I feel real insecure now.. anytime, they drop the bomb on you, no warning.. and you're gone.
---
In other news, I made a choice some time ago, to step away from a friend, a really good friend, for some reason I cannot even recall now. Recently, I've really regretted that decision. I now see where I've missed out and am missing out in his life. We've known each other for 1/2 our lives, and for over 2 years, we alienated each other. I'm just happy for him that he's moving up in life, and wish him the best for the years ahead. I'm also glad I made the move to reach out and grab the lifeline that was offered several times before too. Some friends are keepers, and its sad I couldn't differentiate that even till now.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Great Ad
ok, we all try to reduce ads on our browsers, but this ad for Intel vPro is just too cute! Move your cursor around and watch those poochie heads follow it, and watch out for the middle dog!
Click here!
(ya, this is the right one now.. mite need to let it load, or click-prod it)
Thanks to Shermy who spotted it!
Click here!
(ya, this is the right one now.. mite need to let it load, or click-prod it)
Thanks to Shermy who spotted it!
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Seoul Garden: Revisted
I've never liked Seoul Garden. I nvr liked table BBQ. Why? Cos I've been enough times to know that:
1) the crowds and their piling raw meat on plates to bring back
2) cooking is ok, but it dun taste tht great, and more likely to burn stuff, leave burnt bits on the BBQ, spatter from water/oil.
3) tummy ache from inadvertently eating food that isn't handled well, cooked well, mixed accidentally with raw food.
4) bloody expensive on top of that.
So when Shermy showed me her $10 discount for a/m place, you can expect that I was filled with apprehension - our initial jaunt to the AMK branch was foiled by its closure (very recently - they were just cleaning out the signage etc that day) - which made me secretly very happy..
We finally made our way to the Causeway Point branch some days ago. To my surprise, the experience turned out really good.
We arrived at abt 1725hrs, so the place was relatively quiet. At the counter, don't get conned into paying $3 more for their "exotic" soups, there's actually a "normal" chicken powder soup that is part of the cost. We could choose a seat, so we got one beside a wall. Once our seating was arranged, Shermy went off to choose a range of meats to sample first so we could easily just re-pick the better tasting ones when the crowds came. For our normal soup, she picked up some wintermelon slices and tomatoes and tossed them into the soup, giving it a twist! If it were possible, I'd probably have asked for just plain water, the chicken powder one seemed to be MSG-intense, so we didn't drink it, just cooked some food in it.
Then the magic began - Shermy began cooking.. it was perfect for her:
1) no need to wash-up
2) all food prepared already
3) unlimited usage of fire
4) a skillet that could be replaced on demand where necessary (if the oil runs thin)
5) drinks provided
6) sit down to cook!
All I did that evening, was eat and help her with stuff, do walks to see wat other stuff they brought out, and peel prawns! =)
Shermaine cooked things, making use of the sauces, her experience with certain meats, experimented with others and made stuff like tasty fried veggies then.. the piece de resistance - she made yaki soba!
Taking some noodles from the buffet, mixing it with chicken strips and the veggie, frying it all together, then with a raw egg on top, cooked within the noodles itself. It came out great!
We were there for over 2 hours, we watched the couple next-table who arrived later than us stack their plates, flash-fry the food, and gobble it all down, seemingly in record times. At one point, they even mixed the cooked food with the uncooked - to our astonishment - so the helper could change the skillet for them. In the time we were there, we probably took about half their food. I guess its the "singaporean" mentality abt taking as much as you can at a buffet - i saw the full-tub of prawns empty into the plates of the 2 ppl in front of me!
Oh and in place of rice, I had sushi! They now have sushi there, mostly crabstick and rice, but still, it kept me happy, and ya, tamago sushi as well! my fave. cheap tastes. =)
So yes, Seoul Garden BBQ Buffet.. I no longer look at it in apprehension, cos I noe a good way to enjoy a meal there now =) thanks to my Shermy!
