In real life, silencers do not reduce the noise caused by firing guns into a mouse fart. Some do reduce the noise (but not to that degree), others simply hide the source of the sound, ie make nearby people think the gun is at another location.
This month's edition of National Geographic magazine contains a few photos taken by Hubble. Looking at them, it made me realize how tiny everything is. "Size is relative", quote from Stephen King's Gunslinger series. How true.
Reminds me of this insult about Singapore being a tiny red dot. Compared to the rest of the galaxy, Earth isn't even a visible dot; compared to the rest of the Universe, our entire Milky Way is basically a negligible bit of coagulated dust.
From this, another realization: even when you think you know how immense our Universe is, you really don't. You have nothing to compare it with, hence you cannot truly see the scale of things it is made of. Without a suitable gauge, how can we tell the size of Everything?
It is hard even to comprehend the magnitude of a single light-year. Sure, you can tell me it's 10^13 (ten trillion) kilometres, but can you imagine that?
Those photos in the magazine show so much, yet so little. Ten more lifetimes wouldn't be enough to visit every single star and planet in one of those pictures even if we have the technologies for light speed travel.
Size is definitely relative. What is really big and small? It's all in our minds.
So I heard carrot avocado milkshake (aka smoothies) taste good. Sounds like a good idea, going to try it someday.
Getting tired of ME2's minigame for searching for minerals. Minerals are necessary for upgrades, which has replaced ME1's equipment system. It's so tedious to scan every inch of each planet. At least in ME1 it's more fun to drive the Mako around hoping to encounter an undiscovered Thresher Maw and reaping $$$.
The bonuses for completing ME2 once did give me some cool mineral bonuses, but 50k of each of the 4 doesn't really help much, except for Element Zero which is very rare and not used frequently. Now I have too much Element Zero, though it used to be that my heart would leap whenever I discover deposits of this on planets.
Also, can't wait to finally get the Probes upgrade so that I can store more. 30 is way too little. It really breaks my momentum when I run out of Probes and have to go to a nearby depot for a refill.
Other than that, things are going well. Finally got used to the style of the Sentinel, realized I've been playing too much like a Soldier. Soldiers don't use abilities often and just shoot to kill, while other classes require more frequent use of their abilities.
According to some online discussions, the Sentinel really isn't the hardest class to use. Apparently it's even worse to go as the Infiltrator. Not sure why, probably because I love sniping. Or maybe it's because they don't get extra armour or shields.
Anyway, I'm loving Throw. Its fast cooldown makes its close to my second close-combat weapon. Also very useful for certain situations because I can bend it (yea like Beckham or Avatar, whatever). By aiming my crosshair away from the target while keep the lock-on brackets on it, I can fling my Throw (it's a ball-like thing) in the direction of my crosshair and it would then curve towards my target.
It usually disrupts them, though it doesn't allow me to shoot them like Reave does (they just fall behind their original cover to another cover). One use for this, other than pushing enemies away so that I can fire at them, is to stop enemies who are approaching me from an angle blocked by an obstacle.
Reave, to me, is very useful in two ways. First it is effective at damaging the enemies no matter what protection they have, be it biotic barriers or shields. Second, it disables unprotected enemies and forces them to stand up, making them easy targets for sniping. For this reason, I hate Pull. Floating, free-moving targets aren't easy to follow.
Sunday 31 January 2010
Saturday 30 January 2010
Rant 486 / Notto Disu Shitto Agen
Finally found a second annoying bug in the game. At the part after you complete Mordin's special quest at Tuchanka, if you choose to stay, saving and then reloading will cause your team to be unable to return to the Normandy. The F key will return to the normal melee attack after reloading. Good thing I save like I'm paranoid, had a save just before opening that final door.
Yea it's this shit again. ME2 is everywhere! All major forums have threads, if not entirely new sections, for this game. I will probably continue to rant about it for quite a number of days.
I've been getting pwned too often ever since I started playing on Hardcore as a Sentinel. Died again, this time at the Thresher Maw. Not going to say where in order to avoid spoilers. The last time I was there, I was a Soldier with more HP so I could just shrug off a spit or two from it.
