfe came over on Saturday with a USB-Midi interface cable to help adjust the sensitivity in the drum kit (stupid Made in China drums). We spent the rest of the day playing GHWT and this was when I realized that I totally suck at drums. The foot pedal is probably causing grief to all newbie drummers all around the world.

WOTLK will be out soon. I have been thinking of getting it but my 10-day trial was kinda sad since I was playing by my lonesome self. I don't think it will be a day-one purchase for me. I'll probably give it a shot once more people are playing so that I can seriously consider transferring servers or rerolling.

Life Without Xbawx

Saturday: Stocking Up

Work took up the earlier part of the day so time passed pretty fast. I went home and slept for the afternoon because there was nothing else to do. haha.

At night when I went to FunZ Centre. I picked up Fallout 3 and the guidebook to keep first. Fallout 3 might possibly be the game of the year and I can't wait to play it when I get my Xbox 360 exchanged. I actually feel jealous reading about people who are having a good time with it.

I also met Yonghao for dinner. It was then he said he had a Scroll of Resurrection for WoW and he could invite me back for a 10-day trial. That didn't seem like a bad idea. Wee.

I was about to go home when Raccon called me. Since the night was still young, I cabbed over to his home. We played games on his Xbox 360 (/envious) and he agreed to lend him his Nintendo Wii home to play until my console gets exchanged.

Thanks to so many peoples' support, I think I can do this! It's "just" one week.

Sunday: I'm Leotheras the F**king Blind!

WoW finished patching after many hours (it was a 1.2 gb++ update). The first thing I noticed was how they streamlined a lot of things. And of course, there were the OMG achievements. It really made me feel at home. I totally approve of achievements. They are a great way to pass the time. haha.

I ventured into the Isle of Quel'Danas to quest a bit followed by some BGs. Played around with my talents and got the 61-point Arms talent Bladestorm to try out. The description sounded a little weird yet cool and I didn't know what to expect. But when I finally saw what it was, it put a smile on my face.

My warrior spins round & round and he even makes that cool whooshing sound that bosses do when they perform their own whirlwind. I used it while questing and packs of mobs would just die. I used it in BG and it outright kills people who don't run away. It's like I'm Leotheras the f**king Blind and people who don't run away will all drop dead and their raid leaders will start scolding them. It made me feel like king for a day. I mean, for 6 seconds.

And during BG, I got hit by Polymorph Penguin. I got quite a surprise. Was trying to figure out how come I got turned into a strange new creature that I've never seen before. Penguins FTW!

With all the initial excitement aside, I did feel very lonely on Gorgonnash because everyone has left or transferred. It definitely feels boring but I can't really complain since I am on a 10-day trial. Now I am actually considering picking up WOTLK once it comes out and transferring server.

Karma Killed my Xbox (?)

My Xbox 360 just died on me yesterday.



Normally, I would just accept the fact that it died a natural death but it happened when I was playing Fable II. That poorly-coded, bug-infested, laggy piece of crap. I am beginning to think it is not a mere coincidence that so many X360s died when the game was released. Whether that is true or not, I will never know but I just had to blame it on something rather than let it remain a mystery. hehe.

At the same time, I couldn't help but feel that my Xbox's demise was the result of karma. A few hours before it happened, I yelled at my mother to get out of my room as she was pestering me and disturbing my peaceful nightly gaming routine. Maybe it's divine punishment being metted out for sons who are rude to their mothers.

As the weekends approach, I feel depressed thinking how am I going to survive an entire week until next Friday when my replacement is ready. I am actually addicted to my Xbox in the same way I was addicted to WoW. I wonder if I may be tempted to get another X360 to play (maybe a 60gb one this time).

X08 Recollections (Part 2): Fan Night

After attending the X08 press event, it was time for Fan Night. It was an Xbox Live Goldsubscribers-only event. I went to register and collect my goodie bag. I think most of the people there got a pleasant surprise when we found 2 free games inside the goodie bag. Sure, they may be old 2006/2007 titles but it was something that probably no one expected. Free games are always good. haha. Another nice touch was that they gave us all a name tag to wear. It really helped in identifying each other that night. It felt like an online-meets-RL kinda thing when I started recognizing people based on their Gamertags. haha.

I met up with Raccon & friends for dinner at Kenny Rogers. (I didn't take any photos, though so I'll have to wait for someone to put up theirs...).

