I was so tempted to bid for the New iPod Touch 32GB. With only an hour remaining, it was only at 4700 PTZ. At this rate it would probably wipe out my PTZ but I'd get it.
It was illogical. I didn't need it. I didn't actually want it so that I could use it. The only reason I wanted to bid for it was because it was valuable and has a relatively low PTZ price compared to other stuff of the same monetary value. A bargain, in short.
And this is one reason why I dislike TV, magazines and newspapers in general. They are all filled with ads designed to make me want things I don't actually want for any practical purposes. Even on Facebook I sometimes close the ads indiscriminately and pick "Offensive" as the reason.
Yes even this is illogical. Should I blame my own greed or should I blame them for exploiting it?
Logged in to Friendster the other day. Apparently after it got taken over by a Malaysian company it had a makeover and required users to verify their emails. No account deletion though.
As it turns out, Friendster is surprisingly alive. I'd have thought I'd get no updates at all but a few friends are still using it.
I've really been playing Warband with the Prophesy of Pendor mod, which adds more stuff to the game.
I keep getting pwned. Of course now that I've gained a few levels I'm starting to hold my own against random cultists and etc who try to attack me. Still, I believe it's because it's the updates that have nerfed crouched lance damage and this is making it harder to kill. I don't know. It could also have been that this mods adds some insane armour to certain units.
I'm saying that because I've been encountering units, eg knights, who do not die immediately when they get skewered by my lance. In the past, nothing survives it even when I hit their shields. Now I get knights that simply deflect my attacks with them.
Because of this and the FPS problem, I lost 80% of my army in the last war. Like in ME2, I need to change my style here.
Also reducing all graphics settings to the barest minimum. Let's see what this will do.
I feel like eating that baked chicken breasts with sage that I made some months back. I think I'll go to Cold Storage when I go pay my course fees. This time I'll try one batch with the sage replaced by a generous dose of the dried basil I can never seem to find a use for.
It was only after that day that I learnt that when using dried basil, I need to add a lot more compared to fresh leaves. Kind of counter-intuitive actually since my original logic is that when the herb dries, it shrinks and therefore becomes denser and creates a more intense aroma per unit volume.
Wonder what other herbs go well with chicken. Apparently thyme and rosemary are two possible options. Yes, I'll get both sage and thyme then.
Btw the other day I think I tasted sage in that sausage in my Big Breakfast.
I can finally identify one herb by taste! Yes!!
My sleep schedule has been royally screwed from the last two overnight stays on Christmas and New Year's Day. I'm currently extremely sleepy at 1-2pm and wake up at 9-10pm. If I could switch the PM to AM, I'd be a very healthy person.
In conclusion I now have jet lag of 12 hours and 2 weeks to fix this. I don't mind sleeping in the day, but I can't sleep during the hours I have classes in.
The Wikipedia article on the Korean War surprised me. Saw something about it yesterday and noticed I know almost nothing about it, so I read a bit of it.
On hindsight, it should have been obvious, but the idea that the current split of the Korean peninsula was caused by reasons dating before the downfall of the Qing Dynasty never crossed my mind.
The story, as summarised by me, is as follows:
As we all know, once upon a time China was huge and strong. Most of the smaller kingdoms and such around it were its vassal states at one time or another. In the case of Korea, it had been a vassal state for a century by the time Japan was forced to abandon its self-imposed isolation.
When Japan grew strong enough to look outward, it noticed that the Korean peninsula was in a rather strategic spot. More specifically, anyone who gets that bit of land will have a balcony with a great view of Japanese sceneries.
Hence, the First Sino-Japanese War. In 1895, Cixi lost the war and Korea was freed. Two years later, the Greater Korean Empire was formed. Cool name but doesn't mean a thing, just like a 30cm-long epeen.
For seventeen years it prospered and modernized, a young empire growing up in a time when all the big bad wolves were busy eyeing the bulging flesh of the dying morbidly obese China with a bad heart. Then in 1905, the Russian Empire lost the the Russo-Japanese War. As a result, the Russians pulled their burnt hands away from the region. Meanwhile, the US had quietly agreed not to interfere with Japanese actions in Korea.
Seeing that all the big boys in the neighbourhood were backing off and having no political clout of its own, the teenage Korean Empire signed a treaty in the same year to become a protectorate of the Japanese Empire. One might call it a pre-emptive surrender.
Whatever you call it, this arrangement lasted all the way till the end of WWII. During this period of time, the Koreans were basically the servants of the Japanese. The latter exploited their fertile lands and able men to create both a large army and workforce. In fact so many of the workers in the Japanese Empire were Koreans that they made up 25% of the victims of the two nukes.
In the aftermath, the Allies decided to do the same thing to Japanese lands as they did to German lands - they split everything up like pizza and everyone gets a slice.
Hence the line right in the middle of the Korean peninsula, with the Russians getting the north and the Americans taking the south. In time, each of the countries' influences turned the two halves into very different political environments. While the northern half began to turn to Communism, the south converted to Democracy. Don't forget, this was during the Cold War, hence all this fuss about these two political ideas.
Meanwhile some Korean politicians were in China forming their own government-in-exile but nobody gave a fuck.
Eventually Korea (they weren't split up that badly then) was told to have some elections so that they could have a leader and be an independant nation again. However, the political ideologies of the two sides were so different by then that they decided to behave like Africans (and currently, Iraqis and Afghans) instead.
In the end, both sides got so pissed by all the killing that in 1948, they both spontaneously set up their own official governments of the whole Korea. In the north, we had Kim Il Sung, father of the current Kim Jung Il, while in the south we had the relatively unknown Syngman Rhee. Is that supposed to be "Simon"? Oh never mind. His name was Yi Seungman.
Then in 1948, the Americans left the South for various reasons including their lack of popularity. Pretty similar to why they left Iraq some years ago.
Anyway the moment they did, the North decided to strike. With the USSR and PRC on its side, shit, even I would have done the same thing in that situation. I mean, the South was poor and wasn't supported by anyone while two big shots, who were also the North's nextdoor neighbours, were backing it. Kim Il Sung would have to be incredibly stupid not to!
After that things got really messy, so let's skip that. After all, if you wanted actual descriptions of the events you wouldn't be reading this.
