Rant 671 / Monday Rant

Would you be willing to be made to do an extreme "dare" in a game of "Truth or Dare"?

Having little experience with this game, I can safely say if I want to be extreme when thinking of a "dare", people might die. In other words, I don't know the limits.

In view of our safety, I prefer to be too mild.

I could ask him to go next door, ring the doorbell and punch whoever opens the door in the face hard.

Or I could ask him to paint himself black, wear black clothes or just paint, and stand in the middle of a busy road at night for 1 whole minute.

If not, there's always the snort-tabasco or the bottle-of-vodka-at-one-go dares. These are milder.

Next time I get invited for such a game I'll try to remember to make someone snort a line of Tabasco sauce and record that.

It will be fun.









The latest leak by Wikileaks, like the last one, is overhyped. The information inside does not greatly benefit anyone but may cost the careers of individuals. The biggest victims of this leak are obviously the US diplomats and intelligence.

That thing about not revealing names helps but does not prevent anything completely. Common sense says that the leak probably contains certain things that only a few can possibly know. In such cases, you don't need to know the name; you just need to know what was revealed.

Personally I'm not seeing this illegal revelation of secret documents as some kind of great act of justice. This is just another kind of attack against the US. Now they're going to be even more paranoid.

At what point will it appear that all they do is defend themselves? Maybe that's what they're doing already.

LoL, HoN or DotA?

Or DotA 2?

So many options! So much confusion!

Btw LoL, HoN and (of course) DotA are free to play for Singaporeans and Malaysians, so there's no need to hesitate. It's not like they need high-end computers anyway.

One thing that makes me return to HoN is that I don't have to play with the better players. Since I'm pretty much a noob (usually fluctuate between 1400-1500 PSR), I always look for games that cater to my skill range. Trust me, it's surprisingly fun if you aren't being outclassed throughout a game.

Then again there are always those who like to gloat when they win as if it's a big achievement for them. Most likely, winning a game in HoN/DotA is a big achievement for them. They are the reason I only play 1 or 2 games a day. I don't like to be angry just because of a game, so I quit to cool down before I start to take the game seriously.

As for how Garena is making money off these, an educated guess says they're profiting from the Gold Membership fees. After my experience with Business Tycoon Online (BTO), I'm no longer surprised if the profits from the fees alone are enough to let everyone here play these games for free.

I like free games. Maybe when I ever start working I'll get the Gold Membership for a year just to show my support for quality free games.









Fruit Dealer's match today in the GSL was interesting, especially the second round. His opponent was so focused in countering Fruit Dealer's infamous Banelings+Zerglings army that he built too few Marines as anti-air. In the end when the small Marine squad got blasted to oblivion, sCfOu had only Siege Tanks and empty bunkers to defend against a dozen Mutalisks.

LiquidRet's match against TheBestfOu was quite sad. When the Dutch player lost, the last non-Korean left in the tournament is now Idra. The most unique thing about this match was that The Best's builds were all his own creations. At the same time, Ret's play was actually pretty good. In one game he was able to spread his creep over a third of the map in 10 minutes and by the time he won, most of the map was purple. Shows that laying 3-4 tumours at the same spot really helps.

HongUnPrime's last game was the most noteworthy simply because he won with CARRIERS! This is probably the first game in all 3 seasons of GSL in which a player won with them. AFAIK carriers are rarely used in SC2 because they're not cost-effective at all.

Foxer aka MarineKingPrime is playing in the first match tomorrow. Too bad I'll be missing it due to RT.

EDIT: I forgot about Jinro lol. He's the other non-Korean still in this season of the GSL.





Speaking of RT, it's surprisingly easy to join the green tags (overweight group) at Maju. Everybody envies the green tags because they're the only guys who do brisk walking and barely sweat during RT. PTIs have mentioned that there are many who try to ask for a green tag during in-processing. What nobody knows is that the PTIs don't seem to check if you just say that you were given the wrong tag.

Found out about this because I was given a blue tag the other day and when I tried to exchange for a green one later, the clerk told me to join the green tags instead of changing it. When the PTI asked me, I just told him what happened. Of course it helped that I'm actually overweight although that isn't very important. A few of the guys in the group looked quite muscular while some were merely plump.

Then again, he might have gone back to ask the clerk later but it was unlikely. This is because at the end he did not have my attendance slip and I had to collect it from the clerk directly. If he and the clerk had talked, he probably would have asked for the attendance slip from the clerk for the only non-green-tag in his group.







The new Western food stall at Block 10 at Ghim Moh offers some pretty good food. Not as great the previous ones IMO but it's cheaper. The last few chefs were too good for this area and their prices were too high.

From this current chef I learnt that Asians and Europeans have different preferences when it comes to green bean sprouts. Asians prefer very young sprouts that are still white and leafless; Europeans eat sprouts that are already green and have small leaves.

I don't like both. I understand that bean sprouts have a pleasant "vegetable" taste, but they also have this other flavour that I dislike. I don't know how to describe it other than calling it a "stench". Generally this can be covered by other foods but I can never eat them by themselves.

In this case, the chef covered the beef steak with bean sprouts. Whether they were meant to be eaten by themselves or not didn't matter to me.







Been playing Two Worlds II. Probably the best RPG since Fallout 3 and Mass Effect. The main reason I'm saying this and mentioned Fallout 3 instead of New Vegas is that I don't like to have over 9000 quests in my list at any point of time. When it comes to RPGs there are certain things I want perfect and that includes doing the quests in the right order.

In New Vegas there were many quests that would affect your relationship with other factions, which would cancel quests that were related to them. It gets slightly tedious to have to remember the correct order to complete your quests in and I don't like such complicated matters.

In Two Worlds II, things are simple. Right now I only have a few quests to do but this is only Chapter One. Later in the game it's very possible I'll change my opinion of this game. I don't know. We'll find out soon enough.

Combat's interesting though. Although I have this feeling that mages seem to be too weak in this game, they are the more interesting class in that you can combine spells and traits to create new spells. For example, combining a lvl 1 Fire card with a Mass Effect card gives you a spell that blinds everyone in the area. Throw in a Damage trait and you get an Area-of-Effect (Aoe) fire spell. Same with the Missile card.

Fire+Missile is different from Fire+Missile+Damage, Fire+Missile+Damage+Ricochet, Fire+Missile+Damage+Homing and etc.

There are 5 elements to choose from: Fire, Water, Air, Earth and Necromancy. I have yet to learn Necromancy but I'm currently trying to get the skill book for it. At the moment I've learnt that the vendors in Bayan change their goods after every 2 rounds of dice (doesn't matter which game) I play, so I've been playing A LOT of dice to get one of the vendors to sell the book. No luck so far but I have won over 25k (book costs about 1200) thanks to the Quicksave feature.

