(Stolen off Jun Yi)
Step 1: Get your music thinger ready, put it on random, and play.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 20 songs that play.
Step 3: Let everyone guess what song the lines come from
Step 4: Cross out the songs when someone guesses correctly, or let people know who got it.
BUT
Since I am an absolute jerk I shall add none of the English songs. >_> Because of that I post the 1st 2 lines >_>
1) Kokoro ni, chiisana, hana ga, saiteru,
2) Nokosareta tooi mukashi no
Kizuato ga uzukidashite mata (I guess if anyone JY will guess this >_>)
3) Yamikumo ni osore hiza wo daku
Chigau desho? soko wa warau tokoro
4) Anna ni issho datta no ni
Yuugure wa mou chigau iro (This is so easy that it's sad >_>)
5) Nagusame nagara fukinshin dakedo
Naiteru kao mo kirei de aseru yo
6) Hoshikuzu no sabaku ni okizarareta
Suisou to boku-tachi hiza wo kakaete
7) Tadoritsuku basho sae mo
Wakaranai todoku wo shinjite (Any typoes I hope not I typed this one out >_>)
8) (Hey happy face >_>) Just keep on trying, keep on flying
I will be the light (By right this is untelligible. >_>)
9) Arere? okashiina kono dokidoki ha
kimi no ude no nakade afuredasu (I will be sad if no one is l33t enough to get this >_>)
10) Lu La lu La piano wa sekai no yumesaku nohara ni melody
Kowareta tokei wo shinjite jikan wa dare no mikata?
11) Angely i demony kruzhili nado mnoj
Rassekali ternii i mlechnye puti
12) Don't worry, do your best!
Picnic Kibun feel so good! (Please someone guess this >_>)
13) Shizukana kono yoru ni anata wo matteru no
ano toki wasureta hohoemi wo tori ni kite
14) I never really feel quite right
I don't know why, all I know is there's something wrong
15) I wanna go to a place where I can say
That I'm all right and I'm staying there with you
16) Sayonara wa itsumo kyuuni
soyokaze no youni yattekuru
17) Whoa-oh! Oh Angel! Come greet the dawn, it's a brand new day!
Whoa-oh! Oh Angel! Let burn the passion that fires your soul!!
18) LALALA HOP! SOSHITE STEP!
KITA HE JUMP! AND JUMP! AND JUMP JUMP WHOO! (Imagine my amusement >_>)
19) Hashiri dasu shunkan sakamichi de kaze ni
yakitsuketa hizashi ga mune no oku atsuku shita
20) Yasashii sono yubi ga owari ni fureru toki
Ima dake, kimi dake shinjite mo ii darou
Damnit, I have WAY too much G-SEED on that list. >_> I bet it's over a quarter or something. And the amount of songs with English inside that showed up was quite interesting >_>
Guess on teh comments plz >_>
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Thursday, December 29, 2005
In Anticipation of 2006
The year is indeed ending, and this time none of us hath murdered it. In fact, given a choice, chances are alot of us would wish to relive it again. Bah, sucks to you, let's move on in life.
Sometimes we reach a phase of our life, and only realize it after we're someway through it. What was the start of all this? When did the cogs of fate begin to turn? Perhaps it is impossible to answer that now (Damn, it just sounds so corny now. >_>) All that we can do now, is look back, reminisce, and angst like the absolute losers we are.
Ok, ignore that. And don't listen to Linkin Park, nor Simple Plan >_> Why?
Bunny: ^_^
LINKIN PARK AND SIMPLE PLAN ATTACKS
Bunny: ;_;
I kind of refused to use Happy Bunny pictures because they didn't get the point across well enough. >_>
But seriously, this year's done with. Stop feeling angsty that 2k5's ending and start feeling angsty that 2k6's starting. >_>
Up till now, I'm confused whether I made the right choice of Geog over History. Overall I prefer History, but I'm alot worse at it than Geog (I barely passed Hist each time, compared to my A1 in Geog). Admittedly given a choice between just people I'm going to choose 3.10. >_> But oh well, it's still 2.12 for HCL. Lookie I'm being a hypocrite >_>
Next year I'm going to have to be far more responsible than I was this year (Just vice chair). Next year, I'm class chair, I'm 2nd IC for my SJAB Section, I'm Finance Manager for Church Choir, my bro's not going around to help me with science and math, AND I'm going into Sec 3 and have to do ISO alone (Damn you Kev >_>)
I haven't thought through any good ISO Topics (The one I thought of is abit teh difficult =\) but then again neither have you so hah. >_>
With all this responsibilities stacked onto my shoulder, how is a poor widdle kiddie like moi supposed to survive in life?
Easy, I don't. o_O
Oh well.
"Que Sera Sera,
Whatever will be will be,
The future's not ours to see,
Que Sera Sera."
Perhaps this is absolute pessimism, but I'm not really looking forward to next year. >_>
Whee, the metamorphosis. >_> Owaranai no ashita he.
Sometimes we reach a phase of our life, and only realize it after we're someway through it. What was the start of all this? When did the cogs of fate begin to turn? Perhaps it is impossible to answer that now (Damn, it just sounds so corny now. >_>) All that we can do now, is look back, reminisce, and angst like the absolute losers we are.
Ok, ignore that. And don't listen to Linkin Park, nor Simple Plan >_> Why?
Bunny: ^_^
LINKIN PARK AND SIMPLE PLAN ATTACKS
Bunny: ;_;
I kind of refused to use Happy Bunny pictures because they didn't get the point across well enough. >_>
But seriously, this year's done with. Stop feeling angsty that 2k5's ending and start feeling angsty that 2k6's starting. >_>
Up till now, I'm confused whether I made the right choice of Geog over History. Overall I prefer History, but I'm alot worse at it than Geog (I barely passed Hist each time, compared to my A1 in Geog). Admittedly given a choice between just people I'm going to choose 3.10. >_> But oh well, it's still 2.12 for HCL. Lookie I'm being a hypocrite >_>
Next year I'm going to have to be far more responsible than I was this year (Just vice chair). Next year, I'm class chair, I'm 2nd IC for my SJAB Section, I'm Finance Manager for Church Choir, my bro's not going around to help me with science and math, AND I'm going into Sec 3 and have to do ISO alone (Damn you Kev >_>)
I haven't thought through any good ISO Topics (The one I thought of is abit teh difficult =\) but then again neither have you so hah. >_>
With all this responsibilities stacked onto my shoulder, how is a poor widdle kiddie like moi supposed to survive in life?
Easy, I don't. o_O
Oh well.
"Que Sera Sera,
Whatever will be will be,
The future's not ours to see,
Que Sera Sera."
Perhaps this is absolute pessimism, but I'm not really looking forward to next year. >_>
Whee, the metamorphosis. >_> Owaranai no ashita he.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
DDR
Don't blame me for teh post: Blame http://jkpi2.blogspot.com/2005/12/ddr.html >_>
I've been playing alot of -what else- Stepmania because I -why else- have no social life whatsoever. =) I'm starting to find it easier and easier because -duh- I've been practising. Whee~ =) I usually play a few of my favourites, and maybe an odd song here and there. Sometimes I play the occasional song with mods for fun, isn't that fun =) I didn't play that much today -oh, who am I kidding >_>- but still managed to do some fun stuff.
Picked: Tsugaru Heavy, 3x, Expand, Split, Blind, Mirror
I managed to get a C on this despite the fact that Split is an absolute pain in the butt and Expand is just painful when coupled with a 495 bpm, ouchies, no? I managed to play with 4 mods at once (Speed mods are almost always played, so they don't count) and passed, whee~! ^_^
Picked: So Deep Heavy, 3.5x, Dizzy, Reverse, Dark, Shuffle
I managed to get an A on this one despite it being a 9-footer coupled with mods! Go me! Lookie, I got a 155 combo! =) In my opinion this is one of the hardest 9-footers but I got an A on it!~ ^^ Aw, but I got so many greats this round I feel so sad =( Oh well I just have to try harder next time!!!
Picked: D2R Heavy, 3x, Boost, Hidden, Dark, Mirror
In my opinion this is one of the easiest 7-footers. I cleared it with 2 non-combo steps and a decent AA, not short of a record because it's the 1st time I played the song. >_> (Quite a stack of Marvellouses this time) Boost is such a pain when coupled with higher mods than 3x (I had to retry 2 times because Boost screws you up on 4x and 3.5x for D2R =\)
Picked: Daisuke, C600, Hidden, Dark, Twister
Lookie, 449 OKs =) (An OK = you held a freeze step till the end. Wth to the twister mod, 450+ freezes instead of the original 23 o_O)
Lookie I'm training my arrow reading skills! I'm reading at 600bpm -no, that's not 60, that's 10 times that =) it's not 360 either, it's 1 2/3x that =)- how great I must be~ I am absolutely happy with myself. ^_^
Picked: Shining Collection by Kilgamayan, 3.5x
No mods this time, I have to be serious =) JK got a stack of Marvellouses for 1998 Standard, as he said. I got a stack of Marvellouses for my songs too, like this one! One thousand -no, not words (*harhar X-2 pun >_>*)- marvellouses all at one go! How happy I am. =) I am definitely happy with my 1164 Marvellouses and 600 Perfects. I'm quite sad though, I only get a 227 combo =( Oh well, an A on a keyboard-only song is something to be happy about =)
Picked: P8107 by Skorpion9x, C600
Lookie, lookie! Less than 20 combo breakers! Isn't that, like, so, cool? Isn't that, like, so, awesome, and, stuff? Shouldn't I, like, stop, using, commas, so, much, and, disgrace, the, English, language? >_> Fine I will.
And not just that, lookie! I got 90 million points on that song! (Max is 100 mil) Didn't I do absolutely wonderfully? I am so proud of myself. I should give myself a pat on the back and a chocolate chip cookie. =)
Oh, no, look again! I've got a seven hundred and thirty nine combo! Isn't that just wonderful? Look, it's the biggest one yet! =) I should get another cookie for this =)
--------------------------------------------------------------
All scores were taken by Stepmania. In other words those scores were done by fingers, not feet. >_> Still, the P8107 and Shining Collection scores were damn awesome IMO, since both were the best. I've gotten 90mils on P8107 and 1k Marvs on S. Collection, but these are my highest scores. >_>
And yes, my social life is THAT lacking. >_>
I've been playing alot of -what else- Stepmania because I -why else- have no social life whatsoever. =) I'm starting to find it easier and easier because -duh- I've been practising. Whee~ =) I usually play a few of my favourites, and maybe an odd song here and there. Sometimes I play the occasional song with mods for fun, isn't that fun =) I didn't play that much today -oh, who am I kidding >_>- but still managed to do some fun stuff.
Picked: Tsugaru Heavy, 3x, Expand, Split, Blind, Mirror
I managed to get a C on this despite the fact that Split is an absolute pain in the butt and Expand is just painful when coupled with a 495 bpm, ouchies, no? I managed to play with 4 mods at once (Speed mods are almost always played, so they don't count) and passed, whee~! ^_^
Picked: So Deep Heavy, 3.5x, Dizzy, Reverse, Dark, Shuffle
I managed to get an A on this one despite it being a 9-footer coupled with mods! Go me! Lookie, I got a 155 combo! =) In my opinion this is one of the hardest 9-footers but I got an A on it!~ ^^ Aw, but I got so many greats this round I feel so sad =( Oh well I just have to try harder next time!!!
Picked: D2R Heavy, 3x, Boost, Hidden, Dark, Mirror
In my opinion this is one of the easiest 7-footers. I cleared it with 2 non-combo steps and a decent AA, not short of a record because it's the 1st time I played the song. >_> (Quite a stack of Marvellouses this time) Boost is such a pain when coupled with higher mods than 3x (I had to retry 2 times because Boost screws you up on 4x and 3.5x for D2R =\)
Picked: Daisuke, C600, Hidden, Dark, Twister
Lookie, 449 OKs =) (An OK = you held a freeze step till the end. Wth to the twister mod, 450+ freezes instead of the original 23 o_O)
Lookie I'm training my arrow reading skills! I'm reading at 600bpm -no, that's not 60, that's 10 times that =) it's not 360 either, it's 1 2/3x that =)- how great I must be~ I am absolutely happy with myself. ^_^
Picked: Shining Collection by Kilgamayan, 3.5x
No mods this time, I have to be serious =) JK got a stack of Marvellouses for 1998 Standard, as he said. I got a stack of Marvellouses for my songs too, like this one! One thousand -no, not words (*harhar X-2 pun >_>*)- marvellouses all at one go! How happy I am. =) I am definitely happy with my 1164 Marvellouses and 600 Perfects. I'm quite sad though, I only get a 227 combo =( Oh well, an A on a keyboard-only song is something to be happy about =)
Picked: P8107 by Skorpion9x, C600
Lookie, lookie! Less than 20 combo breakers! Isn't that, like, so, cool? Isn't that, like, so, awesome, and, stuff? Shouldn't I, like, stop, using, commas, so, much, and, disgrace, the, English, language? >_> Fine I will.
And not just that, lookie! I got 90 million points on that song! (Max is 100 mil) Didn't I do absolutely wonderfully? I am so proud of myself. I should give myself a pat on the back and a chocolate chip cookie. =)
Oh, no, look again! I've got a seven hundred and thirty nine combo! Isn't that just wonderful? Look, it's the biggest one yet! =) I should get another cookie for this =)
--------------------------------------------------------------
All scores were taken by Stepmania. In other words those scores were done by fingers, not feet. >_> Still, the P8107 and Shining Collection scores were damn awesome IMO, since both were the best. I've gotten 90mils on P8107 and 1k Marvs on S. Collection, but these are my highest scores. >_>
And yes, my social life is THAT lacking. >_>
Monday, December 26, 2005
How to succeed
From my sister (Hey, she's working, and if this works for her it should for you. Formulas for success are always abound)
This is strictly a mathematical viewpoint...it goes like this:
What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?
Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:
If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.
Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%
and
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%
But,
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%
And,
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%
AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.
A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 127%
So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that While Hard work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Bullshit and Ass kissing that will put you over the top.
(Edit: And now we know how Joshua can do so well for Hist and Lit >_>)
This is strictly a mathematical viewpoint...it goes like this:
What Makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103%? What makes up 100% in life?
Here's a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:
If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.
Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%
and
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%
But,
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%
And,
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%
AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.
A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 127%
So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that While Hard work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it's the Bullshit and Ass kissing that will put you over the top.
(Edit: And now we know how Joshua can do so well for Hist and Lit >_>)
Friday, December 23, 2005
Christmas
From all that dwell below the skies,
Let the Creator’s praise arise;
Let the Redeemer’s Name be sung,
Through every land, by every tongue.
Eternal are Thy mercies, Lord;
Eternal truth attends Thy Word.
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore,
Till suns rise and set no more.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallellujah.
Your lofty themes, ye mortals, bring,
In songs of praise divinely sing;
The great salvation loud proclaim,
And shout for joy the Savior’s Name.
In every land begin the song;
To every land the strains belong;
In cheerful sounds all voices raise,
And fill the world with loudest praise.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallellujah.
----------------------------------------------------------
Merry Christmas everyone; may everyone enjoy theirs. Mine with my brother, you with your kin, each with their friends.
It's been fast, isn't it. Soon I have to lead 3.9, heh. I would've loved a Christmas party; but I guess we won't have one before it, huh. Would love to sing for someone apart from the church choir. Oh well.
Memories are but memories, and I personally am grateful for setting up this blog. Now I know undoubtedbly that I have grown, and so has my blog. And I know that I will change, for better or for worse. What's left is to remember this me, this you, this everyone, and as hard as it may be, to embrace the next me, the next you, the next everyone. And when the final 'us' comes, the mark is but silent drops of water.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien has ended with a rather depressing ending =
Hellsing hath taken the 11.00 spot and Juuni Kokki hath taken the 11.30 spot. Words fail to describe my sadness of rerun animes. ;_;
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Animes watched this year: (Favourite characters are in brackets)
Hellsing (Walter =)
Juuni Kokki (Eh, none in particular)
Last Exile (Too many =)
Gundam SEED Destiny (EH >_> Kira)
Shaman King (Lyzerg =)
Inuyasha 2nd Season (Meh >_>)
Godannar (Milla/Lou)
Kita He ~Diamond Dust Drops~ (SUOMI! <3 >_>)
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien (Akane =)
Chrno Crusade (Azmaria =)
Chobits (Kotoko =)
Scrapped Princes (Shannon =)
Peacemaker Kurogane (Suzu/Susumu)
Total: 13 Animes. Whoa, that's alot o_O
Games completed/achieved something in (Gwin's games count as well >_>):
Katamari Damacy
We Love Katamari
Seiken Densetsu 3 (No items)
DDR (Hey I have to say it sometime. Can pass Heavy songs now)
Stepmania (Quasar 1.5x B YES MUAHAHA watch out Reality you're up next year MUAHAHA)
GGXX#R (Eh my Ky considered somewhat good already ok >_> SHUT UP SZ >_>)
Xenosaga Ep. II: Jenseits Von Gut Und Bose <3
KH: Chain of Memories
Riviera: The Promised Land
Fire Emblem 7
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Total games: 11
Total RPGs: 6 (How depressing =\)
Games I tried but didn't complete:
Phantom Brave (Too much levelling needed >_>)
Earthbound (Too brainless >_>)
Fire Emblem 4 (Uhh just wasn't too interested)
Overall: Pretty damn good in regards to the amount of anime I've watched this year. I haven't played many RPGs this year though, but that's offset by the huge amount of anime. Social Failureism +1,
Herrick is now a Lv 21 Social Failure! *kyue FF Victoly muzickz*
------------------------------------------------
I've said it last year, I've said it again, and add something. Owaranai Ashita He, Kiou He Kairanai Kara.
Senpi wo shiteita, tsumi mo suru. Demo, ima wa watashitachi no takaramono. Dakara, oboeru, soshite iku.
Minna, tanoshii yume datta, da ne? Owaranai yume... da ne?
----------------------------------------------------------
Damnit, sometimes I wish that my selfishness would actually come true. I just really don't want to change. *sigh*
Let the Creator’s praise arise;
Let the Redeemer’s Name be sung,
Through every land, by every tongue.
Eternal are Thy mercies, Lord;
Eternal truth attends Thy Word.
Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore,
Till suns rise and set no more.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallellujah.
Your lofty themes, ye mortals, bring,
In songs of praise divinely sing;
The great salvation loud proclaim,
And shout for joy the Savior’s Name.
In every land begin the song;
To every land the strains belong;
In cheerful sounds all voices raise,
And fill the world with loudest praise.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallellujah.
----------------------------------------------------------
Merry Christmas everyone; may everyone enjoy theirs. Mine with my brother, you with your kin, each with their friends.
It's been fast, isn't it. Soon I have to lead 3.9, heh. I would've loved a Christmas party; but I guess we won't have one before it, huh. Would love to sing for someone apart from the church choir. Oh well.
Memories are but memories, and I personally am grateful for setting up this blog. Now I know undoubtedbly that I have grown, and so has my blog. And I know that I will change, for better or for worse. What's left is to remember this me, this you, this everyone, and as hard as it may be, to embrace the next me, the next you, the next everyone. And when the final 'us' comes, the mark is but silent drops of water.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien has ended with a rather depressing ending =
Hellsing hath taken the 11.00 spot and Juuni Kokki hath taken the 11.30 spot. Words fail to describe my sadness of rerun animes. ;_;
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Animes watched this year: (Favourite characters are in brackets)
Hellsing (Walter =)
Juuni Kokki (Eh, none in particular)
Last Exile (Too many =)
Gundam SEED Destiny (EH >_> Kira)
Shaman King (Lyzerg =)
Inuyasha 2nd Season (Meh >_>)
Godannar (Milla/Lou)
Kita He ~Diamond Dust Drops~ (SUOMI! <3 >_>)
Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien (Akane =)
Chrno Crusade (Azmaria =)
Chobits (Kotoko =)
Scrapped Princes (Shannon =)
Peacemaker Kurogane (Suzu/Susumu)
Total: 13 Animes. Whoa, that's alot o_O
Games completed/achieved something in (Gwin's games count as well >_>):
Katamari Damacy
We Love Katamari
Seiken Densetsu 3 (No items)
DDR (Hey I have to say it sometime. Can pass Heavy songs now)
Stepmania (Quasar 1.5x B YES MUAHAHA watch out Reality you're up next year MUAHAHA)
GGXX#R (Eh my Ky considered somewhat good already ok >_> SHUT UP SZ >_>)
Xenosaga Ep. II: Jenseits Von Gut Und Bose <3
KH: Chain of Memories
Riviera: The Promised Land
Fire Emblem 7
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Total games: 11
Total RPGs: 6 (How depressing =\)
Games I tried but didn't complete:
Phantom Brave (Too much levelling needed >_>)
Earthbound (Too brainless >_>)
Fire Emblem 4 (Uhh just wasn't too interested)
Overall: Pretty damn good in regards to the amount of anime I've watched this year. I haven't played many RPGs this year though, but that's offset by the huge amount of anime. Social Failureism +1,
Herrick is now a Lv 21 Social Failure! *kyue FF Victoly muzickz*
------------------------------------------------
I've said it last year, I've said it again, and add something. Owaranai Ashita He, Kiou He Kairanai Kara.