So they kept fighting blah blah blah...
And they lived happily ever after. Other than all the soldiers along the border, the artilleries aimed at Seoul and the occasional sabre-rattling of course.
I wish historians would write history like this. It would have been more fun to study the subject.
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Rant 693 / Coin Flips
Been spend more time than usual (ie nothing) on Lockerz when I discovered they were offering 3X the PTZ for watching videos for 3 days. I saw that notice only on the second day. So I spent that entire day playing Warband and playing videos (not watching). Spent half of the next day doing the same and the rest at Vic's place. Now I've made an additional 3k PTZ and I see there are some interesting items on the daily auctions at Lockerz, like the Paypal cash.
For an entire day on the 1st of Jan, they only had Paypal cash available for bids. Pretty cool but nothing I found worthy of my bids. Seriously not going to waste all my PTZ just for US$25 when I can get Dragon Age: Origins or even the Blu-ray for the movie Kick-Ass for less. IIRC 45 before the auction ended for Dragon Age: Origins just now the highest bid was around 2k PTZ. Right now, over 1hr before the end of the auction for Kick-Ass, the highest bid is only over 1300PTZ.
None of them are anything I actually want, but they're pretty cheap IMO. A slightly more useful item whose auction is close to ending is this Canon Pixma iP2600 Photo Printer that's currently 5h30m away from closing and the highest bid is only at 2k.
Too bad it's just a photo printer.
There's also a PSP bundled with a few good games that's already at 4k PTZ even though there's still 8 hours left. Hot, and no way I can afford it. It's probably going to go for 10k PTZ or more. I remember there was a Kinect bundle yesterday that came with a 360. Obviously even hotter than the PSP but that was probably the only thing I would have bidded for if I could.
Anyway the 3 days are over but I'm still playing the videos for more PTZ since I can still watch the videos 3 times each. Not much of a hassle when I play everything in Windowed mode.
Another reason that motivates me to do this is that the bids are now less obscene than the first time I saw them. IIRC some even managed to hit 30k PTZ, which I mentioned in a past rant. Or was it 20k?
Then again...
Just came out for 2 hours and it's already too expensive for me.
China announces that it has discovered a way to reuse nuclear fuel. I sense Nobel Prize laureates. IMO this isn't just big, but huge, especially if it could stretch China's known uranium resources to anywhere remotely close to the 3000 years they said it could. Even a thousand years is great TBH, since at our current rate of technological progress humanity will very likely be able to mine other planets for resources in less than half of that length of time.
Empires on my laptop is so bad. It's been so long I've actually forgotten what it was like.
My frames-per-second (FPS) on my desktop was around 130, though it does drop to 10 on rare occasions when the server gets very full (55-60 players). My laptop drops to 9 FPS even when there are only over 20 players and randomly rises to 30+ for a minute or two once in a while.
I can't play except as an engineer and stay back to build/repair stuff. Even then, I can't listen to instructions they say on their mics because the lag makes their voices stutter.
And I'm not even going to talk about the drastic reduction in screen resolution.
Oh well, that means I'm stuck with playing only engineers and grenadiers, and very bad ones at that.
This sucks. I can't pay my UniSIM course fees online now. Apparently this is the norm... except I could do it for my first semester. Why are first-timers given the option of paying online while the rest aren't?
Anyway the rates are quite different from that of NUS and NTU. In UniSIM, fees are charged according to the number of credit units of the modules (aka AU in NTU). The average CU of my modules are 5 (average AU in NTU for me was 3) and they cost me $600. That makes the price of each CU $120. Modules worth 2.5CU (electives mostly) cost $300 and the more serious ones with 10CU cost $1200.
All that do not include the 7% GST.
This semester actually does worry me. 2 modules are Chinese courses while another 10CU module is on the comparison of both languages. Furthermore I picked yet another course beyond the usual 20CU but that's just a 2.5CU elective on the law.
Now I'm considering removing it because I might get overwhelmed by the Chinese-heavy content of the other modules. Wednesday, which is today, is the last day for such changes.
Then again, it's just a small course and it's going to cost me $53.50 to apply for the change.
I wonder if it's got an exam or if it ends with a big assignment. I'd rather get the assignment, obviously. I can't check for that now but I remember seeing exam dates when I first picked the courses. If I had taken any screenshots, they're all in my desktop at Sim Lim Square.
My laptop burns and slows down during battle in Warband. It's more difficult now to KO my enemies with my extremely long Balanced Blunt Tip Lance. I keep missing because the FPS drops and even hangs for half a second when I get close to enemies.
It's strange. 60 years ago China fought against the UN in Korea. Now it's in the UN. It's just hard for the average guy to see how fluid political boundaries are.
For an entire day on the 1st of Jan, they only had Paypal cash available for bids. Pretty cool but nothing I found worthy of my bids. Seriously not going to waste all my PTZ just for US$25 when I can get Dragon Age: Origins or even the Blu-ray for the movie Kick-Ass for less. IIRC 45 before the auction ended for Dragon Age: Origins just now the highest bid was around 2k PTZ. Right now, over 1hr before the end of the auction for Kick-Ass, the highest bid is only over 1300PTZ.
None of them are anything I actually want, but they're pretty cheap IMO. A slightly more useful item whose auction is close to ending is this Canon Pixma iP2600 Photo Printer that's currently 5h30m away from closing and the highest bid is only at 2k.
Too bad it's just a photo printer.
There's also a PSP bundled with a few good games that's already at 4k PTZ even though there's still 8 hours left. Hot, and no way I can afford it. It's probably going to go for 10k PTZ or more. I remember there was a Kinect bundle yesterday that came with a 360. Obviously even hotter than the PSP but that was probably the only thing I would have bidded for if I could.
Anyway the 3 days are over but I'm still playing the videos for more PTZ since I can still watch the videos 3 times each. Not much of a hassle when I play everything in Windowed mode.
Another reason that motivates me to do this is that the bids are now less obscene than the first time I saw them. IIRC some even managed to hit 30k PTZ, which I mentioned in a past rant. Or was it 20k?
Then again...
