Seasons Greetings

What I've been up to-


Me and Jaina


Me and Tyrande (Priestess of the Moon)


Me and Santa


Me and Tocc (Friend who became a snowman)


Yay

Merry Christmas all.

Ed/Turkey Day

Like most of the other good stuff, they're all set to can this one.

Between watching the series, Ed, on tv and anticipating to play WoW, I'd say life is pretty alright.

Ed- mainly because it has some of that Northern Exposure feel to it and it features a bowling alley...

Also, it's Thanksgivings. And Christmas is a month away. Not that the day will be any different for me, just nice to see most everyone in a festive mood and feeling generally happy about it.

Christmas reminds me of this...



And this...



Just the fact that it always seemed to be snowing in Cicely. :/

I want to see Morty (or any moose) out in the wild, in a field of white snow. On Christmas day. And then I will die a peaceful man. lol

Feeling all nostalgic about NX/Morty the Moose/the emotional weather reports all of a sudden. Think about it, there's a fella named Ed in NX too. Hmm.

Roflcopter2

WoW open beta came to a close yesterday. I had several screenshots I wanted to show(including this really nice one of an Infernal lunging at my little gnome), but I needed some hdd space so I uninstalled WoW, foolishly, along with the screenshots. :P Well, too bad I guess. Final moments before the servers came down, the GMs (gamemasters) spawned several huge mobs that rampaged the city of Stormwind and other major cities, killing many folks and turning several others into chickens. One of these mobs was a Dreadlord and his fucking cool, massive Infernal.

Let's just say, the beta experience was good. I haven't played Everquest 2 so I can't compare the two. But I think I will enjoy WoW for 3 months at least, given the fact that I haven't experienced the higher levels' content and it usually takes about 3 months to get to those content. I won't elaborate on what is good with the game since everyone already know most of it. Maybe I'll just summarize the goodness with one word- Quests. :) Also had a ball of a time being part of this raid with some 30 folks on the final day. Our alliance raid-group tried to invade the goblin town of Ratchet. Kinda brought back memories of ol' DAoC's RvR action. However, like the problem with DAoC, there's a visible lack of incentive to PvP and PvP content in general in WoW. (We won't see the much touted Honor system and Battlegrounds, both important PvP content, in the release) DAoC's RvR didn't really do it for me the last time either. I prefer small, concentrated skirmishes to messy large-scale battles so I hope WoW will provide venues for small skirmishes in future.

The first and only 'Instance' raid I joined a couple days ago was pretty fun too. It was known as the VanCleef raid. Had to pass thru meandering caves/mines/mini-bosses to finally arrive at a pirate ship. We weren't a full group (there were 4 of us- 2 warlocks, a lvl30 paladin and me, a rogue) but we eventually beat the instance. Took about 3 to 4 hours. It was pretty tough and intense, and we were in fact beaten on several occasions. But warlocks have the ability to create these Soulstones (which enable a person to self-resurrect) every 30mins. Our more experienced paladin was amply supplied with these and coupled with his personal ability to heal and resurrect, we managed to pull through.

Anyway, 5 days till release. Pretty much at a loss on how I should spend my evenings till then. Half-life 2, anyone? Hyak hyak.

---

A Different Opinion

Beta Writeup: World of Warcraft [2:Margalis]

This one offered a rather critical preview/write-up of WoW, from the pov of Margalis on Waterthread.

This is like the cumulation of all the main faults with WoW. I'll like to add another- that is the lack of PvP content. You know, like when you just started out in DAoC, you had a vague idea what RvR is about, but somehow you felt there's something missing from the whole idea (esp. after you'd gone on the first Keep Raid, like there's a lack of incentive to RvR in the whole thing... ), there is a similar 'something' missing from WoW's PvP. But nothing that a good PvP patch can't fix, except that they better not let us wait too long for the patch, like the trillion years it took for the Daoc Frontier patch to occur.

I didn't agree with everything in the writeup. If, after reading this, you still find the game to be sufficiently fun (like I do), then go ahead, buy and try out the game. /plug

WoWee zowee

Big games. Small games. They're all coming. To a store near you this holiday season.

Downloading WOW (World of Warcraft) Open Beta at the moment. 78%. Crawling. Grr.

Gonna play an Orc Combat Rogue or something maybe.

Feel the wrath yet? the Triple Backstab + Poison + Critical Pain? :) Haha.

Stay tuned for preview of the game soon.

All I want for X'mas

Are many many Compact Discs.

"COOOOKIES!! MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH!!" :O

PC Games:

• Everquest2
  
• World of Warcraft
  
• Vampires: Bloodline
  
• Half-life 2
  
• Sid Meiers' Pirates!

Music CDs:

• Pavement: Crooked Rain Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins
  
• Pavement: Slow Century DVD
  
• Brian Wilson: Smile
  
• Elliot Smith's final album: From a Basement on the Hill
  
• Guided by Voices: Half Smiles of the Decomposed
  
• Bjork: Medulla
  
• THE CLASH: London Calling 25th Anniv Edition
  
• Pinback: Summer in Abbaddon
  
• Pixies: Waves of Mutilation: The Best of the Pixies

And maybe an It's a Wonderful Life DVD to watch on that day. List goes on.

---

Cheer Chen's Travel Story

Cheer's homemade video

At the end of the vid., I was reminded of something a friend, Warren, exclaimed a long time ago, "It's all about the clouds. It's all about the clouds." :P

---

Random Quote of the Day:

"They'll yell something like, "commie," or "pacifist" but then flee when they find out you are neither, especially the latter."
- Jim Jones

WayAbvPar on Waterthread pointed this out in Jim Jones' article, Getting Testy in Florida. "A Marine Corps vet tells some tales of confrontation from the front lines of the get-out-the-vote effort (for Kerry) in Tampa, Florida."

Thought it's fairly funny. /shrug :)

Any Comments?

