Old World Blues is out! Haven't checked Steam Store for so long since the end of the sale.
Also downloaded War Inc but it sucks. It's just a shitty version of Battlefied: Bad Company 2. War Inc is free-to-play; BC2 is free for me when I bought my Sapphire graphics card.
I'll give it another try next time if I ever run out of games and probably will uninstall it after that.
Anyway Old World Blues!
Installing...
If anyone ever makes a movie about the nukes in WWII in Japan, it will probably make a pretty epic film.
Too bad the Japanese are still very touchy about this subject, so much so that in the Japanese edition of Fallout 3, they had to remove the quest about blowing up Megaton.
Finished Old World Blues in two days. Didn't complete everything, just the quests I got. Apparently the fact that I didn't explore every place in the Big MT affects the ending.
Not an easy DLC because the scorpions were so numerous sometimes, like at the entrance of the Magnetohydraulics Complex. Luckily I still have my fully upgraded and repaired War Club from Honest Hearts. Its Fatigue damage really makes combat easier, although its effectiveness is still greatly diminished when I have to fight multiple enemies at the same time.
This DLC's design seemed to be focused on the humour, the way Dead Money was focused on the eeriness. With the Wild Wasteland trait, I was encountering all kinds of weird and funny stuff everywhere, even during conversations.
The Animal Friend perk was a better choice than I expected before trying this DLC. There were just so many Nightstalkers everywhere, so the perk which stops animals from attacking me gave me several nice respites from all the violence, although killing Nightstalkers would have given me very useful items.
Story-wise, some of the things I encountered in the Big MT explained certain elements in the Sierra Madre of the Dead Money DLC.
For example, the zombies there were really corpses being reanimated by their suits, which were originally designed to help injured people walk back to safety. It seemed a certain design flaw had prevented the suit from recognizing their wearer's death, and this flaw was ignored because this would have made body retrieval easy.
I guess they didn't count on the suits to also attack their own side.
Anyhow, these suits were invented in the Big MT, thus there were also "zombies" in this DLC, albeit redesigned to be faster and able to use guns. Probably a later model.
Other facts about the Sierra Madre like why the poison was there in the first place were also revealed in the Big MT.
As for the plot of the Old World Blues DLC, it's again quite a tragedy. I'm keeping spoilers minimal here.
There were many occasions when I, while bashing everything's head in with the War Club, imagined what the truth would be like.
Would it be that those robots weren't actually the real scientists? That would have made a good twist. Maybe the real Think Tank had died during the nuclear war and these "scientists" were really the assistants who were somehow fortunate enough to survive? Or maybe they weren't even scientists, just members of the support staff like the janitor or clerk or even test subjects.
Test subjects would have made sense too. Maybe they were supposed to be experiments for this new technology that transplants the brain into some kind of tank in those self-levitating robots. The prototypes. And the technology couldn't be further developed because of the nuke that killed everyone else.
Or perhaps they were the AI clones of the original scientists and that these AIs were aversely affected by the nuclear radiation over the years.
All in all, I felt that the chances of them being the original scientists were lower than the chances of them being not.
Not saying anymore about the story.
Weapons! Totally crap for me. I'm a melee fighter, and the best melee weapon was the Proton Inversal Axe. My War Club still pwns everything. It's just that nothing can beat a weapon that disables almost everything within seconds. Fans of energy weapons would probably have a field day at the Big MT though.
The armour was also a slight disappointment. I had even upgraded the Stealth Suit thoroughly by completing all the experiments in that lab that was researching this technology (and without using Stealth Boy I might add) but... sneaking around just isn't my current style. I'm all about rushing in and smashing everything till they explode into bits.
The loots in general other than the two above categories wasn't very impressive. The Big MT was truly a scrap electronics galore. Seriously, they were everywhere. Scrap metal too, but to a significantly lesser degree. I had little use for scrap electronics.
Exploration was much more interesting in this DLC than in the previous 2 (especially Dead Money) because the developers added so many strange stuff everywhere, like the Ulysses' Point where the Lobotomites seemed to have built a shrine for a Holodisk containing the virtual personality data of a toaster.
In fact I didn't explore everything only because I thought I could do it after finishing the main quest, kinda like a dessert after the main course. I did not expect that what I missed would affect the ending.
Finally, if I heard the voice right, they got the guy who did the voice of Wheatley in Portal 2 to voice the player's brain. Don't ask me why it speaks. It would be a big spoiler there. Anyway it was a very humourous conversation, though not as hilarious as Wheatley.
A bullet train in China got derailed. No idea how many casualties.
Not trying to be offensive but I think we all saw it coming. With it being a Chinese product complete with all the corruption, it was never an issue of "if" but "when".
Over the years they've made fake eggs, fake milk, fake wine, fake rice, fake Apple stores and even an entire fake Austrian UNESCO village. Fake safety standards certainly aren't out of place in China's repertoire.
Lives are cheap in the PRC anyway.
Saturday, 23 July 2011
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Rant 817 / The Crossbow In Killing Floor Is Awesome
Currently in the Dungeon campaign at the mission where I stopped last time.
I've just come up with a new strategy for the Dungeon race in HoMM V.
Usually I'd just use one tough unit in battle. It would take all the ranged damage while I kill everything with my spells.
This strategy is often used when the enemy either has a hero or ranged units that will attack (and kill) mine, and the main goal of this is to prevent losses completely.
