Rant 830 / The USD Is... Rising?

The new unmanned aircraft that could fly at Mach 20 lost contact with control during its last test flight.

Not that I mind. I mean, sure, it's fast, it could mean we would be able to fly to the other side of the world in mere hours, but the weaponry it could spawn makes me uneasy.

If they got into the wrong hands, anyone could fire it from some remote location in a random desert across the world, confirm the hit (maybe with GPS) and disappear before anyone could even evacuate, let alone figure out where it was from.

Moreover, he/she would also have plenty of time to clean up.












Limbo is such an emo game.













Believe it or not, the debt of the US versus its GDP isn't really that high, as I've mentioned in another rant.

In fact, if we believe in the statistics from the IMF, in 2010, the US is only ranked 11 in the world, after countries like Japan and even Singapore!


Or if you prefer to trust the CIA's data, the US is ranked 37, way below countries like China and Canada! 


And the world's average.

So it's not that bad.











The third season of Die2Nite seriously forces players to cooperate with random strangers.

No longer can eight 5-man coalition join the same town. I don't know the exact restriction nor do I care enough to sift through walls of text for it, but what I do know is that the best way for a mega-coalition (which is another way to describe eight 5-man coalitions working together) to join the same town is to have everyone join a random town at the same time.

We failed.

Over 20 of us (a lot of were unable to go online at 0010 server time and about 8 of us were Heroes who would choose the town) got split among about 5-6 towns, and in mine there were 4 of us.

Oh well.

But we're staying because it's too much work to organize another mega jump.

I have no idea what happens next. I suspect they'll organize another one once enough of us die, but we're going to lose a number of members just because mega-coalitions aren't as viable anymore. At this rate, simple coalitions may be the better idea.

Anyway anyone interested in joining a town with a mega-coalition will have better luck doing it at 0010 server time, preferably with over 100 Soul Points in order to join ranked towns where the veterans are.

As for the rest of the game, things are so much harder now.

For one, many important structures like the Factory and Search Tower now require Blueprints which can only be found by camping overnight. The highest possible chance of survival of doing so is 90%, so there is a significant risk of losing important active members early.

Another is the reduced availability of food and water. Food is harder to find while fewer units of clean water can be processed from each jerrycan of raw water. This practically changes everything in the list of priorities for each building. For example, this gives us a stronger reason to avoid building water-based defences despite the fact that defence points are now harder to obtain from defensive objects.

On the upside, the Hacksaw seems to be much easier to find now. The two towns I've been in so far got one within 48 hours. Another item that I noticed that is discovered more often from my auto-searching is the manbag. In fact I just found one on my first day in my second town.











The Jagged Alliance series is going to have a new game next year: Jagged Alliance - Back in Action.

Fortunately they are keeping it a strategy game but instead of a turn-based tactical/strategy game, it's going to be a "RTS game with turn-based elements".

My guess is that it's going to be kinda like Dragon Age: Origins and have the same feel as the VATS system in FO3 and FNV where it's all real-time but you can pause at any time to give commands.

Another difference is that from the screenshots, they don't seem to be using grids anymore.

Not that I mind all these changes.

IMO it's too easy (and probably tempting) to make a shooter game out of Jagged Alliance, so I'm glad they're staying close to the original genre.

Case in point: Front Mission Evolved.

Rant 829 / Green Ear Goo

ROFL!










For some reason, this jar of Equal is less sweet than the Equal I used to use that came in packets. Each packet was supposed to be as sweet as one teaspoon of sugar, while each teaspoon of Equal from this jar is supposed to be the same.

Yet why are 2 teaspoons of Equal from this jar less sweet than 2 packets of the same thing?

Why?

I'm even using a measuring spoon with "1 TSP" engraved on the handle.

What kind of nonsense is this? Each packet didn't even seem to contain as much as this spoon does.











I have a feeling I'm being tested by the buyer and I keep failing.

Anyway yesterday I received a crash course on what the codes mean on the price tags at this store we supply. Apparently the digits and letters can be translated to which supplier the product is from and basically (for us) how much commission they charge from the total price.

