Seems that my DI-524 is "bricked". The term "bricked", deducing from what I see in online forums, should refer to the state of the router when it is not working anymore. The thing is now really as good as a brick, albeit a electricity-consuming one. With an antenna.
What D-Link Tech Support emailed me was to instruct me to do very routine stuff, like pinging my router, pinging www.yahoo.com, checking ip address, subnet mask and etc. What I sent to them was not good. What they told me in the reply was disheartening. Basically, I was to hard-reboot it properly by holding the button for 10s instead of 30s. If this doesn't work, I will have to pay them a visit with the router and the receipt.
Of course I have the receipt. I just don't know if I will have to pay despite the lifetime warranty. It may have broke down due to something I did, which I have no idea about. Someday I will go. Probably next Friday, or maybe after that. Whichever day I feel like going on.
And the internet connection interruptions seems to be caused by a corrupted system file(winsock.dll), probably caused by some hasty actions of mine, like shutting down by force( by force as in holding the power button for 10s).
As of now, it can randomly (well, after at least 4 hours of usage anyway) stop my surfing for up to 30mins. The only solution is to reset my computer.
A more permanent solution is to reinstall my operation system. A drastic measure, and a very difficult one simply because I don't have a Windows Vista CD. It didn't come with the laptop, but I have a genuine Windows Vista label on the underside of the laptop. Cheap fckers.
So in the end, my decision is to ignore the problem. I can live with that, as long as my games are not interrupted.
Day 2 of my Cool Turkey regime. "Cool turkey" is a term I learnt from one of the books in Dark Tower series, and it's supposed to mean a milder version of a cold turkey. In this case, I'm trying to play less and work more, replacing "drugs" with "games". I have totally stopped touching PS2. Will only play it again after exams. Or after the Genting trip.
I have discovered that it's much easier to finish my my tutorials if I don't stare at them all the time. Before, I used to take a whole day to finish the whole assignment, and sometimes, I will still have one question (at most) that I wouldn't be able to do.
Now, my method is to stop whenever I reach a question I'm stumped at, and play a round or two of Natural Selection. Then I return and ..."WHOA! It's so easy! What was I thinking before?"
So far I've become twice as fast as before, without omitting anything. And it feels better while doing it.
I've suddenly taken an interest in Flash creation. I've got my hands on a copy of Flash 8 and I'm watching the tutorials on Newgrounds.com to learn more. I haven't seen much, since I'm having cool turkey. Right now, I can make a circle move while turning into an oval. While spinning.
I suspect it's one of those interests that wanes quickly when the difficult stuff comes. But on the other hand, the wish of making something useful may just help overcome that.
In MSN I'm now almost always offline. It's a distraction that I can do without, and it gives me that tiny bit of extra bandwidth, and computer speed.
I've accepted a room in the NTU hostels, and I'm having mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I can now drastically reduce my food intake by being too lazy to walk outside to buy food. I'm not planning to have a big store of decent food in my room. On the other hand, I won't be able to bring my books with me. I will soon have to plan ahead on what books I can read in the coming week, and not picking the books as I feel like reading that night as I do now. This sucks!!
The gaming part will be a boon too, since I heard the bandwidth sucks big time over there, and I won't be able to play my PS2 with a TV that's shared. I won't be able to play many games there. But I hope my ping in Natural Selection will be fine though. It requires little bandwidth, but who knows if I will even get that little? It's the only game that's not time-consuming, and still interests me after so many years.
Natural Selection Section
And I've finally improved my Fade and Onos skills. Just because I play for many years doesn't mean I play it all the time. I used to play only once in a while before recent months. Now I play it everyday.
What I've noticed while being a Mobile Healing Station aka Gorge is that the best Fades always escape after a slash or two, when facing a group of Marines. I never did notice that, since I'm always looking at the map to see where the Marines are attacking or where we are striking, ie, the big picture.
Onoses are the kind of similar. When facing a group, they just move towards the enemies, stomp a few times, and run back for heals. Let the other guys do the killing while he just stuns the group for them. Of course, the best Onoses can stomp, eat one of them, then run. I can never do that. My aim sucks. But stomp doesn't need good accuracy. And I can just be a not-so-pro support Onos, instead of a pro attack Onos. After all, my ping usually sucks too, 'cos I prefer to play in the U.S. servers.
What I used to do as a Fade is to zoom in, slash them till my hp hits half-full, then escape. Now, I don't care what hp I'm having as long as I've slashed twice. Or once, if it's a big group. Then escape.
As an Onos, I used do what I do with the Fade. Now I just stomp and run. It's not as good since I don't try to eat anyone at all, but at least I don't die within 3 minutes. The stuns can do miracles even if I don't devour. Devour is friggin hard to aim since it's got no crosshair and a long cooldown. And I usually have bad ping.
Now my Fades and Onoses can last much much longer. Decent now.
And on to the whining.
The players in Asian servers are so bad!!! Singaporean and HK players are few, and don't play often, so they don't have much skill nor strategy. At least some HK players do play at the U.S. servers, so they transfer some basic strategies like holding a 2nd hive location from the start until someone drops a hive within 6 minutes.
But what they still can't do is ninja properly. They never do beacon rushes, as in beaconing everyone back to base once a ninja phase gate is up, and rush in with hand grenades ready. They rarely ninja hives as Aliens, as in a gorge sneak into a Marine-secured hive location and drop a hive and spit at it so that other aliens can teleport in.
