Part 1:
23/1/08
Again, I play Heroes 5. I am now playing the expansion Tribes of the East. Again, I get to play as the Undead, also known as the Necropolis. This race really suits my style. In a long game, the Necropolis always has the advantage, simply from the fact that my armies never lose a single soul in any medium/small battle. In fact, I always GAIN units from battles.
I know the Dungeon has seriously powerful units, but some units are always lost in medium-sized battles, especially against large numbers of neutral ranged units. Well, if in every one of your battles, the enemies are bunched up together into one stack for you to pwn at your own pace, I withdraw my case. But once in a while, a Dungeon player does lose its units, especially the Assassins or the riders, which are rather important when fighting foes with obscenely large armies.
A powerful caster Hero always has a limit. Implosion can only deal 2k or so damage by the end of a CAMPAIGN. When fighting in a battle with each side having zounds of any unit, 2k damage is not enough. Even Meteor Showers of equal level cannot wipe out enough of any of these stacks.
That is the advantage an Undead player has. Sacrificing quality for quantity, Undead units are really poor at killing anything. But with the high Defense and Knowledge of Undead Heroes, they are also hard to kill, and easy to revive. What this means is that killing any Undead units doesn't affect the battle as much as you'd like to believe.
One very good example is the Specter. With a 50%(or is it 75%?) chance to avoid damage, killing it is more of a hassle than anything else. Throw in the Raise Dead spell and you have the perfect survivor. With the annoying ability to avoid attacks, the Hero doesn't even need to keep raising it. In a war of attrition, the Specter is the ultimate unit.
But I hate it because it doesn't have enough damage. It is something I use when fighting against ranged neutral units. In other situations, the Banshees can do the trick.
Both Dungeon and Necropolis Heroes need Conjuration Magic to win. Dungeon players need it to summon stuff to fight at higher levels; Necro Heroes need it to raise their dead units, and summon more units.
In ToE, the AI is much smarter. No longer do they concentrate on the summoned units, or the images, but aim at the most dangerous real units. No more cheap exploitation tactics for us players. Because of this, it is no longer feasible to summon images of everyone. In fact, only the ranged units are worth that spell, and that is if you put enough pressure at the front to prevent the enemy Hero from simply casting an Earth Spike on the image and the unit.
And with the number of images of every unit limited to ONE, this spell is no longer the Holy Grail for caster Heroes.
When I imagine a battle between 2 titanic armies between a Dungeon and a Necro player, my bet is always on the Necro. A Dungeon Hero is not meant to last for such a long time. They rely mainly on their Spellpower, not units. They need to make use of their powerful spells in early and mid game to win devastating victories against their enemies. I mean, what can a really powerful Destruction caster do to a stack of 2-3k skeleton archers?
A Necro, in the worst case scenario, can tolerate a pyhrric victory better than a Dungeon player. I'd expect the most annoying Specter to be the final stack left alive in the army.
But being a Necro is not that easy either. Each Raise Dead spell cast in battle will reduce the max HP of the raised stack by a certain fraction. Once in a long battle, my Vampire Lords had only 1HP each by the end, though I still managed to win without casualty.
In the above case, a basic Eldritch Arrow would have killed all 39 of them, but the enemy had run out of mana while my Knowledge/Defense-based Necro still had half his mana left.
While the basic strategy of all the races is to maintain zero casualties until the very last battle, only the Necro can ENLARGE his armies all the way. Together with extremely annoying Dark spells like Blindness and Puppet Master, it is hard to lose as a Necro.
Another bad day for stock markets worldwide. I hope it's not another economic crisis. Some parts of the world haven't even recovered from the last one. Me included. I'm broke. University education is costing me an arm and a leg. With that loan I'm having, I'll have to slave for DBS until I approach retirement age, that is, if they haven't extended the age again by then.
Recently noticed something really strange. I wonder if she is angry or shy. As an openly insensitive person, I cannot tell. Curious, though.
Part 2:
28/1/08
Been watching what I had recorded of the nydc outing. Until now, I had not realized my voice sounds so unlike what I have always heard. My voice had always sound so deep to me, but I find that it is not so for anyone else. It is normal, but it's something that had never occurred to me.
Watching vids of my outings is always interesting. Should remember to record more often.
Just made a long comment on someone's blog. Made it somewhat serious. Wonder what the response will be like. Probably, it will be quite negative.
I thought Cloverfield was a decent film. Not much of a plot. Reactions that I dislike. But I think I'm cool with the shaky camera. After all, I have watched my amateur vids enough times to be used to it.
Wednesday 23 January 2008
Rant 091 / Short And Sweet
Every time you shake hands with someone, do you also note that it's very likely he holds his penis regularly with the same hand?
And the same probably applies to you too?
And that both of you are gripping each other's master(bation) hands?
Isn't that disturbing?
And the same probably applies to you too?
And that both of you are gripping each other's master(bation) hands?
Isn't that disturbing?
Wednesday 16 January 2008
Rant 090 / Why Pay Good Money To Detox Your Body? Just Eat Spoilt Food!
A fantastic in which nothing happened. Life is good when nothing happens. At least nothing that I don't want to happen didn't happen. What's wrong with a life that lacks that special spark? Nothing. You're just greedy wishing for more.
Sometimes I wonder why people wish for an exciting life. Can they handle the price? Or have they ever thought about it? I believe not. I mean, if they had they wouldn't be wishing for it. Like climbing Mount Everest, the chance of a lifetime. One of the greatest honors a person can have in life. Until one starts thinking about why it is such a feat to reach the summit. The countless unmarked graves in the area may be a clue.