The latter is actually about whether it's on sale or whether it can ever be on sale but the important thing for me to note is that each of them just means different percentages that the store will take from the price.

Obviously I won't go into details here, but last I heard several years ago, Robinsons charges about 70%.











Some sticky greenish goo is oozing out of my right earphone's hook. The same colour as copper rust.

Found some of the stuff on my desk this morning and I had no idea where it came from. Also found some on the hook but thought it came into contact with the source, whatever it was.

It was only when I wiped the hook a second time that I noticed the miniscule crack.

It must be kinda pressurized inside.

So I applied a thin layer of superglue on it, hoping it would work like cement to seal it up.

The goo seems to be oozing out despite the dried (currently rubbery) glue.

There must be some strong pressure inside. I didn't even touch it.

I thought the hook was wire with solid plastic molded around it. Now I'm guessing it's a wire with a rubber skin and that pressurized goo filling the rest of the space to give it a solid feel.

...

Removed the dried glue I applied just now. The goo had formed a blister in the glue and started leaking.

Applied a thicker layer of glue but it's formed a blister again. Wonder if this will burst too.
















:)

Rant 828 / The Fall Of The USD

China has certainly wasted no time in shaming the US for the credit rating downgrade.

It does have a point though. Many articles written by people around the world seem to agree that the US is really practically living on borrowed money.

"The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone," Xinhua said.

Oh man, there is absolutely no mercy being shown here. China's seriously going all out to embarass the US.

On the other hand, its total debt versus its GDP is still rather low compared to that of other countries.



That really drives the point in.

And I guess it could also incite hatred which explains the ban.











Sometimes I wonder if my mental image of myself is the person I believe I am or the person I've convinced myself that I am.

But this path is futile. The objective truth is never within our grasp.

Which leads to the conclusion that it doesn't actually matter which it is.














Holy crap! I'm not sure if I can even finish that if an athletic girl can barely handle the whole workout.










Bought 250 namecards from VistaPrint using a Deal.com.sg voucher ($25 for $75). Also threw in a card holder for an additional $7 because the cards alone only hit $74.

Total original cost: $81
Total discount: $50
Total amount paid: $31

Free delivery because I picked the slowest option (21 days).

The design is as close to my mum's as I could make it, except I didn't use hot foil stamping and the font for my name is a more cursive one.

Feels so good to save so much.

Hopefully it won't come out badly. I have this sneaking suspicion something might go wrong.












Fucking morons! I hate how people keep running around unnecessarily in Killing Floor!

First and foremost are people who just run back and forth as if the movement improves their bloody accuracy. What do they think they're accomplishing by moving around like that?

Not only does it do absolutely nothing (especially when they're not even in front doing the tanking) but it fucking blocks my syringe shots!

In short, you're fucking blocking your healer and indirectly killing your meat shields!

Stand the fuck still!

Second are the morons who run around like headless chickens when they get hit. What are they trying to do? Nobody's shooting them anyway now that they're in the safe zone among the rest of the team.

All they do is block us and fucking dodge my syringes!

Fuck you for making me waste my ammo and keeping my attention away from the meat shields. I don't have to heal you, y'know? The ones who absolutely need my attention are the ones at the frontlines, not the rest of you!

Damn them all!




I really should sleep early. For some reason I cannot sleep beyond 10am these days, just like how I used to keep waking up at 12am. I could close my eyes and relax but no matter what, I'd just wake up within minutes.

I shouldn't get pissed off by such small matters.












But the riots in the UK pisses me off whether or not I'm tired.

Fucking morons.

Violent riots and looting do not solve problems that they're having now. Heck, they don't solve any problem at all.

Now they're costing the country even more money that they don't have.

Fucking morons.

And we all know what happens to those who were involved.

Most likely, absolutely nothing.

Even when they do get arrested, and even if the police can even prove they did anything, all they'll get will probably be a slap on the wrist and a stern warning.

How did it start? Some dude got shot by the police. Apparently it was just a clean shot to the chest. Buggers didn't even try to aim for the limbs and went straight for the heart.

Sure, that's how armed forces actually do things, but seriously, there's no need to be so obvious, right? At least fire at the limbs a few times just to confuse the coroner. It's not like he/she's able to tell which was fired first.