Btw, just installed this Haloscan commenting tool. Kinda fancied the crazy ads the comment tool randomly spurts out on Shey's site. So I thought I must have that. :) Took all of about a minute to install too. Check out this current ad:

Lesbian Misbehavin'
I'd SPANK George W -- if he was my type.

Froth Slosh B'Gosh
Somewhat liberal, Pittsburgh based blog

Haha.

Heaven

Disregard the corny title of this post. The message is pretty corny too.

Well, my sis is totally hooked on the Korean drama, Stairways to Heaven. She recently went on a trip to Korea with her friends- It was a rather 'unplanned' trip. It's like her friends and her, after they were done watching this and other Korean series, decided on-the-fly to apply for leave to go to Korea. Hope you get the level of their addiction now. After she came back, it's like Stairways to Heaven day-in and day-out on our TVs. Wherever she's around, Stairways to Heaven is playing close by. It's that eerie.

Anyway, Stairways to Heaven reminded me of the Bob Dylan song Knocking on Heaven's Door. That, in turn, reminded me of the long opening sequence for that other korean movie- Windstruck (the part where she leaped off the skyscraper). The Korean Invasion into our innocent lives, brought about by my sis, started all this. Next thing I know- I'm getting nightmares about being cast in a Korean drama or something. If you noticed, actors in Korean dramas all does a similar 'irked' reaction. They all do the same facial gesture when they're annoyed by stuff. It's like a part of their culture. I do that irked-face to my sis often these days. 'Spoken-Korean' gets on my nerves too. It's more fun listening to a buncha seals squealing in a zoo enclosure. But Jeon Ji-Hyun is korean.

Windstruck reminded me of Jeon Ji-Hyun (of My Sassy Girl fame) and how I disliked the male actor in the movie. Mere jealousy, maybe. The movie wasn't that great too. But everything else in the world stood pitifully inadequate in the face of Jeon Ji-Hyun. Jeon Ji-Hyun, in photo-stills or 2-dimensional, is just an ok, very pretty Korean girl. Catch Jeon Ji-Hyun on the move and it's quite something else. How do you define beauty of the tallest order? How do you define beauty etched in a dimension outside time and space? How do you define beauty that escapes trappings of it's own definition, that isn't beauty anymore? How do you define words like eternity or immortality? Ok, I'm choking. *Cough*

(Corn. Flakes. A pic is supposed to go in here. But I couldn't find a photo of her that she wasn't in a pose of any sort.)

Now, here's someone who can maybe do it without choking himself. Milan Kundera explained in the opening paragraph of his book, Immortality-

. . . She walked around the pool toward the exit. She passed the lifeguard, and after she had gone some three or four steps beyond him, she turned her head, smiled, and waved to him. At that instant I felt a pang in my heart! That smile and that gesture belonged to a twenty-year-old girl! Her arm rose with bewitching ease. It was as if she were playfully tossing a brightly colored ball to her lover. That smile and that gesture had charm and elegance, while the face and the body no longer had any charm. It was the charm of a gesture drowning in the charmlessness of the body. But the woman, though she must of course have realized that she was no longer beautiful, forgot that for the moment. There is a certain part of all of us that lives outside of time. Perhaps we become aware of our age only at exceptional moments and most of the time we are ageless. In any case, the instant she turned, smiled, and waved to the young lifeguard (who couldn't control himself and burst out laughing), she was unaware of her age. The essence of her charm, independent of time, revealed itself for a second in that gesture and dazzled me. I was strangely moved. And then the word Agnes entered my mind. Agnes. I had never known a woman by that name.
- Milan Kundera, Immortality.

Off to play some Warcraft Dota now.

Type Slowly

Type Slowly
Pavement

Sherri, you smell different
Get up early in the bed -- for you morning comes so easy
Spells have been cast and the urge has been lost
Snipers posted bills -- as they should -- of our midnight vacation
Back on the planet now -- i'm beginning to see just how
Echelon your dreams and they'll come true
Type slowly

One of us is a cigar stand --
And one of us is a lovely blue incandescent guillotine
The edge of creation is blurred and blushed
Not a lot of room to grow inside this leather terrarium
People of the bay -- it is excruciatingly gray
Face the front when he comes for you
Type slowly

Cherish your memorized weakness
Fashioned from a manifesto -- lady, i am no futurist
I'm my only critic, i

Trolls in the glen are consorting again
The liberals say they don't exist but i know that they do
Reinforce your literal ass -- hit it on the first or second pass
Frozen images, respected few
Type slowly

---

Catchy song by Pavement. As with all songs by Pavement- Not much of an idea what it is about- S.M. had problems with the typewriter or something. But everything rhymes and fit together nicely- excellent song.

Talked to a friend over coffee earlier about wanting to catch that Wong Kar Wai movie 2046. My friend promptly showed me a magazine with a review of 2046. The reviewer dubbed the movie a "pretentious bore" in the first line. What followed was a detailed explanation of that first statement. I guess everyone is entitled to their opinion. I haven't watched it so I may feel the same way about it. Not surprising though, because his films tend to split viewers into two distinct camps: 1) Smoke-rings Are Cool camp and 2) What is the Director Smoking? camp.

Led me to think about another minor detail though. Not since school-days had I been made to write in detail on a subject I utterly dislike. It is like asking me to write a detailed report on "Positive Thinking: The Secret to Success Is In You" or an effective manual on "Easy Dancing 101: Move Your Feet". The thought is vomit-inducing. It must've sucked for the reviewer.

How to make it easier to write about stuff we don't like? Think Happy-Thoughts (tm) while writing? Time to lay off the whatever. Perhaps the secret is in Typing Slowly: Heeerrreeee goooeeessss...

Coming Soon: My take on 2046. If that didn't happen, you know what it means. Haha :)

喜歡陳綺貞

記不起自己為什麼會喜歡陳綺貞的音樂了。。。 就是喜歡她。

Picture a small petite girl, lugs a big guitar, and sings about A Coat in her wardrobe and her favourite Guitarist.