Would the goal be worth the price? Is reaching the summit worth the risks? It may be so for some, but not everyone.
Boredom is a reason. The lack of interesting activities can drive one to do things that one wouldn't dream of doing in other circumstances. Kind of like love, drugs and cash.
Excellent weather right now at 4.30am. Windy and sunless. If only it can be the same in the day everyday. I'm allergic to the local climate.
What can one expect from another year of academic work? What is life?
On the bus, I took a seat on the first storey of the double decker. Two girls, also from NTU, were standing in front of me. The seat was one of those that line the sides of the bus. Opposite of me were my friends, but there was no seat for me over there. I saw the seat that I eventually took at the wrong side, and with the weight of my laptop pulling on my shoulder, I sat down.
At one stop, one guy who sat next to my group of friends alighted, together with the person sitting next to me. The two young ladies then started telling each other to take the sit next to me, not seeing the one behind them(they were facing me). I didn't see the empty seat opposite of me either, until a friend pointed at it to me. And while I was waiting for the bus to stop, they started to play "Scissors, Paper, Stone" to decide who sits down next to me.
It seemed ludicrous to me. It was just a seat, and they weren't even carrying anything. So just when they were going to conclude their important decision-making process, I smiled and asked them both to take my seat and the one next to it, while I move to the opposite side next to my gang.
One of my friends said I was a "gentleman". The girls laughed quite a bit and sit down. I was not actually amused, but I smiled politely. I am not a nice person, but I was the most logical person in that situation.
Putting myself in their shoes, if a friend and I were telling each other to take that one seat, I'd not argue and just take it. By the time we finished deciding, we may already have reached out stop. What's the point of putting in effort to decide small, insignificant things?
It is like holding a debate to argue whether a pencil you are going to sell should be priced at $0.55 or $0.54. Useless chatter.
Or is that what makes me less talkative?
I believe in logic, but I am an illogical person. Am I a hypocrite?
How does modern democracy differ from hypocrisy?
Who cares?
Sometimes I wonder why people wish for an exciting life. Can they handle the price? Or have they ever thought about it? I believe not. I mean, if they had they wouldn't be wishing for it. Like climbing Mount Everest, the chance of a lifetime. One of the greatest honors a person can have in life. Until one starts thinking about why it is such a feat to reach the summit. The countless unmarked graves in the area may be a clue.
Would the goal be worth the price? Is reaching the summit worth the risks? It may be so for some, but not everyone.
Boredom is a reason. The lack of interesting activities can drive one to do things that one wouldn't dream of doing in other circumstances. Kind of like love, drugs and cash.
Excellent weather right now at 4.30am. Windy and sunless. If only it can be the same in the day everyday. I'm allergic to the local climate.
What can one expect from another year of academic work? What is life?
On the bus, I took a seat on the first storey of the double decker. Two girls, also from NTU, were standing in front of me. The seat was one of those that line the sides of the bus. Opposite of me were my friends, but there was no seat for me over there. I saw the seat that I eventually took at the wrong side, and with the weight of my laptop pulling on my shoulder, I sat down.
At one stop, one guy who sat next to my group of friends alighted, together with the person sitting next to me. The two young ladies then started telling each other to take the sit next to me, not seeing the one behind them(they were facing me). I didn't see the empty seat opposite of me either, until a friend pointed at it to me. And while I was waiting for the bus to stop, they started to play "Scissors, Paper, Stone" to decide who sits down next to me.
It seemed ludicrous to me. It was just a seat, and they weren't even carrying anything. So just when they were going to conclude their important decision-making process, I smiled and asked them both to take my seat and the one next to it, while I move to the opposite side next to my gang.
One of my friends said I was a "gentleman". The girls laughed quite a bit and sit down. I was not actually amused, but I smiled politely. I am not a nice person, but I was the most logical person in that situation.
Putting myself in their shoes, if a friend and I were telling each other to take that one seat, I'd not argue and just take it. By the time we finished deciding, we may already have reached out stop. What's the point of putting in effort to decide small, insignificant things?
It is like holding a debate to argue whether a pencil you are going to sell should be priced at $0.55 or $0.54. Useless chatter.
Or is that what makes me less talkative?
I believe in logic, but I am an illogical person. Am I a hypocrite?
How does modern democracy differ from hypocrisy?
Who cares?
Sunday 13 January 2008
Rant 089 / Can You Actually Read My Mind? Poor You!
In the midst of all the madness that is my thoughts, one thought stands out from the rest. We are going to need more monkeys...
Blogging is a job that requires expertise and unique experiences that no one really cares about. Such experiences include ingrown toenails, the right Shift key on keyboard being faulty, and you trusting in your girlfriend whose last name, coincidentally, ends with ".mpeg".
Typing a blog article is a strenuous and tedious task. It is essential for a blogger to have strong fingers, unholy amounts of patience and too much free time. To lack any of these is to lack the ability to be a decent blogger. And no one wants to be an indecent blogger. Kidding...
Recently I saw this bumper sticker on some forum that I can't get out of my mind. It says," Bombing for Peace is like Fucking for Virginity". In a way, it is true, but this is too simplistic a view. As I grew up, I discover a world I had never known to exist - a world where everything affects more of other things that one can ever imagine. Every action has more consequences that anyone can possibly think of before doing it.
For example, if you annoyed someone at one time, this may affect his decision to help you if you ever ask for it in the future. Every bit matters. That one time may just tilt the balance. And every action affects many other things, including that person's impression of you, that person's ability to understand you, the witnesses' impression of you and etc.
And that view about bombing for peace being the same as having sex for virginity is definitely not exactly right. After all, much peace can be created by periods of war and violence.
