I just came back from the Raffles Guys School (RGS) Alma Mater night. Disclaimer: I was asked to go by Screwed Up Girl, so I wasn't buayaing. Like I'd make a good buaya.
Disclaimer: This does not indicate any *ahem* mortification with sexuality. Most of these were noted with amusement rather than with hate or disgust.
I arrived at almost 11pm, and left at maybe 12:30am, and I didn't actually *enter* the ballroom proper, but here are some notes, my report.
All the boyfriends were hanging around. Most of them were in shorts and looked beng and pai kia-ish. A lot had dyed hair. The most interesting of the lot was this plump guy in a black shirt, silver tie and large black trenchcoat. He reminded me of a Mafia goon! [NB: Ruxin tells me Tanglin Secondary School was having their Prom their too, so *maybe* the Bengs were from there. Jiamin claims that the Mafia goon was her classmate, but I'm skeptical.]
A few Prefects were going off just as I was coming. Maybe they didn't want to party.
The MCs for the evening were remarkably deep voiced, lending credence to the name "Raffles Guys".
A myriad of fashion was seen, and the more exotic or weird ones shall be noted.
Clothing:
It seemed some people were not used to gowns. One girl had to lift hers up just to walk. Pity. Another held it up much too high - to the thigh (ugh). I wonder how they danced in their gowns during the disco later.
Back baring outfits were quite popular. One girl had a bare back and on the front was this shiny fish-scaled piece of cloth, which was sheer cut. And she jiggled a lot.
One had a white dress which seemed to have the middle portion of the back ripped off. Another girl had a tube top patched with both brown and shiny black leather. She had to pull up. So sad. This other girl had a black top, with a blue skirt, and pink fabric draped around it.
Black was very very popular. Disappointing, the lack of adventure. Then again, I'm not going to be taking Shawn's suggestion of dressing as Barney for *mine* own Prom.
Surprisingly, there was some ethnic dress. A few in Cheongsams, others in Indian costumes (the midriff baring ones, with a top, a long flowing skirt and a shawl).
Accessories, hair and shoes:
One girl had a fur-trimmed overcoat. And another fur cape was sighted on someone else. Yet another was wearing a Michael Jackson-esque tophat, and had 2 ponytails which reminded me of Michael Jackson, too.
One girl evidently left her hair for too long in the curler for it looked like Maggi Mee (like the Rafflesian Spirit). Another threaded pearls through one lock of her hair.
Some people had designs on their backs traced out with stones, or crystal, or something. Others had glitter in their hair and on their shoulders. Boots were remarkably prevalent. There were many high, black boots. Bondage?
Although the theme was "Masquerade", only one girl wore a mask. A mask black on one side of the front and white on the other. She had a blue feather in her hair and a silver cape, and I'm told she was Zing. Another girl had a red malay-esque cape over her whitish gown. And she had elf ears!
Raffles Guys:
This girl had short hair and a T-Shirt with Red and Black horizontal stripes , and she was wearing men's shoes. However, this could not compare to another one, with even shorter hair (though not cropped a la Jessica Tay before going to the UK), a light beige shirt inside, a large black leather trenchcoat, and men's shoes. I saw her in the corridor while walking with Adela and Geraldine, and we all noticed. "Was that a girl or a guy?" [NB: Ruxin tells me that "ohh..the guyish gal in trenchcoat is felicia.. we shared the same hotel room.. she's very suave right?". Indeed, she was quite suave :)]
The student band had the singer singing very very low. Lower than some guys' ranges, in fact. It's very weird and disconcerting to see gowned girls playing electric guitars and drums.
Miscellaneous:
And I met Yaoi Girl. Nice to meet you, Liying. Nice bondage boots (ooo.). Nice, erm, squeaky voice. ^_^. It needs some work before it becomes a Jap Schoolgirl voice, work on it!
This girl, presumably doing AV, reminded me of Huijun and Huimei, with her gait and the RGS jacket!
As there was last year, the letters "RGS" were spelled out in Sculpted Ice. Nice. Some girl put her tiara on the letter "G".
One prefect took off her court shoes. Aww. Another mannish prefect looked a bit like #5. I wonder if she knows #5. Some shrieked as they ran to take a photo with the other prefects. Leftover influence of Act Cute 2?
Learning from Nanyang, RGS has extended its merchandising. Now you've RGS bears in pinafores. But the Nanyang bear looked *okay* because Nanyang girls have short hair. Somehow the head of the RGS bear doesn't look right.
Some of the black cutouts on the walls were of guys in hose/breeches [I believe - the ones with the puffy thighs]. The legendary Raffles Guys?
Some of them screamed even worse than me.
Later, there was a Mat band. Mat bands are actually quite good.
Some girls were dancing on tables. Apparently one fell and broke her ankle (Adela's friend), so I surmise, so they weren't allowed to dance on tables anymore. Who dances on tables, especially in high heels? As I left I saw the ambulance outside.
Heard in the elevator, ""Very tired...". "My legs ah, can't take it." "My sandals [are painful]". Ah well. The price of wearing female shoes (hey, at least they don't need socks, and they keep the feet aired). What a pity.
Apparently Jane went too. She says that she "saw at least five girls with the same gown, which i also happens to possess (for some reason or another). The getups were boring! i'm going to tailor me an orange outfit next year;)
hey the mcs are pretty bimbotic, they hardly hae deep voices whot"
And while scribbling all of these notes, I was seated behind the Principal, the Vice-Principal and many of the Prefects.
Now I've an idea of what the RJ prom will be like. Much more high class than the RI prom, which was held in the School Hall (grr). Though Zhiming points out that we paid $40 while they paid $60. At least that meant I could wear my green tail freely!
Minrui: what did you go there for anyway.... advertise your website?
L'origine de Bert
Thursday, November 29, 2001
Search Referrals - 29th November 2001 / Andrew's new page / Using the Cane
Now that Google has finally reindexed my Tripod page, I no longer get all the hits redirected from Geocities.
On the plus side, I get to see all the weeeird things people search for in Search Engines, to find my page.
I refer you to Yaoi Girl's own Search Engine referrer page.
At present, of the last 20 searches, there were 6 for "Green Tea Ice Cream", which, considering her blog is titled that, is not surprising, especially considering the links to it from her Yaoi/Anime community. 3 more of the queries are related to ice-cream. As usual, there are the "hentai" (hentai ice and rena hentai) searches, and one "sex on ice". Why is sex mentioned so frequently there?
Maybe she should stop talking about sex, hentai and tentacles on it.
And it seems many of her friends' blogs have a similar design - large anime-themed picture on top, sidebar on the left with information and links to other in the community. That sort of stuff.
Looking at mine own search engine hits:
First, the ones from when this page was indexed when it was the old download page.
"blood sword" - considering this was when this was a repository for Blood Sword covers, among other things. Mmm. I still get Google's top 10 for "Blood Sword" hits (and the Associate still owes me some help with my Blood Sword page...)
6 hits about variations of George Bush wavs - Too bad it was George Herbert Walker Bush's speech. It goes: "You know, Barbara is unstable. She is too big, and spends too much. She's nagging, lazy and uninspired, but when Barbara holds my pride, I have always risen to the occasion. This may seem frivolous, and it don't mean itself, but this weekend, we did it together, right here in this chamber, pushing, my missile inch by inch further and deeper, and I'm huge, and I think twice, really, that this is no time to boast. Tonight she wanted me to know that someday having a good time must end. Which means, no more next year than this year, oh no, this will not stand! She now recognises that I have needs, my piece is hard and it's been languishing in these hallowed halls for years now. There're certain things that a president can do without the wife, and I'm gonna do them. Let me level with ya, I relish I'm good, and job, and I cannot wait. Let me tell you what you can do. Give me the same thing 43 Governors have - a new woman under complete government control. And you, pay the bill. And finally, I had a joint tonight, and it is, kicking in now. And that is fine. No one ever thinks - I need drugs, but after all, a man needs a vice. You know, I have bad dreams. This time, I saw Elvis, that thief, making fun of my life, and you know, my thing. *This* will not stand. Thank you, and God Bless our beloved country, thank you very very much.
Listen to the WAV.
[Addendum: The link is broken. Download the WAV.
Embedded MP3]
"Ecce Quomodo Moritur" was searched for once. Mmm, rare to find it on the ih'ernet.
"College Football Handicaps" - What the hell?! But that's Askjeeves, which is weird, so.
"what shall i do it is VERY I MEAN IT IS VERY BORING" - also from Askjeeves. They think my page is funny? Wah.
"Raffles Voices" - whoah, I'm on Yahoo's first page of Google-provided results about my alumni choir.
"nelson kwei" - Hrm. Maybe they'll find the secret page.
"cache:Csg1rsKLWGE:www.geocities.com/gssq/me.htm nanyang sports bra" - The image is frightening. Probably because I talk about a lot of stuff on my "About Me" page. Don't remember a bra though.
"pictures of trishaw in singapore" - probably references to Melvin's trishaw.
"scanned pso pictures" - that's the problem with not using inverted commas. Maybe they'll like Xephyris' PSO Section ID calculator.
"turn off your handphone picture sign" - ???. Apparently because one of the quotes of the day at the time it was indexed was Apple Woman's talk about her tai gor tai handphone.
"Chiang Kia-Shek" - How very odd, just because History 6 Lecturer made a snide remark about how Chiang Kai Shek was unpatriotic. Well, he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't, I don't think even his best German trained troops would've survived the Japanese.
"pictures of jc girls singapore" - ???. If only ah. The site would get millions of hits then.
1:42AM:
"science over 18 vagina pictures sex" - uhhh.
Andrew Gan has finally updated his page! Oops, not *that* one, this one. I just put it on Netmind so I can visit when it is updated. Netmind is bear'er than Spyonit.
Surprisingly personal, without being angsty (that's a compliment by the way, oh Bunny Killer). No drab colour schemes (why do you think successful sites like bay and yahoo all use white backgrounds, black text and blue hyperlinks?), no irritating "about me" that has words or phrases. For example, his might go:
bunnies. babylon 5. (insert latest obsession here, eg "Killer"). some cute stuff. dancing.
or something like that :)
"I still want to know about certain things: Why does Madam Chiang have issues with the (s)elected Prefectorial Board? And I say Henry Park is somewhat elitist too, though not as much as RI." - something from him that inexplicably appeared here.
How to be pretentious - very funny.
People spend all their time reading all those "deep" books, while I don't. I'll just run around acting like a fool.
'People don't use the cane now, except for cows and horses,' said Chief Justice Yong Pung How when he dismissed their appeals [of a couple who caned their maid]. I bet if a case of people who caned their children was brought before him, he'd not say that.
On the plus side, I get to see all the weeeird things people search for in Search Engines, to find my page.
I refer you to Yaoi Girl's own Search Engine referrer page.
At present, of the last 20 searches, there were 6 for "Green Tea Ice Cream", which, considering her blog is titled that, is not surprising, especially considering the links to it from her Yaoi/Anime community. 3 more of the queries are related to ice-cream. As usual, there are the "hentai" (hentai ice and rena hentai) searches, and one "sex on ice". Why is sex mentioned so frequently there?
Maybe she should stop talking about sex, hentai and tentacles on it.
And it seems many of her friends' blogs have a similar design - large anime-themed picture on top, sidebar on the left with information and links to other in the community. That sort of stuff.
Looking at mine own search engine hits:
First, the ones from when this page was indexed when it was the old download page.
"blood sword" - considering this was when this was a repository for Blood Sword covers, among other things. Mmm. I still get Google's top 10 for "Blood Sword" hits (and the Associate still owes me some help with my Blood Sword page...)
6 hits about variations of George Bush wavs - Too bad it was George Herbert Walker Bush's speech. It goes: "You know, Barbara is unstable. She is too big, and spends too much. She's nagging, lazy and uninspired, but when Barbara holds my pride, I have always risen to the occasion. This may seem frivolous, and it don't mean itself, but this weekend, we did it together, right here in this chamber, pushing, my missile inch by inch further and deeper, and I'm huge, and I think twice, really, that this is no time to boast. Tonight she wanted me to know that someday having a good time must end. Which means, no more next year than this year, oh no, this will not stand! She now recognises that I have needs, my piece is hard and it's been languishing in these hallowed halls for years now. There're certain things that a president can do without the wife, and I'm gonna do them. Let me level with ya, I relish I'm good, and job, and I cannot wait. Let me tell you what you can do. Give me the same thing 43 Governors have - a new woman under complete government control. And you, pay the bill. And finally, I had a joint tonight, and it is, kicking in now. And that is fine. No one ever thinks - I need drugs, but after all, a man needs a vice. You know, I have bad dreams. This time, I saw Elvis, that thief, making fun of my life, and you know, my thing. *This* will not stand. Thank you, and God Bless our beloved country, thank you very very much.
Listen to the WAV.
[Addendum: The link is broken. Download the WAV.
Embedded MP3]
"Ecce Quomodo Moritur" was searched for once. Mmm, rare to find it on the ih'ernet.
"College Football Handicaps" - What the hell?! But that's Askjeeves, which is weird, so.
"what shall i do it is VERY I MEAN IT IS VERY BORING" - also from Askjeeves. They think my page is funny? Wah.
"Raffles Voices" - whoah, I'm on Yahoo's first page of Google-provided results about my alumni choir.
"nelson kwei" - Hrm. Maybe they'll find the secret page.
"cache:Csg1rsKLWGE:www.geocities.com/gssq/me.htm nanyang sports bra" - The image is frightening. Probably because I talk about a lot of stuff on my "About Me" page. Don't remember a bra though.
"pictures of trishaw in singapore" - probably references to Melvin's trishaw.
"scanned pso pictures" - that's the problem with not using inverted commas. Maybe they'll like Xephyris' PSO Section ID calculator.
"turn off your handphone picture sign" - ???. Apparently because one of the quotes of the day at the time it was indexed was Apple Woman's talk about her tai gor tai handphone.
"Chiang Kia-Shek" - How very odd, just because History 6 Lecturer made a snide remark about how Chiang Kai Shek was unpatriotic. Well, he was damned if he did and damned if he didn't, I don't think even his best German trained troops would've survived the Japanese.
"pictures of jc girls singapore" - ???. If only ah. The site would get millions of hits then.
1:42AM:
"science over 18 vagina pictures sex" - uhhh.
Andrew Gan has finally updated his page! Oops, not *that* one, this one. I just put it on Netmind so I can visit when it is updated. Netmind is bear'er than Spyonit.
Surprisingly personal, without being angsty (that's a compliment by the way, oh Bunny Killer). No drab colour schemes (why do you think successful sites like bay and yahoo all use white backgrounds, black text and blue hyperlinks?), no irritating "about me" that has words or phrases. For example, his might go:
bunnies. babylon 5. (insert latest obsession here, eg "Killer"). some cute stuff. dancing.
or something like that :)
"I still want to know about certain things: Why does Madam Chiang have issues with the (s)elected Prefectorial Board? And I say Henry Park is somewhat elitist too, though not as much as RI." - something from him that inexplicably appeared here.
How to be pretentious - very funny.
People spend all their time reading all those "deep" books, while I don't. I'll just run around acting like a fool.
'People don't use the cane now, except for cows and horses,' said Chief Justice Yong Pung How when he dismissed their appeals [of a couple who caned their maid]. I bet if a case of people who caned their children was brought before him, he'd not say that.
Post ID: 7488084
Insider information on the Nanyang Prom:
Their dresses must all be white, and only certain cuts are allowed. No bare shoulders, at most spaghetti strap.
The skirt must be of a certain cut - it must fluff out specifically. It must be of a certain length.
Black court shoes only.
No dyed hair. Hair must be neat.
If they do not wear the correct outfit, there will be a rack of clothes for them to borrow.
Their dresses must all be white, and only certain cuts are allowed. No bare shoulders, at most spaghetti strap.
The skirt must be of a certain cut - it must fluff out specifically. It must be of a certain length.
Black court shoes only.
No dyed hair. Hair must be neat.
If they do not wear the correct outfit, there will be a rack of clothes for them to borrow.
Post ID: 7472787
Wednesday, November 28, 2001
Also started on my bibliophile pilgrimage. To Kino with ralph, then to Borders (will have to go back to Kino again but i don't like the atmosphere as much as borders). Much tempted to watch Magnolia that En ming ranted about. Purchased a Naxos collection of assorted Verdi opera choruses. When lyn foo asked how come it was so cheap, i told her that Naxos employed east european musicians at low wages. Ralph was wandering around looking for a place that sells original CivIII- don't know if he managed to purchase it in the end. Then walked over to Far east plaza for 2ndhand bookshops (i think sunny's still the best) There's an upcoming one that supposedly imports cheap books from India- stock coming in in 6 weeks (Angel Bookstore [Ed: Angel is expensive.], quite secluded). Right now they don't have much in store (shopkeeper-"you see, worst fantasy collection ever here.")
Ended up renting a Babylon 5 technomage series book, Plath's Bell Jar, a Peter Wimsey mystery by Dorothy Sayers, and rama revealed. Next target: Attempt to obtain terry pratchett discworld series and rest of Rama series. Ran out of energy, returned home to blog. And update homepage. Which i will publicise when i'm satisfied with it.
Ended up renting a Babylon 5 technomage series book, Plath's Bell Jar, a Peter Wimsey mystery by Dorothy Sayers, and rama revealed. Next target: Attempt to obtain terry pratchett discworld series and rest of Rama series. Ran out of energy, returned home to blog. And update homepage. Which i will publicise when i'm satisfied with it.
Post ID: 7468827
Think Long Hair on guys is against singapore regulations. Or at least civil servant regulations.
Woohooo~@@***!~ A levels over! Went to watch harry potter with class. As usual, things screwed up- we left school barely 20 minutes before the show started at 12, gals disappeared on mysterious errands, thus necessitating the change of ticket booking, adam was stranded outside the theatre when we went in and he went off on a food run, and further disintegration after the movie- apparently the mysterious errand was an urgent visit to the toys department, Taka.
Movie was pretty good. Loved the special effects, floating candles and pumpkins, (watch out for the moving portraits and the myriad looks/expressions exchanged between teachers/students throughout the show). Snape does a wonderfully dry impression that is so brit, Maggie Smith is imperious. Though everyone (excepting Oliver Wood) has much less of brit accents than expected- some of them sound suspiciously New yorkish (though i'm no expert). Owls are sooooo cute! (as are sorting hat and Fluffy). Think the kids playing Hermione and Ronald are such great character actors.
(I just realized I'd spoilt the movie for some of you, you have my sincere apologies if you've come this far)
Apparently some key character development bits were cut and the passage from Fluffy to the philosopher's stone was shortened for length (some obstacles not mentioned).
Ah well, JMS (producer of Babylon 5 and spinoff Crusade) claimed that in producing episodes for TV dramas, the first to go at post-production editing was the humour bits, then the character development bits. Which happened to to be hallmarks of B5. And shows how zai B5 was.