After dinner, we walked around and waited until the Fan Night events began at 8 pm. It started off the same as the press event; speech by Alan Chou and then Alison Carroll doing her 'performance' again.

The hightlight of the night came when it was time to vote for the new Xbox Xpert. The four of them went on-stage to give a little speech. I knew 3 of the guys from online forums; all of them are pretty cool people. Then the M.C. announced that they were all going to play a 'surprise game'. To everyone's surprise, the game was Street Fighter IV and there was a lot of cheering from the crowd. Sadly, it was not head-to-head so we only got to watch them play against the CPU. Zzz.





After the little SFIV show, we were all told to cast our votes by dropping them into bags held up by the booth babes standing aound. While waiting for the votes to be tallied, they got members of the crowd to play Street Fighter IV. The condition being that they had to dress up as the character they played using the one of the four costumes provided. haha. So yeah, there were E-Hondas, Sagats and Ryus on stage. Someone tried to fit into the Chun Li costume but failed (wardrobe malfunction?!).




This was followed by a short Guitar Hero: World Tour demo, and then the results of the votes were out. Merdeka came up victorious with a 2-vote lead. By now, it was close to 10 pm and I was very tired so I left in a hurry.

I initially planned to attend all 3 days of the X08 but seeing that all the major events were on Friday itself, there was nothing much left to see for the other two days. This means I can stay at home and enjoy the super-long weekend!

So whoever is reading this... Happy Deepavali. Enjoy your long weekend!

X08 Recollections (Part 1): Press Event

I took half day's leave on Friday for the X08 at Marina Square. The fan night is actually at 6:00 pm but Angelo managed to win some press event passes from Sheylara's blog so he asked me along. Wee.

I arrived at around 4:00 pm and went to look around. The X08 was at the Marina Atrium so it is actually pretty small. Plenty of demo stations and booths set up. The games on display were all the new upcoming titles. There was even an M18 room. I went him to catch a glimpse of Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty 5. Sadly, it was like the GCA all over again; Singaporeans are generally idiots who like hogging demo stations.

When it was almost time, I collected my press pass. Angelo arrived and we went to the stage area. Lots of journalists and reporters were there. While they all had big fancy cameras, I was armed with my little Sony CyberShot. hehe. I was actually surprised to see a lot of familiar faces at the press event, including the game shop owners from GameScore, Mega-MultiMedia, etc (I was hoping to see Chriz or anyone from FunZ but no one was there).


When the press event started, Xbox Regional Manager Alan Chou came on stage armed with the Chainsaw Gun from Gears of War. He spoke about the general developments of the Xbox 360 in Asia. I actually felt his speech was quite powerful and it actually made me feel 'important' and appreciated that I am part of the growing Xbox Live community.



After that, the M.C. introduced the upcoming Tomb Raider Underworld along with Alison Carroll who plays Lara Croft. I won't lie; Alison Carroll is dead sexy. I feel guilty staring at her and I don't want to think what is going through the minds of those people on the 2nd floor staring down at her. She even put on a little show for the audience, performing a lot of action poses, backflips, headstands. She even went on all fours. She darted all around the area and bounced around as the cameras followed her. It was quite hard to snap her cos' she was moving so quickly (this was the only action shot I got when she ran pass me). When it was all over, she was panting quite heavily.



Following that, Alan Chou returned and the M.C. invited all the major sponsors onstage for them to talk a little about their products. When it was all said and done, it was time for the official opening ceremony. Everyone placed their hands on the huge Xbox Power Button on-screen (insert "red ring" joke here) to 'switch it on'. A video montage played, highlightning new and old Xbox 360 games. And that was it. The X08 is now open.



I will continue with part 2 in my next entry.

X08 and Other Weekly Updates

Been playing games as usual. The X08 is next week!

http://www.xbox.com/zh-SG/community/events/X08

It's Singapore's upcoming Xbox 360 games convention to showcase new and upcoming releases. I may be going on all 3 days if I have the time. haha.

Also, time for a quick update of stuff that happened to me last week.

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Unscrupulous People Asking for Donations

I was at City Hall MRT station on a weekday to sell some of my used games. As I was about to leave, I was approached by a lady who was asking me for a $10 donation for some organization to help low-income families. Since I just sold my games, I was not ready to part with my money so quickly. I was about to refuse when a man (possibly her colleague) approached me and tried to persuade me with all those nice words. Those people are probably trained to soften people up so... I gave in and donated $10.