Senpi wo shiteita, tsumi mo suru. Demo, ima wa watashitachi no takaramono. Dakara, oboeru, soshite iku.
Minna, tanoshii yume datta, da ne? Owaranai yume... da ne?
----------------------------------------------------------
Damnit, sometimes I wish that my selfishness would actually come true. I just really don't want to change. *sigh*
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Game Comparisons
Beware: This blogpost is on NOTHING BUT GAMES and is FRICKING LONG. This is not for the faint of heart (Actually it's for the faint of heart in regards to games so >_>) Oh well, it's just a wall of text to those who don't get it.
I have come to a realization that there are still many rather uninformed RPG gamers of what games are good and what aren't. For example we have Kevin Wong over here who decided to borrow FFXII instead of DQVIII (Which for non-gamers is pretty much paramount to 1. Bad taste in games 2. Lack of knowledge in regards to good games 3. FF Fanboyism 4. An unforgivable sin.)
I hath taken it upon myself to tell the readers of my blog of the games out there less appreciated by AHEM certain people, played but never completed by AHEM certain people, stopped playing due to an incapability to deliver curry like AHEM some people, or just an incapability of finding such a rare game (I had to borrow a number of games from Cleon just because he went to Johor quite often and had good taste in games too)
Firstly I must begin by saying why FF is mediocre.
Fanboy/Myth No.1: ZOMG FF HAS TEH GUD GARPHICZ LOLOL!!!!shiftoneoneone11!!
FF indeed has good graphics, but to buy a game due to good graphics is very superficial and Sidhant-like. >_> Also, graphics are far from making a game good (Disgaea owns the FF series easily. Heck, Chrono Trigger and a number of other SNES games own the FF series easily). Rather, they are eye candy so you can see that pwetty tree and pwetty FMV sequence involving being underwater and unable to breathe for 10 minutes all while kissing another person. No, graphics aren't going to save FF from mediocrity.
Fanboy/Myth No.2: EH THE CHARACTERS ROCK OK THEY HAVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
No they aren't developed one bit. For each game of FF there are as many bad characters as good characters (This is PS only, since FF6 had way more awesome characters). To be exact, the characters get worse and worse as the games go on.
FF7: I didn't play, the characters were somewhat decent I believe except for ALL UR MATERIA R BELONGZORZ TO YUFFI MUAHAHA
FF8: LAWL TRAINS TRAINS TRAINS/ LAWL I LIKE A GIRL WHO LIKES TRAINS TRAINS TRAINS/ Angstangstangst (Admittedly, Squall is far better a character than Cloud)/ Rinoa who was decent but then she started liking Squall. >_> What character do we have that is awesome? Laguna. Anyone else? Arguably Squall. Anyone else? Uhh Zell/Quistis? Hmm
FF9: Save Vivi, Zidane, and Kuja most other characters were rather mediocre and not very original. That said Vivi is ownage, so I guess it makes up for it.
FF10: Auron Rikku Lulu vs Wakka Tidus Yuna Kimahri. Close, but the bad characters still triumph over the good ones
FFX2 is not a game so I'm not including it. But if I have to, the only character close to good was Paine. X2 Yuna contrary to SZ belief reeks of phail.
Fanboy/Myth No.3: FF has en amayzeeng storlylaine ohkay
While I would admit that originally FF did bear amazing storylines (4,5,6,7 and arguably 8 are testament to that), it gets worse. And worse. And worse. I have no idea what FFXII's storyline will be like but I'm not having high expectations to it.
FF6: LOOKIE I PUSH A STATUE AND WORLD GOES KABLEWIE
*World goes kablewie*
FF7: My main issue is with Shinra just disappearing after Disc 1, but apart from that I can't say much about FF7. Like I said, I didn't play it.
FF8: HAY GUYZ WE ALL CAME FRUM TEH SAYM ORPHANAGE LAWLZ
O RLY I CUN REMEMBAH
YA RLY I REMEMBAH BUT I DIDN'T SAY TIL DISC TOO COZ I DIDN'T FEEL LIKE IT LAWL
FF9: I can't remember much bad about this one, but they wasted alot of character potential with it. Oh well, was more of a tribute to old gamers anyway.
FFX: "I AM UR FATHER" "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" "I'M GONNA DIE" "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" "I'M NOT HUMAN" "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU"
FFX2 doesn't have a storyline so I shan't get to that.
I don't remember any people saying that FF had good replayability so I need not talk about that.
Now given all that, I must add that it's not wrong to like a mediocre series; it's wrong to have a mediocre series and say that it's perfect while dissing other gems.
And yes I like FF as well I just don't see it in a fanboyish way like SZ and KW do.
All that said, let me get down to my rating of FF:
Story: 6/10 Decent stories ruined by bad segments. FFVI and FFVII should deserve a 9/10 though, and FFX2 a 1/10.
Graphics: 10/10 graphics are something FF is known for, usually superior to most other games. To say that FF's graphics stink is, to say the least, quite far from the truth (As far as RPGs on PS2 go anyway. Xbox has better graphics but less good games, nonetheless Jade Empire's graphics are amazing)
Character: 7/10 There's usually a really good character per game, a number decent characters and an equivalent amount of bad characters, but there's almost never a character that you would hate to the core unless intended.
Gameplay: Meh I can't judge this one FF's gameplay changes way too often.
Replayability: 3/10 Hardly any post-game things to do, if any at all. A secret boss or two at best, not much of post-game dungeons. FF4A has replayability, but that was like at best released less than a month ago. Prior to that? Nope.
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Now to start on other series:
Mana series (Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, Legend of Mana, Sword of Mana, *Children of Mana*, *World of Mana*)
Note: *'d games mean they're not out yet.
The Mana series was an additional side FF-gaiden-esque game when the first Seiken Densetsu came out. After that, Square decided to split it into a new series of its own, the Mana series. Probably a few people here have played it (Mel, SZ, Jarrel *Who doesn't read this blog*, Me) and appreciate its value. A very original series, it's hard not to like its novelty unless you're KW.
Story: SD3 and LoM do not bear a single linear storyline but rather, you decide how it turns out (SD3 by choosing your party, LoM by the missions you select and your map layout) whereas both SoMs have a single storyline. N/A
Grapihcs: It caters less towards a realistic view that FF bears and more towards a fantasy-like feel. Just look at all of the Mana games up till now, and World of Mana. It's a style you either hate or love. Either way, the graphics are by no means bad given timeline (So don't tell me SoM and SD3 graphics stink). 7/10.
Characters: While I cannot vouch for Sword of Mana, Secret of Mana and Legend of Mana's main characters are for the most of it, silent. This gives you the ability to actually 'personalize' your characters. This works for some, this doesn't work for others. Personally I'm fine with it. 'sides, the silent character's what Link's all about. For SD3, the characters weren't particularly deep, but their character persoanlities were solid enough given that point of time. While I will admit that Duran and Angela aren't what one would call original, Riesz and Hawk are where it's it. =) N/A as well overall for the series
Gameplay: Characters walk around and battle on the same screen with all the enemies on it, unlike FF where battles start in an independent screen. Kingdom Hearts is the most similar one to the Mana series' method of fighting, just in 3D instead. This method of playing IMO is more engaging than FF's method of fighting and more action-based. Though it does kind of end up into a slash-slash-slash-POWERATTACK game, but hey, better than KH's 1-hit KO at high levels right. Admittedly this kind of fighting will get boring, but nonetheless it's still quite more fun than FF's fighting methods. Yet another for-or-against thing. 8/10.
Replayability: SoM1 had no replayability, and I don't know about Sword of Mana's replayability. For SD3 and Legend of Mana, though, the fact that the storyline wasn't linear meant that you could enjoy the game all over again with changes. Cleared SD3 once? You only played 3 of the 6 characters, and 1 of the 3 storylines, and 3 of the 24 final classes. Go do it again you. LoM's new game plus lets you keep whatever you had from the previous game so you can play Nightmare mode without uber death, and still enjoy playing with different side characters and different story quests. 8/10.
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Ok, that's one down. What's up next? Suikoden!
Suikoden series: (Suiko I, II, III, IV, Tactics, *V*)
Suikoden's Namco's go at making a story based upon - what's that - Suikoden. You don't get it, I assume. Suikoden's kanji is Sui2 Hu3 Zhuan4. There, now you get it. The series unlike FF and the Mana series is all based in one single world. A story based highly on the theme of war, it requires more than overlevelling to save the day; you need -ZOMG- brains and strategy.
Definitely, Cleon is a better critique of the series than I am, since he's played all 4 Suikos and is currently playing Tactics. In comparison I've only played II and III, and haven't actually completed either (I got to the last scene in both but didn't beat the boss for various reasons >_>), but well Cleon ain't the blogger so here I am.
Graphics: It has gotten progressively better. However, that doesn't change the fact that Suiko 1 and 3's graphics were considerably bad, whereas 2 and 4 are decent. 6/10 overall.
Story: Good. The story development is very solid, and the fact that all games take place in the same world make the overall story stronger. However, from what I see the story is progressively getting worse. Suiko 2 was a definite gem, but I can't say that about 3 and 4 didn't seem too good according to Cleon. I hope Suiko V changes that. 9/10 for Suiko II, 7/10 for the rest.
Characters: You have a hundred and eight of them each game. 'nuff said. Character development is usually only strong for the main characters though, and little to no effort is made towards further developing any other characters save those closely associated with the main characters. That said, each character has their backstory and personality, which is pretty good IMO considering there's 108 of them. 7/10.
Gameplay: Oh, where do I get started. There are 3 forms of battles: Duels, Battles between two parties (IOW a typical fight), and wars. The differences you can kinda tell easily. Duels and wars are rare, but wars are an important part of the story, and a difficult one too. They require much thought (Suiko 2 at least, Suiko 3 needed pure overlevelling) and strategy. Battles had been carried out with 6 characters in the party (2 rows of 3), but that's been changed in Suiko 4 where you have 4 in the party. Though you have 108 characters, about 1/2 of them don't fight (They're like blacksmiths, chefs, etc of your castle/cave/mansion), but among those who do, certain characters get special skills with each other so as to make battles more interesting and give each character something more unique. That, and the main character never fights with the 2-hand sword like so many typical heroes do = INSTANT WIN! 9/10.
Replayability: Unfortunately none at all. 0/10.
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SO series (Star Ocean, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time)
Star Ocean is yet another series worth of nothing but good games. Between the classic SO1, the ever-so-popular SO2 and its sequel, and the ever-so-controversial SO3. SO3 may be one of those love-it-or-hate-it games, but none can deny the fact that the entire series has been amazing. Admittedly I hadn't played what some consider the best of the series (SO2), but hey, my loss.
Graphics: Has improved tremendously. SO1 graphics were good for its time, same with SO2. SO3's graphics are nothing short of amazing. In terms of detail, it is far better than FF (Just look at the final tower in SO3. Absolute beauty.) The style is not the most realistic one, but it is just as well appreciated by everyone. 9/10 for SO3, 7/10 for SO1, SO2.
Story: Definitely a plus. It dares to go into areas that many RPG's don't. When SO1 was created, few other RPGs involved space and time travel (FFIV *space*, ToP *time*, CT *time*), and the story turned out great (Though I have to say ToP was better in terms of story >_>). In SO3, there came the biggest plot twist around, and many either hated it or loved it. Either way one had to admit that this plot twist while seemingly cliched, had never been seen in a game before. It was brave in doing new things, and it's turned out good. 9/10.
Characters: Similarly with FF, there is a range of good characters and a range of bad characters. However, due to the PA (Private Action) system where you get to talk with fellow characters while in towns, it gives far more depth to the character outside the main plotline than can be achieved normally (Hardly in other games do you get many chances to talk with other party members except during story sequences), and is a nice touch towards the game. 8/10
Gameplay: It's a cross between the Mana series' way of battling and the typical way. The best reflection of this would be the battle system found in Tales of Symphonia (But no one has a Gamecube nor played the JP-only version on the PS2 so >_>). Essentially battles are on an independent screen, but you fight in an 'arena' of sorts, so you can run around and attack using melee weaponry, spells, or AoE skills. It makes the battle overall more fun IMO. 10/10
Replayability: Star Ocean always had a system of having more characters than you can have in your party (8 of 12 can be recruited per game), so you have to play more than once to get all the character's endings (Star Ocean 2 had 87 character endings, and you get 8 per game. Har har good luck >_> Well, not that anyone bothered getting all of them anyway.) Add in the number of post-game dungeons and bosses and you have quite a bit to do. 8/10.
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And finally the last series. I would've wrote on Nippon Ichi and the Tales series, but I've only play 2 of each series compared to the many out there.
Xenosaga (Ep 1: Der Wille Zur Macht, Ep 2: Jenseits Von Gut Und Bose, Pied Piper, Ep *3: Thus Sprach Zarathustra*)
Xenosaga began with the roots of Xenogears, a game made concurrently with Final Fantasy VII. Square decided at that point that more budget should be given to FFVII instead of Xenogears, and hence XG ended up with a very very long and beautifully-done Disc 1 and a very very short and disappointing Disc 2. Ended up that the makers of Xenogears left Square because of that, and joined Namco. The series-of-6 known as Xenogears (XG was Ep 5) was restarted all over again, and the result is the Xenosaga trilogy. (Would've been 6 but Ep 2 didn't sell too well so they cut it down)
Story: Xenosaga is a sci-fi story with religious undertones. The story itself is highly complex on its own, and that's without considering any symbolism involved. Due to its story being somewhat based on Nietzsche's philosophies (The Xenosaga titles save Pied Piper are all the names of Nietzsche's books), Jungian philosophy and also Gnostic Christianity, much allusions are made in regards to these three aspects, granting the story more depth than your usual RPG storyline. The storyline evolves and each stage of development is pulled of flawlessly. The only issue I had with the story is that it is too long and complex to fit into 3 games, and that's probably going to end up with a very rushed episode 3. Damn you Namco. >_> 10/10
Graphics: Xenosaga Episode 1 had taken on a rather queer ideea of chibitizing all the main characters while leaving all side characters as normal realistic people. While I found no problem with that contrast, I also didn't realize that Shion was 22 years old until Ep. 2 came out and made the characters realistic so as not to have a jarring contrast. The graphics are decent but not the kind of aweing sceneries in the FF series. Well, then again, I've seen the Ep. 3 gameplay trailer and the graphics there are nothing short of superb so =) 7/10 for graphics.
Characters: Characters in Xenosaga are far better developed than those in any of the games above, but that's quite obvious given the fact that the games above don't have the same cast for multiple games (No X-2 did nothing to make Yuna or Rikku seem better. In fact I would go as far as saying that X-2 ruined the two, particularly Rikku. =\ Oh well there went my favourite FFX char. >_>) Due to this, characters will only seem as developed if you play 1 and 2, and not either. While there are one or two hated characters, there are far more liked ones against that (They can make you like Albedo, and the only other two villains who've done that is Kefka and Luca Blight. Magus doesn't count since he's not really a villain). Far more development is also given to side characters than in other games, and that can't be much of a fault because it isn't compromising on the main party's development. 9/10.
Gameplay: Battles involve pressing a sequence of attacks to do a certain attack, but isn't like SO or Mana's fighting. This would be more of a cross between SO and FF, but more towards FF since it takes out SO's defining battle element. While in Xeno 1 the battle was simple and mainly involved doing strong attacks, Xeno 2 took that out the window and made it extremely complex what with zones positions and all. Essentially that made it hell to anyone who didn't get the system and made battles extremely easy to anyone who did. Serious imbalance if you ask me. In addition, Xeno Ep 2 dungeons mainly consist of nothing but mindless puzzles. Which idiot member of the world's biggest high-tech corporation would use a huge glass platform and blocks below it as a security measure? 7/10 for Ep 1, 6/10 for Ep. 2.
Replayability: Meh, decent with its bosses and dungeons and all. Nothing great like SO though. 7/10.
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I'm just one person, but if graphics are all that FF's about, then what's so great about it? You all need new games yo, view your games from way more PoVs than the FF-fanboy.
Of course, I'm somewhat of a Xeno-fanboy myself, >_> Oh well >_>
All that said, there's a lot of games I didn't say that are absolutely great and worth trying out, including but not limited to
Arc the Lad series
Castlevania series
Tales series
Nippon Ichi games (DISGAEA <3)
Lunar series
Breath of Fire series
Fire Emblem series =)
Any others I missed out? Hmm.
Now you know why I took two days to write this out >_>
I have come to a realization that there are still many rather uninformed RPG gamers of what games are good and what aren't. For example we have Kevin Wong over here who decided to borrow FFXII instead of DQVIII (Which for non-gamers is pretty much paramount to 1. Bad taste in games 2. Lack of knowledge in regards to good games 3. FF Fanboyism 4. An unforgivable sin.)
I hath taken it upon myself to tell the readers of my blog of the games out there less appreciated by AHEM certain people, played but never completed by AHEM certain people, stopped playing due to an incapability to deliver curry like AHEM some people, or just an incapability of finding such a rare game (I had to borrow a number of games from Cleon just because he went to Johor quite often and had good taste in games too)
Firstly I must begin by saying why FF is mediocre.
Fanboy/Myth No.1: ZOMG FF HAS TEH GUD GARPHICZ LOLOL!!!!shiftoneoneone11!!
FF indeed has good graphics, but to buy a game due to good graphics is very superficial and Sidhant-like. >_> Also, graphics are far from making a game good (Disgaea owns the FF series easily. Heck, Chrono Trigger and a number of other SNES games own the FF series easily). Rather, they are eye candy so you can see that pwetty tree and pwetty FMV sequence involving being underwater and unable to breathe for 10 minutes all while kissing another person. No, graphics aren't going to save FF from mediocrity.
Fanboy/Myth No.2: EH THE CHARACTERS ROCK OK THEY HAVE CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
No they aren't developed one bit. For each game of FF there are as many bad characters as good characters (This is PS only, since FF6 had way more awesome characters). To be exact, the characters get worse and worse as the games go on.
FF7: I didn't play, the characters were somewhat decent I believe except for ALL UR MATERIA R BELONGZORZ TO YUFFI MUAHAHA
FF8: LAWL TRAINS TRAINS TRAINS/ LAWL I LIKE A GIRL WHO LIKES TRAINS TRAINS TRAINS/ Angstangstangst (Admittedly, Squall is far better a character than Cloud)/ Rinoa who was decent but then she started liking Squall. >_> What character do we have that is awesome? Laguna. Anyone else? Arguably Squall. Anyone else? Uhh Zell/Quistis? Hmm
FF9: Save Vivi, Zidane, and Kuja most other characters were rather mediocre and not very original. That said Vivi is ownage, so I guess it makes up for it.
FF10: Auron Rikku Lulu vs Wakka Tidus Yuna Kimahri. Close, but the bad characters still triumph over the good ones
FFX2 is not a game so I'm not including it. But if I have to, the only character close to good was Paine. X2 Yuna contrary to SZ belief reeks of phail.
Fanboy/Myth No.3: FF has en amayzeeng storlylaine ohkay
While I would admit that originally FF did bear amazing storylines (4,5,6,7 and arguably 8 are testament to that), it gets worse. And worse. And worse. I have no idea what FFXII's storyline will be like but I'm not having high expectations to it.
FF6: LOOKIE I PUSH A STATUE AND WORLD GOES KABLEWIE
*World goes kablewie*
FF7: My main issue is with Shinra just disappearing after Disc 1, but apart from that I can't say much about FF7. Like I said, I didn't play it.
FF8: HAY GUYZ WE ALL CAME FRUM TEH SAYM ORPHANAGE LAWLZ
O RLY I CUN REMEMBAH
YA RLY I REMEMBAH BUT I DIDN'T SAY TIL DISC TOO COZ I DIDN'T FEEL LIKE IT LAWL
FF9: I can't remember much bad about this one, but they wasted alot of character potential with it. Oh well, was more of a tribute to old gamers anyway.
FFX: "I AM UR FATHER" "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" "I'M GONNA DIE" "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" "I'M NOT HUMAN" "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU"
FFX2 doesn't have a storyline so I shan't get to that.
I don't remember any people saying that FF had good replayability so I need not talk about that.