1) the crowds and their piling raw meat on plates to bring back
2) cooking is ok, but it dun taste tht great, and more likely to burn stuff, leave burnt bits on the BBQ, spatter from water/oil.
3) tummy ache from inadvertently eating food that isn't handled well, cooked well, mixed accidentally with raw food.
4) bloody expensive on top of that.
So when Shermy showed me her $10 discount for a/m place, you can expect that I was filled with apprehension - our initial jaunt to the AMK branch was foiled by its closure (very recently - they were just cleaning out the signage etc that day) - which made me secretly very happy..
We finally made our way to the Causeway Point branch some days ago. To my surprise, the experience turned out really good.
We arrived at abt 1725hrs, so the place was relatively quiet. At the counter, don't get conned into paying $3 more for their "exotic" soups, there's actually a "normal" chicken powder soup that is part of the cost. We could choose a seat, so we got one beside a wall. Once our seating was arranged, Shermy went off to choose a range of meats to sample first so we could easily just re-pick the better tasting ones when the crowds came. For our normal soup, she picked up some wintermelon slices and tomatoes and tossed them into the soup, giving it a twist! If it were possible, I'd probably have asked for just plain water, the chicken powder one seemed to be MSG-intense, so we didn't drink it, just cooked some food in it.
Then the magic began - Shermy began cooking.. it was perfect for her:
1) no need to wash-up
2) all food prepared already
3) unlimited usage of fire
4) a skillet that could be replaced on demand where necessary (if the oil runs thin)
5) drinks provided
6) sit down to cook!
All I did that evening, was eat and help her with stuff, do walks to see wat other stuff they brought out, and peel prawns! =)
Shermaine cooked things, making use of the sauces, her experience with certain meats, experimented with others and made stuff like tasty fried veggies then.. the piece de resistance - she made yaki soba!
Taking some noodles from the buffet, mixing it with chicken strips and the veggie, frying it all together, then with a raw egg on top, cooked within the noodles itself. It came out great!
We were there for over 2 hours, we watched the couple next-table who arrived later than us stack their plates, flash-fry the food, and gobble it all down, seemingly in record times. At one point, they even mixed the cooked food with the uncooked - to our astonishment - so the helper could change the skillet for them. In the time we were there, we probably took about half their food. I guess its the "singaporean" mentality abt taking as much as you can at a buffet - i saw the full-tub of prawns empty into the plates of the 2 ppl in front of me!
Oh and in place of rice, I had sushi! They now have sushi there, mostly crabstick and rice, but still, it kept me happy, and ya, tamago sushi as well! my fave. cheap tastes. =)
So yes, Seoul Garden BBQ Buffet.. I no longer look at it in apprehension, cos I noe a good way to enjoy a meal there now =) thanks to my Shermy!
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
I live near an 18th century street. 18th C not by design or decor, but that the dog-walkers particularly, have 18th century thinking. They leave their dogs' doodoo on the street.. When u walk down that road, it feels like a throw-back to when horses were the way to travel - you'd find the roads littered with horsie-poop, and that was an acceptable public stain, like pollution to gas-propelled cars today. Near this street where I live, u can experience what it is like to walk on roads used by horse-drawn carriages. Would u like to live there?
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Asian stocks drop on weak US performance
Here we go again..
No doubt this fall isn't as great as the recent one on 28 Feb, but its odd how the market is behaving like a bear market (very quick to sell) in a supposed bull market - another indication of a market about to turn? Note tht the recovery from the previous fall wasn't exactly a weak one. Let's see how many more reports come out in the papers over the next week about market punters (we were flooded with those last week).
No doubt this fall isn't as great as the recent one on 28 Feb, but its odd how the market is behaving like a bear market (very quick to sell) in a supposed bull market - another indication of a market about to turn? Note tht the recovery from the previous fall wasn't exactly a weak one. Let's see how many more reports come out in the papers over the next week about market punters (we were flooded with those last week).