Unfortunately, some armies will always kill one or two of it, and I don't like that, especially if said units were Shadow Dragons or even Black Dragons.
Previously, I'd just take it as acceptable losses, albeit uncomfortably. Heck, losing even a single Shadow Dragon is a painful thing to watch, but I didn't know what else to do.
Now I do.
The new strategy is suitable for situations where losses are inevitable but the opposite army is easy to deal with using spells alone.
This needs to be done with empty slots available, which can be accomplished by:
a) keeping a simple army of few unit types
b) having a town nearby
c) having another hero nearby
1) Choose a single unit type that you deem very expendable. In my case, I'd pick Blood Furies, otherwise Scouts. Blood Furies have no place (or little use at most) in the hero-oriented strategy that the Dungeon race seems to encourage anyway.
2) Split them into stacks of one and fill all your slots with single units.
3) Now kill your enemies with Meteor Storms and Chain Lightning before your units get wiped out!
IMO losing even 6 Furies or Scouts is preferable to losing a single Minotaur Guard.
For this battle, I've tried 2 other strategies:
1) nothing but 2 Shadow Dragons - resulted in 2 dead dragons and a loss
2) 60+ Scouts, 2 Shadow Matriarchs and 70 Minotaur Guards - resulted in 2 dead matriarchs, a couple of other deaths and a victory
Phew, my throat is much better today. Yesterday it was so painful I winced whenever I swallowed my saliva.
First-person melee combat :(
4-player coop mode :)
I believe the decision to focus on melee is to bring the player closer to the zombies. Makes it more intense, more personal.
Had to get new shirts for work. Now that I'm starting to have to meet people, I need new and more formal clothing.
Polo shirts.
And a couple short-sleeve shirts.
Not cheap, especially when I need XXL shirts. Cheap brandless stuff never includes such sizes because:
1) Requires more materials
2) Much less demand
Even in my work, most of our jackets and sweaters only hit XXL at most so that people can wear multiple shirts underneath.
As for what the measurements are for each, there's actually no standardized international measurements for each size, so it's pretty subjective. Therefore once in a while, even XXL doesn't fit me. Usually when it's cheap, because in China, people are skinnier.
So if I want good clothes that will definitely fit me, I have to find branded stuff. I don't exactly have a choice.
Timberland this time. Spent over S$300 there. It's a necessary investment; I didn't have a single polo shirt previously, only t-shirts.
I used to have lots of trouble with Scrakes in Killing Floor. They're so tough and their melee attack is so painful. As a Commando, the best thing I can do is to snipe its head from afar with my submachine guns, then spray at its head when it gets close.
Usually, it will still come close enough to attack someone. That's how tough it is. After all, it is the second toughest monster in the game after the Flesh Pound and excluding the final boss, the Patriarch.
Not when someone has a crossbow though.
I just started using a Crossbow as a Sharpshooter today, and if I'm right, one crossbow bolt to the head instantly kills the Scrake.
Feels so good.
I've just come up with a new strategy for the Dungeon race in HoMM V.
Usually I'd just use one tough unit in battle. It would take all the ranged damage while I kill everything with my spells.
This strategy is often used when the enemy either has a hero or ranged units that will attack (and kill) mine, and the main goal of this is to prevent losses completely.
Unfortunately, some armies will always kill one or two of it, and I don't like that, especially if said units were Shadow Dragons or even Black Dragons.
Previously, I'd just take it as acceptable losses, albeit uncomfortably. Heck, losing even a single Shadow Dragon is a painful thing to watch, but I didn't know what else to do.
Now I do.
The new strategy is suitable for situations where losses are inevitable but the opposite army is easy to deal with using spells alone.
This needs to be done with empty slots available, which can be accomplished by:
a) keeping a simple army of few unit types
b) having a town nearby
c) having another hero nearby
1) Choose a single unit type that you deem very expendable. In my case, I'd pick Blood Furies, otherwise Scouts. Blood Furies have no place (or little use at most) in the hero-oriented strategy that the Dungeon race seems to encourage anyway.
2) Split them into stacks of one and fill all your slots with single units.
3) Now kill your enemies with Meteor Storms and Chain Lightning before your units get wiped out!
Problem?
IMO losing even 6 Furies or Scouts is preferable to losing a single Minotaur Guard.
For this battle, I've tried 2 other strategies:
1) nothing but 2 Shadow Dragons - resulted in 2 dead dragons and a loss
2) 60+ Scouts, 2 Shadow Matriarchs and 70 Minotaur Guards - resulted in 2 dead matriarchs, a couple of other deaths and a victory
Phew, my throat is much better today. Yesterday it was so painful I winced whenever I swallowed my saliva.
First-person melee combat :(
4-player coop mode :)
I believe the decision to focus on melee is to bring the player closer to the zombies. Makes it more intense, more personal.
Had to get new shirts for work. Now that I'm starting to have to meet people, I need new and more formal clothing.
Polo shirts.
And a couple short-sleeve shirts.
Not cheap, especially when I need XXL shirts. Cheap brandless stuff never includes such sizes because:
1) Requires more materials
2) Much less demand
Even in my work, most of our jackets and sweaters only hit XXL at most so that people can wear multiple shirts underneath.