(Taken from cheercover.com)

That's Cheer Chen Qi Zhen. She has a soothing, saccharine voice. Often listened to her stuff when I was down. Most of her songs made me feel even more depressed afterwards. So I wasn't exactly sure what made me want to listen to them time and again. But when the CD got to more up-beat numbers like "Guitarist", I'd feel slightly better. When it reached a slow number again, I'd go back to feeling sad. Just before it hit the last number/note, I'd most likely have fallen into a pleasant slumber. Left all troubles for the next day. Her music feels like comforting words of a close friend. I would play her CDs on a hot and stuffy day too. They have that cooling effect. :O


(Taken from Cheer's published book (LOMO camera shot))

Hope to get to watch her perform live soon.

Links:
Official site

Cheer Chen and friends

School's out for the bloody summer

Quipped Spike, just before he died.

Hmm. Getting late and I should be in bed but I couldn't sleep. Played some System Shock 2 (again) which I downloaded earlier. Thank god for The Underdogs and Looking Glass for the classic game. And only just watched the final episodes of Buffy Vampire Slayer before that on starworld. Ended with a bang and all- reduced the whole Sunnydale into a mere crater. Still, 'bits' were missing here and there, not exactly The Greatest Finale (I still remember that final episode of M*A*S*H to this day), but good enough for me. Props to Joss Whedon. I've missed tonnes of episodes and even entire seasons, but for those parts I've watched/followed- they were good, never failed to make me snicker just a little. I enjoyed the Firefly series by Whedon too, but that too, ended too soon.

"You know Buffy. Sweet girl. Not that bright."
- Willow

I am Destruction

Terrifically bored and yeah, I am Destruction. Somehow, I've always known that. :O



Destruction, the sixth of The Endless, you are a rebel. You abandoned your realm, refusing to be held responsible for all the disasters in the world. You roam forever, trying to escape what you are. Always on the run, and never facing the truth, you live in denial. It's not your responsibility, it's not your fault, and it's not your problem, even when it is.


Which Endless are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Legend of Condor Heroes

I had taped and tried to follow this Legend of Condor Heroes (She-Diao-Ying-Xiong-Zhuan) series on tv (scv channel55) since a couple weeks ago. It is, IMO, an excellent rendition of the first of the popular trilogy novels by Jin Yong (Louis Cha). Still, the series may not suit everyone's taste because it is done by CCTV, a mainland's (China's) production- the styles employed were largely different from that of the Hong Kong tv series we had become so used to.



Mainly, this series had an intimate and realistic portrayal of the characters Guo Jing (Li Yapeng) and Huang Rong (Zhou Xun). There were also good performances by the supporting actors, for example Sun Haiying who portrayed Hong Qigong. Both leads had great chemistry. Li Yapeng made a believable Guo Jing. Zhou Xun especially brought to life the character of Huang Rong- being both adorable and intelligent at the same time. Large credit had to be given to the director Ju Jue Liang as well. The series told Jin Yong's story well. Guo Jing and Huang Rong's adventures. A glimpse of the great mongolian ruler Genghis Khan. Questioned the ideals that constitute Heroism. /plug

Did I say Zhou Xun was adorable?



In effect, it made me want to read the novels again.

The surname is Sim

Sims 2

"Fuck this, Dude. Let's go bowling."
- (the great) Walter Sobchak

Been playing a whole lot of Sims 2 lately. Say hello to The Dude. ("that or uh, His Dudeness, or uh Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing") He's quite a lazy slob, shy and playful, but easily the coolest and nicest fella in the neighbourhood, umm in Pleasantville. The Dude had held several slacker jobs from a golf caddy to general store's clerk, radio DJ and projectionist. He is currently a video editor and works 4-days-week. Recently gained a windfall for suggesting to a group of producers to add some Raging Rabbits into a film, which made it a hit. One of the producers transferred his estate of $80k to The Dude. The Dude currently has no idea what to do with all that money. His best friend, Walter, may have some suggestions.


Here, the Duder's trying to paint a portrait of a lady. Had one of those inspired moments, I guess.


The Dude chilling out on the front porch of The Dude's Palace.


Just another day for the Dude. Ever popular with the ladies.


Dude taking a snooze on the couch.

Samurai X

Just watched two excellent episodes of the anime, Samurai X. They were the episodes featuring a confrontation between Kenshee and Saito, and where Suijiro (the boy villian) made his first appearance. So what makes Samurai X so great an anime? It is everything- a brilliant narrative, the composition of shots, excellent haunting background music, and even the opening themes by the jap band, Judy and Mary. We followed faithfully- Kenshee's struggle to leave behind his past, to redeem himself from this past, his stand against the authority and ultimately, his search for his true self. Although Samurai X boasts plenty of sword fights and violence, it does not glorify violence. Kenshee fights because he has to. As his friend, Sanosuke, firmly puts it, "He (Kenshee) will not kill for any authority." Also in this episode, Kenshee pondered while he stood on a bridge over a river, whether he should become involved in an uprising, where he will have his hands stained with blood again. A narrative (of his thoughts) ran in the background, "In order to understand my true self, I will have to recognize the presence of my Battousai's (Slasher/violent) past and give it a chance." This seemed like the echo of the voices of many Japanese. In order to move on, there has to be recognization of this past and a reconciliation of the past and the present. These enduring characters and everything else fit together nicely to make Samurai X one of the better animes around. /plug

The Office

BBC Comedy, The Office. Watched some random episodes previously. Now I'm thinking of getting the dvd. Pretty awesome and hilarious ('ruthless' is the word). Tremendous acting. Enduring characters. Never seen anything like this- Actors were conscious of the presence of the camera and looking into the camera. Similar to the 'Dogme' style, instigated by such filmmakers as Lars von Trier, there's natural lighting/environment and a docu feel to it. Yeah, catch it on dvd if you can.