But that was just a relatively small matter for the police force to settle quietly on its own.

And that was the last straw, I guess.

They were already sitting on some highly flammable problems that arose from foreign immigrants and government budget cuts. All it needed was that bullet to the heart.

Then the copycats came. That is the very part that makes me angry.

What kind of sick fucks do this kind of thing? Honestly, the only reason I can understand is that they really had nothing better to do than to try to destroy their own country.

I mean, how else can you explain the fact that some of these rioters were as young as 8?

EIGHT!

You don't get annoyed by your country's economic and social issues at that age!

Those boys probably saw that the teenagers were getting away with all kinds of things and decided to join in!

I don't even want to discuss what that implies about their parents.

Freedom's pointless if you don't treasure it. You don't treasure something until you understand what it means to be deprived of it.

Fucking give them martial law. Let the idiots know what they've been missing.



Why am I angry?

If you see some dude inherit his parent's enormous wealth, then proceed to burn them all like the Joker did, won't that piss you off?

Well, now there are thousands of them in the UK burning away and trashing what their forefathers left them.

Worse is that they're ruining the lives of others who didn't even do anything to them.

Rant 827 / So Many Tasks Incomplete, So Little Time.

That's a lot of special effects for a Youtube video!













Groupon Singapore actually refunded the coupons I bought for a meal at half price at Honjin Restaurant and Bar just because the restaurant "revised" (ie downgraded) its menu after the Groupon promotion.

Granted, it was unethical of the restaurant but I believe it was completely within their rights to do so.

Nevertheless, I sent a ticket to Groupon's customer support immediately to ask for a refund.

First ticket:

Hi,


My friends had recently visited this restaurant using Groupon vouchers which I had also bought 6 on my own. Their experience was terrible and the menu, according to them, was very different from what was found online on the restaurant's website.


Furthermore, the same thing was described in the review by someone else on the Hungrygowhere website, and others also agreed with it.


This is obviously a fraud.


Therefore, I'd like a refund of my six vouchers please. I don't know if my friends had already ask for it and I'm not sure if they can because they've already used it. As for mine, they're still unused and not even printed.


I'm using this email for my Groupon account, so you can find it with this email address.


Regards,
[my name]

Ok, so the part about my friends' visit was not wholly true. Whatever.



Reply from Groupon:

Hi [my name]


Good Morning!


Thanks for your email.


We totally understand your concern, however kindly note that our refund policy is usually very generous, but does not cover cases where a Groupon is not used with no fault to the business or based on comments or reviews. We understand that sometimes extreme circumstances arise due to emergencies, and we can often work something out in those situations.


But if you purchase a Groupon and then later decide that you do not want to use it because you changed your mind based on reviews, we ask that you give it to someone you think may enjoy it(:


I hope this helps to further clarify things and if you have any further questions, let me know.


Thank you!


Kind regards,


[name of Groupon employee]
support@groupon.sg

It totally makes sense. The bolded part made me feel stupid for trying too. Btw I bolded that part on this blog to highlight the point.

But the thing was, this ticket was answered after more than a day. When 24 hours passed after I submitted the above, I thought they were deliberately ignoring me, thus I decided to send another ticket to prove I was determined to get, at the very least, a reply.

The second ticket was merely a slightly rephrased version of the first.



Second ticket:

Hi,


My friends had recently visited this restaurant using Groupon vouchers which I had also bought 6 on my own. Their experience was terrible and the menu, according to them, was very different from what was found online on the restaurant's website.


Furthermore, the same thing was described in the review by someone else on the Hungrygowhere website, and others also agreed with it.


This is obviously a fraud.


Therefore, I'd like a refund of my six vouchers please.They're still unused and not even printed.


I'm using this email for my Groupon account, so you can find it with this email address.


Regards,


[my name]

Groupon's reply:

Hi [my name],

We are sincerely sorry if this deal did not turn out well for you and thanks for bringing this to our attention.


We hope customers will utilize their Groupons and not let their decisions affected purely based on comments or reviews. We seek your understanding that as Hon Jin has only recently updated their new menu, we have just received the designed menu from them.