Now as a Sentinel at this difficulty, my Lv2 Tech Armour can take 1 spit and the next almost kills me. I die from three hits. Discovered this when I died on my first try this run. On the second try (I saved immediately before the fight), I sprinted like hell to put a solid pillar between me and it each time I saw where it was going.
Missed/overshot a few times, but I managed to survive and kill it again with less than a minute left (had about 3 mins left on my first run as the Soldier). Ran out of heavy weapon ammo and had to kill it with my submachine gun. I was actually worried that I might be taking too long when I saw that I had a minute left.
I can see that Mass Effect 2 is a bigger game than the first. Hell, Mass Effect 1 looks like it's just a prologue compared to this. Even if there are fewer sidequests (which I cannot confirm since I haven't explored that much yet), the fact that players get lots of superficial differences depending on what they've imported from the first game means a lot more work was required in at least the scripting and voice acting.
I still need to complete more sidequests to see if there are any major differences due to my ME1 imported data. For example, I have yet to find out if saving the rachni makes any significant difference in ME2. All I have so far is an additional conversation.
There is this sidequest from an asari whom I encountered in Feros. According to the ME wiki (I can't remember what happened with this minor NPC from the first game), players are given the choice to save or kill her in the first game's main questline. I guess saving her in the first game gives an additional quest in the second.
Now I'm also wondering what would have happened if I had let the Council die in the first game. I've never let that happen, so I'd have to play ME1 again to find out. Unless I'm given the choice to pick this option if I start a new character without imported data. Both options don't sound good though. ME1 isn't as interesting after 3-4 runs. Playing ME2 without imported data means much fewer bonuses at the beginning, bonuses I've gotten used to already.
Thursday 28 January 2010
Rant 485 / The iPad Is A Virtual Female Hygiene Product
The iPad looks interesting and I think it's pretty cheap (500 USD) compared to other gadgets for this sort. Then again, I haven't much knowledge about this device. Got to wait some more to see what it really is made of.
ME2 is worth the buy, from what I've seen so far. Gameplay is almost perfect, except for the nearness of the protagonist to the screen. I'd prefer more distance between him and me so that he blocks less of my view.
Almost perfect. I'll give it 9/10. I've played through once, completing all the side-quests that would give my party members their fourth abilities. I have only encountered 1 major glitch that caused my guy to get stuck. No crashes, nothing. Even alt-tabbing is completely fine. I went so far as to alt-tab out to watch a movie on Windows Media Player while having dinner. I returned to the game smoothly.
Bugs also include about 3 occasions when the people moved unnaturally during conversations, Shepard's head not moving when I run around (he keeps staring at the side when I move him after a conversation with Joker) and Shepard not changing direction when I move my mouse until I hit Escape and return. Nothing that would kill me.
Story is fine, except it's not as flattering as the one in first game. In ME1 you end up as the hero that saved a galaxy, but ME2 ended rather quietly. Not spoiling anything here, so I'll not go into details.
Difficulty is raised. Hardcore mode in ME2 is much more difficult than Insanity on ME1. ME1 Insanity mode doesn't kill me multiple times on one of the bosses in the main quest except for that one Krogan Warlord when I was saving Liara. Did I mention I was using the physically weakest class, Sentinel, on Hardcore? Using a Soldier is always easy because he's got extra HP and damage, but a Sentinel only has extra armour.
Also ammo is a huge problem. In ME1 we get infinite ammo. In ME2 guns need to cooldown using "thermal clips". In practice it is the same as needing bullets and I can never get enough of them to last throughout long battles unless I run around. I can no longer just stay at the furthest defensive position and snipe the heck out of the entire enemy army. Now I have to run around to pick up the ammo they drop if I want to keep sniping. As a Soldier I can only hold 12 Sniper rounds (for the good rifles).
Enemies also use their powers a lot. Dodging them is a necessity. Fortunately they don't use the same powers as my party does. However they do know how to use Tech Armour like my Sentinel, which raises armour level. At least that's better than them being able to use Incinerate or Pull. If you play the game you'll know what these does.
Finished a first run with a Soldier imported from ME1. It was my first character, so I thought it's only right to use it again as my first in this sequel. Started out on Veteran difficulty, since its description says it's recommended for players who have beaten ME1. Bullshit. It's too easy. The only time I died was because of the glitch that got me stuck that I mentioned somewhere above.
