I am a movie that I have never seen

Tried the test.. well well.. I am pretty destructive it seems...

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

And... well... I get him of all people...

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

No wonder I am single :P

Ouch.. ouch..

Sometimes illnesses do strike without warning.

I was doing my work as usual yesterday, and decided to try one stall in the cafeteria which I have not tried before. One hour later, I had problems focusing on my work. There was like a 'blurry' spot that shifted in the course of one hour from the center of my vision to the right peripheral area. That was weird.. I felt like I was looking through a binoculars.

Then came the stomach ache. I went to the bathroom quite a few times, and I bet the receptionist was wondering what on earth I was doing. Since I had to finish updating my work by the end of the day, I soldiered on and managed to finish the bit.

I went to the hawker center and had a nice warm bowl of chicken porridge before heading home and collapsing on my bed. It is especially tough being ill when one lives alone. I think it was some kind of food poisoning...

Techno maid

On my way home yesterday, I spotted two person that were heading towards the same overhead bridge as me. I figured them to be Indonesian maids from their appearance, and as they approached, I can hear one talking loudly. At first I thought she was talking to her companion, but when I looked, she was talking to empty air.

I reached the bridge first, so I could not take a clearer look, so I slowed down and allowed them to pass me. Then I spotted the bluetooth piece in her ear. She finished her phone call and turned to speak to her companion, in Javanese! (That confirmed my initial observation)

It seems that I am being outdone by maids in the technological department, and here I am chiding my Dad for not being willing to learn how to send an E-mail by himself. The world seems to be moving ahead at a fighteningly fast pace, can't we all slow down to enjoy our limited time on earth?

Here's the kicker, the maid was conversing in Mandarin... (Now *that* impressed me more than the bluetooth) Looks like I better find that Spanish class sooner than planned.

Dollars? Yen? Rupiah??

I read somewhere that the Indonesian Rupiah is devaluing again.. *sigh*
Which reminded me to write the second piece of Choices and their Prices.

I feel than in general, people make choices to satisfy their needs. A need could be anything, but I have distilled it down to two main components.

1. Truly basic needs - survival needs (such as food, clothing and abode)
2. Need for fulfilment - actualization needs (such as communication, love and recognition)In the modern world, need for communication could very well have been promoted to the rank of basic needs. And usually when a person's basic needs are already covered, they will begin to crave to get more satisfaction.

Now, given the complexity of choices, how can one measure its price? This is my opinion: "The basic unit for the price of a choice, is time."

We need time to do even the simplest task, and a choice usually involves money. Time is a more deciding factor in the end because we can spend time to earn money, but we cannot spend money to earn time. The most we can do is save a small amount of time. In the examples I gave in my previous post, we can see both factors at work.

Go to Zouk - 5 hours + $50 (drinks) + $10 (taxi)
Go to Union Square - 5 hours + $30 (drinks) + $10 (taxi)
Go Home - 5 hours + $3 (electricity+internet access)

So, the Price of a choice also varies depending on several factors (such as earning power, how busy you are and the need), each with different weights. I think it mostly depends on how a person value the satisfaction he/she can get from spending that time, minus any negative consequences. (It is worth having a hangover at work, aching limbs, a thinner wallet, and extra work at the weekend for a chance to spend 5 hours with Miss S?) After all, we all have limited time, and and unlimited craving for satisfaction to meet.

Younger people in general has more time to spend, and older people has more money to spend, and as time is actually the more valuable commodity, younger people can afford to make the more 'expensive' choices. Unfortunately, they also tend to overdraw their credit, and ended up having to paying more time than neccessary for their past choices.

Wasting time moping over past relationships is a good example of paying 'interest' on a time debt. Recalling good times in past relationships is like getting 'dividends' of satisfaction for the time 'investment'. Two sides of the same coin (of which I don't have). Which is bigger? Your interest payment or your divided?

Natsu Matsuri~

When I was walking around Orchard road last Saturday after my dance class, I saw not 1, not 2, but 3 young girls wearing Yukata near the Hereen. At that time, I was baffled. Was I still in Japan? The scene, the weather, was very similar to what I saw at Shibuya in Japan. Then I heard smatterings of Singlish and the illusion was dispelled.

Turns out that there was a Summer Festival being held at the Singapore Japanese School in Changi. I wished I had known earlier...

Anyway, that also made me recall a Haiku I made when I was in Japan (for a lesson).
A Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry that consists of 3 lines, with the format of 5-7-5 syllables. The traditional Haikus are usually about people's activities and nature sights/occurances during the seasons.