War is caused, generally, by discontent. Such unhappiness may not appear overnight, but they are most likely bottled up within the peoples' hearts until it reaches the highest point they can hold without resorting to violence to release it. Once that point is reached, one should be able to observe various smaller forms of such release, including protests and riots and diplomatic negotiations between the countries involved.
Anything can make the gauge rise above that level, even if it is not caused by Man. A large number of civil wars were caused by famines, which were in turn caused by droughts. The straw that broke the camel's back. Sometimes war can be sparked by an accident, provided the countries were already planning for it. In this case, that accident, true or not, is really just an excuse to get the armies going. A convenient casus belli.
In order to attain peace, the most direct way is to get rid of those who are discontent. Appeasement works, but it is usually temporary and more costly. Brain-washing is currently the most popular method around the globe. By phrasing everything to make the world sound like a more beautiful place, and reducing the amount of media exposure of the uglier side of our world, we can live happier lives and be less upset.
Bombing for peace works more effectively than negotiations, simply because not everyone listens to reason. All the parties involved may want peace, but they may not speak the same language, so to speak. A very good example is in Israel. An outsider trying to judge the situation usually will have difficulty separating the "wrong" side from the "right" side. Everyone wants peace, but in very different forms of it. Some may want peace in the form of them living alone in that place. Some may want peace in the form of revenge. Some may want peace in the form of everyone living happily together.
Strife is unavoidable until everyone follows the same set of principles. Until then, the world cannot speak the same language and war will always exist. Fighting it out is a temporary solution, but it is the simplest. And after fighting, peace will always return, at least for the victor. Which is why everyone fighting in a war wants to win.
I have started to do it. I have never tried to do it before. It is difficult, but for the future, I must practice. Enjoy guessing.
War is not meaningless. War is not useless. War is not something we must avoid. War is a means to decide who's ideology has a stronger following. Who's beliefs are more popular. Who's followers are better.
War decides lives. War makes life more interesting. War is horrible. War is terrifying. But it is what makes humans human. Not being able to understand each other fully, mistrust is unavoidable. Cultural differences must exist. War must exist.
Go start a war. When I'm safely in my grave, of course.
Blogging is a job that requires expertise and unique experiences that no one really cares about. Such experiences include ingrown toenails, the right Shift key on keyboard being faulty, and you trusting in your girlfriend whose last name, coincidentally, ends with ".mpeg".
Typing a blog article is a strenuous and tedious task. It is essential for a blogger to have strong fingers, unholy amounts of patience and too much free time. To lack any of these is to lack the ability to be a decent blogger. And no one wants to be an indecent blogger. Kidding...
Recently I saw this bumper sticker on some forum that I can't get out of my mind. It says," Bombing for Peace is like Fucking for Virginity". In a way, it is true, but this is too simplistic a view. As I grew up, I discover a world I had never known to exist - a world where everything affects more of other things that one can ever imagine. Every action has more consequences that anyone can possibly think of before doing it.
For example, if you annoyed someone at one time, this may affect his decision to help you if you ever ask for it in the future. Every bit matters. That one time may just tilt the balance. And every action affects many other things, including that person's impression of you, that person's ability to understand you, the witnesses' impression of you and etc.
And that view about bombing for peace being the same as having sex for virginity is definitely not exactly right. After all, much peace can be created by periods of war and violence.
War is caused, generally, by discontent. Such unhappiness may not appear overnight, but they are most likely bottled up within the peoples' hearts until it reaches the highest point they can hold without resorting to violence to release it. Once that point is reached, one should be able to observe various smaller forms of such release, including protests and riots and diplomatic negotiations between the countries involved.
Anything can make the gauge rise above that level, even if it is not caused by Man. A large number of civil wars were caused by famines, which were in turn caused by droughts. The straw that broke the camel's back. Sometimes war can be sparked by an accident, provided the countries were already planning for it. In this case, that accident, true or not, is really just an excuse to get the armies going. A convenient casus belli.
In order to attain peace, the most direct way is to get rid of those who are discontent. Appeasement works, but it is usually temporary and more costly. Brain-washing is currently the most popular method around the globe. By phrasing everything to make the world sound like a more beautiful place, and reducing the amount of media exposure of the uglier side of our world, we can live happier lives and be less upset.
Bombing for peace works more effectively than negotiations, simply because not everyone listens to reason. All the parties involved may want peace, but they may not speak the same language, so to speak. A very good example is in Israel. An outsider trying to judge the situation usually will have difficulty separating the "wrong" side from the "right" side. Everyone wants peace, but in very different forms of it. Some may want peace in the form of them living alone in that place. Some may want peace in the form of revenge. Some may want peace in the form of everyone living happily together.
Strife is unavoidable until everyone follows the same set of principles. Until then, the world cannot speak the same language and war will always exist. Fighting it out is a temporary solution, but it is the simplest. And after fighting, peace will always return, at least for the victor. Which is why everyone fighting in a war wants to win.
I have started to do it. I have never tried to do it before. It is difficult, but for the future, I must practice. Enjoy guessing.
War is not meaningless. War is not useless. War is not something we must avoid. War is a means to decide who's ideology has a stronger following. Who's beliefs are more popular. Who's followers are better.
War decides lives. War makes life more interesting. War is horrible. War is terrifying. But it is what makes humans human. Not being able to understand each other fully, mistrust is unavoidable. Cultural differences must exist. War must exist.
Go start a war. When I'm safely in my grave, of course.
Friday 11 January 2008
Rant 088 / We Are Going To Need More Monkeys
Woke up on the right side of the bed? Things are going perfectly for you? Other guys' wives are flocking to you after their husbands lose their jobs?