At this point in time, the guy turned to the girl and said, "You $4, I $6" and he reached into his bag and passed me 3 super-small cards with pictures on them. The lady passed me 2 as well. I looked at them and saw that they each had a Thank You note with the label $2 printed on it.

Holy shit? $2? If they asked for $2, I would've donated it to them without hesitation out of goodwill. But the greedy *toots* only had eyes for $10??? And the guy had to balls to split the loot with the lady in front of me? That's class A entrepreneurship (or conman) skills there.

This ticked me off a lot so I am going to think twice before making any more donations in future.

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Moblization at Tanjong Gul Camp

I was mobilized on Saturday for recall manning. The phonecall came at around 1:10 pm. I had my stuff ready so I left home at around 2:30 pm. My mother gave me a ride to Tanjong Gul camp which is all the way to the west pass Boon Lay. The journey took an hour. *sigh* I arrived at around 3:30 pm and in-processed. My arrival time was tagged as M+2.

I went to the holding area which was just a block designated for us to wait around. I realized that they were releasing people by the hour. So if someone arrive at 3:01 pm, he had to wait till 4:00 pm for the briefing before they can out-process. And those who arrived at 3:59 pm would get a pleasant surprise. haha. I learn something new every time.

That's probably all the army commitments for this year. And how time flies, it's already close to November.

Listen All of Y'All, It's a Sabotage!

Last week was so terrible. Let me count the ways how so many things can go wrong.

One.

My mother saw my modem cable running across the floor. For reasons that probably only God knows, she decided to give it a good pull and yanked my SingNet modem off the table. It crashed onto the floor and scared the hell out of me. I exploded and angrily told her off because this was NOT an accident.

The modem's outer shell popped out on several sides. I kinda snapped a few sides in except for the front which now juts out a little and exposes the innards a bit. Amazingly, it still works though now I am a little worried about how long it will last.

Up till now, I can never figure out what was going through her mind when she decided to tug at the cable. Must be a case of 'itchy hands'.

Two.

The petty cash and some money that I was holding at work was stolen. I always keep the cash it in a little black box inside my cabinet. Somehow, I just checked it one day and all the notes were gone. The thief only left the coins behind.

I suspect that one of the cleaners or building personnel had taken it. They are always coming into my room to empty the bins, vacuum the floor, clean the windows and so on. They do it several times a day so they are probably wise to my daily routine. Unfortunately, the loss of the money is not covered by business insurance since there were no real signs of actual theft and they say it is due to our own negligence (LoL @ insurance not working when you actually need it).

I got a little scolding by my boss who then helped by contributing half of the $200 that was lost. I feel very bad because the money was under my care and some idiot took it. I don't think I can look at the cleaners in the same way again.

Three.

I had an outbreak of rashes after lunch one day. I was a little scared, thinking that some insect had crawled up my shirt and is stinging me all over. My skin was all red and I was itching like mad. I endured through the day and even went for RT like this.

When I got home, my mother said it might have been that the maid didn't wash the clothes properly and left some detergent residue behind. But then the rashes didn't go away even into the night. I couldn't sleep properly that way.

Then it occurred to me that it must've been something I eaten. I knew I got rashes when I consume way too much alcohol. But the only out-of-the-ordinary thing I did that day was eat at the new noodle stall with my colleague. So the day at work, I asked my colleague about it and he thought about it for a while. Then he recalled that the soup tasted of prawn and seafood.

So it was the seafood!!! Meh.

But thankfully...

The thing that is stopping me from going mad is the fact that it had been a short week for me (M.C. on Monday, Hari Raya Puasa on Wednesday, RT on Tuesday & Thursday). So it has been pretty bearable.

And Yes!!!! My RT is finally over!!!!!!

Learn to Fly

I came down with a fever and diarrhea on Friday. I have absolutely no idea what caused it but I knew I was going to have one hell of a weekend. I slept at 12 midnight which was considered early for me.

I went to work on Saturday. I still felt bad. Angelo SMS'ed me and asked me if I wanted to go to Funan Centre to check out the newly opened Xbox section inside Challenger that Sheylara was promoting. I was about to turn him down when I remembered that I wanted to look for a USB microphone for Rock Band (I bought it recently!).

After work, I went to the Challenger at Funan and asked around. I actually got the same answer that I got from most places: There are no such things as USB microphones. At least locally anyway. Angelo showed up soon and we arrived at the Xbox section promptly at 2 pm.

