I actually forgot about getting earphones until I got the printer. The plan was to find the printer booths, ask for quotes and then get some earphones before actually buying the printer.
Then when I found the two booths selling Brother printers, I realized the brochures were exactly the same. I went straight to the conclusion that there was no difference which booth I bought from, so I asked the second booth, Harvey Norman, if I could switch the free speakers for another set of NTUC vouchers.
The MFC 7860 came with a set of $20 NTUC vouchers and a pair of X-Mini speakers supposedly worth $76, but neither my bro nor I have any need for crappy speakers like those.
The first person I asked, the girl who had handed me the brochure, told me that some of the promoters were looking to buy those speakers, but were only willing to pay $20.
In terms of value, that was what I had asked for. $20 cash instead of vouchers. But I had more than 1 set in mind even though I asked for only 1 set. It was just for probing for the possibility.
So she led me to another promoter and whispered something to him, which made me believe that the ones who gave out brochures weren't the same ones who did the sales. Anyway, I asked him exactly the same question and he told me that exchanges weren't allowed.
However, if I could give him the speakers, he would give me 10% off. I didn't expect that and $35 was much closer to the 2 sets of vouchers I wanted. So I said yes immediately.
He also threw in 2 reams of Xerox A4 paper which were of better quality than the ones we use in the office.
Not a bad deal overall.
After payment, I thought to find out if I got scammed. It wasn't important because I already got a better deal than I expected to get. Hence I asked him if 10% was the most he could have given me, adding that surely he could have given more, like 20%.
But he said no, this was the most he was allowed to give to help clear certain models on the last day. I guess this printer was selling more poorly than I thought it would.
Yet it also implies that if I had pushed harder, he might have given me the 10% anyway plus a little more from himself or other promoters for the speakers.
Regardless, it was already done and I was satisfied with the discount.
Metro 2033 is performing quite amazingly TBH. It's been 2 years since its release and it's still getting a place in the top 20 on the top seller list on Steam. It's true that the discount has been at 75% for a long time now, at least a year I think, but most other indie games would have gone further by now.
Now I know what PC fax means. I had thought this function was pretty redundant and I had spent some time trying to find a cheaper printer without this function.
It was only just now that I learnt I could use this function to turn my new office fax machine into a remote printer.
Woot!
Basically, this function allows me to fax documents from a PC to the fax machine. It's really no different from saying it's a remote printing function except this uses the telephone line instead.
Supposedly, this would mean that I'll have to connect a phone line to my PC, but the Internet is full of wonders, and I found websites that can replace it for free.
Some have ads but some, like this gotfreefax.com, merely limits the user to 2 free faxes a day and 3 pages per fax, ie 6 pages a day.
I AM FINE WITH THAT!
This is so frigging awesome.
EDIT: It appears that those sites I had found were only for US and Canada. So now I can only find one site, freepopfax.com, that works for SG. Not sure about the kind of ads it will include so I'm testing it tonight.
Monday 26 November 2012
Saturday 24 November 2012
Rant 1081 / Zombies And Printers
I guess the zombie genre is an easy one for writers. For some writers, they deal with difficult characters by killing them off. Not getting rid of them somehow seems pretty difficult to me provided there's no magic in the story. There are many ways to removing characters but killing is:
1) dramatic
2) perfect for tying up any related lose ends
3) able to give closure to the reader so that he won't have any lingering doubts after the story ends
The zombie genre gives writers this choice at any given moment, even when things are perfectly safe.
For games, this has an additional benefit.
The thing with options in a game is that it causes the story to grow branches. If I pick A, the story goes this way. If B, that way. More choices, more branches. Eventually you're going to get an entire tree. Imagine how many difference scenarios the voice actors would have to go through and how much more animation the developers would have to create.
By killing off characters, the writer ensures that the branches do not continue to split till they get out of control. Whenever it's going to get messy, they snip off a character to keep things neat.
That, I feel, was exactly what happened the Walking Dead game I just finished. After reading the synopsis on Wikipedia (full of spoilers), I realized (slightly to my disappointment) that all roads led to Rome. The difference is in how they went.
But anyways, I probably should have waited till Season 2 is out before playing it. There's something of a cliffhanger in the end and I don't like cliffhangers.
This game won excellent reviews and awards for each of the 5 episodes, so getting it for just 50% off was a very good deal IMO. Anyway, the Steam discount is back to 25% for the rest of this sale, so it's going to get that (or maybe 66%, because I don't see it hitting 75% this year at all) again only in the Christmas sale.
Home was a nice distraction from the lingering thoughts about the Walking Dead game.
Supposed to be horror and it kept me tense all the way. I stopped bracing whenever I opened doors after a while. I guess it takes more than simple atmosphere to keep a player that tense.
The next time I play, it's not going to feel like a horror game anymore.
Anyways, short game, nicely made, very much worth the US$1.01 I spent on it. 66% off wasn't ok for a game I wasn't really looking out for but it didn't make sense for me to wait till it hits 75%. The difference of 9% would only have been US$0.27.
Planning to get a printer that can handle fax, scan, copy and print from my iPad and most brochures and people recommended the Brother MFC 7860, which also does PC fax, an unnecessary function for me.
Then I found that the MFC 7360 could do all of those functions at S$100 less.
The difference is that it requires third-party apps to print from the tablet.
So I tried and managed to get Cortado Workplace working... except everything I printed was extremely small. Words were tiny and images were shrunk.
No way to get it working properly.
I could probably use my old Acer laptop as a proxy somehow easily but I didn't want to rely on it at all. The motherboard's battery is already screwed so who knows when it's going to die.
Looks like I'm going to have to spend the extra $100.
I initially wanted an inkjet like my home's. Well, before that I wanted a printer to replace my home's so that I could use the older printer for work.
Then I learnt that laser printers cost less in the long run due to cheaper toner vs expensive ink.
To reduce the cost, I settled for monochrome - colour would have needed another $100. I didn't need colour anyway since I now show images through my iPad. All I needed was really a fax machine that I could occasionally print stuff through from my tablet.
Still, $350 for this is going to be a major expense for my business. I have doubts but my old fax machine is in need of repair. I have only a vague idea how to get someone to repair it and I don't want to have to hunt down the paper and ink when they finally run out. I heard they were expensive and I know they aren't easy to find.
Might as well get the MFC, a machine I'm more comfortable with. Plus it comes with 3 years onsite warranty and 2 more limited carry-in.
I could have also got this machine for about $150 less on Amazon but that lacked the warranty. Somehow I feel safer with lots of that when it comes to machines for my work.
1) dramatic
2) perfect for tying up any related lose ends
3) able to give closure to the reader so that he won't have any lingering doubts after the story ends
The zombie genre gives writers this choice at any given moment, even when things are perfectly safe.
For games, this has an additional benefit.
The thing with options in a game is that it causes the story to grow branches. If I pick A, the story goes this way. If B, that way. More choices, more branches. Eventually you're going to get an entire tree. Imagine how many difference scenarios the voice actors would have to go through and how much more animation the developers would have to create.
By killing off characters, the writer ensures that the branches do not continue to split till they get out of control. Whenever it's going to get messy, they snip off a character to keep things neat.
That, I feel, was exactly what happened the Walking Dead game I just finished. After reading the synopsis on Wikipedia (full of spoilers), I realized (slightly to my disappointment) that all roads led to Rome. The difference is in how they went.
But anyways, I probably should have waited till Season 2 is out before playing it. There's something of a cliffhanger in the end and I don't like cliffhangers.
This game won excellent reviews and awards for each of the 5 episodes, so getting it for just 50% off was a very good deal IMO. Anyway, the Steam discount is back to 25% for the rest of this sale, so it's going to get that (or maybe 66%, because I don't see it hitting 75% this year at all) again only in the Christmas sale.
Home was a nice distraction from the lingering thoughts about the Walking Dead game.
Supposed to be horror and it kept me tense all the way. I stopped bracing whenever I opened doors after a while. I guess it takes more than simple atmosphere to keep a player that tense.
The next time I play, it's not going to feel like a horror game anymore.
Anyways, short game, nicely made, very much worth the US$1.01 I spent on it. 66% off wasn't ok for a game I wasn't really looking out for but it didn't make sense for me to wait till it hits 75%. The difference of 9% would only have been US$0.27.
Planning to get a printer that can handle fax, scan, copy and print from my iPad and most brochures and people recommended the Brother MFC 7860, which also does PC fax, an unnecessary function for me.
Then I found that the MFC 7360 could do all of those functions at S$100 less.
The difference is that it requires third-party apps to print from the tablet.
So I tried and managed to get Cortado Workplace working... except everything I printed was extremely small. Words were tiny and images were shrunk.
No way to get it working properly.
I could probably use my old Acer laptop as a proxy somehow easily but I didn't want to rely on it at all. The motherboard's battery is already screwed so who knows when it's going to die.
Looks like I'm going to have to spend the extra $100.
I initially wanted an inkjet like my home's. Well, before that I wanted a printer to replace my home's so that I could use the older printer for work.
Then I learnt that laser printers cost less in the long run due to cheaper toner vs expensive ink.
To reduce the cost, I settled for monochrome - colour would have needed another $100. I didn't need colour anyway since I now show images through my iPad. All I needed was really a fax machine that I could occasionally print stuff through from my tablet.
Still, $350 for this is going to be a major expense for my business. I have doubts but my old fax machine is in need of repair. I have only a vague idea how to get someone to repair it and I don't want to have to hunt down the paper and ink when they finally run out. I heard they were expensive and I know they aren't easy to find.
Might as well get the MFC, a machine I'm more comfortable with. Plus it comes with 3 years onsite warranty and 2 more limited carry-in.
I could have also got this machine for about $150 less on Amazon but that lacked the warranty. Somehow I feel safer with lots of that when it comes to machines for my work.
Rant 1080 / The Walking Dead Is Not Exactly A Game.
These commercials aren't new but I still find them hilarious.