Don't worry, if life is going too smoothly, we have just the solution for you.
Introducing Singapore opposition Parties - the death zone where all successful people go to be less successful. If you have too much money, LKY has ways to solve that. If you have too many wives, the Sg gov has the suitable solutions. If you have are too smooth with people, they have the answers that YOU want.
Mr Low(not his real name) used to be a local successful multi-billionaire in the shipping industry. He was good with people, great with business tactics and best with women. But finding his life too successful and good, he decided to join the opposition.
It was a revelation to him. He never knew how bad his life could have been if he had never gone into the wrong side of politics. He learnt to suffer in slow agony, and couldn't sleep for weeks at a time. He contracted herpes from a rent boy and ear infections from his handphone.
In short, he trashed his life. And he just couldn't get enough of it. Day and night he stand on the line between a career suicide and exile, and couldn't be happier.
This is but one of our success stories out of the thousands in our archives. We, at the League of Extraordinary Personnels (LEPers) , believe that everyone should have a chance at a life on par with that of a stray dog in the streets of Bangladesh. We know that there are those who are getting sick of their great, successful lives, and yearn for one that is disgusting and filled with inhumane depravity.
Services we offer include Eternal Damnation, Career Ruination, Slow Torture and our most popular service: Medical Treatment a la Kevorkian. With such a wide range available for all your sadistic needs, how can you miss this chance to take advantage of our Buy 2 Get 2 Free Deal?
Yes, you saw right! Buy 2 Get 2 Free Deal! If you let us slowly torture and kill you, we will make sure you are eternally damned and your remains get sued for grand theft auto, fraud, embezzlement, vandalism and even rape! And all these at the low price of 666 easy payments of $6.66! How can you pass up this chance?!
I don't think that was funny. Hmm...
If you have been reading this blog, think of all those minutes of your life you will never get back. What a waste!
We are going to need more monkeys.
Nothing happens. This is the infamous Week of the Deadly Calm.
Watched 28 Days Later and I Am Legend last night. They both have many things in common: the rest of the world is turned into Sun-fearing monsters, colonies have somehow been set up by survivors, both movies suck.
I Am Legend is unsatisfying in that I feel there's something missing. I don't know exactly what but something seems to be missing, and that sucks.
28 Days Later suck because it is just a crappy movie full of inconsistencies and illogical actions/ideas by the characters.
But watching those movies, I keep remembering the game Urban Dead, because I'm always alone except while resting for the night. I would have to move around alone and have to find a safe haven set up by other survivors before I run out of turns, This is just like the main guy in I Am Legend, who has to be home before dusk.
Finally realize what was wrong with my Shared Folders. Before, I was thinking of the Windows Vista Shared Folders as something like a common folder - 1 folder accessible by anyone in the network. Now I see that the Shared Folders are really separate folders on each computer in the network that are accessible by anyone inside. So I cannot access my Public Folder for files that are on my bro's Public folder, which is what I've been doing so far. This sounds really stupid as I type it out.
I now have my own room. Kind of. When a part-time maid cleared the mess that was in the storage room, which used to be the master bedroom, I saw the opportunity to change my nightlife. Right away I packed up the final bits of the mess, mopped the floor, polished it and sprayed insecticide on the walls.
The next day was the day I moved in. Now I have a room that will give me a relatively better measure of privacy. The cupboards are still here, filled with old stuff. There is a small hill of miscellany covered completely by two old bed sheets.
Now even though I have my room, it is still not a good idea to have anyone come over for an overnight stay, because this bedroom has a toilet. While this presents no problem for me alone, it is a whole different story when one person in the group has a stomachache with the rest in the room. We rely on natural wind-powered ventilation here, and the wind directions are not always reliable.
Not only that, I have no table in the room. I am typing this on my laptop, with me on the bed and the comp on my lap. It is definitely not advisable for 6 person to do so at the same time on my bed. Well, unless they're ladies, of course.
I wonder, is my style cold, unfeeling? Or do other guys blog with too much emotions?
Don't worry, if life is going too smoothly, we have just the solution for you.
Introducing Singapore opposition Parties - the death zone where all successful people go to be less successful. If you have too much money, LKY has ways to solve that. If you have too many wives, the Sg gov has the suitable solutions. If you have are too smooth with people, they have the answers that YOU want.
Mr Low(not his real name) used to be a local successful multi-billionaire in the shipping industry. He was good with people, great with business tactics and best with women. But finding his life too successful and good, he decided to join the opposition.
It was a revelation to him. He never knew how bad his life could have been if he had never gone into the wrong side of politics. He learnt to suffer in slow agony, and couldn't sleep for weeks at a time. He contracted herpes from a rent boy and ear infections from his handphone.
In short, he trashed his life. And he just couldn't get enough of it. Day and night he stand on the line between a career suicide and exile, and couldn't be happier.
This is but one of our success stories out of the thousands in our archives. We, at the League of Extraordinary Personnels (LEPers) , believe that everyone should have a chance at a life on par with that of a stray dog in the streets of Bangladesh. We know that there are those who are getting sick of their great, successful lives, and yearn for one that is disgusting and filled with inhumane depravity.
Services we offer include Eternal Damnation, Career Ruination, Slow Torture and our most popular service: Medical Treatment a la Kevorkian. With such a wide range available for all your sadistic needs, how can you miss this chance to take advantage of our Buy 2 Get 2 Free Deal?
Yes, you saw right! Buy 2 Get 2 Free Deal! If you let us slowly torture and kill you, we will make sure you are eternally damned and your remains get sued for grand theft auto, fraud, embezzlement, vandalism and even rape! And all these at the low price of 666 easy payments of $6.66! How can you pass up this chance?!