Think i'm inexorably and inexplicably inquisitive about female prom-fashion. The bits i've already heard piqued my interest.
[Ed: Gowns, gowns, more gowns. Booring.]
Woohooo~@@***!~ A levels over! Went to watch harry potter with class. As usual, things screwed up- we left school barely 20 minutes before the show started at 12, gals disappeared on mysterious errands, thus necessitating the change of ticket booking, adam was stranded outside the theatre when we went in and he went off on a food run, and further disintegration after the movie- apparently the mysterious errand was an urgent visit to the toys department, Taka.
Movie was pretty good. Loved the special effects, floating candles and pumpkins, (watch out for the moving portraits and the myriad looks/expressions exchanged between teachers/students throughout the show). Snape does a wonderfully dry impression that is so brit, Maggie Smith is imperious. Though everyone (excepting Oliver Wood) has much less of brit accents than expected- some of them sound suspiciously New yorkish (though i'm no expert). Owls are sooooo cute! (as are sorting hat and Fluffy). Think the kids playing Hermione and Ronald are such great character actors.
(I just realized I'd spoilt the movie for some of you, you have my sincere apologies if you've come this far)
Apparently some key character development bits were cut and the passage from Fluffy to the philosopher's stone was shortened for length (some obstacles not mentioned).
Ah well, JMS (producer of Babylon 5 and spinoff Crusade) claimed that in producing episodes for TV dramas, the first to go at post-production editing was the humour bits, then the character development bits. Which happened to to be hallmarks of B5. And shows how zai B5 was.
Think i'm inexorably and inexplicably inquisitive about female prom-fashion. The bits i've already heard piqued my interest.
[Ed: Gowns, gowns, more gowns. Booring.]
Post ID: 7468604
Woo hoo!!! The A-levels r finally OVER! wooooo!
Now I'm tasked with the fun job of typing a LOT of essays b4 i get enlisted... sheesh.... i have over 20 essays to do in the 13 remaining days... I _must_ do 2 a day, but I havent managed to reach that efficiency yet =(
Hehe, went to school early today from Julian's place today, cos I'd promised my teacher the day b4, not realising i would be staying over at a friend's house... ended up sleeping at 3 am, waking up at 6, and wandering around till 6:45 b4 making my way to school... *growl* living close to school is so useful.. i would have taken 1+ hour to reach school... i think Julian's mum must be curious how I appeared at his house once at 7:15 am, then this time, disappearing even b4 7 am... hehe... anyway, my trip to school to discuss mouse with my teacher ended up being a 3h debugging session on a PAE program... =) it was interesting cos i was over-writing the database, not realising that possible rj-enthuiasts may have submitted their stuff to the database... when we checked some time later, there was 1 record of someone... i wonder how many i destroyed by the debugging... =)
Argh, so many things I want to do.. like work on MetaMud, work on my terrain generator, work on my directX library, read books, go out, play Battle Realms, idle, idle some more, sleep etc.. ARGH and I have to type all the essays some more.... *growls some more*...
Okie.. enuf rabblings by me... have fun enjoying the holidays b4 ns! =)
NS Countdown: 13 days
Now I'm tasked with the fun job of typing a LOT of essays b4 i get enlisted... sheesh.... i have over 20 essays to do in the 13 remaining days... I _must_ do 2 a day, but I havent managed to reach that efficiency yet =(
Hehe, went to school early today from Julian's place today, cos I'd promised my teacher the day b4, not realising i would be staying over at a friend's house... ended up sleeping at 3 am, waking up at 6, and wandering around till 6:45 b4 making my way to school... *growl* living close to school is so useful.. i would have taken 1+ hour to reach school... i think Julian's mum must be curious how I appeared at his house once at 7:15 am, then this time, disappearing even b4 7 am... hehe... anyway, my trip to school to discuss mouse with my teacher ended up being a 3h debugging session on a PAE program... =) it was interesting cos i was over-writing the database, not realising that possible rj-enthuiasts may have submitted their stuff to the database... when we checked some time later, there was 1 record of someone... i wonder how many i destroyed by the debugging... =)
Argh, so many things I want to do.. like work on MetaMud, work on my terrain generator, work on my directX library, read books, go out, play Battle Realms, idle, idle some more, sleep etc.. ARGH and I have to type all the essays some more.... *growls some more*...
Okie.. enuf rabblings by me... have fun enjoying the holidays b4 ns! =)
NS Countdown: 13 days
Post ID: 7466277
AHH. A LEVELS ARE OVER! Now I've 15 days to set my affairs in order.
The busker was there today! And his voice was especially irritating. I sang, not entirely pacing correctly. A bit off, but otherwise it was okay. I think I pissed him off. People were looking at me weirdly - "Now they're 2 irritating people singing!". Actually I cheated. I started the instrumental introduction at "B" instead of "D". Ah well.
My mother chopped 8 of my sister's 4 year old basil plants this morning and she was crying. She claimed that she didn't know that, unlike bougainvilla (is that spelt right?), basil plants die if they have no leaves left. And she didn't even apologise. (...)
I think I know why YC's Gah + Crap Place gets so many hits - misspellings.
einam_z has been sending me lots of songs on Audiogalaxy. Paul Mauriat - Love Is Blue (So now I know the name of that lounge music hit! :0).
Kairen offered me $50 yesterday to take off my shirt from my table at Prom and shout "National Service is National Slavery". Ms Bala said could I please not do anything that'd get me thrown out :)
The busker was there today! And his voice was especially irritating. I sang, not entirely pacing correctly. A bit off, but otherwise it was okay. I think I pissed him off. People were looking at me weirdly - "Now they're 2 irritating people singing!". Actually I cheated. I started the instrumental introduction at "B" instead of "D". Ah well.
My mother chopped 8 of my sister's 4 year old basil plants this morning and she was crying. She claimed that she didn't know that, unlike bougainvilla (is that spelt right?), basil plants die if they have no leaves left. And she didn't even apologise. (...)
I think I know why YC's Gah + Crap Place gets so many hits - misspellings.
einam_z has been sending me lots of songs on Audiogalaxy. Paul Mauriat - Love Is Blue (So now I know the name of that lounge music hit! :0).
Kairen offered me $50 yesterday to take off my shirt from my table at Prom and shout "National Service is National Slavery". Ms Bala said could I please not do anything that'd get me thrown out :)
Post ID: 7466256
Tuesday, November 27, 2001
I saw one of the legendary pony-tailed students from the School With The Most Indecent Uniform In Singapore Bar One today, while coming out of my estate.
Tong said the dogs reacted especially violently to me. Ah well.
As I was looking at the board for seating arrangements today, I heard this high voice [description of voice will not be posted her] behind me. "... I'm scared". It was familiar, I knew what I was going to see before I turned around. 8 year old girl! (She's scared? I should be scared.)
Myo Li says her voice hasn't changed since Primary School.
"Gross, ugly" - Friend 1
"I think she's quite cute" - Friend 2
I think she looked better with long hair.
I am told that only 2 Singapore students, both from TJ, will take the A levels tomorrow (F Maths Special Paper).
Red Faced Guy was wandering around school again, in PE Shirt and Blue Shorts.
And a woman covered up, a la Taliban, on the bus home today.
And if teachers can dye their hair, male teachers should keep long hair too!
Tong said the dogs reacted especially violently to me. Ah well.
As I was looking at the board for seating arrangements today, I heard this high voice [description of voice will not be posted her] behind me. "... I'm scared". It was familiar, I knew what I was going to see before I turned around. 8 year old girl! (She's scared? I should be scared.)
Myo Li says her voice hasn't changed since Primary School.
"Gross, ugly" - Friend 1
"I think she's quite cute" - Friend 2
I think she looked better with long hair.
I am told that only 2 Singapore students, both from TJ, will take the A levels tomorrow (F Maths Special Paper).
Red Faced Guy was wandering around school again, in PE Shirt and Blue Shorts.
And a woman covered up, a la Taliban, on the bus home today.
And if teachers can dye their hair, male teachers should keep long hair too!
Post ID: 7436683
Monday, November 26, 2001
I always wanted to go to Pompeii and Herculaneum.
I saw the Red Faced guy again! His face is redder than Ian's. Ian and Shawn offered me $5 (each) to ask him why his face is so red, but I refused because he looks like he'll do something bad to me.
Blank faced girl kept crossing and uncrossing her legs during Economics S and the guy on my left kept shaking his legs. Gah.
And there was another teacher who'd dyed her hair! Are they allowed to?
After the paper I went to pick up my UN Peacekeeping Cheat Sheet - Elizabeth's good essay. And I got acquainted with 2 out of her 3 dogs. They kept barking. As did the neighbour's dog. Maybe she should get an Aibo for the fourth dog! I wonder if they kept barking when Myo Li / Shuyu / Zhiyong went over.
"You can't stand, you can't sit, you can't walk" - Tong on dresses
I saw the Red Faced guy again! His face is redder than Ian's. Ian and Shawn offered me $5 (each) to ask him why his face is so red, but I refused because he looks like he'll do something bad to me.
Blank faced girl kept crossing and uncrossing her legs during Economics S and the guy on my left kept shaking his legs. Gah.
And there was another teacher who'd dyed her hair! Are they allowed to?
After the paper I went to pick up my UN Peacekeeping Cheat Sheet - Elizabeth's good essay. And I got acquainted with 2 out of her 3 dogs. They kept barking. As did the neighbour's dog. Maybe she should get an Aibo for the fourth dog! I wonder if they kept barking when Myo Li / Shuyu / Zhiyong went over.
"You can't stand, you can't sit, you can't walk" - Tong on dresses
Post ID: 7407210
Why is everyone quoting "eatmejusteatme"? It's never been so popular.
Oxford is taking forever to reply. I'm sure there must be something better for me to do than check my letterbox twice a day.
Just finished chem option (transition elements) the paper i consider(ed) the "easiest" 'cos it's very short (1.25 hours) and there are only 2 sets of notes to study for. Of the 4 questions two were on iron, one on copper and one on cobalt. Strong suspicions that something was fishy (no it wasn't amines)- a question on the relative "oxidising abilities of iron (II)" in the absence/presence of hydroxide ions. Now everyone knows that in the Cambridge a level syllabus, iron (III) has different oxidising powers depending on whether hydroxide ions are present. Iron (II) ions may have the ability to be oxidised to iron (III), or to oxidise other elements by itself being reduced to iron (0). Unfortunately the latter case is irrelevant as redox occurs in aqueous solution.
Do battlerealms or CivIII require 3D cards? I stopped buying computer games for 2 years (weren't any good ones anyway beyond a certain shoot-em-up). My 5-yr old computer (which has had almost every part replaced) doesn't have one. I know the harry potter advenutre game requires one (go play at the website).
Gah. My cousin's spending her holidays in Jurong library collecting comm service hours, as are hordes of other JC students. J2s: CCA records out, collect yours today! . Dr. Chan is really great- he gave me membership points for alchemy and enrichment points for its activities. Even though he liked to make cracks abt me disappearing most of the time.
My church's having a youth camp in dec. in camp sarimbun. One hopes the casualty rate does not exceed the 80+ people who have broken legs, gashes, fevers, sprained limbs, flus, asthma attacks, every year during RI's orientation.
Considering the following work options before I go into uni:
a) Temp office work in a place where I get paid at least $8 an hour
b) Temp teaching job in RI. (applied to teach with lit topping my list of preferred subjects). Comes with the perk of having a valid excuse to kapoh at choir.
c) Church's SERVE programme- full-time attachment to church ministries for a short period. Get paid.
d) Temp job in my relative's company in KL. In any case, going to KL for a "pilgrimage" to Niketown, KLCC and Philharmonic orchestra.
e) Sales assistant in Giordano outlets. $5.50 an hour. The only reason why I'm considering it: staff discounts on brand clothes.
f) Internship at Singapore Press Holdings
Oxford is taking forever to reply. I'm sure there must be something better for me to do than check my letterbox twice a day.
Just finished chem option (transition elements) the paper i consider(ed) the "easiest" 'cos it's very short (1.25 hours) and there are only 2 sets of notes to study for. Of the 4 questions two were on iron, one on copper and one on cobalt. Strong suspicions that something was fishy (no it wasn't amines)- a question on the relative "oxidising abilities of iron (II)" in the absence/presence of hydroxide ions. Now everyone knows that in the Cambridge a level syllabus, iron (III) has different oxidising powers depending on whether hydroxide ions are present. Iron (II) ions may have the ability to be oxidised to iron (III), or to oxidise other elements by itself being reduced to iron (0). Unfortunately the latter case is irrelevant as redox occurs in aqueous solution.
Do battlerealms or CivIII require 3D cards? I stopped buying computer games for 2 years (weren't any good ones anyway beyond a certain shoot-em-up). My 5-yr old computer (which has had almost every part replaced) doesn't have one. I know the harry potter advenutre game requires one (go play at the website).
Gah. My cousin's spending her holidays in Jurong library collecting comm service hours, as are hordes of other JC students. J2s: CCA records out, collect yours today! . Dr. Chan is really great- he gave me membership points for alchemy and enrichment points for its activities. Even though he liked to make cracks abt me disappearing most of the time.
My church's having a youth camp in dec. in camp sarimbun. One hopes the casualty rate does not exceed the 80+ people who have broken legs, gashes, fevers, sprained limbs, flus, asthma attacks, every year during RI's orientation.
Considering the following work options before I go into uni:
a) Temp office work in a place where I get paid at least $8 an hour
b) Temp teaching job in RI. (applied to teach with lit topping my list of preferred subjects). Comes with the perk of having a valid excuse to kapoh at choir.
c) Church's SERVE programme- full-time attachment to church ministries for a short period. Get paid.
d) Temp job in my relative's company in KL. In any case, going to KL for a "pilgrimage" to Niketown, KLCC and Philharmonic orchestra.
e) Sales assistant in Giordano outlets. $5.50 an hour. The only reason why I'm considering it: staff discounts on brand clothes.
f) Internship at Singapore Press Holdings
Post ID: 7405611
sigh
sometimes i wish we weren't so civilised. i could be happy in a world like below.
"A big reason you have all these teens joining these paramilitary forces is because they don't have jobs, carrying an AK-47 is cool, and it's something to do. "
but then again, i probably wouldn't have broadband while hiding in a cave outside Jalalabad eating beef jerky. Massacring villages, raping the female populace, ambushing American soldiers, and defecting to whichever new armed faction happens to be bigger doesn't give me as much utility as 100+kb/s download speeds of fansubbed anime or div-x ripped movies. Not to mention the highly unlikely possibility of ever eating blue cheese again(unless I ambushed the right UN aid convoy)....
sometimes i wish we weren't so civilised. i could be happy in a world like below.
"A big reason you have all these teens joining these paramilitary forces is because they don't have jobs, carrying an AK-47 is cool, and it's something to do. "
but then again, i probably wouldn't have broadband while hiding in a cave outside Jalalabad eating beef jerky. Massacring villages, raping the female populace, ambushing American soldiers, and defecting to whichever new armed faction happens to be bigger doesn't give me as much utility as 100+kb/s download speeds of fansubbed anime or div-x ripped movies. Not to mention the highly unlikely possibility of ever eating blue cheese again(unless I ambushed the right UN aid convoy)....
Post ID: 7399748
Sunday, November 25, 2001
A choking miasma lingers in the air of my house, a fetid stench. Belachan. Ugh. I'm choking.
Elizabeth says she's giving up on History 7 - "too much to study". I could say the same for Econs S :) "Econs S is worth studying" - Tong. I think there'll be a Pareto improvement if I allocate my time to studying History 7 instead. Actually, there'll definitely be a Pareto improvement if I stop looking for Power Ranger skins for Winamp (found them already). No one had the FULL Power Rangers In Space theme on Audiogalaxy, so I had to find it on Morpheus :) But she'll do well. Then again, people say that of me.
7:36PM:
Gah, another pair of flourescent shorts just split. I'm gonna have to plunder the going out set soon.
8:36PM:
Audiogalaxy has just gone up in usefulness. They now let you browse other users' shared files! Whee. This means I don't have to upload files Tim wants to Tripod (since his ICQ can't receive files, probably due to Connection Sharing with his brother).
I got invited to this classical music group - Lucianapopy. A lot of people speaking Spanish in it. I'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll hire Jessica Tay to translate (she learnt Spanish in 3 months at the start of last year, and did quite well in the exam too)!
And I found out what the icon of a user getting zapped by lightning means - User Is Online.
Am currently acquainting myself with Britten's Simple Symphony and A Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell).
9:53PM:
Argh, finally rebuilt mp3 playlist. It's irritating, after Windows freezes, I rarely remember to "reload" the playlist when I next run Winamp so it gets stuck with the playlist it had the last time it closed properly, so if I'd added or removed entries, they won't be reflected, then the next time I save over the old playlist it will wipe out the changes I'd made.
Also, got rid of 3-5 corrupted files by deleting them in DOS. One with a DOS filename including the "=|" (one character) character was deleted by moving all the files into another directory, deleting the directory with the corrupted file, and the recreating the directory and moving files back. So I've lost my Takcas and Janacek (however they're spelled) songs. Heck. I'll get back Notturno another time. Must Spinrite my HDD.
Sometimes I'm perfectionist in the "wrong" ways.
9:58PM:
OUCH. I just overwrote the playlist I'd made, with the old one. !@#$#%^&*().
10:08:
To add insult to injury, my computer froze after that last line was posted, and Blogger is damn slow now. The corrupted file names *may* be due to an overzealous NDD.
10:32:
Some of the (badly ripped, with pops) MP3s I ripped from Quanxing's CD : Mozart - the Last 5 Symphonies, have disappeared. Maybe He wants me to study :)
Teaching David how to use Audiogalaxy. He doesn't want to share files because, "dun want to
troublesome and freaky to have pple come in any time of day to grab sth from my comp"
Gah.
Elizabeth says she's giving up on History 7 - "too much to study". I could say the same for Econs S :) "Econs S is worth studying" - Tong. I think there'll be a Pareto improvement if I allocate my time to studying History 7 instead. Actually, there'll definitely be a Pareto improvement if I stop looking for Power Ranger skins for Winamp (found them already). No one had the FULL Power Rangers In Space theme on Audiogalaxy, so I had to find it on Morpheus :) But she'll do well. Then again, people say that of me.
7:36PM:
Gah, another pair of flourescent shorts just split. I'm gonna have to plunder the going out set soon.
8:36PM:
Audiogalaxy has just gone up in usefulness. They now let you browse other users' shared files! Whee. This means I don't have to upload files Tim wants to Tripod (since his ICQ can't receive files, probably due to Connection Sharing with his brother).
I got invited to this classical music group - Lucianapopy. A lot of people speaking Spanish in it. I'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll hire Jessica Tay to translate (she learnt Spanish in 3 months at the start of last year, and did quite well in the exam too)!
