Gun-jostling time!

31st May 2010, Monday

Don't May seems a wee bit too long for my liking?

A long weekend just vamoosed by without significantly leaving a mark though the tiramisu at Pontini was highly delectable and made every penny of the 16 bucks well worth it.

It was basically riding the stallion in the virtual wild west while learning to lasso the horse, guide the herd and hunt down bounties before hooking up with the posse to squash some bandits' den for most of the weekend.
Kind of neglected the missus by the end of it, though herself was pretty absorbed in all the gun-trotting action when she watched me play.

On Vesak Friday, the BBQ birthday celebration for 77 year old grandma was not the most ideal when none of the filial grandchildren had not bother to check with the meteorological station for the most accurate weather forecast.
The whole brood was made to dodge for shelter at least 2 times before finally managed to grilled the remaining food till the very end of the night.

The Sunday game session with TW and CS came off at the very last minute despite it being way truncated than expected.
Nevertheless the whole session succeeded in us impressed (albeit me slightly) with "Lost Planet 2" and TW likewise with "Red Dead Redemption".
Nevertheless can expect the trio of us hooking up online very soon.

Japanese word of the day: 射撃(Shooting) It is always much more fun to do it virtually...

Sleeping with a Broad Smile

10th May 2010, Monday

The promotion that seems unlikely brightened up a Monday which had been geared into planning for a great 3 months of gaming, watching World Cup and planning for a probable Seoul/Japan trip.

Over the weekend with the folks whetting their gambling appetite in Genting, I had a nice time just hanging around with the missus who had nothing in plan and delicate for me as well as catching up some of the domestic matters.
However I ought to devote less time on the Playstation as Valkyria Chronicles borrowed from Bryan definitely really got me addicted.
Had an excruciating time creating a D.I.Y display stand which had some remote success but barely.
MK II should be better but doubt I have the energy and dedication to do so in the coming weeks.

Managed to get the early bird package for the World Cup telecast on Starhub.
Everyone on the island seemingly was appalled by the hike in price ($66 compared to like $50 odd 4 years ago) and did not mince their complains on the media.
For me, the threshold lies at $80, so the price looks pretty ok.
Now time to plan my precious amount of leave for this.

CS came on Sun with the purpose of rectifying my PC which in the end saw us discussing about the upcoming games on PS3.
The anticipated Capcom futuristic alien hunting game by the name of "Lost Planet 2" seemed to take a hiding from critics and reviewers and really blew it for us.
In compensation, Rock Star, the people who gave us Grand Theft Auto, will churn out a spaghetti Western by the name of "Red Dead Redemption".
The multi-player mode really got us captivated and time to join the posse as they said.

The highly anticipated letter came off the hands of the boss on Monday afternoon and I had to conceal the blissfulness blossoming within upon seeing my promotion.
The monetary boost came at the perfect time as I had list of items to dwell upon while building the savings account for the future.
All in all it made serving in the same institution shy of a decade looked highly rewarding, so back to doing what I do best as usual.

The only mood-spoiling issue over the weekend is the niggling pain along the molar and pre-molars of the left side of my top jaw.
Need to overcome that phobia of stepping onto a dentist chair soon and come clean that I had not bother with visit a dentist on regular basis since ORD many moons back.
Gives me the creep at the slight top of the sound of the drill...*GULP*

Japanese word of the day: 微笑み~ho-ho-e-mi~(Smile) Even can twitch a smile with a toothache

Pure Adrenaline Rush

30th November 2009, Monday

A really thrilling long weekend for me at least, maybe even a bit imprudent with the expenditure.

Everything started on Friday with Hari Raya Haji being a much welcomed break after a tumultuous week dealing with Shitty Green and his insolent demands for his project.
I had made plans with CS as mentioned previously weeks before as he tried to sell me "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves".
Before embarking on my journey to his place at Serangoon North Ave 1, I had got a setback with regards to the official bluetooth headset which is the most crucial tool for online gaming via Playstation 3.
A mutual gamer friend, BH had fell short in snaring that item just days prior and it seems like the chance of me getting that on Friday looked bleak.
However a quick stop by at Funz Center after buying the movie tickets at Cathay Cineplex, I was delighted to see a restock had taken place and I wasted no time to snag one off the shelf.
In fact I should have bought a couple more as later we realized.

Before having my hands on to the Naughty Dog produced game, it was the usual series of trailers for upcoming games which CS had scoured from 3 PS network.
EA's "Dragon Age Origin" had tingle the heart strings but it was "Final Fantasy XIII" had indicated why it was a game worth waiting for.

"Uncharted 2" definitely was engaging and really work on the treasure hunting factor which made it so appealing.
The graphics were stunning, gameplay accessible, storyline solid, characters likeable and dialogues quirly.
No wonder it received all the accolades since its release.
Before I knew it I was 1/3 through the game as CS had a quick nap along the way.
He did demonstrated the online multiplayer mode which was seamless and relishing the prospect of endless hours of fun especially when now we can communicate using our bluetooth earpiece.

We caught Roland Emmerich's spanking new disaster movie, and the mother of them all, "2012".
It was a movie that made my poor wife wept uncontrollably as she pondered on the prospect of that same scenario happening in the reality, knowing there was no where we could run and hide.
The movie packed with non-stop roller coaster ride as Emmerich and his crew just banged on fast paced action to keep audience on the edge of their seats while laughing wryly on how on earth could the main protagonist, the author reprise by John Cusack could dodge so many near deaths.
It sort of made us overlook how porous the storyline actually was but overwhelmed by the CG-made spectacle.
It definite was one of Emmerich's better films of late and I rated it better than "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and "G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra" combined.

Saturday was spent solely at SITEX, the final of the 4 big IT conventions our tiny island hosts in a single year.
The objective to venture east to the Singapore Expo for it was to net a reasonably-priced portable hard disk drive.
There were definitely plenty on show with the likes of Seagate, Toshiba, Western Digital, Samsung etc hogging the limelight.
But with a real sage in the form of CS by our side to state that Western Digital should be more trustworthy because of the country of its origin and we were thrilled to net a 2.5" WD Passport with 750GB space which should last me a while.

We were joined shortly by TW. It was the first time since his wedding that the three of us got to meet up and sparks flew there and then.
TW had been captivated by "Dragon Age Origin" and had been harping over it meanwhile we had a rib on CS when he came clueless on how to undergo his marriage proposal.
The missus was urging on the discussion of the likely destination for a much anticipated 2010 Japan trip, a tenth anniversary commemoration for "Tokyo Wreckers".
However it was not the right place and the right time.

We headed back into the claustrophobic-ward off Exhibition 5 & 6 as TW wanted to have a look at the laptop available, he would like to get for his wife.
Instead it was us who made a purchase with a Belkin Tunebase FM with Hands Free, a great tool for the iPhone or even iPods when cruising in the car.
The gadget meant to plug in the cigarette lighter allows the driver to charge his iPhone while listening to the songs stored in it using an unused frequency to amplify on the car audio system, while also enable incoming call to be received hands free.
It was an ideal gift for the missus for an early X'mas as she had been scouring high and low for such a device and at a reasonable price we just grabbed it.

This was after taking into consideration of the location of the cigarette lighter which was less accessible on the usual.
We put CS in the stress chamber when it looked unlikely for a while that the connection could be properly made.
The wager would be if it failed he would be left stranded in the Expo car park in the pouring rain, of course it was going to work in the end.