Oh and it's gay that I keep encountering monsters that I'm not supposed to fight yet. Fortunately I found a Summon book somewhere and summons in this game are tough! They do shit damage but frankly the amount of pain they can handle is beyond godlike compared to what my mage can take. For example, a monster that can kill me in 2 hits may not be able to kill it before it gets unsummoned in one minute (basic summon spells last only 60s). Furthermore, even though they do little damage these summons can do AoE damage to everyone in front of them. Ok never mind. That really doesn't matter.

The only way I found for killing them was to let the summoned creature tank for me while I spam Missile-class spells, the element depending on what the target is vulnerable to.

Yes in this game, you cannot rely on one single element. All monsters have different resistances and they're listed in symbols when you look at them. Therefore it's advisable to keep at least 2-3 elements and change accordingly, or it will take forever to complete any dungeon.

The biggest complaint I have regarding this game would be the bugs. In one dungeon, the giant scorpions could barely move in the narrow cavern while I could walk through certain rocks and fall into the black vacuum of outer space. Another bug is how I cannot assassinate monsters often. In many instances I could sneak up so close to the back of the monsters I could have surprised them with a devastating anal assault, yet the assassinate symbol never pops up. A few of the earlier, weaker monsters showed me that if they chased me, then gave up and returned, they could be assassinated after that. I don't know if it's the same for all monsters.

Another problem I believe is a bug is that summoned creatures do not attract monsters. Adding this to the fact that summoned creatures do only slightly more damage than a sneeze, I find these creatures very tricky to use. They will probably remove this bug soon but until then, all the summoned creatures do in most situations is look cool.








Played a few games of DotA the other day with the BC. The amount of disconnections and leavers were quite annoying really. Totally reminded me of why I only play HoN these days if I play such games at all. At least in HoN your leaves are recorded whether you disconnect or rage quit. If you disconnect you're given several minutes to reconnect (if the reconnect option doesn't appear just restart HoN) so there's almost no excuse to have lots of leaves in your record other than poor sportsmanship. Personally I have about 7% leaves (I have left 7% of all my games), all due to disconnections and the fact that I didn't know restarting helps make the reconnect button appear.

And it took me half a game to get me used to the hotkeys and item combinations again. Took me another game to get the hang of using the eye ability again since it's quite different from the one in HoN now that it doesn't require a tree and it can stun enemies. In HoN the eye is visible and does nothing but detect all units, while the one in DotA is invisible, detects only non-invisible units but can be activated to stun the nearest enemy unit for a second or more and is vulnerable to damage, eg AoE abilities by enemies.

So while in HoN I try to find tactical spots where the enemies cannot reach easily to plant my eyes, in DotA I plant my eyes/birds at regular intervals at my lane or along the river. And I have to replant them every 8 minutes. The Tree-dude is therefore harder to use in DotA than in HoN.

OMG! I just need the 2 expansions, so that's US$15! This really made me consider buying them for a few seconds before I decided I don't want it. They aren't giving me a discount on the subscription rate.

But this shows that Blizzard must be worried about dropping subscription rates or at least a lack of increase. Last I heard they basically remade the WoW world or something in Cataclysm and now this. Remaking the world makes it refreshing to play it again and together with this discount, it appears to be a big move to attract old players to return.

Anyway this is a legit email because I found out how to recognize one some time ago. This is how you do it:

1)

Click on "View Message Source".

2)

Check for where it really is from.

3)

This is what a real Blizzard IP would look like.

Rant 670 / Witcher2DungeonSiege3ArcaniaGothic4DeusExHumanRevolutionNuclearDawn

Why don't the porn industries (other than Playboy) ever complain about piracy?








It has begun! Someone has made a software to allow the user to control the PC via the Kinect!! It has come true! If it's ever proven to work well, there will be another reason to buy the Kinect. It's not like I need to remap all the keys on the keyboard. I just need it for the keys required for controls in the games I play (eg WASD, E, R, Q, 1-4).








I don't think the Euro zone will be collapsing so soon. They just need to hold on for a few more decades for the new way of thinking to really sink in. The older generation will never forget they're no longer completely separate countries and more younger people need to realize they need to work as a whole. Someone's got to counter the might of the US and China alone cannot be enough. The PRC is not even there yet.








I will never understand why a government would ever cut the budget of its education system. IMO it's one of the worst and most myopic thing it can ever do. It's stupid and will only make things worse in the long term.








Steam is having some crazy sale at the moment. Other than having insane discounts, they're selling games in bulk for insane discounts. Yea I know it's not as great but it's still pretty cheap compared to... everywhere else.

For example, today's sale consists of

8 copies of Dawn of War 2 for US$40 is a fantastic deal... if you have 7 buddies to give the rest to. Usual price on Steam is US$20 per copy.

Too bad they aren't offering anything I'm really interested in.

The other, even more exciting event is the sweepstakes. Everyday, 30 Steam users are going to get the top 5 games on their wishlists for free. There are over 30 million users, so that's 1 in a million chance.

I couldn't miss this. Since I'd never set up a wishlist on Steam, I had to do it immediately. I have nothing to lose anyway.

Realistically speaking, I don't think it's the best idea to list only expensive games unless you're really in need of cash. Instead, I'm listing the games that I don't have that I want most. Coincidentally they mostly cost about US$50 due to the fact that most of the best RPGs are that expensive.

Here's my list. Hoping to get these :D

Yep, I don't have any of these because most of them aren't out yet (not priced = preorders aren't even available yet). As for Arcania, I haven't been checking for new games too closely recently for rather obvious reasons.

1 in a million.

Happening till the 29th in the PST timezone.

Rant 669 / So Foxer Won Because His Opponent Didn't Show Up For The Match.

So this is how you do it.








Holy crap! Toothpaste can defog goggles! Just got to rub a little on each lens gently and rinse. I wonder if it works with glasses too. Hmm...

Okay never mind. According to several google results the toothpaste would scratch the lens and/or the anti-glare coating. The difference apparently is that our spectacle lenses aren't made from the same material as those in diving masks and goggles.

One advice that appears repeatedly in my searches is that spit or soap can also be used to defog your glasses. Just coat them in either, wait for it to dry and wipe it clear. Not exactly enthusiastic about trying either yet. Maybe I'll try with an old pair of glasses.






So NTUC Fairprice also offers delivery service. 

Interesting.

But check out the delivery charges of Cold Storage.

Expected NTUC to charge less, right?

But it is very possible that NTUC gives the better deal since their products are usually cheaper. The $1-4 difference can easily be offset by buying more things that are cheaper at NTUC than Cold Storage.

Personally I find $8 to be quite reasonable since the closest NTUC is at Clementi. On the other hand, I don't know if the website has everything I want and I'm not going to do the research today. Also, there's a small Shop N Save just downstairs. Whatever I buy from NTUC has to be something I can't find there, like hashbrowns.