Soldier + sniper specialty (you can get the training late into the game) = killing machine. By exploiting a certain game mechanism, snipers with the multiple ammo skills you get as a Soldier are basically invincible. The game mechanism I'm talking about is the ability to move your crosshair while paused by holding Shift. Once the guy pops his head up to fire at you, hold Shift and aim, then release Shift and fire. Bang! Headshot! Next target please!
Now I'm in my second run as a Sentinel (also imported) on Hardcore difficulty. Much harder. In fact I'm dying in normal battles with mini-bosses, eg Geth Primes. I'm also getting used to hitting F for melee attacks, something I've never bothered to use before. Getting into desperate situations more frequently than I'd like.
I'm not sure if I can handle Insanity after this. Probably will take a break from ME2 after this since I'm planning to complete all sidequests in this second run.
Light salt, contains half the usual sodium. In other words, there is only half a jar of salt. No seriously, it's true. The other half is potassium chloride (KCl). Pretty sure that other salt doesn't do anything. According to Wikipedia, it has a weak and bitter flavour.
Why the heck does anyone want to ruin their salt with that??
If that isn't enough, KCl is toxic if you eat too much of it. There is a 50% chance of dying if you consume 2.5g per kg of your own body weight, eg take 250g of potassium chloride if you're 100kg. That jar has 311g and assuming it's exactly 50% KCl, you can't pour the entire jar into your mouth if you weigh 62.2kg or less.
I really don't get why there are people who actually buy that instead of using less salt instead.
A shop in my neighbourhood is selling large unbranded packets (maybe 500g, not sure) of salted macadamia nuts for S$13.60. That's significantly cheaper than those branded ones available at supermarkets. This and certain other unbranded foods are available only for Chinese New Year. I think I should buy a few more packets to last half a year, maybe store them in the fridge or something since they don't have an expiry date. I'm not going to eat them all consecutively, just in case you get the wrong ideas.
Quality is pretty good, tested half a packet already. Wonder where they got this from.
ME2 is worth the buy, from what I've seen so far. Gameplay is almost perfect, except for the nearness of the protagonist to the screen. I'd prefer more distance between him and me so that he blocks less of my view.
Almost perfect. I'll give it 9/10. I've played through once, completing all the side-quests that would give my party members their fourth abilities. I have only encountered 1 major glitch that caused my guy to get stuck. No crashes, nothing. Even alt-tabbing is completely fine. I went so far as to alt-tab out to watch a movie on Windows Media Player while having dinner. I returned to the game smoothly.
Bugs also include about 3 occasions when the people moved unnaturally during conversations, Shepard's head not moving when I run around (he keeps staring at the side when I move him after a conversation with Joker) and Shepard not changing direction when I move my mouse until I hit Escape and return. Nothing that would kill me.
Story is fine, except it's not as flattering as the one in first game. In ME1 you end up as the hero that saved a galaxy, but ME2 ended rather quietly. Not spoiling anything here, so I'll not go into details.
Difficulty is raised. Hardcore mode in ME2 is much more difficult than Insanity on ME1. ME1 Insanity mode doesn't kill me multiple times on one of the bosses in the main quest except for that one Krogan Warlord when I was saving Liara. Did I mention I was using the physically weakest class, Sentinel, on Hardcore? Using a Soldier is always easy because he's got extra HP and damage, but a Sentinel only has extra armour.
Also ammo is a huge problem. In ME1 we get infinite ammo. In ME2 guns need to cooldown using "thermal clips". In practice it is the same as needing bullets and I can never get enough of them to last throughout long battles unless I run around. I can no longer just stay at the furthest defensive position and snipe the heck out of the entire enemy army. Now I have to run around to pick up the ammo they drop if I want to keep sniping. As a Soldier I can only hold 12 Sniper rounds (for the good rifles).
Enemies also use their powers a lot. Dodging them is a necessity. Fortunately they don't use the same powers as my party does. However they do know how to use Tech Armour like my Sentinel, which raises armour level. At least that's better than them being able to use Incinerate or Pull. If you play the game you'll know what these does.
Finished a first run with a Soldier imported from ME1. It was my first character, so I thought it's only right to use it again as my first in this sequel. Started out on Veteran difficulty, since its description says it's recommended for players who have beaten ME1. Bullshit. It's too easy. The only time I died was because of the glitch that got me stuck that I mentioned somewhere above.