As for what the measurements are for each, there's actually no standardized international measurements for each size, so it's pretty subjective. Therefore once in a while, even XXL doesn't fit me. Usually when it's cheap, because in China, people are skinnier.
So if I want good clothes that will definitely fit me, I have to find branded stuff. I don't exactly have a choice.
Timberland this time. Spent over S$300 there. It's a necessary investment; I didn't have a single polo shirt previously, only t-shirts.
I used to have lots of trouble with Scrakes in Killing Floor. They're so tough and their melee attack is so painful. As a Commando, the best thing I can do is to snipe its head from afar with my submachine guns, then spray at its head when it gets close.
Usually, it will still come close enough to attack someone. That's how tough it is. After all, it is the second toughest monster in the game after the Flesh Pound and excluding the final boss, the Patriarch.
Not when someone has a crossbow though.
I just started using a Crossbow as a Sharpshooter today, and if I'm right, one crossbow bolt to the head instantly kills the Scrake.
Feels so good.
Rant 816 / Throat Ulcer Is Over 9000 Times Worse Than Mouth Ulcer
Bad night.
Yesterday I thought I had what was the beginning of a sore throat when a portion of my throat was sore.
It got worse by nightfall, but not because it had spread.
Instead the pain just became more acute whenever I swallow. I've now come to the conclusion that I have some kind of acne/ulcer in my throat, somewhere around the back of my jaw.
The pain kept me awake but not completely. Could go back to sleep when I got sleepy enough.
But that wasn't all.
Some asshole called me at 4 and 5am this morning. Same number.
60301
I have no idea what kind of number it is.
Initially my family guessed it was a local number because "60" is one of the many combinations that local numbers begin.
But Google gave me a different answer.
Apparently people are getting calls from this number even in Malaysia, so it's definitely not a Singaporean number.
It's actually a number for international calls.
So someone called me at those unholy hours probably to scam me.
Fuck!
So that woke me up and my throat kept me awake. TWICE!
I could barely keep my eyes open when my alarm rang for the third time this morning.
So today I encountered a cab driver who really believed in following rules.
I was at this almost empty taxi stand at Clementi Mall (went to duplicate office keys to have my own set instead of using my mum's all the time) and there was these 2 middle-aged ladies with this entire trolley of groceries.
Even with the help of their cab driver, it was taking quite some time. Moreover, there was this curb that prevented the taxis behind the first one from leaving. Thus I just stood there and waited.
Then another middle-aged lady came out of nowhere and tried to board the cab that I was supposed to take.
I saw it but didn't care because there were like 5-6 more taxis behind it.
But the driver simply refused to let her in and pointed at me. So I waved my hand to signal "no" and tried to use hand gestures to tell her to take it.
If she wanted to pay the extra fare for waiting another half a min for the two women in front, I'm fine with it. It's not like there's a shortage of cabs anyway.
So I walked up to her and told her it was okay to take it and that there were plenty of taxis for everyone, but she just told me what the driver said, something about me and queuing up, so I stopped talking, looked at the cab in front where they were almost done loading and just boarded my cab.
In the cab I said it should have been ok to let her in since there were so many more behind, but he replied that not everyone thinks that way.
I couldn't deny that.
Which is sad, yet... somewhat comforting that there are people who still follow the rules.
It's just that sometimes, it's alright to bend the rules, like in this case.
A lot of Singaporeans avoid tipping. Not all though. I know some people who tip 10-20% of the bill when they go to bars.
Yet the other day when I went to this Turkish restaurant with some of my friends, I was shocked at how hard they insisted on not tipping.
Except... the money was mine to give away.
You see, they had all paid me their portions of the bill while I used my $50 notes for the bill itself.
The change was about $3.50.
I didn't even want to take it and told my friends we could leave right after I handed the money in the bill holder.
Mainly it was because the waitress was nice enough to patiently explain to us each dish and recommended dishes we could share amongst ourselves. Another thing was that we took the restaurant's best table, the only one with a large square table and cushioned seats, and stayed longer than most of the other customers.
So an extra $3.50 was nothing.
But my friends insisted that I waited for the change.
Alright, so we waited. When the bill came, I just took the $2 note and receipt and closed it.
And they were like, "No, take the rest too!" but I couldn't make myself do it. It's just less than $2 in coins. I had about $7 worth of change in my wallet already.
In the end another guy took them and left the holder empty.
Justification?
We weren't earning a lot of money and we were already paying 7% GST (aka VAT in some countries).
I guess it could be subjective. Personally I tip when I like the service.
Also, apparently it's alright to tip when you pay by credit card by putting cash into the holder.
I don't think I'll be going back to the restaurant any time soon. That place was so full of tourists. Surely they must be used to getting a lot of tips.
UOB is offering 1% interest p.a. for fixed deposits with a minimum sum of just S$40k for 18 months! Only for this month!
Awesome!
Yesterday I thought I had what was the beginning of a sore throat when a portion of my throat was sore.
It got worse by nightfall, but not because it had spread.
Instead the pain just became more acute whenever I swallow. I've now come to the conclusion that I have some kind of acne/ulcer in my throat, somewhere around the back of my jaw.
The pain kept me awake but not completely. Could go back to sleep when I got sleepy enough.
But that wasn't all.
Some asshole called me at 4 and 5am this morning. Same number.
60301
I have no idea what kind of number it is.
Initially my family guessed it was a local number because "60" is one of the many combinations that local numbers begin.