Finally I'm no longer in the red all thanks to Tata! Still, the $100 gain isn't enough to cover the total commissions I've paid for all the trades I've made. Also, it may drop again by next week.

So net change is still a loss of $92. Hope PTR will stop dropping and Tata will keep rising. But for PTR to stop dropping is hard due to the recent Korean troubles. But who knows?

Oh yes I haven't sold a single stock so far. Did buy a little more, especially CSCO stocks since it's been dropping pretty hard recently.








So some advertising company is printing Facebook bullshit into books. Actually, I wouldn't mind having my blog printed into a hard copy. There would be lots of losses of information due to the links and stuff but  since printed books have always been the longer-lasting and more reliable medium, I think it's worth it.






Someday I'm going to create an artificial stream of running water that flows throughout my home. Maybe it will start in a single room as an experiment, then expand it to the rest of the house. It just takes lots of pieces of half-pipes and a water pump. The pump can't be hard to find since there's an aquarium store or whatever it's called nearby. Half-pipes might be hard.

The purpose of this is to cool and clean the air constantly. I guess it should be much wider than it's deep, so the half-pipe should preferably be rectangular or made to be so. Hmm...







Oh shit I haven't checked the score of my second and final assignment of my Chinese module until today and HE ENTERED THE WRONG SCORE!!! I scored 75% for it (partly thanks to Google) and my instructor apparently entered 50 as my score for that assignment.

Could have scored more but I accidentally forgot to explain my answers for one section, making me score less than half the total marks for that part.

As I've mentioned before, the combined score of the 2 assignments makes up 50% of my final grade of the course. This means... a lot. 25 marks in a paper that's basically 25% of my final grade means 6.25% of my final grade. If that's not big then I don't know what is.

So I've emailed him (with apologies of course since I'm 2 weeks late in checking) and hoping for the best. If he tells me no, I'll email the course head.

Anyway since I need only 40% to pass this module, I've calculated that, assuming the score for that assignment is changed, I only need to score 12 points tomorrow to pass.

It's hilarious to think of it this way. If I just want to pass, which I actually had been worrying about before, I can probably just finish the first section on hanyu pinyin plus a bit more and leave the exam hall. Should take less than 5 minutes and will net me more than enough for me to pass this module with.

That's why I'm so serious about that 25 marks. If I don't get it, I'll need to score 13 more marks to pass, which is an increase of more than 100%.

And if you're actually trying to reverse-calculate my score for my first assignment, it's 61. One reason I did better for the second paper is because I googled for the essay question at the end for that paper. Fortunately, some Chinese expert had blogged about 兼語短語的特点, so I just read her article lots of times and rephrased it. Managed to do it well enough that the automated anti-plagiarism system UniSIM uses didn't highlight anything for that section on my paper. In return, I recall giving that article a thumbs up or thanks or something. Some forums also have that sort of function.

Fuck yeah! Full marks for an essay question. I never got that even for English modules.

Contrary to what you may believe, it's not cheating. In fact I believe I'm supposed to do that. Right from the first lesson the Chinese instructor had already told us that we cannot rely solely on our textbooks for this module. Furthermore, what this question asked for is only featured in like 2 lines in our books. I wrote four different points on it in the paper.

Fuck yeah!

Oh yes, almost forgot about this.

I had expected only the last to be wrong, if any.

Rant 668 / My First Permaban

I got permabanned from Face of Mankind. I had reinstalled it to give it another chance last month but got disappointed again. However, the day after I deleted it the GMs implemented a set of policies that appeared to me would clear the game of the trolls and griefers, so I reinstalled it a few days ago.

After killing my guy, which is the only way to change faction in a free account, I began to play as a member of the EC faction. It was then that I saw that the game was close to dying and had almost no gankers. Even when I was trying to permakill the first character I tried to get ganked by going AFK at New York City. After 5 minutes, I was still alive. That didn't happen when I was playing FoM last year.

Anyway I was just watching GSL and mining while chatting with another EC member during the breaks between matches when I suddenly got disconnected.

When I tried to login again, it said I was permanently banned.

So I submitted a ticket. Last night I got a reply from the Community Manager saying a hack was detected when I played. Apparently I was found to be "API hooking", whatever that's supposed to mean. According to him, that was such a serious offence that I was permabanned immediately despite my perfect record.

Furthermore, he did not answer my question of how I can prove that I didn't cheat. From this I deduced that there is no way to do so.

Googling gave me lots of very technical details that I cannot comprehend. After all, my programming knowledge is only limited to the very basics of C++. So I have little idea of what had happened. Can this be caused by a virus?



Not upsetting at all. I've only really tried to play this game for like 30mins or so and I didn't invest any money into it. It's a great game to multitask with because there isn't anything to do at all while mining and producing. Hence I'll create a new account if it's ok with them.

It is strange that this is happening at all though. I don't even know where I can get hacks from.

EDIT:

Their loss. More space for my C drive for more games. I already have some ready to be installed after Friday's morning paper anyway. Maybe I'll go back to UWO if they get boring.

Rant 667 / PTR Just Keeps Dropping.

No matter how hard everyone complains about it, no one can honestly deny that sex sells. Unless you can curb the sex drive of all men, there really isn't much anyone can do to prevent the female form from being exploited. Our larger heads just cannot resist the influence of our little heads.








Interesting. So I was right when I mentioned that speculators from PRC are driving up property prices. Did I say they were from the PRC? Whatever.

This reminds me of how Africanized bees invaded Europe and later, the US. As hybrids, they retained the aggressiveness and other behavioural traits from the African bees. Since they are tougher, spread faster, more aggressive and protect their queens better, they practically replaced the European honey bees wherever they went. The main reason why the latter haven't been driven to extinct is because the former also retained the lack of resistance against low temperatures.

And our situation is kinda like this. Globalisation may mean cheaper workers and larger markets, but nothing is perfect. We can screw with other countries' market, and so can they screw with ours. Except the problem is that since Singaporean have been spoilt by our nice and soft surroundings for so many decades, many of us aren't prepared to deal with the tougher guys who had fought their way, tooth and nail, up the hierarchies in highly corrupt and incredibly competitive environments.

The wealthy speculators from PRC, in this case, are the Africanized bees; we are the European honey bees. Our options are limited. If we can't learn to compete, we're going to have to move to places they can't survive in that we can. Unfortunately, such places probably don't exist.

All hail our Chinese overlords.

T.T

I wonder if we already have MPs born in the PRC. Most likely not, for obvious reasons. So the question is, how long before we do? How long before they throw the "who's going to build your homes" card at us again? I'm not saying they're going to be wrong and neither am I saying they were wrong when they first used it. In fact, they are perfectly right and will still be if it happens again.

