Went swimmin

Today, I went swimming. Initially, suppose to swim with Yee soon, but too bad, he can't make it in the end. Come to think of it, I haven't been swimming in a pool for quite some long time.. My $70 goggles was covered with dust when I retrieved it from some ancient box in the attic left berefted eons ago.. And the army trunks weren't any better as it was covered with some sticky goo..
Nevertheless, I swam 34 laps. Gasp! That's 1.7km. Kinda impressed myself. My limbs felt so weak as I leave the water.
Anyway there was this couple in the pool that really digusted me.. One times male caucasian, balded; one times plump phillipino-look-alike gal, short. Damn they were simply frolicking and teasing each other in one corner of the pool. You called that swimming, I call that taking up precious space. Before you think I was jealous, you have to see it for yourself. In one disgusting scene, the gal was carrying the man's legs and moves in" f***ing" motions. Sick. Moreover there were like 5 or 6 hot-blooded teenage boys stationed about 5 or 6 meters away from them. Sic.
Tomorrow. Another 34 laps. I'll be as slim as a stick in time to come.

No sitting on fence. Its acceptance, or not. Your choice.

There's this book.. Ok. There's this famous book by Yann Martel, which based its plot mainly on religion, zoology and whether to "choose a better story" to describe this reality. Religion explains reality in a somewhat hodge-podge manner. It has loop holes that postulated more questions than answers. Then there's science. Logic, math, phyic -- stuffs created by people to make people understand more about this universe. In both cases, they left me bewildered.
However, Martel blended these 2 worlds together so well, at some points, that these 2 ideologies seems to complement each other.
Then the choose the better story part.. Example:

I can well imagine an atheist’s last words: “White, white! L-L-Love! My
God!”—and the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to
his reasonable self, if he stays beholden to dry, yeastless factuality, might
try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, “Possibly a f-f-failing
oxygenation of the b-b-brain,” and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss
the better story. ~Life of Pi chapter 22

Thought provoking huh? There's more to come. Follow the link and read it. 100 chapters in all. A story that will change your perspective on God.

Interesting Stuff on Pascal's Wager

I was wondering if philophers day-dream about stuff that I just might have thought about before. Then I came across this blog, talking about some Pascal's Wager. Pascal, as in the Mathematician that brought us the Pascal triangle, presented this funny rant, and then his somewhat logical conclusion that: we have all to gain and nothing to lose when we believe in Him.

"God is, or He is not." But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide
nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being
played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn
up... Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see
which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good;
and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your
happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason
is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must of
necessity choose... But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in
wagering that God is... If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose
nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.

My $0.02 worth: Wow, that was exactly what I had deliberated about on some previous lazy afternoon. Talk about great thinkers think alike.
But then, with so many choices, there is the problem of which God should you choose? If we follow Pascal's proposition, let's put the chance that He exists as 50%. Then the chance that we just might hit the jackpot and receive eternal bliss will of course be significantly lower than this 50%. Say, considering the major religions around the world, which includes Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Taoism, etc, etc, you may get something close to 10% as the final straw. Anyway, I guess that is the point of Pascal's argument. Believe, you may get your 10% chance. Don't, you get zero.

Then, there's these paradoxes that intrigues me. The one about Schrodinger's cat is by far the most interesting, followed closely behind by Zeno's paradoxes on motion.
In Schrodinger's cat, it involves a thought experiment that includes a cat that's put into a box. A small sample of a radioactive material is then put together with the cat into the box, as well as a detector that detects whether or not atoms are emitted by this piece of sample. If it does detect some stray atoms, it will break a vial of cyanide gas inside the box, that kills the cat.. Kinda cruel, but then its only a thought experiment. Come to think of it, great thinkers have somewhat twisted minds.. So, if the chance that atoms are emitted by this sample is 50%, then, without opening the box and inspecting the content, at any instant the cat will be, literally, half dead and half alive. Thus, the paradox.. How to have some kitty dead and alive at the same time?