But Google gave me a different answer.
Apparently people are getting calls from this number even in Malaysia, so it's definitely not a Singaporean number.
It's actually a number for international calls.
So someone called me at those unholy hours probably to scam me.
Fuck!
So that woke me up and my throat kept me awake. TWICE!
I could barely keep my eyes open when my alarm rang for the third time this morning.
So today I encountered a cab driver who really believed in following rules.
I was at this almost empty taxi stand at Clementi Mall (went to duplicate office keys to have my own set instead of using my mum's all the time) and there was these 2 middle-aged ladies with this entire trolley of groceries.
Even with the help of their cab driver, it was taking quite some time. Moreover, there was this curb that prevented the taxis behind the first one from leaving. Thus I just stood there and waited.
Then another middle-aged lady came out of nowhere and tried to board the cab that I was supposed to take.
I saw it but didn't care because there were like 5-6 more taxis behind it.
But the driver simply refused to let her in and pointed at me. So I waved my hand to signal "no" and tried to use hand gestures to tell her to take it.
If she wanted to pay the extra fare for waiting another half a min for the two women in front, I'm fine with it. It's not like there's a shortage of cabs anyway.
So I walked up to her and told her it was okay to take it and that there were plenty of taxis for everyone, but she just told me what the driver said, something about me and queuing up, so I stopped talking, looked at the cab in front where they were almost done loading and just boarded my cab.
In the cab I said it should have been ok to let her in since there were so many more behind, but he replied that not everyone thinks that way.
I couldn't deny that.
Which is sad, yet... somewhat comforting that there are people who still follow the rules.
It's just that sometimes, it's alright to bend the rules, like in this case.
A lot of Singaporeans avoid tipping. Not all though. I know some people who tip 10-20% of the bill when they go to bars.
Yet the other day when I went to this Turkish restaurant with some of my friends, I was shocked at how hard they insisted on not tipping.
Except... the money was mine to give away.
You see, they had all paid me their portions of the bill while I used my $50 notes for the bill itself.
The change was about $3.50.
I didn't even want to take it and told my friends we could leave right after I handed the money in the bill holder.
Mainly it was because the waitress was nice enough to patiently explain to us each dish and recommended dishes we could share amongst ourselves. Another thing was that we took the restaurant's best table, the only one with a large square table and cushioned seats, and stayed longer than most of the other customers.
So an extra $3.50 was nothing.
But my friends insisted that I waited for the change.
Alright, so we waited. When the bill came, I just took the $2 note and receipt and closed it.
And they were like, "No, take the rest too!" but I couldn't make myself do it. It's just less than $2 in coins. I had about $7 worth of change in my wallet already.
In the end another guy took them and left the holder empty.
Justification?
We weren't earning a lot of money and we were already paying 7% GST (aka VAT in some countries).
I guess it could be subjective. Personally I tip when I like the service.
Also, apparently it's alright to tip when you pay by credit card by putting cash into the holder.
I don't think I'll be going back to the restaurant any time soon. That place was so full of tourists. Surely they must be used to getting a lot of tips.
UOB is offering 1% interest p.a. for fixed deposits with a minimum sum of just S$40k for 18 months! Only for this month!
Awesome!
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Rant 815 / Moisturizing Sanitary Pad
Sometimes I wonder what they mean by "competition" in the public transport system. Their logic about the privatisation and profiting by the transport companies is sound except... what competition?
True there are 2 companies, but they seem to be working hand-in-hand with each other.
Brings to mind the phrase "divide and conquer" because that's exactly what they seem to be doing - monopolizing the market as partners, each with its own portions of the island.
I mean, has anyone seen any conflict between them ever? No, together they work smoother than whipped cream and not even a whiff of trouble has ever existed. Better yet, they apply for fare raises together every time.
They're practically brothers, if they were human.
So you can throw away all that nonsense about how private companies need to make profit and shit now and move away from that point of view because it's invalid. They are as good as nationalised when both are them are mainly owned by the government; the "private company" thing is just an excuse to profit.
Finished Ex-Heroes. Not a thick book but awesome story. This genre blend is so fresh I totally didn't expect the source of the infection. Not revealing any spoilers here.
The plot was simpler than I expected though. Basically it began with the Mount, which seemed to be the final bastion of civilization in Los Angeles, where the last superheroes were protecting the last survivors of the city.
Later, it was revealed that they were constantly harassed not just by the zombie hordes but also by some kind of raider gang whose base of operations was unknown. Eventually, they learnt that these raiders were more than the minor irritation than they first appeared to be.
I think I can reveal one small spoiler here since it was actually quite obvious when I thought about it. In a previous rant I had mentioned that I wondered why a city with superheroes could have a problem with zombies.
Apparently, when superheroes become zombies, they retain their powers. But which superhero would be stupid enough to get close despite their superhuman speed or flying ability or whatever?
Those with "issues", of course. Superheroes are just people with special powers, after all. They could easily be insane just like normal people.
That's why one of them had tried to have sex with a zombified Jessica Alba (hopefully she was still fresh).
But some of the others were just plain unlucky.
Anyway I like how the book alternates between the present and the past. Every alternate chapter presents a back story of an ex-hero and how he/she died. To keep them from getting stale, the writer tried to switch between first and third person for each story.