Even when they do ninja a hive, as Marines or Aliens, they don't always teleport in all together, the commanders don't spam the command to go to the hive, and they give up too easily. In the U.S. servers, we don't stop going in as long as the hive is still up (if Aliens ninja), or if the phase gate isn't being gang-raped by the whole Alien team (if Marines ninja).
Sometimes, the several times I played in the China server is even worse. I was horrified by their lack of strategy, their indifference to key strategic points, and their res-whores (players who don't do anything with the resource they accumulate). At least they can shoot. But still, it's a new server, and all Chinese players are new to this game.
And I wish they'd learn, when commanding, to give some mines to the Marines when rushing to a ninja phase gate so that they can cover it with the mines. And get hand grenades early. Jeez.
Sometimes I have no choice but to play there, since the U.S. players do sleep at certain times. I can still help their strategy when I play as an Alien, since I can build some stuff at the right places and help to affect their general directions ever so slightly. But as a Marine, I can't help. I can't shoot well. I can't comm since I don't know the user interface for commanders well. I can help ninja hives since I always watch the map to see which parts have little Alien traffic. But the comms don't always listen, especially the not-that-pro ones, or those who are suffering from the effects of a shitty Marine team(ie no resource towers, ie not enough resource to drop a phase gate).
Tuesday 17 July 2007
Sunday 15 July 2007
Rant 067 / Pimping is just like marriage, just without the marriage, and with more STDs.
Yesterday I finally got about to trying to fix my DI-524 router.
Wait, before that, let me introduce some background history.
I had a Linksys WRT54G router free-of-charge from Starhub about 2 years ago. I had only 1 computer in my home then, so this router has no function other than increase the probability of internet access problems cropping up.
I kept this router in its box until a month or 2 ago, when I got this laptop. With a great laptop comes a great responsibility. I had to fix my own internet access. Piece of cake. Or so I thought.
Brimming with anticipation, I opened the wrapper, plugged in my modem in the WLAN socket, got the ethernet cable to substitute my direct modem connection to my desktop, and thought that was the end.
My first mistake.
I realized that after I had done all that, I had to rename my SSID( which is like a name for the wireless network), change my frequency so that it doesn't get affected by my neighbours', and set up some decent security.
Renaming was not a problem. Frequency had to be changed until the signal was healthily stable. Security was really child's play since all I had to do was click some buttons and copy some codes down.
But alas, the connection was not to be. Perhaps it was the Feng Shui. Perhaps I needed a statue of a Smiling Buddha next to my router, but the fact remained that I could not find the network named "Laglikefck".
I did not know what to do, so I asked my bro. He tried setting up everything on his own, following all the instructions in the manuals. Nothing. So we came to the same conclusion: the Linksys router is dead.
So then I went to Sim Lim, and bought a different router. A D-Link DI-524 router, and comes with a life-time warranty, no less.
And it did not work, just like the WRT54G.
So this time, my bro googled for some help. After half a day of research, he found this software called "Network Magic", which, it seems, had to be installed in all PCs in the network to work properly.
Heeding all instructions as described in the website, he installed this in the desktop. And suddenly, I have an internet connection in my laptop! But wait, he hadn't installed it in my laptop yet... Whatever was happening?
In he came, to my room to install this software. I was happy that my Internet connection was up, so I let him go ahead and settle this once and for all.
Did you think this is the end? This is only the halfway point!
With the installation of the Network Magic complete, I came back to proceed with my daily life. And of all things, I saw this message "Your network connection has been lost."
I was clueless before this, I was even more confused at that moment. Why did it work when it wasn't supposed to, and stopped working when it was supposed to??? My bro, as it turned out, was equally stumped.
Resetting the laptop didn't help. Neither did rebooting the routers. And just in case, I also rebooted the whole network, modem and all, AND hard-rebooted* my router. And the forsaken situation didn't improve one bit!
In desperation, I emailed D-Link support, and posted my problem in the Wireless Network section of the forum of www.speedguide.net, which is the biggest networking forum I found.
In the following 4 days, I responded accordingly to their questions, and followed their instructions to the word. I did what D-Link Customer Support asked and pinged the stated ips and etc. Their suggestions were truly useless, though I'm grateful that they tried.
When nothing worked, I removed my network settings and started the whole damned setup from scratch, all the while following all the directions in my manuals.
Then came the day of my utmost desperation. I was on the brink of abandoning the whole notion of a wireless network, when I came up with this final and seemingly useless idea of repeating what had happened the day my bro installed Network Magic on my laptop.
It was not supposed to work. I didn't expect it to, but I didn't want to give up this project with any lingering hope that something could have work which I didn't do. I had to try everything and convince myself it was a lost cause.
So I removed all networking softwares I had installed previously, reset all settings, hard-reboot my router, and switched off it and the modem.
And I installed Network Magic in my desktop.
Just like that truly baffling day, it worked!
But just as bizarre was the erraticism of my connection. Once in a while, it'd disconnect, leaving me annoyed and confused. My joy turned to chagrin as I realized this wasn't going to stop anytime soon.
Once again I decided to use the most improbable method. And once again, I was right. On that day, I discover an uncanny knack in myself that makes methods that were proven wrong, work for me.
But even though my connection was stable, my Firefox's ( another type of IE) connection doesn't seem to be so. Once in a while, my net surfing would be interrupted, nothing will load, but my bittorrent anime downloads and my Steam (game stuff) connection would be fine, if they were already on before the interruption. If they weren't, they, too, wouldn't load.