Here it goes. My Summer Haiku.

青い空 (aoi sora)
白い砂浜 (shiroi sunahama)
ビール一本 (bi-ru ipponn)

Translation:
Blue skies
White beach
A bottle of beer.

Better Translation: (Haiku format)
Under the blue sky
Sitting on white sandy beach
Ice cold beer in hand

(Even through I do not really like beer, that is one of the modern Japanese Summer scenery :D)

Techno Mom

I just received an SMS from my Mom in Indonesia, saying that she is currently shopping at Mangga Dua and she wanted to know if I wanted a Black or Blue pair of jeans.

Seems that she has finally mastered the art of sending SMS.

Next she'll be sending me photos of potential brides... *shudder*

Junk Science Part 2 - Things fall because...

Got this reading through forums.

The theory of gravity is facing a great crisis.

I just find it interesting how the writer potrays people who hold faith in something intangible as refusing to acknowledge that there are some other things that are intangible and being prone to lumping all intangible things into one form.

(It is a parody by the way, I don't think it is serious stuff)

You know what they say about the quill...

Words are indeed wondrous.

We use them to express our thoughts and feelings.
But I have also learnt as a translator that, words have enormous nuances built into them. While some of these nuances are pretty well set (e.g. a dictionary definition), a lot of the nuances comes from culture, and personal experience. An example of a cultural nuance would be like trying to use a direct translation of an English swearword into Japanese. "あなたは肛門!!" simply does not pack the punch "You a**hole!!" has.

Like in my previous post, Mr. Sociologist riled up quite a few people by using the word 'infantile', which did not register much of a nuance to me until upon following the comments, I managed to acquire a negative nuance of 'immaturity' regarding that word.

I have also noticed that when I am writing in forums or commenting, there would be times where people would read my comment and fail to get what I assumed I was trying to say, where some other people has no problem getting my message or even read further into it. (Maybe I should contrive to leave subliminal messages...)

The fact we are actually trying to decode messages when we are reading complicates the matter even further as any messages that we take in will be 'colored' by our decoding filter, which includes out personal way of interacting with the world. Like for example, I have read of a lady that refuses to play Puerto Rico, even though she is an avid gamer, and it is a good game, because she perceived it to have 'slavery' and 'tobacco' influence.

Words are a powerful tool, but the human perception makes it dangerous, very very dangerous.

Opiniated? opiniated?

I stumbled across this blog when I got sidetracked by a certain British Sociologist that had a blog that is putting Singapore under a purplish light.

TheJapaneseMan

An interesting view of life, albeit a little 'stiff' of what the Japanese would say '固い'. Unfortunately he does not have many posts.

There should also be a link to Mr. Sociologist somewhere in there, but I am not deigning to regale him with a direct link.

Messages to the otherworld

I was about to continue my train of thought about the Price of Choices, when I read about a young lady blogger who passed away the very next day after she posted about her bad dream in her blog.

For the full story, go to 'Scratchpad' in my link list.

I went to the blog to take a look, and was touched by the amount of condolences that was given there, quite a few by perfect strangers it seems. Blogging is indeed proving to be quite a powerful tool of communication.

However, as I was scanning though the messages, I noticed in particular, two 'conflicting' themes. Some of the messages are Muslim based, and some are Christian based. Both bear the same wish, hoping that the young lady find her place beside the all supreme being. (Yes I am weird that way, sometimes I notice weird things...)


It actually made me question: If I am to give a message of condolence, or a 'sending away message', should I do it based on the Religion of the person I am sending away, or shall I base it on my own Religion? I am personally a free thinker and a nominal Buddhist, and so do not really have a conflict in faith to wish someone a blessed existence in the other realm under the guidance of the all supreme being.

There are other possible ramifications to this, (For example, is it not a little awkward for a Muslim to say: "May Allah be with you" if the person is a Christian, and similarly vice versa?)

I find it very easy to distance myself from 'bad' incidents as long as I am not directly involved, on the spot. (My ex-colleague and her whole family are victims of the tsunami, and they could not even find their bodies) That might be my curse of an overly logical mind, as I always feel that when the time comes, it will come no matter what. There's no point worrying about it. (She was supposed to go to Vietnam, but went to Thailand instead because she could not get tickets.) But I'd be lying if I say that I do not fear Death, because I still have things to do on Earth.

To the lady, I shall say: "Go in peace, and maybe I'll see you in the next life"

Shopping for choice

I once made a comment that "Every Choice comes with a Price".