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Holiday in Paragon City
Just came back from a holiday in Paragon City. It was great! There's so much to see and do! Enjoy the pics!
Hemingway in the Red River Boat Ride! See how he cutely waves? Aww..
Hemingway in the Red River Boat Ride! See how he cutely waves? Aww..
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Found in Daiso..
This "adult" toy was found in the same rack where "children's toys" were hung.. I guess the shelvers thought that only kids would use such immature gags...? Oh come on, it's a japanese product afterall, did u see the Japanese man on the cover? lol
EARTHQUAKE!
woot.. just felt my first Singapore tremor! There's been a few in the past, but I've never felt any before. Today in office chair, I had initially thought my headache was getting worse, then realised that the stuff in the building were moving too! that was just before 12noon today..
Looked out the window, most other buildings have people swarming the streets as well, evacuated their offices for the safety of the base of surrounding tall buildings.. makes sense. Quake was felt from Raffles Place, all thru to NTUC building near mine, the Globe. Let's see what the news says soon =) Fear the crumbling building...
Edit:
Apparently it was a quake in Southern Sumatra measuring 6.2 on the richter scale. awesome..
01:52pm - 2nd one!!! apparently there's been a 2nd quake in sumatra, 9 dead so far (there, not singapore).
Looked out the window, most other buildings have people swarming the streets as well, evacuated their offices for the safety of the base of surrounding tall buildings.. makes sense. Quake was felt from Raffles Place, all thru to NTUC building near mine, the Globe. Let's see what the news says soon =) Fear the crumbling building...
Edit:
Reuters - Slight tremor was felt in Singapore on Tuesday. Tall buildings in Singapore's business district swayed slightly, witnesses said. The tremor was also felt in other parts of the island. A spokesman for the Singapore's Civil Defence said his office was aware of the tremor but had no idea what had caused it.
Apparently it was a quake in Southern Sumatra measuring 6.2 on the richter scale. awesome..
01:52pm - 2nd one!!! apparently there's been a 2nd quake in sumatra, 9 dead so far (there, not singapore).
Monday, March 5, 2007
Why City of Heroes is a good MMORPG
Following the 10-day trial of WoW, I've gone back to playing City of Heroes and was able to make a direct-feel comparison. The following is just what I feel abt CoH. I have made a stand as to my preference. Just read it if you are interested, skip it if it doesn't matter to you.
Pros:
1) Playstyle - u can follow targets, keeping them in melee range if u need to; u can't walk into and through the baddies leading to a "target must be in front of u" msg, so its very easy, and tolerant of any lagspikes.
2) customisable looks - creating a character can take over an hour if you're really fussy - and that's a good thing! There's just so many options to fiddle with, so many different looks - I've seen Wolverine lookalikes to Princess Amidala types.. I've made 2 more toons since returning to CoH!
3) Multiple archetpes (ATs)/ classes - Tank, Blaster, Scrapper, Controller, Defender, 2 types of Kheldians. And you're not limited to a certain way to play either because of the different skills available.
4 i) Multitude of skills for each archetype - There are several archetypes to choose from, further customisation allows a mix of different primary and secondary powers within each. For example, for a Tank's primary powers, he can choose: Fire, Ice, Earth, Invulnerability - different looks and defence methods. For his secondary, he can choose: Fire, Ice, Earth, Super Strength, Energy, Mace, Axe. Another example is: a blaster with range need not only play at range, he can choose to max his secondary powers and make a blapper instead (a blaster/scrapper), putting him in melee and causing massive damage to single-targets.
4 ii) Customisable enhancements/ slotting of skills - players can choose to enhance different aspects of their skills which produce slightly different effects. For example, Short-Circuit can be 3-slotted for pure AoE-DoT damage or 3-slotted for end-modification; the latter drains baddies around the blaster of endurance, forcing them to stand still unable to do a thing, whereas the former contributes to damaging them for eventual arrest.