I don't think that was funny. Hmm...
If you have been reading this blog, think of all those minutes of your life you will never get back. What a waste!
We are going to need more monkeys.
Nothing happens. This is the infamous Week of the Deadly Calm.
Watched 28 Days Later and I Am Legend last night. They both have many things in common: the rest of the world is turned into Sun-fearing monsters, colonies have somehow been set up by survivors, both movies suck.
I Am Legend is unsatisfying in that I feel there's something missing. I don't know exactly what but something seems to be missing, and that sucks.
28 Days Later suck because it is just a crappy movie full of inconsistencies and illogical actions/ideas by the characters.
But watching those movies, I keep remembering the game Urban Dead, because I'm always alone except while resting for the night. I would have to move around alone and have to find a safe haven set up by other survivors before I run out of turns, This is just like the main guy in I Am Legend, who has to be home before dusk.
Finally realize what was wrong with my Shared Folders. Before, I was thinking of the Windows Vista Shared Folders as something like a common folder - 1 folder accessible by anyone in the network. Now I see that the Shared Folders are really separate folders on each computer in the network that are accessible by anyone inside. So I cannot access my Public Folder for files that are on my bro's Public folder, which is what I've been doing so far. This sounds really stupid as I type it out.
I now have my own room. Kind of. When a part-time maid cleared the mess that was in the storage room, which used to be the master bedroom, I saw the opportunity to change my nightlife. Right away I packed up the final bits of the mess, mopped the floor, polished it and sprayed insecticide on the walls.
The next day was the day I moved in. Now I have a room that will give me a relatively better measure of privacy. The cupboards are still here, filled with old stuff. There is a small hill of miscellany covered completely by two old bed sheets.
Now even though I have my room, it is still not a good idea to have anyone come over for an overnight stay, because this bedroom has a toilet. While this presents no problem for me alone, it is a whole different story when one person in the group has a stomachache with the rest in the room. We rely on natural wind-powered ventilation here, and the wind directions are not always reliable.
Not only that, I have no table in the room. I am typing this on my laptop, with me on the bed and the comp on my lap. It is definitely not advisable for 6 person to do so at the same time on my bed. Well, unless they're ladies, of course.
I wonder, is my style cold, unfeeling? Or do other guys blog with too much emotions?
Wednesday 9 January 2008
Rant 087 / How Does A Person Bleed For Days And Not Die? Be A Woman.
I just found this blood donation flyer at my door. "You can save life! C'mmon"(typos are from the flyer itself). Why can't we let the ladies handle this particular facet of our lives? I mean, they bleed almost every month of their bloody lives and where does all the rich, fresh blood go? Down the hole, where else?
What is the logic in this? Everyday, there are people dying because the blood or blood product that they desperately need is not available in the blood bank, yet every day we throw away good, wholesome, nutritious blood down the drains! Instead of sanitary bins, some bored smartass in the US should invent a sort of freezer that's cheap enough to be placed in every cubicle, and able store blood for some time.
The fact is, humans are born hypocrites. As babies, we are said to cry for milk all the time, yet everyone knows babies want tits, not milk. Around the globe, we beg for donations for the poor, yet everyday we dump millions of tons of food into the trash bins. There is no logic in this; we just are.
Well, actually the baby part has no link, but it just seems nice to type out.
Alright, enough bull. If you had read the entire part above, you may be confused whether they are all truth or trash. It's both.
I still can't muster the guts to sign up for a speaker slot at other Toastmasters Clubs. Gah! Even the thought of it is scary. It is hard enough to speak a 5-min speech in front of the NTU TMC, but to speak at another TMC doesn't cost points! FREE! I have to earn points by performing roles during our fortnightly meetings, and even though they're easy, its not a fast process unless I pick a tough job. So far I've been choosing easy tasks like the Sergeant-At-Arms aka sai kang warrior and the Table Topics Master, who organizes and presents the Table Topics sessions.
Harder jobs that earn more points include:
-Language Evaluator, who notes down every single grammatical, pronunciation and any types of mistakes made by everyone throughout the meeting,
-Project Evaluator, who judges and comments on one of the Prepared Speakers using a 2-3min speech, and
-Ah-Counter, who notes down every "ah", "er","hmm", non-linking sentences, non-linking words and just about any mistake a speaker shouldn't make, throughout the meeting.
Now it should be apparent why I'm not picking these roles yet.
I don't pretend to understand how most people think. Yesterday I found out a male friend of mine has a blog, and it is linked to the blog of a primary school friend of mine, a girl. The one thing that has me confused is that he stated in his blog that he loves her, yet is unable to tell her in person.
The confusion begins here: as I scanned the comments on his blog, I see all evidence of her being a regular reader of his blog. What was the point of typing out that he is unable to tell her in the face and keeping it at that? Why couldn't he go on and type more?
But he has stated in a later update that he has told her through the phone, something I rarely touch.
I don't know either of them well enough to judge who got the better side of the deal. I can say I knew her, not know. I can say I know part of him, the desperate student in him. I don't know her because she has to change in the last 10 years that I didn't see her for. I don't know the part of him who is reading manga, playing basketball and fooling around in life.
I'm ignorant of a great many things, yet what is the point of knowing so much?
Donating blood takes so much time. Why can't they stick the tube straight into the right atrium and suck it all out? The guy would probably faint for a bit, but who cares? The patient is dying! Which has a greater priority - a donator who passed out or your dad who's about to die of excessive blood loss?
Who really cares whether there is logic in the Internet? I know my blog is full of upside-down bull. Life is full of worse. If Bush can be elected President twice, how logical can life get?