China announces that it has discovered a way to reuse nuclear fuel. I sense Nobel Prize laureates. IMO this isn't just big, but huge, especially if it could stretch China's known uranium resources to anywhere remotely close to the 3000 years they said it could. Even a thousand years is great TBH, since at our current rate of technological progress humanity will very likely be able to mine other planets for resources in less than half of that length of time.
Empires on my laptop is so bad. It's been so long I've actually forgotten what it was like.
My frames-per-second (FPS) on my desktop was around 130, though it does drop to 10 on rare occasions when the server gets very full (55-60 players). My laptop drops to 9 FPS even when there are only over 20 players and randomly rises to 30+ for a minute or two once in a while.
I can't play except as an engineer and stay back to build/repair stuff. Even then, I can't listen to instructions they say on their mics because the lag makes their voices stutter.
And I'm not even going to talk about the drastic reduction in screen resolution.
Oh well, that means I'm stuck with playing only engineers and grenadiers, and very bad ones at that.
This sucks. I can't pay my UniSIM course fees online now. Apparently this is the norm... except I could do it for my first semester. Why are first-timers given the option of paying online while the rest aren't?
Anyway the rates are quite different from that of NUS and NTU. In UniSIM, fees are charged according to the number of credit units of the modules (aka AU in NTU). The average CU of my modules are 5 (average AU in NTU for me was 3) and they cost me $600. That makes the price of each CU $120. Modules worth 2.5CU (electives mostly) cost $300 and the more serious ones with 10CU cost $1200.
All that do not include the 7% GST.
This semester actually does worry me. 2 modules are Chinese courses while another 10CU module is on the comparison of both languages. Furthermore I picked yet another course beyond the usual 20CU but that's just a 2.5CU elective on the law.
Now I'm considering removing it because I might get overwhelmed by the Chinese-heavy content of the other modules. Wednesday, which is today, is the last day for such changes.
Then again, it's just a small course and it's going to cost me $53.50 to apply for the change.
I wonder if it's got an exam or if it ends with a big assignment. I'd rather get the assignment, obviously. I can't check for that now but I remember seeing exam dates when I first picked the courses. If I had taken any screenshots, they're all in my desktop at Sim Lim Square.
My laptop burns and slows down during battle in Warband. It's more difficult now to KO my enemies with my extremely long Balanced Blunt Tip Lance. I keep missing because the FPS drops and even hangs for half a second when I get close to enemies.
It's strange. 60 years ago China fought against the UN in Korea. Now it's in the UN. It's just hard for the average guy to see how fluid political boundaries are.
Monday, 3 January 2011
Rant 692 / How Did Your Game Go?
So SC2 GSL 2011 Season 1 has begun! Today, the first 2 matches of the Ro32 are IMNestea vs PoltPrime.WE and MakaPrime.WE vs TheBestfOu. Apparently Code S matches, which include both of today's, involves pitching the loser of one match against the winner of the other. Therefore there will be 4 matches in total.
With a 2-3 games per match, that means each of the 4 players will be going through 4-6 games today.
Making money is never easy, huh?
EDIT: There were FIVE matches according to the schedule at the end of the day! WTF? And I missed everything because I couldn't stay up anymore by 4pm and despite my alarm being set to 5pm I woke up at 11.40pm with my alarm somehow switched off. Happens from time to time when I'm really tired. Since I woke up at 7pm the day before, I was only up for 21 hours. Probably because I didn't sleep well that day.
Speaking of SC2, here are some interesting screenshots I found earlier.
Do most women think that guys who are nice to children are good for marriage? Apparently, that's how some of my uncles became my uncles. According to my mum, one of my uncle used to be just a business associate of my father's. When she noticed how he was always treating my bro and I so well she decided to introduce him to one of her sisters.
So is it just them or do most women think that way? It makes sense, yes, but marriage isn't just about kids, so it can be just a minor thing to some.
My new year's resolution is still 1680*1050.
My PC has really died. It was working fine yesterday after I got back from Vic's place and I even managed to upload everything from the camera. But it hanged some time after that, the sort of crash in which nothing responds except the Reset button.
When I resetted, the dreaded motherboard logo screen appeared while booting... and even stayed there.
Four times it booted, this first and the fourth it crashed there.
The second time it crashed when I was changing those options I mentioned in a previous rant in the BIOS menu. It just stopped responding all of a sudden. The third time it crashed after I chose to "Save and Exit".
So here I am typing on the laptop again. It's Monday morning and I'm going to bring it to the store for repairs. Tried switching it on again just now. Only the fans worked like the other day. Wonder if I'm going to have to replace the motherboard or something.
And on a separate note, according to the reciept I left in the box of all the stuff that came with the computer, I had bought it in June '09.
This computer isn't even 2 years old yet. I sadden.
EDIT: The computer booted normally after the technician changed the same settings as I did, twice. In the end because I told him that it had not booted normally five times since yesterday, he said he could send it back to the manufacturer for servicing since the warranty hasn't ended yet.
You know, I'm not even aware of the length of the period(s) the warranties last for each part of my computer.
Anyway, I'm going to be surviving on my old friend the laptop for 1-2 weeks. They will call me when it's done, or I'll call them in 2 weeks. That's 17th Jan.
Good thing I can play Empires, Deathspank and most likely Mount&Blade: Warband here.
Wikipedia managed to raise US$16m in total with US$22 being the average donation amount.That makes a total of about 727273 donations made. With the "personal message" being so annoying, I'm not surprised people donated more just to get rid of it.
With a 2-3 games per match, that means each of the 4 players will be going through 4-6 games today.
Making money is never easy, huh?
EDIT: There were FIVE matches according to the schedule at the end of the day! WTF? And I missed everything because I couldn't stay up anymore by 4pm and despite my alarm being set to 5pm I woke up at 11.40pm with my alarm somehow switched off. Happens from time to time when I'm really tired. Since I woke up at 7pm the day before, I was only up for 21 hours. Probably because I didn't sleep well that day.
Speaking of SC2, here are some interesting screenshots I found earlier.
Do most women think that guys who are nice to children are good for marriage? Apparently, that's how some of my uncles became my uncles. According to my mum, one of my uncle used to be just a business associate of my father's. When she noticed how he was always treating my bro and I so well she decided to introduce him to one of her sisters.