5) Constant rewards - You get special significant powers/skills, click toggles/temporary travel from doing certain mission arcs. On top of this, after attaining uberness at the max-cap level, you are given an "Epic Archetype" to play, a whole 'nother 2 skillsets to play the game all over again (and again). Every boss you hit gives a high chance of dropping valuable enhancements that can be used immediately or sold for influence (u get drops from minions too). Player-run costume contests, where other players reward you for a great-looking costume or well-written background character bio! It's definitely a rewarding experience. Events like Halloween n X'mas get special mission arcs and environments (they put in a ski slope for Xmas!).
6) Intelligent forum - I find the CoH forum to be a much better resource for information, guides, discussions. Having visited other games' forums in search of similar information for the respective games, I find the relevant information is hard to find, rather, coming across, more often than not, threads that turn to flaming, 733t-speak or even just lame tagging, without providing anything useful. In defense of WoW, there are MANY other online resources for that game, and the official forum is not the defacto site to go to.
7) Developers are forum participants - this means player contribution of ideas and suggestions do get picked up and implemented by the devs!
8) Avoids insane grinds - When they say kill x number of abc creatures, and u choose to do it with 2 partners, it doesn't mean u now have to kill 3x number of abc creatures to complete the objective (ie. u have to split the drops between the 3 of u). Instead, any of abc killed by the team contributes to the quest objective, and ppl with the same quest have their numbers reduced at the same time too! THAT makes sense (Edit: there are usually 2 options from any contact at any time in CoH: a door - like a WoW instance, and a numbers mish; u can choose NOT to do the numbers). The only insane grind that happens is when you fixate on getting one toon to 50 (been there). If you play several toons over time, having fun with the toons you created, customizing it to your preference and seeing it work effectively (solo or with others) is all that matters. Cos you're really enjoying your game then.
9) Mentoring/exemplaring system - enables players of different levels to team-up on the same field without sacrificing experience points. So a level 50 can play with a bunch of lvl 10s by exemping down to their level to gain prestige, while a 10 can be sidekicked to lvl 49 by a 50 and still earn influence, while contributing still.
10) Evolution - the game constantly evolves and adapts. NCSoft is looking to retain the player-base by adding new Issues (expansions) every few months. These upgrades adjust graphics, powers, etc. It adds new content, redesigns less-popular cityscapes, adds special events (like Winter, Valentine's, Halloween etc). Every so often, the devs will drop a small update to improve the game bugs etc (bugs are cleaned up quickly - they're really efficient)
11) Mature community - a lot of the players I've come across are mature and older. I mean, a lot of em were older than me when I first started! U hear *afk, kid crying* *have to feed the kids* *gonna send hubby to work* etc.. once in a while u get the occasional kid, but otherwise, tht can't be helped. We're all there for the same reason - to relax n have fun after work. Granted u get the kids and the flamboyant, or the distracted too, but majority rox!
12) You don't need an in-game profession - why do I have to work in-game after I'm done with work in real-life!?
Cons:
1) If you build a team-oriented toon, and are looking to play during the late afternoon to early evening SG-time (weekdays), it can be quite a pain getting a suitable team, since majority of player-base is in US. But I've discovered that if you play on a busy server like Freedom, you don't have this prob at all!
2) If the game crashes, it takes 5 whole mins just to get back in due to auto-verification of game files after a crash, and the load screen takes almost 1-2 mins, excluding the map-loading.
3) Server maintenance takes 2 hours, and usually occurs at the time when I most likely will play, almost 2-3 times a week (9-11pm, SG-time)
4) As with any MMORPG, you'll get all sorts - the opiniated, the young kids, the stupid, the vulgar/crass, the spammers, the idiots who have useful powers but refuse to use them, the idiots who have annoying powers and refuse to use them situationally (these lead to the oft-heard term "PUGs from Hell" - pick-up groups means a team put together at a point in time without having coordinated beforehand) and the fake costume-contest runners
5) You have to subscribe to a monthly payment scheme on top of a once-off payment for the actual game itself.