To be honest, the event didn't seem to go quite well because there weren't many people there aside from random Challenger shoppers. There was a Rock Band demo and they asked for volunteers. No one wanted to try the game at all and it felt very awkward, so... guess who volunteered.



We played Learn to Fly by Foo Fighters. I need to stop getting my photo taken in public like that.

After that, me and Angelo were about to go have lunch when 2 guys came up to us and asked us if we could eat free curry puffs on their behalf. It turned out that they were part of some Mediacorp island-wide race thing (a local Amazing Race rip-off?) and their challenge at this checkpoint was to finish 2 curry puffs each. They were both Muslims and fasting so they couldn't complete the challenge. haha.

So me and Angelo each stuffed down 2 curry puffs. "You're lucky I haven't had my breakfast or lunch yet," I said. There were some Mediacorp people and other participants standing around. As soon as we were done eating, the two guys thanked us profusely before racing off. It was kinda weird; I wonder if this show will be aired on TV. haha.

Since we both had curry puffs already, we decided to just skip lunch and go home.

On a side-note, I managed to get my Rock Band USB microphone 2nd-hand from someone who was selling his.

GCA 2008

I went to the Games Convention Asia today. Several other people were going as well so we all decided to meet up. When I arrived there, I met YongHao and then Hobbes who was with his school's booth. We started chatting when this booth babe came and asked (actually more like begged) us to take a photo with her. I was kinda confused cos' I thought it was usually the other way round. She then handed us some coupons and told us to give it right back to her so we can have our pictures taken.



I guess the booth babe was in a hurry to fulfill her photo quota and go home. haha. The person taking the photo had such shaky hands. There was no way to salvage it except with the adjacent drawing by Hobbes.

Surprisingly, the GCA was not as crowded as most other events held at Suntec. There were a lot of new and upcoming titles on display with just as many people hogging them. Then there were also the cosplayers who seemd to pop up at every event. I saw an Arthas (WoW: WOTLK) near the Popcorn Gaming booth which even had a Frostmourne replica for sale at $998. As I was walking around, I even saw a Lulouch (Code Geass) walk pass me and go into the toilet. (I don't want to know what happened to all the people in the toilet.)




The highlight to me was the Guitar Hero: World Tour demo and a few gaming competitions going on like Soul Calibur IV, Rock Band and Guitar Hero Aerosmith. I joined the Rock Band competition with Rhyfe. We called ourselves Photoshop Heroes (I wonder if anyone got the reference. haha)I felt we were at a severe disadvantage since there was only two of us while other teams had 3-4 members. I was amazed when we got into the finals with 5 other teams because Rhyfe pulled off a stunt that was a real crowd pleaser; He sang vocals and played guitar at the same time.

In the end, we probably should have realized that the competition was not about skill or scores but more on aethestics. The winning team was the one who actually dressed up in nice clothes and performed a lot of stylish dance moves. I doubt the judges even took down scores or cared that we were playing on Expert. If it were me to decide, the other 3-man team with a godly guitarist would've won. Oh well, never mind. It was good fun and I'll be picking up Rock Band next week.

Super Boredom!!!

I haven't been updating for the past two weeks. RT always makes me feel terrible and work had been extremely tiring.

I have been spending a great deal of my time on the 360 as usual, though I must admit, too much of it can get pretty boring, too. I wonder if I am experiencing 'burnout' from gaming (if there is such a thing).

I played Tales of Vesperia (which is nice) and Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise. I actually bought Viva Pinata on impulse at the thought of having my own penguin garden. Who would've thought a 'kid's game' can be so difficult and user-unfriendly. Maybe it is time I cut down until Guitar Hero World Tour arrives. haha.

Time to super-summarize what I did for the past two weeks:

1st Week:

I went for another outing with somee BoB forum members. This time it was at TCC at Millenia Walk. It was my first time there. I had baked rice though felt it was overpriced at $19+. We sat around, chatted and browsed through Duelist's photo albums containing two-years worth of booth babe pictures (no kidding).

We went to Starbucks later to chat some more and have drinks. I bought ice cold chocolate and dined on chicken pie. At the end of it all, Terrorisk said he could give me a ride and I got quite a surprise when he actually drove me right to my block. I was so grateful.

I watched Wall-E with Rhyfe on Saturday. It was a nice, heartwarming show. It's amazing how most of the story was told with just two lines ("Wall-Eee!" "Eeeve!") and a whole lot of (robotic) body language and expressions. That's all I can say because any more and I will give away the plot. haha. The trailers and media did a good job of not revealing anything about the story at all. It's pretty fun to watch because it is so unique.