Now given all that, I must add that it's not wrong to like a mediocre series; it's wrong to have a mediocre series and say that it's perfect while dissing other gems.
And yes I like FF as well I just don't see it in a fanboyish way like SZ and KW do.
All that said, let me get down to my rating of FF:
Story: 6/10 Decent stories ruined by bad segments. FFVI and FFVII should deserve a 9/10 though, and FFX2 a 1/10.
Graphics: 10/10 graphics are something FF is known for, usually superior to most other games. To say that FF's graphics stink is, to say the least, quite far from the truth (As far as RPGs on PS2 go anyway. Xbox has better graphics but less good games, nonetheless Jade Empire's graphics are amazing)
Character: 7/10 There's usually a really good character per game, a number decent characters and an equivalent amount of bad characters, but there's almost never a character that you would hate to the core unless intended.
Gameplay: Meh I can't judge this one FF's gameplay changes way too often.
Replayability: 3/10 Hardly any post-game things to do, if any at all. A secret boss or two at best, not much of post-game dungeons. FF4A has replayability, but that was like at best released less than a month ago. Prior to that? Nope.
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Now to start on other series:
Mana series (Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3, Legend of Mana, Sword of Mana, *Children of Mana*, *World of Mana*)
Note: *'d games mean they're not out yet.
The Mana series was an additional side FF-gaiden-esque game when the first Seiken Densetsu came out. After that, Square decided to split it into a new series of its own, the Mana series. Probably a few people here have played it (Mel, SZ, Jarrel *Who doesn't read this blog*, Me) and appreciate its value. A very original series, it's hard not to like its novelty unless you're KW.
Story: SD3 and LoM do not bear a single linear storyline but rather, you decide how it turns out (SD3 by choosing your party, LoM by the missions you select and your map layout) whereas both SoMs have a single storyline. N/A
Grapihcs: It caters less towards a realistic view that FF bears and more towards a fantasy-like feel. Just look at all of the Mana games up till now, and World of Mana. It's a style you either hate or love. Either way, the graphics are by no means bad given timeline (So don't tell me SoM and SD3 graphics stink). 7/10.
Characters: While I cannot vouch for Sword of Mana, Secret of Mana and Legend of Mana's main characters are for the most of it, silent. This gives you the ability to actually 'personalize' your characters. This works for some, this doesn't work for others. Personally I'm fine with it. 'sides, the silent character's what Link's all about. For SD3, the characters weren't particularly deep, but their character persoanlities were solid enough given that point of time. While I will admit that Duran and Angela aren't what one would call original, Riesz and Hawk are where it's it. =) N/A as well overall for the series
Gameplay: Characters walk around and battle on the same screen with all the enemies on it, unlike FF where battles start in an independent screen. Kingdom Hearts is the most similar one to the Mana series' method of fighting, just in 3D instead. This method of playing IMO is more engaging than FF's method of fighting and more action-based. Though it does kind of end up into a slash-slash-slash-POWERATTACK game, but hey, better than KH's 1-hit KO at high levels right. Admittedly this kind of fighting will get boring, but nonetheless it's still quite more fun than FF's fighting methods. Yet another for-or-against thing. 8/10.
Replayability: SoM1 had no replayability, and I don't know about Sword of Mana's replayability. For SD3 and Legend of Mana, though, the fact that the storyline wasn't linear meant that you could enjoy the game all over again with changes. Cleared SD3 once? You only played 3 of the 6 characters, and 1 of the 3 storylines, and 3 of the 24 final classes. Go do it again you. LoM's new game plus lets you keep whatever you had from the previous game so you can play Nightmare mode without uber death, and still enjoy playing with different side characters and different story quests. 8/10.
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Ok, that's one down. What's up next? Suikoden!
Suikoden series: (Suiko I, II, III, IV, Tactics, *V*)
Suikoden's Namco's go at making a story based upon - what's that - Suikoden. You don't get it, I assume. Suikoden's kanji is Sui2 Hu3 Zhuan4. There, now you get it. The series unlike FF and the Mana series is all based in one single world. A story based highly on the theme of war, it requires more than overlevelling to save the day; you need -ZOMG- brains and strategy.
Definitely, Cleon is a better critique of the series than I am, since he's played all 4 Suikos and is currently playing Tactics. In comparison I've only played II and III, and haven't actually completed either (I got to the last scene in both but didn't beat the boss for various reasons >_>), but well Cleon ain't the blogger so here I am.
Graphics: It has gotten progressively better. However, that doesn't change the fact that Suiko 1 and 3's graphics were considerably bad, whereas 2 and 4 are decent. 6/10 overall.
Story: Good. The story development is very solid, and the fact that all games take place in the same world make the overall story stronger. However, from what I see the story is progressively getting worse. Suiko 2 was a definite gem, but I can't say that about 3 and 4 didn't seem too good according to Cleon. I hope Suiko V changes that. 9/10 for Suiko II, 7/10 for the rest.
Characters: You have a hundred and eight of them each game. 'nuff said. Character development is usually only strong for the main characters though, and little to no effort is made towards further developing any other characters save those closely associated with the main characters. That said, each character has their backstory and personality, which is pretty good IMO considering there's 108 of them. 7/10.
Gameplay: Oh, where do I get started. There are 3 forms of battles: Duels, Battles between two parties (IOW a typical fight), and wars. The differences you can kinda tell easily. Duels and wars are rare, but wars are an important part of the story, and a difficult one too. They require much thought (Suiko 2 at least, Suiko 3 needed pure overlevelling) and strategy. Battles had been carried out with 6 characters in the party (2 rows of 3), but that's been changed in Suiko 4 where you have 4 in the party. Though you have 108 characters, about 1/2 of them don't fight (They're like blacksmiths, chefs, etc of your castle/cave/mansion), but among those who do, certain characters get special skills with each other so as to make battles more interesting and give each character something more unique. That, and the main character never fights with the 2-hand sword like so many typical heroes do = INSTANT WIN! 9/10.
Replayability: Unfortunately none at all. 0/10.
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SO series (Star Ocean, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Star Ocean: Blue Sphere, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time)
Star Ocean is yet another series worth of nothing but good games. Between the classic SO1, the ever-so-popular SO2 and its sequel, and the ever-so-controversial SO3. SO3 may be one of those love-it-or-hate-it games, but none can deny the fact that the entire series has been amazing. Admittedly I hadn't played what some consider the best of the series (SO2), but hey, my loss.
Graphics: Has improved tremendously. SO1 graphics were good for its time, same with SO2. SO3's graphics are nothing short of amazing. In terms of detail, it is far better than FF (Just look at the final tower in SO3. Absolute beauty.) The style is not the most realistic one, but it is just as well appreciated by everyone. 9/10 for SO3, 7/10 for SO1, SO2.
Story: Definitely a plus. It dares to go into areas that many RPG's don't. When SO1 was created, few other RPGs involved space and time travel (FFIV *space*, ToP *time*, CT *time*), and the story turned out great (Though I have to say ToP was better in terms of story >_>). In SO3, there came the biggest plot twist around, and many either hated it or loved it. Either way one had to admit that this plot twist while seemingly cliched, had never been seen in a game before. It was brave in doing new things, and it's turned out good. 9/10.
Characters: Similarly with FF, there is a range of good characters and a range of bad characters. However, due to the PA (Private Action) system where you get to talk with fellow characters while in towns, it gives far more depth to the character outside the main plotline than can be achieved normally (Hardly in other games do you get many chances to talk with other party members except during story sequences), and is a nice touch towards the game. 8/10
Gameplay: It's a cross between the Mana series' way of battling and the typical way. The best reflection of this would be the battle system found in Tales of Symphonia (But no one has a Gamecube nor played the JP-only version on the PS2 so >_>). Essentially battles are on an independent screen, but you fight in an 'arena' of sorts, so you can run around and attack using melee weaponry, spells, or AoE skills. It makes the battle overall more fun IMO. 10/10
Replayability: Star Ocean always had a system of having more characters than you can have in your party (8 of 12 can be recruited per game), so you have to play more than once to get all the character's endings (Star Ocean 2 had 87 character endings, and you get 8 per game. Har har good luck >_> Well, not that anyone bothered getting all of them anyway.) Add in the number of post-game dungeons and bosses and you have quite a bit to do. 8/10.
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And finally the last series. I would've wrote on Nippon Ichi and the Tales series, but I've only play 2 of each series compared to the many out there.
Xenosaga (Ep 1: Der Wille Zur Macht, Ep 2: Jenseits Von Gut Und Bose, Pied Piper, Ep *3: Thus Sprach Zarathustra*)
Xenosaga began with the roots of Xenogears, a game made concurrently with Final Fantasy VII. Square decided at that point that more budget should be given to FFVII instead of Xenogears, and hence XG ended up with a very very long and beautifully-done Disc 1 and a very very short and disappointing Disc 2. Ended up that the makers of Xenogears left Square because of that, and joined Namco. The series-of-6 known as Xenogears (XG was Ep 5) was restarted all over again, and the result is the Xenosaga trilogy. (Would've been 6 but Ep 2 didn't sell too well so they cut it down)
Story: Xenosaga is a sci-fi story with religious undertones. The story itself is highly complex on its own, and that's without considering any symbolism involved. Due to its story being somewhat based on Nietzsche's philosophies (The Xenosaga titles save Pied Piper are all the names of Nietzsche's books), Jungian philosophy and also Gnostic Christianity, much allusions are made in regards to these three aspects, granting the story more depth than your usual RPG storyline. The storyline evolves and each stage of development is pulled of flawlessly. The only issue I had with the story is that it is too long and complex to fit into 3 games, and that's probably going to end up with a very rushed episode 3. Damn you Namco. >_> 10/10
Graphics: Xenosaga Episode 1 had taken on a rather queer ideea of chibitizing all the main characters while leaving all side characters as normal realistic people. While I found no problem with that contrast, I also didn't realize that Shion was 22 years old until Ep. 2 came out and made the characters realistic so as not to have a jarring contrast. The graphics are decent but not the kind of aweing sceneries in the FF series. Well, then again, I've seen the Ep. 3 gameplay trailer and the graphics there are nothing short of superb so =) 7/10 for graphics.
Characters: Characters in Xenosaga are far better developed than those in any of the games above, but that's quite obvious given the fact that the games above don't have the same cast for multiple games (No X-2 did nothing to make Yuna or Rikku seem better. In fact I would go as far as saying that X-2 ruined the two, particularly Rikku. =\ Oh well there went my favourite FFX char. >_>) Due to this, characters will only seem as developed if you play 1 and 2, and not either. While there are one or two hated characters, there are far more liked ones against that (They can make you like Albedo, and the only other two villains who've done that is Kefka and Luca Blight. Magus doesn't count since he's not really a villain). Far more development is also given to side characters than in other games, and that can't be much of a fault because it isn't compromising on the main party's development. 9/10.
Gameplay: Battles involve pressing a sequence of attacks to do a certain attack, but isn't like SO or Mana's fighting. This would be more of a cross between SO and FF, but more towards FF since it takes out SO's defining battle element. While in Xeno 1 the battle was simple and mainly involved doing strong attacks, Xeno 2 took that out the window and made it extremely complex what with zones positions and all. Essentially that made it hell to anyone who didn't get the system and made battles extremely easy to anyone who did. Serious imbalance if you ask me. In addition, Xeno Ep 2 dungeons mainly consist of nothing but mindless puzzles. Which idiot member of the world's biggest high-tech corporation would use a huge glass platform and blocks below it as a security measure? 7/10 for Ep 1, 6/10 for Ep. 2.
Replayability: Meh, decent with its bosses and dungeons and all. Nothing great like SO though. 7/10.
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I'm just one person, but if graphics are all that FF's about, then what's so great about it? You all need new games yo, view your games from way more PoVs than the FF-fanboy.
Of course, I'm somewhat of a Xeno-fanboy myself, >_> Oh well >_>
All that said, there's a lot of games I didn't say that are absolutely great and worth trying out, including but not limited to
Arc the Lad series
Castlevania series
Tales series
Nippon Ichi games (DISGAEA <3)
Lunar series
Breath of Fire series
Fire Emblem series =)
Any others I missed out? Hmm.
Now you know why I took two days to write this out >_>
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
The Problem with Christianity
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Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market-place, and cried incessantly: "I am looking for God! I am looking for God!"
As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there, he excited considerable laughter. Have you lost him, then? said one. Did he lose his way like a child? said another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? or emigrated? Thus they shouted and laughed. The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances.
"Where has God gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us - for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto."
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science 108
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Most Christians at a point of time question their religion and the existence of God. While I do not question the latter, recently I've been brought to do the former.
Long back ago when WTC was destroyed by terrorists, many people questioned Christianity. Some went into the religion, and some left. Both have reasons. Some asked where God was, and some said God was there because few people were in the building at the time. While some were unconvinced, some Christians felt that God had intervened in this way.
More recently in the Tsunami, many were killed, families destroyed, lives ruined, and many things undescribable by words. This time, far more people questioned the existence of God. Obviously 'few people were on the islands' is not going to make sense nor is it close to true, but some stories of Christians surviving (like Samuel Chan's story during the Superstar Virgo bible study) led them to believe that this was a warning from God. Some also said that this was a chance for Christians to show their goodness, spreading the truth.
Now assume for a moment this is true. Now comes a simple question: Why the heck would this be a chance for Christians to show their goodness if it killed so many non-christians? But that's not relevent, just some amusing food for thought.
Everywhere in churches people talk of God's graciousness, God's kindness and absolute morality. God bears ultimate compassion, and only because of the grace of God do people go into Heaven.
Hello, can anyone tell me with a straight face that God sent a tsunami to Earth to be a warning and to let Christians show the truth, meanwhile letting all who died go to Heaven?
People always say that everyone is sinful and only salvation can be achieved through Jesus Christ (Who incidentally kena owned by consumerism but that's 2 posts down). But why the heck are we advocating God as such a compassionate being? The only way those two aforementioned events could have occured would be if
1. God didn't exist
2. God existed and let the event occur
3. God's not as omnipotent as people put him as.
Christians aren't going to say 1 is true, that leaves 2 and 3. If 3 was true, then that's quite contradictory of our religion isn't it. If 2 was true (It makes more sense than 3 honestly), then we bring out more questions
Did God do this to turn people to Christianity? Or did he do this as a warning to the rest who survive?
Obviously neither answer is going to reflect on God as a compassionate being. Which Christian honestly believes that it's worth killing one million people to turn people to Christianity, or even worse, one million people on the death toll just to serve as a warning.
Most Christians just place blind faith in their God, never questioning Him and His actions, never questioning the bible, always thinking that God is the king of mercy and compassion, when he so obviously isn't. These Christians worship a God of mercy and compassion. Hello, say that in a victim's face.
From Mike's blog and from Mr. Johnaton Ng, "Many can view God as a God of love, but few can view Him as a God of wrath. Many can view God as a God of mercy, but few can view Him as a God of judgement."
Some Christians say that God is absolute moral. What worse lies can be said? Many, but that's irrelevent. Saying that God is absolute moral is a defiance to the very basis of morality. Is morality now defined by the actions of an omnipotent entity, or is God not absolute moral? I'd take the latter, thank you very much.
Christians worship an alleged God who is all compassionate and merciful. A God who is perfect. HELLO WAKE UP ALREADY LAH! God isn't going to be perfect by your standards. By our standards he's probably some omnipotent dude with his ups and downs. Perhaps he is perfect, but not by our definition of that word.
Christianity as it is now lies in absolute hypocrisy, lies and blind faith in a God whom is not what they think He is. Will this ever change? Who knows.
Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the market-place, and cried incessantly: "I am looking for God! I am looking for God!"
As many of those who did not believe in God were standing together there, he excited considerable laughter. Have you lost him, then? said one. Did he lose his way like a child? said another. Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? or emigrated? Thus they shouted and laughed. The madman sprang into their midst and pierced them with his glances.
"Where has God gone?" he cried. "I shall tell you. We have killed him - you and I. We are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What did we do when we unchained the earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving now? Away from all suns? Are we not perpetually falling? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there any up or down left? Are we not straying as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is it not more and more night coming on all the time? Must not lanterns be lit in the morning? Do we not hear anything yet of the noise of the gravediggers who are burying God? Do we not smell anything yet of God's decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it? There has never been a greater deed; and whosoever shall be born after us - for the sake of this deed he shall be part of a higher history than all history hitherto."
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science 108
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Most Christians at a point of time question their religion and the existence of God. While I do not question the latter, recently I've been brought to do the former.
Long back ago when WTC was destroyed by terrorists, many people questioned Christianity. Some went into the religion, and some left. Both have reasons. Some asked where God was, and some said God was there because few people were in the building at the time. While some were unconvinced, some Christians felt that God had intervened in this way.
More recently in the Tsunami, many were killed, families destroyed, lives ruined, and many things undescribable by words. This time, far more people questioned the existence of God. Obviously 'few people were on the islands' is not going to make sense nor is it close to true, but some stories of Christians surviving (like Samuel Chan's story during the Superstar Virgo bible study) led them to believe that this was a warning from God. Some also said that this was a chance for Christians to show their goodness, spreading the truth.
Now assume for a moment this is true. Now comes a simple question: Why the heck would this be a chance for Christians to show their goodness if it killed so many non-christians? But that's not relevent, just some amusing food for thought.
Everywhere in churches people talk of God's graciousness, God's kindness and absolute morality. God bears ultimate compassion, and only because of the grace of God do people go into Heaven.
Hello, can anyone tell me with a straight face that God sent a tsunami to Earth to be a warning and to let Christians show the truth, meanwhile letting all who died go to Heaven?
People always say that everyone is sinful and only salvation can be achieved through Jesus Christ (Who incidentally kena owned by consumerism but that's 2 posts down). But why the heck are we advocating God as such a compassionate being? The only way those two aforementioned events could have occured would be if
1. God didn't exist
2. God existed and let the event occur
3. God's not as omnipotent as people put him as.
Christians aren't going to say 1 is true, that leaves 2 and 3. If 3 was true, then that's quite contradictory of our religion isn't it. If 2 was true (It makes more sense than 3 honestly), then we bring out more questions
Did God do this to turn people to Christianity? Or did he do this as a warning to the rest who survive?
Obviously neither answer is going to reflect on God as a compassionate being. Which Christian honestly believes that it's worth killing one million people to turn people to Christianity, or even worse, one million people on the death toll just to serve as a warning.
Most Christians just place blind faith in their God, never questioning Him and His actions, never questioning the bible, always thinking that God is the king of mercy and compassion, when he so obviously isn't. These Christians worship a God of mercy and compassion. Hello, say that in a victim's face.
From Mike's blog and from Mr. Johnaton Ng, "Many can view God as a God of love, but few can view Him as a God of wrath. Many can view God as a God of mercy, but few can view Him as a God of judgement."
Some Christians say that God is absolute moral. What worse lies can be said? Many, but that's irrelevent. Saying that God is absolute moral is a defiance to the very basis of morality. Is morality now defined by the actions of an omnipotent entity, or is God not absolute moral? I'd take the latter, thank you very much.
Christians worship an alleged God who is all compassionate and merciful. A God who is perfect. HELLO WAKE UP ALREADY LAH! God isn't going to be perfect by your standards. By our standards he's probably some omnipotent dude with his ups and downs. Perhaps he is perfect, but not by our definition of that word.
Christianity as it is now lies in absolute hypocrisy, lies and blind faith in a God whom is not what they think He is. Will this ever change? Who knows.
Monday, December 19, 2005
JK and DDR
JK on DDR.
Truer pictures have never been drawn. Hear, hear.
*Whoever doesn't get it should read JK's latest post on DDR*
Edit: Uhh "JK on DDR." is a link. I have got to colour links differently next time. >_> Oh, and Jun Yi has a better version on his blog done up by MS Paint. W00t >_>
Truer pictures have never been drawn. Hear, hear.
*Whoever doesn't get it should read JK's latest post on DDR*
Edit: Uhh "JK on DDR." is a link. I have got to colour links differently next time. >_> Oh, and Jun Yi has a better version on his blog done up by MS Paint. W00t >_>
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Consumerism vs Christ
Finally finished carolling at Tong Building (Next to Paragon and opposite Takashimaya).
Sian, quite tired. BUT I MUST BLOG because my blog's been deaded for who knows how long. Sorry >_>
Personally for a Christian, when we walk along Orchard Road (Hehe Providence Presbyterian Church is so close to Plaza Sing =), and McDonald's was just a walk away until teh Mac's at YMCA got replaced by some stupid thingammo >_<) we see a whole ton of Christmas lights and all that. The Istana and Plaza Sing are chockful of people, and stuffed with similar amounts of lights. Ooh, want romantic view of fireflies with your partner don't need to go to Malaysia anymore, can just wear the masks left over from SARS, head over to the Istana and sneeze alot while screaming "I GOT BIRD FLU" at night. Sure got a lot of fireflies surrounding the trees for you and your loved one to appreciate alone. Wah, so romantic. Just ignore the traffic jam behind and all is silent.
