Inflight Entertainment

You gotta love SIA's Krisworld entertainment system. Movies on demand? YES PLEASE!

Watched "Without a Paddle" and "New Police Story"... all I could fit in considering I had to eat, and deal with interruptions and occasional software freezes (very annoying).

WaP was a nice comedy dealing with bits of mateship and a carpe diem theme. 3 mates go off on a journey to find some guy's treasure (cash) which was actually a childhood dream of theirs. In a way, it was the legacy of their 4th friend, who passed away. Hijinks along the way, like with "H&K goto White Castle", and they get to a point where they finally realise that this "treasure" is life itself. BLablabla yadadada (get John or Brandon to do some deep philosophical and literary analysis of the movie)

"New Police Story" is another action slapstick comedy with Jackie Chan. I'm not too sure if it can have comedy as part of its genre as it is quite dark. Basically, Chan's elite squad gets slaughtered by a bunch of rich kids who have nothing good to do in life, and also inspired by violent videogames (who woulda thought?). This humiliates Chan, who goes into semi retirement. Some random guy poses as a cop to get Chan back onto the case, and REVENGE, and blablabla. What I like about Asian movies is that there's heaps of morals and stuff. There's the comradeship and loyalty- Chan sticking with his squad despite their being near dead, and even hauling them out of the building on a trolley when the building is about to explode. Kind of like the "leave no man behind" mentality of the Rangers in "Black Hawk Down". Then there's the one good deed deserves another, give and you will receive crap. You'll see right at the end what I mean. In fact, this is a deeper Chan movie than most. Probably because it wasn't directed by him.

bumming around

Bah! Trying to shove me in a friday afternoon enrolment slot. What kind of fool do they think I am? If I went on friday, I would have probably zero choice for my timetable. Good thing I went in today, and good thing I'm going to Singapore on friday as that is the reason why I went in.

Considering most of the people I know who are going to do commerce, are doing a double degree of it at UWA, it's nice to see a familiar face at the enrolment. Sharon, who did the ABW thing with me in 2003 is doing commerce as well! And then there's Jin... That's two familiar faces, there has got to be more.

My timetable is strange. I've crammed in about 2 units worth of classes into monday, with breaks at 12-1pm, and 2-4pm. 2 hours worth of classes at 10am and 12pm with a break at 11am on tuesday, and a Management tutorial 10-12pm on wednesday. Thursday has another crappy 2 hour break in between a 2 hour lecture which is 12-2pm and a Managemetn lecture which is 4-5pm.

I think Management is a second semester unit, but I'm doing it first semester because I already done Accounting 100. The people manning the enrolment process don't want me to be lazy =(.

So, Curtin people, try structuring your timetable around mine ^^. That's monday from 10am-6pm, tuesday from 10am-1pm, wednesday 10am-12pm, thursday 12-5pm.

ctrl alt del

Yet again, I have stumbled upon another funny web-comic. Well actually, I think I've stumbled upon it before but shrugged it off. Stupid me. It's hell good. Now if you know my vocabulary, those few words = a near 10/10 rating. Then again, if anything's hell good, it would deserve a near 10/10 rating.

Ctrl + Alt + Del is what I'm talking about. But before you click on that link, I should advise that it is recommended for it's target audience- gamers, girl gamers, geeks, the violent, the insane, and the violently insane, and some minorities that I can't think of right now. Oh, and lazy gits, you will have to click on the latest comic button to see (surprise surprise) the latest comic. Or here for the first one.

A few things that makes this comic so funny:
An Xbox used as a deadly weapon
Splashes of insanity
Videogame induced violence (and I'm trying to argue that it doesn't)
Stupid CS noobs (CS in general)
Bashing things senseless
"If America's Army is any indication of real combat..."
Sick acts of violence, in a humourous manner
A robot Xbox, like Apple Geeks iPod Eve, but male
MMORPG references
Did I mention insanity, violence, and gaming?

Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers. Best. Miniseries. Ever. I finally tracked down a copy at Big W. Only $39.40, original price of $79.95. Nice one!

That's one piece of media that has been checked off my list. Now my remaining list, in no real order is: KotOR II, PGR 2, Brothers In Arms, Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders, and Spiderman 2 set. I gotta start getting more shifts per week if I want to afford all that and still have money to shove in the bank. mmmm interest...

More bushido nonsense

I just remembered... people hate it when they get double teamed in Gunbound. Personally, I don't care whether I get double teamed, aka gang raped, or if I DT someone. To DT someone, is to gang up on them. In a game such as Gunbound, this means the victim will die twice as fast as usual. Hence the complaints by the victim. These complaints argue the fact that it's 1. annoying 2. cheap 3. noobish 4. kill stealing 5. breaks the bushido code and ultimately 6. ruins the fun of the game. However, their whiney complaints is what ruins the game.

DT is a legitimate strategy. It lies along the lines of superiority in numbers and firepower. It also involves teamwork as the players can work together in either just bashing the hell out of the victim's mobile, or one of them screwing with the victim's land whilst the other pounds away. Deciding who gets the kill also generates a fair amount of trust between the DTers. However, if one player did all the damage and then another player comes along and takes the finishing blow- that breaks the code of conduct.

The same thing applies to Warcraft and FPS, I'll have to use Counterstrike as an example (much to my disliking). Overwhelming an opponent in W3 with a larger army, either with the help of an ally, having a larger food army, or a higher tech army, is unfair. But that's how things go. Mind you, I was often on the receiving end of the big attacks. Orcs are just too hard to amass large numbers of. I tend to tech all the way to T3 so I can get heal wards and all the other goodies =P Man, it's been ages since I last played W3, mmmm blademaster that can walk through units...
Now CS, a skilled player would be able to take on several players at once, but it is those players who move as a team, covering each other, who end up alive at the end of the game (most of the time). There are no complaints about players working together, which can be seen as ganging up, as such a game involves teamwork. Likewise you always see that in any conflict, one side always tries to use a superior force to crush their foe.

I don't know what I'm trying to say here, but I'm just saying that some tactics are just cheap and n00bish(dishonourable), whilst others which give you similar results (the positive results) do not break the "honour" code of conduct. There ain't nothing wrong with camping a strategic location. It's known as holding a strategic location. Camping a respawn zone (here I go again) may be strategic, but that's a little TOO far. And it's dishonourable to continuously whinge about someone using a legit tactic during the game. I'm ranting about several examples AFTER the game, so I don't believe I am being hypocritical. (and hence I will cease this honour talk for the time being)

Gaming is to be enjoyed, and to relieve stress. Don't go and ruin it for others by spoiling the fun.

Honour

Forgive me if I am using the following terms in an improper manner.

Basing actions on honour, is an excellent system. It can be followed anywhere, in everyday situations, even war. So in my opinion, being honourable involves being honest, true to your word, fair, being trustworthy etc. Dishonour or dishonourable actions involve backstabbing, breaking trust, doing in general bad or displeasing stuff.

Gah! I can't explain it.

The samurai however, are a good example of honour. Well, actually it's Bushido. The Code of the Bushido include justice, bravery, benevolence, politeness, veracity, honour, and loyalty. In fact, ignore all that crap I just wrote, Bushido is what should be followed by everyone. I don't even know what benevolence and veracity mean, but I'm sure it's very similar to the other elements.

I played Darkzone for the first time in AGES today. It brings back memories of the times we ran around like decapitated chickens rather than cohesive squads which we tried to do today. Blue replacing green has been a welcome change, but the 2 hand on gun rule is VERY annoying. The gun has sensors to make sure you are holding the gun with 2 hands. However, the sensors are not sensitive enough and you got to hold it awkwardly for it to register it. It's still fun though.