My other $0.02 worth: The point about this experiment is that quantumatically, you cannot be sure what will be the physical outcome of particles or atoms, until you observe them with your own eyes. That is, you wouldn't know whether the cat is 100% dead or alive, until you peek at the box. Before you peek, you can only guess, and hence before you see, the cat is half dead, half alive. The use of a cat, or the cyanide gas, or the box is totally insignificant, I think. The experiment can jolly well proceed with any other animals, or any other methods to kill the cat.. So if you really can't find any cat around, a dog will also do..
The cruelty of this experiment is probably the mental impact Schrodinger wanted to instill to its audience. Since the novelty of quantum mechanics is hard to grasp and even more harder to accept, an interesting anecdote will keep the interest in his audience, and do the job better.
Actually, to see how the cat is doing is not the correct word in the quantum sense. Since light will be reflected from the particle into your eyes in order for you to see the particle, the momentum light photons possesses would have displaced the particles from its original position. Hence, what you see now is not the position of the particle at this instant.. In fact, if you had studied quantum physics in college, most likely you'll know that on a quantum scale, you cannot know exactly where a particle will be at a specific instant. Instead, PSI functions are used to find the probability at any instant a particle will be. Thus, my guess is that the cat here resembles the particle. You cannot perfectly know whether the cat's state, that is, whether its alive or dead at any instant; you can only use probability to guess. Then again, it will be meaningless when you use your eyes to see whether the cat is alive or dead, since state of this cat may not be its state at the instant you had peek.. Thus the paradox is not why the cat is alive or dead, but that one can only guess whether the cat is alive or not.
Chim right? Anyway, don't quote me.. Its Junjie the philospher at work.. and I'm only a year one Uni undergrad.. Engine student some more..

The one about Zeno's motion paradoxes.. They deal mostly with relative motion, and the what's if and what's not. Its discomforting to know that people long ago, through mathematical logics, had already grasp the concept of relativity, space-time and all those Einstonian thoughts. Clever right? Someone says, if people had pay more attention to Zeno's thoughts, we now could have nuclear weapons in stock at the Seven Eleven near you.

All these great thoughts about life aside, I'm working in Sony factory right now. Not a tough job, but mentally shag.. Imagine a job that is 12-hours shift, in which you only work 7 hours and idle the rest. The idle part is the mentally shag part. Anyway, here's a paradox of my own: Working inside a Sony factory so that I can earn enough money to buy a Sony PSP.. Heck, I can jolly well steal one while I'm at it.. But then I could have be a great philsopher in the future.. Cannot let such details taint my eulogy right??
Also bought Tao Ze aka David Tao's latest.. Wasn't as strong as his last.. He shouldn't have reprimanded Jay Zhou's albums, when he himself couldn't make breakthoughs. Also bought Love Phychodelico's "best of" album. The tunes are great, but the lyrics.. crap. Japanese should stop inscribing english words or phrases into their tunes.. It ruins them..
The last time I count, school is still eons away. Let's keep it this way. Anticipation is half the pleasure, as I always said.

Status of Exams, revisions and why I haven't post for such a god darn time

Wow.
How time flies. The previous post was at the beginning of this year. Now its April already.
Wow.
5 reasons I haven't been posting:
5) No one cares whether I post or not. No one read my posts anyway.
4) Too tired to post.
3) Nothing much to write anyway.
2) Exams!
1) Forgot there's a blog called plum in the middle of the ocean.

Currently having my exams now. Finished critical thinking and writing today. Not bad. At least I had an idea to write about, unlike that QET english I took last sem. Was totally clueless on what to do. Anyway got a high 82 for my assignment one. I worked damn damn hard for that assignment, and I guess I truly deserved it. This the first time I work super hard for something and the result did pay off.
Finsihed physics last saturday. The paper wasn't tough, but if you are a undergraduate in NUS, you'll know that's the problem. It was too easy!! How?? If everyone scores full marks, who's gonna be "at the bottom of the bell" (Quote: Victor Zhou, 2004)??

Neway, saw this muslim's guy blog last night. Guess what? Saw the real guy in toilet this morning. Quite short, suave, comical face. Interesting to see a web person alive huh?

Until next post, I still have maths cs1102c and discrete maths to study. Ciao, over and out.

Holiday coming to an end...

Everything happened so fast, it seem like a blur.

Holidays always went so fast. In comparison, school days, army days, work days drag on like a one ton concrete block being pulled across sticky mud.

Anyway, here's an update on what happened to me during this holiday:

1) Got back my exam results.Not exemplary, but nonetheless satisfied. A- CS A- Electronics B+Physics B+ Maths. S for that fricking Evolution for a global city state. B- for English. Whoohoo! No more history, no more vietnamnese as my english teacher ! CAP score: 4.23.

2) On the same day I got back my results, that is boxing day 2004, tsunamis struck the coasts of many south asian countries. Many people died and even more left injured and/or homeless. Felt sorry for them but what can a poor student like me do? Mourned for one minute with the english soccer fans on the match between Man Utd and middlesbrough.

3) Played soccer with Hieu and Qing wen a few times throughout the holiday. My stamina dropped like mad nowadays. I can't even hold on to my breath for 5 mins, Gasp! Got to run!