And I found out what the icon of a user getting zapped by lightning means - User Is Online.
Am currently acquainting myself with Britten's Simple Symphony and A Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell).
9:53PM:
Argh, finally rebuilt mp3 playlist. It's irritating, after Windows freezes, I rarely remember to "reload" the playlist when I next run Winamp so it gets stuck with the playlist it had the last time it closed properly, so if I'd added or removed entries, they won't be reflected, then the next time I save over the old playlist it will wipe out the changes I'd made.
Also, got rid of 3-5 corrupted files by deleting them in DOS. One with a DOS filename including the "=|" (one character) character was deleted by moving all the files into another directory, deleting the directory with the corrupted file, and the recreating the directory and moving files back. So I've lost my Takcas and Janacek (however they're spelled) songs. Heck. I'll get back Notturno another time. Must Spinrite my HDD.
Sometimes I'm perfectionist in the "wrong" ways.
9:58PM:
OUCH. I just overwrote the playlist I'd made, with the old one. !@#$#%^&*().
10:08:
To add insult to injury, my computer froze after that last line was posted, and Blogger is damn slow now. The corrupted file names *may* be due to an overzealous NDD.
10:32:
Some of the (badly ripped, with pops) MP3s I ripped from Quanxing's CD : Mozart - the Last 5 Symphonies, have disappeared. Maybe He wants me to study :)
Teaching David how to use Audiogalaxy. He doesn't want to share files because, "dun want to
troublesome and freaky to have pple come in any time of day to grab sth from my comp"
Gah.
Post ID: 7383479
Interesting stuff:
http://eatmejusteatme.50g.com/war.htm
Where does this leave Islam, both in its moderate and fundamentalist forms? Can Islam really coexist peacefully with the free world, with other religions, and with people of no faith? I'm not so optimistic. Islamic teachings tend to contradict the two tenets of the free world, capitalism and democracy. Syariah law discourage interest rates even as a compensation for inflation. Name one rich Islamic country. That isn't sitting on an ocean of oil. Can't do it? Now name one Islamic country which has a constitution that enshrines equality of her people. Can't do that either? Name one mosque, anywhere in the world, which allows females to enter. More problems. Oh, all men are created equal in Allah's eyes, all right. It's just that women aren't.
The point is that Islam is a stringent, insecure faith - this explains the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism since the 1980s. It's a reaction to what are seen as the excesses of a secular world. It's a knee-jerk reaction out of the insecurity of the ascendancy of other faiths. Once upon a time the Church too tried to impose its rule all over the world and become the one true faith. But the Middle Ages have moved on. About 500 years ago, in fact. If Islam is to become secure with its position in the world and find a modus vivendi with other religions, change will have to come from within. And so believers of a faith obsessed with proving its superiority over all others have some questions to ask of themselves.
http://eatmejusteatme.50g.com/war.htm
Where does this leave Islam, both in its moderate and fundamentalist forms? Can Islam really coexist peacefully with the free world, with other religions, and with people of no faith? I'm not so optimistic. Islamic teachings tend to contradict the two tenets of the free world, capitalism and democracy. Syariah law discourage interest rates even as a compensation for inflation. Name one rich Islamic country. That isn't sitting on an ocean of oil. Can't do it? Now name one Islamic country which has a constitution that enshrines equality of her people. Can't do that either? Name one mosque, anywhere in the world, which allows females to enter. More problems. Oh, all men are created equal in Allah's eyes, all right. It's just that women aren't.
The point is that Islam is a stringent, insecure faith - this explains the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism since the 1980s. It's a reaction to what are seen as the excesses of a secular world. It's a knee-jerk reaction out of the insecurity of the ascendancy of other faiths. Once upon a time the Church too tried to impose its rule all over the world and become the one true faith. But the Middle Ages have moved on. About 500 years ago, in fact. If Islam is to become secure with its position in the world and find a modus vivendi with other religions, change will have to come from within. And so believers of a faith obsessed with proving its superiority over all others have some questions to ask of themselves.
Post ID: 7380283
Saturday, November 24, 2001
To bring the topic away from tech stuff (hey, even I didn't understand the directx post):
I don't watch TV much anymore. In fact, before today, I don't think I'd watched a full programme for a while.
After a badly-dubbed Doraemon was my favourite show, which is back on TV! After being jettisoned by Central some time last year (?), I can now watch it again, and TWICE a week (Saturday and Sunday). Andrew Gan called me up last Sunday and told me it was on (too bad he didn't call one day earlier, or I'd have caught the previous episode)!. I've missed only 1-2 episodes so far, I think.
Set controls to outer space now
Flying higher than ever before
Rangers (in Space!)
Go, Power Rangers!
Go, Power Rangers!
Go, Power Rangers!
Go, go, go, fly
Go, Power Rangers!
Go, Power Rangers!
Go, Power Rangers, go....in Space!
"the Power Rangers in Space, powered by Sheng Tai toys". Bah, bad line. And Sheng Tai toys is advertising Lost Galaxy toys even *before* the In Space season has ended. I believe there are at least 10 more episodes. The Psycho Rangers have not even made an appearance yet (they're due in 2 episodes' time)!
They attempted a rudimentary science lesson, about an asteroid heading towards Earth which was as large as the one which is theorised to have started the extinction of the Dinosaurs.
I first watched MMPR in... late 1995, if I remember correctly. I didn't catch it when it started, but I later watched the first few episodes at MPH Parkway Parade while I was waiting for someone (probably my sister). My sister loved to sabotage the VCR when I was away and it was taping MMPR or one of its various incarnations, and the physically block the TV set when I was watching it. She disapproves of this sort of shows. "Violence". Bah.
She used to pull the plug on the TV a long while back when I was watching Transformers. Come on, how much violence is there? They never shoot anyone, not even a robot. Combat is mostly firing into thin air, and the resolve the combat, the Autobots shoot a convenient outcrop of rock above the Decepticons' heads, which falls and traps them for a while. At least it's better than GI Joe, in which combat consists of destroying the other side's vehicles, while the drivers jump out of them just before the explode. (GAH).
Barbie in the Nutcracker toys were also advertised. "The Prince" doesn't really look like Ken. Aww. Apparently they are based on the Movie. A Barbie Movie? Go figure.
My parents were pestering me about prom just now. They think I should get a jacket. Right. Life had a feature on it yesterday. It was, interesting.
Andrew on my knowing Joan Tan's sister:
where do you get to know all these rgs girls? don't tell me they publish their icq no.s on those yearbooks (icq msg)
I don't watch TV much anymore. In fact, before today, I don't think I'd watched a full programme for a while.
After a badly-dubbed Doraemon was my favourite show, which is back on TV! After being jettisoned by Central some time last year (?), I can now watch it again, and TWICE a week (Saturday and Sunday). Andrew Gan called me up last Sunday and told me it was on (too bad he didn't call one day earlier, or I'd have caught the previous episode)!. I've missed only 1-2 episodes so far, I think.
Set controls to outer space now
Flying higher than ever before
Rangers (in Space!)
Go, Power Rangers!
Go, Power Rangers!
Go, Power Rangers!
Go, go, go, fly
Go, Power Rangers!
Go, Power Rangers!
Go, Power Rangers, go....in Space!
"the Power Rangers in Space, powered by Sheng Tai toys". Bah, bad line. And Sheng Tai toys is advertising Lost Galaxy toys even *before* the In Space season has ended. I believe there are at least 10 more episodes. The Psycho Rangers have not even made an appearance yet (they're due in 2 episodes' time)!
They attempted a rudimentary science lesson, about an asteroid heading towards Earth which was as large as the one which is theorised to have started the extinction of the Dinosaurs.
I first watched MMPR in... late 1995, if I remember correctly. I didn't catch it when it started, but I later watched the first few episodes at MPH Parkway Parade while I was waiting for someone (probably my sister). My sister loved to sabotage the VCR when I was away and it was taping MMPR or one of its various incarnations, and the physically block the TV set when I was watching it. She disapproves of this sort of shows. "Violence". Bah.
She used to pull the plug on the TV a long while back when I was watching Transformers. Come on, how much violence is there? They never shoot anyone, not even a robot. Combat is mostly firing into thin air, and the resolve the combat, the Autobots shoot a convenient outcrop of rock above the Decepticons' heads, which falls and traps them for a while. At least it's better than GI Joe, in which combat consists of destroying the other side's vehicles, while the drivers jump out of them just before the explode. (GAH).
Barbie in the Nutcracker toys were also advertised. "The Prince" doesn't really look like Ken. Aww. Apparently they are based on the Movie. A Barbie Movie? Go figure.
My parents were pestering me about prom just now. They think I should get a jacket. Right. Life had a feature on it yesterday. It was, interesting.
Andrew on my knowing Joan Tan's sister:
where do you get to know all these rgs girls? don't tell me they publish their icq no.s on those yearbooks (icq msg)
Post ID: 7363474
aha! i just spent today fiddling with directx... after download the directx 8.1 SDK (140mb), then installing it *grumbles at the long time*, and looking at the help file, i realised that when they said "we won't develop directdraw anymore" they also meant "we wont even provide you with directdraw tutorials". They claimed to have merged d3d and directdraw to make d3d/d3dx (i cant figure out the difference), but all the tutorials they have talk bout vertices, surfaces, bump mapping etc... and all i wanted was a simple make-a-form, put-pixels-on-the-form code! *grumble*
eventually, i uninstalled the thing and installed the directx 7.0a SDK... at least in 7.0a, directdraw is still inside... come to think of it, i think every1's too crazy bout 3d stuff nowadays... so wat if its supposed to be a 3d-ish cube on the screen? its a two-dimensional screen!!! if i draw enuf 2d sprites, you wouldnt even know they were 2d, and they would probly look nicer as well... so anyway, i started reading their help file... ugh, the first tutorial was "create a screen", their sample code was a couple hundred lines long, and didnt make much sense the first couple times i read through it... eventually, after a couple hours struggling and nearly killing myself... i had a simplified version of their code that painted the entire screen red in 640*480*256.. whee!
my next objective was to create a rectangle that was actually smaller than the whole screen. after trying for ages and ages, it finally worked... some crazy problems that i dont really understand (i never did learn object-oriented programming in school, i picked it up on my own, and windows oop is mad), i finally managed to put a smaller sized red rectangle on screen!
the last objective of the day was to create random pixels on screen. well, i tried to modify my rectangle code to make them 1*1 in size, so they'r actually pixels... guess wat? nothing happened! after quite a while, i found out that microsoft made rectangles (left, top)-(right-1, bottom-1) instead of the usual (left, top)-(right, bottom) so that they could count sizes of windows more easily *grumble* so i managed to get my pixel routine working... julian mentioned that usually pixels r used to make rectangles, but i was using rectangles to make pixels *grin* i guess its a microsoft thing. the only problem now is getting the random function working.. once that works, i can port my terrain generator coded in good, old DOS to unstable, slow and irritating windows.
ah.... good old DOS... i have a nice graphics library i coded (actually the assembly was swiped from someone else, i ported it to c++) and its really good... i guess now its quite useless, but i can say im one of the very very very few ppl left now that know DOS, and i know how graphics work!!! mwahahha. i learnt svga in sec 3 and 4... was quite interesting.. a realyl slow library formed, but it was interesting nevertheless...
oh well, hopefully ill have my terrain generator ported over by tonight, and i can start work on a big 1024*768 terrain instead of my small 100*100 ones =)
ps remove that pic!!! ARGHHHHHHhhhhhhhh......... its utterly disgusting!
eventually, i uninstalled the thing and installed the directx 7.0a SDK... at least in 7.0a, directdraw is still inside... come to think of it, i think every1's too crazy bout 3d stuff nowadays... so wat if its supposed to be a 3d-ish cube on the screen? its a two-dimensional screen!!! if i draw enuf 2d sprites, you wouldnt even know they were 2d, and they would probly look nicer as well... so anyway, i started reading their help file... ugh, the first tutorial was "create a screen", their sample code was a couple hundred lines long, and didnt make much sense the first couple times i read through it... eventually, after a couple hours struggling and nearly killing myself... i had a simplified version of their code that painted the entire screen red in 640*480*256.. whee!
my next objective was to create a rectangle that was actually smaller than the whole screen. after trying for ages and ages, it finally worked... some crazy problems that i dont really understand (i never did learn object-oriented programming in school, i picked it up on my own, and windows oop is mad), i finally managed to put a smaller sized red rectangle on screen!
the last objective of the day was to create random pixels on screen. well, i tried to modify my rectangle code to make them 1*1 in size, so they'r actually pixels... guess wat? nothing happened! after quite a while, i found out that microsoft made rectangles (left, top)-(right-1, bottom-1) instead of the usual (left, top)-(right, bottom) so that they could count sizes of windows more easily *grumble* so i managed to get my pixel routine working... julian mentioned that usually pixels r used to make rectangles, but i was using rectangles to make pixels *grin* i guess its a microsoft thing. the only problem now is getting the random function working.. once that works, i can port my terrain generator coded in good, old DOS to unstable, slow and irritating windows.
ah.... good old DOS... i have a nice graphics library i coded (actually the assembly was swiped from someone else, i ported it to c++) and its really good... i guess now its quite useless, but i can say im one of the very very very few ppl left now that know DOS, and i know how graphics work!!! mwahahha. i learnt svga in sec 3 and 4... was quite interesting.. a realyl slow library formed, but it was interesting nevertheless...
oh well, hopefully ill have my terrain generator ported over by tonight, and i can start work on a big 1024*768 terrain instead of my small 100*100 ones =)
ps remove that pic!!! ARGHHHHHHhhhhhhhh......... its utterly disgusting!
Post ID: 7362378
A lot of gaming posts recently. I want a comp upgrade.
For your viewing pleasure. This is the weirdest of his faces. I wonder if all the pictures are of the same guy.
Added at 6:27PM:
Whoa, everyone's posting instead of studying! :)
and Balderdash has become Comp-oriented for the last few posts.
For your viewing pleasure. This is the weirdest of his faces. I wonder if all the pictures are of the same guy.
Added at 6:27PM:
Whoa, everyone's posting instead of studying! :)
and Balderdash has become Comp-oriented for the last few posts.
Post ID: 7362079
First, hi to the 2 new posters on this blog. Welcome to the random posting that is Balderdash. Have fun. The topic is probably on games because I've nearly finished with my exams and am trying to make up for almost a year of not playing :P
Fuzzirat beat me to the review, but I'm going to review Battlerealms anyway :)
Battlerealms
Battlerealms is game set in "feudal Japan", although I think the setting is mostly there to make the game have a "cool" asian feel to it - it would have worked even if set in Africa or something (and no, I'm not trying to demean Africa - I'm saying that the game's design is solid.) The story is based around 4 distinct clans - the honourable Dragon, the cunning Serpent, the evil Lotus, and the warlike Wolf. Each side fights for a different goal - although in Campaign mode you only really get to use either the Dragon or Serpent clans. I went with the Dragon clan in Campaign, the softie that I was, simply because I couldn't bear to kill the rather helpless peasants. Anyway, Kenji (the protagonist) goes off on a quest to retrieve the "serpent's orb", which he believes possesses the ability to "break the world". Now, I haven't got the faintest idea what the orb does, because half-way through as a Dragon, Kenji's goal changes to "I must stop the inter-clan war" instead :P The Serpent wish to re-gain control of all the clans (they were once the dominant clan, just before Kenji's father, the leader of the Serpent clan, died), the Wolf wish freedom for their peasants (they were previously a group of miners under control of the Lotus) and the Lotus wish to gain the awesome power of the orb (which apparently only they believe in) for themselves.
The Single Player campaign mode can be rather impressive right at the start. You are thrust right into the clan's power struggles, and can choose (ala Command and Conquer) which path to take, although the game's story progresses quite linearly. Missions can be quite challenging at times, although the earlier missions I found rather easy. There isn't much in the way of "commando-missions", although the 2 I have played thus far were thoroughly enjoyable and well designed, with one requiring Kenji to protect a building, and the other having Kenji run a gauntlet. However, some missions can be frustrating - when I thought I had eliminated every single one of a certain side (the missions usually requires you to eliminate more than 1 AI player), one of their peasants would have survived and had rebuilt slowly, from 0, up to an annoying fully fledged army again. This makes having to hunt every single one of a remaining side's units down necessary, which I found most annoying. However, once I got used to the idea that peasants were attracted to rice and water like moths to a candle flame, things became much easier.
The AI in this game is one of the best I have ever seen. Battlerealms has bested Dark Reign in having the best AI in an RTS I have played. The movement AI is intelligent - it automatically picks the shortest path and can navigate bottlenecks with ease (unlike a certain popular RTS I know of *coughcough*starcraft*coughcough*). Units have a good idea of what they are supposed to do and do it well - the Geisha automatically heal units to full health if they go yellow, and melee units pick the targets they work best against and attack them first. However, in default mode, the units tend to be over-enthusiastic and will chase ANY unit they can see to the ends of the earth, even if they are bleeding, limping, and have had critical body regions chopped-off. This is easily fixed by putting the unit into passive mode, though. I find that once I got the hang of it, controlling my units was a breeze - no formations needed! All-in-all, the unit AI is very well done and unobstrusive.
The enemy AI is extremely fun to play against in skirmish mode. The AI may be set to represent different characters in the game, such as Kenji, Shinja (leader of the Serpent Clan), Zymeth (Lotus), or Grayback (Wolf). There are more, of course, but each of these different AI representatives have a different style of play - some like using unit abilities (called BattleGear), some like summoning heroes, etc. I have had the AI execute several effective unit strategies on me - Grayback is particularly fond of hitting hard and fast, from 2 sides (classic pincer strategy?), with hard-hitting melee units, while Shinja favours using quick units to lure my nicely-assembled army piecemeal to their doom, to a ambush in a thick grove of trees. Again, never have I seen any computer AI do this in any other game, so kudos goes to Liquid Entertainment for programming such a great AI.
Multiplayer is great - Battlerealms does not focus on resource collection, and instead rewards aggresive gameplay and good usage of the units you have available. Of course, every game has it's share of turtlers, but I daresay turtlers won't survive very long in Battlerealms, since they will be at a disadvantage in terms of Yin/Yang points collected (which are used to upgrade your units), as Yin/Yang points are awarded by the number of kills you have based on how far you are from your "base". My clan loyalties lie with the "Serpent" clan, currently - their style of play focuses (I think) on hitting quickly with fast moving units, burning down buildings (always fun), and crippling enemy units with caltrops and landmines. Fuzzirat has had first-hand experience of both first and second points *mischievous grin*.
