Protect your Goodies

Yay, my DS finally has screen protectors! It is simple things like this that makes me happy.

A few days ago, I scratched the touchscreen my precious Nintendo DS while playing Feel the Magic and it freaked me out. (I sorta deserve it cos' it is like running around with a loaded gun.) Since the beginning of time, I did not believe in using such things cos' I am always careful with my game consoles. *sigh*

I went to Mega Multimedia immediately and bought some Hori Screen Protectors. It costed a whopping S$22, but I was desperate to protect my precious investment. (Come to think of it, it was dumb.) I spent an hour trying to get it on, but air bubbles and dust kept getting trapped under it. In the end, the screen protector got mutilated by my careless hands and I tossed it away. S$22 down the drain, just like that.

Today, Chris got some nice affordable LCD Guardian protectors at S$12. He helped me to put one on for the touchscreen and I was so proud of myself when I conquered my fear by placing the top one on myself.

Remember; almost protect your investment.

Not-so-Good Service

I went back to Absolute Comics on Thursday to have a look and was delighted to find that they had the 2nd printing of Darkstalkers #1 at an affordable S$6 (as opposed to the S$30 1st print I saw the other time). I over-heard some guys at the counter talking about issue 2. I did not see it in the shelves, though, so I promptly took the 1st issue and brought it to the counter.

I handed the comic to the cashier. He was a yellow-haired person who did not even look at me. He was busy talking to some middle-aged guy. I patiently waited for him to ask for payment, but just then, one of the saleslady (not the kind one I saw from last time) came to the counter and plunked a huge stack of comics on the table. I saw the new Darkstalkers #2 right on top and got a little excited. "Wow, is issue 2 for sale already?"

The yellow-haired guy stopped talking to the middle-aged man and took notice of me at last. He curtly replied: "We are out of stock. There'll be more next week." I graciously thanked him, but again, he turned away, treating me like I am invisible. Instead, he continued to chat with the middle-aged guy, and he punched some numbers into the cash register, and the figures "$286.00" flashed on the display.

Now I get it. The huge stack of comics are the middle-age guy's purchases. The yellow-haired beng was chatting with him and totally ignoring me because the guy was a 'big customer' who just spent a buttload of cash. How lame. The way he replied to me about issue 2 also sounded as if the old guy deserved it more than me or something.

In the end, I was only served like five minutes later. It was the lady who served me and not the yellow-haired beng. I think he is the boss or something. Looks like I'll have to tolerate him again the next time I come for future issues.

First Baby-Step in Job-Hunting

Tried to psych myself up for job-hunting today by browsing JobsDB.com (lots of my friends found jobs off this site).

Just as I had feared, my degree in Computer Science is worth nuts when all the IT-related posts specifically request that the applicant be either very proficient in programming (which I am not) or have 1-2 years of experience. It made me a bit regretful when I saw that most employers were looking for people with degrees/diplomas in business, accounting, banking, and all the other stuff that I actually considered taking when I entered NUS. But I just had to choose Computing cos' I thought it would be 'fun'. (Yeah, right.)

I looked through around 20+ pages of job listings and realized that I can only do stuff that mainly require little-to-no experience such as sales assistants, admin assistants, etc. I'll bookmark those and have a look at them another time.

On an interesting note, I saw a job that made me go "WTF". It's a Japanese translator job with an amazing salary of S$2,500 and requiring only 'O' Level qualification. (In comparison, jobs with degree/diploma requirements pay around $1500-$1800+.) Makes us wonder why we even go through JC/Poly/NUS when we can just study Japanese and take JLPT instead.

Happy New Year

It's the year 2005. Happy new year to everyone.

Everyone is busy with school. For me, I have not started job-hunting yet. I doubt any IT firm will take me yet cos' my degree is insufficient to meet the expectations of the real working world. Damn NUS and their screwed up 3-year degrees. They save all the good stuff for the honor students and treat us like 2nd rate citizens. I have a feeling that 1st year IT students from Poly learn more than 3-year computing students from NUS.

I really should jump at any job opportunity now. I can't believe I let one slipped by. I was at CCK and those Singnet salesperson approached me and asked me if I was interested in applying for Broadband. I told her that I was already using Singnet Broadband and she asked if I had any friends who was interested in a full-time job. Being the slow-witted dum-dum I am, I just said "no" and left. It slipped my mind that I could just referred myself.

Anyway, my Mum suggests that I take some courses to improve myself first. I guess I'll scout around and take one baby-step at a time.