A review.

This behaviour is by design

Shibasaki's Eyes

Watched this jap movie on tv earlier- Go (2001). Directed by Isao Yugisada. Main protaganist was this 'zainichi' (a jap-born korean), Sugihama. The story revolved mildly round the jap-korean tensions. A pretty spunky film. Starred Kou Shibasaki too. Most will remember her role as Mitsuko in Battle Royale. Her real name is Yukie Yamamura. (Shibasaki Kou's the name of a main character in her favourite manga) Check out those piercing, mesmerizing, yet somewhat melancholic eyes.



Other movies watched over the past weeks include:

• Hana And Alice (Directed by Shunji Iwai)- It was shown for awhile at Orchard Cineleisure. Most charming and vibrant. At once dreamy (through use of soft-focus), humorous and thoughtful. The final ballet sequence showed us a large part of what Alice was really about, more than any words could express. It lent a fine closure to the film. Here's also the part where Ryoko Hirosue (Guan-Mo-Liang-Zi) came in for a cameo performance. Honestly, the youthful theme almost made me feel old after watching the show. Heh. Hmm... duct-tapes and paper-cups make ballet shoes. We most definitely cannot live without the infallible Duct-Tapes.
  
  
• Man On Fire (Directed by Tony Scott)- Despite the silly title, the actors put on a pretty good performance. Tad 'mtv-ish' for my taste. Many unnecessary gimmicks such as freeze frames, colour/hue saturation, quick cuts and flashy subtitles. Perhaps due to the overall actors' performance, you will still care for the characters in the story. I didn't think Denzel Washington was that great in this film. Watch out for Dakota Fanning (the little girl of "Taken" fame). She's a natural, so mature for her age. Also, you cannot miss out on the mostly cheesy but at times, pretty great one-liners like this one:
  
  Old Man: God said you must forgive.
  
  Creasy (Denzel Washington): Forgiveness is between them and God. It is my job to arrange the meeting.

Loktar Ogar! (An Orc's Battlecry)


Orc Blademaster
[click to enlarge]
(Art by the absolute legend, the late Michel Koiter, Blizzard Entertainment.)

Played a buncha Warcraft3 too these days. Kinda hooked on the game again. I play the Orc race exclusively and hate human opponents in particular. (Hrmm... I should clarify: I hate meeting opponents that play the Human race) The game is one of the reasons I had not blogged the last couple weeks. Mainly, when I had time to activate my comp, the first thing I would do is jump right into Warcraft.

Like my obsession with films, books and music, I am pretty addicted to gaming, especially mmorpgs and strategy games. Imagine sitting in a large, dark theatre with few people around you to watch a good film- this feeling is consistent with that which I got from experiences in my other interests such as reading and gaming. Sometimes, there can be found in movies, games or books- familiar themes that I like too, such as the fantastical or science-fiction.

It is most definitely a form of Escape. For those who enjoy anything to do with Faerie or fantasy novels, you may want to read this article JRRT wrote "On Fairy Stories". The essay contains a paragraph whereby Tolkien tried to defend fairy stories against critics who tend to 'label' them, negatively, as 'escapist literature':

I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which “Escape” is now so often used: a tone for which the uses of the word outside literary criticism give no warrant at all. In what the misusers are fond of calling Real Life, Escape is evidently as a rule very practical, and may even be heroic. In real life it is difficult to blame it, unless it fails; in criticism it would seem to be the worse the better it succeeds. Evidently we are faced by a misuse of words, and also by a confusion of thought. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it. In using escape in this way the critics have chosen the wrong word, and, what is more, they are confusing, not always by sincere error, the Escape of the Prisoner with the Flight of the Deserter. Just so a Party-spokesman might have labelled departure from the misery of the Führer's or any other Reich and even criticism of it as treachery. In the same way these critics, to make confusion worse, and so to bring into contempt their opponents, stick their label of scorn not only on to Desertion, but on to real Escape, and what are often its companions, Disgust, Anger, Condemnation, and Revolt. Not only do they confound the escape of the prisoner with the flight of the deserter; but they would seem to prefer the acquiescence of the “quisling” to the resistance of the patriot. To such thinking you have only to say “the land you loved is doomed” to excuse any treachery, indeed to glorify it.
- JRRT "On Fairy Stories"

In essence, critics often confused the "Escape of the Prisoner with the Flight of a Deserter". It should not be deemed as a soldier who cowardly deserted the battlefield/engagement of Real Life. Instead, it should be thought of as a war-prisoner, lying in the clutches of the Third Reich, who dreamt of escape from his cell, but always with full awareness of the existence of an outside world (Real Life), when he looked through the bars of the window in his cell.

The 'alternate worlds' that exist in books and games (esp. in D&D, traditional rpgs, sci-fis and mmorpgs) can be wonderful places. I am unable to accurately express with words how stepping on the planet Terminus feels like, that which I felt when I read Asimov's Foundation series. As helpless I am in describing the feelings associated with sitting alone in the desert, watching a sunset (of the twin suns) on Tatooine, in the universe of the mmorpg Star Wars Galaxies; or the same indescribable feelings while listening to the Instrument cd by Fugazi or watching Wim Wender's early film Alice in the Cities for the first time.