Our next stop was the Ikea Megastore at Tampines.
I had never been to this outlet since its opening a couple of years back despite being a great supporter of the affordable Swedish furniture manufacturer.
The main objective for us would be looking for a new workstation chair as the situation looked more chronic when my fat ass managed to break a foldable chair the other day, itself a replacement for the actual throne early this year.
In the end we had the eyes on one with an extended back rest by the model name of Markus and at $399 looked a steal as similar models would cost much more elsewhere.
However I would not want to jump the gun and give leeway for more searching for a longer shortlist.
The missus was also mindful of what the plan to convert Sis' room into her personal workspace once she moved out to her own place.
A nice white bookshelf with classy glass door seemed perfect but there was always going to be space constraint.

En route to drop my close buddies off to their respective residence, TW suddenly prompted an interest to get online for our "Uncharted 2" party which basically jolt CS into life.
My wife even obliged to turn to Ang Mo Kio where TW could pick up the game and the bluetooth headset from Funz Center.
Suddenly a ray of hopeful glare shone on CS' nonchalant face as he was jittery that it might not work out as we inched closer and closer to AMK Hub.
My wretched mouth spewed the possibility of the headset would be sold out and by sheer ill fate that was the situation when we got to Funz Center which was back to starting comment that I should had stocked up on in when a friend might in need of one.
It turned out to be a fruitless hunt for the AMK region as I even contemplated in borrowing from Chan who was stranded at La Tendo at that juncture.
As we trudged disappointing back to the shopping mall, TW made a last resort as he made his way to the Sony shop in Bishan Junction 8 to look for one while we sent CS home.

Along the way both of us got the missed call from TW who brought us the heartwarming news that he had successfully snared a piece from the shop and our plan for a late night online rendezvous looked palpable especially with Peiling not in the household at the Fus.

We began the online frenzy at the stipulated time of midnight as CS had to lower his volume considerably with his other half getting some well earned sleep after a week of hard work.
We did had many sleepovers dabbling with console games while sports genre is the one that usually allowed us to play side by side but for real multi-playability with such an eye for details only wi-fi or lan connection is able to support.

TW has a penchant for Monster Hunter Portable which allowed him and his mates to meet up to go hunting together but soon it would be likely to be addicted to hook online to the PS3 and with games like "Uncharted" and in near future "Lost Planet 2" allowing seamless game play online.
Our shenanigans of killing computer generated military drones carried on till the wee hours of Sunday before we felt enough was enough.

The next day a text message from CS revealed that he surely had the hunger for more, so expect yours truly to reacquainted with my decades-old buddies on the virtual realms soon.
It was also bodes well that the missus had fun watching us fooling ourselves in the game while helping me solve treasure hunting problems in the game too.

Japanese word of the day: オンラインゲーム(Online Game) We sure had picked it up a bit too late

Taking Up Dead Space?

4th May 2009, Monday

The May Day long weekend was pretty well spent in my books.
With my folks off to another Northern excursion back to Mom's relatives' place in Johor, we were left in charge of the apartment again.

Got to hook up with 2 of my buddies as well as managed to watch a whole chunk of backlog of doramas in my computer.
I even caught a nearing 3 hour long commemorative special from Fuji Television, on their 50th anniversary, reminiscing some classic dorama series from the past with the slew of top billing actors and actresses we had watched since young surely helped to make the occasion even more meaningful, especially yours truly who is infatuated with nostalgia.
The show was hosted by SMAP, and perhaps Tsuyoshi's last live appearance before his scandal. Anyway heard he will not be charged, and could make a comeback soon...we'll see.

My weekend really started on Thursday when TW came over for some Pro Evolution Soccer fun.
I actually had intended to organize an impromptu gaming session at CS' place on Friday but seemingly my wife-doting buddy had to commit his time to his bride, and felt perhaps we could catch up on Thursday itself.
We sure had a good time taking Spain national team (our favorite outfit in the game) and simply wallop our opponents (in amatuer mode of course); but the penultimate objective was to totally humiliate England which we both loathe (in the game and perhaps in real life) but after umpteen attempts we just couldn't win convincingly.
The playing took a toll on the missus who was gracious enough to leave the room for us.
A good chat to catch things up with each other ended at around 2 when he hailed a cab home, very much similar to another of this session back in December.

While the missus went on a hiking trip with her business partners at the South Ridges walk, I decided to find my own program when I called up CS who as usual in the comfort of his home, playing his beloved games.
Things sure got a bit lonely without TW or Foo but we made the best of things when he showed me the latest in the game industry, the usual of whetting my appetite even when I find it hard to squeeze time to concentrate in engaing in console games (hard to multi task unlike playing FM).

The bulk of the time there was when he let me have the hands on on a chilling game he even had chills down his spine while playing in the day time, "Dead Space".

This horror game from EA Games is much unlike any other of the same genre such as Capcom's "Resident Evil" series.
The game which very much inspired from the 1997 sci fi horror flick "Event Horizon", will create a spine-chilling atmosphere as the protaganist, engineer Isaac Clarke unraveled the mystery over the annhilation of the crew onboard the Ishimura Planet Cracker ship.

CS left me on my own for most of the time and as much as I had a strong disdain towards such game despite an urge to pick up Resident Evil 5 though, I found the control easy and not too nauseous.
The developers surely know how to create the morbid environment which at times you as the player would not be sane enough to explore.
Fans of grotesque slasher movies like Saw would love the amount of blood and innards that one can generate while dismembering those alien creatures, which love to sprang out from no where to scare the shit out of the player.

The game won many awards and accolades and for a casual player myself who got intrigued enough to continue on, it sure deserves to be rewarded.
On some level, the game is much more than just blind slashing and killing, there are several stages when you need to seek the best solution with your other skills like Statis and Kinesis to get machineries to work.

The game took me to 1 plus when I saw CS was pretty bumped up for the night though he was cool enough to give me a ride home in his brand new Mitsubishi Lancer with all the dazzling gadgets as we would expect no less.

Saturday was basically home bound with the missus who was preparing for her make-up competition on Sunday with Karen as the model.

A couple of good results going for the teams I support with Man Utd beating Middlesborough in a rather yawn-inducing affaor but one wouldn't have time to even bat an eyelid in the El Clasico at Santiago Bernabeu with the irresistable Barca machine went riot over the hapless host, Real Madrid with a 6-2 scoreline which could be more for the Catalans.
Both teams are on course for their domestic titles and I hope to see them squaring up against each other in the Champions League final, though Barcelona surely deserve to win it as in all competitions they are in, for showing the world such delightful positive attacking football.

I didn't had the chance to catch up with the final of my Wrecker buddy as Foo sort of bailed me out (but to spend time with his other half is definitely take the precedence) as I made the journey to Tampines alone to catch the Cup preliminary round which didn't end up good in terms of the scoreline (as I have expected) but the spirited display and the cheers I heard for the team was pretty heart-warming.

Japanese word of the day: 恐怖 (Scare) There were moments we just scared each other, pretty silly that we couldn't stop laughing

Super Robots Fetish

20th April 2009, Monday

While my Playstation 3 had remained dormant since the turn of the year as Chan mentioned my account was offline for like 100 over days now.

From the beginning I had mentioned I ain't a big gaming person, and now with the console now gathering dust at alarming state; it further emphasized that I shouldn't had spent on that luxury item.
Fortunately it was before the economic crunch as this year performance bonus looks bleak.

One stumbling factor for my less than enthusiastic interest to hook up my PS3 again is that when I'm at home, I tend to be more attracted to my PC (something which the missus frowns upon for course); my tolerance while playing a long-winded game on PS3 is truncating as time goes which is bad since most games have to be decently length to make any penny worth.
Once you lost the zest for a particular game, it's hard to pick them up again (i.e. Metal Gear Solid 4 and Disgaea 3 which I don't fancy picking up from where I have left them).