So is it just them or do most women think that way? It makes sense, yes, but marriage isn't just about kids, so it can be just a minor thing to some.
My new year's resolution is still 1680*1050.
My PC has really died. It was working fine yesterday after I got back from Vic's place and I even managed to upload everything from the camera. But it hanged some time after that, the sort of crash in which nothing responds except the Reset button.
When I resetted, the dreaded motherboard logo screen appeared while booting... and even stayed there.
Four times it booted, this first and the fourth it crashed there.
The second time it crashed when I was changing those options I mentioned in a previous rant in the BIOS menu. It just stopped responding all of a sudden. The third time it crashed after I chose to "Save and Exit".
So here I am typing on the laptop again. It's Monday morning and I'm going to bring it to the store for repairs. Tried switching it on again just now. Only the fans worked like the other day. Wonder if I'm going to have to replace the motherboard or something.
And on a separate note, according to the reciept I left in the box of all the stuff that came with the computer, I had bought it in June '09.
This computer isn't even 2 years old yet. I sadden.
EDIT: The computer booted normally after the technician changed the same settings as I did, twice. In the end because I told him that it had not booted normally five times since yesterday, he said he could send it back to the manufacturer for servicing since the warranty hasn't ended yet.
You know, I'm not even aware of the length of the period(s) the warranties last for each part of my computer.
Anyway, I'm going to be surviving on my old friend the laptop for 1-2 weeks. They will call me when it's done, or I'll call them in 2 weeks. That's 17th Jan.
Good thing I can play Empires, Deathspank and most likely Mount&Blade: Warband here.
Wikipedia managed to raise US$16m in total with US$22 being the average donation amount.That makes a total of about 727273 donations made. With the "personal message" being so annoying, I'm not surprised people donated more just to get rid of it.
Friday, 31 December 2010
Rant 691 / Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
I am confused.
I was looking through the various New Year's Day eCards on Care2.com when I came across this phrase "Chu Shen Tan" which was supposed to mean "Happy New Year" in Mandarin.
This sounds nothing like "新年快樂" (xin1 nian2 kuai4 le4), so I thought maybe the reason I didn't understand it was that they were missing the tones.
So I googled it and found that the entire phrase was supposed to be "Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan" which apparently means "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."
See why I'm confused?
The thing is, in Mandarin, the only verbal consonants that words can end with are "r", "n", "ng" and "m". In other words, "His" does not represent any word in Mandarin.
Therefore, "his" must have originally been "hsi".
Which would give us "kung hsi hsin nien bing chu shen tan".
I believe "kung hsi hsin nien" is supposed to be "恭喜新年" which in english is approximately "wish you a happy new year", although this is wrong and is barely understandable. "恭喜" is closer to "congratulations".
What about "bing chu shen tan"?
I'm guessing "bing" is 並 which can mean "and", and "shen tan" probably is 聖誕 which is the Mandarin for "Christmas".
The "chu" is the problem here. The closest and best guess I can offer right now is "祝" (zhu4) which is the more proper way of saying "wish" as in "wish you a merry Christmas".
If so, this entire phrase should mean "congratulations new year and wish Christmas". Or else, I'm entirely wrong.
Better New Year's Day greetings in Chinese can be found on this page. No English pronunciation guides there though.
If you search this phrase on Google, you'll be surprised how many results there are for it.
Since 主義 means "ideology", 社會主義 = "social ideology"? If so, the following wouldn't make sense... would it?
Produce more steel to speed up the construction of our social ideology?
I know it doesn't sound right but I need to understand this before I can phrase it better.
Often when fighting in RPGs I'd think at the back of my mind how these enemies are always isolated in tiny groups that make no tactical sense. Not in Mass Effect 2 since they sometimes come in squads of 6-7, but in other games like Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas or Oblivion, they often come in duos or trios.
Now if you have an army defending a location, why would you ever want to spread them out like that?
Even in ME2, many incidents would have ended tragically for Shepard if the enemy had just focused all available firepower on a single choke point.
That's not the only common strategic blunder in games.
The other thing I notice is this strange habit that all villains have of sending their weakest minions/henchmen first before sending progressively stronger soldiers.
That doesn't make sense. In real life you don't read about historic generals sending their greenest recruits to sally outside a city during a siege, and you don't see modern era commanders posting recruits to the frontlines without a good reason. Instead it is often the commandos, ie the best soldiers, who attack first. Meanwhile, the worst soldiers are kept at the back for defence or used as cannon fodder.
In other words, if villains in games were to make use of proper strategies, we would be fighting the final boss in the prologue. Come to think of it, maybe that's why they don't.
Ordered Sarpino's last night. Even though the pizza I picked was the Ultimate Double Meat, it was surprisingly full of vegetables, mainly tomatoes, onions and green peppers. The cheese is quite light and the meat is mostly buried under the veggies, making it almost vegetarian. It's not bad, really. In fact the tomatoes are juicier than I expected.
Adding the fact that the menu contains more vegetarian pizzas than any other pizzerias that I know of, I feel that Sarpino's is a good choice for people who are more inclined towards a herbivorous diet.
Unfortunately that does not include me.
I like the garlic bread sticks though, despite the fact that the jalapeno dip is just mayo.
So apparently there is an auction site for first-hand goods for Singaporeans. At Bidhere.com people bid for stuff and the highest bidders gets the items. The catch is that each bid costs money.
Initially I wanted to wait till they offer good signup bonuses before making an account but I couldn't find a list of prices for their BidPacks, so I made an account out of curiosity.
This is the price list for Singaporeans. Prices differ in other countries.
At S$0.85 per bid, it's not that cheap when you take into account the possibility of making lots of bids for really hot items. Boxed options are temporary offers.
However, look at what I found on the Ended Auctions page:
So if you're actually into online shopping and have some patience, this looks like a great website for you. But for me, this is just a place to keep an eye on. Maybe someday I will see something I want.
The PS3 is great but so far hackers have only managed to jailbreak it this month. There is still a long time before we can play pirated games on it.
Anyway I've later noticed that this isn't the only one and is probably just one of many out there that Singaporeans can use. Another thing is that these auction sites may be scams.