These unexplained stoppage of something lasting 1-5mins each, happen once every 5-6 hours, or about 1-3 times a day, and they still do. And only on my laptop.
But the tale still doesn't end yet. I have not explained why I needed to fix my DI-524, which I'm still using at this point of the story.
It just happened. One morning it was working fine. The next moment it stopped completely. The lights were blinking correctly, but no signal, wireless or wired, could be detected. No rebooting worked.
Out of complete frustration, I used the Linksys WRT54G, which was concluded before to be faulty. Again, I am unable to explain this phenomenon, but it worked. It is still working, but just like the DI-524, the interruptions still come as frequently.
I have long since given up on solving this tiny problem. This may be attributed to the fact that a more perplexing problem has surfaced.
My connection's bandwidth has been reduced for most of the time. Once upon a time, my download rate could hit 2Mb/s, but now, I'd be happy if I can even get half of that. These days, it's only slightly more than a quarter that.
Even worse is that I cannot download anything even when I play games that require little bandwidth, like Natural Selection. If I do, I get latencies that constantly fluctuate between 650-2000ms.
If I have my bittorrent on downloading at 25-50kb/s, my pings to www.yahoo.com takes 900+ms, while pings to www.yahoo.com.sg take 600+ms.
I am still unable to resolve this problem, even though I'm using dd-wrt as my router's firmware.
I have also realized that occasionally, my pings to my router can also hit 1000ms, which rebooting doesn't seem to help. Usually, it takes several changes in frequencies to revert it to normal, but it may just be something else.
In addition, I have detected 4 networks around me that share 2 frequencies. Why they have no problem working, which I deduce from the fact that they didn't change their frequencies after 2 days, is beyond me.
And now we come to the attempt at fixing the DI-524. I was bored of doing Physics, so I tried to discover what went wrong with it. Plugging it only to my laptop via the ethernet cable that came with the router, I tried to access the user interface in Firefox. It only gave me the timeout error. Pinging it gave me the same thing. Switching the cable socket from 1-4, and rebooting it were useless.
All these are the only ways I know how. Since this is not an urgent matter, I took the easy way out and emailed the Tech Support. I will get the replies soon...
*A hard-reboot is to hold the tiny reset button at the back of the router for 10-30 seconds while powered on. It sets the router back to its factory settings.
Wait, before that, let me introduce some background history.
I had a Linksys WRT54G router free-of-charge from Starhub about 2 years ago. I had only 1 computer in my home then, so this router has no function other than increase the probability of internet access problems cropping up.
I kept this router in its box until a month or 2 ago, when I got this laptop. With a great laptop comes a great responsibility. I had to fix my own internet access. Piece of cake. Or so I thought.
Brimming with anticipation, I opened the wrapper, plugged in my modem in the WLAN socket, got the ethernet cable to substitute my direct modem connection to my desktop, and thought that was the end.
My first mistake.
I realized that after I had done all that, I had to rename my SSID( which is like a name for the wireless network), change my frequency so that it doesn't get affected by my neighbours', and set up some decent security.
Renaming was not a problem. Frequency had to be changed until the signal was healthily stable. Security was really child's play since all I had to do was click some buttons and copy some codes down.
But alas, the connection was not to be. Perhaps it was the Feng Shui. Perhaps I needed a statue of a Smiling Buddha next to my router, but the fact remained that I could not find the network named "Laglikefck".
I did not know what to do, so I asked my bro. He tried setting up everything on his own, following all the instructions in the manuals. Nothing. So we came to the same conclusion: the Linksys router is dead.
So then I went to Sim Lim, and bought a different router. A D-Link DI-524 router, and comes with a life-time warranty, no less.
And it did not work, just like the WRT54G.
So this time, my bro googled for some help. After half a day of research, he found this software called "Network Magic", which, it seems, had to be installed in all PCs in the network to work properly.
Heeding all instructions as described in the website, he installed this in the desktop. And suddenly, I have an internet connection in my laptop! But wait, he hadn't installed it in my laptop yet... Whatever was happening?
In he came, to my room to install this software. I was happy that my Internet connection was up, so I let him go ahead and settle this once and for all.
Did you think this is the end? This is only the halfway point!
With the installation of the Network Magic complete, I came back to proceed with my daily life. And of all things, I saw this message "Your network connection has been lost."
I was clueless before this, I was even more confused at that moment. Why did it work when it wasn't supposed to, and stopped working when it was supposed to??? My bro, as it turned out, was equally stumped.
Resetting the laptop didn't help. Neither did rebooting the routers. And just in case, I also rebooted the whole network, modem and all, AND hard-rebooted* my router. And the forsaken situation didn't improve one bit!
In desperation, I emailed D-Link support, and posted my problem in the Wireless Network section of the forum of www.speedguide.net, which is the biggest networking forum I found.
In the following 4 days, I responded accordingly to their questions, and followed their instructions to the word. I did what D-Link Customer Support asked and pinged the stated ips and etc. Their suggestions were truly useless, though I'm grateful that they tried.
When nothing worked, I removed my network settings and started the whole damned setup from scratch, all the while following all the directions in my manuals.
Then came the day of my utmost desperation. I was on the brink of abandoning the whole notion of a wireless network, when I came up with this final and seemingly useless idea of repeating what had happened the day my bro installed Network Magic on my laptop.
It was not supposed to work. I didn't expect it to, but I didn't want to give up this project with any lingering hope that something could have work which I didn't do. I had to try everything and convince myself it was a lost cause.