Please rest assured that we do our best to feature businesses that see Groupon as an opportunity to gain loyal customers as well as advertise their services. Before featuring a business, we send out our quality assurance team to make sure that it reaches the high standards held up by Groupon.


Given the circumstances, we would like to offer you a full refund in Groupon credits on goodwill. Groupon credits are valid for a whole 6 months and have the benefit of being instantly available for you to use toward your next purchase on www.groupon.sg


• Deal: $20 for Japanese Ala Carte Buffet Dinner at Honjin Restaurant and Bar (Worth $40)
• Refunded 6 Groupon(s)
• Total amount refunded: $120.00
• Mode of refund: Groupon Account
• Voucher codes: [codes]

$120.00 credits are now available in your Groupon account, all you need to do is click the “Use Your Credit” tick box on the final payment page. Hopefully you will find another deal that you like the look of to spend your credit on, so keep an eye out on www.groupon.sg!

Thank you.

Warm Regards,
[name of Groupon employee]
support@groupon.sg

Whoa!! I seriously didn't expect this to happen. When I got the first reply, I thought I might as well use them then. I mean, what's the chance they would soften their hearts all of a sudden?

Moreover, the reservation I made several weeks back was for this Saturday. Might as well just go.

Then when everything was done, and I even confirmed with Honjin when one of the employees called me, I found the reply to my second ticket.

Derp.



And on the bigger picture, I had already been making a lot of changes when I organized this dinner.

Initially we were supposed to go for Honjin for a Saturday dinner due to the reservation I mentioned above.

Then on Monday it appeared that we didn't have enough people to use all 6 coupons. I didn't want to go through the fuss of handling one ticket (maybe by selling it or whatever), so I decided to postpone this reservation and have our dinner someplace else.

So while looking through the deals on various discount sites, an inexplicable urge came over me to check the reviews of Honjin on Hungrygowhere.com.

The recent reviews were not very flattering about the food there. Furthermore, they mentioned that the menu was quite different from the one found on their website initially, with multiple items missing now.

Worse, more than one person agreed with this.

Hence the story about the tickets above.

Next, I checked Groupon and found a deal for Charly T's, $15 for $30 worth of food. I asked the gang and for some reason, 6 people agreed.

So I bought 6 coupons after making a reservation there.

Somewhere between 24-48 hours after submitting my first ticket, I got the reply. Feeling foolish for even sending the ticket, I decided to just use it anyway. I hadn't called the restaurant to postpone it, so it was totally workable.

Therefore yesterday, the 5th of August, I called Charly T's to change my reservation to the 13th.

After everything was confirmed, SMSes all sent to my buddies, I checked my email for no reason last night (I usually only check once a day in the morning) and found the reply to my second ticket.

What.

So this morning, which is the very Saturday we were going to have our dinner on, I hastily called Charly T's to change my reservation back to today.

Luckily they were okay with it, but I was told I cannot surprise them with extra people because the place were expected to be crowded tonight. I booked for 7 since other than the 6 of us, another person was unable to confirm due to work. He said he would join us if he could. Might as well book for him. If he doesn't come, they wouldn't make us pay for 7 meals anyway.


I hate messy stuff. Good thing it's still the holidays. If there were classes now I'm not sure if I'd be this calm about it.











Charly T's roast chicken was pretty good. Alright, so I'm no expert in this field, and I can't tell if the chicken itself was any better than that offered by other better known restaurants like Kenny Rogers Roasters, but I love the sauces.

My favourite is the Creamy Roasted Sesame. The least outstanding was the Kansas City BBQ.

The garlic rice and garden salad were great too.

We also tried the Moroccan Sticks, which were roasted skewers of beef, but we didn't think the dish was special in any way. The beef was rather tough too. Maybe it was supposed to be that way but I didn't like it. And I like beef.

Then there was the fish skewer which isn't in the online menu like the rest of the seafood dishes but we weren't impressed either.

As for dessert, I had the ice cream sandwich, which was 2 large cookies and a scoop of vanilla ice cream in between.

The filled waffle was decent and there was the option of adding a scoop of ice cream (no discount for ordering 2 desserts at one go though).