It's just sad.

But so were the demises of most nations and kingdoms in history.








So it's going to be dangerous to download torrents of Witcher 2. Fortunately for me, it only mentioned "bigger countries". Furthermore, torrents aren't the only way to download pirated stuff, as I may have mentioned some time ago.







South Korea begins military exercise on an island between the two Koreas. North Korea tells them it doesn't like it. South Korea goes on with it anyway. North Korea fires artillery, killing one and injuring five (?). South Korea fires back. Nobody gives a shit if anyone died up north.

WAR!!

Oh shit no! The real Boxer might get called back!

Oh shit! I missed all the GSL matches today!









Now that I've gotten the hang of casting magic in Risen, I have to say I was wrong about kiting with range. Even though monsters move at the same speed as the player, magic at close range cannot be blocked and pushes them back a little bit. With enough space behind (preferably a long road) a mage can kite and kill any monster.

Risen is the sort of game that doesn't really pull you in, but once you're playing you'll always have something to do next. There's never a time when you have to hunt long for tasks because the quest list is never empty if you take your time to speak to all the NPCs on your way to complete the quests that you have. As such, there never is a good time to stop and leave. However, the game really isn't good enough to make you skip meals to keep playing.

There's just something missing.







Elder Scrolls V, the sequel to Oblivion, is already in the works.

Rant 666 / Changed My Mouse

Interactive movie? Not even that!











At least you won't have to use additional oil when making oyster cakes with them.








So Loner and Nada didn't make it into the Ro64, TLO returned home. At least the 2 Boxers, Fruit Dealer and Nestea are in.

Also, for some reason anfree had to abandon his ID that I had linked to. His new stream now has the GOMtv logo covered by "不要問" so he definitely had encountered trouble with GOM and copyright.

Now he no longer records replays, but it's strange that other players who recorded the same games had no trouble with it.

The Taiwanese player, Sen, whom the other Taiwanese players had been mentioning a lot about managed to win his match in the Ro64. His games against oGsVines are actually some of the best so far for this season, so I recommend finding replays of them if you missed them.

And he has a fan club on Facebook.

Anyway I learnt the purpose of the "Maka rax" today. Maka rax was invented by MakaPrime when he built a rax in his base plus another at the bottom of the exit slope of his base. Sometimes the second rax is built somewhere that's slightly harder to scout so that it appears to be poorly hidden.

This strategy is done to trick the opponent into thinking he is trying to attack with an early game rush. The "poorly hidden" second rax serves to reinforce this perception so that the opponent has to waste his early game resources to quickly build an army to defend against the likely rush, hence slowing down his economy.

In fact, right after the second rax is done the player can switch to building a CC immediately to expand before building a small army to defend against the incoming attack when the opponent realizes that there is no rush.







 

It's so "hands-free", it even plays the game for you!

Rant 665 / )()()()()()()()(

Played Risen for a while. Kind of a decent single player RPG, but similar to Space Siege in that it doesn't have any outstanding aspect. Just became a mage (finished the ceremony and spoke to the Inquisitor for the Discs quests) and trying to learn Frost magic since it looks like the best ("hard to get" usually means "better").

Really long introduction. Took forever to become a mage, one of the 3 classes available in the game, the other 2 being ranged attacker and melee. Diablo-like stuff.

Combat appears to focus on melee. Though magic, bows and crossbows are available, monsters move too fast to be kited, so unless you can kill them before they reach you (without you moving), melee combat is a necessity.

Though there are only 3 types of magic for fighting, there are also about 20 types of potions and scrolls that can be used and crafted. Yea, not a lot of variety really.

But this game has a lot of content to offset the crappy combat. The developers seemed to have spent most of their time creating and designing quests. Like I said, really long introduction. There's a loooooooooot of quests that can be completed before specialising in anything. Of course they can be skipped but it's not advisable to miss too many because certain quests require combat and they can't be completed if the character is too weak.

Ok, so for my first week dabbling in the American stock market in this simulation, this is my result. Lost almost $2k. As for TATA I could have sold it earlier to get more profit (over $500 net) but in the end I thought it didn't really matter in the larger picture.








SC2 GSL Season 3 begins on Monday! I see what Blizzard is trying to do. Instead of merely creating a great game, they've decided to go one step further and try to make it an established game like soccer or basketball in real life.

I wonder if it will actually work. This game is no longer just a game for many. It's actually stressful to play if one is to take it seriously.








Witcher 2 can be pre-ordered now! Costs US$45 though :(  Usual price is US$50 :(((

Rant 664 / Swallowing Lips

Bird flu confirmed in HK. Bad time to be a bird in Hong Kong.

Pregnancy doesn't begin to show until the 4th month.








For anyone with a girlfriend/wife, here's an article on the female orgasm that may be useful to you.








Spaceport! Of course it's very likely I'll never be able to afford a ride into space in my lifetime, but a spaceport is a significant step towards the sort of space travel that only appears in science fiction now.







Antimatter has not only been made, but also has been trapped for about 0.2 second, a huge amount of time compared to the units of time usually used in nuclear and theoretical physics.

Once they improve their techniques, they will eventually be able to discover uses for it. Who knows what antimatter can be used for? Weapons are definitely possible but whether it can be produced cheaply and in bulk would be a major issue there.

What use can there be for something that makes things disappear?

What use can there be for something that probably breaks the law of conservation of energy?

Other than weapons, I really don't know.








Natural Selection 2 is NOW IN BETA! WOOHOO!

Rant 663 / I Have Forgotten How To Do JC-Level Integration Already

The best and most naturally-cooled bedroom would be one that has no walls and is on top of a skyscraper.

Because of rain, it's not as simple as that if one is to be built.

The area will have to be large and the ceiling high so that wind can blow through the entire level while rain cannot reach the center.

Thought of this because I always notice how the outside, eg void deck, is always cooler than inside my flat at night.









Kinect's out in Singapore. Not buying until I see more games that are compatible with it and interests me. I know it's good exercise, but not going to spend over $200 when it's boring. I can easily get some boring exercise on the jogging track near my home, and that's for free.

Although if they ever port the Shin Megami Tensei games to the Kinect, it's going to be a fuckton of aerobics right there. Some SMT games have the highest rate of random monster encounters, eg Nocturne and DDS (1 and 2).









Two papers in a row. One tonight and one tomorrow morning. I'm not worried about the one tonight; it's just JC's GP with a different name plus a need to learn the APA format. Tomorrow's paper is harder since it's a much more technical course on English grammar and it's in the early morning 10.30am.

I'm used to waking up at 11.30am currently. Tomorrow I'll going to have to get up at 7am probably, to give my brain enough time to wake up. 6 hours of sleep tonight unless I do something I don't usually do - eat a heavy meal before sleeping.