4) Bought whole lots of games. A few exceptional ones: Halo 2, great graphics, same gameplay. Wasn't a fan for the original, so wasn't too impressed by it. Fable, great graphics, pretty boring gameplay. Once you figured out what to do (which i did, mainly by looking into FAQs..), the surprises the develops kept in the game didn't turn out too well. Ninja Gaiden kicked serious ass! But the overall difficult is too hard. Turned me off in several occasions. Otogi 2 and Kingdom under fire, haven't got the chance to savour them yet. Well, I still have one week. Ratchet and Clank 3: almost like the same game as its predecessors. Almost gettiing bored by it. Jak 3, haven't seriously played through it yet, but something tells me i wouldn't like it. Splinter cell Pandora's tommorow is.. urgh. Bad stuff. Don't touch it. Prince of Persia, despite its many glitches, turned out pretty well. GTA: SA, wasn't a fan of GTAs, so didn't really catch my attention. Anyway, most of the time i dedicated to Metal Gear Solid 3. Going to play Deus Ex and Ninja Gaiden.

5) Singapore National team get into Tiger's cup final! After that disgusting second leg semi played against Myannmar in Singapore National Stadium, Singapore finally managed to ascend, with a bit of luck, to the final. Overall, Singapore beat Myanmmar 8-5 on aggregate. The myanmmars really disgraced themselves during the last 15 minutes of the game. During second half of extra time, Myanmmar's substitute goal keeper threw a water bag onto the neck of Subramani. He was sent off by the referee of course. That was the most digusting, worst display of soccer ethnics i had ever seen on TV.

6) Got my timetable for next sem. Had to get up before 7 every morning now. Now seeking ways to crash into other people's lecture. Else how am I going to study? There's the hostel alternative, but there's also the money problem. Then next sem had to take that critical thinking shit too. Was never a good GP student. Guess I'm in for it. Also CS1102C, hopefully i'm capable for it. Then there is the discrete structure, heard its seriously hard. And physics. Of course that prick-in-the-ass physics. Just hope that I can do well enough in sem 2 as i did in sem 1.

7) Resolutions for 2005:

1) Get good grades!
2) Get her!
3) Run!

Practical exam results,Xbox,PS2

Whoohoo!! Scored a perfect score for my computing pratical exam!! Was over the moon for quite some time. I was so stressed out during exam, and this came in much as a stress reliever. Hopefully I'll do just as well for the rest of my papers. Remembered our class motto when i was in sec 4: "A good start leads to a better end." I know, that was rather pessimistic for a class motto, but what the hell, let's hope my good start brings about better results when I finally get back all my papers.

Anyway got my Xbox back, and was playing with it for quite some time now. Fable kicked ass, halo2's graphic was like : Wow. But dual wieldling makes the control seems rather difficult. Anyway i'm digging Fable now. Really many different things to do in the game and one can never get bored from doing these tasks. Graphics wise, reminds me of Black and White, but textures are much more detailed, and characters come in this, hume, which illuminates them in the game. And that looks pretty darn cool. Plus the water effects were the first of its kinds.

About PS2 games. Metal gear solid 3, like what i said in earlier posts, also kicked ass. Its polished dialouges, cut scenes which looks so much like pre rendered CGIs, deep characters really brings the game to life. Nevertheless, there are some major flaws. Like what's up with the camera system? While the fixed camera system works fine in MGS1 and 2, the camera here is just frustrating. something like Splinter cell's would have been nice. And those sub bosses. They are fricking easy fights. Get some powerful weapons and blast them once you see them. And what's up with the one with The End? That was plain frustrating. most of the time you just couldn't find out where the hell he'd positioned himself. And once you did, somehow, it seems like you had given your hiding place away and he'll snipe you if you are not fast enough. Anyway for those who haven't knew, you can track his footprints by using the thermal goggles. Then blast with away with your shotgun. That is so much easier. Snipers? Ka-put. In mgs1, each sub boss came in with a life story behind them. Remeber sniper wolf? When you defeated her, she began to tell you her part of the story and man, was i touched. That was the first time when i was actually so touched by a video game character. The first time i was addicted to videogames. Yet, the bosses in MGS3, lacked personalty. They won't have a story to tell when you end their measly life. They just go boom, and die. No touching story, no death letter for you to send as an errand. Just curse you and die. Maybe Kojima-san wouldn't want us to have too much feelings for the bad guys in this game. Like when i killed sniper wolf, i was thinking maybe i shouldn't have defeated her afterall. maybe i was the bad guy in this game. Nevertheless, no background story for these bosses really sucks.