Then I realized that people tend to take words literally, even myself. So I decided to delve a little further into this sentence.

Choice is pretty simple right? Given Choices A, B and C, it is about doing A, B or C, doing nothing, or doing a combination of A, B and C and even picking D. Wait a minute? Where did D come from? Ah... that's there due to the whims of Fate. You see, that's how Choices in real life are. They are not static. New ones may appear, and old ones may dissapear as time progresses. Adding to the complication, the attractiveness or suitability of a Choice varies from person to person, from place to place, from time to time, and etc.

And then there are the Sub-Choices. They are choices that you can only make after going with the first choice. And these have their own Sub-Sub-Choices. (A lot of which are not apparent, and may appear/dissapear within the blink of an eye)


Hypothetical Example:
Sub Choice

Choice A - Go to Zouk
Drink
Dance
Flirt
etc.

Choice B - Go to Union Square
Drink
Dance (Latin)
Watch
etc.

Choice C - Go Home
Drink
Watch TV
Play MMORPG
Read/Write Blogs/Forums
etc.

Let's see a scenario on how some of the factors affect the Choice.
Person: Mr Anon. likes to dance, so Choice C is less attractive.
Place: Mr Anon. likes Latin dance, but is not too good at it yet, still, Choice B is more attractive.
Time: However, today is Monday, so Choices A and B are less attractive (assuming Mr Anon. is working).
As Mr Anon. is muling his options, he received an SMS.
X Factor - Miss S. is going to be at Union Square: Choice B has gotten a lot more attractive.

Now... can Mr Anon afford the price of Choice B? (I'll talk about prices later :D)

Person: Mr Blur likes to drink, so Choices A, B, C are currently equally attractive.
Place: Mr Blur don't really care where it is as long as he can drink, but he has some friends going down to Zouk today.
Time: It is the end of the month, so Mr Blur is short on cash. Choices involving going out has become less attractive.
X-Factor - He remembered that he might have a bottle of Jack Daniels at home.

Here Mr Blur has decided to pick Choice C, and as his current main concern is about drinking, he's not really thinking about the other Sub-Choices that is available with Choices A and B.

It is interesting to note that some people will pick a Choice, then worry about the Sub-Choice later, and some people Pick the Choice because of the Sub-Choice that's only available (or more suitable) to that Choice. I don't think I will go to the Sub-Sub-Choice, it is already convoluted enough as it is.

You'd think that the human brain would be overloaded if it really had to go through all these options carefully. Hurray to selective amnesia, and habit.

Cold! VS Hot!

I have the cold, the sniffles (fever's over, it was on a Sunday too.. boo!), and I have to shift through this manual... (sleepy...)

So for lunch, I decided that I might have some chicken soup to bolster me in my fight against the cold virus. I looked around for any chicken soup being sold and could not find any (not even the herbal kind), when my eyes caught the sign: Tom Yam Soup. I figured, hey... let's try this one instead.

After much huffing (the soup was hot - spicy) and puffing (the soup was hot - scalding), I finished my lunch, and actually felt a little better. I wonder if it was the Tom Yam, or che chicken bits inside the soup...

Fish fish fish~

My friend just came back from his diving trip, and he shared some photos.

Do check it out if you like marine life :D

Kuantan Underwater

Little cousin... little no more...

I just received an e-mail from my little cousin. It was quite a surprise as I have not gotten in touch with her for over 3 years? Anyway, in the end of the e-mail, she proclaimed that she is no longer a little girl, and have had her priorities set.

So I began counting... my 'little' cousin is 19 this year. Time sure runs fast. As far as I can remember, she did not really change much in appearance (face wise), nor temperament (a tigress, with sharp claws), so I wonder what might be new.

And since I have no younger sister of my own (and both my younger brothers are older than her), any guy who who tries to take advantage of her is going to be really sorry. The three of us might not be enough to restrain her from shredding him to bits... :D

Library... or not library...

I decided to pay a visit to the new library that is hyped to be 'the place to be'.

The very first thing that I did was to drop off the wrong bus stop. I wonder what prompted my mind to alight there, but I was firmly convinced that the building is a short walk from Clarke Quay MRT. So.. I wandered round and round, and ended up at Tanjong Pagar MRT. (Where I learnt that the library is actually near to Bugis MRT.) It was a pretty interesting walk though. The day was sunny, and the wind was kind. There was hardly anyone around the area (Shenton Way), and I felt like I can own the whole place.. muahahaha.

