Rant 765 / Wafer Crumbs

Everything is getting more expensive. Even when they don't say it, we can tell. Either the prices rise or the portions get smaller.

Eventually we're going to be like Europe - eating out will become a luxury.

But fortunately for me, macaroni in chicken stock soup tastes good. How expensive can macaroni (and other similar pasta) get?

And of course there are alternative soups, but chicken stock+salt+pepper is the easiest combination ever.









I just realized I've totally forgotten that Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East allows players to upgrade units into 2 different versions.

However, most of them are pretty useless. Or maybe I just suck at judging their strategic value.

For example, the Magnetic Golem absorbs destructive magic. The thing is, how often do units get hit by destructive magic as compared to the frequency at which they get hit by enemy units?

The latter would be better handled by the original Steel Golem because it's way tougher and has 75% magic resist already.

On the other hand, Storm Titans are epic! The original Titans could cast "Call Lightning" to hit units,which is only useful against units that resist ranged attacks or something, but Storm Titans can cause units in a 3X3 area to suffer damage every turn and reduce their ranged attack. It's true that they could spend a turn to move away but the AI never does that.

Anyway I thought about this because I was playing a bit of HoMM V: ToE the other day while I was at home "watching" the painters work on my room. It's a great time-killer.

And I love the Acadaemy.

As for the maps, I didn't like how there were so few co-op ones. I didn't care if my ally/allies was/were AI(s), I just want the possibility that someone might help me block attackers closing in on my home base when my main hero is away.

So a little googling led me to the idea of using the Map Editor. Despite the fact that you can only make FFA (Free For All) maps in the Random Map Generator, you can save them and edit the team arrangements in the Map Editor.

It's under Map Properties. The only catch is that if you want a useful ally, his castle has to be close to yours. Therefore you have to know the positions of each player when you set the teams. It's not just simply making Player 1 team up with Player 2. I tried that. I ended up starting underground while my buddy was above.











So the stationery store directly across the street is closing. It's been there since before I moved here a long time ago.

Its business can't be bad when there are so many schools and new families here, so it came as a shock when I learnt that they had sold the unit already.

Apparently, they sold it for more than S$1.6 million! If it was owned by a single person, sure, he/she would be able to retire immediately.

But actually, it's co-owned by 3-4 siblings, so each would get roughly 300-500k depending on their arrangements (would make sense that the unmarried one(s) get more). It's still a lot of money though.

Also, that number is unconfirmed.

It's kind of sad. Though I've rarely bought anything from it since I left primary school, it's one of the last few stores that's been around since that time. And did I mention I walked passed it every weekday for the whole 6 years of my primary school life?

Everything ends. Not just the good ones.

This is not the first one that's gone (or about to be) that I probably won't forget. The other was the dental clinic that's closed down for years. That was where I got some of my baby teeth removed. The strange thing is that no one ever bought that unit. Even today, it's still there with the "Closed" sign on the wooden door.

And the private clinics in my neighbourhood are changing too. The two that I used to visit, one's already gone while the other's doctor is getting old and in fact, can already retire. Her kids have already graduated or are graduating from uni and poly and what she's currently making isn't necessary at this point.

But a lot of the older residents still go to her.

And her pharmacist isn't young anymore either, most likely she's in her mid-40s. I wonder what's going to happen to her when the doctor retires. Even with her qualifications and experience, I don't think it will be easy for her to find a new job in her late forties or early fifties.

Furthermore, I don't think a pharmacist in a private clinic makes enough to allow early retirement. But again, I wouldn't know. It's just a guess.