Battlerealms is a fully 3D RTS. The unit models looks great from the default view, although they get horribly blocky during in-game cinematics, which zoom right up to the units, very "close and personal"-like. Colours are rich and vibrant, and spell or unit ability effects suitably magnificent. The way the game is presented is very, very slick, with a distinctive art-style I find appealing. Unit animations are done well, and very varied. My jaw dropped when I first saw Kenji dodge quickly to his right to avoid a sword thrust, leap towards his opponent with a quick forward slash, and then leap back again to safety. The units have pseudo-oriental voices, which sound MOST melodramatic, although they never take themselves too seriously :) One of Dragon's heroes Tau, a monk, spouts phrases of wisdom like "The path is the way" - which is quickly followed up by "Forwards is not backwards", and then "Left, is right. Right, is wrong". The Serpent "Raider" unit sounds very fruity - according to the Liquid Entertainment guys, the guy who voice acted him and the Dragon Archer (another rather "funny"-sounding unit) is teased daily in the office. Most memorable and amusing.
If there was something I disliked - it would be that hotkeys to unit abilities are not easily found. I still haven't figured it out yet, and have to click the button manually. While this isn't all that bad, it's slightly distracting.
I won't give Battlerealms a score - play and judge for youself, but play it you must.
p/s: I want a PS2, damnit. I want one I want one I want one I want one. Devil may cry must be the singular coolest looking game I've ever seen. Rez is funky, and there's no need to even mention MGS2, I just HAVE got to get it. ICO, too. ARGH, I want a PS2. Then again, I want an Xbox as well. The fundamental problem of Economics rears it's ugly head though - I wonder how much I can exactly buy with my NS salary.
p/sp/s: Civ 3 is suitably fun too, but I was beaten down by the Germans and am still smarting from my in-ability to even try to play and win through peaceful means.
Well, this was a long post. Sadly, I haven't played much of Hundred Swords yet (guess why- no prizes for getting the right answer though), so I can't say much about it. Controls are a bit clunky, although the gameplay itself seems quite good.
Agagooga, please get rid of that picture of Asian Prince. URGH. Please.
Fuzzirat beat me to the review, but I'm going to review Battlerealms anyway :)
Battlerealms
Battlerealms is game set in "feudal Japan", although I think the setting is mostly there to make the game have a "cool" asian feel to it - it would have worked even if set in Africa or something (and no, I'm not trying to demean Africa - I'm saying that the game's design is solid.) The story is based around 4 distinct clans - the honourable Dragon, the cunning Serpent, the evil Lotus, and the warlike Wolf. Each side fights for a different goal - although in Campaign mode you only really get to use either the Dragon or Serpent clans. I went with the Dragon clan in Campaign, the softie that I was, simply because I couldn't bear to kill the rather helpless peasants. Anyway, Kenji (the protagonist) goes off on a quest to retrieve the "serpent's orb", which he believes possesses the ability to "break the world". Now, I haven't got the faintest idea what the orb does, because half-way through as a Dragon, Kenji's goal changes to "I must stop the inter-clan war" instead :P The Serpent wish to re-gain control of all the clans (they were once the dominant clan, just before Kenji's father, the leader of the Serpent clan, died), the Wolf wish freedom for their peasants (they were previously a group of miners under control of the Lotus) and the Lotus wish to gain the awesome power of the orb (which apparently only they believe in) for themselves.
The Single Player campaign mode can be rather impressive right at the start. You are thrust right into the clan's power struggles, and can choose (ala Command and Conquer) which path to take, although the game's story progresses quite linearly. Missions can be quite challenging at times, although the earlier missions I found rather easy. There isn't much in the way of "commando-missions", although the 2 I have played thus far were thoroughly enjoyable and well designed, with one requiring Kenji to protect a building, and the other having Kenji run a gauntlet. However, some missions can be frustrating - when I thought I had eliminated every single one of a certain side (the missions usually requires you to eliminate more than 1 AI player), one of their peasants would have survived and had rebuilt slowly, from 0, up to an annoying fully fledged army again. This makes having to hunt every single one of a remaining side's units down necessary, which I found most annoying. However, once I got used to the idea that peasants were attracted to rice and water like moths to a candle flame, things became much easier.
The AI in this game is one of the best I have ever seen. Battlerealms has bested Dark Reign in having the best AI in an RTS I have played. The movement AI is intelligent - it automatically picks the shortest path and can navigate bottlenecks with ease (unlike a certain popular RTS I know of *coughcough*starcraft*coughcough*). Units have a good idea of what they are supposed to do and do it well - the Geisha automatically heal units to full health if they go yellow, and melee units pick the targets they work best against and attack them first. However, in default mode, the units tend to be over-enthusiastic and will chase ANY unit they can see to the ends of the earth, even if they are bleeding, limping, and have had critical body regions chopped-off. This is easily fixed by putting the unit into passive mode, though. I find that once I got the hang of it, controlling my units was a breeze - no formations needed! All-in-all, the unit AI is very well done and unobstrusive.
The enemy AI is extremely fun to play against in skirmish mode. The AI may be set to represent different characters in the game, such as Kenji, Shinja (leader of the Serpent Clan), Zymeth (Lotus), or Grayback (Wolf). There are more, of course, but each of these different AI representatives have a different style of play - some like using unit abilities (called BattleGear), some like summoning heroes, etc. I have had the AI execute several effective unit strategies on me - Grayback is particularly fond of hitting hard and fast, from 2 sides (classic pincer strategy?), with hard-hitting melee units, while Shinja favours using quick units to lure my nicely-assembled army piecemeal to their doom, to a ambush in a thick grove of trees. Again, never have I seen any computer AI do this in any other game, so kudos goes to Liquid Entertainment for programming such a great AI.
Multiplayer is great - Battlerealms does not focus on resource collection, and instead rewards aggresive gameplay and good usage of the units you have available. Of course, every game has it's share of turtlers, but I daresay turtlers won't survive very long in Battlerealms, since they will be at a disadvantage in terms of Yin/Yang points collected (which are used to upgrade your units), as Yin/Yang points are awarded by the number of kills you have based on how far you are from your "base". My clan loyalties lie with the "Serpent" clan, currently - their style of play focuses (I think) on hitting quickly with fast moving units, burning down buildings (always fun), and crippling enemy units with caltrops and landmines. Fuzzirat has had first-hand experience of both first and second points *mischievous grin*.
Battlerealms is a fully 3D RTS. The unit models looks great from the default view, although they get horribly blocky during in-game cinematics, which zoom right up to the units, very "close and personal"-like. Colours are rich and vibrant, and spell or unit ability effects suitably magnificent. The way the game is presented is very, very slick, with a distinctive art-style I find appealing. Unit animations are done well, and very varied. My jaw dropped when I first saw Kenji dodge quickly to his right to avoid a sword thrust, leap towards his opponent with a quick forward slash, and then leap back again to safety. The units have pseudo-oriental voices, which sound MOST melodramatic, although they never take themselves too seriously :) One of Dragon's heroes Tau, a monk, spouts phrases of wisdom like "The path is the way" - which is quickly followed up by "Forwards is not backwards", and then "Left, is right. Right, is wrong". The Serpent "Raider" unit sounds very fruity - according to the Liquid Entertainment guys, the guy who voice acted him and the Dragon Archer (another rather "funny"-sounding unit) is teased daily in the office. Most memorable and amusing.
If there was something I disliked - it would be that hotkeys to unit abilities are not easily found. I still haven't figured it out yet, and have to click the button manually. While this isn't all that bad, it's slightly distracting.
I won't give Battlerealms a score - play and judge for youself, but play it you must.
p/s: I want a PS2, damnit. I want one I want one I want one I want one. Devil may cry must be the singular coolest looking game I've ever seen. Rez is funky, and there's no need to even mention MGS2, I just HAVE got to get it. ICO, too. ARGH, I want a PS2. Then again, I want an Xbox as well. The fundamental problem of Economics rears it's ugly head though - I wonder how much I can exactly buy with my NS salary.
p/sp/s: Civ 3 is suitably fun too, but I was beaten down by the Germans and am still smarting from my in-ability to even try to play and win through peaceful means.
Well, this was a long post. Sadly, I haven't played much of Hundred Swords yet (guess why- no prizes for getting the right answer though), so I can't say much about it. Controls are a bit clunky, although the gameplay itself seems quite good.
Agagooga, please get rid of that picture of Asian Prince. URGH. Please.
Post ID: 7361994
i'm back after two days of seclusion with a PS2.
since the topic has been on games lately, let me confirm from first hand experience what everyone has been saying - METAL GEAR SOLID 2 IS GODLIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it is as close to console gaming perfection as you're likely to see in this lifetime - from the intro movie which everyone i think has seen(it's on the Zone of the Enders demo disc and is downloadable all over the web) - i can tell you that watching it on a 29" HDTV is the only way to do it justice... the soundtrack is composed and arranged by the same guy who did The Rock(Nicholas Cage/Sean Connery, not the "can 'o whoopass"-opener) - it starts with a pre-rendered CGI scene of a rain-swept bridge and segues SEAMLESSLY into an in-game rendered scene that is almost completely indistinguishable!
the gameplay is basically what you expect from MGS, but MORE MORE MORE MORE. new moves, new tactics, new pecadilloes - little realistic touches like shooting the radios of enemies, hiding in lockers, using your enemies as human shields - fantastic! the levels are done in the same neo-industrial manner as the previous, but with more graphical touches, much more environmental interaction(rain washing off bloodstains on a ship deck, icecubes melting, plants wilting, hair dripping wet as you step out of water) - and of course, the superlative storyline. We are talking a game you watch as much as you play. I have NEVER seen a game with this many 30-minute-long cutscenes/convos. It even starts with a 200-page in-game text document that "summarises" the events of the first Metal Gear Solid:).
Boss fights were just as immensely fun and generally harder - although i didn't find any that matched the zhainess of Vulcan Raven in the first game. The graphics are really where the game shines - textures of faces are seamlessly alpha-blended, the environmental and fogging effects are superb, and there are so many little touches, in-jokes, details, that a loving gamer who spends time doing anything and everything with the environment(hint - there are LOTS of thigns to do with the girlie pictures in the locker:) will be immensely rewarded.
and the story - once again - FANTASTIC. plot twists, densely layered, a little hackneyed in some hero points, but it's clear that Hideo Kojima has a thing for psycho-death-loving killer chicks(Viola in Zone Of the Enders, Sniper Wolf in MGS1 and now Fortune in MGS2). about the most surprising thing in the gameplasy is that you DON'T PLAY SNAKE all the way through the game. but to tell more would be to spoil the fantastic story - let's just say that there's a plot twist in almost every cutscene.... and you can pan the camera around in cutscenes just to prove to yourself that it ISN'T pre-rendered!
anyway, i can't think of enough good thigns to say about it - perfectly immersive environment, densely layered storyline, superb character animation and model design -
and above all, DETAILS. this is a game that positively glistens with details. the perfectionist gamer will get so much more out of this, even though the casual gamer is not short-changed by just romping through the game for the storyline.
bottom-line is this - GET THE GAME. GET A PS2 TO PLAY IT. KILL, LIE, CHEAT AND STEAL TO GET A PS2 TO PLAY IT ON. SELL YOUR IRRITATING SIBLINGS INTO SLAVERY TO OWN ONE. THIS IS A GAME THAT DEFIES MORAL CONSIDERATION. IF YOU WANT MORALITY, TRY TO COMPLETE THE GAME WITHOUT KILLING ANYONE TO ATONE FOR THE SINS COMMIITTED IN ORDER TO OBTAIN A PS2.
(ootnote: also played Devil May Cry, Grand Theft Auto 3, and Zone of the Enders. brief mini reviews follow
Devil May Cry - superb graphics, simple linear mission-based structure, and a tres-cool gun/sword-wielding half-demon mercenary. the camera angles are a bit jarring at times, but the storyline is good for a typical "get vengeance on the demonic forces who killed your family and save the world" kind of archetype. The attacks are good, and the level designs are finely textured and superbly laid out.
Grand Theft Auto 3 - proof that graphical excellence in any one area isn't as important as many factors contributing to overall FUN-NESS of a game. GTA3 runs on ambience, style, attitude, and environment - from the radio station you can tune in to that contains almost 2 hours of DAMN FUNNY chat show stuff, to the fact that your car door doesn't shut if you jack a vehicle and speed off too fast - the various cheesy accents of the Yakuza, Triads, and Mafia.. you'll be willing to forgive the fact that the graphics engine isn't the best out in the world, and in terms of driving realism it isn't Gran Turismo 3, but picking up whores and listening to them bitch about their work while running over helpless pedestrians in a very large and well-mapped city is worth it all.
Zone of Enders - what can i say? Irritating protagonist, but good fighting action(albeit a little repetitive). Think of Virtua On with more 3d movement. However, the horribly short gameplay and unsatisfying ending are major irritations(i was "what the !$@#!$" when it ended - ABRUPTLY) - although the robot designs in close up really showcase the power of the PS2's graphical engine, albeit lacking the finer texture work of top-end PC titles like Alice.
Okay, back to exams......
Goddamned reality.
since the topic has been on games lately, let me confirm from first hand experience what everyone has been saying - METAL GEAR SOLID 2 IS GODLIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it is as close to console gaming perfection as you're likely to see in this lifetime - from the intro movie which everyone i think has seen(it's on the Zone of the Enders demo disc and is downloadable all over the web) - i can tell you that watching it on a 29" HDTV is the only way to do it justice... the soundtrack is composed and arranged by the same guy who did The Rock(Nicholas Cage/Sean Connery, not the "can 'o whoopass"-opener) - it starts with a pre-rendered CGI scene of a rain-swept bridge and segues SEAMLESSLY into an in-game rendered scene that is almost completely indistinguishable!
the gameplay is basically what you expect from MGS, but MORE MORE MORE MORE. new moves, new tactics, new pecadilloes - little realistic touches like shooting the radios of enemies, hiding in lockers, using your enemies as human shields - fantastic! the levels are done in the same neo-industrial manner as the previous, but with more graphical touches, much more environmental interaction(rain washing off bloodstains on a ship deck, icecubes melting, plants wilting, hair dripping wet as you step out of water) - and of course, the superlative storyline. We are talking a game you watch as much as you play. I have NEVER seen a game with this many 30-minute-long cutscenes/convos. It even starts with a 200-page in-game text document that "summarises" the events of the first Metal Gear Solid:).
Boss fights were just as immensely fun and generally harder - although i didn't find any that matched the zhainess of Vulcan Raven in the first game. The graphics are really where the game shines - textures of faces are seamlessly alpha-blended, the environmental and fogging effects are superb, and there are so many little touches, in-jokes, details, that a loving gamer who spends time doing anything and everything with the environment(hint - there are LOTS of thigns to do with the girlie pictures in the locker:) will be immensely rewarded.
and the story - once again - FANTASTIC. plot twists, densely layered, a little hackneyed in some hero points, but it's clear that Hideo Kojima has a thing for psycho-death-loving killer chicks(Viola in Zone Of the Enders, Sniper Wolf in MGS1 and now Fortune in MGS2). about the most surprising thing in the gameplasy is that you DON'T PLAY SNAKE all the way through the game. but to tell more would be to spoil the fantastic story - let's just say that there's a plot twist in almost every cutscene.... and you can pan the camera around in cutscenes just to prove to yourself that it ISN'T pre-rendered!
anyway, i can't think of enough good thigns to say about it - perfectly immersive environment, densely layered storyline, superb character animation and model design -
and above all, DETAILS. this is a game that positively glistens with details. the perfectionist gamer will get so much more out of this, even though the casual gamer is not short-changed by just romping through the game for the storyline.
bottom-line is this - GET THE GAME. GET A PS2 TO PLAY IT. KILL, LIE, CHEAT AND STEAL TO GET A PS2 TO PLAY IT ON. SELL YOUR IRRITATING SIBLINGS INTO SLAVERY TO OWN ONE. THIS IS A GAME THAT DEFIES MORAL CONSIDERATION. IF YOU WANT MORALITY, TRY TO COMPLETE THE GAME WITHOUT KILLING ANYONE TO ATONE FOR THE SINS COMMIITTED IN ORDER TO OBTAIN A PS2.
(ootnote: also played Devil May Cry, Grand Theft Auto 3, and Zone of the Enders. brief mini reviews follow
Devil May Cry - superb graphics, simple linear mission-based structure, and a tres-cool gun/sword-wielding half-demon mercenary. the camera angles are a bit jarring at times, but the storyline is good for a typical "get vengeance on the demonic forces who killed your family and save the world" kind of archetype. The attacks are good, and the level designs are finely textured and superbly laid out.
Grand Theft Auto 3 - proof that graphical excellence in any one area isn't as important as many factors contributing to overall FUN-NESS of a game. GTA3 runs on ambience, style, attitude, and environment - from the radio station you can tune in to that contains almost 2 hours of DAMN FUNNY chat show stuff, to the fact that your car door doesn't shut if you jack a vehicle and speed off too fast - the various cheesy accents of the Yakuza, Triads, and Mafia.. you'll be willing to forgive the fact that the graphics engine isn't the best out in the world, and in terms of driving realism it isn't Gran Turismo 3, but picking up whores and listening to them bitch about their work while running over helpless pedestrians in a very large and well-mapped city is worth it all.
Zone of Enders - what can i say? Irritating protagonist, but good fighting action(albeit a little repetitive). Think of Virtua On with more 3d movement. However, the horribly short gameplay and unsatisfying ending are major irritations(i was "what the !$@#!$" when it ended - ABRUPTLY) - although the robot designs in close up really showcase the power of the PS2's graphical engine, albeit lacking the finer texture work of top-end PC titles like Alice.
Okay, back to exams......
Goddamned reality.