Soldier + sniper specialty (you can get the training late into the game) = killing machine. By exploiting a certain game mechanism, snipers with the multiple ammo skills you get as a Soldier are basically invincible. The game mechanism I'm talking about is the ability to move your crosshair while paused by holding Shift. Once the guy pops his head up to fire at you, hold Shift and aim, then release Shift and fire. Bang! Headshot! Next target please!
Now I'm in my second run as a Sentinel (also imported) on Hardcore difficulty. Much harder. In fact I'm dying in normal battles with mini-bosses, eg Geth Primes. I'm also getting used to hitting F for melee attacks, something I've never bothered to use before. Getting into desperate situations more frequently than I'd like.
I'm not sure if I can handle Insanity after this. Probably will take a break from ME2 after this since I'm planning to complete all sidequests in this second run.
Light salt, contains half the usual sodium. In other words, there is only half a jar of salt. No seriously, it's true. The other half is potassium chloride (KCl). Pretty sure that other salt doesn't do anything. According to Wikipedia, it has a weak and bitter flavour.
Why the heck does anyone want to ruin their salt with that??
If that isn't enough, KCl is toxic if you eat too much of it. There is a 50% chance of dying if you consume 2.5g per kg of your own body weight, eg take 250g of potassium chloride if you're 100kg. That jar has 311g and assuming it's exactly 50% KCl, you can't pour the entire jar into your mouth if you weigh 62.2kg or less.
I really don't get why there are people who actually buy that instead of using less salt instead.
A shop in my neighbourhood is selling large unbranded packets (maybe 500g, not sure) of salted macadamia nuts for S$13.60. That's significantly cheaper than those branded ones available at supermarkets. This and certain other unbranded foods are available only for Chinese New Year. I think I should buy a few more packets to last half a year, maybe store them in the fridge or something since they don't have an expiry date. I'm not going to eat them all consecutively, just in case you get the wrong ideas.
Quality is pretty good, tested half a packet already. Wonder where they got this from.
Wednesday 27 January 2010
Rant 484 / Lemmings? Lemons?
There is this very interesting anime being aired in Japan right now. It's about this guy who can manipulate the element Iron at the molecular level. What caught my attention wasn't this, but how the Qwaser, as he is called, derives his powers - by breastfeeding.
Mind blown.
I still have half the lemon left, minus one slice. It's been over 24 hours, reaching 48 hours soon. I had placed the sliced lemon in a small bowl with the flat side down and the slices arranged as closely to their uncut positions as possible. This minimized the dehydration from evaporation, but the lemon can only last so long in the fridge this way.
Mind blown.
I still have half the lemon left, minus one slice. It's been over 24 hours, reaching 48 hours soon. I had placed the sliced lemon in a small bowl with the flat side down and the slices arranged as closely to their uncut positions as possible. This minimized the dehydration from evaporation, but the lemon can only last so long in the fridge this way.
Rant 483 / Question.
I have half a lemon, sliced. What should I do with it?
I have teabags, hot water, cold water, frozen water, sugar, creamer, milk, instant coffee, Milo Fuze, instant cereal, instant miso soup, condensed milk, bacon, ham, frozen fish fingers.
I think I'll use 1 slice with the fish fingers. Then what? No more lemon tea please, used the other half of the lemon for that already.
I have teabags, hot water, cold water, frozen water, sugar, creamer, milk, instant coffee, Milo Fuze, instant cereal, instant miso soup, condensed milk, bacon, ham, frozen fish fingers.
I think I'll use 1 slice with the fish fingers. Then what? No more lemon tea please, used the other half of the lemon for that already.
Monday 25 January 2010
Rant 482 / ME2 Is Meeting My Expectations.
Final Season Of 'Lost' Promises To Make Fans More Annoying Than Ever
So I've got this theory about how the island made time travel possible...
I am frickin sure I'm booking IPT after this. RT has 20 compulsory sessions spread over 2 phases each lasting a month. 2 sessions per week for the first month, 3 sessions per week for the second. Going for these 2.5-hour long sessions every evening on Mon, Wed and Sat is annoying.
On the other hand, IPT has only 8 sessions and can be sped up by taking 3 sessions a week.