2nd Week:

My former WoW guildie from Malaysia, Jyoshou, came to Singapore for a visit over the weekend. He asked me out along with his other WoW friends, FunkyHair, Gyunikuchan and so on. It was a last-minute thing as he only contacted me on MSN when he reached Singapore. haha.

We went to Plaza Singpura for dinner at Pastamania followed by drinks at TCC (oh my god! again). Everyone seems pretty excited about the Lich King expansion coming out at the end of the year. It makes me wonder if I will feel tempted to play again.

After the outing, I dropped by at Books Kinokuniya at Orchard to pick up the Mass Effect: Ascension novel. Looks like I will have something to keep myself occupied other than staring at the screen for hours everyday.

Forward, Down, Down-Forward Plus Punch

I took leave last Wednesday because I felt that I needed a break from work and all the RT nonsense.

I had a nice little surprise when the gaming shirt that I ordered from Penny Arcade arrived.

I was vey afraid that the American size L would be too big for me but I am glad I can wear it as for normal. I would've bought more shirts if I had known. I have my eyes on the Photoshop Hero one next.

When it was around evening time, I went on Xbox Live to purchase Castle Crashers. It's one of the most highly anticipated Live Arcade title this year.

Castle Crashers is only The Behemoth's second game, their first being Alien Hominid which originated as a flash game on Newgrounds.com. The 'company' is merely a group of less than 10 programmers, consisting of Tom Fulp (owner of Newgrounds) and artist Dan Paladin. Even the music are user-created content from Newgrounds.

The game is bursting with quality, featuring interesting boss fights and good humour that surpasses even some crappy retail games. It reminds me of Treasure's Guardian Heroes (that old game was truly a masterpiece). Sadly, it is an arcade title which means it's real short. I'm kinda disappointed that the main story was all over in a couple of hours but I had a blast while it lasted.

Human, Just Too Human

The past week had been great! There was no RT on Sunday due to the Army Half Marathon. Which means I finally get a peaceful weekend. Hooray.

I won the new X360 game "Too Human" as part of a giveaway contest on Sheylara.com. I was like OMG!!! I think this is the first time I ever won anything from a lucky draw. I met up with Sheylara last Monday to collect my game (she's cute!). No pictures of the meetup because I look terrible in the photo and don't ever want to see it again. :(



Anyway, the game was supposed to be released on Thursday so I got to play it early! I had a lot of people online messaging me how come I got the game. hehe. It's a pretty decent Diablo clone, though there was a lot of controversy online because it did not live up to the hype ("7 years development cycle, blah, blah"). It's still pretty addictive grinding levels, gearing up and hunting for EPICS.

Saturday night was another BoB forum gathering. This time it was at ArtfulKurosawa's home. Lots of people couldn't find his home cos' he gave us the wrong unit number. It looked like he had things all planned out for the night; he even catered food for us all (or was it home-cooked? I couldn't tell). The decor in his home was real nice; you could tell everything was renovated according to his specifications. It makes me wonder if I can ever afford my own home in this lifetime.

There were SCIV games going on in his bedroom but I didn't feel like playing with the regular controllers as I loved arcade ticks to go with my fighting games. Instead, I stuck around the living room and played some PS3 Rock Band. Having played at E2Max before, I was slightly more comfortable with the game and the plastic Stratocaster now. I'll never get tired of Aerosmith's Train Kept a Rollin' (All Night Long!).

I chatted with some of the more familiar forum members. I left close to midnight but even so, people will still coming for a visit. Raccon was very nice and gave me a ride to the East side since he lived in Eunos.

Sunday was spent playing even more Too Human.

If your Uncle Jack helped You off an Elephant...

I haven't updated for quite a while. The moment my RT commenced last Sunday, I started feeling moody. Just like the previous year and the year before that. haha.

Last Saturday, I was considering going to the WCG at Suntec to have a look. Aside from video games, I heard that the WoW TCG Asian Championships was being held (I'm surprised that there is still official support for it). It would've been pretty interesting to check that out and look at the Xbox games as well but I only woke up in the afternoon which was a little late. I even completely forgotten that it was National Day.

I met Darrell on MSN and we decided to have a movie dinner at night. YongHao came along as well. I went early to Cineleisure to buy tickets for The Love Guru before meeting them at Somerset MRT. But being ever so lost, I walked from Cineleisure to Orchard MRT and took the train to Somerset MRT station to meet them. That took like 20+ minutes. We had dinner at Waraku first before going back to Cineleisure.