Meanwhile portable gaming console is so popular due to the fact that during the mundane traveling hours, it can be a great companion.
My 2 years old NDS Lite has always managed to deliver and with that wide array of games, I am always spoiled for choice.
Recently I am hooked to the latest offer from a game series which always made me go ga-ga over, "Super Robot Wars".

My first contact with this Banpresto series which feature an orgy of who's who in the animated robot series world was the Alpha and Alpha Gaiden on Playstation back in 2002.
That was a time when my knowledge of the robots featured were very much limited to Gundam W, Evangelion and Macross but I soon my interest grew to those Go Nagai's classic Super Robots like Mazinger Z and Getter Robo as well as Combattler V and Voltes V from the Robot Romance Trilogy. Not forgetting my all time favorite Reideen, the bow and arrow carrying, falcon-changing robot with a highly addictive theme song.

While I have been a sucker for turn-based strategy role playing game, Super Robot Wars just bring a notch further with beautifully animated battling sequence (which can get bored after repetitive viewing and thank god for the option to de-select it) and the respective theme songs of the various series which one can never get sick of.

The only down part of those 2 games and all the other games in the series spawned prior and after, it is strictly Japanese based due to licensing issue which restruct it to be port over to the North American scene.
It would be more fun if you actually can understand their dialogue especially since the creators ingeniously tied the famous storylines of various series up (such as Kamiyu going crazy in Gundam Z).

The nice battle map with fully colored 3D pawns of the robots in Alpha really got me hook as well and when I see that the processing power for the PS2 engine for the next incarnation "SRW Impact" I was tempted to just get PS2 to play that, maybe it was a blessing in disguise I didn't.

One reason for me to get my NDS was also to play a newly released "Super Robot Taisen W" back in 2007 as well.

Sadly I didn't had the endurance to keep my interest in it and halted midway through the mundane battles despite having familiar mechas from Full Metal Panic which I was watching back then.
The lack of voice acting and the dull blue-red icons on a flat battle map was a big turn off from the Alpha days (look more like the classic SD Gundam Generation series).
Then again the size of the game was very much dwarf as compared to what the Playstation counterparts can produce (even as compared to those ported to PSP for sure).

Therefore when Super Robot Taisen K was released just a few weeks back I was skeptical I would kept up my interest for it for long but was pleasantly surprised I was still hyped about especially when a walkthrough is easily acessible online when any fellow gamer has bothered to upload the information.

This incarnation caught everyone's surprise by excluding many usual big names like Great Maziner, Mazinkaiser, Getter Robo (and it's kinship) as well as none of the Robot Romance Trilogy.
There was also no UC Gundam series with the uber popular SEED trilogy holding its flagship (thank goodness for no Turn A or G Gundam).
In replacement are some young upstarts which inclusion might have some mix reviews such as "Sokyu no Fafner: Dead Agressor", "Gun X Sword" and even "ZOIDS Genesis" which belong to rival company Takara-Tomy.
Some Super Robots to beef up the line up with Mazinger Z includes modern sequels of classic series, Kotetsushin Jeeg and Gaiking: The Legend of Daiku-Maryu.

Rumours are sprouting about the development of a "Super Robot Taisen PS3" which surely will perk my interest considering the kind of engine PS3 boasts which also allows Namco Bandai (who took over development from subsidary Banpresto) to take advantage of.
Mahy recent mecha anime series may fancy a chance to add their names in the long list of series featured in the SRW such as Gundam 00, Macross Frontier, Code Geass and of course Gainax's Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagaan.
Would be good to have some returning series like Gundam W Endless Waltz, Reideen, Gravion which have some of coolest themes.
Well we shall see...perhaps it will make me wipe off the thick layer of dust off my PS3...

Japanese words of the day: スーパーロボット(Super Robots) Think the fetish began when I have some classic Popy diecast Super Robots when I was a kid

Like Husband, Like Wife...and a new PC

17th November 2008, Monday

After 2 days of drowning in extreme misery (don't try to empathize with me 'cos you'll just find me utterly silly), my life had a new sparkle...a blue luminous one as followed:

This baby tilted my expenditure on IT products to around 2.5K since the start of the year but it could be the most life-defying of them all....

The weekend began early when I beckoned TW who was fresh from his wretched ICT for a rendezvous at our old comic hide-out in Serene Center.
It merely took me less than 20 minutes to reach there from my workplace as traffic was smooth from Clementi to Bukit Timah Road.
My No. 4 uniform-wearing, short cropped buddy was already there browsing through Comic Mart for some reading material.
As the Mac which was the original plan was congested, I suggested to walk down to Adam Road Hawker Center for dinner.
We started whining and moaning about our misfortunes over the past weeks or so and I got a low down of what happened during the Russell Peter show.
Then it's only to get nostalgic on a breezy Friday evening as we cruised along the express way listening to endearing English pop songs from the 1990s as I suggested to hit a internet cafe to just to surf youtube for perhaps classic anime openings.

The only place I could think about these days would be at City Hall area..in the end we found this lan-gaming joint within Funan and did what we had intended for an hour or so, when CS who I had looked for in vain called to set an appointment with me to get the PC issue out of the way... which would really be the best remedy to make my mood back to the upswing.
He also disclosed a little recent update on our mutual friend BH which perked TW enough to meet us at Sim Lim the next day.
As I waited for the missus who was at a wedding banquet just down the road at Swissotel Westin Stamford and TW himself waiting to pick his lass from dinner at Liang Court down by Clarke Quay, we continued frollickin in our good old days including 1990s music, soccer and comic artists...sure were good times...

Saturday began with a frenzy...I had intended to start the day early by getting the purchase at Sim Lim less hassle and hesitation as possible.
The lads and I had arranged to meet by 10.30am but by 10 I was still at home as the missus insisted to tag along before heading off to her own affair.
So without much choice we hailed a cab down and got that slightly off the protracted time, then again the traffic congestion at CTE in AMK area was the main culprit of it.
We found CS taking his breakfast at Burger King in Burlington Square...after satisfying his caffeine urge, he gave us a low down on how BH finally got a girlfriend but the story wasn't as in depth as we had anticipated.
We wasted no time to head back to Sim Lim and more precisely Bell Systems Electronics to assemble my new PC.
Not wanting to really diagnose what's the real reason behind the failing of my original PC as CS stated as I am in dire need to get myself hook up online at home; we went ahead to do an overhaul retaining just the DVD Rom and salvaging the hard disk which hold some important data I wanted.

CS suggested to enquire with this guy by the name of Dave (whom he mistaken as Jave...er no one would call themselves Jave) who he mentioned is like the wise sage up on top on the computing mount and would impart us some knowledge on what parts would be most suitable for my computing needs.
After understanding that I'm not really into gaming but most for internet and multimedia entertainment, he suggested taking an AMD chip-mounted board with built in graphic card...
CS had his doubts on AMD being not as stable as Intel chips but Dave managed to win us over by his updated knowledge... Or he could be blowing his own horn..
However considering AMD is such cheaper alternative to Intel, it would really doesn't make sense why he wouldn't want to earn more money for his store (unless he just wanted to clear the AMD chip stock...yikes).
Without the need to purchase additional graphic card and the much lower price of the motherboard and the chip, my original budget of $1K seems to be much surplus when he included the power supply unit, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard disk & of course a new tower with more coolant fans and those psychedelic blue lighting.
With building up a new PC, we need an operating system to run on...and we had both insisted of getting Windows XP but wise sage Dave snubbed our request, saying I should go for Vista (which at that point I still wasn't convinced was a more superior OS by Microsoft than XP and reluctant to use it day in day out).
He hit the point on why we wanted to held on to old technology which would be obsolete in half a year's time....
Grand Ol' Sage hit the notion and I duly obliged with getting the Premium Home Edition of Windows Vista with the total bill much under $700...seriously home computing had really become so much cheaper than maybe 5 years ago.