Post ID: 7357111
Friday, November 23, 2001
Ah... civ3... i read reviews on gamespot.. apparently its split into 2 groups... those that say its excellent, or those that say its pathetic.. =)
i think overall, its not bad, definitely an improvement over civ 1 and 2...
i think the biggest change is in the art... the stuff look nice and theres actually animation as they move around and fight..
quite fun to see the first couple of times...
then of course there'r the new features, like resources and culture...
resources r a new thing (which i havent seen in civ-like turn-based games much) where to build a say, swordsman, u need iron..
so u need to find iron on the map and then build a road from it to a town.. then _that_ town can build swordsmen...
one funny thing is that if u link all ur towns together with roads, one source of iron allows every town to build swordsmen...
perhaps thats y resources can run out after some time... but i think its quite random...
then of course there'r luxuries too... if u link silk to ur town(s), they'll have more happy ppl...
the same weird thing happens.. one source of silk can make all ur towns get 1 extra happy person...
and luxuries dont run out...
the thing bout strategic resources like iron and oil is that they dont show u where u can find them until u actually research it..
like if u research iron working, then iron appears on the map...
some ppl complained that they cant plan their cities' locations becos of it, but i think its actually quite good...
cos it creates a need to build cities in weird positions like deserts just in case saltpeter (for gunpowder) is there, since saltpeter forms on deserts and some other terrain piece...
diplomacy is quite weird... u have an advisor whos _very_ accurate..
he'll say "they'll be insulted by our proposal" and stuff if they wont accept, to "we're getting closer to a deal" until finally "i think this proposal is acceptable"..
so u can keep experimenting with deals (w/o actually offering to the comp player yet) and reduce the amount of gold u offer until its just nice...
supposedly, the comp remembers stuff u did and will not trust u if u betrayed them in the past..
but i havent really noticed much difference from alpha centauri, other than the fact that comps dont go around boasting "we've just developed so-and-so tech, and have begun production on a X-X-X, so we're practically invulnerable"
when u actually have a X^2/X^2/X^2 unit for example =) they dont boast at all anymore =)
culture is another new thing they added... as u build "cultural" stuff like temples, colloseums and stuff, u generate culture each turn, and when u reach cultures of 10, 100, 1000 etc, ur country borders increase...
and if ur town is close to an enemy's, and ur culture is very high, the enemy town may convert... when i played my first few games, i kept converting computing towns...
so fun... but when i played at the 3rd or 4th difficulty (avg difficulty), it was irritating, cos after i conquered a town, there would be resistance..
then if during resistance u have civil unrest (when # unhappy ppl > # happy ppl) there's a _very_ high chance they'll convert...
and the worst part is all the soldiers in the town will just disappear! i had to load many autosaves just cos of that...
and also the weird fact that if i removed all my soldiers from the town that was gonna convert the next turn, it wouldnt convert... weird!
another very weird thing is that combat is unbalanced... a 1/1/1 warrior can kill a 5/3/1 knight if hes lucky enuf...
of a 5/3/1 knight with 5 hp can win a 1/2/1 unit with 3 hp, with only 1 hp left at the end... if its a 5/3/1 with 5 hp against a 1/2/1 with 4 hp, u can lose! its weird...
[Ed: It's called probability. It's possible I can get D for Economics S without studying, but very improbable.]
besides all the negative points, i think overall its still very fun... all the need to do is tweak corruption rate (its _really_ bad now)
and make combat a little more balanced perhaps... julian sez combat probly wont be tweaked cos civ has always been like that... but i dunno...
another thing bout civ3 is the requirements! they say a 300mhz is enuf, but on my 550mhz, it crawls quite a bit (scrolling takes ages)
and i check my task manager, my processor was running at 90+%!!!
i never had a game take up so much cpu b4... and theres no big gfx, not much apparent thinking done either... i really wonder wat civ3 is doing with my processor...
moving a unit (during my turn) from one square to another takes 3-5s sometimes... but instant at other times, so its really weird...
on julian's 900mhz, it runs _very_ well.. so again its quite funny... everything else bout our comps is more or less the same...
besides the slow speed, i think overall its not bad =)
Fuzzy rating: 3.5 Rats out of 5...
i think overall, its not bad, definitely an improvement over civ 1 and 2...
i think the biggest change is in the art... the stuff look nice and theres actually animation as they move around and fight..
quite fun to see the first couple of times...
then of course there'r the new features, like resources and culture...
resources r a new thing (which i havent seen in civ-like turn-based games much) where to build a say, swordsman, u need iron..
so u need to find iron on the map and then build a road from it to a town.. then _that_ town can build swordsmen...
one funny thing is that if u link all ur towns together with roads, one source of iron allows every town to build swordsmen...
perhaps thats y resources can run out after some time... but i think its quite random...
then of course there'r luxuries too... if u link silk to ur town(s), they'll have more happy ppl...
the same weird thing happens.. one source of silk can make all ur towns get 1 extra happy person...
and luxuries dont run out...
the thing bout strategic resources like iron and oil is that they dont show u where u can find them until u actually research it..
like if u research iron working, then iron appears on the map...
some ppl complained that they cant plan their cities' locations becos of it, but i think its actually quite good...
cos it creates a need to build cities in weird positions like deserts just in case saltpeter (for gunpowder) is there, since saltpeter forms on deserts and some other terrain piece...
diplomacy is quite weird... u have an advisor whos _very_ accurate..
he'll say "they'll be insulted by our proposal" and stuff if they wont accept, to "we're getting closer to a deal" until finally "i think this proposal is acceptable"..
so u can keep experimenting with deals (w/o actually offering to the comp player yet) and reduce the amount of gold u offer until its just nice...
supposedly, the comp remembers stuff u did and will not trust u if u betrayed them in the past..
but i havent really noticed much difference from alpha centauri, other than the fact that comps dont go around boasting "we've just developed so-and-so tech, and have begun production on a X-X-X, so we're practically invulnerable"
when u actually have a X^2/X^2/X^2 unit for example =) they dont boast at all anymore =)
culture is another new thing they added... as u build "cultural" stuff like temples, colloseums and stuff, u generate culture each turn, and when u reach cultures of 10, 100, 1000 etc, ur country borders increase...
and if ur town is close to an enemy's, and ur culture is very high, the enemy town may convert... when i played my first few games, i kept converting computing towns...
so fun... but when i played at the 3rd or 4th difficulty (avg difficulty), it was irritating, cos after i conquered a town, there would be resistance..
then if during resistance u have civil unrest (when # unhappy ppl > # happy ppl) there's a _very_ high chance they'll convert...
and the worst part is all the soldiers in the town will just disappear! i had to load many autosaves just cos of that...
and also the weird fact that if i removed all my soldiers from the town that was gonna convert the next turn, it wouldnt convert... weird!
another very weird thing is that combat is unbalanced... a 1/1/1 warrior can kill a 5/3/1 knight if hes lucky enuf...
of a 5/3/1 knight with 5 hp can win a 1/2/1 unit with 3 hp, with only 1 hp left at the end... if its a 5/3/1 with 5 hp against a 1/2/1 with 4 hp, u can lose! its weird...
[Ed: It's called probability. It's possible I can get D for Economics S without studying, but very improbable.]
besides all the negative points, i think overall its still very fun... all the need to do is tweak corruption rate (its _really_ bad now)
and make combat a little more balanced perhaps... julian sez combat probly wont be tweaked cos civ has always been like that... but i dunno...
another thing bout civ3 is the requirements! they say a 300mhz is enuf, but on my 550mhz, it crawls quite a bit (scrolling takes ages)
and i check my task manager, my processor was running at 90+%!!!
i never had a game take up so much cpu b4... and theres no big gfx, not much apparent thinking done either... i really wonder wat civ3 is doing with my processor...
moving a unit (during my turn) from one square to another takes 3-5s sometimes... but instant at other times, so its really weird...
on julian's 900mhz, it runs _very_ well.. so again its quite funny... everything else bout our comps is more or less the same...
besides the slow speed, i think overall its not bad =)
Fuzzy rating: 3.5 Rats out of 5...
Post ID: 7343898
Response to my new ICQ picture has been unanimous. Excerpts:
"oh yuck :P"
"urgh. urgh. make it go away."
"YUCK
YUCK. change it...! ughhh
eeeeeeeeeeee
its really gross
i have no idea y u put it in ur icq pic.... at least the apple lady was not disgusting..."
"EEEEEKKKK! Not _that_ picture!
Ugh. Yes, nearly [died]."
"sick ass"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHA
looks like shit"
"GOSHHHHHHH
WHAT IS THAT?!!!!!
aiyeeee"
"errr
nice pic?"
"wah kow!! u'll freak everyone out... and wohen nankan nearly killed me too"
"hahaha... it's a really gross pic i agree... at least u should have put something with more taste"
"Oh dear god."
The Associate:
"i think the asianprince has a disturbing effect on the psyche of all who view it. like a car crash"
"oh yuck :P"
"urgh. urgh. make it go away."
"YUCK
YUCK. change it...! ughhh
eeeeeeeeeeee
its really gross
i have no idea y u put it in ur icq pic.... at least the apple lady was not disgusting..."
"EEEEEKKKK! Not _that_ picture!
Ugh. Yes, nearly [died]."
"sick ass"
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHA
looks like shit"
"GOSHHHHHHH
WHAT IS THAT?!!!!!
aiyeeee"
"errr
nice pic?"
"wah kow!! u'll freak everyone out... and wohen nankan nearly killed me too"
"hahaha... it's a really gross pic i agree... at least u should have put something with more taste"
"Oh dear god."
The Associate:
"i think the asianprince has a disturbing effect on the psyche of all who view it. like a car crash"
Post ID: 7343491
Whee...
Here's my review for Battle Realms:
its interesting cos its 3d-ish... its sorta 3d but they dont let u rotate ur screen left and right, only up and down (i wonder why)...
peasants raise their arms and hammer into air for buildings to appear =) heheh...
i think the fun part of the game is the ability to "cross-breed" units to make others.. like u send a peasant into one building, u get one kinda soldier. then u send that soldier into another building, u get a different one.. quite interesting...
interesting points is the endless supply of resources... there's only 2: water and rice.. and u can water rice patches to make more rice grow... and ponds and rivers dont dry up... so basically if no one touches u, u eventually have max resources..
i think one problem is the messiness of the whole thing.. played a 3 vs 3 comp game earlier with Julian and his fren Skylight (interesting character), and battles got so messy i couldnt control the stuff properly... i found the animation of archers climbing on top of the watchtower interesting, but julian said it was weird.. *shrug*...
just played a 1v1 with julian.. died hehehhe. he rushed me so fast! but my peasants proved to be lethal as i chopped his soldiers with small peasants... =P
its interesting cos the speed that peasants pop from peasant huts depends on the number of units u have, so as he killed my peasants, more popped out.. (they come free.. hehehe)
The funniest part was the peasants saying "Kill? With these? Er... ok...!" when i asked them to attack his base =)
overall, i guess the game is interesting... some of the terrain r really dark and cant see anything... but besides that its quite ok... should be fun once i actually get the hang of the game...
Fuzzy rating: 3.5 Rats out of 5...
(I'll post on Civ3 after I finish watching Survivor!)
Here's my review for Battle Realms:
its interesting cos its 3d-ish... its sorta 3d but they dont let u rotate ur screen left and right, only up and down (i wonder why)...
peasants raise their arms and hammer into air for buildings to appear =) heheh...
i think the fun part of the game is the ability to "cross-breed" units to make others.. like u send a peasant into one building, u get one kinda soldier. then u send that soldier into another building, u get a different one.. quite interesting...
interesting points is the endless supply of resources... there's only 2: water and rice.. and u can water rice patches to make more rice grow... and ponds and rivers dont dry up... so basically if no one touches u, u eventually have max resources..
i think one problem is the messiness of the whole thing.. played a 3 vs 3 comp game earlier with Julian and his fren Skylight (interesting character), and battles got so messy i couldnt control the stuff properly... i found the animation of archers climbing on top of the watchtower interesting, but julian said it was weird.. *shrug*...
just played a 1v1 with julian.. died hehehhe. he rushed me so fast! but my peasants proved to be lethal as i chopped his soldiers with small peasants... =P
its interesting cos the speed that peasants pop from peasant huts depends on the number of units u have, so as he killed my peasants, more popped out.. (they come free.. hehehe)
The funniest part was the peasants saying "Kill? With these? Er... ok...!" when i asked them to attack his base =)
overall, i guess the game is interesting... some of the terrain r really dark and cant see anything... but besides that its quite ok... should be fun once i actually get the hang of the game...
Fuzzy rating: 3.5 Rats out of 5...
(I'll post on Civ3 after I finish watching Survivor!)
Post ID: 7343371
Usual ad-hoc snippets of commentary:
Little Prince is the most meretricious piece of garbage I have ever read in my life. Good for use in hooking "sensitive" new-age chicks who want to appear like there are things more important than emotional instability, shopping, and raving over guys' new car body-kits/credit cards/heaps of flowers, etc....
a damning indictment of translations is Asiapac's bastardization of jin yong's condor heroes series. i mean, "The Mighty Snap"?
Loom's theme is a fairly good rearrangement of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
i did some checking - the weirdzo planets you got are from the Solarian mythos, i think. some freaky european cult that was related to the solar temple people(who killed Grace Kelly)
you know, during hari raya, what happens if you're a muslim posted in antarctica right now? if you must fast from sunrise to sunset, what the hell do you do if the sun is in the sky for *6 months*(!). and before you ask, the pattern depends on where you are, not some standardised clock. muslims in northern hemispheres now enjoy a much longer night as it is winter. although if you're in the arctic, you have it set - can gorge for that six-month long night on walrus fat....
asian prince has taken on a hideous life of its own - there's something so awful and terrible about that site that you can't tear your eyes away from it. sort of like
Para Para. a friend of mine said, and i quote: "the first time i saw para para machines at the arcade in bugis, it wasn't just the gyrating hand and foot movements of the gaudily dressed lian or her gaudily dressed beng opponent.. it was the six or seven other gaudily dressed(for clubbing, almost) onlookers behind them imitating their every move in perfect rhythm that caused me to stare in horrified fascination. eventually, i managed to tear my gaze away before my bones liquefied entirely... I can gouge out my eyes, but I can never gouge out the memory."
you know, i wonder how many freaks are using the online rgs yearbook now to hunt down the lian of their choice?
"I feel sorry for myself, because no one else is(sorry for me)" is from an old movie. one of those Golden Age hollywood bridging between technicolor and b&w movies.
i heard that invigilators need the scripts back, in case someone tries to falsify answers and slip them into the stack before marking - although they're marked abroad, so i have no idea how it's feasible
other nostalgic childhood games - the throwing little sack thingies you catch on your palm and back of hand, aeroplane/tank cards where you compare stats(someone always got the SR-71 *grumbles*), animal chess(elephant kills anything except mouse), "surround"(there wasn't a name for it, but you used "X"s and "O"s to draw cages around the other person's position - remarkably related to weiqi), those pencil sliding games where you drew tanks/guns/planes and slid the pencil along the paper to trace the path of the bullet or the movement of the vehicle(2B staedtler pencils being the weapons of choice), pencilboxes with six or seven buttons that had multiple pop-ups(i never got one - that's why i'm so fucked up, i think)... the list goes on, as i was just reading a nostalgia fight at: http://www.electricferret.com/fights/issue_153.htm
the malaysian king was at Mount E. Hospital a week before he died. singaporean treatment, followed by total renal failure. MUST I SPELL IT OUT, FOLKS?
you forgot to mention that i think you could've been a dominican inqiuisitor in another life, burning witches at the stake, what with your distaste for women.
[Ed: Damning 'Hot Shorts' and 'Hot Socks' does not mean misogny :) 'Hot Socks' in men suck too, and screwed up stuff *can* be fun {notice caveat}]
battlerealms iz goot. civ 3 is also goot. the christmas season is coming up with a plethora of good games. after i finish this blog, i'm heading over to a friend's place
for an extended playing of metal gear solid 2. screw my CFA exams!
during my tenure in singapore, i shopped for games at two places - microtrend at katong shopping center, and Tiny(which lasted from 1995-1999). i remember carting home about 24 discs to install wing commander 2, the add-on packs, AND the sound-packs. those were the days. *nostalgically*. and back then, the pirates would include full manuals as well - these days they can't be bothered for the most part. damn shoddy quality control. (although my friend tells me that the Penang pirates not only still consistently produce good quality cd-label stamps that don't look like someone photocopied the box image and pasted it on the CD, but they still include booklet manuals in the jewel cases or, as is more the case, the cd sleeves. these days, some shops even sell BURNED cds as opposed to stamps. cheap bastards.). anyway, microtrend was brilliant - it had a catalogue of games dating back to the original king quest, which they kept ON FILE, they had the most comprehensive catalogue of pirated manuals ever for pre-CD games(back when i still collected them) - and the aunty was very nice about lettnig us know when raids were forthcoming so we could help her clear stock at discount prices. damned Berne convention. not like I signed the WTO agreement on intellectual property.
why am i ranting so long? because it's better than studying, and i'm waiting for my friend to get his car so i can go to his house and cart-off some anime, games, and watch Grand Theft Auto 3 and MGS2.
come to think of it, where the hell *is* Rainier...
Little Prince is the most meretricious piece of garbage I have ever read in my life. Good for use in hooking "sensitive" new-age chicks who want to appear like there are things more important than emotional instability, shopping, and raving over guys' new car body-kits/credit cards/heaps of flowers, etc....
a damning indictment of translations is Asiapac's bastardization of jin yong's condor heroes series. i mean, "The Mighty Snap"?
Loom's theme is a fairly good rearrangement of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
i did some checking - the weirdzo planets you got are from the Solarian mythos, i think. some freaky european cult that was related to the solar temple people(who killed Grace Kelly)
you know, during hari raya, what happens if you're a muslim posted in antarctica right now? if you must fast from sunrise to sunset, what the hell do you do if the sun is in the sky for *6 months*(!). and before you ask, the pattern depends on where you are, not some standardised clock. muslims in northern hemispheres now enjoy a much longer night as it is winter. although if you're in the arctic, you have it set - can gorge for that six-month long night on walrus fat....
asian prince has taken on a hideous life of its own - there's something so awful and terrible about that site that you can't tear your eyes away from it. sort of like
Para Para. a friend of mine said, and i quote: "the first time i saw para para machines at the arcade in bugis, it wasn't just the gyrating hand and foot movements of the gaudily dressed lian or her gaudily dressed beng opponent.. it was the six or seven other gaudily dressed(for clubbing, almost) onlookers behind them imitating their every move in perfect rhythm that caused me to stare in horrified fascination. eventually, i managed to tear my gaze away before my bones liquefied entirely... I can gouge out my eyes, but I can never gouge out the memory."
you know, i wonder how many freaks are using the online rgs yearbook now to hunt down the lian of their choice?
"I feel sorry for myself, because no one else is(sorry for me)" is from an old movie. one of those Golden Age hollywood bridging between technicolor and b&w movies.
i heard that invigilators need the scripts back, in case someone tries to falsify answers and slip them into the stack before marking - although they're marked abroad, so i have no idea how it's feasible
other nostalgic childhood games - the throwing little sack thingies you catch on your palm and back of hand, aeroplane/tank cards where you compare stats(someone always got the SR-71 *grumbles*), animal chess(elephant kills anything except mouse), "surround"(there wasn't a name for it, but you used "X"s and "O"s to draw cages around the other person's position - remarkably related to weiqi), those pencil sliding games where you drew tanks/guns/planes and slid the pencil along the paper to trace the path of the bullet or the movement of the vehicle(2B staedtler pencils being the weapons of choice), pencilboxes with six or seven buttons that had multiple pop-ups(i never got one - that's why i'm so fucked up, i think)... the list goes on, as i was just reading a nostalgia fight at: http://www.electricferret.com/fights/issue_153.htm
the malaysian king was at Mount E. Hospital a week before he died. singaporean treatment, followed by total renal failure. MUST I SPELL IT OUT, FOLKS?
you forgot to mention that i think you could've been a dominican inqiuisitor in another life, burning witches at the stake, what with your distaste for women.