SC2 for US$20 on Black Friday. Holy crap!
The other day, it came to my mind that I should consume those boxes of sliced ginseng from my relatives given to us when my mother was sick. This wasn't not the first time I thought about it but it was the first time I also thought that even if I am not going to use them, I should at least keep them in the fridge after checking for mould.
The boxes aren't sealed. Despite being Canadian ginseng, for some reason, the seller doesn't have the class to keep them in sealed boxes. Instead, they're just 2 plastic sides that are kept together with tape.
When I took them out, there was no mould.
Instead, the first box had a several weevils, as if it was rice that had been left exposed for a month. I see them all the time because I buy 10kg bags of rice and can't finish them soon enough.
My first response was to want to throw the box away. Then came the price of ginseng in my head. That made me recall that weevils and their eggs are not toxic nor dangerous to consume at all. I simply rinse my rice to get ride of them and still eat the rice anyway.
I googled this just to check, since the ginseng may not be cooked as thoroughly as rice, and confirmed it.
The second box had a pretty bad infestation.
Now they're both wrapped in a plastic bag and kept in the fridge. The cold should stop them from breeding. When I want any, I pick out a few slices and rinse them when necessary.
Next time, I'll need to to think about the boxes of chicken essence. These things were meant for my late mother so I can't simply re-gift them.
Feels good to have my external hard disk back. I'm kinda paranoid about backups because I've lost files that were important to me before.
Those experiences taught me two things:
1) I can really do without them TBH
2) I should back up my backups just to avoid the initial wave of sadness over the loss.
Hence my two external hard disks. Both are WD My Book Essential but one is older and doesn't have the auto-backup function. The other does but I'm not sure how it works so I'm manually copying those important files over.
The Walking Dead was at 50% off on Steam so I had to get it. Made sure it was US$12.50 for all five episodes before I bought the season pass.
Short, but great.
It's nothing like any other zombie games. Instead, it's more of an interactive movie. Combat is minimal and only involves clicking on the zombies. Mainly, this is about making choices, some of which were difficult.
The difficulty of the decisions is shown at the end of the episode when it tells me how many percents of other players made the same choices as I did, and 3 of them were close to 50%. Everyone's pretty divided on those issues, like whether the gun should be "lent" to someone who was bitten.
Reading it in comics and novels can be quite different from actually choosing it in the game, seriously.
Overall, very dramatic and very engrossing. This game needs to be played in one sitting though, or at least each episode.
Now, time for the next episode...
...
Episode 2 was more clear cut and had fewer painful choices to make. It was obvious according to the stats that most of the decisions were easy. However, that doesn't mean I'm choosing the same as the majority on everything.
In fact, for a lot of those decisions where it's almost 50/50, I tend to be on the minority side. Strange.
...
Episode 3 was more painful because of mostly just one part.
By now, I can confirm that combat is extremely easy in this game. The focus is on it being an interactive story and not really a game. Heck, I'd seriously categorize it as an interactive animated show rather than a game. There is no competition, there is minimal challenge and there is no score to keep.
Why would I call it a game at all?
Anyways, I'll just post the last screen of the episode with the spoilers covered up. Anyone who plays the game will know what this screen is and what I've done while those who don't gets to see what I've been talking about.
See? 4 of the 5 major decisions in this episodes has had everyone divided almost evenly, meaning these were difficult choices. Actually I didn't find the last choice painful but I guess people were too stuck with what they were taught from young to listen to logic. One was fit, the other was injured - the choice was very straightforward to me.
...
Episode 4 was sad. I'd love to finish the final episode now but it's 12am already.
But this game doesn't seem to be heading for a good ending :(
Monday 19 November 2012
Rant 1079 / WD RMA Successful!
IPT killed my mood since I woke up this morning.
It's been so long since I had to worry about this that I'm just not used to it again.
Getting it settled felt awesome but it doesn't happen often.
It's not just the thought of having to go all the way to the camp just to exercise that irks me but the also the likelihood that I'll have to attend all 18 sessions this year including 8 sessions of RT.
Last year things were easy because circumstances caused constant weight loss for months. This year, my weight has so far stayed at the exact same number despite my diet changes and increased fitness level.
It feels unlikely that I will be able to lose enough weight within the next 5.5 months. If I'm right, I need to lose 6kgs by May. That's 6kgs in 5.5 months, slightly faster than the rate I had last year.
Rum and coke.
When I got this bottle of Cruzan Aged Rum, a dark rum, I had the mistaken impression that it was good for sipping like my cognac.
Nope. Sucks balls compared to cognac (hence the price of $45 online vs the $250 of the Remy Martin XO at the airport's duty-free shops).
With some Coke, however, it became a lot better.
Cuba Libre. No wonder it's one of the most popular classic cocktails in the world.
According to some google results, I should get Cruzan Single Malt instead if I wanted a rum for sipping. But it's not available at this online store I was buying from.
But still, it's not bad for a liquor at this price level.
Went to Ikea and bought 2 rugs and a bath mat.
And some candles and a lamp.
Left the big candle on the cab or maybe it dropped out while I was trying to fit the rugs into the trunk :(
Oh well, it was only $3.90 anyway.
Pretty good deals, those candles at Ikea. I mean the unscented ones of course. The scented ones smell like crap, figuratively speaking.
Needed a rug because for some reason, my chair has begun to scrape off the top layer of my wooden floor.
My floorboards are planks that consist of this hard paper(?) layer covering the actual duller wood. This top layer is starting to come off bit by bit due to my chair.
Thus I thought a rug would stop this and simultaneously make my floor look better by covering up that scar.
Those 2 rugs and a bath mat already cost me about $125 so I thought I'd add a bit more to hit $150 and get the Ikea membership.
The first lamp I wanted cost $40 but it was sold out, so I picked the next best one that cost $20. Needed a little more to hit $150 so I got some candles too.
...
Holy crap! This beige Vate lamp is fantastic. When I spent like 15 minutes at the lighting section, I was really simply looking for a table lamp that suits the general woody rustic feel of my home and a low price.
Initially, I found a nice one but it cost $40 and the colour I wanted was out of stock.
So I looked around longer and settled for this Vate that looks like a lantern. Slightly too "classical" if you know what I mean, but it was only about half the price of the first or less.
Picked beige to suit the woody look of my home, plus a pair of 7W bulbs.
I didn't think it would have such a nice warm glow that I'm seeing now with my ceiling light off. Can't post a decent photo of it even though I wanted to because cameras either make it look too dark or too bright. I probably need more distance so that the glow doesn't affect the focus too much but my room isn't big enough.
The beige bath mat is great too. Probably because I have never used a bath mat before.
Previously, I have only used door mats and old towels for this purpose, so I didn't expect the luxurious softness under my feet until I used it. It's better than a carpet because it feels slightly elastic.
As for the rug, it does not blend in with my wooden floor as much as I had hoped for. Too modern and too much blue. Still, it's practical. Now I just need to find out what I should do if I drop food or liquid onto it, since I eat here.
At worst, there's always the dry cleaner nearby.
Went to SAFRA to pick up my Ocean Health stuff on a Saturday only to learn that I should have called in advance so that they could prepare the bag for me at the reception counter. In addition, the office was closed on weekends so I couldn't get it on the spot.
Derp.
At least I could get the Choice vouchers ($92 for $100 worth per set, 2 sets per member) which ran out soon after I got there at 10.30am. They counted the number of sets of vouchers and asked everyone in the queue how many they were getting. Lots of them were bringing their parents and children together, all of whom probably have Dependents' Memberships, so they got 2 sets per person.
So they had to tell the people queueing after like 6-7 people behind me that there was no stock for them.
Took a whole hour before I got mine despite a rather short queue.
And this was the first day the vouchers were available this month, not to mention the counter opens at 9am.
In other words, those vouchers run out in less than 2 hours.
Then on the cab I thought since I was going to go again in the coming week to get my fish oil, and it didn't seem like a good idea to have full hands when I'm at the crowded Philips Carnival Sale, I decided to go to Timberland the next time I go to SAFRA instead.
That was halfway through the trip from SAFRA to Centrepoint, and fortunately I had planned my way so that Centrepoint was between Mount Faber SAFRA and Toa Payoh, just a little more eastward.
And fortunately I changed my mind then, because two irons needed a hand, so I could barely get my wallet out to pay for them even without the shirts I would have bought at Timberland.
Even luckier was that I found 4 tees my size in a stack of old clothes. I haven't completely cleared my home of my mother's stuff, so today after I got home I somehow felt like clearing out that stack of clothing before taking my shower.
That's when I find those clothes that I could wear. Must have been those excess ones that I never needed (I used to wear whichever shirt was on top) and eventually forgot about. Since the stack was in some dark corner, the shirts are still in perfect condition except pretty dusty.
That also reminded me that since a number of my shirts are from Giordano, I should be looking there instead of Timberland for new clothes. True that those polo shirts faded after a year but they must be cheap.
Thus I discovered that Giordano is having a big sale at IMM, a "relocation sale"! It was "probably" end on the 3rd of December.
Holy crap! I must go! Forget Timberland!
Should have checked Giordano long ago.
...
Went there on today (Monday).
$15 per polo shirt. Picked 4 immediately. Fortunately for me there were still a few XXLs around for the more popular colours like black. I think I got the last black XXL but there could be more hidden under the wagons for all I know.
I wanted to hit $100 to get the membership but my bro didn't need anything so I could only get $60.
Membership here would be really practical because their shirts fade within 2 years of constant wearing.
It's ok. I might pick more when there's a Christmas sale or something. The cashier told me I only needed to hit the $100 within 2 months, so I have up till January to do it. Nothing to worry about.
Hush Puppy was also having a sale. Apparently half the IMM was having a relocation sale, so it made me go through the whole mall.
The 2-piece packs of men's boxers and the 3-piece packs were all sold out by the time I got there, but I managed to find like 10 packets of 1-piece packs of my size. $8.90 a pack though, compared to the $13.90 for the 2-piece packs. Not exactly the best deal TBH but it's still not expensive for something of this quality.