Woohoo! Another overnight LAN party incoming! This time it's 7 of us, not 5. So we will only need 1 more guy from outside to make it 4v4 DoTA. Overnight. I like playing team games as long as the team doesn't whine about my noobness in games that I'm noob in. Like in Natural Selection, I prefer to play on the more pro US servers to the noob China servers. The Korean servers are fine but empty most of the time. I like big and pro servers. But in the US server I play in, my ping is always around 250 compared to the other guys with 10-100 ping. Even if I'm pro, and I'm only an average player, I cannot shoot well there.
Therefore I'm usually noob in that server, but no one complains because I try not to get in their way. I figure ways to help the team without shooting, like being the team gorge(builder class), or if someone else has taken the position, I try to other less direct strategies.
Teamwork is always enjoyable. In games this is especially easy to achieve. In MMORPGs, this is essential to have fun at higher levels. In a FPS/RTS game like Natural Selection, everything is about teamwork. Pwnage aim helps, but if that is lacking, a team that works together can more than offset the lack of one godly shooter.
The satisfaction of teamwork is what drives me to play online games. Back in WoW, that was what kept pulling back until I feared I would never be able to get out. Now it's Natural Selection, as it has always been for 4 years. Or is it 5 now? All I know is that I started at v1.04, when games lasted for hours and I can quit halfway through for a meal, then come back for the same round.
NS is different from the other more famous Half-Life mods in that the teamwork is more organized in public servers. In Team Fortress, it is also about teamwork but no one is needed to organize the teams' efforts. In CS, teamwork is usually found in servers with extra mods, or in competitive play.
Now I'm back to Heroes of Might and Magic V. At the moment I'm still at the last round of the Fortress Campaign. Even though I don't have the save files from my previous try, cheat codes are easy to find. I just kept using @Win() until I reach the round I don't remember playing, then I gave my Wulfstan 30,000 exp and went on with the game.
The Fortress race seems so strong, so solid, yet in actual place the units seem so weak. Somehow the formidable-looking bear riders die like flies every time they get hit. And the Spearwielder does practically negligible damage. The only good it does is the crippling wound it occasionally does. At least the salamander is strong. In fact, it's stronger than it looks. Hell, even the Thane looks stronger than it, but the Thane has crap for HP.
I'm starting to use the Berserker's special ability less often. It is always so tempting to use it every turn. You know, it's like letting loose a mad dog into a human crowd. Feels fantastic, but after its turn, it'd be the enemies' turn to feel fantastic. But still, it's so weak! All the HP/Defense of all the Fortress units seem so low, other than the Magma Lizard or whatever it's called. Sometimes it's very frustrating to see my beloved bear riders reduced drastically in numbers with every blow it gets, which it gets a lot because I always push it ahead of my other units.
But if I don't make full use of it's mobile range, I'd have to depend on my range units to take care of the enemy range units. And this is bullshit because only the Runic Priests do decent damage. The Spearwielder is for slowing down melee units, not for damaging them. Or I can send in the Thane, but the results would be the same, just more expensive for me.
At least the Runes are useful, especially the Rune that doubles the unit's mobile range. Totally rocks in all those situations where your unit can almost reach the ranged unit but just can't get there in time.
What is the logic in this? Everyday, there are people dying because the blood or blood product that they desperately need is not available in the blood bank, yet every day we throw away good, wholesome, nutritious blood down the drains! Instead of sanitary bins, some bored smartass in the US should invent a sort of freezer that's cheap enough to be placed in every cubicle, and able store blood for some time.
The fact is, humans are born hypocrites. As babies, we are said to cry for milk all the time, yet everyone knows babies want tits, not milk. Around the globe, we beg for donations for the poor, yet everyday we dump millions of tons of food into the trash bins. There is no logic in this; we just are.
Well, actually the baby part has no link, but it just seems nice to type out.
Alright, enough bull. If you had read the entire part above, you may be confused whether they are all truth or trash. It's both.
I still can't muster the guts to sign up for a speaker slot at other Toastmasters Clubs. Gah! Even the thought of it is scary. It is hard enough to speak a 5-min speech in front of the NTU TMC, but to speak at another TMC doesn't cost points! FREE! I have to earn points by performing roles during our fortnightly meetings, and even though they're easy, its not a fast process unless I pick a tough job. So far I've been choosing easy tasks like the Sergeant-At-Arms aka sai kang warrior and the Table Topics Master, who organizes and presents the Table Topics sessions.
Harder jobs that earn more points include:
-Language Evaluator, who notes down every single grammatical, pronunciation and any types of mistakes made by everyone throughout the meeting,
-Project Evaluator, who judges and comments on one of the Prepared Speakers using a 2-3min speech, and
-Ah-Counter, who notes down every "ah", "er","hmm", non-linking sentences, non-linking words and just about any mistake a speaker shouldn't make, throughout the meeting.
Now it should be apparent why I'm not picking these roles yet.
I don't pretend to understand how most people think. Yesterday I found out a male friend of mine has a blog, and it is linked to the blog of a primary school friend of mine, a girl. The one thing that has me confused is that he stated in his blog that he loves her, yet is unable to tell her in person.
The confusion begins here: as I scanned the comments on his blog, I see all evidence of her being a regular reader of his blog. What was the point of typing out that he is unable to tell her in the face and keeping it at that? Why couldn't he go on and type more?
But he has stated in a later update that he has told her through the phone, something I rarely touch.
I don't know either of them well enough to judge who got the better side of the deal. I can say I knew her, not know. I can say I know part of him, the desperate student in him. I don't know her because she has to change in the last 10 years that I didn't see her for. I don't know the part of him who is reading manga, playing basketball and fooling around in life.