So I removed all networking softwares I had installed previously, reset all settings, hard-reboot my router, and switched off it and the modem.
And I installed Network Magic in my desktop.
Just like that truly baffling day, it worked!
But just as bizarre was the erraticism of my connection. Once in a while, it'd disconnect, leaving me annoyed and confused. My joy turned to chagrin as I realized this wasn't going to stop anytime soon.
Once again I decided to use the most improbable method. And once again, I was right. On that day, I discover an uncanny knack in myself that makes methods that were proven wrong, work for me.
But even though my connection was stable, my Firefox's ( another type of IE) connection doesn't seem to be so. Once in a while, my net surfing would be interrupted, nothing will load, but my bittorrent anime downloads and my Steam (game stuff) connection would be fine, if they were already on before the interruption. If they weren't, they, too, wouldn't load.
These unexplained stoppage of something lasting 1-5mins each, happen once every 5-6 hours, or about 1-3 times a day, and they still do. And only on my laptop.
But the tale still doesn't end yet. I have not explained why I needed to fix my DI-524, which I'm still using at this point of the story.
It just happened. One morning it was working fine. The next moment it stopped completely. The lights were blinking correctly, but no signal, wireless or wired, could be detected. No rebooting worked.
Out of complete frustration, I used the Linksys WRT54G, which was concluded before to be faulty. Again, I am unable to explain this phenomenon, but it worked. It is still working, but just like the DI-524, the interruptions still come as frequently.
I have long since given up on solving this tiny problem. This may be attributed to the fact that a more perplexing problem has surfaced.
My connection's bandwidth has been reduced for most of the time. Once upon a time, my download rate could hit 2Mb/s, but now, I'd be happy if I can even get half of that. These days, it's only slightly more than a quarter that.
Even worse is that I cannot download anything even when I play games that require little bandwidth, like Natural Selection. If I do, I get latencies that constantly fluctuate between 650-2000ms.
If I have my bittorrent on downloading at 25-50kb/s, my pings to www.yahoo.com takes 900+ms, while pings to www.yahoo.com.sg take 600+ms.
I am still unable to resolve this problem, even though I'm using dd-wrt as my router's firmware.
I have also realized that occasionally, my pings to my router can also hit 1000ms, which rebooting doesn't seem to help. Usually, it takes several changes in frequencies to revert it to normal, but it may just be something else.
In addition, I have detected 4 networks around me that share 2 frequencies. Why they have no problem working, which I deduce from the fact that they didn't change their frequencies after 2 days, is beyond me.
And now we come to the attempt at fixing the DI-524. I was bored of doing Physics, so I tried to discover what went wrong with it. Plugging it only to my laptop via the ethernet cable that came with the router, I tried to access the user interface in Firefox. It only gave me the timeout error. Pinging it gave me the same thing. Switching the cable socket from 1-4, and rebooting it were useless.
All these are the only ways I know how. Since this is not an urgent matter, I took the easy way out and emailed the Tech Support. I will get the replies soon...
*A hard-reboot is to hold the tiny reset button at the back of the router for 10-30 seconds while powered on. It sets the router back to its factory settings.
Thursday 12 July 2007
Rant 066 / iPod Middle East Edition: iRaq
All these deaths in our movies, TV shows, music and books, all these unnecessary mindless violence, do the audience understand the significance of Death. To them, does Death only mean the departure of a person from our world?
Isn't there more to Death than this?
I do not believe in the afterlife. Neither should I. If the Afterlife is so damn good like some religions describe it as, why does no one rush towards it? Why don't everyone just die? Why do we have this natural tendency to avoid Death? Why do we fear, hate or even think about Death?
If the Afterlife is as good as some think it is, why is it that the same people also fear Death?
You cannot explain it as fearing the unknown, since it is already "known" for milleniums.
You cannot explain it as fearing change, since you have to be expecting this day from the time you learnt about Death.
And if the Afterlife is as bad as some claim it to be, let us not think about that for now.
Therefore, let us assume there is no Afterlife in the following monologue.
Death must be the most permanent concept in this world. It is the only subject in which the usage of "never" is always completely true. Probabilities in any other matters can only reach infinitesimally small degrees, but in death, things hit the absolute 0%.
Even "impossible" imaginary events have the incredibly small chance of happening like, say, your father flies to Tibet tomorrow and swears into monkhood for the rest of his life. After 15 years of celibacy he decides to slip to China for a whore or two. What's the chance of this? Not 0%, just negligible.
But in death, it can only be 0%. There is 0% probability that he will be in his couch reading from then on. There is 0% probability that she will be cooking in the kitchen. Etc.
Death is permanent. Things disappear forever. Even diamonds, as "forever" as they are claimed to be, cannot outlast the consequences of Death.
With Death, there is not that little voice in your mind that tells you that it is still possible, though it is almost not. There is not that minuscule possibility that a miracle may happen.
There is only that cold emptiness left in that void that was once occupied by the person. The horrifying permanence of the departure. The distressing knowledge that from then on, no one will ever fit into that space quite as well as that person did.
For a living person closely related to the dead, it must be as if a piece of his/her soul was forcibly ripped off, leaving the insides exposed to the freezing winds of the aftermath.
But to Live, one must accept Death. In life, there is no Reset, no re-Load after the Game Over screen, no respawn, no re-join the game in the next round, and no Invulnerability cheat. There is no Save, no Pause, no Rewind, no Replay, and no Backup copy.
Every step is forever, no matter how you convince yourself otherwise. Every death is a tragedy, no matter how you dismiss it as a trivial matter. Every funeral, is for real.