Here is something that tries to depict the grandeur and epic beauty of the world of Norrath in the game, Everquest. I had only stayed briefly on Norrath. It would not mean anything to most of us but I am sure it provided memories for these Japanese players and others who had stayed at Norrath for 5 years:



Serving as good distraction, I had watched a replay of a previous WC3 game of mine while writing this. Similar to trying to talk about a film/book you like, you can't easily define the thrill in playing RTS games such as Starcraft or WC3. To end this, I thought it would be kinda stupid and fun to write down every 'shit' that went on in my head while playing the game. Mainly there's so much shit going on, it takes your mind off everything else for those brief 20 or so minutes in a game. Good workout/relaxation, I must say. This should appear to be 'gibberish' to everyone but Warcraft players. LOL Here goes:

Game commences.Human opponent.Lost Temple map.Hate Humans Grrrr.Humans on LT map ARGGH!Game plan=Constant Harassment, Zero Creeping.Finger on 'P' key ready to spawn lovely cute Peons.Start Building Order:5 Peons to gold.Queue 3 Peons in Townhall.Get 1 Peon away from gold,Build Altar(hotkeys:B,A),Rally to trees.Spam E on Gold Peons.Drag another Peon from gold, Build Burrow(B,O),Rally to trees.Rally TownHall Peon to area for building Barracks.Type,"hi gl(good luck) hf(have fun)".Opponent responded,"gl hf u2".He responded fast,so should be decent player.:)Check buildings arrangement.Peon out from Townhall,Build Barracks(B,B),Rally to trees.Keep spamming E!Type,"where r u from?".No response.Possibly korean hehe.:)ohoh.Rally next 3 Townhall Peon to trees.Group my buildings(CTRL 4,5 etc).Group some Burrow-Peons.First Altar and Burrow ready,Queue Farseer(F).Send a Peon to scout.40wood reached,Build next burrow,Rally to trees.Check scout Peon. Barracks ready,Queue Grunt(G).Check scout Peon.130gold 30wood,Build Voodoo Lounge(B, V).Farseer(FS) out,rally buildings to Farseer.Choose Spirit Wolves spell(O, T).Move FS near green creeps outside temple.Check scout Peon.Scout Peon found Humans on opposite end of the map urrgghh.Bring Peon back to chop trees.Second Burrow ready,Queue 2nd Grunt.Creep the small stuff.First Night.Harass or further creep?Head on to Human base to harass.315gold 190wood,Upgrade Townhall(U).Keep queueing Grunts.3rd grunt out.Make 3rd burrow.Near Human base,check Human fast-expansion (expo).Humans not fast-expoing.At Human main base, look for wood Peasants.Check Human buildings.Human buildings arrangement tight.Hit Wolves to get wood peasants.FS avoid arcane tower.ARGGH Archmage at my base blizzarding Gold Peons.Hide Peons in Burrows.Queue Grunt.Send subsequent Grunts out after him.5footies getting FS, FS Run!Damn senile old fool (Archmage) back again at my base.Burrow-Peons into nearest Burrow.Mage gone.Remove peons from burrows.Repair burrow.Move Gold Peons to wood,5 Wood Full-health Peons to gold.Why are Peons so stupid?They wouldn't think anything is wrong if the sky came crashing on em.Build 4th burrow.Queue Grunt.Back to FS.Hit (Spiri)T(Wolves) to harass wood peasant.Footies sent after FS again, Run!Focus fire footie.Old Fool is Back zzzZZZ.He thinks he's Gandalf or something?Burrow-Peons into nearest Burrow.Peons back to work (D).Build War Mill(Catapults may be needed to counter Human Casters)(B,M).2 Gold Peons gone.Queue 2 Peons at Townhall.1 Peon to Repair Burrow.Got 1 footie.Footies retreat.Get Wood Peasants.Queue Grunt.Here comes footies and militias, Retreat.Try creep in temple.Didn't work coz Senile old Fool back to harass my base.Move FS to base.Townhall upgraded to Stronghold.Queue Tauren Chieftain(T).Research Berserk(B).Build Beastiary(B,E).(Archmage not getting Water Elemental-No shamans needed to purge-Spirit Lodge unnecessary-Therefore Beastiary!-Brilliant Analysis!).Haha This is so stupid.Buy Healing Salve,Speed Scroll,Clarity (H,S,C).Hit Clarity Pot on FS (low mana).Creep Expo.Attempt to expand.Send 1 wood Peon to build Townhall at expo.Stupid me had written about half a page of this crap.Timecheck:Only 5mins into the game.:ODone little to disrupt Opponent's resources.Expect Mountain King(MK),Riflemen,Priests,Sorcs next...All is not good... ... ... :O


Hrmm, yeah. R.I.P. Johnny Ramone.

The Street Window

The Street Window
by Franz Kafka
(translated from german by Willa and Edwin Muir)

Whoever leads a solitary life and yet now and then wants to attach himself somehere, whoever, according to changes in the time of day, the weather, the state of business and the like, suddenly wishes to see any arm at all to which he might cling--he will not be able to manage for long without a window looking on to the street. And if he is in the mood of not desiring anything and only goes to his window sill a tired man, with eyes turning from his public to heaven and back again, not wanting to look out and having thrown his head up a little, even then the horses below will draw him down into their train of wagons and tumult, and so at last into the human harmony.

---

Many a time in my life, my thoughts had wandered and taken me back to this little passage by Kafka. Just sharing some current thoughts. Not feeling too great I guess.

Read about how Max Brod (Kafka's lifelong friend) betrayed Kafka's wish to destroy his unprinted manuscripts after his death. He edited and published the materials instead. Brod had admired Kafka's work and wanted to make them known to others, but in doing so, defied Kafka's death-wish. That also became one of the main themes in Milan Kundera's book- Testaments Betrayed.

It is often the best-intentioned and most-passionate proponent that betrays. It is ironic but when we hold certain ideals/things/persons too dearly, we tend to unknowingly (or knowingly) gradually incapacitate the very-qualities we valued and loved in them. Mainly, it is not easy to discern between good and harm when you become too passionate with something. The infatuation process usually involves a slow, controlled suffocation of the subject. Shrug. Now, I will almost feel guilty whenever I commit or throw myself to doing anything too passionately. Haha. Anyway, something to think about.

Will be back to blog some, in the evening, perhaps.