I'm ignorant of a great many things, yet what is the point of knowing so much?
Donating blood takes so much time. Why can't they stick the tube straight into the right atrium and suck it all out? The guy would probably faint for a bit, but who cares? The patient is dying! Which has a greater priority - a donator who passed out or your dad who's about to die of excessive blood loss?
Who really cares whether there is logic in the Internet? I know my blog is full of upside-down bull. Life is full of worse. If Bush can be elected President twice, how logical can life get?
Woohoo! Another overnight LAN party incoming! This time it's 7 of us, not 5. So we will only need 1 more guy from outside to make it 4v4 DoTA. Overnight. I like playing team games as long as the team doesn't whine about my noobness in games that I'm noob in. Like in Natural Selection, I prefer to play on the more pro US servers to the noob China servers. The Korean servers are fine but empty most of the time. I like big and pro servers. But in the US server I play in, my ping is always around 250 compared to the other guys with 10-100 ping. Even if I'm pro, and I'm only an average player, I cannot shoot well there.
Therefore I'm usually noob in that server, but no one complains because I try not to get in their way. I figure ways to help the team without shooting, like being the team gorge(builder class), or if someone else has taken the position, I try to other less direct strategies.
Teamwork is always enjoyable. In games this is especially easy to achieve. In MMORPGs, this is essential to have fun at higher levels. In a FPS/RTS game like Natural Selection, everything is about teamwork. Pwnage aim helps, but if that is lacking, a team that works together can more than offset the lack of one godly shooter.
The satisfaction of teamwork is what drives me to play online games. Back in WoW, that was what kept pulling back until I feared I would never be able to get out. Now it's Natural Selection, as it has always been for 4 years. Or is it 5 now? All I know is that I started at v1.04, when games lasted for hours and I can quit halfway through for a meal, then come back for the same round.
NS is different from the other more famous Half-Life mods in that the teamwork is more organized in public servers. In Team Fortress, it is also about teamwork but no one is needed to organize the teams' efforts. In CS, teamwork is usually found in servers with extra mods, or in competitive play.
Now I'm back to Heroes of Might and Magic V. At the moment I'm still at the last round of the Fortress Campaign. Even though I don't have the save files from my previous try, cheat codes are easy to find. I just kept using @Win() until I reach the round I don't remember playing, then I gave my Wulfstan 30,000 exp and went on with the game.
The Fortress race seems so strong, so solid, yet in actual place the units seem so weak. Somehow the formidable-looking bear riders die like flies every time they get hit. And the Spearwielder does practically negligible damage. The only good it does is the crippling wound it occasionally does. At least the salamander is strong. In fact, it's stronger than it looks. Hell, even the Thane looks stronger than it, but the Thane has crap for HP.
I'm starting to use the Berserker's special ability less often. It is always so tempting to use it every turn. You know, it's like letting loose a mad dog into a human crowd. Feels fantastic, but after its turn, it'd be the enemies' turn to feel fantastic. But still, it's so weak! All the HP/Defense of all the Fortress units seem so low, other than the Magma Lizard or whatever it's called. Sometimes it's very frustrating to see my beloved bear riders reduced drastically in numbers with every blow it gets, which it gets a lot because I always push it ahead of my other units.
But if I don't make full use of it's mobile range, I'd have to depend on my range units to take care of the enemy range units. And this is bullshit because only the Runic Priests do decent damage. The Spearwielder is for slowing down melee units, not for damaging them. Or I can send in the Thane, but the results would be the same, just more expensive for me.
At least the Runes are useful, especially the Rune that doubles the unit's mobile range. Totally rocks in all those situations where your unit can almost reach the ranged unit but just can't get there in time.
Friday 4 January 2008
Rant 086 / Girlfriends Are For Lozers Who Can't Download Pr0n!
Miracles of miracles! I can actually play Natural Selection in campus!! Well, only for a few hours a day, but as people start to waste bandwidth surfing their pointless websites during their free time I will not get to play again. In hall, at least. But there's no hurry! I have planned my schedule in such a way that I have every alternate Friday FREE!! Together with the fact that my first lesson of the week falls on Monday AFTERNOON, it is going to be a great semester... theoretically.
But as long as the ping doesn't hit 600, I can still play as the builder and camp in base lol.
But it is so hard to get the right electives!!! Right now I want to take 3 electives, but I can only confirm 1. I have successfully got 2, but Digital Lifestyles is really about the technical stuff of everyday electronic devices. Fuck that! I want something that's quite simple, like Cyber Security. But right now it's full. Patience is a virtue, in this case. I have up to 20th Jan to wait. Patience.
I have given up on Simcity Societies. It sucks balls. I have just removed it from my laptop. Even removing it was troublesome. It took just about forever to "retrieve necessary information", and made me worry that it had crashed. EA can go screw itself. Everything EA buys, it ruins. Heroes of Might and Magic, Command and Conquer, SimCity. Why doesn't EA get sued the hell out of it like Microsoft does? There is no justice in life, apparently.
So now I'm installing HOMMV with both expansions. New races, 1 in each expansion! Weeee!
My clock tells me I need to sleep. My mind tells me I need to sleep. The construction yard outside my window tells me I better sleep. But I can't sleep. I keep thinking about things. Many things. Things like what I can use as the topic for my next speech in Toastmasters. Things like how I'm going to handle Maths 2 this sem. Things like how EA should suck my balls. I have difficulty sleeping. And it seems my roommate is some sort of robot and doesn't sleep. He can mug all day, chat all evening, play all night and next morning he has lessons at 8.30am. I need pills.