Then we go inside Plaza Sing which if I'm not wrong still has that Christmas Fantasy thing going on where people dressed up like Snow White sing Hit Me Baby One More Time to hordes of 5-year old future mindless-followers-of-music I mean kids =). I'm sure there's a Watson's nearby selling Rappin' Santas for kids to love. I mean come on, who doesn't love pop-culture fairytale characters and Rappin' Santas? I know I'm one. >_>
Then we head over to Takashimaya where we see a gigantic Christmas tree roughly 5 stories high (Or higher than that). I'm sure if I went to the ground floor I could see a $1mil pricetag on it with the ad "Surely your child needs a bigger tree for all his presents, right?" with lots and lots of salespeople with great beaming smiles directing you to each store in the area to cater to your Christmas needs of buying for the Season. If you don't they strike you with the Lv.10 Guilt-Inducing Stare of Doom (Ooh now we know KW's job) and make you wish that you had bought that 24-karat gold ring with studded 16-karat diamonds for your girlfriend instead of that stainless steel ring with a 1-karat diamond. No significant other? Professional Dating Agencies can assign someone to help you get that special someone (They're called Personal Dating Assistant) because Singapore must be shopping hub and cannot go shopping without a girlfriend or wife because we all know girls spend money way more easily than guys, and girls wouldn't get much money to spend if they were alone, right.
Next we head over to Lucky Plaza where we have bright lights and Christmas lights in a pseudo-Chinese marriage room-esque feeling in the front area. But that's not important is it, it is but decorations. They instead bear a bright emblem of christmas lights on the front wall saying "Jesus Christ was born, the reason for the season" WHOA DEEP SIA food for thought eh got reason for season and it's not consumerism whoa now we know Jesus makes the world go round GO CHRISTIANITY >_>
See Jesus is one who will rid the world of evil, and rid you of your evil too. And what is the most basic fundamental point of evil? Money. because money² = evil. Therefore Jesus took the initiative and introduced the Season where people waste more money and give it to where all evil lies. What great sacrifices were made, we must all turn to Christianity and buy more things for our loved ones. It is the only way of cleansing and salvation for our money-bearing wallets and souls.
Gosh what have I just said. Ignore that.
Seriously, Christmas is symbolic of the birth of Christ (Even though religious scholars prove otherwise, but hey you won't want to sing a carol called "O Little Town of Nazareth", right? Neither would I). What happens? Consumerism rears its ugly head and takes out the "Christ" and turns it into "Ex". Whoa, suddenly every shopping centre around Orchard Road is justified in giving fricking high prices for every single thing, because the season deems it acceptable wad. Ex things for XMas, everyone happy happy =) then buy lor. No choice wad. Don't buy got salesperson Lv.10 Guilt-Inducing Stare of Doom you into picturing your friends in tears because you didn't buy them that XBox package in the commercials these days (Ignore the fact that friends don't let other friends buy XBoxes. Oh well I couldn't stop Bryan he did it already. What kind of friends does he have sia =\) Nuu, you think, I must buy this even though school starts two weeks from now. Surely my friend's two weeks worth of entertainment (Assume that they have no social life) is worth my wasting a few hundred dollars.
But what about the others, you ask? Surely I don't have enough money to cater to them all? Whoa, no worries, one of them says. You can stand to win $1000 worth of cash if you spend $100 in Carrefour (Not sure who would buy Christmas presents from a supermarket though). $Cha-Ching$, you think, and use up $100 dollars. You fail to get that $1k, and you think damn, I wasted another $100.
No worries! The bank has got it all covered up for you. Just borrow ten thousand today and regret it a few months down the road when you find yourself incapable of paying! Hey, that's a good idea, you think, and borrow money.
You spend it all, and you still can't get enough presents because Lv.10 Guilt-Inducing Stares of Doom always work on you whether or not you bought a Baby-G or a Rolex. Well, sucks to you because the gambling den I MEAN Integrated Resort hasn't been opened yet. Good luck next year ;) Oh, by the way, would you like fries with that? Just an additional $1.80.
Consumerism: 1
Jesus Christ: 0
Sian, quite tired. BUT I MUST BLOG because my blog's been deaded for who knows how long. Sorry >_>
Personally for a Christian, when we walk along Orchard Road (Hehe Providence Presbyterian Church is so close to Plaza Sing =), and McDonald's was just a walk away until teh Mac's at YMCA got replaced by some stupid thingammo >_<) we see a whole ton of Christmas lights and all that. The Istana and Plaza Sing are chockful of people, and stuffed with similar amounts of lights. Ooh, want romantic view of fireflies with your partner don't need to go to Malaysia anymore, can just wear the masks left over from SARS, head over to the Istana and sneeze alot while screaming "I GOT BIRD FLU" at night. Sure got a lot of fireflies surrounding the trees for you and your loved one to appreciate alone. Wah, so romantic. Just ignore the traffic jam behind and all is silent.
Then we go inside Plaza Sing which if I'm not wrong still has that Christmas Fantasy thing going on where people dressed up like Snow White sing Hit Me Baby One More Time to hordes of 5-year old future mindless-followers-of-music I mean kids =). I'm sure there's a Watson's nearby selling Rappin' Santas for kids to love. I mean come on, who doesn't love pop-culture fairytale characters and Rappin' Santas? I know I'm one. >_>
Then we head over to Takashimaya where we see a gigantic Christmas tree roughly 5 stories high (Or higher than that). I'm sure if I went to the ground floor I could see a $1mil pricetag on it with the ad "Surely your child needs a bigger tree for all his presents, right?" with lots and lots of salespeople with great beaming smiles directing you to each store in the area to cater to your Christmas needs of buying for the Season. If you don't they strike you with the Lv.10 Guilt-Inducing Stare of Doom (Ooh now we know KW's job) and make you wish that you had bought that 24-karat gold ring with studded 16-karat diamonds for your girlfriend instead of that stainless steel ring with a 1-karat diamond. No significant other? Professional Dating Agencies can assign someone to help you get that special someone (They're called Personal Dating Assistant) because Singapore must be shopping hub and cannot go shopping without a girlfriend or wife because we all know girls spend money way more easily than guys, and girls wouldn't get much money to spend if they were alone, right.
Next we head over to Lucky Plaza where we have bright lights and Christmas lights in a pseudo-Chinese marriage room-esque feeling in the front area. But that's not important is it, it is but decorations. They instead bear a bright emblem of christmas lights on the front wall saying "Jesus Christ was born, the reason for the season" WHOA DEEP SIA food for thought eh got reason for season and it's not consumerism whoa now we know Jesus makes the world go round GO CHRISTIANITY >_>
See Jesus is one who will rid the world of evil, and rid you of your evil too. And what is the most basic fundamental point of evil? Money. because money² = evil. Therefore Jesus took the initiative and introduced the Season where people waste more money and give it to where all evil lies. What great sacrifices were made, we must all turn to Christianity and buy more things for our loved ones. It is the only way of cleansing and salvation for our money-bearing wallets and souls.
Gosh what have I just said. Ignore that.
Seriously, Christmas is symbolic of the birth of Christ (Even though religious scholars prove otherwise, but hey you won't want to sing a carol called "O Little Town of Nazareth", right? Neither would I). What happens? Consumerism rears its ugly head and takes out the "Christ" and turns it into "Ex". Whoa, suddenly every shopping centre around Orchard Road is justified in giving fricking high prices for every single thing, because the season deems it acceptable wad. Ex things for XMas, everyone happy happy =) then buy lor. No choice wad. Don't buy got salesperson Lv.10 Guilt-Inducing Stare of Doom you into picturing your friends in tears because you didn't buy them that XBox package in the commercials these days (Ignore the fact that friends don't let other friends buy XBoxes. Oh well I couldn't stop Bryan he did it already. What kind of friends does he have sia =\) Nuu, you think, I must buy this even though school starts two weeks from now. Surely my friend's two weeks worth of entertainment (Assume that they have no social life) is worth my wasting a few hundred dollars.
But what about the others, you ask? Surely I don't have enough money to cater to them all? Whoa, no worries, one of them says. You can stand to win $1000 worth of cash if you spend $100 in Carrefour (Not sure who would buy Christmas presents from a supermarket though). $Cha-Ching$, you think, and use up $100 dollars. You fail to get that $1k, and you think damn, I wasted another $100.
No worries! The bank has got it all covered up for you. Just borrow ten thousand today and regret it a few months down the road when you find yourself incapable of paying! Hey, that's a good idea, you think, and borrow money.
You spend it all, and you still can't get enough presents because Lv.10 Guilt-Inducing Stares of Doom always work on you whether or not you bought a Baby-G or a Rolex. Well, sucks to you because the gambling den I MEAN Integrated Resort hasn't been opened yet. Good luck next year ;) Oh, by the way, would you like fries with that? Just an additional $1.80.
Consumerism: 1
Jesus Christ: 0
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
A Testimonial for Gwin
I decided not to post the yawningbread article because the flaws in that article were quite obvious this time, compared to the previous one. I have however decided to post my bro's Testimonial so people like Gid and Mel can make fun of it, and the rest of you will be warned about what kind of BS our teachers can pull off next time. My commentaries will be in brackets.
Name: Ong Yu Heng (Not Godwin eh =\)
Reason for Leaving: Completion of Study (Otherwise wad. They write testimonials for emigrants and dropouts arh?)
Mr Ong Yu Heng was a student of this college from 2004-2005 where he pursued (Isn't it persue?) a course in the Science Faculty.
Yu Heng is an amiable student with good communication skills (O rly). Approachable and friendly (BS), he relates well to his tutors and peers alike. A responsible and trustworthy team player (O RLY), Yu Heng can be relied on to complete assigned tasks competently and efficiently (You don't rely on people to complete tasks incompetently right). An important and constructive member of his "Project Work" (Ooh, inverted commas. Sounds so suspicious) group, Yu Heng was instrumental in guiding his diverse group members towards the completion of theuir tasks. Sensible and helpful (BS), Yu Heng takes the initiative to lend a helping hand whenever the need ariswes (O rly). During the College Fun Fair, he stayed back - way beyond his shift hours to ensure that there was sufficient manpower for the class' games stall (Scarly he kena sabo into it den how). It must be added here (O rly) that this was just one of the many occasions that he has lent his support to the college in his quiet and unassuming way (QUIET AND UNASSUMING WAY *Raises wtf flag*) His sense of integrity is indeed very strong as he offers his time and completes his duties to the best of his abilities wihtout any supervision required.
During his two years at our college, Yu Heng has made satisfactory (Not good den say lar) progress in his academic subjects. Diligent and teachable (Wah, how come he's never diligent or teachable for me sia. =\ My bro hates me ;_;), Yu Heng is a steady and highly motivated learner ("Aah Science at this level is BS" I quote Yu Heng) who is serious about improving his grades (O rly). He is always prepared for tutorials and took the initiative to clarify his doubts with his tutors (IOW he dumb cannot understand lecture and tutorial larh)
Besides academic excellence, Yu Heng also strove to participate in various college activities (BS I bet he kena taupok blackmail) As a dedicated member of the Speakers' Club, he attended the Club's sessions faithfully (No contribution then say lar) and honed his oratorical skills conscientiously (No wonder he can BS so well >_>). Indeed, Yu heng thinks through his ideas thoroughly and articulates them convincingly.
As part of the college 'Community Involvement Programme' (I tot CIP was to everyone), Yu Heng also helped enthusiastically in the sale of flags for several welfare organizations and raised funds for the Whispering Hearts Family Service Centre (Wah selling flags demn enthu sia my bro xi bei shiok dun play play)
Whatever Yu heng undertakes in future (TEH UNDERTAKER), one can be sure that he will bring the same sense of diligence and commitment that he has shown during the two years at Saint Andrew's Junior College.
-----------------------------------------------
Wow. Gwin is a hardworking diligent nice person? Wah, that's like saying Gid's a guaizai. o_O
Oh well he's gone for NS anyway so >_>
Name: Ong Yu Heng (Not Godwin eh =\)
Reason for Leaving: Completion of Study (Otherwise wad. They write testimonials for emigrants and dropouts arh?)
Mr Ong Yu Heng was a student of this college from 2004-2005 where he pursued (Isn't it persue?) a course in the Science Faculty.
Yu Heng is an amiable student with good communication skills (O rly). Approachable and friendly (BS), he relates well to his tutors and peers alike. A responsible and trustworthy team player (O RLY), Yu Heng can be relied on to complete assigned tasks competently and efficiently (You don't rely on people to complete tasks incompetently right). An important and constructive member of his "Project Work" (Ooh, inverted commas. Sounds so suspicious) group, Yu Heng was instrumental in guiding his diverse group members towards the completion of theuir tasks. Sensible and helpful (BS), Yu Heng takes the initiative to lend a helping hand whenever the need ariswes (O rly). During the College Fun Fair, he stayed back - way beyond his shift hours to ensure that there was sufficient manpower for the class' games stall (Scarly he kena sabo into it den how). It must be added here (O rly) that this was just one of the many occasions that he has lent his support to the college in his quiet and unassuming way (QUIET AND UNASSUMING WAY *Raises wtf flag*) His sense of integrity is indeed very strong as he offers his time and completes his duties to the best of his abilities wihtout any supervision required.
During his two years at our college, Yu Heng has made satisfactory (Not good den say lar) progress in his academic subjects. Diligent and teachable (Wah, how come he's never diligent or teachable for me sia. =\ My bro hates me ;_;), Yu Heng is a steady and highly motivated learner ("Aah Science at this level is BS" I quote Yu Heng) who is serious about improving his grades (O rly). He is always prepared for tutorials and took the initiative to clarify his doubts with his tutors (IOW he dumb cannot understand lecture and tutorial larh)
Besides academic excellence, Yu Heng also strove to participate in various college activities (BS I bet he kena taupok blackmail) As a dedicated member of the Speakers' Club, he attended the Club's sessions faithfully (No contribution then say lar) and honed his oratorical skills conscientiously (No wonder he can BS so well >_>). Indeed, Yu heng thinks through his ideas thoroughly and articulates them convincingly.
As part of the college 'Community Involvement Programme' (I tot CIP was to everyone), Yu Heng also helped enthusiastically in the sale of flags for several welfare organizations and raised funds for the Whispering Hearts Family Service Centre (Wah selling flags demn enthu sia my bro xi bei shiok dun play play)
Whatever Yu heng undertakes in future (TEH UNDERTAKER), one can be sure that he will bring the same sense of diligence and commitment that he has shown during the two years at Saint Andrew's Junior College.
-----------------------------------------------
Wow. Gwin is a hardworking diligent nice person? Wah, that's like saying Gid's a guaizai. o_O
Oh well he's gone for NS anyway so >_>
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Sleepovers, Games and Reminiscences
Sorry, intended to blog earlier but this is what happened:
5th: Went to WH's house and stayed over, no access of computer
6th: Came back at evening, quite tired didn't use computer
7th: 1 day before bro leaves for NS just play GG and Katamari, didn't blog
8th: Bro leaves for NS sian tired didn't blog
So today being 9th and my blog being teh Lv.10 Crypt Lord of Doom, and with a whole ton of things to write about, I hath decided to not blog about what happened during sleepover, since so many of us know, and just put down some notes. *Very very game-oriented*
1. JK gives a very scary look whenever I mention the word 'DDR'.
2. WH's not bad at controller DDR but I pwn him on Legend of Max anyway lawl >_>
3. Peter's Axl Low is not bad but not cheap enough (j.S ftw dude)
4. A.B.A. suicide bomber is tougher than I imagined
5. Venom 214p s.p owns for annoyance >_>
6. SZ can play Mahjong not bad o_O
7. JK plays Mahjong very scarily o_O
8. SZ gets freaked out very very easily
9. Juon 2 isn't scary when you have a group of people watching it and I'm one of them =10. WH's OBCESSED WITH POKEMON GAMES ARGH but I nearly beat him at Pikachu Volleyball 15-14 NUUU
11. SZ's obcessed with FFX-2
12. Rakion is very o_O
13. Gunbound has changed waaaaay too much >_>
14. Duel Masters is >_>
15. My FFX2 blitzball skillz r not gone yet
16. KEVIN WONG PLAYS MAHJONG but he's not that good at it
17. Glenn (WH's cousin) cannot sing for nuts
18. WH's stuck on the Woglinde and SZ's stuck on the Elsa trying to deliver curry. Way to get stuck on such a great game >_>
19. 4 Leopaldons on one screen = Major wth
20. Dark Angel is funnnnnnn to do on people >_>
---------------------------------------------
Not too in the mood to continue blogging right now, so I'll leave my SMW post and my NS post till later (Maybe afternoon/night or tomorrow)
5th: Went to WH's house and stayed over, no access of computer
6th: Came back at evening, quite tired didn't use computer
7th: 1 day before bro leaves for NS just play GG and Katamari, didn't blog
8th: Bro leaves for NS sian tired didn't blog
So today being 9th and my blog being teh Lv.10 Crypt Lord of Doom, and with a whole ton of things to write about, I hath decided to not blog about what happened during sleepover, since so many of us know, and just put down some notes. *Very very game-oriented*
1. JK gives a very scary look whenever I mention the word 'DDR'.
2. WH's not bad at controller DDR but I pwn him on Legend of Max anyway lawl >_>
3. Peter's Axl Low is not bad but not cheap enough (j.S ftw dude)
4. A.B.A. suicide bomber is tougher than I imagined
5. Venom 214p s.p owns for annoyance >_>
6. SZ can play Mahjong not bad o_O
7. JK plays Mahjong very scarily o_O
8. SZ gets freaked out very very easily
9. Juon 2 isn't scary when you have a group of people watching it and I'm one of them =10. WH's OBCESSED WITH POKEMON GAMES ARGH but I nearly beat him at Pikachu Volleyball 15-14 NUUU
11. SZ's obcessed with FFX-2
12. Rakion is very o_O
13. Gunbound has changed waaaaay too much >_>
14. Duel Masters is >_>
15. My FFX2 blitzball skillz r not gone yet
16. KEVIN WONG PLAYS MAHJONG but he's not that good at it
17. Glenn (WH's cousin) cannot sing for nuts
18. WH's stuck on the Woglinde and SZ's stuck on the Elsa trying to deliver curry. Way to get stuck on such a great game >_>
19. 4 Leopaldons on one screen = Major wth
20. Dark Angel is funnnnnnn to do on people >_>
---------------------------------------------
Not too in the mood to continue blogging right now, so I'll leave my SMW post and my NS post till later (Maybe afternoon/night or tomorrow)
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Arcade Outing
*Warning zees post is not for the faint-hearted. Only the most dedicated of gamers get past this point. >_>*
Ok, this really isn't that gamer-intensive, but chances are that if you're not SZ, WH, Cleon or someone who knows quite a bit of GG + Bemani, then you won't get 9/10 of what I'm saying. The 1/10 is what's been said up to this point, in addition to all the generic statements I'll make here and there. >_>
Yesterday, I headed to Plaza Sing at 12pm. SZ said he was going at 12 something so I interpreted that as 12, and not the original 12.30-1pm meeting time. Well, that kinda meant I was there rather early. Me being me, I decided to head to Comics Connection first. Aeh, not much. The Kita He VCD is gone now. Why? Because I bought it <3. Then I head over to Star Factory first, since it's just one story up.
I enter. Whoa, the Maximum Tune machines are rather... vacant. Maybe it's because it's noon. Hey, Drummania V isn't switched on. o_O. Well, Drummania 11th Mix and Guitarfreaks 11th Mix (Is it 11th? I'm not sure =\) are on, so I guess there's something wrong with DMV. I go over to DDR Extreme. It's not on either o_O Ooook. I go over to the fighters. Aw, no one at all. This stinks. I head down many many escalators to Xzone.
I play a game of GGXX with Ky, And die just a stage before Sol. Wth. DEATH TO SLAYER?! Annoyed. I mean, damn. The computer's not supposed to do things like c.S c.S Dead on Time. =\ Geez. Oh well =
I look at the time. Wth? 12.45pm already? Oh dear. I head out of the arcade, and out of Dhoby Ghaut MRT. As I walk towards the PS Main entrance, I see an NPCC fella asking for donations. He asks me, and I think what the hey. I brought $26 in notes anyway, why not donate $2? So I donate two. I walk on, and I think "Hey, at least I won't have any other people asking me to donate."