Anyway, I took the MRT and finally entered the new library building. It was huge! There were tonnes of people! Ever since they had the new comics section @ Orchard library and Jurong East library, I was anticipating an even bigger collection here. I waded through the sea of people (there was even a long queue of people wanting to return books) to find my quarry. Finally I saw my target, and I pounced... only to be hit on the heart with the barb of dissapointment.

Their idea of a 'comics section' was a single row of racks, and by the time I got there, it was skeletal. I went through the remains carefully, hoping for a leftover morsel, when a young boy scurried away with the only copy of comic which I have not read. Arrgh~~! How can this be?!?!? The selection was mediocre (granted though they might have been borrowed out) and the ones that they have there can also be found in the other 2 libraries. I am aware that there might be copyright issues involved in putting books in a library, but come on... this is pathetic. (Especially the chinese comics section)

On top of that, I learnt that only the books in the basement can be borrowed. The rest are classified under reference materials, and can only be read in-situ. I came here expecting stories of glorious books, and all I get is a small corner in the basement... mutter mutter. (They do have a bigger selection of novels, that's a saving grace)

Overall, even though I love the libraries in Singapore (one of the things I felt that is done really well here), this newest library is more hype than practicality for now. The reference section, which made up the most of their collection, does not give an 'accesible' feel, that is a pity.

Fusion.. in the world of comics.

I'd never thought I will ever say this, but I might have finally found someone who managed to integrate a 'manga' feel into the western comic concept. I have seen plenty of attempts in the past that makes me go "ouch ouch ouch, no more! My poor eyes!", but this guy, Joe Madureira actually managed to do it, and quite well I'd say.

This is no mean feat as mangas traditionally use simpler illustrations to present their stories, as compared to the detailed musculature and backgrounds used in western comics. This guy has somehow managed to convey the partial feel of mangas while keeping his work 'western' instead of just mixing the two and hoping that something comes out right.

More to come...

Well who'd have thought...

Another 'interesting' link.

Gas is a good indicator of love?

Especially interesting since I just read earlier today about how embarassed a lady felt after an accidental stink bomb went off.

Females are scary... part trois

After a good night's sleep (and waking up with stuffy nose -> darn it I am a getting a flu kind of feeling), I woke up with a thought.

Maybe this is one of the reason I have difficulties finding a compatible date. Gals in general seems to have very strong opinions about various things... that I find 'blah' most of the time. (Like one that I saw 'crusading' against local television, or maybe that's just the tip of the iceberg) Adding to the problem, I have grown slightly more 'enlightened' (sliiiightly only hor...) and have realized that there is seriously no point ranting about some stuff. Maybe I am more Buddhist than I thought. The middle path is so alluring... Or maybe I just put things (as long as it is not relationship related) out of my mind faster so I can think about new stuff.

And boy, do I think a lot. Currently I am brainstorming for 2 boardgames, and cobbling up materials for a 'not really gonna happen but fun to think about anyway' Online Game. I think I think too much, but it kinda scares me now to find out how some of the pretty ladies think. I used to (and still) champion the ladies, but the past few days of blog reading has provided me with new food for thought (and that is bad...) I have seen what is termed as 'bitchyness' in the american teeny-bopper movies, but now I have 'seen' the real life version of it. A loud, in-your-face revelation. It is amazing how a lady (can I even continue using this term? sigh...) can change her tone from sadness to supreme idignation (and vulgarities, when online, only?) within 2 paragraphs when talking about a 'horrible' boyfriend. (Not you Celia :D)

And this phenomenon seems to be prevalent among the better looking, younger ladies. I always thought, why is it that people 'change' so much after a marriage? or even just after quite a long time of dating? I might have found the answer. They do not really change. They are just putting less effort in showing their better side and keeping their worse side hidden.

As for my worse side? well, I am a hardcore gamer, and like any other guys, likes to chase tails (just that I am horrible at it, tired at failing, and lazy, so I don't bother no more! :D) And I highly prize private moments. I don't think I can stand it if my future girlfriend is the type that needs me to call her multiple times a day even if she looks like this, (she's 32!) or these (a japanese blog i stumbled across, I only recognize maybe 1 face in there, but they are all TV regulars in Japan)

Females are scary... part deux.

I continued my adventure into the realm of female bloggers (don't blame me, all the links from *that* blog goes to other blogs that are all authored by ladies), and was quite amazed to find that one of the blogs has like a few hundred thousand hits, and is made by a super cute lady. (With some allegations about photoshop...)