Now, I can bring in the honour and Bushido junk. In games such as this, players have to follow a set of rules. Rules are to be followed for either safety, enjoyment, fairness, or removal of the possibilities of a variable being screwed up. However, rules do not cover everything. In Halo 2 multiplayer, there are no rules about hogging 2 scorpion tanks in the middle of Blood Gulch (the middle is where the rocket launcher is) There are no rules about carrying an energy sword and rocket launcher in FFA games either. There are no rules about camping, and camping respawn zones either, in any game. What regulates these is the honour code. Gamers who do such things start receiving copious amounts of verbal abuse, and hatred by from other players. Such actions are considered dishonourable. It's also impolite and cowardly. (Also known as cheap noobish tactics)

When we were playing Darkzone, there was a large group of little kids, and one "pro" "league" player. Targetting the little kids, would be considered dishonourable as they are little (picking on someone smaller than you). But there's so many of them, and they run around together! They pose a threat in numbers. That's a reasonable excuse I reckon. After all, if your enemies are little kids, then you have no choice. So the league player tried to return the "dishonourable" action by stalking me. Now, I don't quite know the correct term, but it is similar to respawn zone camping. Basically, this player shoots you, your pack gets deactivated temporarily (giving you chance to hide behind cover) and then he follows you, stands there, waits for your pack to reactivate and shoots you again. NOT NICE AT ALL. The honourable thing to do is shoot them, and move on to the next player- leaving the "dead" alone.

A good example of the code at work would be when Jeremy and I both had deactivated packs. We could have easily sat infront of each other and blasted away, but there were reds on the other side of the wall. Calling a truce to take out the reds requires willpower as there is an easy target right next to you.

*shrugs*

Dishonourable actions can net you large rewards (eg. high score) but there are consequences. You get branded DISHONOURABLE. That is an expensive cost to bear. Lesson? Be virtuous people, follow Bushido, the way of the warrior!



And another thing. Christian Rock is scary. The lyrics just doesn't match the instrumentals and the fanaticism of the crowd combined... very strange and scary. Guess I got a bit of an old school catholic mindset.

How do you eat rice?

I've seen some very strange rice eating habits at work. It truly is strange. I do recall however, on some TV show a few years back, that a good way to eat rice is having a 50:50 ratio of rice to dish(meat/veg/whatever) on your spoon. Unfortunately, you will hardly ever see an even split of rice to dish when you eat out.

What I have seen however, is bizarre.

One person ordered a green chicken curry, and a serve of steam rice. Normally, you would scoop out the curry and put it on your plate of rice. Not this person. He scoops the rice and puts it in the curry! Speaking of which, that could explain the many other bowls of curry that had rice in it. Oooh, I just solved a mystery.

Another person ordered a mee goreng, and a serve of steam rice. Rice is good, but isn't that a bit much? It's like ordering a hamburger, and 2 slices of bread.

Same goes for ordering some beef curry rice dish, and another serving of rice. If it's a rice dish, it means that the serving is for one person. Adding in another serve of rice totally screws up the ratio of rice to dish. I guess you could say it's like eating 2 hamburgers, but only one has the meat patty.

Ooh! Another funny eating habit, which isn't rice related, is mee goreng. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't yellow noodles the ones that are egg? Because someone ordered mee goreng, but specified no egg. It's like ordering pizza and saying "hold the cheese"!

If any reader actually does this, I mean no offense. Speaking of rice, I'm hungry!

Guild Wars Weekend Preview Event

Guild Wars seems to be more complete now. If you choose to start at level 1, you begin in the tutorial stage, make your way to Ascalon City, do the Charr invasion missions, progress to the Ascalonian refugee missions, then the Kyrtian missions. That's about as far as I got. Story wise, it's quite interesting. If only they put in voice acting into the cinematics.