A secret vice

"...they all feed the great hype beasts."
-Haemish from Waterthread.org

Blame it on short attention span. I was alternating between reading an article (The Aberrant Blue Sky) on Waterthread.org and typing this. An interesting article at that. Mainly, it talked about journalism (specifically, gaming journalism), the fact that true objectivity in these types of journalism is impossible and the 'values' of having rant sites.

I will like to take this opportunity to assure patrons visiting here that this blog is also nothing more than a rant site. We feed the hype beasts here on a regular basis and sometimes even after midnight. Every "news I bring to you here is filtered through my cracked lenses and the only constant is my love of well-done games" and other interests that include films and music. Then perhaps, there is also the disconcerting obsession with my own thoughts and speaking these thoughts.

Yet another worrying indulgence may be my passion for the trivia- the footnotes in fine print, appendixes, backstories and general business that no one really cared about. I am quite a nosy individual, though I generally stay away from big current news. Choosing to take interest in little unknown information or the most obvious facts. A most obvious hazard caused by this habit is that I am very easily distracted. I should think that if I were to drive a car, my passengers would quiver in fear when it hit them that I could not focus on the road ahead of me for a solid 3 minutes. Some friends commented that I had frequently snapped into a dazed, day-dreaming state wherever I go.

While waiting to catch the Olympics basketball or badminton matches on tv earlier, I stumbled on the gymnastics finals. The commentator told little facts about this russian female gymnast, Yelena Zamolodchikova while she was on the floor exercise apparatus. Apparently, she is a pretty superstitious person who carries a luck charm in the form of a Winnie the Pooh toy wherever she goes. Her father had been involved in the Chernobyl clean-up and had passed away because of cancer.

What can you make of that little trivia? I figured each of these athletes has a similar interesting backstory, each of them a legend in their own country. Some trivias open up new perspectives on things. Those without intrinsic values can be cool too. I had come to know another interesting aspect about trivias- For obvious reasons or not, it may be that some trivial information were not meant to be looked too deeply into, or dissected and analysed.

I found, from some notes, this thing Ben Okri wrote in one of his books. (I had not kept a reference of which book it was from)

"If you look too deeply, everything breaks your heart."
-Ben Okri

I am reminded of this story about a tadpole too. A tadpole once lived in a small pond where he longed to be an adult frog so he could see the better part of the world. Emerging from the pond, the tadpole-turned-teenage-frog hopped happily away from the confines of the pond. A fascinating world awaited him, that is until he came upon a road and got promptly squashed by a 3-tonne truck.

Ok, I made up that story. I will end this with something else I found in the notes.

This is Just to Say (1934)
by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

Banana Mania

The word is out. I am sure you have all heard about him. Spawned from the raging inferno (or 'wet queues') that is the infamous singing contest show- Singapore Idol, he is Singapore's very own superhero- Banana Man aka Melon Man aka Saikomelon. I mentioned "Singapore" because I found out there was an Original Banana Man. Still, this Melon Dude is the coolest thing to hit local tv since... I can't think of anything better on local tv. There is not a cooler banana since Banana Yoshimoto or Bananas in Pyjamas. He is greater than the William Hungs or Clay Aikens.

A Flash (done by NCH/ref from sganime.com forum) had been made for him. Here's an alternative site to download the flash.

I also found the Original Banana Phone Song by Raffi (a Canadian entertainer). Do check it out. Pretty good song actually.

Finally, an Exclusive- From the words of the man himself. (He revealed that he did not meet the judges at all and that he is supposed to be a watermelon)

"Thank you all for the support everyone. I'm really honored.

CloudStrife, the mask was homemade by my mother. Cannot buy outside one.

wira, it's true, I never did see the judges. The judges were probably shown my audition clip, and their reactions recorded. Then they just blended it with my audition video. >_< If you look carefully, you notice you'll NEVER see me and the judges in the same 1 shot."
-Banana Man (Saikomelon) on gamersquare.com forum

[Random Fact: I'm supposed to be a watermelon. But I guess everyone thinks I'm a BananaMan instead probably because my banana hairdo stands out more, along with my bananaphone song. Oh whatever. Cheers! :P]
-Banana Man's Friendster's description

The Controversy- Here is an observation by Agagooga from Balderdash blog-

This Gamersquare post reveals that the judges only judged contestants who'd made it through a first round of screening by "MediaCorp TV Channel 5 executives and music professionals". Which begs the question of how *some* people got through. Maybe they were so bad that the executives and music professionals let them through just so the real judges could skewer them for entertainment."
-Agagooga (Balderdash blog)

That is pretty sick if you think about it.

Also, I have seen pictures revealing the true identity of Banana Man posted on the internet. I appeal to these folks and everyone else to keep our superhero's identity a secret.

Now I thought, how cool it will be if the entire audience wear Banana Masks to the grand final of Singapore Idol. The day of reckoning and you get an audience-full of Banana Men. How cool will that be? Maybe the judges can don Banana Suits on that day too.

So, if you ever need a hero, you know who to call. And what phone to use. Riiiinng Riiiinng Riiiinng... Banana Phone!

To Priscilla Tolkien

[354] To Priscilla Tolkien
(Written from the house of Dr. Denis Tolhurst, four days before Tolkien died at the age of eighty-one)

Wed Aug 29th 1973 at 22, Little Forest Rd, Bournemouth

... My dearest love to you,
      Daddy.

It is stuffy, sticky and rainy here at present- but forecasts are more favourable.

-From Letters of JRRT, Chris Tolkien (Editor), Humphrey Carpenter

---

Stuffy. Dreadful night.
You have avoided a life of dread.
Truly, you deserved better.
Why do I always feel I will bring doom to the next person I resolved to be close with?
I deserve no one.
Maybe two Cheer Chen's cds.
Forecasts will be more favourable?

One hell of a country

So said Leslie Low of defunct local band, Humpback Oak, in their album SideASideB. You can take it both ways, I guess.

