Rant 467 / Hardcore Gamers

This is not a shocking GIF image.

Self-explanatory

Super Mario

FF VII

Warhammer

Megaman




BSOD

All of the tattoos are probably real, or at least I'm sure those swollen ones are real and taken just after they were done. The last one should have an entirely blue background. Pussy.














Just one word: NO!

This made me want to play Fallout 3 again. Would this run be the third or the fourth time? Can't remember exactly anymore.










Fallout 3 exposed! Only people who've played Oblivion will understand the humour of the final frame.













You can use this to scare children. "See? If you play too much computer games you will end up like this guy!" And your kids will tremble in fear... or mirth, or both.













Watched Food Inc, the documentary film. The chickens made me realise I was out of chicken nuggets in my freezer and I felt like eating some.

The way they raised poultry and cattle reminded me of the concentration camps I saw in the 9th episode of Band of Brothers. It was, in fact, worse than the way the Nazis treated the Jews, but not by much. At least the animals get fed when they're hungry.

Anyway I knew they were raised in very crowded conditions, but that turned out to be the least of their problems. The animals are basically treated as non-lifeforms, like walking pieces of food/products. I described it to my mum and she said it's normal practice to do that. She grew up on a farm in China that raised chickens and pigs, so I trust her on that. Back then her family used cages with a similar feeding system and similar living space. Huh.

Not that this will stop me from eating American meat products. LOL no way am I going to ignore food that is being sold at lower prices. It just allowed me to see that people, generally speaking, would do things against their conscience if it made their lives easier. No matter what we say about loving animals, they're nothing compared to the $5 saved per day.

It makes perfect sense. We have been ignoring our conscience all our lives, so much so that we do it without thinking. Just look at the death penalty. How can it be possible that they're always 100% guilty? Yet they're always killed when sentenced to death, even if the objective truth is that some of them didn't do what they were charged for. We know the system isn't perfect, but we support capital punishment even though it is possible to just give them the life sentence.

The conclusion is that to ignore the conscience is a human characteristic that we have gained through evolution. It is, after all, the "survival of the fittest" and not "survival of the nicest".

But that doesn't mean that everyone would always try to save themselves before others. It is entirely logical to be nice just to make everyone else think they're nice. If the goal is to be loved, it would be possible to devote an entire life to kindness. Such a person would be helping everyone not because he wants to help them, but to gratify himself. Is that really kindness? Why not?

One point I thought one of the first families was mistaken about was how it was impossible to eat healthily and cheaply at the same time (a head of cabbage costs more than a burger). That can be done, but it isn't tasty. For example, products like rice can be bought in large bags and serve as your main source of carbohydrate. Soy beans are cheap too and can make a good source of protein. Basically to eat cheap and healthy is to go vegetarian and buy in bulk whenever you can.

At the end of the film it reminded people to buy from companies that treat the animals and workers with respect. As noble as it sounds, this would really depend on how much extra I'm going to have to spend. If I can save an average of $2 every meal by buying from those "bad" companies, why not? 3 meals a day, 30 days a month, and that makes $180 of savings per month.

And that implies exactly what it implies - my conscience has a price. If you thought the same, then so does yours.












2 months of waiting had made me lost almost all my confidence in Lockerz, but the arrival of the free T-shirt has raised it back a little.

The package came with more than the cheap T-shirt (I bet if I look carefully I'd find the label saying "Made in China"). For just a mere piece of cloth there are 7 sheets of paper, 6 of which appear to be photocopies of the same customs declaration form. The deforestation required to send me this package makes me feel a little guilty, but not enough to stop me from trying to redeem something at the next restock.

Together with the shirt are a big square Lockerz sticker, a big card congratulating me for my Z-Lister status and a packing slip.

This is evidence that shows that Lockerz is likely not a scam. It may also be an incredibly elaborate one, but isn't that a little too paranoid to believe in after getting a free T-shirt? Whether or not it is like the Portal cake, one thing is for sure - this is a freakin good marketing tactic.

Lockerz is still in beta. Wonder what it will be like when it is done, if it is ever going to be done.









Here's a real jaw dropper.


Never seen a receipt like this. It's not just a receipt, not with those numbers on it. This isn't for a meal for 50 people - there are only 6 (see the extreme bottom of receipt)! That makes an average of almost $8000 per person. No idea who they are.

This is not a photoshopped image. It's a piece of evidence used in some court case in which the defendant denied it was his receipt, though no one denied this is an actual receipt.

Oh btw about the "20% GRAT" thing, grat = gratuity = tips. Yes, you're reading the decimal points right. That's a seven-thousand-dollar tip there. People have died for much less!












It is said that many American porn actors choose their jobs because they think they can step into the mainstream entertainment industry that way. I don't know if that actually works, but I do know that it does in Japan, for porn actresses.

Just take this recent Japanese drama series, 嬢王 Virgin, for example. It's a TV series starring some of the best-known names in JAV, like Yuma Asami and Saori Hara. Best of all, it's got Reon Kadena, the hottest gravure idol in Japan. I had half-expected Sora Aoi to be on that list too, but we can't have everything.

This ongoing series is popular enough to be made into torrents for download and have Chinese subtitles for it. Perhaps it's because it contains nude scenes, but such things aren't exactly rare on Japanese TV.

Whatever it is that makes people download it, it's proof that in Japan one can enter the mainstream from porn. Probably because porn isn't too far from the Japanese mainstream.












Just tried Anno 1404, an empire-building game (or officially the genre is called 4x games). It is a medieval-themed game revolving around the europeans and the Arabs. The campaign is actually pretty interesting, mostly because of the sidequests that I've never encountered before.

These can include the standard errand boy stuff like bring this much materials to somewhere or kill some ships. The most unique side quest, IMO, is the one that totally resembles Where's Wally. One of the friendly faction would sometimes ask you to arrest spies in your city and you would have to zoom in and search for people with a thin blue outline.

The final round of the campaign is probably the most fun but also the most challenging. The main quest was to build this special mega-structure that required huge amounts of building materials, which changed according to the stage (there are 3 stages, excluding the first which was already done). The higher the stage, the higher the tier of the necessary goods you have to obtain constantly.

That sounds easy, except there is a time limit. You are racing against the enemy, who won't attack you but will finish each stage within a set period of time or at the same time as you, whichever is shorter. I played at Medium difficulty, so I had an hour per stage.

It was not easy at all because in order to obtain the materials, you need to build a town/city big enough to support the economy that can supply you with them. So while I made sure a steady flow of materials are flowing to the construction site, I had to make sure I'm meeting all the needs of the people, who consume the same stuff that I need. While juggling the two I had to watch the time limit. The good thing about all these is that the round couldn't exceed 3 hours.

Then I tried the Scenario mode, which has a few objectives. In the Guildmaster scenario, I have to possess 500k gold, have alliances with all the AI and complete 5 of the Emperor's quests. The first 2 are easy; the third part requires the Cathedral to be built. To complete the same Cathedral as the final map of the campaign, I need 3500 Nobles in my cities. Let's just say that even 2500 Nobles are hard to support despite having half the map under my control. Apparently they changed some settings in the campaign.

The entire campaign at medium difficulty actually feels easy compared to this.










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Klondike ice cream cones suck. The ice cream doesn't taste like ice cream. It's like some kind of gel-thing with the consistency of ice cream but not the flavour. The cone is soft and not brittle. Worst of all, it's not even cheap.












I have absolutely no idea what it's saying, but my ignorance probably makes it funnier. Looks like some sort of commercial. Why aren't those on Singapore TV this creative? =(