It worked sometimes when I tried it. But it can only be successful if I'm planning to sleep less than 3 hours before the usual because I'd wake up after 2-3 hours if it still isn't my usual bedtime by then.

But there were also a few times when I still woke up despite that. Then I'm fucked because it's hard to go back to sleep then. When you sleep soon after a heavy meal, you'll feel extremely uncomfortable if you wake up within the next 3-4 hours or so (not sure). But if you manage to stay asleep till the next day, there is no discomfort.

Gamble, or no gamble?

Hmm...

Nah. Can't afford to lose the bet.

Anyway after this, I'll have an entire week to revise on my 現代漢語。 Chinese paper is on the next Friday, the last day of the last exam week of UniSIM.

Good time to go shopping for food then. This time I think I'll try the Giant at IMM. On a weekday during mid-afternoon, of course, since I hate crowds and queues. Running out of hash browns, need to restock with those huge packets I bought from that supermarket the last time.




Ok, no more blogging for the rest of the day.

Rant 662 / It's Piracy If You Grow Fruit-Bearing Plants Using Seeds From Fruits You Bought From A Store

Mon




Makes me think of the beginning of the book I, Robot. They started out as playmates, then workers. Finally... REVOLUTION!

Actually the revolution in the book was much milder and smoother. Basically a supercomputer took over the administrative affairs of humankind because it found that it was the best candidate for that position. And the surprising thing was that it was undeniably right.

Logically speaking, if humans really could develop computers that could design even more complex computers, the book's revolution will be inevitable.












This is surprising. I just looked at the marked assignment of the module on essays and short stories, the only one in that module, on the day I have an exam on it. Yea, I know, I'm just asking for it.

Anyway, that's wasn't the surprising part. The paper was split into two parts - a secondary school comprehension-style part, and the analytical essay part.

I remember spending most of the time doing the first half, leaving only 2 hours on the second. I practically just stared at the essay for most of the time not knowing what to write. It was only until 50mins before the deadline (2359hr) that I began to type anything useful for the first few paragraphs.

Then more staring.

30mins before the deadline, I got really desperate and panicked. I just typed anything that came into my mind without actually considering if they would work in the analysis. Submitted it online 5mins before deadline.

Apparently I scored much better for the analysis than the answers for the short questions, despite typing most of the essay within 25 mins.

Mr. Lindenhann is serving a life sentence for three rapes...The jail has no fences and no bars, but plenty of television sets, DVD players and computers. Inmates hold regular jobs around town, earning about $2,800 a month, a living wage in this country of 53,000 people...A day in jail starts with a breakfast buffet of five imported cheeses, various breads, marmalade and honey...

Sources: this blog and the Wall Street Journal.

I want to go to Greenland and commit a few crimes now. It's a wonder they aren't queuing up to be incarcerated.








Tue

I was actually planning to go for RT today so that I don't have to go tomorrow. But something made me change my mind.

I was looking through the local caterers' websites to search for more dinner catering options when I found one that gave me a list of what they cook for each day of this month. Then I noticed... 17th Nov - HARI RAYA HAJI!

I'm supposed to get a free day tomorrow for RT! Don't have to go and don't need to go another day to make it up!

Anyway I'm still searching for options for dinner delivery. First Cuisine looks ok, prices appear decent enough at $225 for 20 weekdays for 3 persons without rice. That's $11.25 per day or $3.75 per person per day. Rice is easy to handle.

Of course the food won't be as good as food bought from outside. We used to order dinner catering long ago, just after my father passed away and my mum had barely begun to learn how to handle the business. Had it for a few months. Not the most positive of experience but it was undeniably... decent.

Yes, "decent" is the best word I can come up with at the moment to describe the food. I can't remember which caterer we ordered from but I have a feeling they're generally the same.

There was nothing wrong with the food but they just lack flavour. For health nuts they're probably great stuff since all the food was low in salt and oil content. Honestly, one can get better tasting food from the "economic mixed vegetable rice" stalls.

I'm not going to order it yet, but I'd like to keep a list of backup plans.










Felt weird last night when I went shopping for milk at the Shop N Save near my home. I went to the corner with the 2L Meiji milk and found only 3 bottles, so I took 2. Went to the queue and noticed everyone else was holding those cheaper ones in large paper packets like the First Choice brand and stuff.

I was the only one buying fresh milk.

I'm not saying nobody buys those bottles that I bought since I did imply there was only 1 bottle of Meiji milk left when I headed to the cashier.

But it was strange. Maybe there is a link between grocery shopping hours and the budgets.







Wed


So this morning I realized my doctor had lied to me when he told me the replacement ligament in my shoulder would be as good as my original one before it started stretching too much.

Either that or he didn't even know it was false, which would make sense since he probably didn't have it.

At a certain position, my left arm can easily pop out of its socket without pain. I know it's out because I can feel the slight pop and the strange resistance when I bend my arms.

The replacement ligament does nothing to hold my arm back in. All it probably does is prevent my arm from detaching completely.

Fortunately there is little chance I will have to place my arm in this position in my normal course of life. Maybe during certain sports, yes, but 99.9% of the rest of the time, no.

But please don't mistake me for a cripple. The last time I told some people merely about having this plastic ligament, it was during the trip to Hong Kong with the Toastmasters just before we boarded the plane at Changi.

The girls refused to let me help them put their luggage in the overhead compartment because of my arm.

Most of the time my mum treats me the same way when it comes to heavy stuff. My guess, aided by certain conversations in the past, is that she believed the martial arts novels she read in the past more than my words.

In many Chinese martial arts stories, the breaking of someone's ligaments/tendons will ruin that limb by making it too weak to hit anyone with any moves. It's almost like crippling someone, except he could still use it in his daily life.

This is true. When you snap a ligament, there is one less to hold the limb into the joint socket. At which direction the joint will encounter no resistance depends on which ligament is broken. I'm sure it's pretty intuitive how ligaments actually work.

Without the ligament, one can still strike blows as hard as before. Problem is that due to physical properties like inertia, momentum and the principle of moments, one would also greatly risk having a limb fly out of the socket, if not the body.

But when I went through that surgery, that problem was supposed to be solved. Apparently that's not completely true. This morning, I woke up because I felt it leave the socket. I must have relaxed too much or something. I don't know. Usually I just pull my arm back in and everyone would be fine, but this time it was in such a position that it didn't slide back in smoothly.

I began to panic. I have never experienced it before and didn't know what I needed to do. I didn't even know how it got to that state. But after a few gentle trial and errors, it returned to its normal location. A little disturbing but I'm still fine.

Anyway it isn't a big deal. I just need to avoid any sports that require me to fling my arms around and that isn't a problem at all.

Oh, and I can do jumping jacks perfectly fine. It's not that bad, but it's just that it's there.