Of course there were parts of the plot where it didn't make sense. For example, they could have just asked Zzzap to fry the villain(s) and end the story right there. The author could have made him a lesser hero than he was to make this little issue go away, eg remove his flying ability, but somehow he didn't. No idea why.
He wouldn't have been able to fly around to fight everything in the past but that wasn't exactly a problem in fiction. And if he couldn't fly, he wouldn't have been able to reach the antagonist at the end.
Oh well. Fiction.
Anyway it was a good book, albeit somewhat short. Hopefully it will get more popular and he'd write a longer sequel.
As for Dead City which I've also just finished, it's above average. The plot was typical and there wasn't much that made it stand out. But it was interesting enough.
Similarly, Apocalypse of the Dead contains a plot that I feel like I've seen before. Religious leaders who saved many people but later turned out to be evil/insane aren't exactly special in the zombie genre.
But books in this genre are very limited AFAIK so I'll cut them some slack and say they were pretty good books.
And so I finished all three zombie books I bought. I have a feeling I'll be re-reading Ex-Heroes in the near future. It really is that good.
Now I've to look for some place to print my namecard.
Easier said than done.
I need foil stamping aka hot stamping which really jacks up the prices, and I don't need a lot - 300 pieces is my current target.
Currently reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Pretty funny so far.
True there are 2 companies, but they seem to be working hand-in-hand with each other.
Brings to mind the phrase "divide and conquer" because that's exactly what they seem to be doing - monopolizing the market as partners, each with its own portions of the island.
I mean, has anyone seen any conflict between them ever? No, together they work smoother than whipped cream and not even a whiff of trouble has ever existed. Better yet, they apply for fare raises together every time.
They're practically brothers, if they were human.
So you can throw away all that nonsense about how private companies need to make profit and shit now and move away from that point of view because it's invalid. They are as good as nationalised when both are them are mainly owned by the government; the "private company" thing is just an excuse to profit.
Finished Ex-Heroes. Not a thick book but awesome story. This genre blend is so fresh I totally didn't expect the source of the infection. Not revealing any spoilers here.
The plot was simpler than I expected though. Basically it began with the Mount, which seemed to be the final bastion of civilization in Los Angeles, where the last superheroes were protecting the last survivors of the city.
Later, it was revealed that they were constantly harassed not just by the zombie hordes but also by some kind of raider gang whose base of operations was unknown. Eventually, they learnt that these raiders were more than the minor irritation than they first appeared to be.
I think I can reveal one small spoiler here since it was actually quite obvious when I thought about it. In a previous rant I had mentioned that I wondered why a city with superheroes could have a problem with zombies.
Apparently, when superheroes become zombies, they retain their powers. But which superhero would be stupid enough to get close despite their superhuman speed or flying ability or whatever?
Those with "issues", of course. Superheroes are just people with special powers, after all. They could easily be insane just like normal people.
That's why one of them had tried to have sex with a zombified Jessica Alba (hopefully she was still fresh).
But some of the others were just plain unlucky.
Anyway I like how the book alternates between the present and the past. Every alternate chapter presents a back story of an ex-hero and how he/she died. To keep them from getting stale, the writer tried to switch between first and third person for each story.
Of course there were parts of the plot where it didn't make sense. For example, they could have just asked Zzzap to fry the villain(s) and end the story right there. The author could have made him a lesser hero than he was to make this little issue go away, eg remove his flying ability, but somehow he didn't. No idea why.
He wouldn't have been able to fly around to fight everything in the past but that wasn't exactly a problem in fiction. And if he couldn't fly, he wouldn't have been able to reach the antagonist at the end.
Oh well. Fiction.
Anyway it was a good book, albeit somewhat short. Hopefully it will get more popular and he'd write a longer sequel.
As for Dead City which I've also just finished, it's above average. The plot was typical and there wasn't much that made it stand out. But it was interesting enough.
Similarly, Apocalypse of the Dead contains a plot that I feel like I've seen before. Religious leaders who saved many people but later turned out to be evil/insane aren't exactly special in the zombie genre.
But books in this genre are very limited AFAIK so I'll cut them some slack and say they were pretty good books.
And so I finished all three zombie books I bought. I have a feeling I'll be re-reading Ex-Heroes in the near future. It really is that good.
Now I've to look for some place to print my namecard.
Easier said than done.
I need foil stamping aka hot stamping which really jacks up the prices, and I don't need a lot - 300 pieces is my current target.
Currently reading The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Pretty funny so far.
Sunday, 17 July 2011
Rant 814 / Dies Illa, Dies Irae. Calamitaties Et Miseriae.
TA-Q-BIN delivery service from Yamato Transport is amazing. I hadn't checked the email associated with Opentrolley 2 days ago so I missed the email telling me that my order has been despatched, ie handed over to Yamato Transport for delivery. According to the fineprint, I would be receiving in the next working day.
But I still didn't check the email the next day (I've now reached the stage where I've got to start work early in the morning occasionally) and didn't see it.
Thus I missed the delivery last night at 8.03pm. The time period for the Home delivery option was 8-10pm, so I can say that was pretty damn punctual. FYI I know because the tracking system is extremely accurate. I just received it 5mins ago and according to the tracking system, it's been delivered. I think the delivery guys update the system via their handphones.
Anyway I missed it last night. When I checked the email at 11pm last night, I was shocked. So I went to the website, checked the tracking number and confirmed I missed it, and requested a redelivery at 10am-12pm today.