I was looking through the various New Year's Day eCards on Care2.com when I came across this phrase "Chu Shen Tan" which was supposed to mean "Happy New Year" in Mandarin.
This sounds nothing like "新年快樂" (xin1 nian2 kuai4 le4), so I thought maybe the reason I didn't understand it was that they were missing the tones.
So I googled it and found that the entire phrase was supposed to be "Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan" which apparently means "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."
See why I'm confused?
The thing is, in Mandarin, the only verbal consonants that words can end with are "r", "n", "ng" and "m". In other words, "His" does not represent any word in Mandarin.
Therefore, "his" must have originally been "hsi".
Which would give us "kung hsi hsin nien bing chu shen tan".
I believe "kung hsi hsin nien" is supposed to be "恭喜新年" which in english is approximately "wish you a happy new year", although this is wrong and is barely understandable. "恭喜" is closer to "congratulations".
What about "bing chu shen tan"?
I'm guessing "bing" is 並 which can mean "and", and "shen tan" probably is 聖誕 which is the Mandarin for "Christmas".
The "chu" is the problem here. The closest and best guess I can offer right now is "祝" (zhu4) which is the more proper way of saying "wish" as in "wish you a merry Christmas".
If so, this entire phrase should mean "congratulations new year and wish Christmas". Or else, I'm entirely wrong.
Better New Year's Day greetings in Chinese can be found on this page. No English pronunciation guides there though.
If you search this phrase on Google, you'll be surprised how many results there are for it.
Since 主義 means "ideology", 社會主義 = "social ideology"? If so, the following wouldn't make sense... would it?
Produce more steel to speed up the construction of our social ideology?
I know it doesn't sound right but I need to understand this before I can phrase it better.
Often when fighting in RPGs I'd think at the back of my mind how these enemies are always isolated in tiny groups that make no tactical sense. Not in Mass Effect 2 since they sometimes come in squads of 6-7, but in other games like Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas or Oblivion, they often come in duos or trios.
Now if you have an army defending a location, why would you ever want to spread them out like that?
Even in ME2, many incidents would have ended tragically for Shepard if the enemy had just focused all available firepower on a single choke point.
That's not the only common strategic blunder in games.
The other thing I notice is this strange habit that all villains have of sending their weakest minions/henchmen first before sending progressively stronger soldiers.
That doesn't make sense. In real life you don't read about historic generals sending their greenest recruits to sally outside a city during a siege, and you don't see modern era commanders posting recruits to the frontlines without a good reason. Instead it is often the commandos, ie the best soldiers, who attack first. Meanwhile, the worst soldiers are kept at the back for defence or used as cannon fodder.
In other words, if villains in games were to make use of proper strategies, we would be fighting the final boss in the prologue. Come to think of it, maybe that's why they don't.
Ordered Sarpino's last night. Even though the pizza I picked was the Ultimate Double Meat, it was surprisingly full of vegetables, mainly tomatoes, onions and green peppers. The cheese is quite light and the meat is mostly buried under the veggies, making it almost vegetarian. It's not bad, really. In fact the tomatoes are juicier than I expected.
Adding the fact that the menu contains more vegetarian pizzas than any other pizzerias that I know of, I feel that Sarpino's is a good choice for people who are more inclined towards a herbivorous diet.
Unfortunately that does not include me.
I like the garlic bread sticks though, despite the fact that the jalapeno dip is just mayo.
So apparently there is an auction site for first-hand goods for Singaporeans. At Bidhere.com people bid for stuff and the highest bidders gets the items. The catch is that each bid costs money.
Initially I wanted to wait till they offer good signup bonuses before making an account but I couldn't find a list of prices for their BidPacks, so I made an account out of curiosity.
This is the price list for Singaporeans. Prices differ in other countries.
At S$0.85 per bid, it's not that cheap when you take into account the possibility of making lots of bids for really hot items. Boxed options are temporary offers.
However, look at what I found on the Ended Auctions page:
So if you're actually into online shopping and have some patience, this looks like a great website for you. But for me, this is just a place to keep an eye on. Maybe someday I will see something I want.
The PS3 is great but so far hackers have only managed to jailbreak it this month. There is still a long time before we can play pirated games on it.
Anyway I've later noticed that this isn't the only one and is probably just one of many out there that Singaporeans can use. Another thing is that these auction sites may be scams.
Thursday, 30 December 2010
Rant 690 / Now With Ten Times As Many 69s!
My modem, as expected, recovered last night. This time I'm not going to cancel the technician's appointment. If they ever call me back to confirm the time, that is.
Still got to wait till March before I get my fibre optics cable point installed, then a little longer to get the new broadband plan.
It's actually cheaper to use the broadband plans for the fibre optics cable but there has to be a catch somewhere.
Meanwhile, my bro has gone to his gf's place and staying there for an unknown period of time partly because of the temporary death of the modem. He didn't actually say he was staying there for the internet access but he has, in the past, admitted that both his gf and him prefer his room to hers. So whenever he stays there, we know it's not because he likes to sleep in an intimate position with her on her tiny bed.
No sarcasm here. They do stay here together much more often than they do there.
Here's an interesting article about different types of plastics and food safety regarding them.
I know those numbers in the triangle at the bottom of most plastic containers help recyclers differentiate between the types of plastics, but I never found out what they really meant. And point 6 was not obvious at all. How could anyone know instinctively that "microwave safe" doesn't mean it's perfectly safe to cook food in?
Things to note about McDelivery's breakfast menu:
If you are going to order combo meals and ala carte items, pick the right ala carte items.
For example, if someone wants a Sausage McMuffin w/ Egg combo and another wants just a Big Breakfast, order a Sausage McMuffin by itself and a Big Breakfast combo instead.
Why?
Because upgrading a Sausage McMuffin w/ Egg to its corresponding combo meal costs an additional $2 ($4.05 -> $6.05), while doing the same for Big Breakfast only costs $1.35 ($4.95 -> $6.30).
As for the other items, Big Breakfast Deluxe requires an extra $1.75 to upgrade, both McGriddles require $1.95 and everything else requires $2.
If you order both breakfast and lunch for multiple people like I do, the differences can possibly add up to an additional McMuffin.