It's time for the Love Guru! Honestly, I wouldn't have even considered this show if it weren't for Mike Myers. I wanted more Mike Myers comedies and this was probably the closest thing we'll ever get to a new Austin Powers movie.

The movie even started with a funny music & dance routine. Mike Myers plays the Guru Pitka and returns to the big screen with his ever familiar style of comedy gimmicks and funny word plays. I'll never grow tired of them. Plenty of dirty jokes abound. I enjoyed the movie. And Jessica Alba was hot. I didn't even know she was in the movie. How did I miss that?

If your Uncle Jack helped you off an elephant, would you help your Uncle Jack off an elephant?

After the movie ended, I wanted to grab a bite so Darrell led me to one of the stalls at the basement of Takashimaya which sold sausages. I bought a cheese sausage with mashed potatoes and it was friggin' awesome. Not because of all the sausage innuendo in the movie we just watched.

I went home and prepared for RT the next day. No more staying up late on Saturday nights ever again until this is all over.

I am the Terror that Flaps in the Night

I went to the Manhatten Fish Market for dinner at Plaza Singapura on Friday. It was an outing organized by the members of the BOB (Brotherhood of the Box) forum. I knew a few of them from online but this was the first time I went out with them. I could recognize two of them who used their real photos as their gamerpic.



This was my first time eating at this restaurant and it was very similar to Fish & Co's. Strangely, I wasn't as chatty as my usual online self. Maybe I feel awkward/uneasy in large groups. What I did find out was that most of the BOB members were in their 30's or 40's and married already. No wonder the forum community had a very mature feel compared to other local gaming forums.

After dinner, we went to watch The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Everyone said that the movie was rubbish. I actually felt it was okay; at least I didn't fall asleep or something. Maybe it's because I have seen worse movies recently. The Mummy had a predictable plot and a lot of cheesy moments but I still found it nice. Laugh as the American characters spew out Mandarin that no one in the cinema can understand

Everyone went home after the movie. Something weird/embarrasing happened to me when I tried to take a cab home. It was very dark at around 11 pm. I saw a bus-stop up ahead so I went to stand at the road in front of it and tried to flag some taxi's. A lot of taxi's seemed to ignore me and picked up people who were in the bus-stop. But I was lucky and got a taxi that was heading East.

When I got on the taxi, the driver asked me if I was waiting for a taxi on call. I was like, "No. Why?" Then he said, "Really, meh? You stand at the front of queue. You must be waiting for the taxi you booked, right?" Oh my god!!! That 'bus-stop' was actually a shelter for a taxi queue! The people in the queue must be wondering who is this idiot trying to cut the queue by standing out on the road. *sigh* Good thing it was really dark or else people may have seen my face.

And something made me rather happy at the end of the month.

I got a raise after a year of work! Happy happy.

SCIV - Do or Do Not. There is no Try

I picked up Soul Calibur IV last week! SCIV is a direct-to-console game so I think it prompted a lot of long-time series fans and arcade-goers to purchase a PS3/Xbox360 to play the game. I am hoping this influx of players will mean that the game will have a nice, long-lasting online community.

I've never played a Soul Calibur game before but I am enjoying the game so far. The game is a whole lot easier to pick up than VF5, which I am convinced by now, requires a PhD in rocket science to learn. The first character I picked was Nightmare based on looks and I like him so I guess he is my main for now. He's kinda slow which means I have problems with faster characters that get in my face. I hope I can be a decent, non-scrubby player at least.

One thing I find pretty out-of-place about the game are the female characters that looked like they stepped out of Dead or Alive, skimpy clothing and all. Throw in an extensive character customization mode and it's... welcome to the flesh parade! Have a look. And beware; the last character at the bottom of the page is naked (shield your eyes!). Yup, they even call it OppaiCalibur (Go Google what Oppai means. haha).

There is even a Japanese comic teaching how to play the game which is funny and suggestive.

(Scanlations by Otadesho)

- Part 1 - Part 2 -

And some of you may have noticed... yes, Darth Vader and Yoda are in the game. Xbox users get Yoda first and Vader probably later. It's weird when he speaks Japanese.

It's Time for NS Matters Again

Last Thursday, I got called up for a reservist Mob Briefing from 2 pm to 4 pm at Seletar Camp (which means I got the day off!!!). That is actually the same camp where I had my first reservist ICT 2 years ago.