In WW I, Serbia lost 58% of its male population, or a more than a quarter of all Serbs.
Now, how can people dismiss a war as trivial, when everyone knows the true motivation behind the war is greed? How can no one pity the people? How can no one feel for the living? No, not the dead. Dead is dead. Only the living who mourn the dead deserves sympathy.
All wars are horrible, inhumane, obscene, natural.
This is what I mean by Death must be accepted, to Live. Death must be accepted, no matter which facet of it you happen to think of.
Isn't there more to Death than this?
I do not believe in the afterlife. Neither should I. If the Afterlife is so damn good like some religions describe it as, why does no one rush towards it? Why don't everyone just die? Why do we have this natural tendency to avoid Death? Why do we fear, hate or even think about Death?
If the Afterlife is as good as some think it is, why is it that the same people also fear Death?
You cannot explain it as fearing the unknown, since it is already "known" for milleniums.
You cannot explain it as fearing change, since you have to be expecting this day from the time you learnt about Death.
And if the Afterlife is as bad as some claim it to be, let us not think about that for now.
Therefore, let us assume there is no Afterlife in the following monologue.
Death must be the most permanent concept in this world. It is the only subject in which the usage of "never" is always completely true. Probabilities in any other matters can only reach infinitesimally small degrees, but in death, things hit the absolute 0%.
Even "impossible" imaginary events have the incredibly small chance of happening like, say, your father flies to Tibet tomorrow and swears into monkhood for the rest of his life. After 15 years of celibacy he decides to slip to China for a whore or two. What's the chance of this? Not 0%, just negligible.
But in death, it can only be 0%. There is 0% probability that he will be in his couch reading from then on. There is 0% probability that she will be cooking in the kitchen. Etc.
Death is permanent. Things disappear forever. Even diamonds, as "forever" as they are claimed to be, cannot outlast the consequences of Death.
With Death, there is not that little voice in your mind that tells you that it is still possible, though it is almost not. There is not that minuscule possibility that a miracle may happen.
There is only that cold emptiness left in that void that was once occupied by the person. The horrifying permanence of the departure. The distressing knowledge that from then on, no one will ever fit into that space quite as well as that person did.
For a living person closely related to the dead, it must be as if a piece of his/her soul was forcibly ripped off, leaving the insides exposed to the freezing winds of the aftermath.
But to Live, one must accept Death. In life, there is no Reset, no re-Load after the Game Over screen, no respawn, no re-join the game in the next round, and no Invulnerability cheat. There is no Save, no Pause, no Rewind, no Replay, and no Backup copy.
Every step is forever, no matter how you convince yourself otherwise. Every death is a tragedy, no matter how you dismiss it as a trivial matter. Every funeral, is for real.
In WW I, Serbia lost 58% of its male population, or a more than a quarter of all Serbs.
Now, how can people dismiss a war as trivial, when everyone knows the true motivation behind the war is greed? How can no one pity the people? How can no one feel for the living? No, not the dead. Dead is dead. Only the living who mourn the dead deserves sympathy.
All wars are horrible, inhumane, obscene, natural.
This is what I mean by Death must be accepted, to Live. Death must be accepted, no matter which facet of it you happen to think of.
Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes Viet Cong Captain Nguyen Van Lem: February 1, 1968. This Associated Press photograph, "General Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner in Saigon," won a 1969 Pulitzer prize for its photographer Eddie Adams. Film also exists of this event, but owing to the more graphic nature of the film, the photograph is more widely known.
PS this photo will be removed if anyone raises any objections.
Wednesday 11 July 2007
Rant 065 / A Colour-blind Racist Is A True Asshole
I admit I must have been bored. To come up with mad lines like "A colour-blind racist is a true asshole" takes quite a bit of boredom.
It is precisely because I'm bored that is making me do things I usually won't bother to do. Thrice I have gone Appear Offline to see if anyone goes offline within 30mins. Twice at night and once in the afternoon. Twice, once at night and once in the afternoon, I notice her going offline within 15mins. She usually goes offline at 10.XX pm but this time it was 9.XX pm. Coincidence. Of course.
Once, I msged her on Messenger just when she went offline. Since I've already sent it, I decided to end it with an offline msg of "nvm" and forget about it. She came back online later and told me she only went away, thus resuming the conversation. Ever since then, she started to use "Away" mode whenever she goes away, instead of going "Offline" for a while. It's nothing. Of course.
So far, I have not contacted her in any way for about a week. So far, she has always been either "Busy" or "Away" or "Offline".
Now, I see her in "Online" mode. Still, coincidence.
Now, I change my mode to "Appear Offline". It is 10.07pm. Rather late though. This time it won't mean anything. But just for the heck of it, I shall.
Now, I change my subject to something more amusing.
I'm starting to want to take Spanish 2, because all Spanish 1 does for me is show me how to handle Spanish 2. Mostly, I have learnt to ask questions in Spanish, introduce myself in Spanish, describe my home, describe some features of people and know some colours in Spanish.
Doesn't really do anything.
But I'm not planning to go for any other languages unless I can finish French 2. I haven't even started French 1! I want to learn French because I want to move to Canada someday. I heard it's pretty hard, like German. I'm still interested though.
Come to think about it, I think I really can't do much with my level of German other than say how old I am. LOL!
I must take French 2 then. And 3, if there is.
I just found this article on how to upsize your iPod to 250gb. It involves replacing its memory card with a computer hard disk. LOL! Totally pointless since it'll eat up the whole battery in seconds. But still, you'll have a 250gb iPod! How cool!