The family watched the Parade on tv earlier. A rehash of more or less the same stuff every year. You could, if you wished, try to squint a lil to look past the boring displays, to find those minute details that evoked a sense of "Hey, like it or not, we are in the same boat/shit together." (Or some would refer to as national identity or the stronger word- patriotism.)

More than anything, National Day brought home the fact that we live on a tiny island. We watched the A4's and F16's did their fly-bys past the stadium on tv, the sound from the tv superimposed with the actual booms and roars of these planes as they flew by above our apartment. The fireworks and cannon-salutes sounded as though they were fired not so far away from our backyard. After so many NDPs, mum and sis were still tempted to run to the kitchen to try to catch a glimpse of fighter-jets, fireworks and whatnot. For a moment, the sudden amplification of sound seemed to transport them to a different time and space. I had to break the reality to them that we live on the second storey- That they would merely stare into concrete or the neighbouring Apartment-Block-50 if they ran to the kitchen's window.

I thought to myself- Given that I was born in a different time and space, and had the option to choose my place of residence, I would likely decide to settle on a tiny island, close to the sea, off some peninsula again, as opposed to some smacked-centre region on a huge land mass or continent.


House of Flying Daggers

Watched House of Flying Daggers earlier too. I had not disliked any Zhang Yimou's films. I pretty much enjoyed this one as well. But it somewhat pales in comparison to the best films he made. My favourite films done by him are To Live and Not One Less.

The chase scenes in the woods were reminiscent of Kurosawa's blazing, breath-taking tracking shots. The colours (harsh snow-white against shades of green) used were luscious as they had been in the last movie, Hero. The plot-twist at the end landed a rather thought-provoking and cool closure for the film. Relationships between the main characters did not seemed to have been established very well though. Parts of the film and some of Andy Lau's lines made it seemed like a rerun of Infernal Affairs. Where I watched the show, I was not sure why but part of the audience would laugh at the mere sight of Andy Lau. The fight-scene in the bamboo-forest harked back to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as well. I was sure most audience (including myself) could not help but felt the correlation with these other films because it was inevitable we would carry with us previous movie experiences to this one or any other.

It has to be said that Zhang Yimou is a die-hard romantic. The kind that suscribes to the old-school (shakespearean) adage that reads:

The greatest romance is the death of a romance.

Expect one or more parties involved in a love-affair in his films to die or part ways.

Final thoughts. My opinion is that HoFD is a simple, romantic and thoughtful film. If anything, the crucial ending made it more meaningful. A contemplation on a classic love triangle- told the relationship of 3 individuals tied in a fragile deadlock, whereby they each loved and valued one another. Main fault found with the film is that in place of the lengthy action/dance sequence, more could have been done to establish the relationship of the 3 protaganists.

Without a doubt though, Zhang Yimou is one of the greatest directors around.

The Gateway to Hell is Open

For anyone not in the know: I am a gaming-freak and today is Doom3 Day. That's quite an evil combination. Muahahaha. Amazing how a person at my age still giggles (like a little girl) in anticipation of the postman, with the game-box, to arrive at my door. After that, I can only pray that my 5 yrs old comp will be able to run the game at all. Feels like those Wing-Commander Days all over again.


(Taken by Hardwarezone.com forumer Pinta)

Bloghead

I am hooked on reading blogs done by folks I don't know. Here's a couple I'll like to show you. With folks like these bloggers and The Dude around, it (in a small way) reinforces the fact that the world is good. hurhur.

Whetstone

Spatula Forum

BoingBoing

THE HULK blogs too.

On another note, I finally figured out why I loved the defunct band Pavement.

Of Moulds and Men

Last night, mum shifted the tv with the cabinet into her room. I never watched any tv in my room so the box had stood there, served nothing more than an unsightly prop, since ages unknown. The space left behind by the cabinet exposed a huge dusty bag of tapes. Old video tapes, that is. (To my friends:) They are Not porn tapes. Unlike porn, these stuff are a little harder to find. They are my collection of cheap, dubbed tapes of classic films, quite a few of them foreign stuff. My preciousssss nonetheless and they are moulding.

I may have to admit to some sort of cheap criminal misdemeanor here. Several years ago, a friend and I would go to this video-rental shop, DnO, at Tanglin Shopping Center on a weekly basis to rent movies to watch. We usually saved up enough cash and tried to rent about 4 per week. Back then, this was the only place you could find to rent good ol' movies and stuff. LDs were just starting to get popular and VCDs were unheard of. Tapes were the common deal. I still vaguely remember the owner of DnO- Mr Odell. He passed away in recent years and his death was briefly mentioned in an article by Ong Sor Chin in the papers. He would often look somewhat stern or serious. But you would think he was pretty cool after you got to know him. Spoke good cantonese too. Usually, we wanted to watch the tapes more than once so we got into the habit of dubbing most of the tapes we rented. I know, it sounds pretty 'cheap'. Eventually, we had about 100 of these tapes. They ran from classic Westerns, black and whites to French fare and asian Jap, Taiwanese, even Indian movies.

Now, the stuff I have are moulding. I have no idea what to do with them. I wonder how my friend's tapes are doing. The fungi is eating away at the tapes as we speak. That had me thinking about moulds, fungi, maggots, bacterias and similar entities. I thought 'fungi-and-friends' are not such a bad thing after all. These creatures are nature's way of telling you to, "Pack up, shift out. Time to move on.". These guys clean up after you are done with your dirty business of living. They are like hotel room-attendants clearing your room, after you checked out, to get ready for the next guests. They do not really care who you are or what business you had. Nice attitude, come to think of it. Not trying to instigate some elitist Zen-like ideals about the impermanence of things here but it is nice to be able to just 'move on' from everything else (such as when you are sick of a place). Well, I decided to dump the tapes of course.

Just realised, this incidently had been another topic mildly to do with Death or departure of some sort. Perhaps, I should put up some sunny, fun-shine shit in the future. Ha Ha.