Have fun guessing which position I'm talking about. :-)









Mixing Milo with Super Coffeemix doesn't give you mocha.

Rant 661 / End of Season 2; Season 3 Incoming!

I missed this part but found out about this video later.



It's childish, I know.

That's the fanart he was referring to. John aka Junkka doesn't even play in the tournament! He just gives non-professional Korean-English translations during interviews!

Rant 660 / Mugging Is (Obviously) Boring.

XD











It's actually quite amazing how this song was turned into the other song. I wish I get sudden inspirations like the one it took to make "I Think I Like It" using just this song.








I didn't know pocket-sized projectors are old news.











 I've recently switched to the new editor, which explains the larger gaps. Since I can now enlarge the edit box, I no longer have something solid to measure my Enter key spam against. I'm guessing, so I've been overestimating how far down I really am going.









More young men in Singapore are getting hearing difficulties today. Apparently, local men below the age of 40 seem to stick "all sorts of things" into their ears. I'm a little surprised. Shouldn't they go into their asses? I mean, Changi Beach, if you know what I mean. Why would they stick things in their ears too?

Anyway since people like to read lists, including myself, here's a pointless list of 5 things that men under 40 shouldn't insert into their ears.

1) Floppy disks. They go into the A drive, not the E drive.
2) Tokens. A new challenger might appear.
3) Keys. The eyes may be the window to the soul, but the ears aren't the door despite the proximity.
4) Coins. Why be a loan shark when you can just work in a bank?
5) Fingers. One of the most sensitive of appendages of the human body, men just seem to like to stick their fingers into every orifice they can find. Even ears, apparently, despite most fingers being too large to fit inside any ear canal.











Yea, just learnt a new HTML trick. Highlight the words to make them visible, in case you haven't guessed that. All it does is make the font colour the same as the background colour. I could also just change the font colour to white, but that will stop working when I change the background template in the future.









Ordered Pastamania yet again. An educated guess was confirmed when I dug a little about why she's been telling me to order delivery so often this week.

It's the end of the year, the big holiday season. My mum specializes in winter wear.

So again I ordered some things I've never tried. Btw there are 4 pastas to choose from: spaghetti, linguini, fusilli and whole wheat spaghetti (+$0.30). Pic in Wikipedia of the linguini is misleading. The cooked form is much wider and basically looks like a thicker version of the mee pok.

1 Seafood Tom Yum Linguini
1 Turkey Bacon Cheesy Crumble Fusilli
1 Dory Baked Rice
1 Pomodoro Fusilli
1 Cheesy Crumble
1 Banana Dessert Pizza
1 Bacon and BBQ Chicken Panini

First the Pomodoro. It's actually just a pasta in a tomato sauce with herbs. I was hungry and was having difficulty deciding between an upsized pasta or two normal pasta (1 cheaper and 1 normal). In the end I took the second. There were 2 options for the cheapest pasta, which were the Pomodoro and the Aglio Olio. I had a bad experience with the Aglio Olio when I tried it back in NTU's Canteen B, so I picked the Pomodoro instead.

It's quite sour but good. I was hungry so I found it to be a pretty good appetizer. For people with normal appetite it could probably be split between 2-3 people as appetizer. I don't know. Using this as appetizer is probably quite unorthodox anyway.

Second is the Seafood Tom Yum. It's probably the best thing in the menu I've tasted so far. Very creamy, so maybe some people wouldn't like it. A little spicy but not enough to actually label it as spicy. Reminded me of the creamy curry chicken I had at Pulau Perhentian.

The baked rice was bad. I don't like soft rice, and the baked rice was very soft, almost paste-like. Maybe white people like their rice prepared like their oatmeal, but we don't. If it was a little more watery I could have said they gave us congee with fish and cheese. It's Pastamania after all, so I won't fault them for sucking at non-pasta products.

The turkey bacon cheesy crumble fusilli was probably very good. As I've said many times before, my bro never eats much for dinner. Today, after finishing this pasta, he came searching for more food. Since the volume of pasta hasn't changed, the conclusion is obvious. So I handed him the baked rice, which really stopped his hunger. Returned me half of it saying it was very delicious in a very sarcastic manner. I tried it after that, hence the previous paragraph.

I haven't tried the Cheesy Crumble and may not try it this time. It's going to be breakfast and my bro will probably have it since he's always up earlier than me. Should be good since the only difference between it and the pasta my bro had was the turkey bacon.

Already tried the panini the last time I ordered Pastamania. It's very good, but the Bacon and BBQ Chicken is the only panini I'm willing to try. None of the others sound as good as this one.

Dessert was the banana pizza again. Holy crap it tastes so much better when fresh! The other time I had it, it was the day after I ordered it so it was in the fridge overnight before entering my mouth.








Entered a stream just in time for to see the stream's host thanking us for watching Foxer lose with him. Foxer lost. I missed all the games. Oh damn.

Rant 659 / Reading Swann's Way

 












So I got a new headphone because it was pressing on the top of my head and I'm worried the constant pressing and the heat was going make me go bald like the previous one. Yea they don't for normal people, but I'm not normal when I wear them 16 hours a day.

Now I'm using these earbuds with a hook on each that goes around the ear. I don't use earbuds normally because they never seem to fit comfortably.

These aren't totally comfortable either - they're slightly painful to remove and insert. But at least now I don't have to worry about balding any longer.











Shotgun is making life better for me in New Vegas. It's exciting and when enemies are close, they're harder to aim at.

Also found out that the endings are different depending on your Karma level at the end. Apparently if you've been evil, whichever faction you side with will be more "evil" even if it's the NCR.

Now I'm curious about what happens if you help Caesar's Legion and, at the same time, have the highest Karma level.

Can slavers... be good?
































So there's this comic about zombies. Not as good as World War Z but repeating quests in New Vegas that I've already completed last week is getting a little boring.

Anyway, not much to say about it. Title is "The Walking Dead" some guy who woke up after a coma and found his hospital empty... except for the zombies.

The plot is getting too cliché seriously.

By the 38th issue, it was beginning to feel draggy. The events aren't very exciting and nothing seems to be moving. At least in World War Z the author kept switching perspectives to keep the momentum going and the feel fresh.

And it didn't just stay in the part where the zombies were still out there for ever and ever and ever.

Here, after 38 issues there was still no word of any military groups out there that managed to regroup and calling out for survivors. Not to mention that the drama just wasn't very dramatic.

Maybe I'm just setting my standards too high. I don't know. Comics are supposed to be much more dramatic than novels because of the visual impact that pictures can provide more effectively than words alone.

Still, it's about zombies.