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner still isn't boring to me. Just reached Episode 3. Too easy. The money is useless since I don't need to buy many items, and skills come for free. Just a few "Attract Water" to boost my encounter rate to an obscene level so that every 3 steps I take will get me into combat, and my experience rises faster than our GST in the last 5 years. Hmm.. bad comparison.
Ok coincidence. It is 10.39pm and she is still "Online".
I am so obvious. I have always been.
Still, I did stop talking to her for multiple reasons. First of all, it is illogical for me to talk to someone who doesn't talk the same talk as I. Come to think about it, almost no one does. Oh well...
Damn that doctor for giving me shitty meds. I've finished my course so faithfully, slept 8 hours a day, and still, I'm having this runny nose. Damn him for charging me 39 bucks for nothing. I want a friggin refund!
I want so many things. I want something to solve my acne problem. I want to want nothing. Without dying. I want to die having sex. I want to master Kung Fu in 5 seconds like Neo.
I want to see Victor getting shotgunned. As in marriage. That would be the day.
But must I purge myself of Desire? It is only natural to desire. It is illogical to go against nature.
It is precisely because I'm bored that is making me do things I usually won't bother to do. Thrice I have gone Appear Offline to see if anyone goes offline within 30mins. Twice at night and once in the afternoon. Twice, once at night and once in the afternoon, I notice her going offline within 15mins. She usually goes offline at 10.XX pm but this time it was 9.XX pm. Coincidence. Of course.
Once, I msged her on Messenger just when she went offline. Since I've already sent it, I decided to end it with an offline msg of "nvm" and forget about it. She came back online later and told me she only went away, thus resuming the conversation. Ever since then, she started to use "Away" mode whenever she goes away, instead of going "Offline" for a while. It's nothing. Of course.
So far, I have not contacted her in any way for about a week. So far, she has always been either "Busy" or "Away" or "Offline".
Now, I see her in "Online" mode. Still, coincidence.
Now, I change my mode to "Appear Offline". It is 10.07pm. Rather late though. This time it won't mean anything. But just for the heck of it, I shall.
Now, I change my subject to something more amusing.
I'm starting to want to take Spanish 2, because all Spanish 1 does for me is show me how to handle Spanish 2. Mostly, I have learnt to ask questions in Spanish, introduce myself in Spanish, describe my home, describe some features of people and know some colours in Spanish.
Doesn't really do anything.
But I'm not planning to go for any other languages unless I can finish French 2. I haven't even started French 1! I want to learn French because I want to move to Canada someday. I heard it's pretty hard, like German. I'm still interested though.
Come to think about it, I think I really can't do much with my level of German other than say how old I am. LOL!
I must take French 2 then. And 3, if there is.
I just found this article on how to upsize your iPod to 250gb. It involves replacing its memory card with a computer hard disk. LOL! Totally pointless since it'll eat up the whole battery in seconds. But still, you'll have a 250gb iPod! How cool!
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner still isn't boring to me. Just reached Episode 3. Too easy. The money is useless since I don't need to buy many items, and skills come for free. Just a few "Attract Water" to boost my encounter rate to an obscene level so that every 3 steps I take will get me into combat, and my experience rises faster than our GST in the last 5 years. Hmm.. bad comparison.
Ok coincidence. It is 10.39pm and she is still "Online".
I am so obvious. I have always been.
Still, I did stop talking to her for multiple reasons. First of all, it is illogical for me to talk to someone who doesn't talk the same talk as I. Come to think about it, almost no one does. Oh well...
Damn that doctor for giving me shitty meds. I've finished my course so faithfully, slept 8 hours a day, and still, I'm having this runny nose. Damn him for charging me 39 bucks for nothing. I want a friggin refund!
I want so many things. I want something to solve my acne problem. I want to want nothing. Without dying. I want to die having sex. I want to master Kung Fu in 5 seconds like Neo.
I want to see Victor getting shotgunned. As in marriage. That would be the day.
But must I purge myself of Desire? It is only natural to desire. It is illogical to go against nature.
Sunday 8 July 2007
Rant 064 / Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beer Holder
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner seems to show some promise. Had been trying out Dragon Quest 8 and Disgaea 2, but both of them weren't suitable for me.
Disgaea 2 is a pretty good game, for a turn-based strategy rpg, or "tactics" game, or whatever. It is, in fact, the best of all games I've ever tried in this genre. Too bad I'm not interested in it. Too much thinking is necessary, and I have enough to think about as things are right now.
Dragon Quest 8 is a classic turn-based rpg, and still uses sprites(think SNES, and the way the ppl look in the games, compared to FF7) in the field (aka towns, world, dungeons and anywhere outside combat). It features all sorts of cute monsters and cute sounds that makes the game look so bright and fun. Too bad the game doesn't feature anything exciting. Gets really monotonous after a while because the combat difficulty and style remain the same throughout, as long as you run around enough to fight enough monsters.
Devil summoner is a refreshing experience because like all the games I've played in this series, the difficulty is always high, but manageable. This time, instead of having the "press-turn" combat system( a special sort of turn-based system), the combats are in real-time mode. It does make the game faster, less tiring on the mind, and adds some excitement to the overall experience.
But the combat is rather simple( not easy) though, since I'm already used to the "weakness-exploiting" feature of this series, with which the player can stun the enemy for a while if he uses an element the enemy is weak against.