Just recovered from a fever and flu. now feeling the "high" of it. It seems although one is reborn after he/she suffers from some really bad illness. Can feel the december wind blowing through the window beside me now. Chilling, but nonetheless soothing. The feeling is like the first time you had your head placed beside an air conditioning unit. Chilling, but nonetheless comfortable. Enjoy this period of Singapore most! Cool and comfortable, Holidays and all!

Lie wei came for a surprise visit just a while ago. We chatted like we'd never chatted before. On topics like how short the semester is for universities, how expensive it is for a uni education, how stressful exams are.. the stuffs. Maybe going to watch the Pixar show "Incredibles" with him next monday. Stay tune for the movie's review!

Sent my xbox for modification a few days ago. Then heard from chin kiat that some games can play even without modification. Come to think of it, the bill for $115 is a bit too steep. Heard from Paul one can get to pay only as low as 60 to 70 greens in sim lim and such. Maybe should research deeper next time i made an "investment" or something.

I feel that gaming had became part of my life. Just like what soccer did to my primary and secondary school life. Gaming is to what soccer was to me now. When I was younger, i dreamt of owning all the consoles on the market, so that i can play all the great games that are available. I wouldn't discriminate games because they are ps2 exclusive or xbox exlcusive. I play games because they are good games. not because they are hyped up or because they belongs to some genre.

Some of my friends who were game fanatics when they were younger are giving up gaming totally now. They said its time to grow up. Give up gaming = growing up? Going to pubs, drink alcohol= growing up? I guess when one reach that point of time when he/she began to think critically of problems of situations placed before them, then he/she had grown up. For example, one was given $10. how is he/she going to spend it? A child wouldn't do much planning but spurge it on candies and toys. A teenagers might buy movie tix and popcorns, or spend someway or the other. A stuck-in-between might decided that 10 bucks is too little, but decided to spend it anyway. A grown up thinks, process ideas on how this 10 bucks can be spent. 1) Buy candies. 2) Movies. 3) 10 bucks is too little. 4) Donate to charity. The end product is the same. But he thinks about how to go about it. It is this thought process that matters. Maybe you are thinking I'm talking rubbish, but that may be because you haven't really grown up yet. It is this independent thought process that makes you make decision for yourself. And that is part of growing up.

Favourite movie quotes of all time. Can you guess who said it in what movie?

" He better be worth it. He better go home and cure a disease, or invent a longer-lasting light bulb."

"I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague, and we are the cure."

"What I mean, sir, is if you was to put me with this here sniper rifle anywhere up to and including one mile from Adolf Hitler... with a clean line of sight... well, pack your bags, boys. War's over. "

"Man, I see in [this club] the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off. "

J: "Were you scared in Vietnam?"
F: "Yes. Well, I-I don't know. Sometimes it would stop raining long enough for the stars to come out... and then it was nice. It was like just before the sun goes to bed down on the bayou. There was always a million sparkles on the water... like that mountain lake. It was so clear, Jenny, it looked like there were two skies one on top of the other. And then in the desert, when the sun comes up, I couldn't tell where heaven stopped and the earth began. It's so beautiful."
J: "I wish I could've been there with you."
F: "You were."

"I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floatin' around accidental-like on a breeze. But I, I think maybe it's both."

A: "I am the Architect. I created the matrix. I've been waiting for you. You have many questions, and although the process has altered your consciousness, you remain irrevocably human. Ergo, some of my answers you will understand, and some of them you will not. Concordantly, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize it is also the most irrelevant."
N: "Why am I here?"
A: "Your life is the sum of a remainder of an unbalanced equation inherent to the programming of the matrix. You are the eventuality of an anomaly, which despite my sincerest efforts I have been unable to eliminate from what is otherwise a harmony of mathematical precision. While it remains a burden assiduously avoided, it is not unexpected, and thus not beyond a measure of control. Which has led you, inexorably, here."

December 07 2004. That's some special date, cos I'm now officially a ORDed personnel! Wow. Talk about how times flies. When was the last post? 2003? that's like almost 2 years ago. And i can still remember vividly some of the things i typed. Re-reading those threads really brought back alot of memories. To tell the truth, i miss camp. I miss my buddies, my soccer days, those long distance jogs, those sai gangs, the sun, the food, the people. Everything. Joni Mitchell, "Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone". She's so damn right. And NUS wasn't the bed of roses my teachers always told me about. It was the most stressful period of time i had ever gone through. Never in my 21 years had i experienced stress from studying. Man, was i demoralised. Study till on the verge of crying. Was this the effect of having to stop 2 and a half years to serve the nation before i continue with my studies?