How wrong I was. A person heads up to me and asks me to donate $10 dollars. Ouch, I think. But it's for homeless children, and I do it. So now I have donated almost 1/2 the money in my wallet to charity. While Kevin Wong's probably going to say that I'm some kind of nice person and all that, I've just learnt to donate, but not to the extent where you won't have cash in an emergency. Unfortunately I'm not kind, rather easily guilt-striken THANK YOU KEVIN WONG FOR INTRODUCING GUILT INTO MY SYSTEM DARN YOU. Now I'm left with $14.
So I continue on my way to the PS Main entrance. What perils next? Another Lv.5 NPCC "Plzdonate" Warrior (Subclass: Policeman), or a Lv.20 Warrior (Subclass: Guardian for homeless children) Pray tell I do not meet up with more dangerous warriors of the plzdonate class. What could be next?! A Lv.40 Thief (Subclass: Ripoff Salesman) ?! Oh dear, I've only $14 and I haven't even eaten lunch nor played arcade with SZ and Cleon yet!
Luckily the next part of my journey was safe. Hey, is that Bryan and Adwyn? I say hi to them. We talk a while, and Adwyn heads for Dhoby Ghaut MRT for home. Bryan decides to follow me around since Adwyn slept over the night before, and now he was headed home after lunch at PS. Bryan on the other hand still had time to spare so decided to wait for SZ and Cleon before heading to the arcade.
A Lv.15 Gamer (Subclass: DotA) has joined the party!
It's 12.45 and neither SZ nor Cleon have come yet, but I don't have Cleon's handphone number. So I decide to just call SZ.
..."Hello SZ? Where're you?"
...
..."Face it SZ, you're lost."
...
..."I don't think 162 comes to Plaza Sing, SZ."
...
Bryan laughs a bit, so do I. SZ has managed to get lost again. Well, who knows how he got here afterwards. o_O
We walk up towards Comics Connection, and discuss about what to get Wei Hua for his birthday present. Me being me, hath no money to buy Duel Masters Booster Packs because I hath donated 1/2 my wallet's money (In notes) to charity. Oh well. >_>
We walk down towards the main entrance, because that's where we were supposed to meet. Bryan talks about Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. Doesn't sound too bad, but according to Bry it's damn imbalanced, so. =\
We reach the entrance after talking about Marvel Nemesis and a bit about Baby Loony Tunes (It's one of teh features there at PS) and look, it's Sheu Zhi!
Lv.20 Gamer (Subclass: GG) has joined the party!
SZ and Bryan talk about Marvel Nemesis for a while, and talk about Wink, whom according to Bryan has the coolest finisher.
Bry: "Wink etc"
SZ: "Winx?"
Bry: "No, not Winx. Wink!"
SZ: "Winx?"
Bry: "Argh nevermind. Anyway, wink is like..."
SZ: "Winx?"
Me: "o_O"
SZ: "Winx? Winx? Winx? Winx? Winx?..."
Bry: "Arghhhh"
Me: "o_O"
Me: "Hey look I hear children from the back, let's go check it out"
Bry: "o_O"
SZ: "Ok"
So we go check it out. Oo look, it's Snow White >_>
SZ: "*Eyes burn*"
Bry: "Arghhhhh"
Me: "o_O"
So we move back to the main entrance. Hey, why not move upstairs? So I start going towards the escalator. They follow because Bry will die if he heard "Winx" one more time.
Up the escalator, and we see Snow White again. Oo, look, Snow White's dancing to Hit Me Baby One More Time. >_>
WAIT A MINUTE. That's not right. o_O.
So we walk towards Star Factory, and I call Cleon using SZ's phone book (IOW his diary. >_>) and tell him to meet at Star Factory instead of the main entrance.
So we head to Star Factory, and Sheu Zhi buys tokens to own at GG. Bry and I buy some tokens too.
I go first and play Ky. SZ comes over, and plays Ky too. Wth o_O Oh dear I'm gonna die.
So I get owned by SZ. I fight him with other characters and die accordingly as well. =
Bryan comes and tries and gets owned as well. Somehow both of us can get him to pixelhealth before we die, at least once per fight. My Ky could do that to him =) Mostly because of the j.H Ride the Lightning though. o_O
I head over to look at DM 11th, and look for a while. I head back to GGXX, and hey, that's Cleon.
A Lv.15 Gamer (Subclass: Otaku) has joined your party!
We get bored because SZ is taking so long on GG.
SZ finally finishes beating I-No, and we head towards LJS for lunch. Lesson of the day: LJS has really good fish and really sucky sandwiches. Meh. =
Then we head off for X-Zone. And all the fun begins.
Right off the bat we move to the GGXX machine. There's a Slayer Player there. SZ thinks he Dandy Steps too much already, so he heads for the counter to top up his Tapz Card. I see him fight one round. Wth? This guy uses the exact same comboes SZ does. Got standard one leh. I tell that to SZ, then he says he Dandy Steps too much, can kena whack one. >_>
SZ fights him a number of times, and each time he loses 1-2 to teh Slayerplayer.
SZ: f.HS
Slayer: Dash behind throw
SZ: Quadslash Mappa Hunch RC s.HS Pilebunker
Slayer: FDs the Pilebunker
SZ: WTH o_O
Slayer: s.HS Crosswise Heel j.k j.p j.k jc j.k Direct Hit Dandy j.k j.p j.k jc j.k j.d Footloose Journey (IOW Bat-thing)
SZ: o_O
Me: Damn, that's alot of 1/2 life comboes going on around.
Eventually the guy decides to Destroy SZ when SZ's Slayer got Dizzied, and left to play something else. So I took over his Slayer, and fight against Cleon/Bryan (Both played on one side)'s Slayer. Whoa, I can actually do Crosswise Heel j.k j.p j.k jc j.k j.d o_O It's like darn easy on the arcade machine compared to my #R at home. =\ Maybe stick is better than keyboard for that o_O
The guy comes back and sees my Slayer play. Then he decides to challenge me. SZ asks me whether the guy was the same person, and I tell him yes, and let him take my place in teh Slayer v Slayer match.
Cleon meanwhile heads over to DMV to play some.
SZ loses 1-2 again, and realizes something is wrong. He watches him for one or two matches, and understands.
He picks Potemkin. And owns Slayer 2-0. I convey the news to Cleon, and he goes o_O.
I go back to the GGXX machine and see SZ fighting against Slayer, with Potemkin in the advantage.
Potemkin: j.D
Slayer: Dash back
Potemkin: POTEMKIN BUSTAAAAA! Whack (Not sure which it is) Heat Knuckle Extend! Whoa 1/2life combo
Slayer: Crosswise Heel!
Potemkin: COUNTER Gigantor GIGANTIC BILD! GG ownage o_O
Potemkin: POTEMKIN BUSTAAAA! POTEMKIN BUSTAAA! POTEMKIN BUSTAAAAAAAAA! GG ownage literally o_O
I go back to Cleon, and see him pass Timephase II and The Least 100 Seconds Basic Autobass. Damn, how DOES he do that =\ He finishes his game, and we head back to SZ.
SZ talks with the guy who beat him. His nick is Salad o_O. He said that SZ Potemkin Buster'd too much, and that's not going to work in GGXX Slash.
SZ: o_O!!!! Are you a Bugis Player?!
Salad: Yeah
SZ: *OMG I BEAT A BUGIS PRO YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!*
And SZ's fricking happy now. But wah, Salad's Slayer is like wth lar. It's even more pro than SZ's. I mean, HE CAN FD PILEBUNKER WTH o_O My bro better not learn that trick or my Slayer will kena >_> Then again I only do c.S c.S Mappa Hunch *Quadslash timing a bit teh dey leh so.*
We proceed to play some GG. And own. Quite a bit. The only person I lost to apart from SZ (Or SZ + Cleon in Isuka) was some Sol player. And my Slayer could take him on decently. Wth, Slayer's not even my best. >_> SZ GGowned him with Sol. Damn funny.
Sol: Dash in
SZ: Volcanic Viper!!! Dash towards guy while down
Sol: Tries to attack
SZ: VOLCANIC VIPER!!! Dash towards guy while down
Sol: Tries to attack
SZ: VOLCANIC VIPER!!! Dash towards guy while down
Sol: Tries to attack
SZ: VOLCANIC VIPER!!! Dash towards guy while down
Ok, maybe it's less repetitive than that. But wth Volcanic Viper is broken o_O And what's with that guy? Grand Viper RC is like worthless, especially for j.S j.HS Volcanic Viper o_O At least Gunflame Grand Viper RC j.S j.D Volcanic Viper wad, at least liddat can go around 150 or so. =\
Den we own some other people. SZ owned some Isuka Ky player and a Baiken player in addition to the Sol player, I owned a Chipp and a Dizzy player. Whee I can own people now not bad sia.
The guy runs away after being owned >_> And SZ continues and beats I-No again. SZ, Cleon and I take a look at some guy playing DDR. Not too good leh, playing Afronova Light and Paranoia Light. Summore got face problem one. =
Den got girls play as well. Wth play light only GO HOME LAR. jk but dun play barefeet leh, unbecoming. =
Den I play with SZ. Wah, I showoff with things like Paranoia Standard, Afronova Standard, Dynamite Rave Standard. Actually no lah, not that showoff. See that Ray person the last time. OMG teh prozorz lah, Barhug Extra Stage Maxx Unlimited A o_O
Then the DDR player playing teh Paranoia Light asks if he can team up with me coz he's not too used to some songs, so I say ok lor. >_>
Afronova Standard, Candy * Standard, Dynamite Rave Standard, Ever Snow Light (Kena too tired lol >_>), then Kakumei Heavy LAWL >_> (The guy also go wah o_O)
Den we watch some Drummania playing (Wah got pro leh can play 90s o_O) den Cleon comes to play once (after waiting a long time XD). Den o_O It's 6pm already, and we head back.
Damn, I felt quite happy after that. I bet SZ was damn shiok can beat Bugis player. Dude, cream of the crop yo. =)
Well, not much to say now. DDR made me quite tired and sneezy >_> So I skipped teh badminton outing on Wed, along with church choir. =
Oh well, 'twas well worth it =)
Ok, this really isn't that gamer-intensive, but chances are that if you're not SZ, WH, Cleon or someone who knows quite a bit of GG + Bemani, then you won't get 9/10 of what I'm saying. The 1/10 is what's been said up to this point, in addition to all the generic statements I'll make here and there. >_>
Yesterday, I headed to Plaza Sing at 12pm. SZ said he was going at 12 something so I interpreted that as 12, and not the original 12.30-1pm meeting time. Well, that kinda meant I was there rather early. Me being me, I decided to head to Comics Connection first. Aeh, not much. The Kita He VCD is gone now. Why? Because I bought it <3. Then I head over to Star Factory first, since it's just one story up.
I enter. Whoa, the Maximum Tune machines are rather... vacant. Maybe it's because it's noon. Hey, Drummania V isn't switched on. o_O. Well, Drummania 11th Mix and Guitarfreaks 11th Mix (Is it 11th? I'm not sure =\) are on, so I guess there's something wrong with DMV. I go over to DDR Extreme. It's not on either o_O Ooook. I go over to the fighters. Aw, no one at all. This stinks. I head down many many escalators to Xzone.
I play a game of GGXX with Ky, And die just a stage before Sol. Wth. DEATH TO SLAYER?! Annoyed. I mean, damn. The computer's not supposed to do things like c.S c.S Dead on Time. =\ Geez. Oh well =
I look at the time. Wth? 12.45pm already? Oh dear. I head out of the arcade, and out of Dhoby Ghaut MRT. As I walk towards the PS Main entrance, I see an NPCC fella asking for donations. He asks me, and I think what the hey. I brought $26 in notes anyway, why not donate $2? So I donate two. I walk on, and I think "Hey, at least I won't have any other people asking me to donate."
How wrong I was. A person heads up to me and asks me to donate $10 dollars. Ouch, I think. But it's for homeless children, and I do it. So now I have donated almost 1/2 the money in my wallet to charity. While Kevin Wong's probably going to say that I'm some kind of nice person and all that, I've just learnt to donate, but not to the extent where you won't have cash in an emergency. Unfortunately I'm not kind, rather easily guilt-striken THANK YOU KEVIN WONG FOR INTRODUCING GUILT INTO MY SYSTEM DARN YOU. Now I'm left with $14.
So I continue on my way to the PS Main entrance. What perils next? Another Lv.5 NPCC "Plzdonate" Warrior (Subclass: Policeman), or a Lv.20 Warrior (Subclass: Guardian for homeless children) Pray tell I do not meet up with more dangerous warriors of the plzdonate class. What could be next?! A Lv.40 Thief (Subclass: Ripoff Salesman) ?! Oh dear, I've only $14 and I haven't even eaten lunch nor played arcade with SZ and Cleon yet!
Luckily the next part of my journey was safe. Hey, is that Bryan and Adwyn? I say hi to them. We talk a while, and Adwyn heads for Dhoby Ghaut MRT for home. Bryan decides to follow me around since Adwyn slept over the night before, and now he was headed home after lunch at PS. Bryan on the other hand still had time to spare so decided to wait for SZ and Cleon before heading to the arcade.
A Lv.15 Gamer (Subclass: DotA) has joined the party!
It's 12.45 and neither SZ nor Cleon have come yet, but I don't have Cleon's handphone number. So I decide to just call SZ.
..."Hello SZ? Where're you?"
...
..."Face it SZ, you're lost."
...
..."I don't think 162 comes to Plaza Sing, SZ."
...
Bryan laughs a bit, so do I. SZ has managed to get lost again. Well, who knows how he got here afterwards. o_O
We walk up towards Comics Connection, and discuss about what to get Wei Hua for his birthday present. Me being me, hath no money to buy Duel Masters Booster Packs because I hath donated 1/2 my wallet's money (In notes) to charity. Oh well. >_>
We walk down towards the main entrance, because that's where we were supposed to meet. Bryan talks about Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. Doesn't sound too bad, but according to Bry it's damn imbalanced, so. =\
We reach the entrance after talking about Marvel Nemesis and a bit about Baby Loony Tunes (It's one of teh features there at PS) and look, it's Sheu Zhi!
Lv.20 Gamer (Subclass: GG) has joined the party!
SZ and Bryan talk about Marvel Nemesis for a while, and talk about Wink, whom according to Bryan has the coolest finisher.
Bry: "Wink etc"
SZ: "Winx?"
Bry: "No, not Winx. Wink!"
SZ: "Winx?"
Bry: "Argh nevermind. Anyway, wink is like..."
SZ: "Winx?"
Me: "o_O"
SZ: "Winx? Winx? Winx? Winx? Winx?..."
Bry: "Arghhhh"
Me: "o_O"
Me: "Hey look I hear children from the back, let's go check it out"
Bry: "o_O"
SZ: "Ok"
So we go check it out. Oo look, it's Snow White >_>
SZ: "*Eyes burn*"
Bry: "Arghhhhh"
Me: "o_O"
So we move back to the main entrance. Hey, why not move upstairs? So I start going towards the escalator. They follow because Bry will die if he heard "Winx" one more time.
Up the escalator, and we see Snow White again. Oo, look, Snow White's dancing to Hit Me Baby One More Time. >_>
WAIT A MINUTE. That's not right. o_O.
So we walk towards Star Factory, and I call Cleon using SZ's phone book (IOW his diary. >_>) and tell him to meet at Star Factory instead of the main entrance.
So we head to Star Factory, and Sheu Zhi buys tokens to own at GG. Bry and I buy some tokens too.
I go first and play Ky. SZ comes over, and plays Ky too. Wth o_O Oh dear I'm gonna die.
So I get owned by SZ. I fight him with other characters and die accordingly as well. =
Bryan comes and tries and gets owned as well. Somehow both of us can get him to pixelhealth before we die, at least once per fight. My Ky could do that to him =) Mostly because of the j.H Ride the Lightning though. o_O
I head over to look at DM 11th, and look for a while. I head back to GGXX, and hey, that's Cleon.
A Lv.15 Gamer (Subclass: Otaku) has joined your party!
We get bored because SZ is taking so long on GG.
SZ finally finishes beating I-No, and we head towards LJS for lunch. Lesson of the day: LJS has really good fish and really sucky sandwiches. Meh. =
Then we head off for X-Zone. And all the fun begins.
Right off the bat we move to the GGXX machine. There's a Slayer Player there. SZ thinks he Dandy Steps too much already, so he heads for the counter to top up his Tapz Card. I see him fight one round. Wth? This guy uses the exact same comboes SZ does. Got standard one leh. I tell that to SZ, then he says he Dandy Steps too much, can kena whack one. >_>
SZ fights him a number of times, and each time he loses 1-2 to teh Slayerplayer.
SZ: f.HS
Slayer: Dash behind throw
SZ: Quadslash Mappa Hunch RC s.HS Pilebunker
Slayer: FDs the Pilebunker
SZ: WTH o_O
Slayer: s.HS Crosswise Heel j.k j.p j.k jc j.k Direct Hit Dandy j.k j.p j.k jc j.k j.d Footloose Journey (IOW Bat-thing)
SZ: o_O
Me: Damn, that's alot of 1/2 life comboes going on around.
Eventually the guy decides to Destroy SZ when SZ's Slayer got Dizzied, and left to play something else. So I took over his Slayer, and fight against Cleon/Bryan (Both played on one side)'s Slayer. Whoa, I can actually do Crosswise Heel j.k j.p j.k jc j.k j.d o_O It's like darn easy on the arcade machine compared to my #R at home. =\ Maybe stick is better than keyboard for that o_O
The guy comes back and sees my Slayer play. Then he decides to challenge me. SZ asks me whether the guy was the same person, and I tell him yes, and let him take my place in teh Slayer v Slayer match.
Cleon meanwhile heads over to DMV to play some.
SZ loses 1-2 again, and realizes something is wrong. He watches him for one or two matches, and understands.
He picks Potemkin. And owns Slayer 2-0. I convey the news to Cleon, and he goes o_O.
I go back to the GGXX machine and see SZ fighting against Slayer, with Potemkin in the advantage.
Potemkin: j.D
Slayer: Dash back
Potemkin: POTEMKIN BUSTAAAAA! Whack (Not sure which it is) Heat Knuckle Extend! Whoa 1/2life combo
Slayer: Crosswise Heel!
Potemkin: COUNTER Gigantor GIGANTIC BILD! GG ownage o_O
Potemkin: POTEMKIN BUSTAAAA! POTEMKIN BUSTAAA! POTEMKIN BUSTAAAAAAAAA! GG ownage literally o_O
I go back to Cleon, and see him pass Timephase II and The Least 100 Seconds Basic Autobass. Damn, how DOES he do that =\ He finishes his game, and we head back to SZ.
SZ talks with the guy who beat him. His nick is Salad o_O. He said that SZ Potemkin Buster'd too much, and that's not going to work in GGXX Slash.
SZ: o_O!!!! Are you a Bugis Player?!
Salad: Yeah
SZ: *OMG I BEAT A BUGIS PRO YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!*
And SZ's fricking happy now. But wah, Salad's Slayer is like wth lar. It's even more pro than SZ's. I mean, HE CAN FD PILEBUNKER WTH o_O My bro better not learn that trick or my Slayer will kena >_> Then again I only do c.S c.S Mappa Hunch *Quadslash timing a bit teh dey leh so.*
We proceed to play some GG. And own. Quite a bit. The only person I lost to apart from SZ (Or SZ + Cleon in Isuka) was some Sol player. And my Slayer could take him on decently. Wth, Slayer's not even my best. >_> SZ GGowned him with Sol. Damn funny.
Sol: Dash in
SZ: Volcanic Viper!!! Dash towards guy while down
Sol: Tries to attack
SZ: VOLCANIC VIPER!!! Dash towards guy while down
Sol: Tries to attack
SZ: VOLCANIC VIPER!!! Dash towards guy while down
Sol: Tries to attack
SZ: VOLCANIC VIPER!!! Dash towards guy while down
Ok, maybe it's less repetitive than that. But wth Volcanic Viper is broken o_O And what's with that guy? Grand Viper RC is like worthless, especially for j.S j.HS Volcanic Viper o_O At least Gunflame Grand Viper RC j.S j.D Volcanic Viper wad, at least liddat can go around 150 or so. =\
Den we own some other people. SZ owned some Isuka Ky player and a Baiken player in addition to the Sol player, I owned a Chipp and a Dizzy player. Whee I can own people now not bad sia.