By summoning the right monsters, you can do that fairly easily. In addition, I've played 3 games in this series and I can sometimes remember what the weaknesses are for many of the re-used monsters. The drawback of this system is that the enemies can do the same to you and your monster.
This game like most of the Shin Megami Tensei( SHT) games, requires the player to capture enemy monsters, train them, use them in combat and combine them into more powerful monsters. Too bad the player is allowed only 1 monster in combat, though I'm sure it's because the PS2 system can't handle more than that.
The graphics are slightly better than that of SHT: Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2, which is to say, good.
The music, like in SHT:DDS 1 and 2, is mainly rock. So far, I've only reached Episode 2, or part 2 if you want, and I've not heard any music that doesn't seem suitable to the situation yet. I can tell that the composer is the same guy though, and I like his style.
It is always so easy to find fault in everyday life. Take, for example, the recent GST hikes here. I shall not use compare ourselves with the EU, where the minimum for most goods and services is 15%. If we compare Singapore with one very popular standard, the U.S., where the sales tax can be 0-8.8% depending on the area, the 7% is not unreasonable. Furthermore, the income tax is much lower here than in the U.S for the lower-income groups.
All the unrest is really a result of social inertia. This also reminds me of the time when this guy in my unit got reprimanded for a mistake, and he was telling everyone about it as they( the superiors) had wronged him. In fact, I thought it was totally reasonable, and being the bored guy I was in camp, I talked to him about it.
With a few minutes of discussion, I got him cornered(metaphorically and verbally), and it was at this point that he admitted that they were right, but he just had to vent the frustration somewhere.
I realised that I had forgotten about it. I used to think that way too, but some time ago I had discarded this way of thinking. How, one may ask. By getting punished/reprimanded unreasonably, I'll answer. After going through a few months of that, I had learnt to accept any punishment I deem reasonable, without being unhappy.
Since then, I have noticed that there are many circles in which people are reprimanded/punished to an unreasonable degree, one of which being the journalists in Taiwan.
My Spanish teacher refuses to teach us Spanish expletives. I am disappointed.
I really wonder why my neighbours upstairs are shouting so happily upstairs now. Here I am trying to rant in peace, and up there they are trying to raise the dead or something.
I really want to move to Canada, after I get a degree. Just look at this line from Wikipedia: Canada is unusual in that the government pays for almost 100% of hospital and physician care, but contributes very little in areas such as prescription drug costs, dental care and Emergency Medical Services.
Disgaea 2 is a pretty good game, for a turn-based strategy rpg, or "tactics" game, or whatever. It is, in fact, the best of all games I've ever tried in this genre. Too bad I'm not interested in it. Too much thinking is necessary, and I have enough to think about as things are right now.
Dragon Quest 8 is a classic turn-based rpg, and still uses sprites(think SNES, and the way the ppl look in the games, compared to FF7) in the field (aka towns, world, dungeons and anywhere outside combat). It features all sorts of cute monsters and cute sounds that makes the game look so bright and fun. Too bad the game doesn't feature anything exciting. Gets really monotonous after a while because the combat difficulty and style remain the same throughout, as long as you run around enough to fight enough monsters.
Devil summoner is a refreshing experience because like all the games I've played in this series, the difficulty is always high, but manageable. This time, instead of having the "press-turn" combat system( a special sort of turn-based system), the combats are in real-time mode. It does make the game faster, less tiring on the mind, and adds some excitement to the overall experience.
But the combat is rather simple( not easy) though, since I'm already used to the "weakness-exploiting" feature of this series, with which the player can stun the enemy for a while if he uses an element the enemy is weak against.
By summoning the right monsters, you can do that fairly easily. In addition, I've played 3 games in this series and I can sometimes remember what the weaknesses are for many of the re-used monsters. The drawback of this system is that the enemies can do the same to you and your monster.
This game like most of the Shin Megami Tensei( SHT) games, requires the player to capture enemy monsters, train them, use them in combat and combine them into more powerful monsters. Too bad the player is allowed only 1 monster in combat, though I'm sure it's because the PS2 system can't handle more than that.
The graphics are slightly better than that of SHT: Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2, which is to say, good.
The music, like in SHT:DDS 1 and 2, is mainly rock. So far, I've only reached Episode 2, or part 2 if you want, and I've not heard any music that doesn't seem suitable to the situation yet. I can tell that the composer is the same guy though, and I like his style.
It is always so easy to find fault in everyday life. Take, for example, the recent GST hikes here. I shall not use compare ourselves with the EU, where the minimum for most goods and services is 15%. If we compare Singapore with one very popular standard, the U.S., where the sales tax can be 0-8.8% depending on the area, the 7% is not unreasonable. Furthermore, the income tax is much lower here than in the U.S for the lower-income groups.
All the unrest is really a result of social inertia. This also reminds me of the time when this guy in my unit got reprimanded for a mistake, and he was telling everyone about it as they( the superiors) had wronged him. In fact, I thought it was totally reasonable, and being the bored guy I was in camp, I talked to him about it.
With a few minutes of discussion, I got him cornered(metaphorically and verbally), and it was at this point that he admitted that they were right, but he just had to vent the frustration somewhere.
I realised that I had forgotten about it. I used to think that way too, but some time ago I had discarded this way of thinking. How, one may ask. By getting punished/reprimanded unreasonably, I'll answer. After going through a few months of that, I had learnt to accept any punishment I deem reasonable, without being unhappy.
Since then, I have noticed that there are many circles in which people are reprimanded/punished to an unreasonable degree, one of which being the journalists in Taiwan.