The cherry on top of this good shopping trip is that, I realized when I saw a promotion poster on my way to the taxi stand, IMM is under Capitamalls - these receipts are going to give me points in the Capitastar programme!
Best gf evah!
But in her defense, I must agree with the "experts" that it was partly his fault for spoiling her and compromising everything that he is for her sake, and partly her parents' fault for not teaching her basic courtesy.
This guy had no backbone and her parents sucked at parenting big time.
Also, he is one of the shallowest men I have ever seen.
Just realized that I should be going to Dongdaemun instead of Myeongdong. Before, I didn't manage to find out where I should go to find wholesalers. I just did last night by accident.
Derp.
Fortunately for me, Dongdaemun is only a short train ride away from Myeongdong, and my hotel is close to a SMRT station.
I slightly worry over my ignorance of the Korean language but I've read that English signage is common in the downtown area. At worst I can call my hotel's front desk if I really need help with directions.
Even more worrying is how I'll be able to buy anything without knowing Korean when I am at the wholesalers.
Hence I'm thinking over the whole process of making wholesale orders face to face and listing down everything that I need. Next, I'll prepare all the factors so that minimal talk is required.
Won't be cheap, the things that I may buy, since it's Korea and I'll probably be a very ineffective haggler.
Also read that food delivery is common in Korea. I just need to find out the pronunciation of various common dishes, like bibimbap, then ask the hotel how I should pronounce my address, and I can order food to my room the way I did in Shanghai.
As for the possibility of the restaurant asking me if I want to add this or that to my order, I plan to end my order with "Hangook-mal mot haeyo." I'm sure it's going to be like ordering fish soup in Singapore without stating whether I want the fried or fresh fish, so it will be fine. At worst, the food doesn't come in an hour and I make another call. It's not like the hotel is going to charge me for domestic calls.
Apparently it's cheap because they return to their customers' addresses to take their reusable eating utensils back, so I have to try.
This took so long I actually forgot all about it.
It's the replacement Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB I sent for RMA! It had stopped booting after I switched it off without ejecting it first.
Looks brand new. And I didn't even return the cables, so now I've a USB3.0 cable for free.
Maybe it's their way of saying "Sorry you broke our product", or maybe I'm just not trying to make sense here.
It's been so long since I had to worry about this that I'm just not used to it again.
Getting it settled felt awesome but it doesn't happen often.
It's not just the thought of having to go all the way to the camp just to exercise that irks me but the also the likelihood that I'll have to attend all 18 sessions this year including 8 sessions of RT.
Last year things were easy because circumstances caused constant weight loss for months. This year, my weight has so far stayed at the exact same number despite my diet changes and increased fitness level.
It feels unlikely that I will be able to lose enough weight within the next 5.5 months. If I'm right, I need to lose 6kgs by May. That's 6kgs in 5.5 months, slightly faster than the rate I had last year.
Rum and coke.
When I got this bottle of Cruzan Aged Rum, a dark rum, I had the mistaken impression that it was good for sipping like my cognac.
Nope. Sucks balls compared to cognac (hence the price of $45 online vs the $250 of the Remy Martin XO at the airport's duty-free shops).
With some Coke, however, it became a lot better.
Cuba Libre. No wonder it's one of the most popular classic cocktails in the world.
According to some google results, I should get Cruzan Single Malt instead if I wanted a rum for sipping. But it's not available at this online store I was buying from.
But still, it's not bad for a liquor at this price level.
Went to Ikea and bought 2 rugs and a bath mat.
And some candles and a lamp.
Left the big candle on the cab or maybe it dropped out while I was trying to fit the rugs into the trunk :(
Oh well, it was only $3.90 anyway.
Pretty good deals, those candles at Ikea. I mean the unscented ones of course. The scented ones smell like crap, figuratively speaking.
Needed a rug because for some reason, my chair has begun to scrape off the top layer of my wooden floor.
My floorboards are planks that consist of this hard paper(?) layer covering the actual duller wood. This top layer is starting to come off bit by bit due to my chair.
Thus I thought a rug would stop this and simultaneously make my floor look better by covering up that scar.
Those 2 rugs and a bath mat already cost me about $125 so I thought I'd add a bit more to hit $150 and get the Ikea membership.
The first lamp I wanted cost $40 but it was sold out, so I picked the next best one that cost $20. Needed a little more to hit $150 so I got some candles too.
...
Holy crap! This beige Vate lamp is fantastic. When I spent like 15 minutes at the lighting section, I was really simply looking for a table lamp that suits the general woody rustic feel of my home and a low price.
Initially, I found a nice one but it cost $40 and the colour I wanted was out of stock.
So I looked around longer and settled for this Vate that looks like a lantern. Slightly too "classical" if you know what I mean, but it was only about half the price of the first or less.
Picked beige to suit the woody look of my home, plus a pair of 7W bulbs.
I didn't think it would have such a nice warm glow that I'm seeing now with my ceiling light off. Can't post a decent photo of it even though I wanted to because cameras either make it look too dark or too bright. I probably need more distance so that the glow doesn't affect the focus too much but my room isn't big enough.
The beige bath mat is great too. Probably because I have never used a bath mat before.
Previously, I have only used door mats and old towels for this purpose, so I didn't expect the luxurious softness under my feet until I used it. It's better than a carpet because it feels slightly elastic.
As for the rug, it does not blend in with my wooden floor as much as I had hoped for. Too modern and too much blue. Still, it's practical. Now I just need to find out what I should do if I drop food or liquid onto it, since I eat here.
At worst, there's always the dry cleaner nearby.
Went to SAFRA to pick up my Ocean Health stuff on a Saturday only to learn that I should have called in advance so that they could prepare the bag for me at the reception counter. In addition, the office was closed on weekends so I couldn't get it on the spot.
Derp.
At least I could get the Choice vouchers ($92 for $100 worth per set, 2 sets per member) which ran out soon after I got there at 10.30am. They counted the number of sets of vouchers and asked everyone in the queue how many they were getting. Lots of them were bringing their parents and children together, all of whom probably have Dependents' Memberships, so they got 2 sets per person.
So they had to tell the people queueing after like 6-7 people behind me that there was no stock for them.
Took a whole hour before I got mine despite a rather short queue.
And this was the first day the vouchers were available this month, not to mention the counter opens at 9am.
In other words, those vouchers run out in less than 2 hours.
Then on the cab I thought since I was going to go again in the coming week to get my fish oil, and it didn't seem like a good idea to have full hands when I'm at the crowded Philips Carnival Sale, I decided to go to Timberland the next time I go to SAFRA instead.
That was halfway through the trip from SAFRA to Centrepoint, and fortunately I had planned my way so that Centrepoint was between Mount Faber SAFRA and Toa Payoh, just a little more eastward.
And fortunately I changed my mind then, because two irons needed a hand, so I could barely get my wallet out to pay for them even without the shirts I would have bought at Timberland.
Even luckier was that I found 4 tees my size in a stack of old clothes. I haven't completely cleared my home of my mother's stuff, so today after I got home I somehow felt like clearing out that stack of clothing before taking my shower.
That's when I find those clothes that I could wear. Must have been those excess ones that I never needed (I used to wear whichever shirt was on top) and eventually forgot about. Since the stack was in some dark corner, the shirts are still in perfect condition except pretty dusty.
That also reminded me that since a number of my shirts are from Giordano, I should be looking there instead of Timberland for new clothes. True that those polo shirts faded after a year but they must be cheap.
Thus I discovered that Giordano is having a big sale at IMM, a "relocation sale"! It was "probably" end on the 3rd of December.
Holy crap! I must go! Forget Timberland!
Should have checked Giordano long ago.
...
Went there on today (Monday).
$15 per polo shirt. Picked 4 immediately. Fortunately for me there were still a few XXLs around for the more popular colours like black. I think I got the last black XXL but there could be more hidden under the wagons for all I know.
I wanted to hit $100 to get the membership but my bro didn't need anything so I could only get $60.
Membership here would be really practical because their shirts fade within 2 years of constant wearing.
It's ok. I might pick more when there's a Christmas sale or something. The cashier told me I only needed to hit the $100 within 2 months, so I have up till January to do it. Nothing to worry about.
Hush Puppy was also having a sale. Apparently half the IMM was having a relocation sale, so it made me go through the whole mall.
The 2-piece packs of men's boxers and the 3-piece packs were all sold out by the time I got there, but I managed to find like 10 packets of 1-piece packs of my size. $8.90 a pack though, compared to the $13.90 for the 2-piece packs. Not exactly the best deal TBH but it's still not expensive for something of this quality.
The cherry on top of this good shopping trip is that, I realized when I saw a promotion poster on my way to the taxi stand, IMM is under Capitamalls - these receipts are going to give me points in the Capitastar programme!
Best gf evah!
But in her defense, I must agree with the "experts" that it was partly his fault for spoiling her and compromising everything that he is for her sake, and partly her parents' fault for not teaching her basic courtesy.
This guy had no backbone and her parents sucked at parenting big time.
Also, he is one of the shallowest men I have ever seen.
Just realized that I should be going to Dongdaemun instead of Myeongdong. Before, I didn't manage to find out where I should go to find wholesalers. I just did last night by accident.
Derp.
Fortunately for me, Dongdaemun is only a short train ride away from Myeongdong, and my hotel is close to a SMRT station.
I slightly worry over my ignorance of the Korean language but I've read that English signage is common in the downtown area. At worst I can call my hotel's front desk if I really need help with directions.
Even more worrying is how I'll be able to buy anything without knowing Korean when I am at the wholesalers.
Hence I'm thinking over the whole process of making wholesale orders face to face and listing down everything that I need. Next, I'll prepare all the factors so that minimal talk is required.
Won't be cheap, the things that I may buy, since it's Korea and I'll probably be a very ineffective haggler.