Just learnt about this simple formula for a herbal tea when I saw that it was sold in small packets in the store my mum bought jars of birds nest from. I know nothing is simpler than chrysanthemum tea, but this is quite simple too. It's just chrysanthemum, wolfberry (枸杞子) and slices of ginseng. I just need to add hot water to the mix and that's it. All three can be bought in dried form separately including sliced ginseng, so there's no need to buy those packets other than for the convenience of not having to measure anything or re-seal any bags all the time.

Because of its recent financial difficulties, the US is considering the idea of raising the retirement age to 69.

The proposal suggests raising the Social Security retirement age to 68 by 2050 and 69 by 2075 with a "hardship exception" for certain occupations, the draft said.

I think part of the reason this was suggested was because none of the people who raised this will be affected anyway. They reap the rewards while the next generation pays the price.




Singapore is also thinking about this but I have no idea when it will happen. If it does, I don't think they should have it as late as what the Americans have in mind. Who's to say we won't encounter new problems before 2050? 40 years is a long time after all, in terms of economical crises.




















Somehow I'm losing interest in the books in my collection. It probably reflects the change of attitude towards life.


I've figured out since secondary school that people who like fantasy novels dislike reality. This means I no longer dislike reality.


The thing is, I'm still trying to find out what exactly my attitude is right now towards life.


Can it be apathy? Because I don't seem to really give a shit about anything these days, not even my own future.


Due to this, I'm sensing a new worry for myself.


A recent nightmare led me to a deduction that it was really a manifestation of a problem that my subconscious mind is foreseeing.


Every man wants to be respected. It's just human nature. 

But if I live my life as planned, I will be less respected than most of my peers, if it hasn't happened already.


Right now it's still not so bad. It's like losing several SCVs due to an early rush that was pushed back. The difference is small but it will grow.


Which means I need to rethink my plan.


I need to do something.




























Black Ops sold more than 5.6mil copies in the first 24 hours. Amazing. I've been watching some people play the campaign on the 360 via livestream.com and it was not my cup of tea. A bit of a mindfuck ending and some variety in terms of gameplay during different stages, like playing as a commander in RTS mode, defending a certain position and flying a combat helicopter.

But I'm not very interested in modern warfare.


Multiplayer gets even less attention from me. 


























So SGX.com has this FAQ for the uninitiated like myself. Quite educational but doesn't cover nearly enough to make me confident enough to use real money. It's only the ABCs of shares trading, not enough for me to write an essay with.


Hence I'm looking for a SGX simulation to play with that uses real prices from the Singapore Exchange. Apparently there used to be a few but they're no longer there.


I want to play with Monopoly money first :\






















I really prefer the current RT sessions compared to the ones I attended last year. It is so easy!


What we did for our weight loss programme in the last session:


20mins of brisk walking
10mins break
20mins of brisk walking
20 overhead claps
20 crunches
10s of holding legs straight 5 degrees above the ground
10 pushups


The hardest part was actually the 10s despite being the shortest. 5 degrees is really a lot harder than the 45 degrees most of us are used to.


It was so easy the PTI said his SI complained to him that we were "too dry" and that they were going to pace us next time. The original instructions the PTI gave us was that we should walk as fast as we could or jog if we wanted, but no running because the main point is to burn fats and building muscle is secondary. He didn't set a pace so some of us were actually strolling in the evening breeze like they were dating in a park/beach.


It's not that it's really that relaxing, but that they probably didn't know how hard to push some of us. I sweat even when I walk at my normal pace because I have always perspired very easily since young, but I noticed some behind me whose backs were wet at the end. And no, they didn't almost overlap me.


Those guys were probably the reason why the PTIs didn't want to pace us. How does one set a pace when they're mixed in a group with those who could jog for hours? I noticed some who were jogging for the entire walking part of the session despite being overweight like the rest of us. They were either very athetic (hence the misleading BMI) or their BMIs were only slightly above 27.


Now why would I want to choose IPT over this? I even get paid more than enough to cover my cab fares for attending RT while IPT doesn't give me a cent.


Then again, I have no idea how hard it's going to get in the future.


























This is ironic. Today I noticed two articles on Care2.com which seems to have a link, though in different ways to different people.


First I read this article which describes this child whose buttocks were paddled to the point of welting and bruising merely because he failed a science test. I know it's overboard, but that's not the main issue I want to highlight.


Almost all the comments this article received expressed shock and disgust that corporal punishment is still allowed at all in 20 states in the US, while over 85% of the 500 votes so far said "NO!" to corporal punishment in school.


Next I came across this article which said that less than a third of the American high school teachers believe their students are ready for university.


See the link?


If you side with corporal punishment, you would see what I see - that American children are obviously spared the rod so much they suck at studying.


On the other hand, if you're a complete pacifist, you'd see that too many children were obviously beaten by their teachers (TWENTY STATES still allow corporal punishment in schools!!!) or their abusive parents, and the emotional scars are causing them to suck at studying.


Truth is perception.


People are never blind to what is in front of them. They just see things differently.




















GSL finals... 5pm SGT tomorrow!


RT... 4pm SGT tomorrow!


Nah, not wasting my last RT-skipping chance for this. And no I'm not spending them on IPPT days either like some of the other RT guys suggested. IMO that's retarded. On those days we can come earlier to finish the whole IPPT in like 40mins and leave. I can probably come and go before the taxi peak hours begin at 5pm, so why would I skip those days?






















Yesterday I ordered Pastamania again. This time I skipped the Combo menu and went for the Pasta menu because there were some I couldn't pick when I order a Combo.


It was then that I learnt that I could upsize the pasta if I order ala carte!


So I ordered a Vongole Fusilli again for myself, but upsized (normal: $8.90, upsize: $11.10). I don't get to eat any sort of crustaceans at home because it's hard to pick the fresh ones and prepare properly, and my bro totally avoids them because they're troublesome to eat. This means it's almost not worth the effort for my mum to cook any crabs, prawns, clams and whatever seafood out there that come with shells.


Of course it's not as filling as $11.10 worth of KFC or MacDonald's, but I can't eat those too often. Once or twice a month is good enough. Also completely avoiding Pizza Hut now. Seriously overpriced now that the Large pizza has shrunk again to 12".

Let's compare these 4 using about $15 if we want to go for best quantity:


Pastamania - $14.70 for 3 regular Aglio Olio or Pomodoro, both vegetarian pastas
Pizza Hut - $15.50 for a regular 10" Viva pizza in the Family Favourite range
KFC - $15.90 for a Bargain Deal (6pc chicken, 2 med Whipped Potato, 1 med Coleslaw)
MacDonald's - $15.20 for 2 upsized Big Mac meals or $14 for 7 Double Cheeseburgers or McChickens


Not the best comparison since Pizza Hut doesn't have a combo meal under $21, but one thing is for sure - MacDonald's offers the best quantity because of the $2 burgers. KFC has $2.20 burgers but they're really tiny.