In the camp I go to, IPT seems to be tougher than RT and sometimes last longer. Mindef also pays me $12 per session of RT (IPT is unpaid, free-of-charge physical training). However, these are really nothing compared to the 12-session difference.
I'm now reaping the rewards of my inaction. Ever since I started playing FoM I've always done what I could to passively reject taking important roles in my faction. My excuse to them was that I dislike responsibilities, which is true.
To gain rank more quickly, a VI has to join a department and be active. I was active but declined any hint of an invitation to join a department. Despite that, I was promoted to rank 4, Engineer, soon after they started the retail version of the game, about 3 weeks after I started playing.
Rank 4 is the highest a free account user can go, and I can send 1000 Penalty Points to anyone from Rank 0 to 3. It sounds nifty but in practice, it's quite useless.
Now I'm glad I rejected even the direct invitation from the CEO to be the co-leader of the Research and Development department because I can completely stop playing FoM without guilt. Don't even need to leave a note to explain anything. Happy happy joy joy.
Saturday 23 January 2010
Rant 481 / Drag
You know what is the best part of playing a good game? It's when you've just clicked on New Game for the first time.
It's the same with everything else you expect to enjoy. Like a visit to a foreign country. The trip to the airport, that first sniff of the air of the plane's cabin, those are together the best part of the trip.
The reason, to me, is this: that is when all your expectations and fantasies about it is about to be fulfilled. Success is imminent. It is when reality hasn't set in yet, before it slaps you in the face. All you can think about is all those wonderful things that are about to happen, and your recognition that life isn't perfect is just a tiny shadow of a whisper at the very back end of your mind.
All that waiting, all the preparation, all your plans, they're about to come to fruition. That is the perfect moment.
Hence I'm typing this, trying to drag this moment just a little longer.
It's the same with everything else you expect to enjoy. Like a visit to a foreign country. The trip to the airport, that first sniff of the air of the plane's cabin, those are together the best part of the trip.
The reason, to me, is this: that is when all your expectations and fantasies about it is about to be fulfilled. Success is imminent. It is when reality hasn't set in yet, before it slaps you in the face. All you can think about is all those wonderful things that are about to happen, and your recognition that life isn't perfect is just a tiny shadow of a whisper at the very back end of your mind.
All that waiting, all the preparation, all your plans, they're about to come to fruition. That is the perfect moment.
Hence I'm typing this, trying to drag this moment just a little longer.
Thursday 21 January 2010
Rant 480 / Murder Death Kill
Mass Effect 2 was released on Piratebay by Razor1911 on Thursday local time, almost a week before the North American release. Within 2 days there were over 170 seeds and 16k leeches. Still doesn't beat Naruto subs by DB at its prime, but its definitely a sign of its immense popularity.
All hail Razor1911, champion of this round of game-hacking!
All hail Razor1911, champion of this round of game-hacking!
Tuesday 12 January 2010
Rant 479 / Braise Yourselves
One morning I was on this bus, sleeping (I'm not a morning person). It was kinda crowded and there was this girl sharing the seat with me. Didn't look at her, too busy going unconscious.
Anyway I woke up halfway through the trip with an itchy nose. Rubbed my nose and felt something tug deep in my nasal cavity. You know, the part that gets horribly uncomfortable if you accidentally breathe in water. So I rubbed again with a more sensitive part of my hand and found this hair sticking out of my nose. I pulled it, and... HOLY FUCK I ALMOST BREATHED IN A FUCKING LONG STRAND OF HAIR! AND IT'S NOT EVEN MINE!
That ruined my sleep for the rest of my trip.
FoM forced me to learn a lesson on trading: demand isn't logical. Throughout this protracted war between EC/BoS and GD, ammo isn't selling as briskly as I had expected. C'mon, it makes sense that bullets and guns would sell well in a long war, but no, that isn't happening.
In fact, it's medkits and pizzas (one of the performance boosting foods) that are selling like hotcakes especially in warzones.
Speaking of warzones, I LOVE them! Now I understand why there are warmongers - demand for certain things always spike when there is fighting. It's such a dramatic rise, I can even tell which colony is being raided solely by the sales of my products. I have to keep running into warzones and through the battles to restock my goods.