[Ed: Damning 'Hot Shorts' and 'Hot Socks' does not mean misogny :) 'Hot Socks' in men suck too, and screwed up stuff *can* be fun {notice caveat}]
battlerealms iz goot. civ 3 is also goot. the christmas season is coming up with a plethora of good games. after i finish this blog, i'm heading over to a friend's place
for an extended playing of metal gear solid 2. screw my CFA exams!
during my tenure in singapore, i shopped for games at two places - microtrend at katong shopping center, and Tiny(which lasted from 1995-1999). i remember carting home about 24 discs to install wing commander 2, the add-on packs, AND the sound-packs. those were the days. *nostalgically*. and back then, the pirates would include full manuals as well - these days they can't be bothered for the most part. damn shoddy quality control. (although my friend tells me that the Penang pirates not only still consistently produce good quality cd-label stamps that don't look like someone photocopied the box image and pasted it on the CD, but they still include booklet manuals in the jewel cases or, as is more the case, the cd sleeves. these days, some shops even sell BURNED cds as opposed to stamps. cheap bastards.). anyway, microtrend was brilliant - it had a catalogue of games dating back to the original king quest, which they kept ON FILE, they had the most comprehensive catalogue of pirated manuals ever for pre-CD games(back when i still collected them) - and the aunty was very nice about lettnig us know when raids were forthcoming so we could help her clear stock at discount prices. damned Berne convention. not like I signed the WTO agreement on intellectual property.
why am i ranting so long? because it's better than studying, and i'm waiting for my friend to get his car so i can go to his house and cart-off some anime, games, and watch Grand Theft Auto 3 and MGS2.
come to think of it, where the hell *is* Rainier...
Post ID: 7334596
Thursday, November 22, 2001
The Bad joke award goes to Patch (P**** Andrew Tan C*** H****) for this:
Which is worse, ignorance or apathy? Who knows? Who cares?
FSOH!
And he also says, about Jade:
well it was still open about 2 days back.
Wah.
I'm thinking of shelling out (or getting my father to shell out) $800-$1200 for an upgrade to my 400Mhz thingies. It will apparently buy me nice stuff, like a 1.6Ghz Processor, 256MB SD-133 RAM, a SB Live! Value and a GeForce 2.
Problem is, I'll be enslaved at most 15 days after the upgrade, and assuming I don't get detention, I'll only be back during weekends.
The previously named one also recommended that I "wait 1 month after you go in, then. unless you plan to play like there's no tomorrow in the 15 days." because "i suggest you wait another month or so until the MPC of your abstinence is equal to the MPB of the geforce2. prices are falling for it."
Which is worse, ignorance or apathy? Who knows? Who cares?
FSOH!
And he also says, about Jade:
well it was still open about 2 days back.
Wah.
I'm thinking of shelling out (or getting my father to shell out) $800-$1200 for an upgrade to my 400Mhz thingies. It will apparently buy me nice stuff, like a 1.6Ghz Processor, 256MB SD-133 RAM, a SB Live! Value and a GeForce 2.
Problem is, I'll be enslaved at most 15 days after the upgrade, and assuming I don't get detention, I'll only be back during weekends.
The previously named one also recommended that I "wait 1 month after you go in, then. unless you plan to play like there's no tomorrow in the 15 days." because "i suggest you wait another month or so until the MPC of your abstinence is equal to the MPB of the geforce2. prices are falling for it."
Post ID: 7319655
The "clapping hand" game isn't a male thing. Similar proportions of girls do it, albeit with loud squeals and shrieks
FBT shorts are actually pretty comfortable and wick away sweat.
I played Loom- quite interesting and novel- was a little scared by it though because of the scary pictures of the bad guys swooping down with scythes
If you played it at expert level you were supposed to be treated to a special animation in the middle. After completing it once on beginner's level i tried it at expert level but didn't get the easter egg!
Also, I never got to learn the spell/song thing to summon a fairy (although it was mentioned in the manual). Hmm.
Will trust xephyris' recommendation and try out battlerealms after A's
On self-pity (though i'm not in a position to hold a prolonged theological argument):
"Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."- Matthew 8:20
FBT shorts are actually pretty comfortable and wick away sweat.
I played Loom- quite interesting and novel- was a little scared by it though because of the scary pictures of the bad guys swooping down with scythes
If you played it at expert level you were supposed to be treated to a special animation in the middle. After completing it once on beginner's level i tried it at expert level but didn't get the easter egg!
Also, I never got to learn the spell/song thing to summon a fairy (although it was mentioned in the manual). Hmm.
Will trust xephyris' recommendation and try out battlerealms after A's
On self-pity (though i'm not in a position to hold a prolonged theological argument):
"Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."- Matthew 8:20
Post ID: 7318297
Wednesday, November 21, 2001
The Tea Tree - Group Blog V 1 --- Where deprived schoolgirls, sucked into the world of Anime, Yaoi, Tentacles and what not engage in search engine baiting with such terms as:
*censored*
And which comes up on searches like "longest penis on net ", "tallest man penis" and "blog penis" (penis envy?), "cockroach tatto pictures" (wth) and "Explicit Yaoi pictures " (Ooo).
Eugh. And I thought Yaoi Girl was bad enough. :)
21 pages of 2000 scanned today! Wow.
I've heard, from various sources, that Jade House Computer has closed down. The horror! In operation since 1995 (at least), this business has always been the haunt of Bishan schoolboys. Twas the day late in 1996, when Melvin Tay brought me there. He later claimed that he got discounts by giving the man... favours. Right. At that time, CDs cost $15. Apparently the year before they had been $20. Prices went steadily down every few times I went there (buying a whole lot of stuff I never used, or never used much). $12... $10... $8... $6. The cheapest CSs in Singapore! And they used to have floppy games too, with such gems as Dark Sun II : Wake of the Ravager (Never got down to playing it - I loved Dark Sun : Shattered Lands actually, but somehow the sequel didn't seem so good, or maybe I was lazy to play it). Then they started selling off the original floppies instead of copying them for customers. Well, now we have the Internet, though many abandonware sites are being shut down (and the original companies don't even sell the games anymore, for Pete's sake!). The old compilations also were sold there. King of Games [where Tim The Great's primary title comes from!] 1/2 (The ultimate collection of old games!), Best Game II (sic), with more fun stuff, Best Games III (also released under the title King of Games V). And then the Best Games series deteriorated. Best Games IV looked terrible, so I never bought it. King of Games stayed good for a while... VI and VII. Then it deteriorated too. Or maybe games became too big, and so most of the games there became CD-rips [eugh] and the number of games on each CD decreased too! Their compilations became few and far between towards the end of my patronage. How convenient - you could then buy the full-CD versions from them.
We had always thought that the police had an agreement of sorts with the proprietor ('Peter'). "Even the police commissioner's son goes there". It even expanded to 2 units in late 1999 or early 2000, business was that good. Once, I was there and this guy asked, "What are you doing here?", evidently asking me what I was doing in a place with porn on some of the games compilations. Tim said I should've asked back, "What are *you* doing here?". Well, it survived a good 4-5 years, a rather long time for this sort of establishment. Wonder if I'll ever see Peter, Jasmine (his wife) or the pimply guy again.
Jade House Computer - Bishan St 11, Blk 505, #01-426, Phone No: 258 8603 (Courtesy, SEPOMs Singapore).
Maybe I'll call them :).
More weird Ma-laysia stories:
KOTA BARU (Kelantan) - The lack of entertainment outlets and too many heavy political talks may be the reason behind the rising incidence of incest in opposition Parti Islam-led Kelantan, says the Parliamentary Secretary in the Prime Minister's Department. Datuk Noh Omar said although night entertainment spots such as discos were banned, social ills such as incest were still on the rise. 'Perhaps the ceramahs are too heavy and the men become highly intense,' he told reporters yesterday. However, he added, 'the important issue here is awareness. This is a
social problem and we need to be more pro-active'. Earlier, in response to a question in Parliament, he said the number of incest cases in Kelantan had increased from three in 1999 to four in 2000 and nine in 2001, malaysiakini.com reported.
The late king of Ma-laysia married his 4th wife when she was a 19 year-old college student, and he over 60. Ahem.
*censored*
And which comes up on searches like "longest penis on net ", "tallest man penis" and "blog penis" (penis envy?), "cockroach tatto pictures" (wth) and "Explicit Yaoi pictures " (Ooo).
Eugh. And I thought Yaoi Girl was bad enough. :)
21 pages of 2000 scanned today! Wow.
I've heard, from various sources, that Jade House Computer has closed down. The horror! In operation since 1995 (at least), this business has always been the haunt of Bishan schoolboys. Twas the day late in 1996, when Melvin Tay brought me there. He later claimed that he got discounts by giving the man... favours. Right. At that time, CDs cost $15. Apparently the year before they had been $20. Prices went steadily down every few times I went there (buying a whole lot of stuff I never used, or never used much). $12... $10... $8... $6. The cheapest CSs in Singapore! And they used to have floppy games too, with such gems as Dark Sun II : Wake of the Ravager (Never got down to playing it - I loved Dark Sun : Shattered Lands actually, but somehow the sequel didn't seem so good, or maybe I was lazy to play it). Then they started selling off the original floppies instead of copying them for customers. Well, now we have the Internet, though many abandonware sites are being shut down (and the original companies don't even sell the games anymore, for Pete's sake!). The old compilations also were sold there. King of Games [where Tim The Great's primary title comes from!] 1/2 (The ultimate collection of old games!), Best Game II (sic), with more fun stuff, Best Games III (also released under the title King of Games V). And then the Best Games series deteriorated. Best Games IV looked terrible, so I never bought it. King of Games stayed good for a while... VI and VII. Then it deteriorated too. Or maybe games became too big, and so most of the games there became CD-rips [eugh] and the number of games on each CD decreased too! Their compilations became few and far between towards the end of my patronage. How convenient - you could then buy the full-CD versions from them.
We had always thought that the police had an agreement of sorts with the proprietor ('Peter'). "Even the police commissioner's son goes there". It even expanded to 2 units in late 1999 or early 2000, business was that good. Once, I was there and this guy asked, "What are you doing here?", evidently asking me what I was doing in a place with porn on some of the games compilations. Tim said I should've asked back, "What are *you* doing here?". Well, it survived a good 4-5 years, a rather long time for this sort of establishment. Wonder if I'll ever see Peter, Jasmine (his wife) or the pimply guy again.
Jade House Computer - Bishan St 11, Blk 505, #01-426, Phone No: 258 8603 (Courtesy, SEPOMs Singapore).
Maybe I'll call them :).
More weird Ma-laysia stories:
KOTA BARU (Kelantan) - The lack of entertainment outlets and too many heavy political talks may be the reason behind the rising incidence of incest in opposition Parti Islam-led Kelantan, says the Parliamentary Secretary in the Prime Minister's Department. Datuk Noh Omar said although night entertainment spots such as discos were banned, social ills such as incest were still on the rise. 'Perhaps the ceramahs are too heavy and the men become highly intense,' he told reporters yesterday. However, he added, 'the important issue here is awareness. This is a
social problem and we need to be more pro-active'. Earlier, in response to a question in Parliament, he said the number of incest cases in Kelantan had increased from three in 1999 to four in 2000 and nine in 2001, malaysiakini.com reported.
The late king of Ma-laysia married his 4th wife when she was a 19 year-old college student, and he over 60. Ahem.
Post ID: 7291296
Tuesday, November 20, 2001
This sucks. That sucks. Sh*t happens.
This angst was brought to you by the letter A, N, G, and the phrase STfu.
There. Enough angst to last our webboard for a few millenia. Now, back to rambling, random posts, and boliao stuff.
Fwah, proxomitron "disables" the post and publish button. It's still a great proggie though. Ads on the Internet are evil. I can't stress that enough. [Deep voice]EVVVVVIIILLLL.[End Deep Voice, coughcoughcough]. Here it is, for all of you who still suffer daily from the injustice of seeing popups, blinking ads, annoying javascript scrollers, etc.
The Proxomitron
Forgot what I was going to blog. Fweh. Going to recommend a nice song - Loom's main theme. Loom was this old musical game by Lucasarts. Recently, my friend sent me the main theme, and it's pretty nice. Instrumental, and strings, though, so it's not for everybody. Ok, I'm off now. My brain's half dead...
Ah, now I remember. This was going to be a game recommedation - the game I'm currently engrossed with right now is BattleRealms. It's a real time strategy game set in feudal Japan (well... sort of.) With 4 uniquely different clans to play, an engrossing single playing campaign, and brilliant multiplayer, it's too good to pass up. Have a look see, and hopefully, I'll have more opponents to conquest when I go onto gamespy.
Battlerealms
Next post I'll do a more detailed review as well as something on Hundred Swords, another RTS, this time by Smilebit, a division of SEGA.
This angst was brought to you by the letter A, N, G, and the phrase STfu.
There. Enough angst to last our webboard for a few millenia. Now, back to rambling, random posts, and boliao stuff.
Fwah, proxomitron "disables" the post and publish button. It's still a great proggie though. Ads on the Internet are evil. I can't stress that enough. [Deep voice]EVVVVVIIILLLL.[End Deep Voice, coughcoughcough]. Here it is, for all of you who still suffer daily from the injustice of seeing popups, blinking ads, annoying javascript scrollers, etc.
The Proxomitron
Forgot what I was going to blog. Fweh. Going to recommend a nice song - Loom's main theme. Loom was this old musical game by Lucasarts. Recently, my friend sent me the main theme, and it's pretty nice. Instrumental, and strings, though, so it's not for everybody. Ok, I'm off now. My brain's half dead...
Ah, now I remember. This was going to be a game recommedation - the game I'm currently engrossed with right now is BattleRealms. It's a real time strategy game set in feudal Japan (well... sort of.) With 4 uniquely different clans to play, an engrossing single playing campaign, and brilliant multiplayer, it's too good to pass up. Have a look see, and hopefully, I'll have more opponents to conquest when I go onto gamespy.
Battlerealms
Next post I'll do a more detailed review as well as something on Hundred Swords, another RTS, this time by Smilebit, a division of SEGA.
Post ID: 7264792
For some reason, I'm talking to people about the A03 look again. Maybe it is true (God forbid) that I have a "widely known fondness... for the female Geographers." Gah. Not that I know many of them anyway. Ugh, Screwed Up Girl's going to A03 next year. I'm ruined!
Michael is quite A03-ish, and I think he'd take that as a compliment. Anyway he's just an A03 person who doesn't take lit.
What is it with Geog that makes people morph into A03-ers? And no, it's not an Arts thing. I've seen A01C-E (lecture), and they can't compare to A03.
This must make me sound really voyeuristic. Houdini and Red Jacket don't get so much attention. Ah well.
Just so I don't have to retype it everytime I make A03 look references to people, some criteria for the "A03 look" (A03A-ers don't count):
- Female (though some males qualify too. Then again, outside A03A, there are like 5 A03 males and I know 3 of them)
- Long, dyed hair. Shoulder length or below preferably. Hair must be highlighted or worse, with a brownish or worse colour (BSB has purplish tinted hair, I suspect)
- Flesh Parade. It helps if you're a Flesh Parader.
- Hot Socks / Hot Shorts (the latter is for out of school wear, so it's just a speculation)
- Doing what gives BSB the name BSB. (Ask Jianwen)
- The look in the eyes and the stance and mien. Ditto.
Probably a few more, but this is the general idea. Tis hard to quantify. "The A03 Manifesto".
Someone says that in her time (1988-1989) A03 had a lot of sluttish girls.
My associate's comment: "you seem to have a distinct mortification for sexuality - a quality shared by quite a few serial killers... i was reading through your blog - and a recurrent theme in our conversations and in your epistlery - there's a not-so-subtle misogyny and resentment of female sexuality - the abhorrence of "flesh parades" and "hot pants", the general veneer of distaste for anything that heightens adolescent sexual attractivenes... the proliferation of calling people by these little soubriquets
it's vaguely schizo - you're disssociating yourself from these people, giving them conceptual labels.
might i add how psychopathic it is to pick up scrunchies and hairbands..."
How worrying :)
Friend, "as a matter of fact.. everyone seems to be intriguing to you.. why dun you focus on some j1 class instead.."
Another, "i wonder how u manage to come up with so much stuff like this.. i mean u haf list after list of weird ppl, and what not"
There's an S01 look also, but everyone knows about that :)
Oops, RJ teachers are reading this. Err. Falalala. Gobbledy-gock. Lorum ipsum. How does that one go. Heck.
Michael is quite A03-ish, and I think he'd take that as a compliment. Anyway he's just an A03 person who doesn't take lit.
What is it with Geog that makes people morph into A03-ers? And no, it's not an Arts thing. I've seen A01C-E (lecture), and they can't compare to A03.
This must make me sound really voyeuristic. Houdini and Red Jacket don't get so much attention. Ah well.
Just so I don't have to retype it everytime I make A03 look references to people, some criteria for the "A03 look" (A03A-ers don't count):
- Female (though some males qualify too. Then again, outside A03A, there are like 5 A03 males and I know 3 of them)
- Long, dyed hair. Shoulder length or below preferably. Hair must be highlighted or worse, with a brownish or worse colour (BSB has purplish tinted hair, I suspect)
- Flesh Parade. It helps if you're a Flesh Parader.
- Hot Socks / Hot Shorts (the latter is for out of school wear, so it's just a speculation)
- Doing what gives BSB the name BSB. (Ask Jianwen)
- The look in the eyes and the stance and mien. Ditto.
Probably a few more, but this is the general idea. Tis hard to quantify. "The A03 Manifesto".
Someone says that in her time (1988-1989) A03 had a lot of sluttish girls.
My associate's comment: "you seem to have a distinct mortification for sexuality - a quality shared by quite a few serial killers... i was reading through your blog - and a recurrent theme in our conversations and in your epistlery - there's a not-so-subtle misogyny and resentment of female sexuality - the abhorrence of "flesh parades" and "hot pants", the general veneer of distaste for anything that heightens adolescent sexual attractivenes... the proliferation of calling people by these little soubriquets
it's vaguely schizo - you're disssociating yourself from these people, giving them conceptual labels.
might i add how psychopathic it is to pick up scrunchies and hairbands..."
How worrying :)
Friend, "as a matter of fact.. everyone seems to be intriguing to you.. why dun you focus on some j1 class instead.."
Another, "i wonder how u manage to come up with so much stuff like this.. i mean u haf list after list of weird ppl, and what not"
There's an S01 look also, but everyone knows about that :)
Oops, RJ teachers are reading this. Err. Falalala. Gobbledy-gock. Lorum ipsum. How does that one go. Heck.
Post ID: 7263853
Ooo, apparently people have been reading this blog. I was asked to bring the paper that I took home last week back, because they need it. Thus are the perils of writing on the web. Maybe that's where all the hits are coming from - RJ teachers monitoring my site to see if I write anything bad!
The Indian invigilator, the one who goes on stage [and reminds me and other people of Ms Santha, though not in the temperament], is really quite grumpy. I wonder how those who are in the Hall all the time stand it. She got upset when she let us go to the toilet in between Economics 1 and 2, and we made some noise. Isn't it supposed to be a break? Maybe she's sullen because she had something planned this holiday. Oh well.