The Rote Grutze was just a scoop of ice cream in a bowl of sour berry sauce. Theoretically a pudding, but ice cream was ice cream.

The Chocolate Coconut Pecan Pie was so full of pecans.

Finally, the Black Forest ice cream was alcoholic.

IMO, only their secret sauces for the chicken were interesting in the entire meal. Maybe their wraps were also interesting too but we didn't have the chance to try them.

We had 2 chickens to share among the 6 of us, so I had plenty of opportunities to try all of them.

Spent $90 on this $180-meal by using Groupon vouchers.











Don't like loud music.

Rant 826 / Money Remittance

:O

This is indeed pretty awesome.











This blog's readership seems to be hovering at around 80-99 now. Half of the Google search terms yesterday were still related to Witcher 2 porn though.

I am amused.













Dammit! Wiring money to China is so complicated. Ok, it's not actually that complicated, but it's just more complicated than what it takes to wire money locally.

First, the Bank of China doesn't have internet banking. (EDIT: Oh wait it does. Damn!)

Second, the remittance form is very detailed, to the point where I need the person's IC (aka ID aka social security) number in addition to the name, bank branch name and bank account number.

At least it also means it's very secured.

Third, it costs S$30 to correct the form if any mistake is made when filling in the form and after it has been submitted.

Fourth, if only the account number is wrong and the rest are correct, the mistake may only be discovered after the money has been converted to RMB, which means it will be converted back to the original currency before they notify us of this mistake.

Since the USD has been dropping constantly in recent months, it can only mean I'll definitely lose money for nothing in the process. In case you aren't aware of this, the BoC converts any currency to USD before converting it to RMB.

Fifth, the government of China limits the amount of RMB each Chinese citizen can receive to 50k USD worth of RMB per year. That may not be a problem for most people, but it means that anyone doing business with Chinese citizens will have to keep in mind how much money they have remitted to each person in China each year, or they'll get either the third or something similar to the fourth problem.

I don't know which because we have never forgotten.

And this is just about remitting money to the PRC.

Making money is never easy.





Anyway the other day when I was there to make some changes to some remittance forms ($60 gone for nothing, sad), there was about a dozen Chinese citizens there doing some paperwork.

I believe they were opening bank accounts in order to receive their wages in the future since the teller was giving out booklets to each of them that were in very good condition.

Then one of them wanted to convert his money right there. Didn't understand which currency he wanted to buy (RMB or SGD?) due to their strong accents which I'm not familiar with but damn, he was going to change currency in a bank!

Banks generally have poorer exchange rates compared to money changers outside.

We do it only because we prefer the security and the lack of any possible fuss. But for small amounts for personal use, we avoid it.

I guess he probably came from some town/village where the only money changers are the banks.

Rant 825 / Processed Beats

Just discovered the custom servers of Killing Floor.

My bro was right when he said it's much more fun to play on these servers than original vanilla ones.

For one, there are more weapons and more players per server.

Vanilla servers only allow 6 players due to balance issues. The game merely raises the number of zombies when more players join and the zombies themselves do not get tougher.

So on this 30-player server I just played on, it was on Hard difficulty and it was still pretty easy even with 15 of us.

Not a local server though. I believe it was American due to my 200ms ping.

Also, there were more ranks. Vanilla KF has level 0-6 for each class. On that server, I think players could hit 10 or more.










http://youtu.be/4oOpDPd15mU

OMG! This is hilarious!

Can't embed.










This may sound inappropriate, but to me it's perfectly fine.


Because of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas.

This is the sort of music I get from the radio stations in the 2 games. I killed all the monsters and people to songs from the 50s and 60s.












I ordered McDelivery for dinner tonight.

It arrived...

With half the set missing.

I had ordered just the Dinner Box B because my bro was out for a 3-day chalet stay.

Dinner Box B includes 2 small Cokes, a McGrill, a McSpicy, 2 medium fries, 6 pieces of nuggets and 2 Apple Pies.

The McGrill, both fries and ALL condiments were missing.

On the plus side, I got a Cinnamon Melt which wasn't supposed to be there and 3 extra pieces of nuggets.