The guy runs away after being owned >_> And SZ continues and beats I-No again. SZ, Cleon and I take a look at some guy playing DDR. Not too good leh, playing Afronova Light and Paranoia Light. Summore got face problem one. =
Den got girls play as well. Wth play light only GO HOME LAR. jk but dun play barefeet leh, unbecoming. =
Den I play with SZ. Wah, I showoff with things like Paranoia Standard, Afronova Standard, Dynamite Rave Standard. Actually no lah, not that showoff. See that Ray person the last time. OMG teh prozorz lah, Barhug Extra Stage Maxx Unlimited A o_O
Then the DDR player playing teh Paranoia Light asks if he can team up with me coz he's not too used to some songs, so I say ok lor. >_>
Afronova Standard, Candy * Standard, Dynamite Rave Standard, Ever Snow Light (Kena too tired lol >_>), then Kakumei Heavy LAWL >_> (The guy also go wah o_O)
Den we watch some Drummania playing (Wah got pro leh can play 90s o_O) den Cleon comes to play once (after waiting a long time XD). Den o_O It's 6pm already, and we head back.
Damn, I felt quite happy after that. I bet SZ was damn shiok can beat Bugis player. Dude, cream of the crop yo. =)
Well, not much to say now. DDR made me quite tired and sneezy >_> So I skipped teh badminton outing on Wed, along with church choir. =
Oh well, 'twas well worth it =)
Sunday, November 27, 2005
School Conspiracy
Today has got to be a pretty darn weird day in my life, yet a rather thoughtful one. Oh wait, that's no different from every other day. But anyway.
When I headed over to Burger King this morning at 9.30 or so at Plaza Sing, I suddenly needed excuse myself, so I headed over to the toilet. On my way, I see Dominic from ACPS, one of teh pro chess players. He's P6 this year I believe. Then I go o_O, what a coincidence. Oh yeah, he's a prefect councellor too for ACPS right? Hmm. Oh well.
I leave the toilet and look at the side at the escalators. Wait, who's that going down the escalator? Mr. Jason Chan. What the hell? This some kind of conspiracy to keep an eye out on every single ACS(I) student out there in Singapore? Dude, not good. NOT GOOD. Everyone, keep a lookout when you're out.
So I headed over to church early because it was combined choir and we were singing. Not that I like the song that much, but what the hey. It was a decent job kinda, but then I think I screwed up one of the tenor parts (The teenager choir boys stay in a quantum whirl of uncertainty between Tenor and Bass, kinda a Schroedinger's Cat for choir. Imagine the horror of a choir let loose. >_>
Then I head back for Sunday School, and we end early, and I go down to the cafeteria (sp?) hoping to drink some tea or something. But nah, it's not ready yet. So I spend some time walking around randomly, feeling the wind's breezes and seeing the leaves scatter slowly. It's quite a nice sight really, and will go into the next post. Then I head back, and hey, tea's ready. So I drink two cups and continue walking around, then choir practise starts.
Then practise goes as normal, and I head down after it ends. Mom and I decide to go back first because my bro has a choir meeting (For teh people who're like the Treasurers or the President, etc (Treasurer's my bro =)) and as I walk over, I see a bus. Wait a minute, is that Timothy Chee's face on the bus ad? Oh no, they've got the transport media too!
Oh wait, that's just me. And I continue walking to the bus stop.
We sit down, Mom gets a call from Godwin. Apparently the meeting's cancelled, so we headeth back together on the bus. 174 comes, and we decide to sit down.
I stare blankly out the window, thinking about some stuff and my bro falls asleep. Meanwhile, The conversation going on behind my back literally begins to get a bit louder, and I decide to listen. Apparently that guy is talking about most of his friends staying ACSian (Oh no, is he one of my S4 SJAB Seniors? Nah, can't be. Too much of a conspiracy for that. XD), and also about him keeping touch with the other friends from other schools. The other voice seems unfamiliar, but the first voice sounds very familiar. Maybe it's because I've heard his voice plenty in ACSI. Just a guess.
Oh look, my stop's coming. I wake Godwin up, and Mom presses the bell. We stand up, and are about to get off. I hear a sound behind; the two people behind me are getting up too. Well, now I know who they are. As I walk off my seat towards the bus exit, I look behind and see who the two people are. I was correct on one; he wasn't someone I know.
Then I saw the other guy. HEAD PREFECT JOHN LOH.
Wth? This is getting WAAAAAAAAAY too scary. I get off the bus, give one last glance at him before we parted ways (He headed left in the direction of KAP, but who knows where he was headed. o_O ACSI? We headed right towards home.)
I swear. I've had 3 people spying on me, in various disguises and unrecognizable traits. I mean, a normal red T-Shirt instead of a Prefect Councellor's badge, prefect tie and school uniform? Damn that Dominic was sneaky. Good thing my l33t skillz could make out the similarity in the face, physique and especially the spectacles. The spectacles gave it away.
But that was just one. Who knows how many they are? There could've been ten more, each wearing a disguise I couldn't see through! This is not good, fellow bloggers! TAKE HEED! They're out to get you!
And remember. Ms. Yvonne Lim is somewhere out there with a big computer screen in front of her, sipping coffee and going, "I know about you bloggers and your evil ways. Hahahahahahahahahaha..."
And soon she's going to capture us and place us in that very room!!!
Imagine that scene. All of us captured, and most unconscious. All of us remember an explosion of sleep gas before falling unconscious, and we slowly wake up.
"What happened?" one asks.
"Somebody set up us the bomb..." one mutters, vaguely remembering the scene before capture.
Suddenly the main screen flickers a bit, and the bloggers look towards the computer.
"We get signal", one comments, looking grimly at the situation. It is impossible to escape from these ropes.
The screen reads -Main Screen Turn On- and Ms. Yvonne Lim's face appears, looking smug and with an evil smirk.
"It's you!!!" a few exclaim, looking angrily at her. She doesn't seem to notice and continues with her smile.
"How are you, gentlemen," she asks, and looks at them, smirking again. "All your base are belong to us."
"You are on the way to destruction," she adds. A small fizzling sound is heard behind the captured bloggers.
"What you say?!" another exclaims. Some pray, some hope desparately for something to let them free, some look hopelessly around the area. All cannot do anything against the great Yvonne Lim.
"You have no chance to survive make your time," she says, and laughs maniacally. Her face fades slowly into static, but the sound of her "Ha ha ha ha..." rang continuously in the ears of the bloggers. The explosions begin.
Game Over.
And remember kids, that's why you always report to the police when you see suspicious articles. Don't risk it, call 999. =)
When I headed over to Burger King this morning at 9.30 or so at Plaza Sing, I suddenly needed excuse myself, so I headed over to the toilet. On my way, I see Dominic from ACPS, one of teh pro chess players. He's P6 this year I believe. Then I go o_O, what a coincidence. Oh yeah, he's a prefect councellor too for ACPS right? Hmm. Oh well.
I leave the toilet and look at the side at the escalators. Wait, who's that going down the escalator? Mr. Jason Chan. What the hell? This some kind of conspiracy to keep an eye out on every single ACS(I) student out there in Singapore? Dude, not good. NOT GOOD. Everyone, keep a lookout when you're out.
So I headed over to church early because it was combined choir and we were singing. Not that I like the song that much, but what the hey. It was a decent job kinda, but then I think I screwed up one of the tenor parts (The teenager choir boys stay in a quantum whirl of uncertainty between Tenor and Bass, kinda a Schroedinger's Cat for choir. Imagine the horror of a choir let loose. >_>
Then I head back for Sunday School, and we end early, and I go down to the cafeteria (sp?) hoping to drink some tea or something. But nah, it's not ready yet. So I spend some time walking around randomly, feeling the wind's breezes and seeing the leaves scatter slowly. It's quite a nice sight really, and will go into the next post. Then I head back, and hey, tea's ready. So I drink two cups and continue walking around, then choir practise starts.
Then practise goes as normal, and I head down after it ends. Mom and I decide to go back first because my bro has a choir meeting (For teh people who're like the Treasurers or the President, etc (Treasurer's my bro =)) and as I walk over, I see a bus. Wait a minute, is that Timothy Chee's face on the bus ad? Oh no, they've got the transport media too!
Oh wait, that's just me. And I continue walking to the bus stop.
We sit down, Mom gets a call from Godwin. Apparently the meeting's cancelled, so we headeth back together on the bus. 174 comes, and we decide to sit down.
I stare blankly out the window, thinking about some stuff and my bro falls asleep. Meanwhile, The conversation going on behind my back literally begins to get a bit louder, and I decide to listen. Apparently that guy is talking about most of his friends staying ACSian (Oh no, is he one of my S4 SJAB Seniors? Nah, can't be. Too much of a conspiracy for that. XD), and also about him keeping touch with the other friends from other schools. The other voice seems unfamiliar, but the first voice sounds very familiar. Maybe it's because I've heard his voice plenty in ACSI. Just a guess.
Oh look, my stop's coming. I wake Godwin up, and Mom presses the bell. We stand up, and are about to get off. I hear a sound behind; the two people behind me are getting up too. Well, now I know who they are. As I walk off my seat towards the bus exit, I look behind and see who the two people are. I was correct on one; he wasn't someone I know.
Then I saw the other guy. HEAD PREFECT JOHN LOH.
Wth? This is getting WAAAAAAAAAY too scary. I get off the bus, give one last glance at him before we parted ways (He headed left in the direction of KAP, but who knows where he was headed. o_O ACSI? We headed right towards home.)
I swear. I've had 3 people spying on me, in various disguises and unrecognizable traits. I mean, a normal red T-Shirt instead of a Prefect Councellor's badge, prefect tie and school uniform? Damn that Dominic was sneaky. Good thing my l33t skillz could make out the similarity in the face, physique and especially the spectacles. The spectacles gave it away.
But that was just one. Who knows how many they are? There could've been ten more, each wearing a disguise I couldn't see through! This is not good, fellow bloggers! TAKE HEED! They're out to get you!
And remember. Ms. Yvonne Lim is somewhere out there with a big computer screen in front of her, sipping coffee and going, "I know about you bloggers and your evil ways. Hahahahahahahahahaha..."
And soon she's going to capture us and place us in that very room!!!
Imagine that scene. All of us captured, and most unconscious. All of us remember an explosion of sleep gas before falling unconscious, and we slowly wake up.
"What happened?" one asks.
"Somebody set up us the bomb..." one mutters, vaguely remembering the scene before capture.
Suddenly the main screen flickers a bit, and the bloggers look towards the computer.
"We get signal", one comments, looking grimly at the situation. It is impossible to escape from these ropes.
The screen reads -Main Screen Turn On- and Ms. Yvonne Lim's face appears, looking smug and with an evil smirk.
"It's you!!!" a few exclaim, looking angrily at her. She doesn't seem to notice and continues with her smile.
"How are you, gentlemen," she asks, and looks at them, smirking again. "All your base are belong to us."
"You are on the way to destruction," she adds. A small fizzling sound is heard behind the captured bloggers.
"What you say?!" another exclaims. Some pray, some hope desparately for something to let them free, some look hopelessly around the area. All cannot do anything against the great Yvonne Lim.
"You have no chance to survive make your time," she says, and laughs maniacally. Her face fades slowly into static, but the sound of her "Ha ha ha ha..." rang continuously in the ears of the bloggers. The explosions begin.
Game Over.
And remember kids, that's why you always report to the police when you see suspicious articles. Don't risk it, call 999. =)
Friday, November 25, 2005
The Absence of Trust
An article from www.yawningbread.org that seriously reflects the current status of our society. Please just read and comment.
----------------------------------------
The Absence of Trust
A number of dispiriting things have happened recently. We are burning away international goodwill because of mandatory capital punishment. Australian Nguyen Tuong Van is due to be executed on 2 December 2005 despite pleas from the Australian government, and mass demonstrations in Melbourne.
We lost a university because their academics were not convinced that there was true academic freedom in Singapore. Our government pooh-poohed those concerns, but then a few days ago a well-regarded local academic told he how he had just been penalised -– and heavily -- for speaking and "mixing with the wrong company". I won't name him yet, because the matter may still be in flux, but I heard it from him first-hand, so believe me, it's true.
We have the Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong dismissing the low ranking given to Singapore by Reporters Sans Frontieres in their Press Freedom Index. Goh, in his defence of press control in Singapore, suggested that a free press would necessarily be an irresponsible press, leading to racial and religious riots. In doing so, he insulted all thinking Singaporeans.
In so many areas, there are controls and controls in Singapore. The common denominator is the total absence of trust in our own citizens to do the right thing, freely.
The government doesn't trust journalists and editors to exercise due care, so press controls.
The government doesn't trust webmasters and bloggers to write responsibly, so they have enacted sweeping powers (the Broadcasting Act and the Internet Code of Practice) to licence and rein in political comment on the web.
They don't trust film-makers: the Film Act empowers officials to seize and destroy films, and cameras even.
They don't trust workers, so no independent unions are allowed. The National Trades Union Congress must have hegemony, and a cabinet minister heads it.
They don't trust politically aware citizens to focus on the "right" issues, so all parades and street marches are disallowed unless government-organised.
But of course we know they don't trust citizens, politically aware or not. Thus the array of elections laws and regulations that make it impossible for the Peoples' Action Party (PAP) to lose.
And not forgetting how they can't let citizens nominate themselves for the presidency either.
They didn't trust juries, so jury trials were abolished.
In fact, they don't even trust judges to use their discretion, so capital punishment is mandatory for certain offences regardless of circumstances.
They trust nobody to do the right thing independently.
* * * * *
And then we had Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the APEC summit in Busan, Korea, telling the world's press,
"The overall tenor of society must be geared towards openness …The social milieu must encourage risk-taking and embrace diversity...In some cases, it may mean radical changes to the status quo. Such tensions will have to be managed carefully."
How is this statement about openness and risk-taking compatible with the paranoid controls we see in place? Our government won't even take the risk of trusting its own people, even after it has spent 40 years trying to give everybody a good education.
* * * * *
If you carefully go through the text of our laws, you'd be astounded at how sweeping the executive's powers are. Furthermore, there is a tendency to use broad language in legislation. Here are two examples:
"The Licensing Officer may, in his discretion, suspend or cancel a licence, as the case may be, if he is satisfied that the licensee is not a fit and proper person to hold such licence."
-- Public Entertainments and Meetings Act, Section 14(2)
"The Registrar shall refuse to register a specified society if he is satisfied that... it would be contrary to the national interest for the specified society to be registered"
-- Societies Act, Section 4(2)(d)
In the above, who is a "fit and proper person"? What is the "national interest"?
Such vague phrases leave wide discretion to civil servants to act, even in an arbitrary fashion. In response, the government says they are honourable men, not about to abuse their powers. Trust us, they say, we need these sweeping powers just in case of an emergency, but otherwise, they will exercise a "light touch".
We are being called upon to trust the cabal, when they have not an ounce of trust in the private citizen.
* * * * *
In the absence of trust, there are zillions of laws and regulations to ensure that things are the way the PAP wants them. Laws and regulations are, naturally, punitive in nature, and when a society is habituated to such an environment, the ability to function in a more open environment is compromised.
Quite different skills and assets, beyond obedience, are required in a freer space. One is knowledge and education, in order for each person to make judgments for himself. Another is self-awareness and consideration for others, so that he is able to regulate himself and sustain civil relationships.
In many ways, the rudeness and inconsiderateness we encounter every day, and the puerile outbursts we see in many online political forums, are a reflection of a society that has become too dependent on external control, and has lost individual, internal discipline.
Yet, in the long run, this is not tenable. Singapore has to compete with the rest of the world, and a rigid top-down structure is a losing proposition. Change is inevitable, and the more rigid the structure, the less able it is to respond to changing needs and times. Instead of flexing and shifting gradually, a rigid system tends to absorb the contrary forces, which far from disappearing, keep building up as latent tension in the system, until it can't absorb anymore. At that point, the thing snaps.
Squeeze plasticene and it yields. Squeeze a ceramic bowl, and at first it doesn't, but at some point, it just breaks irreparably.
This being Singapore, perhaps a better example would be from the realm of economics. Take fixed exchange rates and floating ones.
Prior to July 1997, Thailand had a fixed exchange rate, at Baht 25 to US$1. For a few years, lulled by the apparent stability of the exchange rate (now we know it was just an illusion that came out of policy rigidity), plenty of Thai businesses borrowed from abroad. Their loans were mostly denominated in US Dollars and were of relatively short term too. They borrowed for all kinds of industrial and property development projects that would only yield a return over the long term.
But many of these projects were grossly underutilised as businesses were over-investing. Furthermore, the terms of trade were steadily moving against Thailand with the opening of China.
Smart financial outfits saw the adverse trend and started to pull their funds out of Thailand. They started to sell their unwanted Thai Bahts for hard currencies, such as the US Dollar. Since the policy was to maintain a fixed exchange rate, the bank of Thailand (BOT), the country's central bank, had to redeem all these Bahts -– at 25 to a Dollar -- and pay out in foreign currencies.
As the outflow increased, it became a virtual stampede. And still the BOT had to live up to its obligation to buy the Baht. Eventually, the bank ran out of money and the government had to agree, on 2 July 1997, to let the exchange rate float.
The BOT spent a total of US$32 – 33 billion between January and August 1997, in an attempt to hold the fixed value of the Baht and later, to moderate its fall. The country's foreign reserves were emptied. The amount spent was about 18% of the entire country's entire GDP of US$185 billion for the preceding year, 1996. That is to say, 18% of each and every Thai resident's work and effort in 1996 was spent fruitlessly in defending national pride.
The Baht fell from 25 per US$ (the old fixed rate) to 58 per US$ in January 1998, its lowest point. It crashed to less than half its old value.
When the system could no longer hold and the Baht crashed, thousands of businesses were caught with foreign currency loans that, in local Baht terms, suddenly doubled in value, with repayment due soon. As a result, many businesses went bankrupt. Other firms, dependent on imported raw or semi-finished materials, could no longer afford to import them, and went belly-up too.
The Thai economy of 1998 shrank 10.5% from 1997, and millions lost their jobs.
Singapore through this period had a floating exchange rate. Our central bank didn't have to defend any particular rate for the Singapore Dollar. We had a flexible system that could adjust with the circumstances, and while our economy also suffered because we had trade and investment links with our neighbours, the pain we felt was nowhere near that of the Thais.
Most important of all, we didn't spend billions defending national pride.
* * * * *
The amazing thing is how, for a country that is so adept at coping with change in economics, we are so blindly rigid in other areas, such as the social and the political.
It may be more difficult to quantify the price we pay for rigidity, but pay we do. Brands have value, and accountants call that line item "goodwill" in a company's accounts.
Do foreigners think less of us? Do our diplomats have less influence because others are less keen to be associated with us? Do we lose investments, especially in the soft industries that need freedom from censorship, e.g. film-making? For instance, are we dishing out higher subsidies to attract those film-makers who are willing to shoot their movies here, to make up for those who shun us?
Do our companies, such as Singtel and Singapore Airlines, have a harder time winning acquisitions or traffic rights abroad? Do they have to over-pay to get their way?
With the stink attached to our name, is there a loss in efficiency in every dollar we spend trying to recruit foreign talent? That is to say, if we spent $10 million on a campaign that managed to woo 50 professionals, might we have needed to spend only $5 million to woo the same number, if Singapore didn't have such bad press?
Do we lose our own talent? Consider this: there is a steady outflow of Singaporeans migrating to other countries. Has anyone quantified it? How much have we spent educating them, only to lose their brains and skills to another country?
The amount of goodwill we burn to salve the PAP's pride and paranoia, is enormous. And eventually, change will overtake it anyway -– it's an inevitability of history. But when that happens, will our political landscape look like Thailand's economy in 1998? Will our political institutions, and societal stability, collapse into ruins, because the PAP has bullheadedly tried to sustain a rigid policy for too long?
© Yawning Bread
----------------------------------------
The Absence of Trust
A number of dispiriting things have happened recently. We are burning away international goodwill because of mandatory capital punishment. Australian Nguyen Tuong Van is due to be executed on 2 December 2005 despite pleas from the Australian government, and mass demonstrations in Melbourne.
We lost a university because their academics were not convinced that there was true academic freedom in Singapore. Our government pooh-poohed those concerns, but then a few days ago a well-regarded local academic told he how he had just been penalised -– and heavily -- for speaking and "mixing with the wrong company". I won't name him yet, because the matter may still be in flux, but I heard it from him first-hand, so believe me, it's true.
We have the Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong dismissing the low ranking given to Singapore by Reporters Sans Frontieres in their Press Freedom Index. Goh, in his defence of press control in Singapore, suggested that a free press would necessarily be an irresponsible press, leading to racial and religious riots. In doing so, he insulted all thinking Singaporeans.
In so many areas, there are controls and controls in Singapore. The common denominator is the total absence of trust in our own citizens to do the right thing, freely.
The government doesn't trust journalists and editors to exercise due care, so press controls.
The government doesn't trust webmasters and bloggers to write responsibly, so they have enacted sweeping powers (the Broadcasting Act and the Internet Code of Practice) to licence and rein in political comment on the web.