While we waited for the PC to be hook up and tested by their staff, we roamed Sim Lim and I was very tempted to get the new version of Football Manager by SIGames, released just a day ago.
However the sole mission of my wife's presence was to kill off any idea I had to do that as she had such bad blood with this series of game which will see me transform into a angst-driven bastard...she said she disagreed for the sake of my health...
But what I want I must get (as long as it's within my ability to own it)..and after relentless persuasion and a few sad looks, I got my wish fulfilled though with a price of doing some health check next month...er...we'll see.

Not before long we went to collect my new PC while TW was tempted to upgrade himself but didn't even buy a new scanner as planned as the incumbent is now soaked with rain water after he had forgotten to close the windows on a rainy day.
The missus who had been distracted by the wide selection of laptop and portable PC so far was very much tempted to a model from Taiwan-based brand, ASUS.
More on that undying temptation in a while...

After bidding TW goodbye, we headed back home as CS managed embed the DVD Rom as well as the old hard disk and installed the OS and not before long my looming misery was erased though I had lost alot of bookmarks which we couldn't seemed to isolate.
I need some softwares as well but I had good source as well as generally those I can get online including Copy Trans which was my inaugural online purchase software as I wanted to backup the songs in my iPod with the correct playlist before a fix of the battery issue...the last piece of my IT expenditure puzzle.

With the exception of still not able to listen via headphones via the front jack as well as persistent sound from the rear fan which CS had salvaged from the old PC as well, everything is working great...and Vista ain't such a pain in the neck as I had expected.
I could now even clone the display to my LCD TV after we hook up with a VGA cable from the PC...so now I surely can play my FM while enjoying a show, without the need to sacrifice the monitor as seen below:

I also installed FM 2009 on that night itself and it surely wasn't any easy task with the whole tie up witb Steam which really infuriated many avid fans during activation which couldn't be highlighted enough on the forums. Fortunately in my case, it was just a mistaken "1" for "I" which as well documented as well together with the "0/O" issue.
With the whole patching, it took close to 2 hours to finally launch the bloody game.
Fortunately start up was relatively fast, so is processing, mainly due to the power of my CPU I guess.
The whole new 3D match interface was met with much skepticism (but the previous 2D pitch was also well scorned till it was finally embraced over the years).
I had a try at it as seen below:

The Tv view was quite nauseating at the start...it seem like aerial view by helicopter or something, not conventional viewing of a soccer match.
But after a while I got quite used to it and with some level of glitches as expected, it was actually quite smooth and didn't take long to load the match.
Then again you can switch to normal 2D if you can't get used to it.
Fortunately I could use tactics and training schedule file from previous editions, so no need to mind those areas which I usually don't give a hoot about.
It was pretty hard to score in this edition but perhaps just had to get the gist of it eventually...
All in all, as I always quote..even the worst effort from SIGames, it's still a darn good game to spend hours on it...with this and PES 2009, my life is sort of complete now.

As mentioned the missus had her eyes on a laptop and had strong desire to make it her own on Saturday itself till I came up with "you sure you have the cash for it" rebuff.
After further consideration over the course of the remaining few hours and some early hours on Sunday, she made up her mind to get it....
She also intended to trade her old one for some cash to supplement her purchase...
Such a nature which resembles so close to mine, really scared CS stiff for a while...perhaps despite our widening differences, this similar trait pulled us together somehow.
So in the end, she got what she yearned for and was perhaps a good choice since her 4 years old laptop is dying a slow death anyway with crazy background softwares which make it so slow to work with...

She also helped me get an official copy of Norton AntiVirus 2009 edition which CS advised me to invest on...
An enlightening quote from the horse's mouth on Saturday was "well I got by the fact that we need to pay for softwares now, maybe you should to"...wise words...perhaps...at least because we could afford it now rather than those ailing schooling era.

So plenty of refreshing computing experience for the household for the next week or so....

Japanese word of the day: 私はほしいと思う何が私は得なければならない(what I want I must get) Surely a frightening trait but at least we will fight for it....

Create A Legend

29th October 2009, Wednesday

A supposedly substantial 4 days break from work just concludes before I would say I am fully relishing from it...more can be expected at the end of the year (with loathsome veering from my missus and perhaps my sister who were perturbed each time I told them I am on off or leave).

My parents were gone for this long weekend, basking in the sunlight of Hainan dao, seemingly known as the Hawaii of the East... As alluring as it's alias, I doubt I would ever want to go to the land where my ancestors hailed anytime soon.

Got to spend a great amount of time with the missus over the course of the 4 days as well as she tried to take care of the 29 year old baby in the absence of his biological parents.
Really enjoyed the way she cooked her pasta which kept my appetite going for a couple of evenings.

The main feature though was the long overdue hang-out with my buddies on Sunday.
Top on our agenda for this gaming session was perhaps the European edition of Winning Eleven, PES2009.
Foo was perhaps the one man machine getting all hyped up about the game since he had such jolly time with the older editions on his PS2.
This led to that sudden urge to join the PS3 club in order to play the game (well we all know the future of the Sony game console is limitless)
That urge materialized on Sunday when we made Funz Center our rendezvous point (as usual) and we made quite a massive purchase including one copy of PES 2009 each for me, Foo and CS.
We did made some saving through my connection but whatever matters was how satisfied we would be by the end of it.
After stocking up on snacks and beverages, we hit the Pepsiman's Pad and was quick to get the game started as we got a feel of the game as we took the unfancied CFR Cluj in the Champions League (one of the licensed sparkling update of this edition).
As usual we chose "amateur", 'cos there's no point if we can't score and get humiliated.
It didn't took us long to really grew into the game as we did with previous incarnations... This Konami-made game distinct itself froom other competitor simulation soccer game (most prominently FIFA from EA Sports) is the realism of the gameplay. The fact that you ran around the pitch and happen to bump into another player regardless is it your team mate or opponent, you will lose your balance and fall.
We had so much fun when TW came and join the 4 men co-op play as we narrowly lost 6-5 to Barcelona, satisfying cruise past Real Madrid before succumbing to the midfield dynamos of Roma.
For the remaining of the night, we took the highly-talented Spain to win the World Cup and the hot team in Premier League now, Hull City and won a round robin competition, replaying the final against Argentina after my fault led to the equalizer before the likes of Dean WIndass and Bryan Hughes who were so brilliant under our control got tired and we lost it in extra time.
After being so immersed in it that we even forgotten the names of our other halves, we had to call it a night by around 1 plus, not before we tried the "Create A Legend" mode which got Howe Chern thoroughly addicted.
You basically create a young talent and like Lionel Messi, the spokesperson of the game, you have the capability to take the world by storm.
I sampled it out as a blonde dreadlock Thai guy by CS' alter ego, Tempest Dawn (which didn't impress him much) and basically just work it out in training matches as a winger.

The next day I created my personal legend, a 17 year olf Dutch striker by the name of Krystof, using my own photograph uploaded via a thumbdrive...talk about ego trip...
I began my journey by notching a brace in a amatuer football game before Real Betis was the club of my choice.
After impressing in 4 training matches which I scored in almost all the games, I finally made the bench of the first team.
Having granted like the most 25 minutes of playing time, I couldn't make my mark until I played a full 2nd half in an European tie against Chievo Verona which I put on a Man of the Match award.
Another goal as substitute and Krystof assumed first team striker position in place or more seasoned strikers like Xisco, Jose Mari and Pavone and he took his chance by his mouth and put in more swashbuckling appearances including 5 goals against highly-fancied Villareal, a crucial winner away at Santiago Bernabau and a hat-trick at Arsenal.
Although I must say I did not get to groom my overall skill in the game like astute passing or fancy moves, I had really groom to be a fearsome goal poacher and I truly relish it... it is little wonder one will be addicted to it.
I begin to take the foresight of a professional footballer where your career hangs on how many goals you scored and how disappointing it was to be to see you being replaced from the 1st team.
Really looking forward how far this legend of mine would be as the game carries on.
Meanwhile CS moaned about how his Chinese winger persona had problem finding the back of the net while Foo's Peter Crouch lookalike didn't seem to mix well with his team mates at Nantes.