Also read that food delivery is common in Korea. I just need to find out the pronunciation of various common dishes, like bibimbap, then ask the hotel how I should pronounce my address, and I can order food to my room the way I did in Shanghai.
As for the possibility of the restaurant asking me if I want to add this or that to my order, I plan to end my order with "Hangook-mal mot haeyo." I'm sure it's going to be like ordering fish soup in Singapore without stating whether I want the fried or fresh fish, so it will be fine. At worst, the food doesn't come in an hour and I make another call. It's not like the hotel is going to charge me for domestic calls.
Apparently it's cheap because they return to their customers' addresses to take their reusable eating utensils back, so I have to try.
This took so long I actually forgot all about it.
It's the replacement Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB I sent for RMA! It had stopped booting after I switched it off without ejecting it first.
Looks brand new. And I didn't even return the cables, so now I've a USB3.0 cable for free.
Tuesday 13 November 2012
Rant 1078 / Lethal Vertical Marathons
Genuine IGN review :3
Surprisingly, Gamespot gave Natural Selection 2 a 6.0 out of 10.
It made me read the review and realized the reviewer was actually full of shit.
First, right in the first paragraph, he's already made a factual mistake: it doesn't cost $30, it costs $25. Is he using the Singapore Dollar or what? Because US$25 is indeed S$30!
Second, steep learning curve. You can easily just stick with the marines who cannot possibly be hard to master - you just play a sci-fi version of CS!
Moreover, if this game is getting a low score for being too difficult, what about Starcraft and Starcraft 2?
9.1 and 9.5 respectively.
Wut?
So now Gamespot is saying that SC2 is a much easier game than NS2?
Wut?
But he did have a point: the graphics are getting a little old. That's unfortunately due to the fact that this game was made entirely by a few guys compared to the entire studios employed by large established game developers.
In fact, half the game, including the Spark engine it uses, was made by just 2-3 guys. It was only later when they resorted to selling the unfinished game as a beta version that they got the money to hire a few more people and rent an office.
Can't be helped.
As for other reviews, Gamespot seems to be the only site that gives such a low score to the game. Everyone else is giving it at least an 8 out of 10.
EDIT: Gamespot has just removed the review.
Dohohoho!
Deadlight was short and easy. Interesting. The ending twist was not exactly mindblowing. But nice game.
Mechwarrior has an online game. It's like CS with mechs.
In beta right now, looks interesting but only 4 maps. I'll wait.
The khakis from Qoo10 arrived.
Though the packaging was trashy literally, the pants are actually much better than expected.
To clarify, the seller used black trash bags to wrap the pants. Maybe they weren't trash bags but they were black, thin and plastic - pretty much the definition of trash bags.
The pants are 100% cotton and not 99% or 97% like the ones from JShopper. Not sure how different this makes them and after trying them once, I can't tell.
These are khakis, so they are as baggy as the pants I used to wear in the past.
More comfortable but also the least formal of all long pants. I'll wear them on days when I'm only going to the office and nowhere else.
Extremely crude but hilarious. Accent sounds Teochew.
Towns is on Steam!
Strange because Steam usually only allows the sale of games that are at least near-completion, ie open beta.
Towns currently doesn't feel like it's anywhere close to completion. Maybe the devs have a surprise in store but I don't know.
I'm not saying it's not fun - it's probably my third favourite single-player game I have after the Mass Effect trilogy and two new Fallout games - but it's still lacking in a number of games, including polish.
Planetside 2 has an awesome concept - planetary war. It's big like Tribes but without the skiing and much bigger maps.
Instead of simply having individual large maps, in Planetside 2 they are merged to form whole continents on planets.
The basic concept is just capturing specific points in order to capture the maps. Capturing all the maps means capturing the continent.
It's a huge FPS.
With 3 factions, this goal is much harder than it seems.
Problem is that it's so big everyone seems to be lost on the faction I played in. There is absolutely no direction by anyone and no tutorial. I don't even know what the symbols on the minimap mean!
The worst thing is that there is zero communication. Nobody is saying anything nor do I know if there is a faction chat channel in the first place.
Maybe it's too big. That's what I think the issue is anyway. Everyone is spread out too much and the only people who knows what they're doing can only be in two or maybe even just one of the factions.
Because obviously, none of them were in mine when I played.
So my iron blew a fuse.
I heard a pop from outside my room and my PC went dark.
So I looked around and saw that my motherboard's LED light was gone too.
When I got out, the housekeeper had stopped ironing and was giving me a puzzled look.
It was weird because the light in the living room was still on.
Took out the ladder and climbed up to the fuse box. Sure enough, one was down.
I flipped the switch and said it was ok.
Turned out I was wrong. The moment she hit the switch of the iron's outlet, sparks flew out together with the familiar pop sound.
She screamed and I stared.
Holy shit!
In the end, we agreed that it was the iron and she should finish the ironing next week. I'm so glad I still have one pair of brand new chinos that I forgot to dump into the washing machine, so I have enough to last the rest of the week.
Better still, the Philips Carnival Sale is on this weekend. What perfect timing!
Saturday's going to be a busy day. Not only do I have to go there, I'll also have to visit SAFRA to collect my fish oil that I ordered previously and buy the NTUC Fairprice vouchers.
And I was also considering visiting a Timberland store to get some polo tees to hit $250 for the Green Class VIP. Maybe, maybe not. Probably will, because the shirts and the fish oil won't be heavy, and the fish oil will fit in my bag.
2 short sleeve polos for $99 and 2 cotton tees for $59! I'll probably get 4 polos and 2 tees, although I'm not very interested in the tees. I still have a few that aren't faded and I don't really wear them anymore. Too casual for work on workdays. I'll see what they have that I need.
I'll need to look at the map to see in which order I should visit these three. The Carnival Sale is definitely going to be the third because the iron is bulky.
My impression of a metropolis (or whatever they call their largest cities) of the future is simply a single structure.
I feel that this is just the most space-efficient way to place everything together.
Although this won't happen in our cities in this century or the next due obvious reasons, I believe eventually, some new developing country will try to build a new capital (or another city, but a capital seems more likely) that way.
Gone will be our current public transport systems. With an entire city indoor, we could use moving walkways on every level. Instead of driving cars, which statistically kill more people today both directly (accidents) and indirectly (air pollution) than any single disease, people will be using moving walkways (aka travelators, horizontal escalators etc etc), or maybe a version with seats on them.
A moving walkway with seats would have to be far longer than what we have today in order to both justify the need for seats and to allow passengers to have time to walk slowly to the seats.
I mean, obviously a very long travelator is going to be moving pretty damn fast too, so it's going to be hard to walk against the wind.
This would also mean that there may be slower travelators that people have to take before walking over to these long ones so that they can safely overcome the initial inertia.
It would be kind of like the sort described in Isaac Asimov's Robot series, with several differences of course.
Or they could enclose these long travelators in a tube to minimise air resistance by smoothing the air flow.
Just like there are private cars today, so there will be something similar when travelators become the primary mode of public transport.
But I can't make a guess that I feel any confidence in. The thing about inventions is that they often occur by accident. There is just no logical way to predict what is going to be the next technological revolution. For all I know, anti-gravity could be just a century away.
I wonder if I should get Don't Starve. Looks interesting when I watch my bro play it.
But I'm not sure if I need another of this sort of game. I'm already playing the heck out of Towns and I have no need for more. Maybe I'll get it through some indie bundle shit or maybe I'll just get it in the coming Steam Christmas Sale.
Towns remains a great game for multi-tasking. I'm just playing it while doing other stuff. Took some time to get it that way (by building a vertical trap marathon) but it's working out fine currently.
Hinders movement a lot, even caused a few townies to starve, but it's worth the risks. Not only does it give my townies time to get to the chokepoint, it also kills off any small seiges without needing a single soldier.
My 5 levels of Hell. Currently incomplete due to my being too lazy to farm mushrooms for poison bottles. The lowest level is blocked by the wall but the entrance is visible on the bottom left corner. That's also next to the entrance to the underground levels so that if the heroes get chased by monsters, they would have the traps to help them.
I plan to expand this by building a larger complex and relocating the scaffolds. I'll also need a way to store food nearby so that hungry townies can get fed without having to go through the maze.
EDIT: This maze wasn't really working perfectly because I hadn't covered the side with a wall.
Thursday 8 November 2012
Rant 1077 / Everybody Does That; Nobody Cares What It Causes.
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Monday 5 November 2012
Rant 1076 / All Kharaa No Frontiersman
Natural Selection 2.
Players on the Singaporean servers, myself included, are horrible at using the aliens. The situation was so bad, it felt as if the marines team was stacked in every game.
The only times we won (I played aliens in every single match so far in every server) were those times when the marines team was so bad the commander (comm) didn't summon their whole team back to base with a Distress Beacon when it got raped by a quasi-zerg-rush in which 3-4 skulks (in a 7v7 or 8v8 game) went directly to the marines base when the match began.
In short, aliens NEVER won legitimately.
So I spoke to my bro about it and learnt that it's mainly because although there had been such a long beta phase before release, there were no Singapore servers and very few Singaporeans playing the game. Hence, everyone here suck at the game.
However, the marines team is easy to learn since it's all about shooting and buying weapons for most of the team, so Singaporean players picked that up a lot faster than aliens.
You know what happens in most of the alien teams I've played in so far?
At least half the team was always camping in the hive for no apparent reason. Probably still figuring out what each lifeform does like I did.
Higher lifeforms did appear, fortunately; but they NEVER lasted, unfortunately.
As a result, 99% of the times when exos began to steamroll us, there were no fades nor onoses in sight.
In addition, the alien comms were terrible. Their learning experience, in turn, was being stifled by the terrible performance by the rest of the alien team, so they could never try much out.
Tired of this bullshit, I went to a different server today with about 100ms ping, maybe Japanese, maybe Australian, I heard both, and things were so different over there.
Not only did the aliens win, we won legitimately, and I even got the chance to try out the onos against the marines. The second round, we lost, but at least we didn't simply get steamrolled.