They don't trust film-makers: the Film Act empowers officials to seize and destroy films, and cameras even.
They don't trust workers, so no independent unions are allowed. The National Trades Union Congress must have hegemony, and a cabinet minister heads it.
They don't trust politically aware citizens to focus on the "right" issues, so all parades and street marches are disallowed unless government-organised.
But of course we know they don't trust citizens, politically aware or not. Thus the array of elections laws and regulations that make it impossible for the Peoples' Action Party (PAP) to lose.
And not forgetting how they can't let citizens nominate themselves for the presidency either.
They didn't trust juries, so jury trials were abolished.
In fact, they don't even trust judges to use their discretion, so capital punishment is mandatory for certain offences regardless of circumstances.
They trust nobody to do the right thing independently.
* * * * *
And then we had Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the APEC summit in Busan, Korea, telling the world's press,
"The overall tenor of society must be geared towards openness …The social milieu must encourage risk-taking and embrace diversity...In some cases, it may mean radical changes to the status quo. Such tensions will have to be managed carefully."
How is this statement about openness and risk-taking compatible with the paranoid controls we see in place? Our government won't even take the risk of trusting its own people, even after it has spent 40 years trying to give everybody a good education.
* * * * *
If you carefully go through the text of our laws, you'd be astounded at how sweeping the executive's powers are. Furthermore, there is a tendency to use broad language in legislation. Here are two examples:
"The Licensing Officer may, in his discretion, suspend or cancel a licence, as the case may be, if he is satisfied that the licensee is not a fit and proper person to hold such licence."
-- Public Entertainments and Meetings Act, Section 14(2)
"The Registrar shall refuse to register a specified society if he is satisfied that... it would be contrary to the national interest for the specified society to be registered"
-- Societies Act, Section 4(2)(d)
In the above, who is a "fit and proper person"? What is the "national interest"?
Such vague phrases leave wide discretion to civil servants to act, even in an arbitrary fashion. In response, the government says they are honourable men, not about to abuse their powers. Trust us, they say, we need these sweeping powers just in case of an emergency, but otherwise, they will exercise a "light touch".
We are being called upon to trust the cabal, when they have not an ounce of trust in the private citizen.
* * * * *
In the absence of trust, there are zillions of laws and regulations to ensure that things are the way the PAP wants them. Laws and regulations are, naturally, punitive in nature, and when a society is habituated to such an environment, the ability to function in a more open environment is compromised.
Quite different skills and assets, beyond obedience, are required in a freer space. One is knowledge and education, in order for each person to make judgments for himself. Another is self-awareness and consideration for others, so that he is able to regulate himself and sustain civil relationships.
In many ways, the rudeness and inconsiderateness we encounter every day, and the puerile outbursts we see in many online political forums, are a reflection of a society that has become too dependent on external control, and has lost individual, internal discipline.
Yet, in the long run, this is not tenable. Singapore has to compete with the rest of the world, and a rigid top-down structure is a losing proposition. Change is inevitable, and the more rigid the structure, the less able it is to respond to changing needs and times. Instead of flexing and shifting gradually, a rigid system tends to absorb the contrary forces, which far from disappearing, keep building up as latent tension in the system, until it can't absorb anymore. At that point, the thing snaps.
Squeeze plasticene and it yields. Squeeze a ceramic bowl, and at first it doesn't, but at some point, it just breaks irreparably.
This being Singapore, perhaps a better example would be from the realm of economics. Take fixed exchange rates and floating ones.
Prior to July 1997, Thailand had a fixed exchange rate, at Baht 25 to US$1. For a few years, lulled by the apparent stability of the exchange rate (now we know it was just an illusion that came out of policy rigidity), plenty of Thai businesses borrowed from abroad. Their loans were mostly denominated in US Dollars and were of relatively short term too. They borrowed for all kinds of industrial and property development projects that would only yield a return over the long term.
But many of these projects were grossly underutilised as businesses were over-investing. Furthermore, the terms of trade were steadily moving against Thailand with the opening of China.
Smart financial outfits saw the adverse trend and started to pull their funds out of Thailand. They started to sell their unwanted Thai Bahts for hard currencies, such as the US Dollar. Since the policy was to maintain a fixed exchange rate, the bank of Thailand (BOT), the country's central bank, had to redeem all these Bahts -– at 25 to a Dollar -- and pay out in foreign currencies.
As the outflow increased, it became a virtual stampede. And still the BOT had to live up to its obligation to buy the Baht. Eventually, the bank ran out of money and the government had to agree, on 2 July 1997, to let the exchange rate float.
The BOT spent a total of US$32 – 33 billion between January and August 1997, in an attempt to hold the fixed value of the Baht and later, to moderate its fall. The country's foreign reserves were emptied. The amount spent was about 18% of the entire country's entire GDP of US$185 billion for the preceding year, 1996. That is to say, 18% of each and every Thai resident's work and effort in 1996 was spent fruitlessly in defending national pride.
The Baht fell from 25 per US$ (the old fixed rate) to 58 per US$ in January 1998, its lowest point. It crashed to less than half its old value.
When the system could no longer hold and the Baht crashed, thousands of businesses were caught with foreign currency loans that, in local Baht terms, suddenly doubled in value, with repayment due soon. As a result, many businesses went bankrupt. Other firms, dependent on imported raw or semi-finished materials, could no longer afford to import them, and went belly-up too.
The Thai economy of 1998 shrank 10.5% from 1997, and millions lost their jobs.
Singapore through this period had a floating exchange rate. Our central bank didn't have to defend any particular rate for the Singapore Dollar. We had a flexible system that could adjust with the circumstances, and while our economy also suffered because we had trade and investment links with our neighbours, the pain we felt was nowhere near that of the Thais.
Most important of all, we didn't spend billions defending national pride.
* * * * *
The amazing thing is how, for a country that is so adept at coping with change in economics, we are so blindly rigid in other areas, such as the social and the political.
It may be more difficult to quantify the price we pay for rigidity, but pay we do. Brands have value, and accountants call that line item "goodwill" in a company's accounts.
Do foreigners think less of us? Do our diplomats have less influence because others are less keen to be associated with us? Do we lose investments, especially in the soft industries that need freedom from censorship, e.g. film-making? For instance, are we dishing out higher subsidies to attract those film-makers who are willing to shoot their movies here, to make up for those who shun us?
Do our companies, such as Singtel and Singapore Airlines, have a harder time winning acquisitions or traffic rights abroad? Do they have to over-pay to get their way?
With the stink attached to our name, is there a loss in efficiency in every dollar we spend trying to recruit foreign talent? That is to say, if we spent $10 million on a campaign that managed to woo 50 professionals, might we have needed to spend only $5 million to woo the same number, if Singapore didn't have such bad press?
Do we lose our own talent? Consider this: there is a steady outflow of Singaporeans migrating to other countries. Has anyone quantified it? How much have we spent educating them, only to lose their brains and skills to another country?
The amount of goodwill we burn to salve the PAP's pride and paranoia, is enormous. And eventually, change will overtake it anyway -– it's an inevitability of history. But when that happens, will our political landscape look like Thailand's economy in 1998? Will our political institutions, and societal stability, collapse into ruins, because the PAP has bullheadedly tried to sustain a rigid policy for too long?
© Yawning Bread
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Christmas
Look at Junction 8. Look at West Mall. Look at Takashimaya. What do all have in common? A big fat christmas tree taller than 2 stories. >_> What does that mean? It's time for consumerism and guilt to kick in. Just imagine a poster showing an NTUC Fairprice Cashier pointing at you and going "We want YOU to buy Christmas Presents from NTUC." a la Uncle Sam. Damn, I can just picture random Agent Bengs walking around in Takashimaya and injecting full syringes of Guilt Syrup making people feel bad about not buying enough gifts for their loved ones, not-so-loved ones, and despised ones. ph34r w1ff gr8 ph34r!
CHR157M4571M3 33Z H33R!!!!!!!!!!!! *DUN DUN DUN*
Ok, I'm kinda bored. >_>
And somewhat depressed too, since I don't actually have anyone to give Christmas gifts to, save you readers, and my classmates. Sure, that's quite a bit, but I don't actually give Christmas gifts to anyone save Gid (A few years back. Yu Min too.)
What makes this year worse than the past?
Neither Gwin, nor Matt, nor Mel will be here. DUN DUN DUN ph34r | w331 4n657z0rz d15 y33r >_>
But really, it's quite a depressing thing. >_>
But that's not the point, right.
Christmas marks the coming of another year. Ok, technically New Year's Eve does that, but Christmas foreshadows it.
Looking back, I've had an absolutely great class. But will I have such a good class next year? Probably not. Right now I'm not sure whether it was the right choice to go 3.9 instead of 3.10. But if my predictions are right, 3.10 will be THE Sec 3 GE class next year, just as 2.12 was this year. Not 3.9 and not 3.8. =\ Oh well.
In fact, I think I've more close friends in 3.10 than 3.9. Lemme count. >_>
3.9: Jarr, Kevins, Shaun, ZQ.
3.10: Gid, Mike, JY, SZ, WH.
o_O Ok, it's equal. But then there's another prob. I kinda tend to hang out with the more zany gang, and most of them are headed for 3.10 instead. Look JY, SZ, WH, Hen, Josh, etc. Says something, doesn't it? I probably can't live 3.9 through as I did 2.12. >_> AND I'm classchair too. Argh, I actually HAVE TO SET AN EXAMPLE >_<
But THAT'S not the point.
I really wonder about this year. Have I been a good vice-chair? Some say yes, I doubt their sanity. Have I been a good brother? Hmm >_> Have I been a good friend? Hmm >_> Have I been a good student to Ms. Lim Chiou Yan? Wu3 Ye4 Jing1 Ling2 >_> A good student in general? HMMM I WONDER >_>
Have I changed much this year? Definitely. In Desaru, when I beat Bryan and Sidhant so easily on my 1st try at the hotel miniarcade, I thought I was going to be the best among them. THEN SZ CAME. It was an eye-opener. >_> My pride has fallen BUT MY SPIRIT FOR FIGHTER GAMES HAS BEEN REKINDLED! Seriously. >_>
I have been opened to the sights of actual DDR that's not just Stepmania.
I've managed to ascend yet another level of Stepmania on the path to l33t Stepmania skillz >_>
I've been opened to the awesomeness that as Guilty Gear.
I've had the great experience of OM and widened my horizons to beyond Singapore. And I remember how much fun pin-trading was.
I've made many freindships and have understood that language barriers can be overcome, as has been proven in the International Youth Exchange in Hokkaido ~Yume Mintara~. Damn, that's one of the best things I've ever gone through, and IMO I preferred it to OM.
I've learnt this year that friendship > fun, and for myself I prefer serenity to hip stuff.
I've learnt that life loves to make fun of my NAPHA grades. >_>
I've learnt this year to be serious when I play games >_>
I've learnt that being a chairman isn't easy, and neither's being a prefect >_>
I've learnt that responsibility must actually be treated as responsibility >_>
And coming this Christmas, will come another year. I remember last year, when I was staring at the screen just a few days before 2005 started, I was writing "OWARANAI NO ASHITA HE!" I remember last year I still saw Melissa as Mera. Times sure have changed, haven't they? Just one year...
And every single year, such big changes take place. Why? Because each and every year is three hundred and sixty five days, give but not take one. And each of the 365 days is carefully spent with family, friends, self, and many other aspects of life. And each hour, each minute, each second, people change. And each year, people change. And eternally, people change. Indeed, change has so far been the only constant, and will be for far longer than any can estimate.
Quite sad, isn't it? Most of us would wish to stay as we are, forever. We're all afraid of change. I don't want to see my brother leave for NS. I don't want to change my class, nor my teacher. Selfish, but that's human nature! Yet as people vainly fight against change, some begin to understand and accept it, and that's what all of us kinda eventually do.
Haiz, yet here we all are, bound to the present with memories of the past and worries of the future. And that's not going to change much. Indeed, there's one thing to say to this.
Owaranai No Ashita He. =)
------------------------------------------------------------
=\ My posts have become rather incoherent lately and even more fragmentated than it used to. Guess the holidays do some stuff to your head, huh. =\
CHR157M4571M3 33Z H33R!!!!!!!!!!!! *DUN DUN DUN*
Ok, I'm kinda bored. >_>
And somewhat depressed too, since I don't actually have anyone to give Christmas gifts to, save you readers, and my classmates. Sure, that's quite a bit, but I don't actually give Christmas gifts to anyone save Gid (A few years back. Yu Min too.)
What makes this year worse than the past?
Neither Gwin, nor Matt, nor Mel will be here. DUN DUN DUN ph34r | w331 4n657z0rz d15 y33r >_>
But really, it's quite a depressing thing. >_>
But that's not the point, right.
Christmas marks the coming of another year. Ok, technically New Year's Eve does that, but Christmas foreshadows it.
Looking back, I've had an absolutely great class. But will I have such a good class next year? Probably not. Right now I'm not sure whether it was the right choice to go 3.9 instead of 3.10. But if my predictions are right, 3.10 will be THE Sec 3 GE class next year, just as 2.12 was this year. Not 3.9 and not 3.8. =\ Oh well.
In fact, I think I've more close friends in 3.10 than 3.9. Lemme count. >_>
3.9: Jarr, Kevins, Shaun, ZQ.
3.10: Gid, Mike, JY, SZ, WH.
o_O Ok, it's equal. But then there's another prob. I kinda tend to hang out with the more zany gang, and most of them are headed for 3.10 instead. Look JY, SZ, WH, Hen, Josh, etc. Says something, doesn't it? I probably can't live 3.9 through as I did 2.12. >_> AND I'm classchair too. Argh, I actually HAVE TO SET AN EXAMPLE >_<
But THAT'S not the point.
I really wonder about this year. Have I been a good vice-chair? Some say yes, I doubt their sanity. Have I been a good brother? Hmm >_> Have I been a good friend? Hmm >_> Have I been a good student to Ms. Lim Chiou Yan? Wu3 Ye4 Jing1 Ling2 >_> A good student in general? HMMM I WONDER >_>
Have I changed much this year? Definitely. In Desaru, when I beat Bryan and Sidhant so easily on my 1st try at the hotel miniarcade, I thought I was going to be the best among them. THEN SZ CAME. It was an eye-opener. >_> My pride has fallen BUT MY SPIRIT FOR FIGHTER GAMES HAS BEEN REKINDLED! Seriously. >_>
I have been opened to the sights of actual DDR that's not just Stepmania.
I've managed to ascend yet another level of Stepmania on the path to l33t Stepmania skillz >_>
I've been opened to the awesomeness that as Guilty Gear.
I've had the great experience of OM and widened my horizons to beyond Singapore. And I remember how much fun pin-trading was.
I've made many freindships and have understood that language barriers can be overcome, as has been proven in the International Youth Exchange in Hokkaido ~Yume Mintara~. Damn, that's one of the best things I've ever gone through, and IMO I preferred it to OM.
I've learnt this year that friendship > fun, and for myself I prefer serenity to hip stuff.
I've learnt that life loves to make fun of my NAPHA grades. >_>
I've learnt this year to be serious when I play games >_>
I've learnt that being a chairman isn't easy, and neither's being a prefect >_>
I've learnt that responsibility must actually be treated as responsibility >_>
And coming this Christmas, will come another year. I remember last year, when I was staring at the screen just a few days before 2005 started, I was writing "OWARANAI NO ASHITA HE!" I remember last year I still saw Melissa as Mera. Times sure have changed, haven't they? Just one year...
And every single year, such big changes take place. Why? Because each and every year is three hundred and sixty five days, give but not take one. And each of the 365 days is carefully spent with family, friends, self, and many other aspects of life. And each hour, each minute, each second, people change. And each year, people change. And eternally, people change. Indeed, change has so far been the only constant, and will be for far longer than any can estimate.
Quite sad, isn't it? Most of us would wish to stay as we are, forever. We're all afraid of change. I don't want to see my brother leave for NS. I don't want to change my class, nor my teacher. Selfish, but that's human nature! Yet as people vainly fight against change, some begin to understand and accept it, and that's what all of us kinda eventually do.
Haiz, yet here we all are, bound to the present with memories of the past and worries of the future. And that's not going to change much. Indeed, there's one thing to say to this.
Owaranai No Ashita He. =)
------------------------------------------------------------
=\ My posts have become rather incoherent lately and even more fragmentated than it used to. Guess the holidays do some stuff to your head, huh. =\
Monday, November 21, 2005
Meme
Wow, I'm doing a meme. If you know me, that's pretty darn rare, ain't it >_> Oh well, every currently-blogging fella here has done it, save me I guess >_>
1. Name: Herrick, yo.
2. Single or Taken: Single.
3. Sex: Male.
4. Birthday: Aug 1, 1991
5. Siblings: Godwin, teh awesomez, and Cindy, also teh awesomez. >_>
6. Hair Colour: Black.
7. Eye Colour: Black.
8. Shoe Size: USA 8.5 - 9
9. Height: 171cm or so I believe. >_>
10. Any tattoos or piercings?: Nope.
S p e c i f i c s
1. Do you do drugs?: Chocolate a drug? Else no. >_>
2. What kind of shampoo do you use?: Any brand, I'm kinda wishy-washy. >_>
3. What are you most scared of?: Uhh. Rejection, and loneliness I guess. I dislike what most others are scared of, but I'm not exactly scared of it myself. >_>
4. Who is the last person that called you?: Yu Min.
5. Where do you want to get married?: Hmm. Anywhere, really. >_>
6. How many buddies are online right now?: 16, 11 of which are ACSians.
7. What would you change about yourself?: Lawl. Face and hair I suppose. That's not much about me I dislike >_> Oh yeah, now I know one. My addictions >_>
F a v o r i t e (s)
1. Colour Any shade of: Blue/Black/Green. >_>
2. Food: Anything really >_> Unless you mean anything edible, then chocolate/burgers. You can't go wrong with those >_>
3. Boys’ names: My own, and my nicknames >_>
4. Girls’ names: Uhh, any, really.
5. Subjects in school?: In the future probably philosophy. Currently? No preference >_>
6. Animals: Squirrels / Rabbits. Cats are meh >_>
7. Sports: Basketball/Badminton. Do non-physical sports count too? If so then Pool. >_>
H a v e y o u e v e r ?
1. Given anyone a bath?: Uhh, nearly did that to Kitty, else no >_>
2. Smoked?: Nope.
3. Bungee jumped?: Nope, sounds fun though.
4. Made yourself throw up?: Once or twice.
5. Skinny dipped?: Whatever that is o_O
6. Ever been in love?: >_> who hasn't?
7. Made yourself cry to get out of trouble?: I did get out of trouble by crying once, but that wasn't deliberate. >_>
8. Eaten a lemon in its entirety?: Save the skin. =
9. Run away from home?: Twice. LAWL >_> Thinking about it now those attempts were demn farnee >_> None lasted more than 1/2 an hour >_>
10. Cried when someone died?: Nope. >_>
11. Lied?: Who hasn't >_>
12. Fallen for your best friend?: All guys and I'm not Darren Wee sorry. >_>
13. Been rejected?: Never even got to a state like that >_>
14. Rejected someone?: Never got the chance to XD
15. Used someone?: Uh, with his permission. >_>
16. Done something you regret?: Who hasn't >_>
C u r r e n t
Clothes: Dark blue singlet >_>
Music: Anime >_>
Make-up: I'm not a girl >_>
Annoyance: Gwin leaving for NS.
Smell: Myself. >_>
Favourite Group: Uhh, none? Nami Tamaki ain't a group >_>
Desktop Picture: A picture of Flonne with the words "Life is good" on it. =)
Book you're reading: C.L.Ten's Was Mill a Liberal? (Mill's a philosopher >_>) (C.L.Ten is teh HoD for the Department of Philosophy at NUS. >_<)
Colour of Toenails: Normal. I don't use nail polish.
L a s t p e r s o n
You touched: Myself >_>
Hugged: Uhh not sure. Haven't done that in some time. The group hug during the last day of school I guess.
You instant messaged: SZ
You yelled at: KW
You kissed: Uhh, too long ago to remember.
A r e y o u ?
Open-minded: Quite.
Arrogant: Subconsciously I suppose. I don't think I'm arrogant, but my bro says I'm fricking egoistic, so. =
Insecure: Somewhat.
Random: Uhh, not as bad as Zhang.
Hungry: Usually. >_>
Moody: Lawl. Very misunderstood here >_> Usually no >_>
Organized: LAWL no.
Difficult: Quite.