However, upon reading some of the entires, I found that there are big dramas going on, and well, there were sprinkles of not so wholesome language ><. That shattered my image of this lady. I personally don't cuss that much, and I don't even type cusswords in full. (Those ***'s are very handy). I wonder if this is normal? Anyway, I do hope for the best for this particular lady, as she seems to be the 'victim' in this particular case, and hope that she becomes better (yep, you read it correctly. 'becomes', not 'gets').

Now, I noticed that when gals hang out together in an all gals group, there will somehow be a 'shift in behaviour' as compared to when they are going out in a mixed group. The same applies for guys going out in an all guys group. The way they speak, the topics they cover, the activities they do are well... different. Of course within these 'all male and all female' groups, there are sub groups. Like guys who go out together to watch soccer in a sportsbar, chase tails in a disco, while other groups go to a lan shop to play counterstrike, or watch Star Trek marathon in the basement (if there's one available). The all female groups usually (as far as I can observe) go shopping, dining or hunk watching at places such as open air Starbucks (where else, I have no idea). Fascinating behavioural patterns.

Then comes the conversational topics. I do not go out much, but in Singapore, an all male group's conversation will tend to gravitate towards NS after a certain time, and gals. I usually felt quite left out on both counts as I was never in NS, and I am not good at discussing ladies. This is especially true when the topics gets too blatant. (I guess that's why I like innuendos and puns, they are more subtle and fun to 'play around' with.) It seems that most guys can take this kind of banter easily, I am just not too comfortable with it. (Yes yes... that lady over there is hot! Just keep it to yourself will ya? <- kind of mindset probably) I just don't get the 'male-bonding' thingy...

No info on ladiestalk though, I am not one of the 'sistahs' :P

Females are scary...

I was doing a bit of blog roaming (one needs a break after translating dozens of pages of a manual) and I found a blog which was written by a lady that is like the polar opposite of Celia (the lady on my link).

I have always believed that the internet reflects everything about its user, because it is pretty much anonymous, and even if someone is 'role playing', that 'role' has to first exist in that person, somewhere. For example, I might be able to 'role play' a sadist, but I would be very very very uncomfortable doing it, not to mention I think I will make one hell of a sorry sadist (as in I will suck at it).

The extent of frankness in that blog (with the liberal sprinkling of f***'s) frankly is slightly surprising. Especially when her profile has her picture. I guess I just 'met' my first online 'Ah Lian'.

I then went on to explore some of the her linked blogs, and well, I guess the old adage 'birds of the same feather flocks togeher' is pretty much true. Which is kind of a pity though. Since I came back from Japan, I have not seen that many good looking faces in one location :D

Now.... I need to find some other birds that has similar feather to mine... they seem to be a pretty rare breed.

Apparently games can kill!

I just read a news where a 28 year old korean guy died after playing online games for 50 hours nearly non-stop.

Seems that quite a few people are grinning from ear to ear to proclaim that this is yet, another proof that gaming is bad. And these are the people that would conveniently 'forgot' that doing anything for 50 hours straight could be detrimental to your health.

If someonebody is stupid enough to work 50 hours straight and died from exaustion, then it is obvious that work is bad right? right?

On another note.. my colleague said that someone else died after listening to a walkman for 40 odd hours straight. Now.. I wonder what conclusion you can draw from that?

Junk science part 1 - The Science of Dating.

With the progression of research, it would have been inevitable that people would try to pass off certain things as a 'Science'. This next link is one of such, and is a good example of what we call 'Junk Science'

'Worthless' gifts get the good girls

The sad thing is, these 'theories' get a mention just because they are made by some 'Scientists' which I felt are really out of their depth when it comes to this particular 'field of study'. While it is fine to theorize and make models, mathematically or otherwise, about animals and plants who can't give direct feedback, it is pretty presumptuous to just apply it on human relationships. Especially when the model might contain incorrect variables, or variables that are not complex enough to represent its function properly.

This person who made the hypothesis did not take into account that something that is defined as 'worthless' by him, may not be the same for other people. I would not call an excellent $100 dinner worthless. For one, there is the experience. For two, that one dinner is worth at least 10 days of food! He formed his initial hypothesis after reading about it on a newspaper, and had no concrete 'experimental' results.

He also did not take into account that the female who is currently happily accepting the male's expensive dinners and theatre tickets, could be also accepting such treats from other males and is currently living in an apartment being paid for by another male! Needless to say, people may change after the courtship, especially after marriage.

And people get paid for junk theories like this?

I like to ramble... sometimes...