They delivered it at 11am or, according to the system, 10.57am.
I'm surprised. The request was made on a Friday night at 11pm and they could deliver it on a Saturday morning. If it was cash-on-delivery I'd have tipped the guy for being so punctual on a weekend morning.
So some guy wrote a sci-fi novel entitled "Rule 34", which was about internet police solving a murder mystery.
Now the big question is - is there rule 34 of it?
'Coz there better be.
NO EXCEPTIONS!
Some Taiwanese guy got scammed about US$400,000.
The bait?
A croissant.
"French bread which is so delicious that it will make you cry"
Oh yes he cried alright.
This is so epic.
Scientists have invented a time cloak. If I understand this right, it just delays the light from the event. What I expected was... more.
Creating a visual delay in reality would make a great magic trick.
Currently also replaying Heroes of Might and Magic V for the story before playing HoMM VI in the near future when it gets released.
HoMM VI is the prequel story-wise so it could be a better idea to play that first.
But I've aleady played HoMM V and all its expansions before, so I might as well complete everything.
It's like watching Star Wars Episode 1-6 versus watching 4 and 6 before watching 1-3 followed by 5.
I've also begun to like the HoMM V main theme a lot.
I didn't used to like it that much. No idea why. I've probably changed in some way that I haven't noticed. And yes I know it's from some kind of Catholic funeral chant.
Now in the Necromancer campaign. I had stopped in the Dungeon campaign the last time, but I wanted to play the whole game again to refresh my memory.
Since I want to play this mainly for the story, I'm willing to use cheats, albeit only when I'm really not in the mood to replay the mission.
So far I've only used cheats once to give myself 500 arch-devils in the mission in which the elves kept leaving and I had only one Inferno town and 2 Sylvan ones against one Sylvan town.
The odds might have been in my favour but I did not expect the huge army that the last town had and hence didn't bother to develop my Sylvan towns (what for? the elves kept leaving my army on a daily basis.)
Since it was the final bit of that mission, I just cheated to end it with the 500 arch-devils.
Searching for HoMM V music somehow led me back to older HoMM music. Now I've found the music from the original HoMM again.
The nostalgia!
Brings back the odd feeling when I look at the dragon tower. Doesn't it appear strangely out of place? It is, after all, a sci-fi structure in a fantasy setting.
Anyway, the towns with the black dragons, regardless of their names, have always been OP (overpowered) since HoMM till HoMM V. I wonder it will still be the same in HoMM VI.
Alright, maybe black dragons were a little less useful in the later games because you couldn't use beneficial spells on them, which got more important strategically in those sequels.
And I have no idea why cyclopes live in pyramids. The ancient Greeks didn't have pyramids as far as I know. This mystery will probably remain unsolved for the rest of my life.
The ogres were probably the ones I remember most for this town. Bloody good tanks, but slow.
Maybe all the devs of the HoMM games have something against peasants because they've never been anything but shitty. Honestly, they don't even make good cannon fodder.
Even with the new 1g/day ability, they still aren't worth much because it takes 20(?) days just to recoup my capital from buying each one of them. These days in HoMM V, I just leave them in town as a minor source of income.
But the crusaders (or were they paladins? Or did they need to be upgraded from paladins to crusaders just like in HoMM II?) were awesome. The next best thing to black dragons IIRC because they hit twice... hard.
Never used the Sorceress much. The most memorable creature to me was the dwarf because of its annoying ability to resist magic. Throw in the fact that they were inherently tough with low attack and had a high weekly spawn rate due to being a mere level 2 creature, and it becomes obvious they were designed to be nothing but a pain in the ass for the opposing army.
Why are male jackets so hard to find? Suit jackets are easy enough but weatherproof jackets are a whole different story compared to those in the ladies fashion section.
But I still didn't check the email the next day (I've now reached the stage where I've got to start work early in the morning occasionally) and didn't see it.
Thus I missed the delivery last night at 8.03pm. The time period for the Home delivery option was 8-10pm, so I can say that was pretty damn punctual. FYI I know because the tracking system is extremely accurate. I just received it 5mins ago and according to the tracking system, it's been delivered. I think the delivery guys update the system via their handphones.
Anyway I missed it last night. When I checked the email at 11pm last night, I was shocked. So I went to the website, checked the tracking number and confirmed I missed it, and requested a redelivery at 10am-12pm today.
They delivered it at 11am or, according to the system, 10.57am.
I'm surprised. The request was made on a Friday night at 11pm and they could deliver it on a Saturday morning. If it was cash-on-delivery I'd have tipped the guy for being so punctual on a weekend morning.
So some guy wrote a sci-fi novel entitled "Rule 34", which was about internet police solving a murder mystery.
Now the big question is - is there rule 34 of it?
'Coz there better be.
NO EXCEPTIONS!
Some Taiwanese guy got scammed about US$400,000.
The bait?
A croissant.
"French bread which is so delicious that it will make you cry"
Oh yes he cried alright.
This is so epic.
Scientists have invented a time cloak. If I understand this right, it just delays the light from the event. What I expected was... more.
Creating a visual delay in reality would make a great magic trick.
Currently also replaying Heroes of Might and Magic V for the story before playing HoMM VI in the near future when it gets released.
HoMM VI is the prequel story-wise so it could be a better idea to play that first.