The profits are so good, I don't even hesitate to enter those places (350uc per resurrection, pretty cheap relatively speaking).
I didn't know there were any Singaporeans in FoM till today. I was busy restocking and sending warnings to fellow members for undercutting me (I'm, after all, a mid-ranking VI) when a fellow VI told me in Faction Chat to read General Chat.
So I switch the Chat mode and found this Mercenary trying to talk to me. I was trying to cut the awkwardness by saying "Hi! Sup" when he greeted me with "Ho sei bo"
After so long in FoM I finally found a fellow Singaporean. And just when I thought he's the only other Singaporean in the game, he told me there are others. I am kinda surprised.
This month's National Geographic magazine's article on Singapore describes the country the same way as what I've seen on the Internet all along by foreigners who know about us.
The entire essay, to me, could be summarized into just the single question asked by the author near the beginning: What price prosperity and security?
The island city is portrayed as somewhere close to the extreme end of the Order scale - law and order is almost perfectly maintained but with little freedom to do anything but what the government wants you to do.
The writer even mentioned North Korea, making Singapore sound like what it would be like if Kim Il Sung had succeeded. Not that it's bad; success is never a negative thing.
Or is it?
The last book of the Dune series contained a couple of philosophical ideas that put into words what I have thought of before. The most important idea was one of the rules the Mentats follow - that to learn, one must know nothing.
In this, to "know" something is to be completely sure it is true. The truth is perception, facts included. I find it very true because most adults hold so many things as perfect, unyielding truths that they refuse to accept alternatives.
We have so many examples that teach us that, yet we find it so hard to remember the lesson. One major example would be Newton's Laws which have been proven wrong by Einstein. Now we all know it's not completely correct, but no one thinks about how they were treated as perfect truths till Al arrived on the scene.
The truth is not definitely the truth and once we get that, we learn and think better.
Sunday 10 January 2010
Rant 478 / Your != You're
If you laughed, you've been learning your Japanese from the wrong sources.
Bukkake is the noun form of the Japanese verb bukkakeru (ぶっ掛ける, to dash or splash water),[8] and means "to dash," "splash" or "heavy splash."[5][6] The compound verb can be decomposed into two verbs: butsu (ぶつ) and kakeru (掛ける). Butsu literally means to hit, but in this usage it appears to be an intensive prefix as in buttamageru (ぶったまげる, "completely astonished") or butchigiri (ぶっちぎり, "overwhelming win").
Kakeru in this context means to shower or pour. The word bukkake is often used in Japanese to describe pouring out water with sufficient momentum to cause splashing or spilling. Indeed, bukkake is used in Japan to describe a type of dish where the broth is poured on top of noodles, as in bukkake-udon and bukkake-soba.
Appears to be some kind of Russian Fallout 3 clone. Looks quite interesting.
Woke up in a grumpy mood this afternoon and made the mistake of typing a serious comment in the FoM forums. Now I've pissed off some people because I referred to them as "kids" (without mentioning any names). Man, I really have to stop talking completely when I'm in a bad mood.
Sometimes I really cannot understand how people can lie so blatantly when it comes to children. The worst and most common lie would be how the baby looks like its father or mother. You know what? It looks NOTHING like the parents! Because if that tiny human larva really resembles its father, it would look like this.
Yes, I bet he looks freakin similar to his father, probably got his eyes, nose, mouth and even moustache!
And no, your children has barely any resemblance to you! I cannot tell if he/she has got your nose/mouth/lips/ears/tits/eyebrows. Maybe if you give it 10 years you'll see some real similarities but right now, I just don't see it!
Let me show you how your family would appear if they actually do look like you.
Notice the resemblance in the kids? And the parents? 很有夫妻相吧?
Saturday 9 January 2010
Rant 477 / A Rant Is A Rant Is A Rant.
It begins as an incestuous love story, but eventually becomes a story most people over 15 would recognize. Hilarious and ingenious!
I'm starting to make good money in FoM. After lots of listening and observing, I finally found certain items that would always sell. Price wars are starting too, and everyone is trying to undercut each other as often as possible. I blame the peace. Now I'm being undercut so much I must check the markets twice a day to ensure constant sales.