On how i rediscovered this blog: Was typing "CS1101C" in google, hoping to find comments from people on how they feel about the module. Then found this dude, Jian Ho or someone like that, who got this new blog, writing out his life with the most meticulous details. He tell of people like jia hui and edwin. Wonder they are the same people whom i knew. Anyway, his address was somethingsomething.blogspot.com. Then something struck me: I had a blog before! Trying out my luck, i tried the ubiquitos oddabe83 moniker, and ta-da, there i was, re-reading whatever i had typed on nights 2 years ago. This must be fate. Anyway reading the past post must have been the most enjoyable thing to do. I shan't had stopped posting. Could have missed out lotsa facts and stuff.

If I have the choice to go back in time to choose the period in which i would like to be for the rest of my life, maybe just maybe, army I choose you. The time when i with my buddies, with a purpose, with dreams to look forward to, with anticipation of outside life, when the days when i was so sheltered, with motivation towards ORD. Then again, might have been secondary school days. No stress from studies, many wrongs to correct, many friends. To anyone reading this post, the best friends of your life comes from your secondary classes. Find them and cherish them. Tie them to your body parts, make tatoos about how you and them going to stay together, burn the memories into your mind forever. They are the only true friends you'll need, and ever find. Friends afterwards were more or less acquaintances. That's especially true in NUS. People walked past you, people smile, maybe with a 'hi'. And that's it. Acquaintancios.

Hey hey, going to sleep now. Just recovered from some 38 degrees fever. Now feeling the high from taking those drugs. Until the next post, ciao!!

completed BOF like last week? this week was damn tough. Got that Shangrila ops coming too. No more slack life in camp nowadays. Just hoping that we'll not be like this come next year this time. Should be relaxing by then. Saw K again last friday 250403 when i went for night off with shun rong, meng guan and gang. come to think of it, a perfect coincidence.. missed my thursday nights off, the rain outside the library. seemed so scripted, so perfect. she's still nice, and all. Seemed a bit slimmer? maybe. one more few days to ORD! keep up the counting spirit inside me! count down from 400 plus days. No more guard duties! at least for this month. next month, doing guard is a whole different business. trying to read stephen king's dreamcatcher. a long story, albeit interesting enough to keep me hook. not like that Chricton's time-something-something.. come to think of it, that was like the first book i had put down after reading like 3/4 of it. it was really boring. Sphere and jurassic park were nice though. going to find the green mile and other books by king. the fifth harry potter book's coming out too. On playstation2 side, playing xenosaga now. watched voices from a distant star just now, by that makato shinkai, or something like that. terrific anime, great art, soundtracks, story. yes, the story. best i've seen in years. nothing the factual of chricton and brillant mind of king can be compared to.

Replayed breath of fire Dragon's quarter. I mean replayed, yes! since this rpg is made to be replayed, again and again, and again. Damn, the dungeons are the same, addictive though. haven step out of the house since yesterday. maybe going causeway point later. buy a pait of boots for brother. what else? maybe watch forrest gump later. sianz.. movies?

A few sites i must go to when i book out:
PS2.IGN.COM
FUN.S-ONE.NET.SG
GAMESPOT.COM
GAMEFAQS.COM
WWW.PHOTOFORUM.ORG
FLASHKIT.COM
GOOGLE.COM

off until this sunday!! dunno why company so good this week, so many offs, but of course must come from own offs one, or need to sign leave forms.. i dun want to touch my leaves leh. want to spend them all at once at end of year. bought dark cloud 2. plays like grandia 2.

Sunday. Sigh. The last formation parade, my 11B fell out of my mask carriage bag, onto the parade sqaure. PS happened to pick it up. Bad news i got, had to book in earlier this weekend. by 2030, i had to be in camp. no problem about that, but father isn't driving me to camp this weekend. double sigh. haiz. Anyway, the good news, payday's coming. been wanting that eric clapton cd for so long. been playing games the whole sunday afternoon. out of my window, it seems it's going to rain soon. reminded me when i was playing that mark of kri game. it was raining heavily when i first played that game. Haven't complete the game yet though. i tink i'm going to compile a list of songs i going to burn next, then send the songs to kiam ho to burn. About last night's outing... a total bore. i should had remeber i wasn't that close with my junior college mates, except a few guys who sat close to me during classes. going to book in soon. next week, CO COC parade. out the old friendly CO he'll go, in the unfamiliar new CO.. let's all hope for the best.