But I've aleady played HoMM V and all its expansions before, so I might as well complete everything.
It's like watching Star Wars Episode 1-6 versus watching 4 and 6 before watching 1-3 followed by 5.
I've also begun to like the HoMM V main theme a lot.
I didn't used to like it that much. No idea why. I've probably changed in some way that I haven't noticed. And yes I know it's from some kind of Catholic funeral chant.
Now in the Necromancer campaign. I had stopped in the Dungeon campaign the last time, but I wanted to play the whole game again to refresh my memory.
Since I want to play this mainly for the story, I'm willing to use cheats, albeit only when I'm really not in the mood to replay the mission.
So far I've only used cheats once to give myself 500 arch-devils in the mission in which the elves kept leaving and I had only one Inferno town and 2 Sylvan ones against one Sylvan town.
The odds might have been in my favour but I did not expect the huge army that the last town had and hence didn't bother to develop my Sylvan towns (what for? the elves kept leaving my army on a daily basis.)
Since it was the final bit of that mission, I just cheated to end it with the 500 arch-devils.
Searching for HoMM V music somehow led me back to older HoMM music. Now I've found the music from the original HoMM again.
The nostalgia!
Brings back the odd feeling when I look at the dragon tower. Doesn't it appear strangely out of place? It is, after all, a sci-fi structure in a fantasy setting.
Anyway, the towns with the black dragons, regardless of their names, have always been OP (overpowered) since HoMM till HoMM V. I wonder it will still be the same in HoMM VI.
Alright, maybe black dragons were a little less useful in the later games because you couldn't use beneficial spells on them, which got more important strategically in those sequels.
And I have no idea why cyclopes live in pyramids. The ancient Greeks didn't have pyramids as far as I know. This mystery will probably remain unsolved for the rest of my life.
The ogres were probably the ones I remember most for this town. Bloody good tanks, but slow.
Maybe all the devs of the HoMM games have something against peasants because they've never been anything but shitty. Honestly, they don't even make good cannon fodder.
Even with the new 1g/day ability, they still aren't worth much because it takes 20(?) days just to recoup my capital from buying each one of them. These days in HoMM V, I just leave them in town as a minor source of income.
But the crusaders (or were they paladins? Or did they need to be upgraded from paladins to crusaders just like in HoMM II?) were awesome. The next best thing to black dragons IIRC because they hit twice... hard.
Never used the Sorceress much. The most memorable creature to me was the dwarf because of its annoying ability to resist magic. Throw in the fact that they were inherently tough with low attack and had a high weekly spawn rate due to being a mere level 2 creature, and it becomes obvious they were designed to be nothing but a pain in the ass for the opposing army.
Why are male jackets so hard to find? Suit jackets are easy enough but weatherproof jackets are a whole different story compared to those in the ladies fashion section.
Saturday, 16 July 2011
Rant 813 / Collaborative Denominations
Finished my coffee on the 12th. Asked my mum to buy more for me since she was going down to the market in the morning anyway. Specifically told her to ask for South American coffee since the stall owner mentioned it once.
Nope. He only had Central American coffee today. No idea which country.
I'd expected to get Brazilian coffee instead. Oh well.
But it smelled familar, something like an instant coffee I've tasted in the past. I can't recall which brand now.
...
Now I know what it reminds me of - the coffee smell in buffet breakfasts in hotels.
Dammit, Japan. Y u so crazy?
Finally realized how hard...
the employees whine.
Ever since my mum stopped going to the office with me, they've been whining directly to me.
I'd only smile and say,"Yes I'll pass that to her," but when I do, she'd laugh and explain to me why they've been feeding me bullshit.
For example, yesterday they told me that the new jacket was hard to iron. We have to iron our jackets so that they don't look so wrinkly when put on display. The shops don't bother with that.
I thought it was strange because if there's anything I know for sure, it's that we have been using the same few waterproof materials for our jackets for many years already.
But I'm a newbie so I kept it to myself and gave the usual response.
When I told my mum, she confirmed that that jacket couldn't be particularly hard to iron because this was not the first time that material was used.
It's funny how hard they whine. That's not the first and only time they gave me this kind of nonsense. Everyday without fail, they have to have something to complain to me. Without fail.
At least they're consistent.
... I guess.
And it's not like we've been giving them more work over the years. On the contrary, my mum has been taking less work gradually.
I have to ask my friends if this is normal someday.
Killing Floor once again proves that my motor coordination is inversely proportional to how tired I am.
Today I played it at about 3pm. I was awesome, though not as good as the best player. I was getting headshots everywhere and before it started getting tense halfway through the second wave, I was killing with headshots every single time.
Somehow maintained my second place from the first wave till the end.
Last night when I played, I was nothing but a zombie count muliplier. Every player increases the zombie count per wave IIRC.
Headshots? I could barely hit anything before they get close enough to get killed by some guy in front with a shotgun.
That was wrong. I can snipe with a Bullpup easily. Unless the entire team was snipers, I should have been getting kills. Yet I stayed at the last place throughout the game.
One thing I noticed was that as a Commando, I'm somewhat useless against the final boss. True I help cover the rest from the normal zombies but against the final boss, I simply have inadequate firepower, even with the best gun for the class, the SCAR.
I guess it's always necessary to have a good Sharpshooter with a crossbow.
So it happened that this young couple flagged a cab about 20m ahead of me.