The game had so much more to explore with secret legends to unlock plus full ability to customize to your pleasing..I must really wax lyricals of this new PES...well one major turn off would be the online Legends game though...as reflected by others it was tedious to register the Konami ID and even when I got it the game was laggy and totally killed the game for me. Hope they would come out with a patch or something....
But doesn't matter I want to spend more time with Krystof anyway....

Oh yeah by the way, TW annouced his proposal to his lass was successful and the wedding should be a go come a year and a half later... Time to help my buddy plan his casual wedding affair.. as he said he wants it to be...watch this space...

Japanese word of the day: 伝説(Legend) The only legend we know so far is that uncle in JCS

Virtual Fostering

8th September 2008, Monday

For the past week or so, while keeping myself interested and pretty much within sanity level with my mundane routine job, would be running scenarios of either my uber-long Sengkang/Singapore campaign on my Football Manager or the my latest football RPG fad, "Inazuma Eleven".

Surely this is not an adult who is hitting the big 30 within 2 months should be thinking about at work but c'est la vie for myself.

I love the concept of RPG (role playing game) and the Final Fantasy series had been a hot favorite of mine despite only played 2-3 titles in the franchise.
However the lengthy storyline which warrant at least weeks of playing can be a chore especially if you tediously undergo leveling up for all your characters to ensure you can transit smoothly to the latter stages of the games.
Many people tend to give up a classic RPG after a short while unless you start to grow affections to your brood or seriously interested in the storyline (or hoping to catch a glimpse of the CG ending) or you have the never-say-die spirit to perservere you through it all.

With Inazuma Eleven, the concept is very much the same where you started with bearly 11 players but you can recruit more players through scouting players you had random encounters with or players from other schools you had beaten whom you asked the wealthy heiress manager to buy them over with money.
However you still need to amass many training sessions or random kick-about to garner enough level to make your team decent.
The wayward design of the 1000 over characters from Level 5 (who gave us Professor Layton which explains the general character design and the animation sequence which became non-existent as we reached further into the game resemble the puzzle mystery game) really makes recruiting the various characters quite enjoyable.
The main feature will be the "Captain Tsubasa"-que out of this world type of shooting, tackling, dribbling and even goal-keeping.
The special moves are shown in polygon style CG while the main gameplay with the characters running about in primitive sprites but the details in each map is pretty notable.
The story which sometime involves playing against aged grocers or facing a team of otaku from Akihabara can be quite unique if only it it is in English.
I would fancy to create a strong team to face some of my NDS chums but I believe no one would be into it than myself.

Football Manager is far from role playing unless you take that of a fictitious gaffer trying to gather a team of superstar footballers as if you are backed by some Arabic tycoon by the name of Sulaiman.
I have been trying emulate the great patriarch himself Sir Alex with my stint at hopeless Sengkang Punggol and transformed it into the Asian powerhouse in that 11 years.
I also cherry picked the talents to assemble a national team which win the Asian Cup twice and got 3rd placing in the World Cup and the Olympics.
I truly enjoy fostering the young players (which absurd mismatch of Mandarin, African, Muslim and Hindu names) to become cornerstones to the future national team.

However being a sore loser who can never look "loss" at his face, I tend to get incredibly incensed with any failure at the big stage; so it's not hard to see me piqued out at the monitor sometime with some violence and vulgarity.
This was showcased at times in front of the missus which truly loathe my childish beahavior to the point she slammed a ban on me playing the game but to no avail which she knows.
She and this line of football management game have had much strained history, and surely she would savor the thought of my life rid of it which is surely impossible.

So it was gaming and football 7 days a week at home, at work (on the weekend shift while on waiting time) and even on transit with the convenience of a Nintendo DS...Life is sweet!

Japanese word of the day: 養育関係(Foster) I can't foster pets though...I presume my poor Beagle, Sousuke had already passed on in Nintendogs

Full Steam Ahead!

2nd September 2008, Tuesday

Recently the daily newspaper horoscope column stated that curtailing August would be a well-deserved rest for the hectic work schedule for Scorpios, but seems like my life turned out to be the contrary.

The projects picked up since early last week and we now worked on 6 and a half days basis to produce as many samples to be analyze as possible.
I have already came in on Saturday which wasn't too bad though Shitty Green was around the whole time we were here and seemingly Sunday as well, once again highlighting what illustrious life he is living in.

Due to the endless red tape and rigid system the main company is upholding, we weren't be able to be rewarded with a grand amount of overtime pay for the effort on the weekends, so time off is all we could labored for from the bosses.
And it seems like everyone is holding that for the end of the year, think myself likewise.

Well at least during the spare time for the weekend shifts, I could indulge in some NDS fun with the newly released "Inazuma Eleven" which had perked my interest since it incorporates my favorite sports, soccer (in this case high school soccer) with Role Playing Game with a tinge of out of this world Captain-Tsubasa style footballing skills.
I was in the midst of "Final Fantasy 4" before the hot-blooded sports game won me over...
I really am running out of time for plenty of games with "Disgaea 3(English Version)" recently being released and I had to shelf it over the horizons perhaps when I was clearing my off-in-lieu or annual leave to dabble in that.

I have well documented bad luck with styling headphones acquired from Japan since 2004 when I first got my Audio Technica ATH-FC5 from Bic Camera during my summer Wonder Festival escapade.
It actually lasted me a year or so before the amplification just decimated into nothing.
Prior to that I had bought a Victor sports clip back in 2000 which lasted within a month (I was bought over by the design and of course the endorsement by Luna Sea but ultimately the low price).

Then in winter 2007 with the La Tendo people, I bought an Audio Technica ATH SJ-3 as I was seduced by the white chassis and the equally white cable which certainly will match the iPod...that lasted around half a year before one side (think it's the right) started to lose connectivity and nothing could be heard.
I was distraught by the short live span and decided not to buy anymore stylish headphones from Japan electronic store which is low in durability (though it's likely due to my poor handling and maintainence).
And since we bought from Japan, there is no way we can claim for warranty...without flying back or course.

That stance lasted merely few months when this Feburary, another trip down Yodobashi Akihabara and I was succumbed to this JVC HP-S550.
The fact that the cable cord comes out from one side and could easily be retracted for safe-keeping with one hit of the button and there are few ways to fold the headphones make this an ideal headphone and a prize property of mine till a drizzling Wednesday morning last week while listening to Hamazaki Ayumi's 2005 hit "Alternate" and the right side went busted like its predecessor...
I was devastated but was helpless on how to fix the problem..
Unless I am good with dismantling the headset and soldering the wire, I think I just had to discard that 4000yen worth headphone.

4000 yean (around $60+) ain't consider cheap but for a good, stylish headphones with quality sound brands like Audio Technica can deliver, it's pretty worth it if it can last a good 2 years that is...

I am truly weary on these headphones going dead on me merely half a year after purchase...
Normal earphones can never satisfy my needs for quality sound and at least masking away 70% of the noise around me when I travel.
Neither were my ear lobes made to accommodate normal earphones (say those included in the iPods) as my frequent need to adjust the earphones while jogging on the threadmill is a testament to that.

Perhaps it's by fate, but there was COMEX, the biggest annual IT event of Singapore (there are 4 in total) for the past weekend and I might find what I need there.