Xiaoshi - "She's a woman". That didn't really make sense. Anyway apparently the invigilators come from SAJC. Ooo. One of them has dyed hair. Tut tut.
Hrm, I want to come back in 9 years time, then we'll see XXX T-Shirts on the student leadership. And the cheer will go up to "Thirty!"
And I found a J1 councillor who looks like a Horse! Horse'd be proud. "I think so too" - Deqi
For probably one of the few times in RJC, Foreign Blood tied her hair today. In all the RGS yearbook pictures, she looks really weird with tied up hair, probably because she was forced to then.
Reactions to my haircut - most people were amused or intrigued. Ah well.
I don't understand these stupid male games. The one where you try to slap the other's hands. You both put palm to palm and then take turns to slap the other's hands or to feint, and the loser (withdrawing on a feint) gets his hands slapped. Or something. Zhongyong and Daniel were playing it in a vain attempt to prepare for Maths S (Not that those a table away were doing better. They were playing the Primary School card game which has cards with Cartoon Mines, Miners, Generals, Marshals and Corporals on them, in vibrant colour). Then again, I don't understand these stupid female games too.
And I saw a blue tinsel handphone cover, on Puppy's handphone. And I thought I'd seen it all.
Today is the last day I wear this particular set of Uniform. 3 days more of examinations, and 3 more uniforms. I doubt any present J0s or J1s will want to buy them, since they're so thin (I blame the faulty washing machine which rinses clothes 4 (?) times) and anyway I wonder who is the same size. And they're changing uniforms next year anyway.
The Indian invigilator, the one who goes on stage [and reminds me and other people of Ms Santha, though not in the temperament], is really quite grumpy. I wonder how those who are in the Hall all the time stand it. She got upset when she let us go to the toilet in between Economics 1 and 2, and we made some noise. Isn't it supposed to be a break? Maybe she's sullen because she had something planned this holiday. Oh well.
Xiaoshi - "She's a woman". That didn't really make sense. Anyway apparently the invigilators come from SAJC. Ooo. One of them has dyed hair. Tut tut.
Hrm, I want to come back in 9 years time, then we'll see XXX T-Shirts on the student leadership. And the cheer will go up to "Thirty!"
And I found a J1 councillor who looks like a Horse! Horse'd be proud. "I think so too" - Deqi
For probably one of the few times in RJC, Foreign Blood tied her hair today. In all the RGS yearbook pictures, she looks really weird with tied up hair, probably because she was forced to then.
Reactions to my haircut - most people were amused or intrigued. Ah well.
I don't understand these stupid male games. The one where you try to slap the other's hands. You both put palm to palm and then take turns to slap the other's hands or to feint, and the loser (withdrawing on a feint) gets his hands slapped. Or something. Zhongyong and Daniel were playing it in a vain attempt to prepare for Maths S (Not that those a table away were doing better. They were playing the Primary School card game which has cards with Cartoon Mines, Miners, Generals, Marshals and Corporals on them, in vibrant colour). Then again, I don't understand these stupid female games too.
And I saw a blue tinsel handphone cover, on Puppy's handphone. And I thought I'd seen it all.
Today is the last day I wear this particular set of Uniform. 3 days more of examinations, and 3 more uniforms. I doubt any present J0s or J1s will want to buy them, since they're so thin (I blame the faulty washing machine which rinses clothes 4 (?) times) and anyway I wonder who is the same size. And they're changing uniforms next year anyway.
Post ID: 7263845
Monday, November 19, 2001
"If you don't feel sorry for yourself, who will?"
I wonder if that has been thought of by anyone yet. It's quite a good motto, actually :) A search on Google doesn't register any hits.
I am very tempted to post an angsty post right now.
*Part of angsty post snipped. Muahahahaha.*
The last time my parents saw my homepage (sometime in 1999), they were shocked because I was allegedly defaming my teachers by "highlighting their English mistakes" and "showing their bad sides", and they forced me to take down Quotes (though it eventually returned in the present form of Improve Your English).
*More of angsty post snipped. Teeheeheeheehee.*
At the start of this year, I got a survey form from the FAT club, and it had questions like "do you eat when you're depressed". I suppose they might want us to engage in more healthful destressing activities, like sex, booze and drugs, slashing/cutting ourselves (as many girls do), anorexia/bulimia or even better yet, shouting at others or making people's lives more miserable, thereby dispersing our stress.
Crys' guide to angsty posts:
you must er. change your theme to black bg with dark grey/maroon words in verdana with convenient bloodspatters here and there and angst a bit.
and a tiny font size please... people would actually take time to read it if it was big enough, and we wouldn't want that would we.
it's common-angst, which i'm fine with. it's cap-angst that ppisses me off :)... but yours is plain angst, like " this sucks that sucks"
not stuff like "i feel like they are vacuum cleaners sucking up my soul and leaving a black hole, make me feel like a mole, hungry and col(e)d." oh fine i can't common-angst very well.
and where did you find this asian princes thing from? it's even grosser than the porn i've been tricked into visiting
I wonder if that has been thought of by anyone yet. It's quite a good motto, actually :) A search on Google doesn't register any hits.
I am very tempted to post an angsty post right now.
*Part of angsty post snipped. Muahahahaha.*
The last time my parents saw my homepage (sometime in 1999), they were shocked because I was allegedly defaming my teachers by "highlighting their English mistakes" and "showing their bad sides", and they forced me to take down Quotes (though it eventually returned in the present form of Improve Your English).
*More of angsty post snipped. Teeheeheeheehee.*
At the start of this year, I got a survey form from the FAT club, and it had questions like "do you eat when you're depressed". I suppose they might want us to engage in more healthful destressing activities, like sex, booze and drugs, slashing/cutting ourselves (as many girls do), anorexia/bulimia or even better yet, shouting at others or making people's lives more miserable, thereby dispersing our stress.
Crys' guide to angsty posts:
you must er. change your theme to black bg with dark grey/maroon words in verdana with convenient bloodspatters here and there and angst a bit.
and a tiny font size please... people would actually take time to read it if it was big enough, and we wouldn't want that would we.
it's common-angst, which i'm fine with. it's cap-angst that ppisses me off :)... but yours is plain angst, like " this sucks that sucks"
not stuff like "i feel like they are vacuum cleaners sucking up my soul and leaving a black hole, make me feel like a mole, hungry and col(e)d." oh fine i can't common-angst very well.
and where did you find this asian princes thing from? it's even grosser than the porn i've been tricked into visiting
Post ID: 7237902
Too bad Sanje didn't get through to the finals of Talentime with his Russian-Bollywood number. Very shiny outfit though. And I got to see who Anil is!
Fanmail about RGS Yearbook project:
"I LOVE U....I'VE BEEN TRYING TO FIND SOMEONE SINCE JUNE!!!!!!
u n0e....ure a life-saver! :-P"
Tay Weeyang:
"why dun you create a pdf version of the book and upload it..."
!@#$%^&*(). I'm boliao, but not that boliao. Anyway, my time will be better spent scanning 2000. And negotiating with my source for an exclusive on 2001 :0
Work on 2001 has begun!
Fanmail about RGS Yearbook project:
"I LOVE U....I'VE BEEN TRYING TO FIND SOMEONE SINCE JUNE!!!!!!
u n0e....ure a life-saver! :-P"
Tay Weeyang:
"why dun you create a pdf version of the book and upload it..."
!@#$%^&*(). I'm boliao, but not that boliao. Anyway, my time will be better spent scanning 2000. And negotiating with my source for an exclusive on 2001 :0
Work on 2001 has begun!
Post ID: 7233811
Sunday, November 18, 2001
Saturday, November 17, 2001
In NTUC Bukit Ho Swee today, I saw:
Gillette for Women
Venus
Stay Smoother Longer
Reveal The Goddess In You
This issue isn't a peeve of mine, but interestingly, they used a small (even by Asian standards) woman. Perhaps this means that advertising will no longer project an unrealistic image of humans!
At one point, I actually wanted to buy a shaver refill pack for 2 people who shall not be named, but it was too expensive at ~$7.
And as if semi-tasteless Christmas music (5 weeks from Christmas) was not bad enough, there was this crazy Hari Raya card. It cost $4.50, and kept playing the song 'Selamat Hari Raya', driving everyone crazy. It refused to stop, so I buried it under a stack of envelopes, and it was silenced. Apparently when the electrical contact breaks, it will sound.
My mother tried to get me to cut my hair again, so I walked back from the barber's where they dropped me. I think I will ask Killer how to grow long hair. Maybe she can give me her hair clips. Haha.
Gillette for Women
Venus
Stay Smoother Longer
Reveal The Goddess In You
This issue isn't a peeve of mine, but interestingly, they used a small (even by Asian standards) woman. Perhaps this means that advertising will no longer project an unrealistic image of humans!
At one point, I actually wanted to buy a shaver refill pack for 2 people who shall not be named, but it was too expensive at ~$7.
And as if semi-tasteless Christmas music (5 weeks from Christmas) was not bad enough, there was this crazy Hari Raya card. It cost $4.50, and kept playing the song 'Selamat Hari Raya', driving everyone crazy. It refused to stop, so I buried it under a stack of envelopes, and it was silenced. Apparently when the electrical contact breaks, it will sound.
My mother tried to get me to cut my hair again, so I walked back from the barber's where they dropped me. I think I will ask Killer how to grow long hair. Maybe she can give me her hair clips. Haha.
Post ID: 7189857
Weird Junk Mails:
From : qrench@bluesky.com
To : hansonboy@geocities.com
Subject : Time travelers PLEASE HELP!!!!!!
Date : Thu, 15 Nov 2001 00:05:50
If you are a time traveler or alien disguised as human and or have the technology to travel physically through time I need your help!
Also if you are from any of the following planets and can help me as mentioned please reply: Vadikar,Nefarious,Tralfamadore,Valnator,Travers,Edenad
I come to you for help, and need a way of doing this in the following way exactly in such a way that there will be little or no danger. I come to you in peace. Trust and honesty is an absolutely must!!
My life has been severely tampered with and cursed. I have suffered tremendously and am now dying! I need to be able to:
Travel physically back in time.
Rewind my life (including my age).
Be able to (remember what I know now) so that I can prevent my life from being tampered with again after I go back.
I am in great danger and need this immediately!
Only if you are a time traveler or nice alien and have this technology please send me a (separate) email to:
Robby0809@aol.com
Thanks
From : qrench@bluesky.com
To : hansonboy@geocities.com
Subject : Time travelers PLEASE HELP!!!!!!
Date : Thu, 15 Nov 2001 00:05:50
If you are a time traveler or alien disguised as human and or have the technology to travel physically through time I need your help!
Also if you are from any of the following planets and can help me as mentioned please reply: Vadikar,Nefarious,Tralfamadore,Valnator,Travers,Edenad
I come to you for help, and need a way of doing this in the following way exactly in such a way that there will be little or no danger. I come to you in peace. Trust and honesty is an absolutely must!!
My life has been severely tampered with and cursed. I have suffered tremendously and am now dying! I need to be able to:
Travel physically back in time.
Rewind my life (including my age).
Be able to (remember what I know now) so that I can prevent my life from being tampered with again after I go back.
I am in great danger and need this immediately!
Only if you are a time traveler or nice alien and have this technology please send me a (separate) email to:
Robby0809@aol.com
Thanks
Post ID: 7174058
Friday, November 16, 2001
Might as well learn Old Egyptian and read the Book of the Dead.
The Little Prince - found by Tim.
He also says he used to play the same Wrestlemania game, and do 24 hit combos. And he tells us that FBT stands for "FootBall Thai". Ooo.
There's this red faced Indian guy in 2S06D (?). Very red faced. It looks like he was perpetually drunk. And I saw someone with a thinner shirt than some of those I have.
Triplet now has long hair! So she doesn't look so much like the other two anymore. Many people grow long hair in JC. it must be because they don't like being restricted to black hair accessories.
Joel played us the Raffles School Song handphone ring tone he composed. With trills. Ooo. But if he plays it in school, ACJC will start rioting...
Xephyris has found a funny web comic about vampires - http://projectkooky.com/dylan/biteme/.
It gets funnier as it goes along :)
11:23PM - finally opened my "Stewed Pork Chop Instant Noodles". They're nice, but the 'dehydrated vegetables' included Chilli. Ugh. Sister likes them too, so does Tim The Great, who's tried them before. Maybe we shall buy some and give them out on Orchard Road.
The Little Prince - found by Tim.
He also says he used to play the same Wrestlemania game, and do 24 hit combos. And he tells us that FBT stands for "FootBall Thai". Ooo.
There's this red faced Indian guy in 2S06D (?). Very red faced. It looks like he was perpetually drunk. And I saw someone with a thinner shirt than some of those I have.
Triplet now has long hair! So she doesn't look so much like the other two anymore. Many people grow long hair in JC. it must be because they don't like being restricted to black hair accessories.
Joel played us the Raffles School Song handphone ring tone he composed. With trills. Ooo. But if he plays it in school, ACJC will start rioting...
Xephyris has found a funny web comic about vampires - http://projectkooky.com/dylan/biteme/.
It gets funnier as it goes along :)
11:23PM - finally opened my "Stewed Pork Chop Instant Noodles". They're nice, but the 'dehydrated vegetables' included Chilli. Ugh. Sister likes them too, so does Tim The Great, who's tried them before. Maybe we shall buy some and give them out on Orchard Road.
Post ID: 7168482
Message from qiying- esp. for pple without anything to do sunday night:
"Leonids Meteor Storm
Date: 19th November (Monday)
Peak Time: 2.13am (as in Sunday night, monday morning..hehe~=) )
Place: juz look up from your house.. look towards the north east and be patient..
What: If you're lucky, you'll actually see about 2 meteors a second.. making it look a bit like rain. this happens very rarely.. cos its usually about 15 an hour."
Little prince is cute. Try reading it in french. But then you'd have to learn french first. (disgruntled sound) Though its over-merchandised like so much of bestselling children's fiction- the other day I saw a computer game based on it.
Other books to read in original language: Sophie's world, Scripture, Gao Xingjian's Soul Mountain, Beowulf (btw came across an alleged English translation of it by Wodehouse in Arete- hilarious), Inferno
*Not afterglow*
@ndrew
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
"Leonids Meteor Storm
Date: 19th November (Monday)
Peak Time: 2.13am (as in Sunday night, monday morning..hehe~=) )
Place: juz look up from your house.. look towards the north east and be patient..
What: If you're lucky, you'll actually see about 2 meteors a second.. making it look a bit like rain. this happens very rarely.. cos its usually about 15 an hour."
Little prince is cute. Try reading it in french. But then you'd have to learn french first. (disgruntled sound) Though its over-merchandised like so much of bestselling children's fiction- the other day I saw a computer game based on it.
Other books to read in original language: Sophie's world, Scripture, Gao Xingjian's Soul Mountain, Beowulf (btw came across an alleged English translation of it by Wodehouse in Arete- hilarious), Inferno
*Not afterglow*
@ndrew
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
Post ID: 7167690
Thursday, November 15, 2001
Yay, my sister did some stitching, and Blue Bear's almost the same. There was this piece of the long plastic that was sticking out, so it was stitched such that it was secured to the paw but some of it still stuck out.
My mother 'cleaned up' my desk recently, and as is always the case, things went missing. Specifically, the scrunchie and the hairband that I picked up in school a few months (has it been all that long?) ago. I don't mind the loss of the former, because it was torn, but the latter was nice. She always rearranges things and then when I can't find them, she says "don't know".
Xephyris, look on the bright side - you can now use all the SNK roms. Or maybe someone will start a fan project to make sequels to SNK games. Like the "The Darkest Day Expansion For Baldur's Gate II".
I suck at fighting games. The only one which I was good at was WWF Wrestlemania, made in 1994 by Acclaim (I think), a conversion of an arcade game and with 8 characters - Doink the Clown, the Undertaker, Yokozuna, Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels, Bam Bam Bigelow, Lex Luger and Bret the "Hitman" Hart. I actually was pretty good at it - came from lots of practice with Lin Yucheng when we were still living in the same estate and he didn't call himself Yucheng, Lin or YuCheng. *wistful*
Tim recommended 'the Little Prince', which derides grown-ups. If you are free, go and read it.
"The Little Prince is a book written by the French author, journalist, and pilot, Antoine de Saint-Exup�ry. It was written in 1943, one year before his death. It is the most well-known of his novels. From the outside it appears to be a simple children's tale. The Little Prince is actually a profound and deeply moving book written in riddles and laced with philosophy and poetic metaphors. The book has been translated into many languages from the original French version. It was also made into a play and a movie, and the children's cable channel Nickelodeon in America ran a cartoon series in the mid-80s based upon the prince, his rose, and his adventures."
It's available on Palmgear, but I doubt many people will have a Palm / want to read it on one. Doesn't seem to be available on Project Gutenberg.
Geraldine has been corrupted by MSN Explorer. "well...I want my comp to look beautiful". Sigh.
Little Brown Bear has been missing for a long time. I suspect my brother-in-law spirited him away, but he denies it.
Anti-inspirational message (sorta) of the post:
"The early bird may get the worm, but it's the second mouse gets the cheese"
My mother 'cleaned up' my desk recently, and as is always the case, things went missing. Specifically, the scrunchie and the hairband that I picked up in school a few months (has it been all that long?) ago. I don't mind the loss of the former, because it was torn, but the latter was nice. She always rearranges things and then when I can't find them, she says "don't know".
Xephyris, look on the bright side - you can now use all the SNK roms. Or maybe someone will start a fan project to make sequels to SNK games. Like the "The Darkest Day Expansion For Baldur's Gate II".
I suck at fighting games. The only one which I was good at was WWF Wrestlemania, made in 1994 by Acclaim (I think), a conversion of an arcade game and with 8 characters - Doink the Clown, the Undertaker, Yokozuna, Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels, Bam Bam Bigelow, Lex Luger and Bret the "Hitman" Hart. I actually was pretty good at it - came from lots of practice with Lin Yucheng when we were still living in the same estate and he didn't call himself Yucheng, Lin or YuCheng. *wistful*
Tim recommended 'the Little Prince', which derides grown-ups. If you are free, go and read it.
"The Little Prince is a book written by the French author, journalist, and pilot, Antoine de Saint-Exup�ry. It was written in 1943, one year before his death. It is the most well-known of his novels. From the outside it appears to be a simple children's tale. The Little Prince is actually a profound and deeply moving book written in riddles and laced with philosophy and poetic metaphors. The book has been translated into many languages from the original French version. It was also made into a play and a movie, and the children's cable channel Nickelodeon in America ran a cartoon series in the mid-80s based upon the prince, his rose, and his adventures."
It's available on Palmgear, but I doubt many people will have a Palm / want to read it on one. Doesn't seem to be available on Project Gutenberg.