Except I was in a taxi stand and we had queued for about 15-20mins. It's been a rainy day so there was a long queue for taxis.
And they just flagged a cab in front of everyone.
The worst thing is the taxi driver probably didn't see the stand because two vehicle were temporarily parked between him and us along the slightly curved road, so he stopped for them.
They were looking at us as the cab drove pass us.
Small things.
Oh wow. After years of Chinese mainlanders scamming everyone else with all kinds of fake crap, Singaporeans have finally managed to give them a taste of their own medicine.
So this Singaporean furniture firm Da Vinci has been advertising their goods as "Made in Italy" but as many as 10% of them are actually made in China. The manufacturers have even been told to use cheaper materials.
This is no longer the Singapore I remember. Probably hasn't been for a long time already.
Nope. He only had Central American coffee today. No idea which country.
I'd expected to get Brazilian coffee instead. Oh well.
But it smelled familar, something like an instant coffee I've tasted in the past. I can't recall which brand now.
...
Now I know what it reminds me of - the coffee smell in buffet breakfasts in hotels.
Dammit, Japan. Y u so crazy?
Finally realized how hard...
the employees whine.
Ever since my mum stopped going to the office with me, they've been whining directly to me.
I'd only smile and say,"Yes I'll pass that to her," but when I do, she'd laugh and explain to me why they've been feeding me bullshit.
For example, yesterday they told me that the new jacket was hard to iron. We have to iron our jackets so that they don't look so wrinkly when put on display. The shops don't bother with that.
I thought it was strange because if there's anything I know for sure, it's that we have been using the same few waterproof materials for our jackets for many years already.
But I'm a newbie so I kept it to myself and gave the usual response.
When I told my mum, she confirmed that that jacket couldn't be particularly hard to iron because this was not the first time that material was used.
It's funny how hard they whine. That's not the first and only time they gave me this kind of nonsense. Everyday without fail, they have to have something to complain to me. Without fail.
At least they're consistent.
... I guess.
And it's not like we've been giving them more work over the years. On the contrary, my mum has been taking less work gradually.
I have to ask my friends if this is normal someday.
Killing Floor once again proves that my motor coordination is inversely proportional to how tired I am.
Today I played it at about 3pm. I was awesome, though not as good as the best player. I was getting headshots everywhere and before it started getting tense halfway through the second wave, I was killing with headshots every single time.
Somehow maintained my second place from the first wave till the end.
Last night when I played, I was nothing but a zombie count muliplier. Every player increases the zombie count per wave IIRC.
Headshots? I could barely hit anything before they get close enough to get killed by some guy in front with a shotgun.
That was wrong. I can snipe with a Bullpup easily. Unless the entire team was snipers, I should have been getting kills. Yet I stayed at the last place throughout the game.
One thing I noticed was that as a Commando, I'm somewhat useless against the final boss. True I help cover the rest from the normal zombies but against the final boss, I simply have inadequate firepower, even with the best gun for the class, the SCAR.
I guess it's always necessary to have a good Sharpshooter with a crossbow.
So it happened that this young couple flagged a cab about 20m ahead of me.
Except I was in a taxi stand and we had queued for about 15-20mins. It's been a rainy day so there was a long queue for taxis.
And they just flagged a cab in front of everyone.
The worst thing is the taxi driver probably didn't see the stand because two vehicle were temporarily parked between him and us along the slightly curved road, so he stopped for them.
They were looking at us as the cab drove pass us.
Small things.
Oh wow. After years of Chinese mainlanders scamming everyone else with all kinds of fake crap, Singaporeans have finally managed to give them a taste of their own medicine.
So this Singaporean furniture firm Da Vinci has been advertising their goods as "Made in Italy" but as many as 10% of them are actually made in China. The manufacturers have even been told to use cheaper materials.
This is no longer the Singapore I remember. Probably hasn't been for a long time already.
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Rant 812 / Connotative Deductions
I should probably find someplace that shows the entire series. Or just get all the seasons.
:O
ROFL!!
Looks useful.
So I realized why I kept missing calls the other day. The speaker is actually located in the protruding part of the phone next to the camera lens. So if it's being pressed into my leg inside my pocket, my leg and the cloth seriously muffles the sound. Furthermore I was in a mall that day so the noise basically covered up any sound that could escape.
Now I need to always remember to leave the screen facing me when I put it in my pocket.
My first time meeting a buyer alone. Two actually. I think the other was on OJT (on-job training) or something. Quiet and about the same age as me. My guess is he's a local grad with a business degree. Random guess.
Probably won't last longer than a few years. Also a random guess.
Didn't go quite well but still alright. My mum prepared me almost thoroughly for the meeting but she missed one of the details that was mentioned during the discussion. No idea if it was deliberate.
In the end the buyer called my mum directly instead to discuss it directly with her.
I'm a newbie but hopefully it won't happen next time.
Atom Zombie Smasher is so easy on Casual Mode. I didn't even know it's possible to gain points by capturing territory until now because I've never wiped out the zombies before nightfall. I've always thought that the part where it calculates points for territories was meant for the zombies to have an inherent advantage to offset human intelligence.
Now in Casual Mode, a team of snipers can easily handle one entry point's worth of zombies. 2 if given more time. Hence I've been able to kill everything for every mission. Half the map's currently mine.
Too easy.
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