When you are keeping things for lunch, things grow cold and soggy. This means ordering hashbrowns for your lunch item is not a very good idea. Therefore, skip the combo and just get the ala carte stuff.
Also I remove the lids for Big Breakfast and Hotcakes and open the wrappings for all the McMuffins if I'm not eating them immediately. None of the items on McDonald's menus taste good soggy, and fortunately I have no bugs in my room.
Just found this website called Cuisine Xpress that looks quite interesting. However, prices are at restaurant levels and can get quite expensive. For example, I randomly checked 4 main courses in one of the available restaurants located in Holland V (it's got lots of restaurants on the list) and I managed to exceed S$100.
May look at the other restaurants next time but for now, I'm not going to try it till I have a very good reason to do so.
Still got to wait till March before I get my fibre optics cable point installed, then a little longer to get the new broadband plan.
It's actually cheaper to use the broadband plans for the fibre optics cable but there has to be a catch somewhere.
Meanwhile, my bro has gone to his gf's place and staying there for an unknown period of time partly because of the temporary death of the modem. He didn't actually say he was staying there for the internet access but he has, in the past, admitted that both his gf and him prefer his room to hers. So whenever he stays there, we know it's not because he likes to sleep in an intimate position with her on her tiny bed.
No sarcasm here. They do stay here together much more often than they do there.
Here's an interesting article about different types of plastics and food safety regarding them.
I know those numbers in the triangle at the bottom of most plastic containers help recyclers differentiate between the types of plastics, but I never found out what they really meant. And point 6 was not obvious at all. How could anyone know instinctively that "microwave safe" doesn't mean it's perfectly safe to cook food in?
Things to note about McDelivery's breakfast menu:
If you are going to order combo meals and ala carte items, pick the right ala carte items.
For example, if someone wants a Sausage McMuffin w/ Egg combo and another wants just a Big Breakfast, order a Sausage McMuffin by itself and a Big Breakfast combo instead.
Why?
Because upgrading a Sausage McMuffin w/ Egg to its corresponding combo meal costs an additional $2 ($4.05 -> $6.05), while doing the same for Big Breakfast only costs $1.35 ($4.95 -> $6.30).
As for the other items, Big Breakfast Deluxe requires an extra $1.75 to upgrade, both McGriddles require $1.95 and everything else requires $2.
If you order both breakfast and lunch for multiple people like I do, the differences can possibly add up to an additional McMuffin.
When you are keeping things for lunch, things grow cold and soggy. This means ordering hashbrowns for your lunch item is not a very good idea. Therefore, skip the combo and just get the ala carte stuff.
Also I remove the lids for Big Breakfast and Hotcakes and open the wrappings for all the McMuffins if I'm not eating them immediately. None of the items on McDonald's menus taste good soggy, and fortunately I have no bugs in my room.
Just found this website called Cuisine Xpress that looks quite interesting. However, prices are at restaurant levels and can get quite expensive. For example, I randomly checked 4 main courses in one of the available restaurants located in Holland V (it's got lots of restaurants on the list) and I managed to exceed S$100.
May look at the other restaurants next time but for now, I'm not going to try it till I have a very good reason to do so.
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
Rant 689 / Human-Flavoured Tofu For Vegetarian Cannibals
Tue
That night at CZY's place his sister was, for some reason, saying that Justin Bieber was a 51-year-old man and that it was on the Internet. Obviously she has been visiting Onion News.
Justin Bieber Found To Be Cleverly Disguised 51-Year-Old Pedophile
The ending in which the "real" Bieber sang without his disguise was quite creepy. Somehow I just couldn't connect the voice to the face.
Which showed to me how the brain works regarding preconceptions and what we "know". If we "knew" something to be true all our lives, then we would find it hard to believe it was false even if we were to see proof of it with our own two eyes.
So the next time you feel frustrated because someone just flatly refuses to believe what you say no matter the evidence, remember this video and understand, especially if you felt the way as I did about the singing.
Oh, and she's a complete attention whore. My guess is she probably loves Facebook. If not, she definitely will when she gets older.
Or maybe she was just bored. Either way, she was probably our pre-emptive karma for making so much noise later that night.
Finally getting used to handling the Engineer class in ME2. Now I always kill normal enemies without spending ammo, especially when there is no urgency. Minibosses are also easier since I have the Combat Drone. All I need to do is spam Shift to keep pausing every 4 seconds or so in order to keep the miniboss busy with a constantly respawning Drone while my team members take care of any henchmen. Not my problem if none of the AI can kill it within 4 seconds in Hardcore difficulty.
If a country is always in an increasing debt and yet still manages to grow economically, how is it different from a gigantic Ponzi scheme?
NWN2 Platinum Edition (aka with both expansions) for 10USD on Steam. I didn't know they usually go for $20 only. Speaking of this game, I just noticed the 2D sprites used in ME2.
Normally, I don't look up a lot but a few days ago I did. That was when I saw that all those people on the upper floors in Ilium consisted of only 2 sprites being used repeatedly. Worse still, they looked horrible close up (eg on the left outside the windows of Liara's office), obviously because they were never meant to be seen from that distance.
These sprites immediately reminded me of those in Baldur's Gate 2, except larger. The reason is that they keep doing the same action, like raising their hands and leaning forward, then back to standing straight again. I know these sprites are used in order to create a more lively background using minimal processing power, but seriously, they could have designed it better. At the very least, don't give us a chance to see them like 3m away. That asari sprite looks like a man-sized blurry mass. A disturbing sight IMHO.
If I didn't know better, I'd say Bioware had re-invented Ivan Ooze in ME2.
Found a new server for Empires today that's based in Hong Kong. Fantastic. Good ping, all newbies, filled with Cantonese speakers. Unfortunately it showed me that ping isn't the reason why I suck at shooting. I just have no talent at aiming with the gun.
And they keep calling me "鬼佬" which means white guy, just because I don't have a mic and can't type Chinese in the game, even though when each player joins the server his country is announced in English. As you can deduce, their English is horrible, hence I've given up on trying to tell the comm what to do.
I'd comm but I know it's not good to have a leader who cannot communicate with the team, even if he's better at it than any of them.