But after a few meals, Mac gets really boring.


Oh yes, I also checked Domino's since I had that the other day at Vic's place. It offers nothing worth comparing at $15. Apparently because it doesn't charge a delivery fee, all the prices are pretty much jacked up. But I believe they have coupons or something for customers that would allow them to buy 2 regular pizzas for about $25, so that's like $12 or $13 per regular 9" pizza. 

Whether that's actually cheaper than Pizza Hut is debatable since the latter also offers better combos at higher prices, like the $29.90 Family Meal which consists of 2 regular Viva 10" pizzas from both the Supreme range and the Family Favourite range plus 4pcs wings. Looks better than Domino's offer but Pizza Hut also has a $3 delivery charge.


Between these 2, Pizza Hut looks like the better option if ordering in larger amounts so that they can offset the delivery charge. For smaller amounts like 2 regular pizzas, Domino's seems cheaper.




















So after mentioning about looking for a trading simulation just now, I decided to try the Investopedia's simulator. Btw a lot of the stuff in that wiki appear irrelevant to me since I'm not in the US.


Anyway, I set up some buy offers before the market opened at about 9.30pm SGT and when I came back to look at it before going to bed (after typing this), this is what I found:

Holy shit! I'm glad I didn't spend real money. Of the 100k USD I started with, the boxed amount is now what I'm worth after spending US$80k. Lost over 1% of my net worth in my first hours. Makes me glad I'm playing with only Monopoly money.


Now I wonder what would happen if I hold on to these for an extended period of time...

Rant 658 / Speaking Of Which

Just found this interesting page called "Lamebook" which contains various screenshots of humourous stuff that people post on FB both accidentally and deliberately.

The first was taken from the website of Channel NewsAsia. The second was from Reuters.

Both are saying almost almost the same thing, except the first is almost neutral since it's supposed to be merely a rephrase of what someone else said ("as Western governments lashed out at..."). The second is a lot more biased, especially with the phrase "a choreographed vote".













Singaporeans are getting fatter. 54.1% of us do not exercise. 10.8% are obese. Despite the minuscule amount of relief I feel from being in the majority in terms of exercise routine, there isn't much that can be done to combat this short of reducing our rights and freedom.

When food becomes cheaper relative to our income, it is inevitable that we would eat more.

Obviously the weight loss programme for primary and secondary schools isn't working well enough. Maybe it isn't that they aren't exercising enough. Maybe the reason isn't as shallow as that. Maybe they just see no reason to lose weight.














I miss the smoke from Indonesia. When the PSI hit 100, we were practically having a constant cloudy weather, which made the indoors very comfortable without artificial aid. Of course it's bad for the lungs but Londoners have been living with smog for generations and yet you don't see them dying like flies today.













I was a little surprised that she was there. I didn't think we were going to do anything she would have been interested in, except maybe Citadels.

She was most definitely there only because they were going to attend the wedding together the next morning.

He didn't seem to mind watching us play a game that he normally wouldn't even touch, even pretended to be interested like I did. I just didn't know if she was just as tolerant.

She was not.

It was not surprising but it made me feel a little awkward.

Playing that PS3 game in their presence was like playing DotA when CY was around.

So I tried to get everyone to play Citadels. I had no idea if it was to her taste, but it was definitely better than trying DotA. There were, after all, only 4 options.

1) Keep playing PS3.
2) Play Citadels
3) Watch a movie
4) Play DotA.

Only 2) and 3) would have had any chance of working. 3) would have meant stopping them from playing their game entirely. The idea was to let those who really wanted to play that game stay on the PS3 while the rest play Citadels. Didn't work.

Hence when the two of them suddenly mentioned making ice cream floats I jumped on the idea.

Shouldn't have gone with them, but I didn't know if they would go for it if only she wanted it.

The better option would have been to stay while they were gone and tell the others why they should stop hogging the PS3.

20/20 hindsight, yes?

What's done is done.

A big mug would have been nice though. A mere cup of root beer and ice cream float just isn't enough.

Data from Internet security firm Symantec released in September showed that 70 percent of Internet users in Singapore had fallen victim at least once to cybercrime, including credit card fraud and identity theft.

Holy shit. I'm in the 70%. My Twitter account got hacked once. I wonder how I was careless enough to let anyone know my username and password. I'm still trying to figure it out. Not even my bro knows any of my passwords :\

Maybe any programmers reading this and looking for jobs should look at this industry. Take a few courses and call yourself a cyber forensics expert. Sounds cool too.











Gold just hit US$1400/oz. Didn't it just hit US$1000/oz like a month or two ago? I wonder if my suspicion was right when I said that it looked like a new bubble...















Yet another guide on being frugal.

Everyone's strategies will be different, since they're based on your own preferences. You might bring a bagged lunch every day but go on an international vacation every year, or indulge in restaurant meals while collecting coupons for the grocery store. As long as you're cutting back on the areas that aren't that important to you, you won't feel like you're making an impossible sacrifice.

 I completely agree with this part. You don't have to save on everything, just all the things you don't actually care about. I still wear faded clothes at home and towels with giant holes in them are used as mats/rags. I'm still using my old SAF towels and have yet to throw away any.

In the future I believe I'll be saving on overseas travel by not travelling at all. Maybe it's not in the future anymore. I probably won't be leaving Singapore this year or next.

So where will my money go?

I'm still trying to figure out how to buy shares. Nobody in my family does it so nobody can tell me how.

So far I've found that I need to open an account in DBS Vickers via iBanking. As far as I can tell I won't be able to buy the stuff which my aunt had recommended in passing before she left.

Need to set up an account in HK. So I looked up the same bank my mum used and voila! I think I can! But will need a lot of work. Need to apply for HKID first.










So I did my research on how to get my HKID. Not too inconvenient. Quite easy actually.

Initially misread a few lines and asked my mum if she had her HKID after '97. She said no, and went on a rant on why I shouldn't get it, including  that I will have to go back to Hong Kong to renew it soon after I get it.

Which, according to the website I linked to, is bullshit. I think she was thinking about the HKSAR passport, which must be collected in Hong Kong and costs like HK$168.

For some reason she just doesn't want me to get it.

I have no idea why I shouldn't. They aren't even charging an application fee for the ID. It's practically free of charge other than the stamp that I need to mail it to the Chinese embassy here in Singapore (my PRC friends told me the queues there can be horribly long). The only problem with the HKID is that I have to renew it within 30 days the next time I go to HK (worry about queues).












So I just checked on Lockerz to see if they're still holding that auction they had. They called it a "redemption" event just like all the others in which we spend points to buy stuff, except this time we bid for items with the points.

Items that usually went for around a thousand points went up had bids that went over thirty thousand.

I have less than two thousand points.

Fuck it.












So why didn't I publish this for 3 days?