Chicken blows

Listened to a load of GBV albums the last couple days. Just realised I had subconsciously hummed the tune of Chicken Blows (a GBV song) while I was bathing earlier. The tune still swirls in my head now. The song contains some crazy ass lyrics, complete with heavy-snoring sound effects. Like most GBV songs, it is fairly catchy. Used to be helluv fun to listen to this crap on an empty bus when travelling home from school/work. Can't go back to the old days anymore, especially after The Invasion. And I have wondered who came up with the brilliant idea of 'force-feeding' innocent commuters on a bus with TV programmes+screeching static they may or may not want to view/listen. The least they could do is make a section of the bus TV-free or something. Here's to TV-free zone on buses!

Personality Tests are a big thing these days. I came across at least 2 such tests today: "How much of a devil are you?" and "The Sexy Test". So I decided to devise a sexy test of my own. Don't worry, you don't have to answer 200 questions for this one.

Basically you have only to answer one question... 
for The "Who gets a cookie from Fraggle?" Personality Test!


The Dude and The Stranger (The Big Lebowski)

Question: What do you think of the film "The Big Lebowski" (by the Coen Brothers)?

1. I have seen it. I enjoy it.


2. I have seen it. It sucks.


3. I have seen it. I love it- yeah, The Big LempBiskit.


4. I have not seen it. But it sounds interesting enough.


5. I have not seen it. But I still think it sucks.

Now for the results... (drumroll)
Everyone with answers (1) and (4) gets A Cookie from Fraggle!

Now this story I'm about to unfold took place back in the early nineties-- just about the time of our conflict with Sad'm and the Eye-rackies. I only mention it 'cause some-times there's a man--I won't say a hee-ro, 'cause what's a hee-ro?--but sometimes there's a man... And I'm talkin' about the Dude here-- sometimes there's a man who, well, he's the man for his time'n place, he fits right in there--and that's the Dude, in Los Angeles.
-The Stranger (The Big Lebowski)

Sometimes (like once in a lifetime), there comes a film... that totally blows you away. And I'm talkin' about The Big Lebowski here-- it is a movie that you can use as a yardstick to gauge how well you 'connect' with another person. This is one such film. It sounds crazy to use a film to try to know the personality of a person but it is not. Take it from The Dude. :o)

Gotta run, for now.

The day the Voices died

Guided By Voices

The Day The Voices Died. Yet again, I was late to find out about this one. The indies band, Guided By Voices, is moving on to greener pastures. Their final album, Half Smiles of the Decomposed, will be released on Aug 24.
 
There are certain constants in the life of a kid who grew up listening to the indies. One of those was the knowledge that bands such as Sonic Youth and Guided By Voices (led by veteran rockers Kim Gordon and Robert Pollard) were always around to mete out indies-rock justice somewhere, be it in a studio, garage or on-stage. This is music I grew up with. I discovered GBV back in 1991, when I read about the album Bee Thousand in a local magazine Big O.

You are not supposed to try to interpret the lyrics in a GBV song.  At times though, parts of the lyrics 'pop out' to shed light and convey relevant emotions on a particular subject you are dealing with. On this occasion, it was some spoken words in the final track of Alien Lanes, that I had been listening to while writing this.
 

Alright (R. Pollard)

Alright
Alright
Alright
Alright
for our lives to be once again
like it once was
in the ice age, in a kingdom long ago;
without songs, without hope, without meaning,
and therefore
always having the same effect
without ever knowing why

It will be alright I guess. Here's A Salty Salute to Bob and gang.

MP3 of a new song- The Best of Jill Hives

Btw, David Bazan and Pedro The Lion just released a new album, Achilles Heel. You can listen to the whole album here.

Would you like a cup of tea?

"When the first living thing existed, I was there, waiting. When the last living thing dies, my job will be finished.
I'll put the chairs on the tables, turn out the lights and lock the universe behind me when I leave."
-Death

-Death of the Endless. Sandman series by Neil Gaiman,
Mike Drigenberg. copyright DC comics

FT's visit here prompted me to put up this cool pic I've stored in my hard-drive for centuries. I think I was influenced by some crazy friends. Like them, I often imagine folks around me to be certain characters from books or tv. That's how I remember them too. Brenda is Droopy Dog. Alien is an Alien. Georgene is Lane from Gilmore Girls. And FT happened to remind me of Death. *hurhur* Mainly I want to try putting up images here too. So, this is Death from the Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, one of my favourite comic series. She is cool. She carries an Ankh around her neck- the egyptian symbol for Life. Here's a brief Biography.

An Angel at my table

It was a Picture Night many years ago, that I chanced upon this gem of a film- "An Angel at my table", directed by Jane Campion. It told the story of another New Zealander, a writer named Janet Frame. Fascinated by the film, I was eager to find out more about its subject. I picked up a couple of books she wrote, Owls Do Cry and Faces in the Water. I soon found out she really had big fuzzy hair, as depicted in the film.

A search on Google returned several sites that described her as a 'reclusive writer'. I felt mildly amused reading these descriptions. Janet Frame's books are intensely personal and often, autobiographical. Though she seeked solitude, here is someone who shared with us her life experiences, who 'poured' her thoughts into accessible words, into books that we can readily pick up to read. Yet, she came across as being 'inaccessible' or 'withdrawn from society'.

Janet Frame passed away on 29 January 2004. Didn't get the news till about a couple months ago. I will remember her as the writer with big fuzzy hair.

It is easy to dismiss someone as 'insane', it is much harder to try to understand a person.
 
 

Number One

Sausage Day, Apple pie Day, Visiting Day, Operation Day.
Every Day.
And there was Picture Night.
-p.115, Pt.2, Chap VIII, Janet Frame- Faces In The Water

Always loved Picture Night.

The above is a random quote picked from a book I was reading. Owls Do Cry, the blog's title, is the title of another book the same author wrote.

Anyway, stay tuned.