Hi. Got long weekend today, due to formation anniversary thingy. April 4th. Got a tiring parade this morning. When i reached home, slept all the way thru. Exhausting. Going to play more games later. Pay coming next week. All 520 notes. Maybe i'll buy a new deuter bag, eric clapton's latest and final fantasy 9. i dun know about the latter. bout 80 greens for a few year old game. maybe i'll even consider chrono cross. although that was the game that made so frustrated a few years ago (can't the story ever be told??). Tomorrow meeting the people of 2s7. ciao and out..

Well, hands-on Splinter cell. first thing i can say, not a metal gear killer. it is far far away from being a metal gear killer. far far away... about the bad things. first, there is the camera. you rotate the camera by adjusting the right analog stick, thus, unlike metal gear, you get 360 degrees of freedom. that is good, for one thing. since this is a stealth game, free cameras are suppose to be very important, as you lay still in one corner while observing whats going on around you meanwhile you just rotate the camera. Then comes the awful fact that the camera feels the game came straight out from a PC port. If you played MDK2 on PC, then you would remeber how innovative the game is by incorporating the mouse to be used to control the camera angel. That's what happened to SC's camera here. While it does gives you complete freedom, it just feels stupid to have to adjust the camera whenever you moved half a turn around a corner or down some stairs. Further more, there isn't a center camera button. What's fuck with that? Why no center camera button? This is a console game for god damn sake. The next bad point, those lighting effects isn't really that revolutionary. I saw ICO and went aweeeee. I saw SC, and thought, "ok, that's acceptable, but what's wroong with the framerate?" the game doesn't moves smootly as i had expected. MGS ran at 60fps for most of the time, so does ZOE2. Yet, when there are so little things in SC, why does that fucking framerate so damn low? It's almost on par with that GTA3 game. Then the controls. This game wasn't made for you to take out all the enemies with your tommy gun, since the aiming system really sucks. Think of the getaway, no wait, it wasn't that bad, think of any tom clancy and u'll get the idea. Next, no in game save. How many games nowadays doesn't allow you to save anywhere you like? (except those RPGs, minus wild arms 3...) You only get to save at the end of the mission, and that sucks. And then, there isn't subtitles in this game. Damn, why does those people talk in strange accents, no wait, whisper in strange accents. I had to tune up my volume until i can hear Sam's footsteps, and whenever that god damn enemy discovered me, the music became so loud i had to tune down the volume again. ALL GAMES MUST HAVE SUBTITLES! And that includes you, Jak and dextor. Now the good stuffs. The gameplay rocks. You get to do rapelling off walls, climb poles, slide down ropes, and most important, get to knock off enemies right in front of their face (although that gets stale after sometimes). The night vision goggles totally knock me off, like the thermal ones too. All in all, this feels like a PC game stuck in a console. They shouldn't have developed this for PS2. Totally not a MGS2 killer. Graphics: 7/10 (i had seen better), sound: 7/10 (damn those fucking accents and no subtitles!) control:4/10 (damn, have you ever suffered from motion sickness in a third person view game cos the camera sucks?)

Today is a Saturday. This may sounds rudimentary to some out there, but this saturday is a big day for me. It's one whole year after BMT, and the tekong section buddies are coming out to celebrate. There is Paul, me, Yuan Feng, Si qiang, Chao wei, Xian Rong, Sydney and Simon. Jeffery, Jun wei and Reduan couldn't make it. Heard that junwei's in brunei. Got attached there as a signaller, i heard. Lucky bastard, pay increased to head out to a nether world to enjoy his lobo days. About a year ago, junwei sat beside me in alpha/bravo lecture room. We haven't knew each other yet. He was just sitting beside me. Then, i don't even knew he was that tall of a guy, since he's just sitting beside me. Before we knew anything was going to happen, we were told to fill up our partivulars on pieces of papers. One of those headings was "Your Best Friend", and his particulars. With no one in my mind at that moment, i asked the completely foreign junwei, "would you be my best friend?". Fuck yes. Days later, Bravo company was resuffled. Junwei then slept 2 beds away from me. Talk about fate and things.

niways, today's outing was on the whole, enriching, and small fun. We hadn't talk much to each others about the old bmt days, but to stare at those plates of sushi at the sake sushi restraunts at Bugis. Damn, I haven't gotten so excited over plates of sushi. Having them on conveyor belts indeed pumps up your adrenaline level as you decide and do fast calculations in split seconds in your head, wheather or not the plate of sushi is worth your dime. Then it went away for most of the time. Anyway, Si qiang, who is a commisioned officer now, paid for the meal. His birthday he said. We bought him 3 glasses as presents. We had forgotten it was chao wei's birthday too, so we gave him one of those glassess. Pretty glass i would say. Perfect present.