Attractive: LAWL No. The thought itself makrs me wanna laugh. XD
R A N D O M
In the morning I am: Depends on whether I wake up before my dad wakes me up, or after. Alert for the former, groggy for the latter. >_>
Love is: Overrated. Seriously, you guys all make it seem like Love is teh No.1 Solution to every single thing on Earth. Come on, love screws people up REAL bad too, y'know. I know at least one friend who suffered from that. Come on, you all are making love sound too perfect, when it ain't.
I dream about: I rarely dream. And usually it's quite random stuff.
O p p o s i t e s e x
What do you notice first: Their words, and personality. Looks 3rd.
Makes you laugh the most: Life and its inhabitants. >_>
Makes you smile: Things that are actually sweet (IOW kawaii/cute things don't count)
D o y o u e v e r
Sit on the internet all night waiting for that someone special to IM you?: Do I HAVE that special someone in the first place? >_>
Wish you were a member of the opposite sex?: At times. It'd be pretty interesting seeing life from a different PoW.
Wish you were younger: Hahaha. No, but I wish my age would stay this way. >_>
Cried because someone said something to you?: Well, this is weird. It implies that he said something mean to me, but I haven't cried because of that. I've cried when someone talked to me before, but that's not out of meanness.
N u m b e r
Of times I have had my heart broken: LAWL. Once? Hmm.
Of hearts I have broken: LAWL. You think someone would let ME break their heart?
Of guys I've kissed: Uhh none that I can remember.
Of girls I've kissed: Not sure of the exact number, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't exceed 3. Or 2 for that matter >_>
Of continents I have lived in: 1.
Of CDs I own: Lawl. 0 >_>
F i n a l Q u e s t i o n s
1. Do you like filling these out?: Depends. Some actually make you think. This one obviously doesn't. >_>
2. Gold or silver?: Silver.
3. What was the last movie you watched?: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
4. Favourite cartoon/anime?: Kita He, Last Exile, RK Reminiscence, a few more, but I can't remember.
5. What did you have for breakfast this morning?: Fried noodles along with yesterday's leftovers.
6. Who would you love being locked in a room with?: Uh, the usual I guess. Friends/Family/Possible significant partner XD
7. Could you live without your computer?: Hmm. Depends on who I'm with. Otherwise no.
8. Would you colour your hair?: Dark brown at most.
9. Could you ever get off the computer?: Not permanently.
10. Habla espanol?: Whatever that means, >_> Probably no.
11. How many people are on your buddy list?: 87.
12. Drink Alcohol?: A glass of wine, a sip of Tiger, a bunch of Jolly Shandy.
13. Your name spelled backwards?: Kcirreh. I would pronounce it Ki-rei or See-reh. >_>
14. Where were your parents born?: Malaysia.
15. Have you ever moved?: Nope.
16. What's your favourite place to go?: None really.
17. Is your bed is a Single, Double, Queen or King?: King-size airbed. After tossing the 10+ yr old Queen-sized mattress my parents used before giving to me. >_> Haveta pump it up every one or two days.
18. What's your favourite sport to play?: Basketball/Badminton/Pool.
19. How many kids do you want?: Who knows.
20. Type of music you dislike most?: Rap and Heavy Metal. I can take most other music otherwise.
21. Colour of your school bag?: Blue. It's so old I'll probably have to toss it though.
22. Do you have cable?: Yep.
23. Favourite 80's song?: Jailhouse Rock yo.
24. Ever prank called anybody?: Nope.
25. Ever get a parking ticket?: Don't drive yet.
26. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving?: Bungee Jumping. You get to see better stuff. Skydiving's surrounded by nothing save blue and white.
27. Furthest place you have ever been?: America and Japan.
28. Ever bowl a 300?: LAWL no.
29. What's your favourite comic strip?: Dilbert, Garfield and Peanuts.
30. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem?: Yes. Meaning is a different matter >_>
31. Bath or Shower?: Bath.
32. Best movie you've seen in the past month?: Uhh, I've no choice but to say HP4 because I haven't seen a really good movie this month. Neither Sky High nor HP4 were as good as I hoped they would be =
33. Favourite pizza topping?: Anything. Just gimme a good pizza. >_>
34. Beer or ale?: Wine.
35. Have you ever smoked peanut shells?: However would you do that o_O
36. Do you eat skin on chicken?: Yep. And I like it too. HAHAHA ZHANG >_>
37. Apple or orange juice?: Apple. Just don't like orange juice that much.
38. Favourite type of chocolate bar?: Any. As long as it's chocolate.
39. Your favourite fruit?: Pear, Watermelon, and Strawberries.
40. Your favourite vegetable?: No preference, but there's quite a number I dislike.
41. Have you ever won a trophy?: Scrabble MUAHAHAHAHAHA
42. Are you a good cook?: LAWL You ask Gid and Gwin. >_>
43. Do you know how to pump your own gas?: Nope.
44. Bought something from an infomercial?: Nope.
45. Is Oprah annoying or great?: I dunno, but Aristotle would've liked Oprah, so I guess she's great.
46. Ever flex in front of a mirror?: Nope.
47. Ever throw up in public?: Uhh, once or twice.
48. Would you prefer being a millionaire or find true love?: It's harder to find true love than earn a million, yo. >_>
49. Do you believe in love at first sight?: Replace love with infatuation and I'll go with it.
50. Ever call a 1-900 number?: NKF. Now I regret it >_>
51. Ever been stood up for a date?: Never dated.
52. Biggest turn off of the opposite sex?: Masculinity/Bimbotic tendencies >_>
53. Ever been cheated on?: Never dated. >_>
54. What are the names of all your pets dead and/or alive?: Einstein, Marie, two unnamed rabbits, two unnamed hamsters, two unnamed turtles, Matthew, Kitty, and Neko.
55. Can ex's be friends?: Why not?
1. Name: Herrick, yo.
2. Single or Taken: Single.
3. Sex: Male.
4. Birthday: Aug 1, 1991
5. Siblings: Godwin, teh awesomez, and Cindy, also teh awesomez. >_>
6. Hair Colour: Black.
7. Eye Colour: Black.
8. Shoe Size: USA 8.5 - 9
9. Height: 171cm or so I believe. >_>
10. Any tattoos or piercings?: Nope.
S p e c i f i c s
1. Do you do drugs?: Chocolate a drug? Else no. >_>
2. What kind of shampoo do you use?: Any brand, I'm kinda wishy-washy. >_>
3. What are you most scared of?: Uhh. Rejection, and loneliness I guess. I dislike what most others are scared of, but I'm not exactly scared of it myself. >_>
4. Who is the last person that called you?: Yu Min.
5. Where do you want to get married?: Hmm. Anywhere, really. >_>
6. How many buddies are online right now?: 16, 11 of which are ACSians.
7. What would you change about yourself?: Lawl. Face and hair I suppose. That's not much about me I dislike >_> Oh yeah, now I know one. My addictions >_>
F a v o r i t e (s)
1. Colour Any shade of: Blue/Black/Green. >_>
2. Food: Anything really >_> Unless you mean anything edible, then chocolate/burgers. You can't go wrong with those >_>
3. Boys’ names: My own, and my nicknames >_>
4. Girls’ names: Uhh, any, really.
5. Subjects in school?: In the future probably philosophy. Currently? No preference >_>
6. Animals: Squirrels / Rabbits. Cats are meh >_>
7. Sports: Basketball/Badminton. Do non-physical sports count too? If so then Pool. >_>
H a v e y o u e v e r ?
1. Given anyone a bath?: Uhh, nearly did that to Kitty, else no >_>
2. Smoked?: Nope.
3. Bungee jumped?: Nope, sounds fun though.
4. Made yourself throw up?: Once or twice.
5. Skinny dipped?: Whatever that is o_O
6. Ever been in love?: >_> who hasn't?
7. Made yourself cry to get out of trouble?: I did get out of trouble by crying once, but that wasn't deliberate. >_>
8. Eaten a lemon in its entirety?: Save the skin. =
9. Run away from home?: Twice. LAWL >_> Thinking about it now those attempts were demn farnee >_> None lasted more than 1/2 an hour >_>
10. Cried when someone died?: Nope. >_>
11. Lied?: Who hasn't >_>
12. Fallen for your best friend?: All guys and I'm not Darren Wee sorry. >_>
13. Been rejected?: Never even got to a state like that >_>
14. Rejected someone?: Never got the chance to XD
15. Used someone?: Uh, with his permission. >_>
16. Done something you regret?: Who hasn't >_>
C u r r e n t
Clothes: Dark blue singlet >_>
Music: Anime >_>
Make-up: I'm not a girl >_>
Annoyance: Gwin leaving for NS.
Smell: Myself. >_>
Favourite Group: Uhh, none? Nami Tamaki ain't a group >_>
Desktop Picture: A picture of Flonne with the words "Life is good" on it. =)
Book you're reading: C.L.Ten's Was Mill a Liberal? (Mill's a philosopher >_>) (C.L.Ten is teh HoD for the Department of Philosophy at NUS. >_<)
Colour of Toenails: Normal. I don't use nail polish.
L a s t p e r s o n
You touched: Myself >_>
Hugged: Uhh not sure. Haven't done that in some time. The group hug during the last day of school I guess.
You instant messaged: SZ
You yelled at: KW
You kissed: Uhh, too long ago to remember.
A r e y o u ?
Open-minded: Quite.
Arrogant: Subconsciously I suppose. I don't think I'm arrogant, but my bro says I'm fricking egoistic, so. =
Insecure: Somewhat.
Random: Uhh, not as bad as Zhang.
Hungry: Usually. >_>
Moody: Lawl. Very misunderstood here >_> Usually no >_>
Organized: LAWL no.
Difficult: Quite.
Attractive: LAWL No. The thought itself makrs me wanna laugh. XD
R A N D O M
In the morning I am: Depends on whether I wake up before my dad wakes me up, or after. Alert for the former, groggy for the latter. >_>
Love is: Overrated. Seriously, you guys all make it seem like Love is teh No.1 Solution to every single thing on Earth. Come on, love screws people up REAL bad too, y'know. I know at least one friend who suffered from that. Come on, you all are making love sound too perfect, when it ain't.
I dream about: I rarely dream. And usually it's quite random stuff.
O p p o s i t e s e x
What do you notice first: Their words, and personality. Looks 3rd.
Makes you laugh the most: Life and its inhabitants. >_>
Makes you smile: Things that are actually sweet (IOW kawaii/cute things don't count)
D o y o u e v e r
Sit on the internet all night waiting for that someone special to IM you?: Do I HAVE that special someone in the first place? >_>
Wish you were a member of the opposite sex?: At times. It'd be pretty interesting seeing life from a different PoW.
Wish you were younger: Hahaha. No, but I wish my age would stay this way. >_>
Cried because someone said something to you?: Well, this is weird. It implies that he said something mean to me, but I haven't cried because of that. I've cried when someone talked to me before, but that's not out of meanness.
N u m b e r
Of times I have had my heart broken: LAWL. Once? Hmm.
Of hearts I have broken: LAWL. You think someone would let ME break their heart?
Of guys I've kissed: Uhh none that I can remember.
Of girls I've kissed: Not sure of the exact number, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't exceed 3. Or 2 for that matter >_>
Of continents I have lived in: 1.
Of CDs I own: Lawl. 0 >_>
F i n a l Q u e s t i o n s
1. Do you like filling these out?: Depends. Some actually make you think. This one obviously doesn't. >_>
2. Gold or silver?: Silver.
3. What was the last movie you watched?: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
4. Favourite cartoon/anime?: Kita He, Last Exile, RK Reminiscence, a few more, but I can't remember.
5. What did you have for breakfast this morning?: Fried noodles along with yesterday's leftovers.
6. Who would you love being locked in a room with?: Uh, the usual I guess. Friends/Family/Possible significant partner XD
7. Could you live without your computer?: Hmm. Depends on who I'm with. Otherwise no.
8. Would you colour your hair?: Dark brown at most.
9. Could you ever get off the computer?: Not permanently.
10. Habla espanol?: Whatever that means, >_> Probably no.
11. How many people are on your buddy list?: 87.
12. Drink Alcohol?: A glass of wine, a sip of Tiger, a bunch of Jolly Shandy.
13. Your name spelled backwards?: Kcirreh. I would pronounce it Ki-rei or See-reh. >_>
14. Where were your parents born?: Malaysia.
15. Have you ever moved?: Nope.
16. What's your favourite place to go?: None really.
17. Is your bed is a Single, Double, Queen or King?: King-size airbed. After tossing the 10+ yr old Queen-sized mattress my parents used before giving to me. >_> Haveta pump it up every one or two days.
18. What's your favourite sport to play?: Basketball/Badminton/Pool.
19. How many kids do you want?: Who knows.
20. Type of music you dislike most?: Rap and Heavy Metal. I can take most other music otherwise.
21. Colour of your school bag?: Blue. It's so old I'll probably have to toss it though.
22. Do you have cable?: Yep.
23. Favourite 80's song?: Jailhouse Rock yo.
24. Ever prank called anybody?: Nope.
25. Ever get a parking ticket?: Don't drive yet.
26. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving?: Bungee Jumping. You get to see better stuff. Skydiving's surrounded by nothing save blue and white.
27. Furthest place you have ever been?: America and Japan.
28. Ever bowl a 300?: LAWL no.
29. What's your favourite comic strip?: Dilbert, Garfield and Peanuts.
30. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem?: Yes. Meaning is a different matter >_>
31. Bath or Shower?: Bath.
32. Best movie you've seen in the past month?: Uhh, I've no choice but to say HP4 because I haven't seen a really good movie this month. Neither Sky High nor HP4 were as good as I hoped they would be =
33. Favourite pizza topping?: Anything. Just gimme a good pizza. >_>
34. Beer or ale?: Wine.
35. Have you ever smoked peanut shells?: However would you do that o_O
36. Do you eat skin on chicken?: Yep. And I like it too. HAHAHA ZHANG >_>
37. Apple or orange juice?: Apple. Just don't like orange juice that much.
38. Favourite type of chocolate bar?: Any. As long as it's chocolate.
39. Your favourite fruit?: Pear, Watermelon, and Strawberries.
40. Your favourite vegetable?: No preference, but there's quite a number I dislike.
41. Have you ever won a trophy?: Scrabble MUAHAHAHAHAHA
42. Are you a good cook?: LAWL You ask Gid and Gwin. >_>
43. Do you know how to pump your own gas?: Nope.
44. Bought something from an infomercial?: Nope.
45. Is Oprah annoying or great?: I dunno, but Aristotle would've liked Oprah, so I guess she's great.
46. Ever flex in front of a mirror?: Nope.
47. Ever throw up in public?: Uhh, once or twice.
48. Would you prefer being a millionaire or find true love?: It's harder to find true love than earn a million, yo. >_>
49. Do you believe in love at first sight?: Replace love with infatuation and I'll go with it.
50. Ever call a 1-900 number?: NKF. Now I regret it >_>
51. Ever been stood up for a date?: Never dated.
52. Biggest turn off of the opposite sex?: Masculinity/Bimbotic tendencies >_>
53. Ever been cheated on?: Never dated. >_>
54. What are the names of all your pets dead and/or alive?: Einstein, Marie, two unnamed rabbits, two unnamed hamsters, two unnamed turtles, Matthew, Kitty, and Neko.
55. Can ex's be friends?: Why not?
Saturday, November 19, 2005
Jap Listings for 2006
Japanese Listings for 2006:
J3H:
Teacher: Ms. Kimiko Endo
Days: Tuesday + Thursday, 4.300
ACSians:
Herrick Ong Zhi Ping
Michael Wee Hong Shen
Gan Zhang Quan
Samuel Teo Thian Hui
Justin Ng Cho Yang
(Whoa, that's all 5 of us in the same one class. =)
F3I:
Teacher: Evelyne Harry-Villain (o_O)
Days: Tuesday + Thursday, 4.30
ACSians:
Joshua Rene Jeyaraj
Yo, anyone else? Guess not. >_>
J3H:
Teacher: Ms. Kimiko Endo
Days: Tuesday + Thursday, 4.300
ACSians:
Herrick Ong Zhi Ping
Michael Wee Hong Shen
Gan Zhang Quan
Samuel Teo Thian Hui
Justin Ng Cho Yang
(Whoa, that's all 5 of us in the same one class. =)
F3I:
Teacher: Evelyne Harry-Villain (o_O)
Days: Tuesday + Thursday, 4.30
ACSians:
Joshua Rene Jeyaraj
Yo, anyone else? Guess not. >_>
Friday, November 18, 2005
Class Party
Whee some stuff has been happening these days BUT people hath bloggeth about it alreadeh so I wondeh if I shoudh doeth teh sameth.
Hmm, ok. >_>
Class party was pretty fun. What with all the pool games between me, SZ, Darrell and Darren, the hype about pushing Zhang into the pool, Bridge and Hearts, and the barbeque, and the adventure park, and murderer, and the truth game right at the end when most people had left.
I guess I'm a lot better at minature pool than actual pool, lawl >_> I never gauge the strength right for real pool =
The truth game at night was good. I actually managed to be pretty honest. At least my social stigma paranoia is less. Zhang's right; Looks are deceiving, huh. =) Thanks anyway. I feel better.
-----------------------------------------------------
Got one new pretty interesting idea for CAP, but I've realized something about this.
Most people write to get a point across. This point may be on a moral value, a description, or maybe even a warning. Some write to chronicle (which word form do I use o_O Is there a word called chroniclize?) their thoughts and sights, like me.
I realized while looking around at Singapore nightlife, there's just too many things that I want to write about yet cannot find the words to describe. That's the state of me right now, and I'm really having a 'Picture-says-a-1000-words' thing right now. I just can't seem to be able to write what I see or think. It just doesn't come out right.
Oh well. I wonder if I'll get into CAP. >_>
--------------------------------------------------------
Ever since seeing Cleon play Drummania's Least 100 Seconds on Basic, I feel inclined to start Drummania now. Stepmania has helped me quite a bit on DDR (Alot, actually. I can read DDR 450 BPM because of Stepmania. Who knows; maybe even 500+. =) Stepmania's not going to help me much with Drummania save rhythm, but I think I should be able to start out decently. =)
But wah, Cleon = teh pro. Respect, yo. >_>
THAT, and SZ + PPP = TEH PRO, YO!
----------------------------------------------------------
Many say that the Singaporean night sky is starless, AND I DISAGREE >_>
That's something I learnt while lying on a seat by the pool at Boey's condo at night. Sometimes, people just have to look a bit harder, and suddenly they realize that even at the darkest of nights, there's still those sparkles of light in the middle of the sky. Less bright, but by no means nonexistent.
You just have to look harder in life to notice small sparkles, and once you notice one, it's easier to notice the rest. =)
People should go stargazing more often; it's quite a relaxing thing to do.
Hmm, ok. >_>
Class party was pretty fun. What with all the pool games between me, SZ, Darrell and Darren, the hype about pushing Zhang into the pool, Bridge and Hearts, and the barbeque, and the adventure park, and murderer, and the truth game right at the end when most people had left.
I guess I'm a lot better at minature pool than actual pool, lawl >_> I never gauge the strength right for real pool =
The truth game at night was good. I actually managed to be pretty honest. At least my social stigma paranoia is less. Zhang's right; Looks are deceiving, huh. =) Thanks anyway. I feel better.
-----------------------------------------------------
Got one new pretty interesting idea for CAP, but I've realized something about this.
Most people write to get a point across. This point may be on a moral value, a description, or maybe even a warning. Some write to chronicle (which word form do I use o_O Is there a word called chroniclize?) their thoughts and sights, like me.
I realized while looking around at Singapore nightlife, there's just too many things that I want to write about yet cannot find the words to describe. That's the state of me right now, and I'm really having a 'Picture-says-a-1000-words' thing right now. I just can't seem to be able to write what I see or think. It just doesn't come out right.
Oh well. I wonder if I'll get into CAP. >_>
--------------------------------------------------------
Ever since seeing Cleon play Drummania's Least 100 Seconds on Basic, I feel inclined to start Drummania now. Stepmania has helped me quite a bit on DDR (Alot, actually. I can read DDR 450 BPM because of Stepmania. Who knows; maybe even 500+. =) Stepmania's not going to help me much with Drummania save rhythm, but I think I should be able to start out decently. =)
But wah, Cleon = teh pro. Respect, yo. >_>
THAT, and SZ + PPP = TEH PRO, YO!
----------------------------------------------------------
Many say that the Singaporean night sky is starless, AND I DISAGREE >_>
That's something I learnt while lying on a seat by the pool at Boey's condo at night. Sometimes, people just have to look a bit harder, and suddenly they realize that even at the darkest of nights, there's still those sparkles of light in the middle of the sky. Less bright, but by no means nonexistent.
You just have to look harder in life to notice small sparkles, and once you notice one, it's easier to notice the rest. =)
People should go stargazing more often; it's quite a relaxing thing to do.
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