On Sunday after fulfilling my obligation for my missus with a charity walka-thorn cum health check and product launch at the Singapore Expo, we ventured into town especially the Suntec City area which was clustered by Singaporeans trying to haul some good deals on IT products from the event (though there was an IT show merely 2 months back though at a smaller scale).

Encircling the Fountain of Wealth, we were flabberghasted at how we were denied entry to 2 of the car park entrances and had to patiently work through the traffic jam to the final hope for parking slot which by then I was feeling jaded and felt we should just go home but the lady who wears the pants in this household perservered through and finally parked the vehicle.

As anticipated, the entire convention center was swamped with people to and fro from the event which occpied 3 levels of exhibition hall which was a way to maximise the space between each booth for better manuvering but it didn't really worked.
The likes of Audio Technica, Sennheiser and Philips which I had a bluetooth wireless headphone in mind were all located on the 6th level.

I felt since it seems like the cable is always the root of the spoilage of my headphones might as well get a wireless one though the hassle of recharging it or inferior sound quality.
However my search for a wireless one was left in vain except for a seedy model from a seedy brand.

Then we stumbled upon the Ban Leong Technologies Ltd booth which distribute many high end quality products from the likes of Altec Lansing, Razer and most importantly Shure.
The company with a long history of quality microphones and the motto of "legendary performance) is a renowned name in the field of audio accessories and Chan mentioned to me for consideration days before.
There were a range of in-ear earphones on promotion with the introductory product just off the $100 mark and the highest pedigree on SE530 at a whopping $600....

I had my reservation on in-ear earphones thinking it would heard the ear drum or ear lobe though will be more secure in place than normal earphones.
But I was pleasantly surprise that the Shure range has took comfort into consideration.
The sound is really good and has the ability to cut away any noise from the outside while you blast music through the ear pieces, yet the person next to you would not be disturbed by the noise you generate.

The difference between the 3 lower range are not so significant, It was when I tried the top tier SE530 with its Triple TruAcoustic Speakers which really really bring the fullness of the music you are listening to (if you actually rip in high quality format).

I was quite bought into the volume controller and the Push-To-Hear accessories for the SE530 which comes with the set, and with the one-year installment plan which actually gives one month of installment free, the SE530 isn't too daunting a choice (since you don't see yourself splurging that big a sum).
The 2 years warranty also play a part for the value of the earphones which I think should last much longer than the stylish headphones from Japan.

It took me one round to consider before I decided upon that and along the way the demonstration perked the missus' interest and in the end, she bought a pair of the lower end one herself.
The Ban Leong people gave us further discounts off the promotion prices which see me make a saving of a hundred odd dollars off the normal retail price (inclusive of the installment discount).
I didn't realized I was such an extravagant audiophile who went all out to please my sense of hearing while commuting till Sunday.

Upon unwrapping the package for the set, I realized the Push-To-Hear was not included but that was another model altogether.
Made a call to the HQ and the sales manager of the Shure products gave me a rundown of this particular item and it seems like the PTH is merely a microphone so that you can listen to what other people say while still donning the sound-isolation earphones.
The acessory is rather heavy with the battery, which can be quite a turn off.

So for the next 11 months, I will try to refrain from spending a certain amount, do a bit of budgetting and hope this high-end earphones will truly prove its value and surely much more long-lasting

Japanese word of the day: 蒸気 (Steam) Surely having quality (& durable) headphone/earphone is a vital essence of letting of some steam from the hustle bustle of everyday traveling.

Sportsaholic

11th August 2008, Monday

Had to attend a screening for HIV this very morning for the Taiwan training 3 months back.
Took the latter half of the day off, very much similar to the missus who like many had their National Day holiday being stipulated on this start of the week.
Got a ride to Tuas Naval Base from the same source though he wasn't too sure where the obscure base is located among the endless labyrinth of ship yards and industrial parks.
Personally I had vague idea where the place really is after not coming to this extreme West spot for a while now.
After reaching the location without getting any fracas with the base security this time round, we headed to the medical center for the medic to draw quite a hefty amount of blood for the screening.
Then we met up with the rest at the canteen as they planned a gathering by the end of this month.

The Beijing Olympics had started with a bang on Friday and we spent an evening of Playstation male bonding turned out to be one in which we were marveled by how well the Chinese capital had dished out the fanfare of an opening but we were more interested in the procession of contestants representing all 209 countries respectively including some obscure nations we had ever heard of like Sao Tome and Principe & Djibouti...
Then our attention to the sporting beauties several nation had on display... Usually sportswomen tend to be abit average at best with certain sports having ladies perhaps due to their training regime are faces of little sexual appeal but the class of 2008 are very much eye candies for a few grown men in Singapore to ogle at, even various African and Middle Eastern nations.Maybe Maria Sharapova was not well missed after all.

Slept by 5 that Saturday morning after a few hours of "Army of Two" and some roti prata at Jalan Kayu (nothing special to rave about) and was awoken by Dad's own noisy commentary of the women's weightlifting contest which China got their first gold medal.
This kick started 2 days of sports watching including Brazil's whipping of New Zealand in the men's football, USA soundly beating host nation China 101-70 in their first match up the men's basketball and how our local sports persona failed in the likes of shooting and badminton though Tao Li did very well to break the Asian records in the games only to meekly attain a 5th placing in the 100m butterfly swimming, but still a great achievement.
Now back to the peddlers for the medal's hopes.

Didn't just solely spent time watching top sportsmen slugging it out in the humid and at times hazy Beijing, I had some sports when I was really late for badminton at Bishan stadium despite the missus drove me there.
Saw some parents coercing their budding young gymnasts to the sports hall to have a first taste of the beam or whatever apparatus present, hoping one day their kids can represent our nation for the world's stage.
Surely I would never dream about representing Singapore for badminton with my awry serve and misses.

Had intended head towards La Tendo after the game but didn't count on EK leaving for his next round of ball game briefly before our session ended.
With the sky overcast and rain pelting on our well-showered bodies, we headed for Bishan Junction 8 for a long brunch hoping the rain would ceased by the end of it; thus we filled up whatever calories we had lost from the badminton with a hearty American lunch at Cafe Cartel.
It was then Chan persuaded me to join him and Bryan for their figurine collection at both China Square Central and La Tendo.
The former still oozed some appeal with the flea market with some collectors scouring for some good deals while the latter was very much a ghost town on a soggy Sunday afternoon.
Definitely the thought of traveling home with a long wait for a bus and then transit via the crowded MRT could be a turn off why people had shy off this obscure location like Kallang Leisure Park.
With our hefty purchase, we resorted to sharing a cab to our place at the north-east region of the island.

My Sunday ended with our losing streak finally broken when Sengkang consolidated their 2nd bottom placing with a 0-0 draw against Albirex, the same side they had drawn twice this season already.
It was really 2 points lost by the visiting Japanese side, who really should put away many chances they created but could be our defense held their stance throughout with Winston Yap redeeming himself after that torrid game against Geylang.
If only Simic was introduced earlier and we had more conventional targetmen in attack to support Reginaldo, we might even net the 3 points...
Well we had to keep our fingers crossed for a victory this Saturday at Jalan Besar against the Young Lions...

Meanwhile, looking forward to more sporting miracles in the Olympics...

Japanese word of the day: メダル (Medals) Michae; Phelps wanted to haul 8 golds, Singapore are just glad to get a bronze

Identity Crisis

7th July 2008, Monday

Stayed home-bound for the whole of the weekend...simply just catch some dorama, rented DVDs and became immersed and obsessive in my PS3 adventures, ingesting unhealthy snacks along the way

However there seems to be a common theme with the media I came across the whole weekend... the characters seemed to be embedded in a case of identity crisis....