I hate peace in FoM but I certainly don't wish to be involved in wars. The last time my faction had to fight, I couldn't mine/produce anywhere safely. But other members are getting bored and keep trying to incite discontent among others in the faction. Bloody annoying and immature. We're a corporation, businessmen! Making money is our specialty, not warmongering. Oh well, at least they aren't succeeding.
One of them even had the gall to expect to get promoted after trying to persuade the faction to fight the police faction. He got pissed when a higher ranking player flat out refused to raise his rank. As if that didn't make sense!
Really, there is a special kind of fun in seeing money roll in.
My bro has been staying at his girlfriend's home every weekend. I'm concerned that he may be going too deep too fast. They barely know each other for less a year and she's already expecting him to celebrate her mother's birthday with her. In other words, he's being treated as part of the family already.
But my bro, being himself, refused in no uncertain terms. His logic was simple: if he has never celebrated the birthday of our own mother, then why do it for hers? Exactly my answer if I were in his shoes. It wouldn't be fair to our mother, and it's too much work to start now.
In my family, we don't celebrate birthdays, Father's Day, Mother's Day, Children's Day or whatever. I don't know the birth dates of any of my family members, and I certainly don't remember mine till my friends start asking me when I'm free for my birthday celebration every year. Then I'd go,"Oh right, my birthday is somewhere this month..." and then I dig out my IC to check the exact day.
I mean, there really isn't anything special about these dates. They repeat every year! Just because it only comes once a year doesn't make them any different from other days. You don't see anyone celebrating the start of a new IPPT window, do you? But it happens only once a year too!
If anything, people should celebrate the 29th of February just because it exists only every four years except every hundred years but returns every four hundred years. It's thrice as unique as your birthdays, so why not bake a cake or three for that?
Thursday 7 January 2010
Rant 476 / Laws.
Remedial Training was not as hard as I expected, but was still pretty strenuous. The first actual session involved only some "light" physical training followed by a 3km run. "Light" is a subjective term though.
The RT sessions made me realize how much the strength of my arms and fingers have degenerated since my surgery. I find that I cannot even maintain my grip on the chin-up bar now, which was certainly embarrassing but I was not alone.
Despite being officially excused from upper limb exercises, I decided to go ahead with them. It is not a good thing to let the degeneration continue or remain in this condition. In fact I find my lack of strength in my fingers alarming. Something needs to be done about that.
As for my jogging stamina, I'm now definitely back to my pre-NS standards. In other words, I can't run to save my life. Ugh, life.
As for Face of Mankind, the troubles never end. Actually it ended for my faction when we got back our colony (KD) plus our original home (Tokyo). Now that the war between the Eurocore/BoS alliance and the Global Dominion has ended (with Eurocore and CMG exchanging Necar's Field and Paris, and BoS taking Titan Station leaving the Mercenaries homeless), the Senate passes a new bill that basically makes the police faction (LED) pretty much godlike.
In addition to allowing the LED to patrol our base colonies (personally it feels like letting the police patrol your room), it also seems to allow them to do anything they want with line 7.2:
Surprised? Here's why: according to dictionary.com, one of the definition of the word "terrorist" is "a person who terrorizes or frightens others." Hence if you're hurling expletives or even un-holstered your gun (a very common action in the game), you can be considered as "frightening", hence you're a terrorist, hence you can be arrested.
Therefore, this bills makes it possible that we cannot do anything against them if they harass us legally. There are many ways to do so in the game, like repeatedly sending trade requests and verbal abuse.
Lots of people are unhappy about this, but somehow I think it just makes the police more similar to their real life counterparts.
Been discovering some new mods included in Beyond the Sword expansion for Civilization IV. Final Frontier was the first one I tried and it was pretty good. The new system of colonizing star system instead of placing your city anywhere you want, and the ability to build multiple copies of the same buildings per star system makes the game much more interesting.
I have only two complaints for this mod. The first is the lack of tools to make my citizens happy. Only the sporting arena and the Religion Value seems to raise happiness level. This means if I didn't found this Value and I'm too far from the founder, I will never be able to please my people. Second is the lag. It is so bad when it is the AI's turns to move that the game actually becomes "Not Responding" according to Windows for a few seconds. It's like risking a crash every time I hit the End Turn button.
The other mod is the After World, a complete change of the game. Instead of an empire building simulation, this mod is a turn-based tactical combat game. Each unit has different upgrades when they gain levels which makes it fun to play.