Next up we watched "Tears of the sun" together. Last yeer this time, i watched "Collateral damage", that arnie's flick, if anyone remebers. CD was actually quite a good show, a stable plot, some actions, bits of twist (a big twist at the end though), but not really a good arnie show. "True lies" was a classic arnie flick, so is that kick ass terminator-i-come-from-future-to-save-the-world-show, which later, many other cliched shows will base their plots more or less similar to the above mentioned. But CD was out on the wrong time -- a good show released at the wrong time. It was postponed due to that 9/11 attack on US. Perhaps everyone was so anti-terroists --and that show was so much about terrorists--that makes it rather unpopular at that time. At that time, what people needs are musicians who haven't shown their faces for a couple of years, artists who we haven't seen onscreen or offscreen and even on those mini tabloids, to come out and console people with words like "united", "terrible disasters", and more to think of. All these but not an arnie flick depicting how one guy wipe off the entire terrorist camp. Then "Tears of the Sun" is another show that came out at the wrong time. It should have come out before revolutionary films like "Saving Private Ryan" and "The thin red line" was released. Before that, people can be doped into believeing Silvester Stallion can really defeat a whole batttalion army by himself. After SPR, everything was so changed. The show's plot now can be as shallow as Saddam Hussein's words on that he had already disarm himself, but there must be gore and scenes which depict how suffering was experienced during wartimes. And a great soundtrack too. All these but not a show with a one man army, causing a whole battalion of soldiers who surprisingly couldn't shoot a target who is like 10 feet away, not with bazookas, LAWs, SAWs, and heck sometimes i saw people with GPMGs , not all these could hurt that one man army. Cos, when that one guy runs past the battalion, the battalion of soldiers are suppose to fall down and play dead... Then in Tears, its one section of commandos (or is it NAVY SEALS??) versus one battalion of soldier, in which you might think is more logical, since we now have got more man in our side of the army, but if you do the maths, its still perhaps 1 guy versus 20 to 30 enemies at any one time. And Bruce Willis survived, of course, since so many people had since sent hate mails to Hollywood, complaining why Bruce had to die for Ben Affleck in Armageddon instead. Ben should have die and i should have gotten Liv Tyler, and Tears should be such a good movie. Sadly, it was just released at a very bad time. Anyway, few plus points about the movie is it's amazing soundtrack, and its vivid adaptation of commandos at work. Damn. They are so cool to watch, especially that sniper guy with that silenced sniper gun he got.

Next week, I'm going to that inaugmentation parade (whatever the fuck that is), while wearing MOPP4, under the hot sun. Hope everything turns out well for me. Until next week, it's ciao then, unless i have more to write the next morning i wakes up. By the way, i bought Splinter cell, and there is a pasam balam downstairs. Can't wait to play.

It's monday, and I'm still at home??? Day off, haha. Good for me. But the thought of going back makes me feel so sick. I heard we've got encap suit training endurance tomorrow. Siong man. Anyway, didn't managed to catch Tears of the sun afterall. Met Shun rong on ICQ, he said quite a good show, if not above average. Well, latest news on USIRAQ war, the Iraqis are fighting back, giving back the US soldiers some deterence. When are they going to end this war? Haiz, end it soon, and I want to get my original life in army back. Anyway now is also quite good, since CO said that security now comes first, training second. Maybe, just maybe, the war can stay.. No wait, that will implicate alot of people's life. The wat should go!! Yeah! Must go! I had watched Black Hawk Down, the uber realistic war show, and understand how war is so ugly and stuffs. P E A C E

About the games I bought: ZOE2 kicks big asses! Really great graphics, but sometimes horrible camera angles. Actually the cameras helps somewhat in presenting the game's complete freedom to move, yet, it makes viewing things so complicated too. Especially on that destroy-the-train level. The camera will force itself to focus on the turrets on the train itself, completely ingnoring those missiles which bombarded me overhead. Next is the soundtrack. Man, this must had been composed by someone related to that oscar show, Crouching tiger Hidden dragon. Remeber that Vic Viper stage? The music was damn cool! Then the one when you have to drag Arojet all the way up from some installment or chasm, that music was cool! And those cinemas, damn, they reminds me of Metal Gear Solid 2's cinematics. And then the controls, they, well, in a word, sucks. You have to juggle so many buttons at anyone time. MGS was great, somehow, for having so many buttons for so many actions. But MGS was practically a slow game. You can plan, hide, use your stealth, slowly. So you can push your buttons slowly. But ZOE was damn fast, these button smashing wasn't what my fingers can keep up with.
And that Sakura Taisen game, couldn't understand a word of Jap. Sadness. Should have bought that Dark Cloud 2 instead. Now watching Oscar. Hero didn't win any award. It was a terrific show, although the story was quite lame, come to think of it. But the way Zhang Yi mou presented the story, that was something new. Until next post, ciao.