A huge difference there.
You know what's bad about playing as an alien in NS2?
You can never get the chance to appreciate the map environment because it's always good to have alien sight mode on due to its tactical value.
Funny thing about NS2 is that while I suck at most lifeforms so far, I seem to shine at onos. Weird, and not really a good thing because the onos is the most expensive lifeform and the highest on the aliens' hierachy other than the comm.
In other words, it's a late-game lifeform.
Skulk - the basic lifeform. Bites hard (2 bites to kill an unupgraded marine) and spits parasites that makes the marine visible to all nearby aliens through walls for a long while.
I won't say I'm good at it. I aim for the butt (out of the target's sight) and I keep moving as he turns... or at least I always try to. Doesn't really work too well when he's not alone or when there's lag. In addition, I also always try to flank them and use vents to reach more interesting spots safely.
Still, I don't do very well as a skulk. The bites requires timing. Simply spamming it doesn't work.
Gorge - the healer. Sprays heals that also speeds up alien structure construction, and can spit on marines to do mediocre damage.
It is not that great when I use it. I don't have the balls to fight because I feel that the gorge is too weak and slow for even a 1v1 duel with a marine. Hydras, small defensive alien turrets gorges drop, I've tried so hard to use them, but they always end up dead quickly. How on earth are they even supposed to provide tactical support when a single marine can almost kill a hydra with a single clip despite my heals and 2 other hydras supporting it?
What use are hydras?
The only time I'm useful as a gorge is when there are damaged structures, like the hives. Nobody ever heals the hives IMO, and that's a bad thing. Maybe it's because the hives' HP aren't highlighted enough for people to notice.
And bile bombs (an anti-structure weapon)? Comms seem to only research it when we're already winning hard. And when we're not, how are gorges supposed to get near structures to use it when marines love to aim for the gorges to stop their heals?
Lerk - flies, shoots spikes and gasses marines.
Yea it's cool, but it's only good for shooting spikes. Great anti-noob weapon but when non-noobs arrive, I often get caught in rather tactically disadvantageous positions as I get too focused on raping noobs. Great for hitting structures from vents too, though pretty darn weak compared to a skulk's bite so it takes forever.
Gas is much harder to use now compared to its counterpart in NS1. Back in the day, I could shoot a gas cloud and it would stop on the first wall or floor it hits.
Now, it's a smoke trail behind me that gradually sinks to the ground, like planes spraying pesticides on farms. To use it, I have to fly above the marines and hope they don't shoot me because I'm so damn fragile.
This means it's only useful when the marines are already engaged with other aliens, usually skulks. In other words, not really useful IMO.
Fades - capable of short-distance teleport (aka blink) and whose slashes do amazing damage. I've had really bad memories of them back in NS1 due to the difficulty in mastering the blink so I've been avoiding it.
Onos - the tank.
Skulks have 70hp and 10 armour.
Gorges have 150hp and 70 armour.
Lerks have 125hp and 50 armour.
Fades have 250hp and 50 armour.
Onos (plural also "onos") have 1300hp and 600 armour.
When an onos engages the marines, someone always dies. There is no "if" and no "maybe".
1-2 hits will kill any marine who isn't in an exosuit. Even against one in an exosuit, the heavy armour of the marines, the onos can win in a 1v1 fight. I know because I've been through 2 duels with morons who thought their exosuits granted them godlike powers and thus allowed them to wander the map alone.
Another ability is stomp. It takes a long time to load (0.7s according to the wiki but it felt like 2-3s) because you know, imagine an elephant raising its forelegs. It can't do it instantaneously. Same with the onos stomp.
What it does is that all the marines nearby not in jetpacks and exos will collapse on the ground, stunned, for 2 whole seconds. If 0.7s felt like 2-3s for me, imagine what 2 real seconds would feel like.
Yet despite all these praises I heap on the onos, they all keep dying in the games I've played. I believe the issue lies in how players, upon seeing those 4-digit numbers on their hp and armour, also think they've been granted godlike status.
Moreover, the immense size of the onos makes them the number easiest target in every fight, and only the smarter marines will aim for the little gorge healing behind the onos. Let's just say that we're not all geniuses.
What I've noticed is that it's always a good idea to turn away from a fight before it appears necessary to do so. The main reason is that the onos doesn't run quickly so it needs some buffer hp to handle the fire as it retreats.
Personally, I turn back when I lose 25% armour when I'm not backed by a good number of teammates. However, I don't simply go straight to a hive to heal. If I hear marines chasing me, and they only number one or two, I'll turn around at some point and kill them all, and I'd have the hp to do so and still get away if reinforcements happen to be somewhere behind them.
The thing is that when marines focus on chasing you, they don't stop to think that something may be terribly wrong when you suddenly turn around and charge at them. Maybe it's because they tend to think you're low on hp if you run. I just don't want shit to happen; onos are expensive.
In spite of this simple rule, I still can get killed or almost die because of exos. 1 is easy, but 1 plus several basic marines are not. 3-4 exos together, and I won't even bother reaching them before I turn, and I'd still get almost killed because everybody loves to chase the running onos. Good thing alien comms tend to get celerity by the time I can afford onos, so I can outrun them before I die in those situations.
The celerity upgrade increases my movement speed.
In situations where there really are 3 or more exos pushing into our territory in a group, all I can do is bait and hope the rest of the aliens will attack as I draw their fire. What I do is I move into sight at a doorway and retreat repeatedly. Unless they're pros, someone will always try to chase me.
Otherwise, I hope very hard that someone on my side is smart enough to flank them as I do my dance.
Basically, what I'm saying is that a lone onos cannot do much against 3-4 exos.
Turning back early doesn't seem like a bad thing so far in my games. I believe it's because the onos doesn't simply take or deal insane amounts of pain, but it also raises the morale on my team wherever it goes.
I've felt it before and I've seen it in others. When an onos is at your side in battle, you feel like you can go all out suicidal attack on the marines there. Partly it's because the onos is there to soak up damage that otherwise would have killed you.
Hence a live onos, even one that doesn't do shit but enter battles and run around, is still a very useful unit. It doesn't matter if the onos kills anything - it just needs to distract the marines and absorb all the bullets. The rest of the alien team is faster and thus can do more damage.
That's the kind of onos that I am. Maybe there are other ways to use the onos but this seems like the best way to use it so far.
Granted, I am much less effective in battles because I run out so quickly, but the trend is evidence that over the long term, this is a more effective strategy IMO. The trend that I'm talking about is how I usually stay near the bottom of the team's scoreboard till I become an onos, at which point I would rise to the top.
I haven't played a lot of games but in 3 out of 6 games I used the onos, I ended up with the top score in the team. Other times, I'm always in the top half.
In contrast, if I go gorge, I stay at the bottom forever.
Discovered a weakness of exos: they can't turn quickly. No agility, so if a skulk is careful, it can theoretically take down an exo in a 1v1 by staying behind the exo as he rotates. I've just done that with their top player in my last match. Fantastic aim isn't worth shit if you can't see the target.
Of course, that's like after 50 or more failed attempts. Still, 1 in 50 is still a decent chance for something like that.
Anyways, I haven't played as a marine at all. Aliens are too much fun and I don't want to join all the noobs who stack marines in every server I've been to.
Maybe in a few weeks when the noob fever dies down and we all get more experienced at it.
And in the news today, some boy commited suicide when he saw Itachi Uchiha die.
Tried Wendy's delivery. Though there has been an outlet near my place for months now, I've only tried their shrimp burger.
Discovered that Wendy's has better beef patties than Burger King. And the bacon is resembles real bacon more than the dried stuff from BK.
Since the prices aren't bad, it may just replace MacDonald's for my deliveries from now on.
These new suppliers I found during my Shanghai trip are interesting. One is so new I think I'm their first big client, although I only ordered what I would consider a small amount which I wouldn't consider with the suppliers my mum left me with. Prices are bad there but there was one design that I liked and I squashed it down to something I could consider remotely decent. Meh. It's not a big loss even if it doesn't sell at the cut-even price.
Another keeps telling how I'm lucky to have found an experienced supplier like her. The more she repeats that, the more suspicious I am getting. Still, she seems to be handling things a lot better than expected and she's been going beyond what is expected of her for my sake.
Maybe she's been down on her luck recently. Who knows?
Players on the Singaporean servers, myself included, are horrible at using the aliens. The situation was so bad, it felt as if the marines team was stacked in every game.
The only times we won (I played aliens in every single match so far in every server) were those times when the marines team was so bad the commander (comm) didn't summon their whole team back to base with a Distress Beacon when it got raped by a quasi-zerg-rush in which 3-4 skulks (in a 7v7 or 8v8 game) went directly to the marines base when the match began.
In short, aliens NEVER won legitimately.
So I spoke to my bro about it and learnt that it's mainly because although there had been such a long beta phase before release, there were no Singapore servers and very few Singaporeans playing the game. Hence, everyone here suck at the game.
However, the marines team is easy to learn since it's all about shooting and buying weapons for most of the team, so Singaporean players picked that up a lot faster than aliens.
You know what happens in most of the alien teams I've played in so far?
At least half the team was always camping in the hive for no apparent reason. Probably still figuring out what each lifeform does like I did.
Higher lifeforms did appear, fortunately; but they NEVER lasted, unfortunately.
As a result, 99% of the times when exos began to steamroll us, there were no fades nor onoses in sight.
In addition, the alien comms were terrible. Their learning experience, in turn, was being stifled by the terrible performance by the rest of the alien team, so they could never try much out.
Tired of this bullshit, I went to a different server today with about 100ms ping, maybe Japanese, maybe Australian, I heard both, and things were so different over there.
Not only did the aliens win, we won legitimately, and I even got the chance to try out the onos against the marines. The second round, we lost, but at least we didn't simply get steamrolled.
A huge difference there.
You know what's bad about playing as an alien in NS2?