I have been jumping around from blogs to blogs, and found myriad ways of how people express themselves, as well as the topics that they decided to write about.

Some people simply write about their daily life, which somehow reads to be a lot more interesting than mine, and some elaborate events in their life. Some write informative articles, and managed to turn their blogs into a side income. As for me? I guess I just like rambling. I have been posting online for quite a little bit actually, just not in the form of blogs, but as a forum poster in the gaming forums. Blogs has a different feel to it because well, comments are not really the same as a thread, where people can go back and forth with information. Yet, it is not that much different either. The only difference is I usually reply to threads intead of creating one, and posting blogs feels much more like starting new threads.

Which reminds me, I got to write something about smoking.

I do not smoke. In fact, I hate smoking.
People who smoke, are burning their life, and the life of people around them away. Granted there are always exceptions. There are people who will never get any ill effect from continuous smoking, but if you're hoping to be one of them, you might have a better chance of hitting Toto. Cigarettes are extra harmful because they cause both physical and mental addiction.

Having said that, I have managed feel a little more tolerant to people who smoke. When I was in Japan, an acquaintance of mine shared with me that due to her company's culture, she has to smoke sometimes to 'keep in touch' with her colleagues. Usually these people take a 'smoke break' during their working hours, and this is the time that is used for casual bonding. Adding to that, the after-work culture in Japan is very conducive to smoking. A non smoker will find it hard to 'integrate'. Needless to say, she got hooked on the cancer stick, and even though she claimed that now she only smoke when she drink, I can see that she's dependent on it.

Of course, this is not true for all companies in Japan, but it used to be a major phenomenon. Now even Japan has stepped up their anti-smoking laws, and hopefully this kind of 'need' will not be there anymore in the future.

A Japanese is traditionally brought up to first and foremost 'not to trouble other people' or '迷惑をしないこと'. Even if a non smoker has stated that he/she is fine with them smoking, the smoker might actually feel uncomfortable about smoking. I was in an English-conversation bar talking with a group of Japanese people, and each time one of them needed a cigarette, they first ask me if it is ok for them to smoke! I guess I could have said no, but they did ask, so... (When was the last time anyone you know asked you if it is ok to smoke?) And if you're wondering what they would do if I had said no, they would have stepped out of the bar to smoke before returning to resume the conversation. Because I did say no once, in a joking manner, and I had to stop the guy from going out. (It was winter...)

An avatar! My kingdom for an avatar!

My colleague showed me this really cute picture. I have decided to make it my avatar :D

National uhh.. day?

Somehow I am in a holiday mood today...

I do wonder what is the decision in using the title 'National Day' as opposed to 'Independence Day'. After all, Singapore was once a colony of the British. And as for countries that was never colonized (most of the European countries) I believe they have an equivalent day. France has Bastille Day, Spain has Hispanic Day, and Canada even has a Canada Day!

As far as I can see, only Singapore and Japan used the word 'National Day' to call this commemorative day. It is another holiday for me, so I shall not be complaining. I just wished that my current project was not that busy, I could have taken holiday today and go to Thailand or something.

Palmtop..... reader

I took a break from my usual routine yesterday by stopping and browsing at a 'Pasar Malam'. That is 'Night Market/Bazaar' in English I guess. I normally pay more attention to the food section of these kind of events, and I noticed that the Malay food section has kind of gained permanence over time. They have this 'Halal' burger setup going, as well as the usual phletora of Malay goodies. These did not really exist about 4-5 years back I think. In this particular Pasar Malam, they even have a new entry: a Vietnamese food stall (the Japanese 'takoyaki' and 'okonomiyaki' was missing. Thank goodness for that. The things they make could not be justified to be even 50% close to what they claim they are making)

Anyway, I got myself a coconut drink and 2 Taiwan sausages, and began enjoying them while walking to the bus interchange to take a bus back home. Midway, I got distracted by this gentleman in white chinese dress who was doing a 'show' on palmistry. I am quite interested in palm reading, so I decided to observe.

I have not watched this kind of 'roadshow' before, and frankly speaking, I was pretty impressed by the skill of the presenter. He was well groomed (even has a small trimmed moustache), and his stories flows well. He switches effortlessly in between Hokkien, Mandarin and Cantonese, of which I can only understand 1. Thankfully, most of them were in Mandarin.