My Spanish teacher refuses to teach us Spanish expletives. I am disappointed.
I really wonder why my neighbours upstairs are shouting so happily upstairs now. Here I am trying to rant in peace, and up there they are trying to raise the dead or something.
I really want to move to Canada, after I get a degree. Just look at this line from Wikipedia: Canada is unusual in that the government pays for almost 100% of hospital and physician care, but contributes very little in areas such as prescription drug costs, dental care and Emergency Medical Services.
Sunday 1 July 2007
Rant 063 / Yes! Yes! You Can Have Your Freedom Of Speech! Just Shut The Fuck Up!
Just finished the 5 books of the Ruin Mist Chronicles. This series has to be one of the worst I have read so far, and I rate it as good as the Mallorean by David Eddings, ie, sucks.
The plot is good, but Robert Stanek needs a better editor who can do more than just correcting his grammar. Yes, there is no spelling/grammar mistakes that I have noticed, which is quite rare among the best fantasy series these days...
Oh wait, now that I have searched the covers, I just realized he has NO editor!
Now here is my explanation for why he really needs an editor.
The plot is sometimes DISJOINTED!!! This has never happened in any other series I have read. One chapter ends with Captain Brodst jumping into the river with Lord Serant to escape the villains. Then in another chapter, we have Captain Brodst hiding in a cove waiting for something while Lord Serant is in a dungeon.
There is no explanation for why only Brodst escaped, while the others were caught. There was no recap of how they were caught or how Brodst knew they were locked in there. I had to reread the chapter to understand what Stanek was describing and connect it to the last chapter that mentioned them.
And c'mon, get a professional illustrator! Those pics Stanek drew for the covers and illustrations were pretty good, but without colours, the covers look really dry, and not classy the way the last few Wheel of Time and Song of Ice and Fire books appeared. The first impression I got from them was not a good one.
Like reading the Song of Ice and Fire, I get frustrated reading this series. But this time it's not because things were going so smoothly for the villains like they do in the former, but that I have difficulty understanding many chapters since the first book. Robert Stanek needs someone to make his books completely coherent. To completely skip parts of the plot is worse than writing vague descriptions of the events.
This is not because the author sucks. He definitely doesn't, to create an interesting plot like that. It's just that his books could have been much much better.
What's really unique about Stanek is not his good plots, nor his incoherence. It is that he is able to pick all the chapters that have to do with a certain group of characters, write a few more, and compile them into a new series. A series that tells another side of the same story... Hurrah for Capitalism...
On Amazon.com, there are reviewers who make him out to be like he's better than George R. R. Martin or Robert Jordan. I have no idea why these people do so, nor why this series appear in so many "best fantasy series" list. It definitely does not deserve a place in these lists,until he gets a decent editor to fix his works. These people can only be among these 3 groups:
1) weirdos
2) related to/friends of the author/bought by the author
3) their first fantasy books were this series.
And the Transformer movie was very good. I just wish the camera didn't zoom in so closely to the fights, because in several scenes I couldn't tell who was thrown/slammed/punched to where or whatever. Lot's of action, lot's of humour, lot's of big machines and a simple plot.
The plot is good, but Robert Stanek needs a better editor who can do more than just correcting his grammar. Yes, there is no spelling/grammar mistakes that I have noticed, which is quite rare among the best fantasy series these days...
Oh wait, now that I have searched the covers, I just realized he has NO editor!
Now here is my explanation for why he really needs an editor.
The plot is sometimes DISJOINTED!!! This has never happened in any other series I have read. One chapter ends with Captain Brodst jumping into the river with Lord Serant to escape the villains. Then in another chapter, we have Captain Brodst hiding in a cove waiting for something while Lord Serant is in a dungeon.
There is no explanation for why only Brodst escaped, while the others were caught. There was no recap of how they were caught or how Brodst knew they were locked in there. I had to reread the chapter to understand what Stanek was describing and connect it to the last chapter that mentioned them.
And c'mon, get a professional illustrator! Those pics Stanek drew for the covers and illustrations were pretty good, but without colours, the covers look really dry, and not classy the way the last few Wheel of Time and Song of Ice and Fire books appeared. The first impression I got from them was not a good one.
Like reading the Song of Ice and Fire, I get frustrated reading this series. But this time it's not because things were going so smoothly for the villains like they do in the former, but that I have difficulty understanding many chapters since the first book. Robert Stanek needs someone to make his books completely coherent. To completely skip parts of the plot is worse than writing vague descriptions of the events.
This is not because the author sucks. He definitely doesn't, to create an interesting plot like that. It's just that his books could have been much much better.
What's really unique about Stanek is not his good plots, nor his incoherence. It is that he is able to pick all the chapters that have to do with a certain group of characters, write a few more, and compile them into a new series. A series that tells another side of the same story... Hurrah for Capitalism...
On Amazon.com, there are reviewers who make him out to be like he's better than George R. R. Martin or Robert Jordan. I have no idea why these people do so, nor why this series appear in so many "best fantasy series" list. It definitely does not deserve a place in these lists,until he gets a decent editor to fix his works. These people can only be among these 3 groups:
1) weirdos
2) related to/friends of the author/bought by the author
3) their first fantasy books were this series.
And the Transformer movie was very good. I just wish the camera didn't zoom in so closely to the fights, because in several scenes I couldn't tell who was thrown/slammed/punched to where or whatever. Lot's of action, lot's of humour, lot's of big machines and a simple plot.
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