The best thing about these mods is that they can be played together with FoM when both are in windowed mode. Perfect combination.
The RT sessions made me realize how much the strength of my arms and fingers have degenerated since my surgery. I find that I cannot even maintain my grip on the chin-up bar now, which was certainly embarrassing but I was not alone.
Despite being officially excused from upper limb exercises, I decided to go ahead with them. It is not a good thing to let the degeneration continue or remain in this condition. In fact I find my lack of strength in my fingers alarming. Something needs to be done about that.
As for my jogging stamina, I'm now definitely back to my pre-NS standards. In other words, I can't run to save my life. Ugh, life.
As for Face of Mankind, the troubles never end. Actually it ended for my faction when we got back our colony (KD) plus our original home (Tokyo). Now that the war between the Eurocore/BoS alliance and the Global Dominion has ended (with Eurocore and CMG exchanging Necar's Field and Paris, and BoS taking Titan Station leaving the Mercenaries homeless), the Senate passes a new bill that basically makes the police faction (LED) pretty much godlike.
In addition to allowing the LED to patrol our base colonies (personally it feels like letting the police patrol your room), it also seems to allow them to do anything they want with line 7.2:
- Terrorism:
- 7.1.Conspiracy to commit terrorist attacks against Global Dominion personnel and facilities (F)
- 7.2.Committing terrorist attacks against Global Dominion personnel and facilities (F)
Surprised? Here's why: according to dictionary.com, one of the definition of the word "terrorist" is "a person who terrorizes or frightens others." Hence if you're hurling expletives or even un-holstered your gun (a very common action in the game), you can be considered as "frightening", hence you're a terrorist, hence you can be arrested.
Therefore, this bills makes it possible that we cannot do anything against them if they harass us legally. There are many ways to do so in the game, like repeatedly sending trade requests and verbal abuse.
Lots of people are unhappy about this, but somehow I think it just makes the police more similar to their real life counterparts.
Been discovering some new mods included in Beyond the Sword expansion for Civilization IV. Final Frontier was the first one I tried and it was pretty good. The new system of colonizing star system instead of placing your city anywhere you want, and the ability to build multiple copies of the same buildings per star system makes the game much more interesting.
I have only two complaints for this mod. The first is the lack of tools to make my citizens happy. Only the sporting arena and the Religion Value seems to raise happiness level. This means if I didn't found this Value and I'm too far from the founder, I will never be able to please my people. Second is the lag. It is so bad when it is the AI's turns to move that the game actually becomes "Not Responding" according to Windows for a few seconds. It's like risking a crash every time I hit the End Turn button.
The other mod is the After World, a complete change of the game. Instead of an empire building simulation, this mod is a turn-based tactical combat game. Each unit has different upgrades when they gain levels which makes it fun to play.
The best thing about these mods is that they can be played together with FoM when both are in windowed mode. Perfect combination.
Saturday 2 January 2010
Rant 475 / Ugh
Together with the camembert and brie I had also bought a piece of smoked dutch cheese with herbs that day. Picture shows how I ate half the cheese.
It was excellent stuff, but too much. Next time I'll cut a quarter instead.
Something is wrong with my network adapter. It's been struggling to stay connected the entire day until I turned my fan towards it. It's constant disconnections made me irritated enough to find the Command Prompt command for continuous ping, which is
ping XXX.XXX.XX.XX -t
and I kept the Command Prompt opened throughout the rest of the night. It doesn't do anything to stop the disconnections but at least I know when I'm crashing and when I'm only lagging.
Still, it disconnected a few more times after I had the fan blowing it at. I don't like what I'm seeing.
So after several random experiments, I found the solution to this frequent disconnections. I merely had to change the Wide Channel setting to Auto instead of a specific number. From having pings between infinity ("Request Timed Out") to 1, now it has improved to between 1 to <1.
What if online scammers can be scammed? That is what 419eater is about. I recently came across a set of comics made by one of its more successful members and I was surprised by how gullible the con artists are.
If you had no idea what you were reading, fear not - me neither. At least, not until I read from this page that all the people in the pictures were online scammers tricked into posing in such weird costumes.
I really like the part where he talks about how all the guys in those games look like girls. It's so true!
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