I gathered at the auditorium above the cookhouse with other NS men. I recognized a few familiar faces from 2 years ago. They probably don't know me and it was a little awkward but I just went ahead and sat with them.

I overheard their conversation and realized why I hadn't been called up for ICT for 2 years. They were trying to clear the old birds and let them ROD first so they are going for all the recent ICTs, including one to Thailand. I hope I will never have to go for overseas ICT but I think there is a chance that everyone will get it.

The briefing was about a trial mob activation, but this time, we know they will surely activate us on a certain day in October to test-run their new system.

There is also another mob period in November but the officer just smiled and remarked that we haven't been activated in 3 years and the 'higher-ups' were very pleased with our last activation in 2006 where the attendance rate was 97%. So... if that is a clue, I still have no idea whether they will activate or not. haha.

At least I know that I don't have ICT this year. I guess I'll get it next year. Meh.

And my RT is starting again on 10th August, after National Day. This will be my 3rd year. It is sad to be sign-on RT for life.

Movie Streak

I have been going to AMK Hub for movies for the past three weeks in a row so here is my belated movie impressions post!

Wanted


I watched Wanted with Michael. It was pretty okay, though the plot felt a little weak. For a movie about stylish gunplay/action, I actually felt there wasn't enough action scenes! But the few that were present were very well done and had an over-the-top Matrix feel. It's always cool to see bullets that curve and sniper rounds that travel halfway across the country before bursting through someone's head in a bloody mess.

I found it funny that the beginning of the show felt like a typical American sitcom with monologue and narration by the main character. It was like watching Scrubs.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army


I watched this with Michael, Jeryl and YongHao. It was kinda a last-minute thing. I only went to AMK Hub to pick up Unreal Tournament III and was gonna play it all night. Then it turned into another movie night.

I remembered the trailers on TV (the "if monsters didn't exist..." one) and it actually made the movie seem nice. It turned out to be a little disappointing, though. There was nothing particularly exciting about it, nor there was anything horrible about it. It was pretty 'meh' all the way. Some of the characters even looked like they stepped out of an episode of Power Rangers.

The action scenes felt very, very weak, despite the fact that the movie was based on an action comic. It's all seemed like a brutish slug-fest to me. At least the fights were not as rubbish as those in Ghost Rider.

The Dark Knight


I watched this with Mog, Akira and Max. The whole world probably watched this movie by now. No doubt about it; it's a great movie. The pace was very good. There was never a draggy moment.

*Spoilers ahead*

The Joker was real sinister and devilishly clever; I love how he was portrayed in the movie as being totally psychotic and twisted. I liked how he rigged the two ships and forced the passengers to choose to blow up the other ship. My favorite scene for that segment was when the big, brutish convict walked up to the police officer and showed him how to be a man. It kept me on the edge of my seat.

I was kinda expecting the show to feature two main villains like Batman Begins, seeing how Harvey Dent was featured so prominently on the movie posters. I was a little disappointed by TwoFace's minor role; he was more of a plot device and tool for the Joker. It was all still pretty good.

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That was probably the last of the movies I wanted to watch this quarter of the year. I missed out on Get Smart and Hancock. I wonder what's the next nice show to hit the cinemas.

Twelve Months Has Gone By!

Last Friday I was sick and didn't go to work again. That morning, I woke up, got dressed then left the house as for normal. As I got off the lift, I asked myself honestly if I was fit enough to go to work. I was feeling feverish so the answer was 'no' and it was back to bed for me. This time, I actually felt guilty about it; I've taken MC 3 times in 12 months already. My boss commented about me falling sick often when I returned to work the next day.

Come to think of it, I have been here for a year already! Wow, 12 long months. How did I survive one whole year with such a without any long breaks? (WTB: one-week long government-declared holiday for working people!) If life was a videogame, I'd be expecting an 'achievement unlocked' pop-up any time now.

Throughout my one year here, I actually learnt a lot of things that are not typical desk-job fare. One thing I had 'fun' (to put it very mildly) doing was helping my boss with general insurance. (Examples: car insurance, foreigner worker insurance, workman compensation; the kind that people have to buy because it is required to by law, etc.)