The boat that sank in Mersing was apparently inspected and found to be "seaworthy" by the local authorities. And it sank before the local meteorological station issued the category 3 alert.
So the problem has to lie in either the inspection or the standards of the inspections. Do the inspectors just look around and search for holes in the hull?
You know what's the best thing about McDelivery? Ordering breakfast on the night before so that all I need to do the next day is wake up at the right time.
Wed
My modem died. It had lost the internet connection since 12am last night. As usual, I restarted it before going to bed. Assuming there would be no problem, I didn't wait for it to finish booting before switching off my PC.
This morning, there was still no connection. My bro, who usually wakes up at 7, had resorted to using his phone for its tiny bandwidth. Me, I have the USB modem. My mum has nothing. =(
This has happened twice before. Both times it returned to normal within 48 hours. I assumed it would be so again this time, but decided to do something about it for my mum's sake.
So I went through all that "switching cable points" routine that the Starhub call center told me to do the last 2 times. Just before I finished the final test of connecting the modem directly to a computer, the modem did not turn on at all.
Now the modem is completely dead. I believe the term for it is "bricked".
So I called Starhub. The customer service guy, upon hearing that my modem doesn't even turn on, said he would forward it to the appropriate department and asked me for my number.
I'm very likely not going to get a good connection until they send a technician over.
No online games till then, which sucks because I managed to set up my shitty mic and was planning on playing Empires on the HK server again.
Fortunately I still have ME2, Deathspank and Arcania: Gothic 4.
That night at CZY's place his sister was, for some reason, saying that Justin Bieber was a 51-year-old man and that it was on the Internet. Obviously she has been visiting Onion News.
Justin Bieber Found To Be Cleverly Disguised 51-Year-Old Pedophile
The ending in which the "real" Bieber sang without his disguise was quite creepy. Somehow I just couldn't connect the voice to the face.
Which showed to me how the brain works regarding preconceptions and what we "know". If we "knew" something to be true all our lives, then we would find it hard to believe it was false even if we were to see proof of it with our own two eyes.
So the next time you feel frustrated because someone just flatly refuses to believe what you say no matter the evidence, remember this video and understand, especially if you felt the way as I did about the singing.
Oh, and she's a complete attention whore. My guess is she probably loves Facebook. If not, she definitely will when she gets older.
Or maybe she was just bored. Either way, she was probably our pre-emptive karma for making so much noise later that night.
Finally getting used to handling the Engineer class in ME2. Now I always kill normal enemies without spending ammo, especially when there is no urgency. Minibosses are also easier since I have the Combat Drone. All I need to do is spam Shift to keep pausing every 4 seconds or so in order to keep the miniboss busy with a constantly respawning Drone while my team members take care of any henchmen. Not my problem if none of the AI can kill it within 4 seconds in Hardcore difficulty.
If a country is always in an increasing debt and yet still manages to grow economically, how is it different from a gigantic Ponzi scheme?
NWN2 Platinum Edition (aka with both expansions) for 10USD on Steam. I didn't know they usually go for $20 only. Speaking of this game, I just noticed the 2D sprites used in ME2.
Normally, I don't look up a lot but a few days ago I did. That was when I saw that all those people on the upper floors in Ilium consisted of only 2 sprites being used repeatedly. Worse still, they looked horrible close up (eg on the left outside the windows of Liara's office), obviously because they were never meant to be seen from that distance.
These sprites immediately reminded me of those in Baldur's Gate 2, except larger. The reason is that they keep doing the same action, like raising their hands and leaning forward, then back to standing straight again. I know these sprites are used in order to create a more lively background using minimal processing power, but seriously, they could have designed it better. At the very least, don't give us a chance to see them like 3m away. That asari sprite looks like a man-sized blurry mass. A disturbing sight IMHO.
If I didn't know better, I'd say Bioware had re-invented Ivan Ooze in ME2.
Found a new server for Empires today that's based in Hong Kong. Fantastic. Good ping, all newbies, filled with Cantonese speakers. Unfortunately it showed me that ping isn't the reason why I suck at shooting. I just have no talent at aiming with the gun.
And they keep calling me "鬼佬" which means white guy, just because I don't have a mic and can't type Chinese in the game, even though when each player joins the server his country is announced in English. As you can deduce, their English is horrible, hence I've given up on trying to tell the comm what to do.
I'd comm but I know it's not good to have a leader who cannot communicate with the team, even if he's better at it than any of them.
The boat that sank in Mersing was apparently inspected and found to be "seaworthy" by the local authorities. And it sank before the local meteorological station issued the category 3 alert.
So the problem has to lie in either the inspection or the standards of the inspections. Do the inspectors just look around and search for holes in the hull?
You know what's the best thing about McDelivery? Ordering breakfast on the night before so that all I need to do the next day is wake up at the right time.
Wed
My modem died. It had lost the internet connection since 12am last night. As usual, I restarted it before going to bed. Assuming there would be no problem, I didn't wait for it to finish booting before switching off my PC.
This morning, there was still no connection. My bro, who usually wakes up at 7, had resorted to using his phone for its tiny bandwidth. Me, I have the USB modem. My mum has nothing. =(
This has happened twice before. Both times it returned to normal within 48 hours. I assumed it would be so again this time, but decided to do something about it for my mum's sake.
So I went through all that "switching cable points" routine that the Starhub call center told me to do the last 2 times. Just before I finished the final test of connecting the modem directly to a computer, the modem did not turn on at all.
Now the modem is completely dead. I believe the term for it is "bricked".
So I called Starhub. The customer service guy, upon hearing that my modem doesn't even turn on, said he would forward it to the appropriate department and asked me for my number.
I'm very likely not going to get a good connection until they send a technician over.
No online games till then, which sucks because I managed to set up my shitty mic and was planning on playing Empires on the HK server again.
Fortunately I still have ME2, Deathspank and Arcania: Gothic 4.
Monday, 27 December 2010
Rant 688 / Sunday Rant, Monday Post.
Major PC problem again today. I'd switched it off this morning before I went to bed, but when I switched it back on again in the evening, IT DID NOT BOOT!
Here's what happened.