Zettai Kareshi (絶対彼氏): Based on a shoujo-manga of the same name, this Fuji Terebi doramas told a tale we all identify with all along. The fantasy of owning a perfect lover, in this case a robot/cyborg. Dashing Hayami Mokomichi (who's last dorama, "Tokyo Tower" got me all teared up) was 01 model from the Nightly Series from a cybernetic company, Kronos Heaven which was design and made for an unsuspecting customer, a inspiring patissier, Izawa Riiko.
Hayami's stiff acting is just perfect for the role of the robot lover but eventually as the tale came to a climax, he became a sad being yearning for a normal humane life as his "owner" Riiko came to accept him.
But like all movies of such genre (with robotic or supernatural being lover), there will be no happy ending as 01's main IC went busted when he exerted himself too much to generate spontaneous self-programming which baffled his creator and company.
It was pretty touching near the end but the characters have to get out from that surreal state that they would last happy together. There were stances of identity crisis for 01 or Night for his name at the beginning while Riiko hit hers at the end when she thought she could do without real human companionship for a piece of appliance which might most probably outlive her.

Persepolis: One of the movies I rented was this French animated feature based on the graphical autobiography of Marjiane Satrapi, an Iranian exile who tells a tale about the chaotic times in her homeland over the course of Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. The protagonist, Marjiane who dreamt tp be a prophet was exposed to poltical ideals like communisim since young and grew jaded of the stagnant repressive state of her nation. She was a rebel with her own cause... a rebel repressed in a conservative post-war Iran. When she thought she was liberated with her studies in Vienna, there she hit an identity crisis and knew that the demise in her country didn't reflected well in the European scene.
She yearned for a return back home after countless days on the streets of Austria but found it was back to square one as she found it had to adjust with how rigid the government remains in their status quo.
She migrated to France eventually as the tale came to an end...
In the style of black & white graphic novel, the essence of the story was well captured and despite no beautiful CG or delightful artwork, it was the story that really bought me and gave me a great insight with the turmoil the Iran people had to face back in those days when they could actually become a developed nation with their commodity and all.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots: After Niko Bellic duly disposed of his great adversaries in Liberty City, he passed the Playstion baton to the renowned mercenary from the mastermind of Kojima Hideo and his Konami team, Solid Snake, now in much aged in 2014, thus known as Old Snake.
Despite not following the MGS storyline unlike most of my friends who had played the prequels back in the Famicom/Playstation days, I knew that Solid Snake is a character shrouded with identity crisis, himself a cloned product of a war hero, now known as Big Boss and constantly had to unraveled the mystery about his background against his "brothers" Liquid and Solidus.
My first venture in MGS was very much like my first venture to Gran Theft Auto, disregarding much of the history and just play the game as it is.
However it was always better to know abit more of the famous game series in which stealth is the best way to win the game...something I am still getting the hang of especially it totally contrast the ideology of GTA in which everyday is a grand massacre involving plenty of car stealing, chases and simply blowing things up.
In MGS we just had to keep cool headed and preferably not to be detected by the enemy, something which would reap rewards in the end. There was even a stress level which certainly reflect Snake's and my own stree throughout the mission. Fortunately, there was the presence of m,y favorite gadget, the iPod to give us some musical relief, alleviating the tension when we need it.
Act 1 is set iin the backdrop of the warring Middle East and the mood of the environment surely set itself to it, although I was expecting the rebel militias to speak Arabic to me rather than American-accented English.
CS was immensely addicted to the game and I could see why... Foo is another advocating the good of it and should jump on the PS3 bandwagon just for it pretty soon.
Then there was Johnny "Akiba" Sasaki as Foo described it.. "is da man!" I have to nod in agreement, as you know I am sucker for such characters....

The Prestige: Another movie I rented was a great buffer to set me forward for The Dark Knight opening next week.
Directed by the same director, Chris Nolan and featured Batman (Christian Bale) and Alfred (Michael Caine) with the same cinematographer and production designer as "Batman Begins", it surely have the same tone of the Batman sequel.
Set in the Victorian era of England where the age of industrialization was at its prime, this film told the tale of 2 rival magicians, bidding to outdo each other and even constant notion of revenge when one aspiring magician Borden( Bale) accidentally killed the wife of Angier (Hugh Jackman), a fellow budding disciple of the dark art in an act.
While the tale showed us some insight of the truth behind several well-known illusions of that time, the crux of it all was the intense rivalry between the 2.
First look at it superhero fans would rejoice of the prospect of seeing Batman vs Wolverine, but seriously beneath the masks, these 2 actors surely are great actors as I was intrigued by how one tried to outdo the other.
The cast was well rounded by Scarlett Johansson (who surely looks good in the bust-enhancing Victorian fashion), Caine (smooth as great wine), Andy Serkis (Gollum of LOTR fame) and a pretty beef up David Bowie who did a competent role as Nikola Tesla, who found the basis alternation current electric power.
At the climax of the story where both were trying to uncover each's secret of the "Tranport Man" act, both were fooled by the identity of the other at the end which surely led to a real twist of the tale.

Glad I have no real crisis with my own identity but this current one is starting to perturb the missus as well as the rest of the household that I might be too immersed to become a confined-in freako...

Japanese word of the day: 危機 (crisis) The only crisis I have now is to increase more "me-alone" time but highly unlikely

Ball of a Time

16th June 2008, Monday

It's been a rather intriguing 4 days or so... At one end of the spectrum it was so routine and predictable, at the other end it seems like things just happens on and off like signals off the synaptic clefts.

It began on Thursday which marked the first day the blissful couple at work went on their Angkor Wat expedition. His Beautiness had requested them to load up as much as they could, so we spent the next few days in their absence just routinely put the chips in for scanning.
This freed up plenty of time at work; not that I mind but I got uncontrollably restless since 12th June 2008 marked the global release of the most anticipated Playstation 3 platform game thus far (Square Enix still left us hanging on the release of Final Fantasy XIII), Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
The final chapter of the incredible saga of Solid Snake which propelled Kojima Hideo into unassimilable stardom in the gaming world got the world abuzz especially my game crazy buddies like CS who was blasting me with SMS, to remind us about the release the day before.
We had pondered about holding the horse till the game is more matured in the gaming community before acquiring it.

However on that particular Thursday, with a horde of avid gamers on Game Axis proudly proclaiming themselves as the first few owner of the game was the last straw for me.
I was totally not being my usual composed self and took on the opportunity to apply for an urgent leave; beckoned my buddy, Foo who was on medical leave from his ICT and himself a big MGS follower to join me in search of that elusive game.

In the end it turned out to be not so elusive as I got my copy at Game Score in Funan together with the official guide book which these days an important asset to own in games like MGS4 or Grand Theft Auto 4.
The game was aplenty in both Game Score and the competitor just across while CS easily bought his copy in Funz Center at AMK Hub, our usual haunt.

Funan was characteristically passive for a weekday afternoon but someone just a street away at Suntec Convention Center, the IT savvy Singaporeans amassed for the grand opening of this year's PC show. It was my first destination as I wondered the Sony booth might take the opportunity of the coincidence of date to showcase of MGS4 perhaps at a good price as some proclaimed selling in the Sony Gallery.
It was an abjected showing which dampen whatever expectation I had as there was barely any sight of pushing for Playstation 3 let alone the game.
I did picked up a Maxtor One Touch Plus 4 750GB external HDD for the missus who had been bugging me to get an external HDD for her for backing up her laptop, dwindling of storage space.
For that kind of size, $200 odd might be a steal plus the Security Drill software allow us to "ghost" the entire hard disk profile and files as a backup in case of HDD crashing which I had experienced once or twice now.
But from the review online, I might had made a bad choice...we'll see

Friday the 13th was especially quiet at work..as almost everyone was droid, watching time pass for the weekend to arrive.
The absent list include Shitty Green, our French Supervisor, the couple and even His Beautiness who seem to had plans for every Fridays for the month (some gay orgy perhaps).
Should had retreated early that evening with early badminton session but only turned in by 2 plus or so....
Predictably, I got up groggy with red-sodden eyes next morning at 8 plus with the session beginning at 9 in Clementi.
However my Saturday was brightened up with glowing Oranje when as in Berne, Switzerland, the Netherlands won another emphatic game against the other World Cup finalist, France by 4-1. It surely is the coming of age for the Dutch but I pray fervently that it was not another false hope.