The McGrill was not major problem. Neither was the absence of the sauces and straws.

Moreover, it was peak hour, so I understand how things get mixed up all the time.

But both fries missing?

Rage!

NERD RAGE!

So I googled the MCD outlet's number (I knew which MCD it was from based on the order number) and called them immediately.

They apologized and said they will send me an entire Box B again straight away, on the house.

FUCK YEAH!

So now I'm just waiting for it.

2 Apple Pies, a Cinnamon Melt, a McSpicy, 9 pieces of nuggets and 2 small Cokes free of charge tonight.

Woot!

i r hungry tho :(

...

Called me 10mins after I called to tell me their rider had just returned and will take another 20mins to get back to me again. I'm fine with that, especially since I'm getting all those things for free.


...


Different rider but everything is there. :D










Apparently this pair of jogging shoes I bought from the eMart at Mount Faber SAFRA (aka LifeStyleMart) is so new, they aren't even available online on the eMart website.

I accidentally picked one size smaller though, so I gave it to my bro. I had tried on the right size, then put it back to shop for other stuff. I think someone took it and replaced it with another box, before I took it without looking 3mins later.

Not a big deal because I was planning to buy another pair for him anyway. I didn't buy it then only because I wanted to show them to him before asking if he wanted a pair. He said yes and I accidentally picked his size.

Everything worked out just fine.

Rant 824 / Does F-- Mean They Are Going To Deduct Points From The GPA?

Where's the sublety, Microsoft?











Ice shotglasses do not work with vodka. For some reason, vodka melts the ice really quickly.













Bought 3 coupons from JuzToday for cleaning my air-conditioning units. S$15 per unit, 3 units. Usual price is $40, which seems to be the same everywhere on this island.

Let's see if these coupons have any catches that I don't know about, like any hidden charges and etc.










Oh hey I just figured out something about you readers!

You aren't here for the videos!

Which means...

You're really reading what I type here!

I'll probably never understand what attracts people to this blog then.

The logic is this:

My last rant, which was almost entirely made up of Youtube videos, got ZERO pageviews until just now, ie nobody specifically clicked on that rant until then.

It could still be that some of you watched them from the main blog page instead of the rant's specific page, but 0 page view still means less interest.

As for the nationalities, I've had 5 pageviews from China in the last 24 hours. FIVE!

So I'm going to make something clear now:

I'm quite aware that I've been mistaken about certain things regarding Chinese-English translation in past rants but I just don't care enough to find and edit them.

Disclaimer: Do not use this blog as a resource for learning Chinese/English.

And if you do, don't blame me for your F- grades.










Who the heck gives "F-" anyway? I thought everyone just uses F as the absolute lowest. Got this "F-" idea from Old World Blues.










Finally started to use Medic. Already got to rank 3 just from healing while playing as other classes. Commando and Sharpshooter were getting dull.

The Medic's submachine gun, whatever its name was, was awesome! Amazing initial accuracy but absolutely the worst recoil ever. Hence it was not meant to spray bullets unless at point blank. But great for minor sniping.

Made plenty of headshots while things were cool to the point where my teammates decided to wander further off to get some kills.

LOL!

After a few waves I decided to just cool down and focus on healing.

It was so fun to heal with the gun. For everyone, healing is done in melee range using a syringe. As a Medic using this gun, I can shoot syringes.

It's not really as awesome as it sounds. Players move far too quickly to be sniped. I miss like 50% of the time, especially since Berserkers, who melee a lot and need frequent heals, love to keep moving back and forth to dodge attacks.

Gets really hard to heal them from a distance.

On the other hand, MEDICS CAN TANK! RAWR!

Medics have better armour than the other classes, so in bad situations I can tank Scrakes and Flesh Pounds for my team and hope they kill them quick.

I said "bad situations" because I can't do it a lot. Nobody heals the Medic. Once the Medic becomes good at healing everyone, they stop taking out their syringes and depend wholly on the Medic. The Medic could heal himself but it would take twice as long as it would to heal others (just like any other classes).

Also, Medics don't have any damage resistance inside his armour, so once the armour runs out, he's as weak as everyone else except for the berserker who has damage resistance without armour.