By the time I started listening, he was explaining the meaning of the major lines on the plam. That being the Relationship line, the Life line, the Intelligence line, and the Career line. Unfortunately, my Mandarin is not up to scratch, and I could only get about 80% of what he's saying. And it seems that I do not have a career line on my right hand (or rather there are lots of faint lines, and I do not know which one is which... ; ;). I also have the 'drop money line' which kinda explains why I am always short of cash (don't everybody... ). I was also surprised to learn that there is an addition to the common 'gentleman left palm', 'ladies right plam' way of palm reading. It seems that once you hit 35, both of the palms must be read. (I am not sure if he's referring to the Lunar calendar or Roman one though)

He also said that not everybody can be extremely successful in business. Or, despite being very successful, somehow could not hold on to their earnings. Life in is your own palm, and it is mapped on the lines. Everyone has at least one share of being succesful, but only if they are receptive to opportunity when it comes knocking on their door (and well, some people has more than one share. No one said that life is evenly fair.) But there are ways around it. Forming partnerships is one.

I was actually quite tempted to have my palm read, especially since he kept on emphasising that no money is involved. (Fishy... no?) But when I saw that one of the spectator went to have his palm read, it was not by the speaker, but by some other 'shady looking' characters sitting at the table behind. Maybe if it is this gentleman who performs it, or if those other guys decide to be better groomed, I will give it a try. He did give out some really good advice though, like:

- To lead a happy life, one has to learn to let go. (Na De Qi, Fang De Xia)
- Everybody has talents. It is just that some talents have to be hired out to other people (like Jiang Ziya) to be most effectively utilised.

At least now I know why some guys keep long nails...

MP3 dream

There are many scientific studies about dreams that say everybody dreams, even animals do. It is just that people have different capacity of recalling dreams. Well, I belong to the 'recall-impaired' group when it comes to dreams (and names, and lots of other things..) but this morning I managed to somehow remember a portion of a dream.

It was a very simple dream really. I was walking around somewhere, when suddenly something caught my eyes, and I just have to have it. Turned out that the 'thing' is a futuristic version of an MP3 player. So off I went with the gadget, somewhere else...

That made me wonder. I am not a music person, and I do not usually have the impulsive need to have something. This dream shows me doing two uncharacteristic things at one go in one scene. Would there be one day where there is a machine that is capable of recoding dreams and play it back as a video? It could be a wonderful thing, or become another pandora's box.

Watch out 'Reality TV', here comes 'Dream TV'!
Imagine the hassle of actor/esses who might feel that they're not getting their royalties for appearing in other people's dreams. Or some 'litigation happy' people would sue others for 'trespassing into their dream'. Companies would be scrambling to collect data on whose products appear most in dreams, and research out more ways for their brand to appear to their customers even in their dreams. Dream PI's who gets hired by disgruntled spouses, hiring companies may have 'dream test' added on to their 'psychological test'. Talkshows galore dissecting people's dreams.

That machine would be a soberingly scary machine...

Gamer's meetup 02 August 2005

As promised, the event coverage.

I managed to play 3 new games this session, and 1 repeat game.
Names of the other players shall not be revealed. (Or rather, I do not know some of their names ><) I am not good at remembering names, and now it seems that I am not good at remembering names of boardgames too...

I am just going to give a brief overview of the games, and my own dismal performances in said games. If it whets your appetite, do join the meetup sometime.

Niagara Falls

This is a game of adventure and treasure hunting, where the players controls two tiny kayaks in the rapids that leads to the Niagara Falls. Along the bank, 5 excavation points containing different types of gems can be found. The objective of the game is pretty simple. Brave the rapids, pick up some gems, and bring them back to your base camp. The problem is, some of the quarries are placed really close to the overhang, and as the stream is constantly pushing your kayaks downstream, getting those is a calculated gamble. Adding to the challenge, other players can steal a gem when it is still in your kayak!

I would have won the first game if not for someone else stealing one of the most difficult to get gem off my kayak because I could not paddle fast enough upstream. In the second game, my kayaks fell off the waterfall due to me playing the wrong card. It was fun to see other people frantically paddling upstream only to be dragged downstream again though.

A beautifully made game. Easy to learn and get into. Fun to play too. One thing that I felt lacking was the victory condition. One of them is easier, and the other is more difficult. Could do better with some tuning.

Robo Rally

This game is like a car rally, where you have to clear certain checkpoints. The difference is that you're using robots, in a factory like arena, and you have to pre-program your robots with a sequence of movements for each round. Robots can shoot, be shot, get repaired, push each other, and automatically moved by various elements on the arena (e.g. when the robot is on a conveyor belt) on their race to the checkpoints.