Nintendo DS

After some serious consideration, I went out and got myself a Nintendo DS as a belated Christmas gift. It was not a rushed decision. I have been reading a lot of DS vs. PSP debates online. It is without doubt that the PSP outshines the DS in every aspect, but that does not mean that the DS is absolutely lousy. The DS is more affordable for me at the moment. Even if the price of the PSP were to drop to its original suggested retail value of S$500+, it would probably take around 6-12 months for that to happen. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy my DS which incidentally doubles up as a new GBA with backlight for me.

I bought Ridge Racer DS, which is a remake of the N64 version which I also owned but did not complete. I quite suck at racing games though I like to play them for fun. If I cannot beat a track after a few tries, I'll turn it off and go back to play fighting games. But this time, I told myself that I would dedicate myself to learning the game more. As a matter of fact, I actually got further in Ridge Racer DS than before. The game is frustratingly difficult for me; I can spend up to 2 hours re-trying a single track. I sometimes found myself memorizing the track layout unknowingly, and seeing my lap times improve bit by bit every time makes it all the more satisfying.

Aside from that, I got the surprise of my life when I put in some of my GBA games to play. I had absolutely no idea that GBA games could look so good! I've only had a regular GBA for many years now and all of a sudden, the backlight made all my old games look so 'alive'. Gundam SEED Destiny looked so drop-dead gorgeous with all the vibrant colors on the characters and background. I almost thought I was playing the game with a new 'graphics card' installed. It makes me just want to put in some of my old games to see how they look like.

It's Christmas!

On Thursday (23rd) , I went to watch Kung Fu Hustle with Bahamut, Kyo, Brainy and Kenrick. We wanted to go for the 7 pm show, but the tickets were all sold out. I didn't expect the movie to be this popular. We ended up going for the 9 pm show.

The movie was pretty interesting & funny. It was nice to see Stephen Chow in a movie again. The story was a little disappointing though. The plot isn't very refreshing and the hero, Sing was not very active throughout the entire show until towards the end. The show's fight scenes has to be its high points (as the title suggests). I almost think the show was trying to replicate Matrix-style fight scenes.

The movie ended at 11 pm. This was the first time I stayed at Tampines Mall so late and the building & escalators were closed off. We had a hard time leaving because of massive crowding at the lifts.

When I got home that night, I couldn't get to sleep. In the end, I chatted with Max and Brainy on MSN till the wee hours of the morning. We were still doing some last-minute planning for a possible Christmas Eve outing. In the end, we settled on a simple dinner at Orchard's Marche.

For me, I decided to spend the early half of the day at Max's house playing games. I took a short nap and woke up early at 8 am on Friday (24th) to begin my 90-minute journey to CCK. At Max's place, we played mostly Shining Tears and Z-Gundam: AEUG vs. Titans. Max's mum even prepared spaghetti for lunch cos' he told her that I "only ate western" (felt so bad).

When it was close to 5 pm, we left for Orchard to meet up with Brainy. Brainy was in charge of calling people along, and he brought along Chaosmag, Fengokill and Riku. We went to Marche at the Heeren, and there was a special rule that day; all customers had to spend at least S$15 per head. I guess it was to control the Christmas crowd, and it was working well cos' the place was not as madly mobbed as the other restaurants int he Orchard area. I had a cheese sausage rosti, mashed potato and mushroom soup. I tried my best NOT to get any drinks because I remembered how expensive the drinks were. In the end, I was very thirsty and had to wash down my meal, so I went to buy "Tasmanian Rain Water" (I guess it's some kind of mineral water). Initially, we planned to go to Swensen's for dessert after Marche, but everyone of us was feeling full. In fact, I think I had too much potato; my stomach wasn't feeling too well.

We decided to go walk-walk. We went to Cineleisure for a while. After that, we strolled a bit, but soon ended up having nothing to do. In the end, Brainy left, and the rest of us accompanied Fengokill to Suntec City cos' he wanted to look at Gundam model kits.

At Suntec City, we visited the toy shop that incidentally was the tourney location for the upcoming small JJ tournament. Along the way, I saw Kung Pow being shown on TV again at the same place I saw it during the outing with my friends a few days ago. This time, it was the infamous cow scene. hehe.

After that, we went to Bugis Junction to shop some more. I wanted to check out Absolute Comics. I thought that I might be spurred by the feeling of Christmas to buy Tuxedo Gin, but I felt nothing and just walked out. *Sigh*

It was pretty late already (close to 10 pm), but surprisingly, the stores weren't closing for the day yet. They must have extended their business hours for Christmas. The rest were going over to their friend's place to stay overnight, so it was time I went home.