You can never get the chance to appreciate the map environment because it's always good to have alien sight mode on due to its tactical value.
Funny thing about NS2 is that while I suck at most lifeforms so far, I seem to shine at onos. Weird, and not really a good thing because the onos is the most expensive lifeform and the highest on the aliens' hierachy other than the comm.
In other words, it's a late-game lifeform.
Skulk - the basic lifeform. Bites hard (2 bites to kill an unupgraded marine) and spits parasites that makes the marine visible to all nearby aliens through walls for a long while.
I won't say I'm good at it. I aim for the butt (out of the target's sight) and I keep moving as he turns... or at least I always try to. Doesn't really work too well when he's not alone or when there's lag. In addition, I also always try to flank them and use vents to reach more interesting spots safely.
Still, I don't do very well as a skulk. The bites requires timing. Simply spamming it doesn't work.
Gorge - the healer. Sprays heals that also speeds up alien structure construction, and can spit on marines to do mediocre damage.
It is not that great when I use it. I don't have the balls to fight because I feel that the gorge is too weak and slow for even a 1v1 duel with a marine. Hydras, small defensive alien turrets gorges drop, I've tried so hard to use them, but they always end up dead quickly. How on earth are they even supposed to provide tactical support when a single marine can almost kill a hydra with a single clip despite my heals and 2 other hydras supporting it?
What use are hydras?
The only time I'm useful as a gorge is when there are damaged structures, like the hives. Nobody ever heals the hives IMO, and that's a bad thing. Maybe it's because the hives' HP aren't highlighted enough for people to notice.
And bile bombs (an anti-structure weapon)? Comms seem to only research it when we're already winning hard. And when we're not, how are gorges supposed to get near structures to use it when marines love to aim for the gorges to stop their heals?
Lerk - flies, shoots spikes and gasses marines.
Yea it's cool, but it's only good for shooting spikes. Great anti-noob weapon but when non-noobs arrive, I often get caught in rather tactically disadvantageous positions as I get too focused on raping noobs. Great for hitting structures from vents too, though pretty darn weak compared to a skulk's bite so it takes forever.
Gas is much harder to use now compared to its counterpart in NS1. Back in the day, I could shoot a gas cloud and it would stop on the first wall or floor it hits.
Now, it's a smoke trail behind me that gradually sinks to the ground, like planes spraying pesticides on farms. To use it, I have to fly above the marines and hope they don't shoot me because I'm so damn fragile.
This means it's only useful when the marines are already engaged with other aliens, usually skulks. In other words, not really useful IMO.
Fades - capable of short-distance teleport (aka blink) and whose slashes do amazing damage. I've had really bad memories of them back in NS1 due to the difficulty in mastering the blink so I've been avoiding it.
Onos - the tank.
Skulks have 70hp and 10 armour.
Gorges have 150hp and 70 armour.
Lerks have 125hp and 50 armour.
Fades have 250hp and 50 armour.
Onos (plural also "onos") have 1300hp and 600 armour.
When an onos engages the marines, someone always dies. There is no "if" and no "maybe".
1-2 hits will kill any marine who isn't in an exosuit. Even against one in an exosuit, the heavy armour of the marines, the onos can win in a 1v1 fight. I know because I've been through 2 duels with morons who thought their exosuits granted them godlike powers and thus allowed them to wander the map alone.
Another ability is stomp. It takes a long time to load (0.7s according to the wiki but it felt like 2-3s) because you know, imagine an elephant raising its forelegs. It can't do it instantaneously. Same with the onos stomp.
What it does is that all the marines nearby not in jetpacks and exos will collapse on the ground, stunned, for 2 whole seconds. If 0.7s felt like 2-3s for me, imagine what 2 real seconds would feel like.
Yet despite all these praises I heap on the onos, they all keep dying in the games I've played. I believe the issue lies in how players, upon seeing those 4-digit numbers on their hp and armour, also think they've been granted godlike status.
Moreover, the immense size of the onos makes them the number easiest target in every fight, and only the smarter marines will aim for the little gorge healing behind the onos. Let's just say that we're not all geniuses.
What I've noticed is that it's always a good idea to turn away from a fight before it appears necessary to do so. The main reason is that the onos doesn't run quickly so it needs some buffer hp to handle the fire as it retreats.
Personally, I turn back when I lose 25% armour when I'm not backed by a good number of teammates. However, I don't simply go straight to a hive to heal. If I hear marines chasing me, and they only number one or two, I'll turn around at some point and kill them all, and I'd have the hp to do so and still get away if reinforcements happen to be somewhere behind them.
The thing is that when marines focus on chasing you, they don't stop to think that something may be terribly wrong when you suddenly turn around and charge at them. Maybe it's because they tend to think you're low on hp if you run. I just don't want shit to happen; onos are expensive.
In spite of this simple rule, I still can get killed or almost die because of exos. 1 is easy, but 1 plus several basic marines are not. 3-4 exos together, and I won't even bother reaching them before I turn, and I'd still get almost killed because everybody loves to chase the running onos. Good thing alien comms tend to get celerity by the time I can afford onos, so I can outrun them before I die in those situations.
The celerity upgrade increases my movement speed.
In situations where there really are 3 or more exos pushing into our territory in a group, all I can do is bait and hope the rest of the aliens will attack as I draw their fire. What I do is I move into sight at a doorway and retreat repeatedly. Unless they're pros, someone will always try to chase me.
Otherwise, I hope very hard that someone on my side is smart enough to flank them as I do my dance.
Basically, what I'm saying is that a lone onos cannot do much against 3-4 exos.
Turning back early doesn't seem like a bad thing so far in my games. I believe it's because the onos doesn't simply take or deal insane amounts of pain, but it also raises the morale on my team wherever it goes.
I've felt it before and I've seen it in others. When an onos is at your side in battle, you feel like you can go all out suicidal attack on the marines there. Partly it's because the onos is there to soak up damage that otherwise would have killed you.
Hence a live onos, even one that doesn't do shit but enter battles and run around, is still a very useful unit. It doesn't matter if the onos kills anything - it just needs to distract the marines and absorb all the bullets. The rest of the alien team is faster and thus can do more damage.
That's the kind of onos that I am. Maybe there are other ways to use the onos but this seems like the best way to use it so far.
Granted, I am much less effective in battles because I run out so quickly, but the trend is evidence that over the long term, this is a more effective strategy IMO. The trend that I'm talking about is how I usually stay near the bottom of the team's scoreboard till I become an onos, at which point I would rise to the top.
I haven't played a lot of games but in 3 out of 6 games I used the onos, I ended up with the top score in the team. Other times, I'm always in the top half.
In contrast, if I go gorge, I stay at the bottom forever.
Discovered a weakness of exos: they can't turn quickly. No agility, so if a skulk is careful, it can theoretically take down an exo in a 1v1 by staying behind the exo as he rotates. I've just done that with their top player in my last match. Fantastic aim isn't worth shit if you can't see the target.
Of course, that's like after 50 or more failed attempts. Still, 1 in 50 is still a decent chance for something like that.
Anyways, I haven't played as a marine at all. Aliens are too much fun and I don't want to join all the noobs who stack marines in every server I've been to.
Maybe in a few weeks when the noob fever dies down and we all get more experienced at it.
And in the news today, some boy commited suicide when he saw Itachi Uchiha die.
Tried Wendy's delivery. Though there has been an outlet near my place for months now, I've only tried their shrimp burger.
Discovered that Wendy's has better beef patties than Burger King. And the bacon is resembles real bacon more than the dried stuff from BK.
Since the prices aren't bad, it may just replace MacDonald's for my deliveries from now on.
These new suppliers I found during my Shanghai trip are interesting. One is so new I think I'm their first big client, although I only ordered what I would consider a small amount which I wouldn't consider with the suppliers my mum left me with. Prices are bad there but there was one design that I liked and I squashed it down to something I could consider remotely decent. Meh. It's not a big loss even if it doesn't sell at the cut-even price.
Another keeps telling how I'm lucky to have found an experienced supplier like her. The more she repeats that, the more suspicious I am getting. Still, she seems to be handling things a lot better than expected and she's been going beyond what is expected of her for my sake.
Maybe she's been down on her luck recently. Who knows?
Thursday 1 November 2012
Rant 1075 / Getting Lost Is An Excellent Form Of Exercise
For some reason, the Dropbox app was taking up 6.5GB of space in my tablet.
Absolutely no reason why, especially since I had less than half of that for my account's space limit.
So after some googling, I finally found one result that said that reinstalling the app worked for one person. Since I couldn't find any other ideas, I tried it... and it worked!
Why???
But it solved the problem and I don't really care anymore.
To get a doctor to suck the snot out of your nose in Singapore, it costs $32.10, inclusive of tax.
I know because I just paid for it.
That's excluding the consultation fee though, which costs only about $80 since it's not the first session which costs more.
The use of the scope so that the both of us could enjoy the view of him suck the snots out also cost me $48.15.
Actually he did do something more which was not described in the bill.
He somehow pulled out bits of the bone in the middle of my nose because "it can speed up the healing". I'm not sure how.
I was, in fact, more disturbed by the fact that my bone is exposed!
Apparently, that was normal after the radio frequency treatment and pulling out my bone isn't necessary.
According to the bill, he did it for free. I'm not sure if I should be glad though.
On the other hand, he did tell me that my bone was crooked and he recommended the $4000 treatment that involves removing part of that very same bone, which I rejected in favour of the $400 radio frequency treatment due to cost issues.
More importantly, how on earth can he pull out bits of the bone using the plier-like tool? I mean, isn't the bone inside our noses supposed to be smooth? On the monitor, I could see that he wasn't scraping the bone out but pulling things that the plier could catch on to.
I don't even understand what I was looking at. Then again, I couldn't look at the screen properly because I was looking at it from the edge of my vision and I was not in a position where I could move my head when the doctor has a plier pulling my bone through my nose.
Now, one nostril has been itching a lot for 2 days, and it has been so irritated that it stays runny constantly and making me sneeze.