A badminton session without EK was quite unimaginable but this week he indeed left for Batam for some religious pilgrimage while Chan was assigned to bring the rackets.
Karen's newfound best friend, Chiaki joined us for the 2nd time perhaps we weren't that scary afterall for her to make her 2nd appearance.. of course living in Clementi could be a boosting factor.
She also joined the few of us for "Kungfu Panda", the new Dreamworks CG animation. The big furball by the name of Po who was deemed as the dragon warrior by Master Wu Giu was very much like a ball and Jack Black was definitely the best choice for the rotund, gluttony and unwilling hero.
The flow of the story is smooth though predictable. The fighting scene was nicely choreographed with equally adequate cinematography. The oriental-inspired soundtrack builds the mood as well.
The best Dreamworks SKG animation since Shrek the 1st for sure...

After the laughing fit which see the usual suspects like myself and Karen filled the theater with out high decibel laughters, we parted ways as I accompanied Chan down to CSC for his loot collection before heading for Kallang.

It didn't take Foo long to make it to Kallang Leisure Park where we settled for dinner before embarking on that short walk to the National Stadium.

The Grand Ol' Dame will be closing its curtains (for sure?) after this crucial World Cup qualifying tie between Singapore and oil-rich Saudi Arabia.
After the lost at Tashkent last week, we are one foot out of the game but a resounding win against one of the perennial giant in Asian football might turn our mathematical chance into reality.
Another 25K of Singapore fans flooded the gallery despite many were left disgraced after that mauling by Uzbekistan last week.
Our team line-up were rock by the absence of Mustafic (suspension) and Jiayi (injury).
Raddy decided to play Hassan Sunny in replacement of Lionel between the sticks and it was a choice well justified.

For the next 90 minutes, Hassan was on a one-man mission to stop an onslaught of goals from Saudi Arabia...
The horrendous thing is that it wasn't because the Saudi who missed inspirational captain, Yasser Al-Qahtani by the way were as good as the fluid Uzbeks, in fact they were quite awful with lackluster running and at times waiting for counter attack.
The main problem lies in our own boys were not playing their game.
The attacking trio of Khairul, Duric and Indra had no many chance but even when they do they fluffed it like Khairul having a one-to-one opportunity in the early minutes.
It shattered its confidence and he didn't appeared for the 2nd half as replaced by Qiu Li who showed flashes of attacking impetus along with Jon Wilkinson which otherwise a no-show of Singapore attack or midfield Foo and I had paid money to watch.

Hassan despite conceding twice (both legitimate goals which were hard to keep out), thwart the Saudis time and again when his defenders especially Bennett were making silly mistakes. But Precious and Baikkaki did showed an improvement from the Uzbek game....

When the Saudis scored the 2nd late in the game, many were making the exits and I had to agreed with them 'cos this is the kind of performance why the local media were so cynical about... Whenever we made a step forward, we kind of take 2 steps back....
Just hope the lads rebound in future tournaments and winning in ASEAN region is just not enough...

There was a considerably big earthquake rocking the Northern part of Honshu in Japan and the missus was pretty worried about some of our friends in Iwate.
Meanwhile my webpage was suspended due to overuse of bandwidth...I tried contacting the server but to no avail...I think might be time to change a new one...actually kind of thinking of closing it down....will see when the next renewal comes in October.

Japanese word of the day: 球(Ball) As they said the ball is round, anything can happen...

You've Been Robbed....

2nd June 2008, Monday

An important day for our national footballing team as we welcomed Uzbekistan to our cauldron this evening for the 2010 World Cup Qualifying Asian Round 3 group game...
A win will be a morale booster for part duex at Tashkent in days time, let's hope I'll be in jovial mood with that result tomorrow...

We had prayed for rain to alleviate our plight for weeks now and our prayers been answered as it was raining the entire week and on Saturday the rain came in full torrents...It'll be great if we were confined to the comfort of our home.
Instead it was a good 12 hours traveling from point to point in our reliable Geely, starting with Changi Airport Terminal 3 as early as 8 in the morning as the missus wanna sent her "up-line" off to her Alaskan getaway, reaping her rewards from her "down-lines" (including my wife) laborious selling of products.
Being a jerk as I am, I just refused to get into the mix and stayed away for the entire time we were at the new Terminal.
Next destination, Clementi Sports Hall as Karen invited her newly acquainted Japanese friend, Chiaki whom had helped her a great deal at the JTB saloon and met up during her trip to Kyoto. Another rare face to see these days, Ferris also made an appearance but left soon the game was up.
After a hearty round of laughters about EK's Ninja aspirations (since Chiaki's hometown is in Shiga, the origin of the stealth killers), we left for China Square Central where I picked up a figurine I was a bit reluctant to do so with respect of my space constraint. However with the deposit been paid, the only option is to buy it.
The missus was interested in the World Book Fair held at Suntec Convention Center and I obliged to follow along as it was pretty nostalgic since my own heydays of religiously heading for the annual book fair which used to be held in World Trade Center.
The modern replica pales in comparison in terms of selection and scale; beside for some China-printed publication, never really perked our interest.
We then left for Carrefour to stock on some snacks and other groceries since it was a rare occasion when we actually drove down.
This was went the sky opened up and it was raining boisterously till early evening when we made our way to our final stop at Kallang Leisure Park.

The weather remained gloomy for Sunday which suited me explicitly as I watched the finale of the 4th season of "Lost" which was kicked ass and left with their usual cliffhanger ending but they did gave an insight of the "Oceania Six" which survived the island.
Then the main menu on my Sunday's platter was reprising the Eastern European badass, Niko Bellic and his adventure in Liberty City on my Playstation.

The game was slapped with the M18 rating due to the coarse language and excessive violence. Gamers were more appealed to the game engine which allowed the player to create endless havoc at anywhere anytime.
As I continued to progress in the game, I grew to understand it never pays to be a goody-too-shoe and I started to transform into a monster on a streaking rampage to rob people's cars, killing mafia and police alike and basically a vigilante which will do whatever it pays.
I enjoyed the shooting aspect of the games and the guide book which I purchased to aid my cause helped considerably but there was no way for anyone to help you to do car chases which I loathe and it kept appearing in this game.

Not the best scenario you want to be in...

After sweating it out to chase this slick driver, Lyle Rivas, last evening I was assigned to kill this snake by the name of Jevyron who hooked up with the girl of my client, an ex-convict by the name of Dwayne.
If chasing car and shooting your prey while driving was a pain, try riding a bike and do so....
The worst part of all I had to drive all the way across town to get to the location before failing time and again which really put me into a pique.
Ended last evening failing to complete the task though my nature would be relentless to complete it...Perhaps on a better day...

The consequence of playing the game perhaps will be getting much grouching and the "F" word become part of your vocabulary and ultimately you will consider carjacking and drive without obeying traffic rules as car accidents are part and parcel of your game...Scary isn't it if carbon copy that into real life...

Japanese word of the day: 罪 ~tsu-mi~ (Crime) In Liberty City, crime does pay... Just shake off your Wanted Level