Due to some misinterpretation of the rules, this supposedly fast paced game (it has a timer and well, it is called a rally...) got slowed down by quite a bit. After chaotic rounds of shootings, rammings and confusion (one robot actually got stuck for quite a long time in the starting area as it was derailed by another player's robot and ended up stuck facing a 2-sided wall for much of the game), one robot emerged as a victor on top of a messy pile of metals, and it was *not* mine.

This is actually a remake of an older game. I feel that it could have been better as the play arena looks kind of clunky, and the character cards are kind of flimsy. It was fun though, and would have been better if we had gotten the rules right off the bat.

*Name unavailable*

This is a pretty simple game that can be irritating at times. You play as a farmer, and your objective is to build an enclosure to house all your sheeps, and get it filled with sheeps. However, there are two types of sheeps. The white sheeps gives your +ve points, and the black sheeps gives you -ve points. Everyone plays the sheeps face down initially, and these face down sheeps can then be flipped up in their current locations, or moved to other locations using a shepherd dog and then flipped up. Once a sheep has been flipped up, it cannot be moved anymore. Flipping a black sheep gives you two extra actions.

I could not win the first game as I was sort of 'fenced out' by my two neighbours, one who managed to corral off a juicy 5 point sheep away from me. In the second game, it was a pretty close match, until I inadvertently gave away a 5 point sheep to sonic after he gave me a -3 point sheep. (The 'face-down' initial placement system of this game has baffled me so far) Needless to say, he won the game. For this game, we had 2 players who was playing 2 different games at the same time. The outcome might have been quite different had they been focusing as they both are good boardgame players.

An interesting game, but most of the players agreed that it is pretty restricted due to the outlay of the board. A game with other than 6/3/2 players would kind of unbalance it. It is interesting though.

Carcasonne: Hunters and Gatherers (repeat)

Carcassone is a pretty classic game that has spawned off a few variation of games using its own mechanic. This one is based on hunting and gathering. Basically, each player starts out with a set number of point gatherers (5 person and 2 huts). A player gain points by playing tiles and completing patches of forests or rivers and putting their people in there as 'gatherers'. Everyone shares a common pool of tiles and the tiles are drawn at random. At the end of the game, there will be another scoring round for the huts, and people that are placed on the fields as 'hunters'.

I chose this game as our last game as there were only 3 people left, and time was short. As it turned out, one of them had to leave mid-game, and I lost the game by 1 point. The winner had an unexpectedly large area covered by his hunter which netted him a whopping 22 points.

This game can turn pretty nasty at times if players take extra effort to 'block' other player's point gatherers instead of just concentrating on how they can maximize their own points. Personally, I found it frustating at times.

Whew.. that was quite a write up.
Next meetup is on 06 Sept 2005.

A gamer's mind

(Yeah yeah.. I know.. I am eating some snake right now... but this is too good to pass up)

I am, first and foremost a gamer. I might be able to forsake all the other 'addictive' activities human beings indulge in, like drinking, smoking, drugs, sex, gambling, etc, but I can't let go of gaming. Yeah you heard that right. Make me choose between sex or good games, I'd say good games would win 69% of the time... (as for the remaining 31%, well, let's just say I am a guy, so you can use your active imagination to create some totally irresistable scenarios...)

Anyway, to the meat of this post.
One article by one of the designers of one of my favorite games. It offers some interesting insight to how game designing work.

Once more with feeling

じゃね～～

Read... yes no?

I got the feeling that I am better at commenting that starting my own trains of thought...
For now...

And reading some blogs somehow helps me translate better as it gives my brain some room to be entertained. Maybe in future... (Heck, I spend enough time 'talking' to myself already... in Japanese even... this should not be a problem, right?)

Oh yeah, I finally tried the complementary Indocafe Cappucino. Since I do not have a measuring cylinder at hand, I had to use my superb power of estimation to add the hot water. However, the size of the packet (approx. 10 x 5 cm) skewed my calculation. Still tasted all right to me, but a little less water would have worked better.

Will be going down for the boardgaming session today. I hope I can remember enough to give a good accounting of what is going on, on my table.

Lactic Acid...

Almost woke up late to go to work today...

I think I do really need more dance practice... although I did somehow manage to dance out two full merenge songs in the D&D.

Meanwhile... テスト。。。

見えるかな。。。
Font test~~~

It is hard to think up of issues when one is hammering out technical translations, which in a way, is a good thing I guess.
All I have in my head right now is 'muscle ache' and 'test the connection of part X'.