I was reading this article on these 2 time capsules buried 60 years ago in New York, and are supposed to be opened in 5000 years time. Yes, they are to be opened in 6939! Holy cow! The metals used in each are supposed to withstand 5000 years of corrosion. In it are items from that time, microfilms containing a whole bunch of useless things and messages from lot's of people including Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann and R0bert Milikan.
Their messages are available in the article in Wikipedia, and they did write them expecting the readers to be living in the year 6939 CE. This feels to me like a outstandingly romantic idea. It is completely motivated by the heart, not the mind. There is no reason for the capsules' existence other than emotional reasons, like the expectations of great emotions when the people in the future finds it, or that the sponsors wanted to be remembered for as long as they can make the capsules last. There is no practical reason for spending money on this, for the people who built them.
This is a classic case of "I'm spending truckloads of money just because I feel like it."
Some people are just too rich. I should set up a charity fund for these people. A charity fund that benefits people who waste time blogging about how people are just too rich.
But as long as the ping doesn't hit 600, I can still play as the builder and camp in base lol.
But it is so hard to get the right electives!!! Right now I want to take 3 electives, but I can only confirm 1. I have successfully got 2, but Digital Lifestyles is really about the technical stuff of everyday electronic devices. Fuck that! I want something that's quite simple, like Cyber Security. But right now it's full. Patience is a virtue, in this case. I have up to 20th Jan to wait. Patience.
I have given up on Simcity Societies. It sucks balls. I have just removed it from my laptop. Even removing it was troublesome. It took just about forever to "retrieve necessary information", and made me worry that it had crashed. EA can go screw itself. Everything EA buys, it ruins. Heroes of Might and Magic, Command and Conquer, SimCity. Why doesn't EA get sued the hell out of it like Microsoft does? There is no justice in life, apparently.
So now I'm installing HOMMV with both expansions. New races, 1 in each expansion! Weeee!
My clock tells me I need to sleep. My mind tells me I need to sleep. The construction yard outside my window tells me I better sleep. But I can't sleep. I keep thinking about things. Many things. Things like what I can use as the topic for my next speech in Toastmasters. Things like how I'm going to handle Maths 2 this sem. Things like how EA should suck my balls. I have difficulty sleeping. And it seems my roommate is some sort of robot and doesn't sleep. He can mug all day, chat all evening, play all night and next morning he has lessons at 8.30am. I need pills.
I was reading this article on these 2 time capsules buried 60 years ago in New York, and are supposed to be opened in 5000 years time. Yes, they are to be opened in 6939! Holy cow! The metals used in each are supposed to withstand 5000 years of corrosion. In it are items from that time, microfilms containing a whole bunch of useless things and messages from lot's of people including Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann and R0bert Milikan.
Their messages are available in the article in Wikipedia, and they did write them expecting the readers to be living in the year 6939 CE. This feels to me like a outstandingly romantic idea. It is completely motivated by the heart, not the mind. There is no reason for the capsules' existence other than emotional reasons, like the expectations of great emotions when the people in the future finds it, or that the sponsors wanted to be remembered for as long as they can make the capsules last. There is no practical reason for spending money on this, for the people who built them.
This is a classic case of "I'm spending truckloads of money just because I feel like it."
Some people are just too rich. I should set up a charity fund for these people. A charity fund that benefits people who waste time blogging about how people are just too rich.
Tuesday 1 January 2008
Rant 085 / Confucian
It's a brand new year. The year 2008 promises to be a full dozen months of despair, broken promises, unnecessary stress and leaky condoms! But fear not - with those leaky condoms, all your other problems will be nothing compared to your pregnant girlfriend forcing you into a shotgun marriage you were never meant for!
Indeed, 2008 is one of the best years in the century, together with 2018, 2028, ...2088, 2098, according to the ancient Chinese scholarly research. There is evidence that in each year that contains the digit 8, someone must prosper. This theory has not been proven wrong so far, and is accepted as a inexplicably real phenomenon by most sociologists.
There are theories that suggest the digit 8 is linked to the Underworld, the realm of the Devil. As the Devil is the most evil of all beings - 80% in fact, it is the main source of all money. As the saying goes," Evil is the root of all money." Whether you square root or cube root money, you will always get 4/5 of the Devil.
Just like the chief export of Chuck Norris is Pain, the chief export of the Devil is Moolah. And if you're not evil, it probably means you have no Moolah. Without the cash for an abortion, despair, broken promises, unnecessary stress will all be integrated into the principal part of your life.
Of course, as an expert in shitty lives, I always have a solution for you:
I have no idea where the idea for the entire essay above came from. It just came into my mind as I typed the title.
I'm playing Neverwinter Nights 2 again, but this time as a Favoured Soul, going for Stormlord. I find the game somewhat boring. Maybe it's because I haven't forgotten enough. Damn, I need a nicer game. SimCity Societies is quite boring too, coz it's really too easy, at least in the first 10mins I've played so far.
Maybe I should install Heroes V with both expansion, and play the campaigns. I think I was at dwarven campaign or something when I stopped. Oh well, I hope Starcraft 2 comes out in June, even though it seems highly unlikely.
Only game that is interesting is Natural Selection. Good ol' NS. Always there when all else fails. And now I get to pwn China nubs. Yay! They suck at comming, but after months of practice while I was away, their standards are improving. Most of them are actually aware that the Aliens need the 2nd hive in the first 6mins to win. What a huge difference from the retards I was embarrassed to play with half a year back.
And somehow many European players are playing in the US servers now. Some Singaporeans too, but I'm only aware of a few. These invaders seem to like lame maps like siege better than normal maps. Just like Aussies. At least it adds a little variety to the normal routine.
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