Been a while since i post. Had been in camp the whole of last week. U know they are right when they said NS took over your whole life. Sometimes for the good, other times, bad (most of the times, really). Last week nothing happened much. I was made the IC of the platoon again. Damn, all the specs are attached out for some athletics event this week. I was so busy, had to take care of my own work, plus the specs' too. And worse thing is, my platoon mates ain't cooperation with me. US had officially attacked Iraq too. Right now, the security status of my camp is tigher than before. Guard personnels are increased from the previous 5 to the present 10. Sianz... Bought another 2 games. ZOE2 and Sakura Taisen. The former, great graphics, immense fun. The latter, couldn't understand a word of japanese. Maybe after i buy the guide for it then i'll play. Going to watch Tears of the sun later. Will post the review after the show. Heard it was a really sucky show. Hope so not..

I be doing guard duty the week after the next. I'm doing it on friday and the subsequent sunday. Damn, who planned these duties? Guard duty in camp was supposed to be quite a lobo affair. But after that 9/11 incident, my camp got rather perked up and my RSM got really rather perked up, and now we guards' duties got super perked up. U know, whatever you read on the papers in the morning will always affect us, MAN of SAF, in some way or another. Like the 9/11 attack, i was studying for my maths C test that night, then suddenly the world went kaboom, and the world turns so gloomy. But over the singapore side, i'm just another student (then), studying for my test the next day, who happened to experience the saddest event of the year. The next thing I know, when I got conscripted, this 9/11 thingy affects me real greatly.

I was just wondering, if someone was to read my blog and would like to contact me, here's my email: my email.

Some time back, I was really close to my brother. We go for soccer sessions every weekend, on the basketball court near my flat. We trashed every single team on sight, and that's every team. We scolded each other for silly mistakes and applauded whenever someone scored those magnificent goals which defies any newtonian mechanics. After sports, sometimes we tracked like 1 or 2 miles to the central where they sell Playstation games. Its not that we can't afford the bus ride or anything, just for the experience! We walked on snail pace, and talk to each other on every subject we can think of, all under the starlit sky.
Then I went to JC, in which the curriculum was like 8 to 5 everyday? I seldom talk to my bro, since i was like dead tired everyday i returned from school. I wasn't that much of a scholar, wouldn't read or study like i should be, but somehow managed to get rather good results.. U know, i tink i was equipped with some special skills or something. Whenever lectures or tutorials goes, i was somehow able to filter out those important parts, ignoring the rest and meanwhile switching off my mind and let it go day-dreaming, all lectures-long. And somehow these important parts stayed ever so resident in my memory. Heck, that's why i seldom studied and get good results. Anyway, my brother was really a whole lot smarter than me. He got into a much better JC than I am, got better PSLE and O level results than i am. I tink he scored like 8 points for Os, and was the sixth or something position in his school. I was short of 1 A1 to become a top student, but hey, I never did study anyway. Right now that's what it all matters to me. Right now. Now it's no longer about me and my brother. Sometime ago, my brother and soccer was a large part of my life. Now it's NS (not that i wanted..), Playstation2, and my dreams of ORD soon. To those people who haven't got into NS, stop dreaming of getting into some fucking "hey-i-tink-that's-pretty-prestigious-vocation" *cough* commandos *cough* units. Tell the truth, sometimes a bring a normal man might be just all that is to survive in NS. And those storemen wannabes, i look down on you group of people, fuck you, and have a good day.

Day 2. Today went to Suntec with Jun min and eng hwa. Eng hwa's brother came along later. He's in AJC too, same as my brother. The IT roadshow was disappointing-- It was just like a walk in Sim Lim. Everything you can see there, you can see in Sim Lim, including those foul faced secondary school students working part time to give out the phamlets or brochures at the doorway. Anyway we went to that cheer leading competition in tower 2(i think it was tower 2...), and boy was i amazed. I have no idea that the cheerleading standard in singapore was so high, like those chicks in that movie "Bring it on". Bought 2 new games today, Xenosaga and Tenchu. Sorry to Junmin, dinn't give him the money i owe him for the games. Until next time, bro, although next time is a very long time away. It's one year and 3 months to ORD!! Still a long way to go, but i'm half way there. There's no turning back now, cause it's half way there...