On the night of that day, I thought it was a cold. When the Panadol Cold pills didn't work by the following morning and I noticed that:
1) only 1 nostril was runny
2) I wasn't choking on fluids flowing down my windpipe
that I came to the conclusion that it was something the doctor did that caused it.
Hopefully this is because it's itching because it's healing inside because my next appointment with him is in next year.
Now that I really know what to look for, I think I'll have too much time in Shanghai. Maybe 1 day too many.
So I've loaded enough entertainment in my iPad, like all those new interesting free games that I have been downloading and saving for times like this. Daytime isn't a problem; it's the nights.
And unfortunately for me, it's may get rainy over there during my stay, according to the weather forecasts. Good thing I always planned to wear my Dockers for my overseas trips, but still, it's rain.
Typing this on the Notes app that comes with the iOS, pretty much the Apple version of Notepad.
Why?
Because I forgot that the free Internet access in this hotel comes in the form of an Internet cable, the sort that looks like a telephone cable.
TBH, I recalled that there was some issue with the Internet access here the last time I stayed her, so I was worrying about that too much to think about this.
Since the iPad is incompatible with this cable, no Internet in my room.
This isn't even the worst part. I could have been able to use this cable if I HAD BROUGHT MY PORTABLE MODEM!!! It had a port for this cable!
Fortunately, the front desk informed me that there IS free wifi at the main lobby, so it's not that bad. Still, I'm too lazy to go down at 9pm to order a supper delivery.
I should also turn off my home PC when I get the chance. Maybe.
Couldn't resist the temptation of using the Internet in my room through roaming.
I know, I know. The price is ridiculous, but China Unicom is having a somewhat less absurd rate of S$15 for one day of unlimited data roaming, so I started it today and will end it by 11pm tonight. The catch is that my phone failed to work as an access point despite having the only app for this purpose available for free.
Still managed to use it for a few important things, like checking in online, since Cathay Pacific allows this within 48 hours of boarding ( I love you Cathay). These days, it's important to do it early because when I failed to do so, all the aisle and window seats in the SG-HK flight, the longer of the two I took to reach to Shanghai, were all taken. In the 3-3-3 seat arrangement, this is fucking annoying for a guy my size.
I don't mind losing the armrests, it's the leg space that I want, and I tend to take a little more from the seat next to me. Girls sitting next to me is always the best because it makes no difference to them - they all keep their legs closed all the time so they need minimal leg space. Like that one sitting next to me on the HK-SHA flight.
IMO, the best seats are the window seats on the flights home. For the ones leaving home, it's the seat as close to the exit as possible, ie the aisle seats on the first or second (if the first is only available at an extra charge) along the left aisle ( since we tend to alight on that side). Once the seatbelt sign is off, you can spring up and be the first to get out.
This trip showed me how I need to wear winter clothing more often to understand my work better.
It's only when I was choosing my clothes for the local weather that I really understood why certain types of sweaters are more popular.
You know what's good about living in poorer countries, even the wealthier parts of them? The good thing are actually good and not poor imitations of what they could have been.
Like this meal I had in my room. It's actually good and it only cost me 169RMB, or rather, 180 including the small tip. Delivery charge is at the lowest, 15 yuan, because it's nearby. At the current exchange rate of 1SGD to 5.1RMB, that's roughly S$35, and that's for 4 dishes, all of which contain meat.
The phone operator even offered a free copy if the company's book of menus of all their restaurants. Apparently they don't give that out with every order like some fast food restaurants in SG do because she had to add a reminder on the order list and bill. Moreover, similar delivery services in Singapore don't even have such a collection of menus.
This book is great for business travellers honestly. Why go to restaurants if you're not in the mood to pay for ambience? And not every business traveller has 3G, case in point: myself. Roaming 3G has obscene prices worldwide. If not for this $15-a-day deal, the normal price offered by my mobile provider is S$20/MB. If that's not mind-blowing expensive, nothing is.
I'm only here for 3 nights, so I'm not wasting money on a prepaid card. If I hadn't forgot my modem, I wouldn't even have needed to spend that S$15. Heck, if that deal wasn't on, I would have just stayed at the lobby for an hour or two just now to do everything I did just like this morning.
Less convenient but the Internet is too important.
Not sure if I should bother with breakfast tomorrow. Noticed two things that may be linked:
1) they don't seem to offer breakfast for rooms of my level because when I casually asked on the night I checked in if breakfast was included, the front desk informed me that my reservation didn't include it, which I already knew, and I could pay for a breakfast at the restaurant on the top floor, which I didn't know.
2) the restaurant I had my free breakfast at previously wasn't there anymore.
The link is obvious. The restaurant at the top floor had redirected me to the other restaurant during my previous stay because I forgot which one I was supposed to go to, and I noticed that it was also offering breakfast buffet. Obviously it was for the people staying in the suites.
Now, it's for everyone who's willing to fork out a bit more. Not sure how much though because I didn't care. It was convenient and seriously, how much could they charge? S$35?
Also, because that restaurant's gone, the room service menu is terrible. Small selection, below average choices.
8.22am now. Woke up at 7.39am just now because the room is too warm at that temperature where the blanket is too warm and it's too cold to sleep without it.
But I prefer it to too cold because I think I almost got a flu yesterday. Maybe maybe not, but it's best I don't get it today, my last day of finding what I need.
Not planning on having breakfast today. I think I will just get some yoghurt drink like my very first morning in Shanghai. Hence right now I'm filling myself with the complementary tea in the room as I blog.
Also noticed a pharmacy on the way back yesterday and the prices appear a lot cheaper. Will check it out again, this time for the specific numbers.
If it's good and legal (to bring into SG), I will buy a few bottles, this trip or the next.
I think I need to go higher up the floors for wool sweaters. The lower ones, though offering the occasional good designs, seem to think that wool is too expensive for them to deal in.
No wonder there are so many of those non-wool sweaters on Gmarket - only the cheapos buy those and Gmarket is full of those. Nice prices, but then again, it's not that great because I rarely deal in such sweaters and I didn't haggle. We just focus a lot more on 100% wool.
I did try to dig out a price range for wool sweaters from one of them but no luck. She didn't even have that.
Wow.
But with the prices I get quoted for what they offered, I understand why. I'm not trying to be cruel but that's clearly their level; they don't have the capital for even the cheapest wool.
One more thing I noticed: games on my iPad that I don't usually play back in SG, I still don't play here in Shanghai even when faced with the sole alternative of the horrid mainland Chinese TV.
I would rather blog offline on Notes.
Time to delete everything.
Got cold today finally. For the first two days it was mostly at 20 degrees and above - comfortably warm. It rained and cooled things down to like 17 and I could see my breath when I blow through my mouth.
Not enough to improve my mood much though.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg is being filled with news about nothing but Sandy and New York. Looks bad. Everything's been shut down. Makes me wonder how the homeless survive times like this.
They probably don't, mostly.
And no trading at all stock exchanges in the city. Wow.
Two days of no trading in New York. That has to affect other stock prices around the world.
And no power. Not too bad for me if it happens in SG now that I'm completely weaned off air-conditioning, but it would still suck because I wouldn't be able to use my PC.
Tablet should last for at least a day but its boring without the Internet. Lighting is easy because I have plenty of candles and tea lights.
But for the ones with electric stoves, this must be really bad. On the other hand, with the really early warning they got, they should all have stocked up plenty of food for the time being. Maybe a week.
Not sure how long the blackout will last.
I didn't believe it but now I do - people can actually those Bejewelled games for hours.
Watched the middle-aged lady next to me on the HK-SG flight play it on her tablet throughout the entire journey.
Fuck the inflight movies, fuck all the other better games one could possibly get on any tablet, she went Bejewelled all the way.
I am now officially impressed.
I didn't play a thing. Watched a movie and slept instead.
I really am not used to waking up before 9.
Anyways, the hotel breakfast buffet was about 81RMB - S$16. Range is poor but it's below the S$20 that I expected.
Also forgot to check the fish oil prices in Shanghai. Took a different route during the rain and got lost a little. Didn't want to take out my iPad in the rain until I found a shelter.
Felt pretty good to walk in the 17 degrees windy drizzle in a polo tee. Had an umbrella so I didn't freeze. Haven't felt cold in my arms since last year.
I guess this is like the reverse of how all the white people love the sun when they come to Singapore.
But I did find the price of fish oil in the Hong Kong International airport's departure area, duty-free, and Mannings was only having the GNC fish oil, 180 capsules for HK$289.90, or S$0.2556 per capsule. NOT CHEAP!
Watched Dead Set.
It made me list down things I don't like to see on TV and why:
1) Annoying people who rarely (but do) exist in real life. Why on earth would such a character make the show more enjoyable? The horrible death didn't help either. If the writer/director just want someone to be hated so much so that the slow painful death in the end can give viewers a sort of satisfaction, they must be some very angry people deep down inside.
2) Bad endings. Artistically speaking, bad endings should be considered normal. TV-ically speaking, fuck you. I just want something nice to raise my mood before sleeping. When I watch a zombie show, I want to see survivors surviving, not succumbing.
So yea. Didn't like it.
Absolutely no reason why, especially since I had less than half of that for my account's space limit.
So after some googling, I finally found one result that said that reinstalling the app worked for one person. Since I couldn't find any other ideas, I tried it... and it worked!
Why???
But it solved the problem and I don't really care anymore.
To get a doctor to suck the snot out of your nose in Singapore, it costs $32.10, inclusive of tax.
I know because I just paid for it.
That's excluding the consultation fee though, which costs only about $80 since it's not the first session which costs more.
The use of the scope so that the both of us could enjoy the view of him suck the snots out also cost me $48.15.
Actually he did do something more which was not described in the bill.
He somehow pulled out bits of the bone in the middle of my nose because "it can speed up the healing". I'm not sure how.
I was, in fact, more disturbed by the fact that my bone is exposed!