Since day one, my boss has wanted to let me handle his general insurance cases and taught me how. I ended up being quite familiar with it, acting as the middleman who prepares the necessary documents and liasing with the behind-the-scenes people. It's not a big deal but it does feel good when people thank me for it. Sometimes, the greedy side of me wonder if I should ask for a raise. haha

I actually plan to stick with this job until they don't want me anymore or until the agency makes it big. This agency actually started last year, several months before I came, so I kinda feel like I should probably stick around and see how everything turns out. The lady-boss has set her goals high and wants the agency to make their first million in sales by 2011. That's three years away. I wonder if I will still working here by then.

I recently exchanged Facebook and MSN contacts with a few colleagues. Now I feel real silly that I actually waited one whole year to do it.

Rock Band @ E2Max

I went for a Rock Band jam session last Sunday at E2Max (The Cathay) with Rhyfe and his two friends. The rental price was actually pretty much a rip-off ($25 an hour) and E2Max was pretty cheapskate. They only had one set of instruments so only 3 players could play at any one time. We had to take turns.



My impressions...

The Stratocaster guitar is probably the worst plastic guitar I have ever laid my hands on. The guitar parts actually felt hard due to the stricter timing window and eye-straining HO/POs. Drumming was actually pretty fun, though I got a real work-out with the foot pedal. My ankle hurt as though I had just finished an RT session.

People always say the vocals are the most unpopular and now we know why. Most of us got pretty bored with it after a while and soon, not many felt like singing. Maybe cos' it's pretty mundane (it's just a mic after all; how interesting can it get?) and simply not as fun as holding a plastic instrument in your hands.

I sang a few songs that I knew: Train Kept A' Rollin (Aerosmith), Highway Star (Deep Purple) and a few recognizable songs from Guitar Hero. If I could hear myself sing, my hair would probably all stand on their ends. The hardest song in the game was Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld. I heard that this was supposed to be a funny song out of South Park. haha.

It was pretty fun. The 3 hours went by rather quickly. We wanted to capture a few perfomances on video but an E2Max staff told us that we were not allowed to take pictures. I wonder why. Meh.

I won't be playing Rock Band @ E2Max again due to the ripoff prices. Maybe if I ever come here again, I could try other stuff.

PhoneCam Hero: Pink, It's My New Obsession

When you are bored and realize that your phone camera can take passable videos, you start to think of all the cool stuff you can do.

Here's my fresh attempt on the Lou battle again. This time it's a little more dramatic because I got screwed for more than half the battle then ended up winning (at 3:50) when my life was flashing red and about to fail. It was all by luck. Hmm, now if I had failed during the 'Finish Him' section, I would've been mad.

And yes, I do realize that I can hear the loud plastic tapping of my guitar strumming. It actually sounds pretty nice. haha.



And here is a little bonus vid for someone who has a blog that screams PINK! And nope, it's not a crazy perfect, full-combo video. I happen to like this song and it's for fun. I even miss already during the first 60 seconds of the song. But I got a pretty decent score, didn't miss the initial tough bit (at 1:40) and it even ends nicely with the 100-streak message popping up. haha.

The Penguin Went Down to Georgia, He was Looking for a Soul to Steal

OH. MY. F**KING. GOD. I beat the Devil!!!



I finally beat the Lou boss battle in Guitar Hero 3 on Hard after a two-month break from the game. This was accompanied by much cheering and cursing (in a happy way). I couldn't believe it myself. Everyone says he's cheap & random and some may never beat him for weeks, maybe months.

After playing a lot of GH: Aerosmith, The Devil Went Down to Georgia no longer seemed as impossible as I remembered it from months ago. The lyrics will be etched in my mind because I tried it so many times. It's actually quite catchy and tells a story which is mimic'ed by the in-game boss battle.

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The Devil Went Down to Georgia
GH3 version covered by Steve Ouitmette
Link: Video

The devil went down to Georgia, he was looking for a soul to steal.
He was in a bind 'cos he was way behind: he was willin' to make a deal.
When he came across this young man sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot.
And the devil jumped upon a hickory stump and said: "Boy let me tell you what:
"I bet you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player too.
"And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.
"Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy, but give the devil his due:
"I bet a fiddle of gold against your soul, 'cos I think I'm better than you."
The boy said: "My name's Johnny and it might be a sin,
"But I'll take your bet, your gonna regret, 'cos I'm the best that's ever been."

...

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(That's just the first verse, which I find quite memorable. haha)

Sadly, the blue fret button on my guitar controller is pretty messed up right now (did I stress it too much?). I hope I can get it fixed or I'll just have to get a new one.