"There are too many ideas and things and people. Too many directions to go. I was starting to think that the reason it matters to care so passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size." (The Movie - Adaptation)
This small, excellent japanese series "Searchin' for my Polestar" (Tentai Kanzoku or 天体観測)- follows a group of 7 friends, how life changed for each of them, 3 years after they graduated from the uni. It is showing again on Channel U on the weekends.
(from japan.videoland.com.tw)
Starring Koyuki (小雪)- most will remember her role with Tom Cruise in "The Last Samurai". Great actress- must say her performance and that other Japanese dude's stole the show from Tom Cruise in that movie.
When Kyoichi started the astronomy society in school- "An individual may not be able to find that certain star in the sky. But with a big group of us, it's easier to see that star."
"Each of us is a boat. That can only hold one person. When we see a person struggling in the waters, sometimes we can't do anything but helplessly watch him drown. But we are boats with the ability to sail major oceans. And when we group our tiny boats together, we can ride thru the most maniacal storms. Each of us is a boat. That can only hold one person..."
Been a while. And I bring to you an incredibly fun song by Stephen Malkmus, former frontman Pavement. "Baby C'mon" from recently released album "Face the Truth".
Do you know this movie- Serendipity (2001)? (Got the spelling right?) Starring John Cusack etc etc. Nothing amazing about it. In fact, I didn't like the cast or plot of the film. Parts of the film are funny but that's about it. It's along the line of movies such as Annie Hall, Sleepless In Seattle, When Harry Met Sally. What is strange is that I always happen to catch it when it's showing. Caught the movie when it was first shown in the cinemas here. A friend had spare tickets. Subsequently, I managed to watch the movie or parts of it on TV on various occasions/locations. So, this, now, is like the 5th or 6th time I've seen it. And the film is really about mad coincidences. I blame it on the repetitive program schedules of cable tv.
Anyway, I decided to note down some details of the film on this 6th outing.
Sightings in the movie-
A book titled Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Strictly for the hopelessly romantic. Either this book or some other won the author the Nobel Prize.
The star system Cassiopeia. Had to look up the spelling for this one. Yeah, I know how to spell it now.
I wanna talk about how infectious Cheer Chen's songs can be. Watched the mtv "Jiu3 Feng4 De4 Ka1 Fei1 Dian4" (Coffeeshop at Jiu3 Feng4). Can't get it outta my head.
Wanna visit Jiu3 Feng4 九份, Taiwan. But I don't know. Has 九份 changed?
I wanna call this friend who seemed to have disappeared.
Wanna mention the anime Full Metal Alchemist. The fundamental law of Alchemy, one of the ideologies the anime is based on- "You reap what you sow." You can only gain what you put in/gave up. Most things can be summed up with a constant. Life can be so simple. The equations we learnt in Chem class.
Wanna catch Hou Hsiao Hsien's films at the film fest. Talk about his early films. Film Fest's starting today.
Talked to a friend on internet yesterday on Warcraft3 strategies. Felt like I could go on talking for the entire day on this same topic. Kinda brought me back to old poly "Mud" days- where the buncha us geeks would hang out after school to mud till the comp lab closes, we'd then head down to the Mac at nearby King's Cross Ave? to discuss the adventures we had that day. Whereby the menu for the next day could be to slay so-and-so Dragon. Fun times.
I wanna know someone who has read Mallory's LeMorte D'Arthur. Read the funny version The Once and Future King by T.H. White. To tell me the details. It was, really, pretty sad at the end.
My hard-disk is dying. Making strange grinding noises. Recorded a single 4kb bad sector. GG. Thanks for the good times.
To talk about this french film I watched recently- Jeux d'enfants (2003 (Child's Game/Love me if you dare). I kinda enjoyed it. But yeah, looking at the reviews- you either like it or hate it. Great first-time effort by the director imo. Learnt that popular song in the film is titled La vie en Rose.
Wanna talk about these things and more.
Glanced thru some other blogs of friends/folks I don't know.
Sometimes, what we chose to put up on a blog, tells more about us, than the content that was written. These choices, the "How" and "Why" (we decided to post certain stuff) occasionally tells more about a person than the content itself. The content at times didn't matter. Other times, it did. Silly idea I thought up.
Random (or not so random) Quote of the Day -
"What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us Just a stranger on the bus Trying to make his way home Just trying to make his way home Back up to Heaven all alone Nobody callin' on the phone cept for the Pope maybe in Rome" -Joan Osborne.
Yeah, the Film Fest is here again. And guess what they have for this year's opening film? An anime- Steamboy! Closing film is another anime- Ghost in the Shell 2. Kudos to the organisers (Phillip Cheah and gang). Kinda tempted to catch the opening film despite the hefty ticket price.
Steamboy
If you found the art familiar, it's done by none other than the makers of Akira. Yeah been a long time coming. Like a decade in the making of the film too.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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 :)
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))
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
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.
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.
"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
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.
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.
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