I decided to sleep early that night to make for the past day's lack of any sleep and the fact that my tummy was still aching from an over-filling dinner. But before I slept, I went to dig out my Kung Pow VCD to watch again.

On Christmas day, the first thing I did when I woke up was to go check the NUS intranet. My results were released that day. The first thing they showed when I logged in was "Congratulations on your graduation". Good enough. I navigated a few screens and saw that I got a 'C' grade for my J2EE project. Hey, not bad for 20+ hours of work. hehe.

In the late afternoon, I went to AMK to have a look since Bulaidi was going to have some sort of DM team tourney. When I got there, it was evening and only 4 teams were around. I joined Max's and Akira's team to play for fun.

We then had dinner at Sumo House and returned to the shop. This was when my "I need to get something for Christmas" urge came on and I stood there contemplating about the Nintendo DS again. Just like all the other times before, I still could not bring myself to buy a DS.

Oh, well. Christmas is over, but it is still not late to get something for myself. I'll come up with something. After all, I have been taking the MRT to save money for nearly a week already.

Ho-Hum Outing at Suntec

I went out with my old NUS group-mates today. They actually took 3 weeks to arrange this outing just because everyone kept changing their mind. Oh, well. We agreed to go to Suntec for lunch.

I received a call from JN at 12 noon to remind me of the meeting since I keep on teasing her that I will forget about it. She told me not to be late. Oh, well. I was leaving home already, so I will be there on time. We were supposed to meet at 1:00 pm, and I arrived at 12:45 pm. I knew I would be in for trouble. Typical Singaporeans (especially students) are always late.

I walked around City Link to pass the time AL and SV finally arrived at 1:45 pm. JN had a job interview and would be late. KH... well, as usual, he never did turn up. We went to Suntec first to walk around, but an hour later, JN still had not arrive.

We were deciding on what to eat. SV mentioned that Swiss Culture has Swiss Cheese Pasta; oh, that makes me drool. At 3:00 pm, we finally decided to eat without her. It's about time, too, since all of us were hungry. We decided to eat at Sakae Sushi. I ordered a Teriyaki Chicken Ramen. AL and SV got themselves soft shell crabs and selected dishes off the moving conveyor belt.

As we ate, SV talked about her new job. It made me feel a little stressed that I have not begun job hunting. The conversation turned a little dry to me as they carried on talking about jobs for hours, even after everyone had finished their food. And JN still haven't arrived.

I got a little bored/tired/impatient, and told them I was going. Yeah, it is socially unacceptable for a person to leave halfway in the middle of an outing, but so what? I was friggin' bored; I could not accept the fact that we wasted 1 hour+ doing absolutely nothing before lunch. With a little persuasion, I decided to stay on. We eventually decided to foot the bill and left Sakae Sushi at around 4:30 pm.

After that, it was more walking around. AL shopped for clothes, while SV went to look at jewellery. This was definitely not my kind of thing. Finally, SV soon got a call from JN; her job interview had ended and she had reached Suntec. I waited for her to arrive before I politely excused myself and left.

On the way out of Suntec, I passed by aTV showing Kung Pow. OMG, that was one super duper hilarious movie I remember. The people who passed by also stopped and laughed at the show's silliness. I guess this was the only 'highlight' of today's outing. Yeah. Different people, different tastes. Now back to my regular life.

Comic Hunting

The comic-book style endings in Capcom Fighting Jam were so gorgeous that I decided to find out which company did it. I learnt that it was done by UDON comics, and that they were doing several Capcom comic titles, including StreetFighter and Darkstalkers. Since DarkStalkers is pretty new (still at Issue 1), I decided that it would be perfect for me to start collecting.

I decided to try my luck at Bugis Junction's Absolute Comics. It's the only specialty comic store that I know of for now. (I don't think those that I used to visit in my JC days are still around.)

I first looked around but wasn't able to find any dedicated shelf for UDON comics. Finally, I approached a sales person. She was very helpful and friendly. I asked her if they had any titles by UDON comics, and she replied "Yes, plenty". She then proceeded to show me where they kept DarkStalkers. My eyes nearly popped out when I saw the price tag: S$29.90. And the price printed on the cover itself said US$2.95. Years ago, when I was a mad comics nut, I would have had no qualms paying S$29.90 for the 1st Issue of the first printing of a comic. But now, it seems like daylight robbery.