Apparently, that was normal after the radio frequency treatment and pulling out my bone isn't necessary.
According to the bill, he did it for free. I'm not sure if I should be glad though.
On the other hand, he did tell me that my bone was crooked and he recommended the $4000 treatment that involves removing part of that very same bone, which I rejected in favour of the $400 radio frequency treatment due to cost issues.
More importantly, how on earth can he pull out bits of the bone using the plier-like tool? I mean, isn't the bone inside our noses supposed to be smooth? On the monitor, I could see that he wasn't scraping the bone out but pulling things that the plier could catch on to.
I don't even understand what I was looking at. Then again, I couldn't look at the screen properly because I was looking at it from the edge of my vision and I was not in a position where I could move my head when the doctor has a plier pulling my bone through my nose.
Now, one nostril has been itching a lot for 2 days, and it has been so irritated that it stays runny constantly and making me sneeze.
On the night of that day, I thought it was a cold. When the Panadol Cold pills didn't work by the following morning and I noticed that:
1) only 1 nostril was runny
2) I wasn't choking on fluids flowing down my windpipe
that I came to the conclusion that it was something the doctor did that caused it.
Hopefully this is because it's itching because it's healing inside because my next appointment with him is in next year.
Now that I really know what to look for, I think I'll have too much time in Shanghai. Maybe 1 day too many.
So I've loaded enough entertainment in my iPad, like all those new interesting free games that I have been downloading and saving for times like this. Daytime isn't a problem; it's the nights.
And unfortunately for me, it's may get rainy over there during my stay, according to the weather forecasts. Good thing I always planned to wear my Dockers for my overseas trips, but still, it's rain.
Typing this on the Notes app that comes with the iOS, pretty much the Apple version of Notepad.
Why?
Because I forgot that the free Internet access in this hotel comes in the form of an Internet cable, the sort that looks like a telephone cable.
TBH, I recalled that there was some issue with the Internet access here the last time I stayed her, so I was worrying about that too much to think about this.
Since the iPad is incompatible with this cable, no Internet in my room.
This isn't even the worst part. I could have been able to use this cable if I HAD BROUGHT MY PORTABLE MODEM!!! It had a port for this cable!
Fortunately, the front desk informed me that there IS free wifi at the main lobby, so it's not that bad. Still, I'm too lazy to go down at 9pm to order a supper delivery.
I should also turn off my home PC when I get the chance. Maybe.
Couldn't resist the temptation of using the Internet in my room through roaming.
I know, I know. The price is ridiculous, but China Unicom is having a somewhat less absurd rate of S$15 for one day of unlimited data roaming, so I started it today and will end it by 11pm tonight. The catch is that my phone failed to work as an access point despite having the only app for this purpose available for free.
Still managed to use it for a few important things, like checking in online, since Cathay Pacific allows this within 48 hours of boarding ( I love you Cathay). These days, it's important to do it early because when I failed to do so, all the aisle and window seats in the SG-HK flight, the longer of the two I took to reach to Shanghai, were all taken. In the 3-3-3 seat arrangement, this is fucking annoying for a guy my size.
I don't mind losing the armrests, it's the leg space that I want, and I tend to take a little more from the seat next to me. Girls sitting next to me is always the best because it makes no difference to them - they all keep their legs closed all the time so they need minimal leg space. Like that one sitting next to me on the HK-SHA flight.
IMO, the best seats are the window seats on the flights home. For the ones leaving home, it's the seat as close to the exit as possible, ie the aisle seats on the first or second (if the first is only available at an extra charge) along the left aisle ( since we tend to alight on that side). Once the seatbelt sign is off, you can spring up and be the first to get out.
This trip showed me how I need to wear winter clothing more often to understand my work better.
It's only when I was choosing my clothes for the local weather that I really understood why certain types of sweaters are more popular.
You know what's good about living in poorer countries, even the wealthier parts of them? The good thing are actually good and not poor imitations of what they could have been.
Like this meal I had in my room. It's actually good and it only cost me 169RMB, or rather, 180 including the small tip. Delivery charge is at the lowest, 15 yuan, because it's nearby. At the current exchange rate of 1SGD to 5.1RMB, that's roughly S$35, and that's for 4 dishes, all of which contain meat.
The phone operator even offered a free copy if the company's book of menus of all their restaurants. Apparently they don't give that out with every order like some fast food restaurants in SG do because she had to add a reminder on the order list and bill. Moreover, similar delivery services in Singapore don't even have such a collection of menus.
This book is great for business travellers honestly. Why go to restaurants if you're not in the mood to pay for ambience? And not every business traveller has 3G, case in point: myself. Roaming 3G has obscene prices worldwide. If not for this $15-a-day deal, the normal price offered by my mobile provider is S$20/MB. If that's not mind-blowing expensive, nothing is.
I'm only here for 3 nights, so I'm not wasting money on a prepaid card. If I hadn't forgot my modem, I wouldn't even have needed to spend that S$15. Heck, if that deal wasn't on, I would have just stayed at the lobby for an hour or two just now to do everything I did just like this morning.
Less convenient but the Internet is too important.
Not sure if I should bother with breakfast tomorrow. Noticed two things that may be linked:
1) they don't seem to offer breakfast for rooms of my level because when I casually asked on the night I checked in if breakfast was included, the front desk informed me that my reservation didn't include it, which I already knew, and I could pay for a breakfast at the restaurant on the top floor, which I didn't know.
2) the restaurant I had my free breakfast at previously wasn't there anymore.
The link is obvious. The restaurant at the top floor had redirected me to the other restaurant during my previous stay because I forgot which one I was supposed to go to, and I noticed that it was also offering breakfast buffet. Obviously it was for the people staying in the suites.
Now, it's for everyone who's willing to fork out a bit more. Not sure how much though because I didn't care. It was convenient and seriously, how much could they charge? S$35?
Also, because that restaurant's gone, the room service menu is terrible. Small selection, below average choices.
8.22am now. Woke up at 7.39am just now because the room is too warm at that temperature where the blanket is too warm and it's too cold to sleep without it.
But I prefer it to too cold because I think I almost got a flu yesterday. Maybe maybe not, but it's best I don't get it today, my last day of finding what I need.
Not planning on having breakfast today. I think I will just get some yoghurt drink like my very first morning in Shanghai. Hence right now I'm filling myself with the complementary tea in the room as I blog.
Also noticed a pharmacy on the way back yesterday and the prices appear a lot cheaper. Will check it out again, this time for the specific numbers.
If it's good and legal (to bring into SG), I will buy a few bottles, this trip or the next.
I think I need to go higher up the floors for wool sweaters. The lower ones, though offering the occasional good designs, seem to think that wool is too expensive for them to deal in.
No wonder there are so many of those non-wool sweaters on Gmarket - only the cheapos buy those and Gmarket is full of those. Nice prices, but then again, it's not that great because I rarely deal in such sweaters and I didn't haggle. We just focus a lot more on 100% wool.
I did try to dig out a price range for wool sweaters from one of them but no luck. She didn't even have that.
Wow.
But with the prices I get quoted for what they offered, I understand why. I'm not trying to be cruel but that's clearly their level; they don't have the capital for even the cheapest wool.
One more thing I noticed: games on my iPad that I don't usually play back in SG, I still don't play here in Shanghai even when faced with the sole alternative of the horrid mainland Chinese TV.
I would rather blog offline on Notes.
Time to delete everything.
Got cold today finally. For the first two days it was mostly at 20 degrees and above - comfortably warm. It rained and cooled things down to like 17 and I could see my breath when I blow through my mouth.
Not enough to improve my mood much though.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg is being filled with news about nothing but Sandy and New York. Looks bad. Everything's been shut down. Makes me wonder how the homeless survive times like this.
They probably don't, mostly.
And no trading at all stock exchanges in the city. Wow.
Two days of no trading in New York. That has to affect other stock prices around the world.
And no power. Not too bad for me if it happens in SG now that I'm completely weaned off air-conditioning, but it would still suck because I wouldn't be able to use my PC.
Tablet should last for at least a day but its boring without the Internet. Lighting is easy because I have plenty of candles and tea lights.
But for the ones with electric stoves, this must be really bad. On the other hand, with the really early warning they got, they should all have stocked up plenty of food for the time being. Maybe a week.
Not sure how long the blackout will last.
I didn't believe it but now I do - people can actually those Bejewelled games for hours.
Watched the middle-aged lady next to me on the HK-SG flight play it on her tablet throughout the entire journey.
Fuck the inflight movies, fuck all the other better games one could possibly get on any tablet, she went Bejewelled all the way.
I am now officially impressed.
I didn't play a thing. Watched a movie and slept instead.
I really am not used to waking up before 9.
Anyways, the hotel breakfast buffet was about 81RMB - S$16. Range is poor but it's below the S$20 that I expected.
Also forgot to check the fish oil prices in Shanghai. Took a different route during the rain and got lost a little. Didn't want to take out my iPad in the rain until I found a shelter.
Felt pretty good to walk in the 17 degrees windy drizzle in a polo tee. Had an umbrella so I didn't freeze. Haven't felt cold in my arms since last year.
I guess this is like the reverse of how all the white people love the sun when they come to Singapore.
But I did find the price of fish oil in the Hong Kong International airport's departure area, duty-free, and Mannings was only having the GNC fish oil, 180 capsules for HK$289.90, or S$0.2556 per capsule. NOT CHEAP!
Watched Dead Set.
It made me list down things I don't like to see on TV and why:
1) Annoying people who rarely (but do) exist in real life. Why on earth would such a character make the show more enjoyable? The horrible death didn't help either. If the writer/director just want someone to be hated so much so that the slow painful death in the end can give viewers a sort of satisfaction, they must be some very angry people deep down inside.
2) Bad endings. Artistically speaking, bad endings should be considered normal. TV-ically speaking, fuck you. I just want something nice to raise my mood before sleeping. When I watch a zombie show, I want to see survivors surviving, not succumbing.
So yea. Didn't like it.
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