Geraldine has been corrupted by MSN Explorer. "well...I want my comp to look beautiful". Sigh.
Little Brown Bear has been missing for a long time. I suspect my brother-in-law spirited him away, but he denies it.
Anti-inspirational message (sorta) of the post:
"The early bird may get the worm, but it's the second mouse gets the cheese"
Post ID: 7140764
A sad day came upon us just as the A levels started - SNK has declared complete, total, and utter bankruptcy and has completely folded. Not even any more Pachinko games (which they were making after Aruze, curse their black hearts, bought SNK the first time they filed for bankruptcy.)
SNK died because of a mix of bad marketing strategy (although they did squeeze every last bit out of the Neogeo... a dead horse is still a dead horse, no matter how far you can kick it :P) and poor business decisions, as well as rapid improvements in terms on arcade hardware being made by other companies. When Capcom came up with CPS-3, SNK was still using the "GIGA-Power" MVS (which wasn't really GIGA at all, but had a hardware cartridge memory limit of about 80 megabytes... or about 700 megabits. That's somewhat similar to the Nintendo 64's cartridge hardware limits. Cartridges cost a lot.)
(Neogeo CDs made things cheaper, but not by very much. And the load times were long, to say the least. Almost long enough to cause screen burn-in, and that hopping monkey doesn't help, much.)
The Neogeo 64 failed miserably. It has graphics capabilities on par with early capcom ZN models. (SF EX 1, anyone?) Sadly, Samurai Shodown 64 was on it, which meant that almost no one outside of Japan got to play it (I've only managed to find it in one arcade in Singapore, about 4 years ago.)
However, SNK had a history of listening to what their fans want. The King of Fighters 97 roster was created completely based on Fan feedback. Almost no other company I know of makes games 100% based on what their fans want. Thanks, SNK, for making such great games over the years. You'll live on in our memories. Hontou ni arigatou gozaimashita.
P/s: Reading books on your PC will kill your eyes. I finished Neuromancer, but not before my eyes were red, bloodshot, and had images of Metapad burned into the retina.
P/sP/s: Dr. Pepper is a hard-to-acquire taste. How can ANYONE stand to drink that thing?
SNK died because of a mix of bad marketing strategy (although they did squeeze every last bit out of the Neogeo... a dead horse is still a dead horse, no matter how far you can kick it :P) and poor business decisions, as well as rapid improvements in terms on arcade hardware being made by other companies. When Capcom came up with CPS-3, SNK was still using the "GIGA-Power" MVS (which wasn't really GIGA at all, but had a hardware cartridge memory limit of about 80 megabytes... or about 700 megabits. That's somewhat similar to the Nintendo 64's cartridge hardware limits. Cartridges cost a lot.)
(Neogeo CDs made things cheaper, but not by very much. And the load times were long, to say the least. Almost long enough to cause screen burn-in, and that hopping monkey doesn't help, much.)
The Neogeo 64 failed miserably. It has graphics capabilities on par with early capcom ZN models. (SF EX 1, anyone?) Sadly, Samurai Shodown 64 was on it, which meant that almost no one outside of Japan got to play it (I've only managed to find it in one arcade in Singapore, about 4 years ago.)
However, SNK had a history of listening to what their fans want. The King of Fighters 97 roster was created completely based on Fan feedback. Almost no other company I know of makes games 100% based on what their fans want. Thanks, SNK, for making such great games over the years. You'll live on in our memories. Hontou ni arigatou gozaimashita.
P/s: Reading books on your PC will kill your eyes. I finished Neuromancer, but not before my eyes were red, bloodshot, and had images of Metapad burned into the retina.
P/sP/s: Dr. Pepper is a hard-to-acquire taste. How can ANYONE stand to drink that thing?
Post ID: 7139900
Ebooks are fun. Get a LCD monitor, anti-aliased font enabled reader (eg Microsoft Reader) and read.
You actually read all 4 books on a computer monitor? Well done! I prefer to read them on my Palm, then I can lie in bed and read.
Aha. 1999 is done! Yes, after so long, much blustering and doubt about whether I would be able to tenaciously hold on to the end - I have. But the end is the beginning is the end. 2000 looms ahead.
Florida's Natural is no longer Florida's. Now they use California oranges. Rather like Commonwealth Secondary being in Jurong.
For the first time, yesterday I heard, on the BBC, an American. How rare. An American woman reading the news.
Jerry's, a place in Jalan Kayu I went to for dinner yesterday, is perhaps the only place in Singapore which serves Dr Pepper - the most disgusting drink on earth, beating even F&N Fruitade. I had heard about it and in Hawaii in 1999, I bought a can. I don't think I took more then 2 sips.
At the aforementioned place was this 6-7 year old girl in a midriff baring tank top. Tut tut.
I am presently rather distressed and mortified. My Blue Teddy bear, imaginatively called 'Blue Bear', my faithful companion for the last 11 years (at least, probably more) has lost his touch, literally, having survived being put in the freezer by my [12 years older than me] Sister, thrown onto the top of air-conditioners, swung around by the arms [grasp the two arms and twirl him around], sprayed by fart gas, a nose operation, an operation to sew up his right paw after a gash appeared after washing, baldness (he has a big bald spot to the right of his belly), me cutting his stomach hair when he was small because I thought it grew and goodness knows what else.
Due to constant rubbing of the right paw, some of the clear plastic that serves as transparent support had popped up at least 11 years ago and I had grown fond of rubbing it. Sometime during my Primary School Days, I'd examined the paw closely and found that the rough feeling was due to a loop of the plastic thread or such popping out above the fur. Inexplicably, I'd cut it, which meant that it was no longer long enough to slip under my fingernails. Yesterday, while stroking his paw (as I like to do), the feeling suddenly disappeared, and constant efforts have still not managed to bring the feeling back.
*sigh*
You actually read all 4 books on a computer monitor? Well done! I prefer to read them on my Palm, then I can lie in bed and read.
Aha. 1999 is done! Yes, after so long, much blustering and doubt about whether I would be able to tenaciously hold on to the end - I have. But the end is the beginning is the end. 2000 looms ahead.
Florida's Natural is no longer Florida's. Now they use California oranges. Rather like Commonwealth Secondary being in Jurong.
For the first time, yesterday I heard, on the BBC, an American. How rare. An American woman reading the news.
Jerry's, a place in Jalan Kayu I went to for dinner yesterday, is perhaps the only place in Singapore which serves Dr Pepper - the most disgusting drink on earth, beating even F&N Fruitade. I had heard about it and in Hawaii in 1999, I bought a can. I don't think I took more then 2 sips.
At the aforementioned place was this 6-7 year old girl in a midriff baring tank top. Tut tut.
I am presently rather distressed and mortified. My Blue Teddy bear, imaginatively called 'Blue Bear', my faithful companion for the last 11 years (at least, probably more) has lost his touch, literally, having survived being put in the freezer by my [12 years older than me] Sister, thrown onto the top of air-conditioners, swung around by the arms [grasp the two arms and twirl him around], sprayed by fart gas, a nose operation, an operation to sew up his right paw after a gash appeared after washing, baldness (he has a big bald spot to the right of his belly), me cutting his stomach hair when he was small because I thought it grew and goodness knows what else.
Due to constant rubbing of the right paw, some of the clear plastic that serves as transparent support had popped up at least 11 years ago and I had grown fond of rubbing it. Sometime during my Primary School Days, I'd examined the paw closely and found that the rough feeling was due to a loop of the plastic thread or such popping out above the fur. Inexplicably, I'd cut it, which meant that it was no longer long enough to slip under my fingernails. Yesterday, while stroking his paw (as I like to do), the feeling suddenly disappeared, and constant efforts have still not managed to bring the feeling back.
*sigh*
Post ID: 7133308
Tuesday, November 13, 2001
Random thoughts for today:
Turning back to talk to my friends twice in 2 days while waiting to be dismissed, I have twice seen, not quite unspeakable sights, but (and because of) muscular thighs. No names (cos I know one and the other knows people I know).
Realised what Jet stands for while I was waiting for Economics Paper 3 to be collected. Jonah Elisah Teong yi heong ruxin - JET. Gah, why didn't I notice before? I still think she has the longest name in RJ (Do you?).
LT 2.5 is decorated with 3 balloons at each corner, on the lamps. Apparently Mr Eric Lee is holding an "A03 night". Wonder what the programme is like.
Stupid paper. But apparently other people didn't find it so hard.
How do you
- Write 10 marks on 3rd degree Price Discrimination
- talk (for 15 marks) about why Oligopoly is more common than Perfect Competition?
My A may be bye bye to me.
Why is Cloze (as in Cloze Passage) spelled "Cloze"? What the hell does it mean?
http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=Cloze
cloze
adj.
Based on or being a test of reading comprehension in which the test taker is asked to supply words that have been systematically deleted from a text.
[Alteration of closure.]
Red jacket wasn't in his red jacket! I was looking around for a red jacket while waiting for papers to be collected but didn't see it. Later, I saw him at the Bus Stop opposite Ghim Moh Taxi HQ and... no jacket. Not even in his hand, or on his arm, or in his bag (he had no bag). "Maybe he recovered" - Luther
Didn't see the busker. Maybe he only comes on certain days. "He sings with a nasal voice" - Luther. But I saw 2 ACJC girls coming out of the underpass. Oh wait, that's unrelated. Nevermind.
Hot Shorts are DAMN disgusting. There was this woman in a blue top and cut-off white shorts in front, and it was revulsive. On the first escalator, she was in front, and I could see the curve of the butt cheeks (probably the 2nd time I've seen that happen, the first was during Orientation with someone's FBT shorts). I reiterate my disgust and dislike for Hot Shorts. Luckily Jet was behind her at the second escalator, so she blocked everyone's view.
Heard a beng-lian ring tone on the MRT. I heard it once before (probably more, actually). This beng was programming it for his girlfriend, then they played it back and they started nodding and shaking their heads along with the song. When I turned back today, it was an Indian man whose phone had the disgusting ringtone.
Went to Great World Crystal Jade Shanghai Restuarant (or whatever it's called) for lunch. Interesting food.
More interesting, saw this (presumably) J1 RJ girl with half-dyed (beyond 'highlighted') hair in Half U clinging onto her boyfriend's arm. Tut tut. I wonder if any 'concerned members of the public' (they *are* so pesky) will write in.
I also saw someone from the School With The Most Indecent Uniform In Singapore Bar None, and I think I've now decided that the colour and the design of the uniform are revolting (though not as bad as He2 Gu3 Zhong1 Xue2), and besides, it's too thin. And the strap was visible. Visible straps are irritating. When my sister does that I like to complain, and she'll say "none of your business". Once in a while when she does that, I'll start pulling them and letting go, and she'll shoo me off.
Som asked me how much a Harry Potter book was, and was surprised to find out that it was not $10 or so for one :) aureate, you can sell the extra book on ebay and recoup some of your loss. And check better next time :)
I didn't know about the immortality thing. I always thought it was just lead to gold. Or maybe I forgot. My wealth of history knowledge, built up since primary 1 by reading various books at the library, is eroding. Lead actually *can* be turned to gold by science now, but it costs more to make the gold than to buy the gold itself.
The paranoid guy, Steve Gibson (see some of his rants on security - http://grc.com/), has a subpixel font rendering demo on his page. Downloaded it and tried it - wow. I need to find a subpixel font rendering Document reader for my Palm IIIc. Tried Wordsmith, but the program was too big, and even in Read mode, it needed lots of free space to open a document. Even then, the subpixel font rendering was a touch irritating on the eye. Maybe I'll stick with iSilo 2.58 (small executable - 80+KB, small doc sizes - 20% smaller than Doc). But not subpixel font rendering and no auto scrolling. Let's see if MobiPocket Reader 4.1 is good.
Excerpt from mike's list:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html
Last Week's Mystery Pic
No, it's not a "Canadian beer TV ad," "Washington Crossing the Delaware 2.0," nor is it "what is left of the government's credibility after being railroaded into the settlement with Microsoft" as suggested by some readers. Most commented on the subject of the picture. But the interesting fact about last week's Mystery Pic is the picture itself. It's a brilliant color photograph taken in 1915! While traveling with the Tsar, Russian photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii took pictures onto three separate glass plates per image that were designed to be shown in color using a slide projector he invented. Technicians recently developed a technique to scan the plates so the images could be assembled in a computer. Last week's Mystery Pic is one of dozens of breathtaking Prokudin-Gorski photographs in the collection, which is on display at the Library of Congress Web site. Congratulations to reader Geoff Washburn for being first with the right answer. Here are three more examples:
Turning back to talk to my friends twice in 2 days while waiting to be dismissed, I have twice seen, not quite unspeakable sights, but (and because of) muscular thighs. No names (cos I know one and the other knows people I know).
Realised what Jet stands for while I was waiting for Economics Paper 3 to be collected. Jonah Elisah Teong yi heong ruxin - JET. Gah, why didn't I notice before? I still think she has the longest name in RJ (Do you?).
LT 2.5 is decorated with 3 balloons at each corner, on the lamps. Apparently Mr Eric Lee is holding an "A03 night". Wonder what the programme is like.
Stupid paper. But apparently other people didn't find it so hard.
How do you
- Write 10 marks on 3rd degree Price Discrimination
- talk (for 15 marks) about why Oligopoly is more common than Perfect Competition?
My A may be bye bye to me.
Why is Cloze (as in Cloze Passage) spelled "Cloze"? What the hell does it mean?
http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=Cloze
cloze
adj.
Based on or being a test of reading comprehension in which the test taker is asked to supply words that have been systematically deleted from a text.
[Alteration of closure.]
Red jacket wasn't in his red jacket! I was looking around for a red jacket while waiting for papers to be collected but didn't see it. Later, I saw him at the Bus Stop opposite Ghim Moh Taxi HQ and... no jacket. Not even in his hand, or on his arm, or in his bag (he had no bag). "Maybe he recovered" - Luther
Didn't see the busker. Maybe he only comes on certain days. "He sings with a nasal voice" - Luther. But I saw 2 ACJC girls coming out of the underpass. Oh wait, that's unrelated. Nevermind.
Hot Shorts are DAMN disgusting. There was this woman in a blue top and cut-off white shorts in front, and it was revulsive. On the first escalator, she was in front, and I could see the curve of the butt cheeks (probably the 2nd time I've seen that happen, the first was during Orientation with someone's FBT shorts). I reiterate my disgust and dislike for Hot Shorts. Luckily Jet was behind her at the second escalator, so she blocked everyone's view.
Heard a beng-lian ring tone on the MRT. I heard it once before (probably more, actually). This beng was programming it for his girlfriend, then they played it back and they started nodding and shaking their heads along with the song. When I turned back today, it was an Indian man whose phone had the disgusting ringtone.
Went to Great World Crystal Jade Shanghai Restuarant (or whatever it's called) for lunch. Interesting food.
More interesting, saw this (presumably) J1 RJ girl with half-dyed (beyond 'highlighted') hair in Half U clinging onto her boyfriend's arm. Tut tut. I wonder if any 'concerned members of the public' (they *are* so pesky) will write in.
I also saw someone from the School With The Most Indecent Uniform In Singapore Bar None, and I think I've now decided that the colour and the design of the uniform are revolting (though not as bad as He2 Gu3 Zhong1 Xue2), and besides, it's too thin. And the strap was visible. Visible straps are irritating. When my sister does that I like to complain, and she'll say "none of your business". Once in a while when she does that, I'll start pulling them and letting go, and she'll shoo me off.
Som asked me how much a Harry Potter book was, and was surprised to find out that it was not $10 or so for one :) aureate, you can sell the extra book on ebay and recoup some of your loss. And check better next time :)
I didn't know about the immortality thing. I always thought it was just lead to gold. Or maybe I forgot. My wealth of history knowledge, built up since primary 1 by reading various books at the library, is eroding. Lead actually *can* be turned to gold by science now, but it costs more to make the gold than to buy the gold itself.
The paranoid guy, Steve Gibson (see some of his rants on security - http://grc.com/), has a subpixel font rendering demo on his page. Downloaded it and tried it - wow. I need to find a subpixel font rendering Document reader for my Palm IIIc. Tried Wordsmith, but the program was too big, and even in Read mode, it needed lots of free space to open a document. Even then, the subpixel font rendering was a touch irritating on the eye. Maybe I'll stick with iSilo 2.58 (small executable - 80+KB, small doc sizes - 20% smaller than Doc). But not subpixel font rendering and no auto scrolling. Let's see if MobiPocket Reader 4.1 is good.
Excerpt from mike's list:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/making.html
Last Week's Mystery Pic
No, it's not a "Canadian beer TV ad," "Washington Crossing the Delaware 2.0," nor is it "what is left of the government's credibility after being railroaded into the settlement with Microsoft" as suggested by some readers. Most commented on the subject of the picture. But the interesting fact about last week's Mystery Pic is the picture itself. It's a brilliant color photograph taken in 1915! While traveling with the Tsar, Russian photographer Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii took pictures onto three separate glass plates per image that were designed to be shown in color using a slide projector he invented. Technicians recently developed a technique to scan the plates so the images could be assembled in a computer. Last week's Mystery Pic is one of dozens of breathtaking Prokudin-Gorski photographs in the collection, which is on display at the Library of Congress Web site. Congratulations to reader Geoff Washburn for being first with the right answer. Here are three more examples:
Post ID: 7084868
Unlike other denominations, catholics take the communion materials as the blood and the body of Christ Literally- technical term is "transmutation" as the priests convert the materials. As far as I know, most other denominations use it more as a symbol. My father told me that in Chapel of the holy spirit (anglican low church in potong pasir), the pastor would have to quietly drink up the leftover wine after every communion service rather than throw it away.
I suppose wine couldn't be packaged- or the gift shop would need a license for the sale of alcoholic beverages (guffaw)
Though i have misgivings about the existence of home communion sets
First book in harry potter series is "Harry potter and the philosopher's stone" not sorcerer's stone- philosopher's stone is, historically, the material sought by alchemists. A sliver of it dissolved in water gives the draught of immorality, oops, immortality. It also turns lead into gold, when a small amt is mixed into the cauldron. Chemical "transmutation" (in the name of the pun, no offense intended)
The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream
[Ed: This URL has been edited so it does not display so long and breaks word wrap]
I suppose wine couldn't be packaged- or the gift shop would need a license for the sale of alcoholic beverages (guffaw)
Though i have misgivings about the existence of home communion sets
First book in harry potter series is "Harry potter and the philosopher's stone" not sorcerer's stone- philosopher's stone is, historically, the material sought by alchemists. A sliver of it dissolved in water gives the draught of immorality, oops, immortality. It also turns lead into gold, when a small amt is mixed into the cauldron. Chemical "transmutation" (in the name of the pun, no offense intended)
The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream
[Ed: This URL has been edited so it does not display so long and breaks word wrap]
Post ID: 7081921
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