6) The game is set in cities. A good buddy of mine dislikes CoH just because it isn't fantasy. Others may not like it just cos its not Warcraft or Blizzard.
Conclusion:
And so ends my comparison. I've come to the realisation that I really still do enjoy CoH, and that its spoilt my expectations of other MMOs (the lack of click-travel in WoW really irked me, non-customisability of looks in several others eeergh). All I really needed was a detour, to set me back on track again. I'm not saying CoH beats other games, WoW's 8million gamers is unbeatable. But I'm saying the above reasons (and flaws) are why I prefer CoH over any other current game so far (over 15 months of paying must say something abt it). I'm not saying you gotta make the switch, I'm just offering an alternative viewpoint.
Disclaimer: author has a 50 in CoH and a multitude of other alts there, has an "ascended" 20 in Guild Wars, has played over 4 weeks of WoW, a couple of hours of A3 and SilkRoad.
Pros:
1) Playstyle - u can follow targets, keeping them in melee range if u need to; u can't walk into and through the baddies leading to a "target must be in front of u" msg, so its very easy, and tolerant of any lagspikes.
2) customisable looks - creating a character can take over an hour if you're really fussy - and that's a good thing! There's just so many options to fiddle with, so many different looks - I've seen Wolverine lookalikes to Princess Amidala types.. I've made 2 more toons since returning to CoH!
3) Multiple archetpes (ATs)/ classes - Tank, Blaster, Scrapper, Controller, Defender, 2 types of Kheldians. And you're not limited to a certain way to play either because of the different skills available.
4 i) Multitude of skills for each archetype - There are several archetypes to choose from, further customisation allows a mix of different primary and secondary powers within each. For example, for a Tank's primary powers, he can choose: Fire, Ice, Earth, Invulnerability - different looks and defence methods. For his secondary, he can choose: Fire, Ice, Earth, Super Strength, Energy, Mace, Axe. Another example is: a blaster with range need not only play at range, he can choose to max his secondary powers and make a blapper instead (a blaster/scrapper), putting him in melee and causing massive damage to single-targets.
4 ii) Customisable enhancements/ slotting of skills - players can choose to enhance different aspects of their skills which produce slightly different effects. For example, Short-Circuit can be 3-slotted for pure AoE-DoT damage or 3-slotted for end-modification; the latter drains baddies around the blaster of endurance, forcing them to stand still unable to do a thing, whereas the former contributes to damaging them for eventual arrest.
5) Constant rewards - You get special significant powers/skills, click toggles/temporary travel from doing certain mission arcs. On top of this, after attaining uberness at the max-cap level, you are given an "Epic Archetype" to play, a whole 'nother 2 skillsets to play the game all over again (and again). Every boss you hit gives a high chance of dropping valuable enhancements that can be used immediately or sold for influence (u get drops from minions too). Player-run costume contests, where other players reward you for a great-looking costume or well-written background character bio! It's definitely a rewarding experience. Events like Halloween n X'mas get special mission arcs and environments (they put in a ski slope for Xmas!).
6) Intelligent forum - I find the CoH forum to be a much better resource for information, guides, discussions. Having visited other games' forums in search of similar information for the respective games, I find the relevant information is hard to find, rather, coming across, more often than not, threads that turn to flaming, 733t-speak or even just lame tagging, without providing anything useful. In defense of WoW, there are MANY other online resources for that game, and the official forum is not the defacto site to go to.
7) Developers are forum participants - this means player contribution of ideas and suggestions do get picked up and implemented by the devs!