I decided to put that aside for now and decided to have a look at the StreetFighter comics. The same nice sales person saw me wondering around and offered to show me where they were kept. After admiring the various StreetFighter covers, I went back to look at DarkStalkers issue 1 again. The hefty price tag was indeed a deterrent. I asked the sales person if they had the (cheaper) 2nd edition; she replied that it was not out yet. I then thanked her one last time; I felt bad not buying a single thing after she helped me so much. *sigh*

Anyway, I decided to hang out a bit more before I left. They had a lot of English-published manga. I decided to try my luck and see if they had Tuxedo Gin. I was surprised; they really did have it, but the price was the same as that of Kinokuniya and Borders: S$19.99 (US price: US$9.95; what's it with the gay prices of American manga?). Again, I hesitated at buying it. I did try to find the HK Chinese version at Comics Connection before, but they told me that it was a very old comic and they no longer have it. Looks like I might end up buying the English Tuxedo Gin when I am ready for it. It's one of those rare comics for penguin lovers like myself.

Movie: Blade Trinity

Watched Blade Trinity today. It's another one of those movies with a non-existent plot and plenty of mindless action. It's NC-16, so expect a lot of blood, disturbing scenes, and crude language. Even though I didn't watch the other Blade movies, I was not one bit lost as I think there is to link to its prequels.

Oh, well. Come to think of it, I think I actually enjoy movies with non-existent plots and plenty of action. That, and slapstick comedies.

Speaking of which, the next movie I wanna catch is Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle. It has been eons since the last Stephen Chow comedy, so this is a must-see in my books.

Video Games & Nostalgia

I haven't had much to do after the DMC Tournament. School has reopened for the Poly crowd, so I see less people at AMK. I have been trying to find means & ways to entertain myself while at home.

I was seriously considering getting a Nintendo DS, but after reading up on the Sony PSP, I think I will wait out. Both of them cost ridiculously expensive for now. I now feel like getting World of Warcraft, but Chris has sold out, and I think the whole island has a shortage of the game, too.

Back to console games for me, I guess.

While randomly surfing around the net for games, I came across Capcom Fighting Jam for the PS2 at Capcom's official JPN site. It's a fighting game featuring 20+ characters from several Capcom games. Aside from the StreetFighter & Vampire series, I was rather alarmed that it actually had characters from the totally obscure 1996 arcade fighting RPG, Warzard. I remember how I used to play it in FunLand Bedok and that I brought slips of paper to copy down the password that saved my character's level/EXP.



I went to read up more on Capcom Fighting Jam and realized that it got pretty bad reviews (very small character roster, old-school/outdated gameplay, etc). A forum topic at GameFAQs informed me that FunLand AMK has a machine. Oh, good. It's an arcade port, so I can try it out.

I tried it once and felt it was not totally crap. (Maybe cos' I didn't play a Capcom fighter for months already.) The music is pretty neat; there was even one with Japanese lyrics that blared loudly in the arcade. The comic-book style endings are gorgeous, too.

I decided that I would just get the game anyway, just for nostalgia's sake and that fact that I like at least half of the cast. The PS2 version came with a Master's Disc containing a history of the various derived games as well as some neat combos. It's all cool, but nothing beats the feeling of nostalgia by playing as some of my old favorite Warzard & Vampire characters.

Sony owns Nintendo

I was almost pretty sure I would be getting a Nintendo DS for myself this Christmas, together with cool games like Ridge Racer DS, Feel the Magic, and Band Brothers. Then I read this little article and it totally changed my mind.



Looks like I'll be waiting out a while more before I splurge any money during the festive season.

What I've Been Up to!

*Gasp* I haven't updated in a few weeks. I'll just briefly sum up what I've been doing.

Movie: "The Incredibles"
Watched it. Pretty fun. I just wonder why is it so hyped up. Everywhere I go, I see posters, merchandise, etc.

DMCT2004
Yay, my annual Duel Monsters tournament. This year's event seems to be a lot more grand and more interesting than all the previous ones. I really look forward to organizing it, and playing in it.

Trip to the Dentist
Just when I thought it would be just another routine check-up, the Dentist tightened my braces this time round. And the funny thing was that he didn't tell me till I called him. My teeth ached overnight and I thought something had gone horribly wrong somewhere. Oh, well. Back to soft foods for one week. Hmm. Whipped potato. Yummy.

Video Games
Fell in love with the Nintendo DS, but then realized it is not fully compatible with GBA games. Still using the ancient GBA; darn, I really need a backlight. Bought Final Fantasy I&II, which I now play at my leisure. Also bought Gundam SEED Destiny on impulse (no pun intended); it's basically a suped up version of its American counterpart, Gundam SEED which I already have. It's a million times nicer and completely puts the US version to shame.