1) I switched it on. Fans blew at max power for no apparent reason, buttons did not respond. Happened occasionally before but merely needed a restart by switching off power.
2) Switched off power, then on again after 35 seconds (yes I'm old school and cautious like that). Fans started gently, LEDs for Caps Lock and Scroll Lock and Num Lock flashed. Everything was normal... Except nothing happened after that. Screen went to sleep mode, PC remained in that state. Fans worked but that was all. Buttons did not respond.
3) Oh shit.
4) Repeated step 2 for 5 times to no avail.
5) Oh fuck!
6) Brought out trusty Acer laptop. Never thought I'd say this but it has become a good backup worthy of trust.
7) Watched movie during dinner. People do get hungry, you know?
8) After dinner, tried switching on PC again. Started with the motherboard's brand screen instead of the black screen with all the words that make no sense to me about masters and slaves. Finally stopped on this black screen with words on it that made no sense to me except at the bottom where it said, "CMOS Checksum Error" and "Press F11 to Boot Menu".
9) I pressed F11. Nothing happened. Looked above the error and it says "Press F1 to BIOS menu" or something very close to that.
10) I followed that instruction to enter BIOS.
11) BIOS menu. Blue screen with all the options. I didn't know what to do but the sight of the menu immediately reminded me of what happened the last time I cleaned my PC with a vacuum cleaner.
12) Turned to face my laptop which had Internet access via the Starhub MaxMobile USB modem. Went to my blog here, searched "BIOS" in the Google search box.
13) Hope shined through screen.
14) Went to my rant which described my experience on that day and found those photos I took in case it happened again.
15) Compared BIOS screens with those I see on my PC.
16) Changed the option for "Hold on Errors" to "No Errors" instead of "All Errors" and option for "Boot from other Device" to "No" from "Yes".
17) Saved and Exit.
18) Voila!
I am concerned that these changes worked. Doesn't that mean I'm getting errors while booting but I'm forcing my PC to ignore them? How's that supposed to be a good thing?
Furthermore, I'm getting my motherboard's logo screen when booting instead of the usual screen with all the texts.
So I googled this and found that I could change that by going into BIOS and enabling Quick Boot and disabling the motherboard screen. Found these two options but Quick Boot was already enabled. The second was enabled, which I changed. Now my computer appears to be back to normal again.
If I hadn't recorded those photos I'd have spent another $50 on a quick repair again, although tbh I really didn't know which options were important. I didn't actually remember what the technician had fiddled with but I did recall which screens looked familiar, hence the photos instead of actually saying what was changed.
This is interesting. I used to get around 100 views daily before the Sonic Boom Appreciation Week. Yesterday I got around 50.
This can be due to either of these reasons:
1) Google removed a lot of data (especially images) that lead to my blog from its databases.
2) There are about 50 people out there who used to visit this blog regularly, or less due to possible repeated views on the same day.
I did think about that Monetize feature but decided it's a bad decision. First, I'm not short on spare change. Second, it ruins the personal feel of this blog.
Nevertheless, this also proved that the Sonic Boom Appreciation Week was a bad idea. Doesn't mean I won't do it again though.
Here's what happened.
1) I switched it on. Fans blew at max power for no apparent reason, buttons did not respond. Happened occasionally before but merely needed a restart by switching off power.
2) Switched off power, then on again after 35 seconds (yes I'm old school and cautious like that). Fans started gently, LEDs for Caps Lock and Scroll Lock and Num Lock flashed. Everything was normal... Except nothing happened after that. Screen went to sleep mode, PC remained in that state. Fans worked but that was all. Buttons did not respond.
3) Oh shit.
4) Repeated step 2 for 5 times to no avail.
5) Oh fuck!
6) Brought out trusty Acer laptop. Never thought I'd say this but it has become a good backup worthy of trust.
7) Watched movie during dinner. People do get hungry, you know?
8) After dinner, tried switching on PC again. Started with the motherboard's brand screen instead of the black screen with all the words that make no sense to me about masters and slaves. Finally stopped on this black screen with words on it that made no sense to me except at the bottom where it said, "CMOS Checksum Error" and "Press F11 to Boot Menu".
9) I pressed F11. Nothing happened. Looked above the error and it says "Press F1 to BIOS menu" or something very close to that.
10) I followed that instruction to enter BIOS.
11) BIOS menu. Blue screen with all the options. I didn't know what to do but the sight of the menu immediately reminded me of what happened the last time I cleaned my PC with a vacuum cleaner.
12) Turned to face my laptop which had Internet access via the Starhub MaxMobile USB modem. Went to my blog here, searched "BIOS" in the Google search box.
13) Hope shined through screen.
14) Went to my rant which described my experience on that day and found those photos I took in case it happened again.
15) Compared BIOS screens with those I see on my PC.
16) Changed the option for "Hold on Errors" to "No Errors" instead of "All Errors" and option for "Boot from other Device" to "No" from "Yes".
17) Saved and Exit.
18) Voila!
I am concerned that these changes worked. Doesn't that mean I'm getting errors while booting but I'm forcing my PC to ignore them? How's that supposed to be a good thing?
Furthermore, I'm getting my motherboard's logo screen when booting instead of the usual screen with all the texts.
So I googled this and found that I could change that by going into BIOS and enabling Quick Boot and disabling the motherboard screen. Found these two options but Quick Boot was already enabled. The second was enabled, which I changed. Now my computer appears to be back to normal again.
If I hadn't recorded those photos I'd have spent another $50 on a quick repair again, although tbh I really didn't know which options were important. I didn't actually remember what the technician had fiddled with but I did recall which screens looked familiar, hence the photos instead of actually saying what was changed.
This is interesting. I used to get around 100 views daily before the Sonic Boom Appreciation Week. Yesterday I got around 50.
This can be due to either of these reasons:
1) Google removed a lot of data (especially images) that lead to my blog from its databases.
2) There are about 50 people out there who used to visit this blog regularly, or less due to possible repeated views on the same day.
I did think about that Monetize feature but decided it's a bad decision. First, I'm not short on spare change. Second, it ruins the personal feel of this blog.
Nevertheless, this also proved that the Sonic Boom Appreciation Week was a bad idea. Doesn't mean I won't do it again though.
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