Guilds... I joined a guild. Quite fun. Although it's not too fun facing a party of level 20 players when your party is around level 10. There IS a difference between characters of different levels. I know I said before that there wasn't much, but there is. All classes gain 20 HP per level and 5 skill points per level. So you can imagine getting into a duel with a level 20 warrior who has maxed out their swordsmanship whilst you are a sword n00b. Not very pretty.

However, you can also create pre-made PvP characters which are level 20 (the max) with selected skills and items. Being PvP characters, they are restricted to these zones, and cannot take part in any story related stuff- which is quite a lot.

The interface has changed a fair bit. There's also more customization options for the characters. They also have commands, like in WoW, such as /dance. Rock on necros!

Doing the missions with your guild members is quite fun as they are less of a stranger to you in comparison to the other random players you can party up with. It would be even more fun to play with friends in the same timezone (for convinience), but SOMEONE couldn't be stuffed double clicking on gw.exe. Searching for an elusive N64 and a L permit was less of an effort apparently.

In the short amount of time I played WoW at a friend's place, Guild Wars shapes up quite nicely. The first several missions for WoW as orcs involved killing a set number of enemies- Prove your strength and kill this, a group of thingies threatens us so kill them, etc. I prefer the GW missions. However, make sure you have enough time set aside to complete the mission as sometimes it can be quite tedious to get past a certain point and then realise you have to quit and do something "more important".

To the MMORPGers out there, get Guild Wars when it comes out. You just have to goto the shops and buy the game. No monthly fees. My guess is that you need a cd key to play, so don't bother trying to scab the game off me or someone else, or download from BT.

blocked

"Never trust a woman when she says 'BRB'"

Funny little flash music video thingy. Ever get that feeling you got blocked or someone's just ignoring you online?

MJOLNIR remix

I found the Halo MJOLNIR remix... you gotta listen to it!
Basically, it's the Halo theme, with electric guitar over it. Nice One =P
Save it to hard drive.

.hack//sign

I am not too impressed with this anime series. Well, having a series based on some guy trapped in a MMORPG should in my imagination, be pretty damn interesting. Sadly, it fails in its first episode.

Let's start off with what you see in the first episode. Some mage guy wakes up dazed. Please note he stays this way- timid, squeaky and dazed/stoned/zombified. OK, he's in some mage gear- note the funny rattle staff thing he holds (much like the Mage rattle thingy in Gunbound =P). Some female player in stereotypical female warrior gear (armour that doesn't really protect the body) appears and says hi to our mage protagonist, and is very friendly and lively unlike mage boy. If I were in a VR MMORPG and was stupid enough to be a weak mage that posesses incantations of mass destruction, I would most definitely forge alliances with any tanky warrior I can get my hands on. What does mage boy do? "huh?... leave me alone, go away" *teleports*

Eventually fighter girl finds mage boy again, and he tells her something about logging out... he can't. Even though its said in Jap, it sure doesn't sound like a freaked out person, or a calm one either.
"...I can't log out... so go away, leave me alone"
"I want to help you"
"...leave me alone"
"You're a loser you know..."
"leave me alone"
What a farking idiot? Wouldn't a more normal character go "OH MY FUCKING GOD, I'M TRAPPED!!!! I CAN'T LOG OUT! HELP!!"
"I want to help you"
"AIEEEE! Oh, you don't think I'm crazy?"

Come on, where's the liveliness in this series. The episodes better improve, and mage boy better get some life in him.

to new beginnings...

Happy new year!

I'm so sleepy... slept at 3am on the 31st, woke up at 8.30am... bummed around, went to work, expected to end at 8.30pm, ended up staying til 10.30pm. Now I am obliged to treat someone out to a movie. Played NFSU2 til past midnight... yeah, I just glanced at my watch at midnight and went "woo!". Sad eh? Got unexpectedly dragged to Brandon's shortly after, and stayed awake til 9.30am. Or was it 10.30? All I can say is that I have only had a power nap since waking up yesterday.

Well, to new beginnings! May 2005 be an improvement over 2004. Or a fresh start, depending on how your life has been.