8) Avoids insane grinds - When they say kill x number of abc creatures, and u choose to do it with 2 partners, it doesn't mean u now have to kill 3x number of abc creatures to complete the objective (ie. u have to split the drops between the 3 of u). Instead, any of abc killed by the team contributes to the quest objective, and ppl with the same quest have their numbers reduced at the same time too! THAT makes sense (Edit: there are usually 2 options from any contact at any time in CoH: a door - like a WoW instance, and a numbers mish; u can choose NOT to do the numbers). The only insane grind that happens is when you fixate on getting one toon to 50 (been there). If you play several toons over time, having fun with the toons you created, customizing it to your preference and seeing it work effectively (solo or with others) is all that matters. Cos you're really enjoying your game then.
9) Mentoring/exemplaring system - enables players of different levels to team-up on the same field without sacrificing experience points. So a level 50 can play with a bunch of lvl 10s by exemping down to their level to gain prestige, while a 10 can be sidekicked to lvl 49 by a 50 and still earn influence, while contributing still.
10) Evolution - the game constantly evolves and adapts. NCSoft is looking to retain the player-base by adding new Issues (expansions) every few months. These upgrades adjust graphics, powers, etc. It adds new content, redesigns less-popular cityscapes, adds special events (like Winter, Valentine's, Halloween etc). Every so often, the devs will drop a small update to improve the game bugs etc (bugs are cleaned up quickly - they're really efficient)
11) Mature community - a lot of the players I've come across are mature and older. I mean, a lot of em were older than me when I first started! U hear *afk, kid crying* *have to feed the kids* *gonna send hubby to work* etc.. once in a while u get the occasional kid, but otherwise, tht can't be helped. We're all there for the same reason - to relax n have fun after work. Granted u get the kids and the flamboyant, or the distracted too, but majority rox!
12) You don't need an in-game profession - why do I have to work in-game after I'm done with work in real-life!?
Cons:
1) If you build a team-oriented toon, and are looking to play during the late afternoon to early evening SG-time (weekdays), it can be quite a pain getting a suitable team, since majority of player-base is in US. But I've discovered that if you play on a busy server like Freedom, you don't have this prob at all!
2) If the game crashes, it takes 5 whole mins just to get back in due to auto-verification of game files after a crash, and the load screen takes almost 1-2 mins, excluding the map-loading.
3) Server maintenance takes 2 hours, and usually occurs at the time when I most likely will play, almost 2-3 times a week (9-11pm, SG-time)
4) As with any MMORPG, you'll get all sorts - the opiniated, the young kids, the stupid, the vulgar/crass, the spammers, the idiots who have useful powers but refuse to use them, the idiots who have annoying powers and refuse to use them situationally (these lead to the oft-heard term "PUGs from Hell" - pick-up groups means a team put together at a point in time without having coordinated beforehand) and the fake costume-contest runners
5) You have to subscribe to a monthly payment scheme on top of a once-off payment for the actual game itself.
6) The game is set in cities. A good buddy of mine dislikes CoH just because it isn't fantasy. Others may not like it just cos its not Warcraft or Blizzard.
Conclusion:
And so ends my comparison. I've come to the realisation that I really still do enjoy CoH, and that its spoilt my expectations of other MMOs (the lack of click-travel in WoW really irked me, non-customisability of looks in several others eeergh). All I really needed was a detour, to set me back on track again. I'm not saying CoH beats other games, WoW's 8million gamers is unbeatable. But I'm saying the above reasons (and flaws) are why I prefer CoH over any other current game so far (over 15 months of paying must say something abt it). I'm not saying you gotta make the switch, I'm just offering an alternative viewpoint.
Disclaimer: author has a 50 in CoH and a multitude of other alts there, has an "ascended" 20 in Guild Wars, has played over 4 weeks of WoW, a couple of hours of A3 and SilkRoad.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Switching from WoW to CoH
I found a good thread from someone regarding making the switch from WoW to CoH. More like an overview of CoH actually.
Read about it here.
Read about it here.
