Traffic Jams and Olympics

Rain and jam goes hand in hand.

The mechanics of a traffic jam escapes me. Sure, its usually a case of a particular time of day, versus the amount of people on the road at that time. So its quite normal that jams normally occur at mainly used roads and in the morning and afternoon (times when people go to work and go home from work). The funny thing is though, when jams occur on highways, everything goes whacked. Firstly, the speed lane is not supposed to be the slowest lane. Heck, its called the speed lane for something. Instead, what I notice is that its either the slowest lane or it just plain not moving. And then you go through the decision of whether to change lanes or not and wondering if you just wait for a while and hope that it will move back to speed soon. The worst is when you do make the decision to change lanes and just after you do that, the new lane that you are in stops and the lane that you just vacated from, moves. Secondly, there's something of an invisible line. This invisible line marks the spot where the jam magically is gone. There's no explaining it. At one moment you are grumbling because its so slow and suddenly cars are speeding off in front of you and there isn't a jam no more. ITS MAGIC I TELL YOU!

Ah its that time again. The time where athletes from around the world compete with each other to see who owns who. Sure, you get the global friend thing but in the end, its just a case of seeing who are the better athletes and which records are going to be broken. As usual, Malaysia is chock full of positive reports even before the event starts. Although I do hope that it doesn't end in our usual manner. Usually what happens is our athletes fail to garner medals that were targeted and the usual finger pointing ensues. Nevermind the highly positive views and articles the day before. Personally though, I think this year we will bag more medals but I digress. What can be sure of though, is that our attitude of being an 'emtpy can' is highly expected of us (Concerning our news reports before the games).

The Weather Man ...

I just watched The Weather Man starring Nicholas Cage. You can read the review and details about it on the link I provided on the movie name. Its one of those frustrating to watch kind of movies because you know its one of those things that has a big chance to happen to you in the future. Typically, Cage is an average Joe who has a dysfunctional family. He tries to get it to work though. Everyday he moves through his days with things he planned to make right but as usual (like most of us), situations and things happen that derail you off course. It’s this kind of small failures that make us less and less the ideal person of what we want us to be. In the end, you just have to go through life one step at a time and try to make the best of each situation even though it might get you nothing but grief. I find this movie very true to life and scary to the point that it’s going to reflect your life someday. I rate this movie a 4 out of 5 stars.

Had my first taste of a Starwars mini (SWM) tournament last night and I must say that I need more minis. There were seven of us of which one had to leave mid game because he had a family emergency. He was winning too. I on the other hand, had 3 losses to my record of my first DCI tournament. Apparently the famous pieces of the day were Han Solo (rebel hero), R2-D2 (both flavours) and Aura Sing. In this 100 point squad tournament, I concentrated on my first and third game. Something happened while I was playing my second game and I lost my concentration simply because the guys around me were talking too much. It’s hard to think about tactics and what’s your next move is when there are people around you giving hints to what moves you should take and pressuring you to do the right thing. Anyway, the whole night wasn’t wasted as I managed to get 3 common minis at the end of the tourney. For some reason I dislike playing swm because my dice rolls go out of whack and the game usually revolves around ranged attacks. I prefer ddm as there is more going on behind the lines and melee gets centre stage. You really get punished severely for bad dice rolls in swm but in ddm there’s always a fallback. Or maybe I’m just not playing the tactics right in swm.

Fearless ...

Watch Fearless recently and it was an ok movie. If you are used to Jet Li's movies, this one is a little tame on the action department (as in there were no out of this world moves). However, I love Jet Li movies (not the Hollywood production ones) as it usually ties in to history and there are moral and patriotic messages (which most people lack nowadays). I wouldn't call this movie a cinema kind of movie because it lacks any special effects or audio sounds that truely utilizes cinema viewing. That being said I'd probably give this movie 3 out of 5 stars.

While my friends and I were having our dinner after the movie, we somehow dug up a very funny situation that happened to my friend a long time ago. I remembered that my friend was looking for some porn and he decided to ask the vcd shopkeeper about it. Well, its quite embarrassing to ask someone about that so he decided to ask about it in a non straightforward manner. "Boss, ada cerita panas-panas tak?" was what he said. The shopkeeper looked puzzled at first but then brightened up almost immediately and said enthusiastically "Ada, ada!". The he went to a corner and pointed to a particular movie. I took a look at it and it was the movie Volcano! We looked at it for a second then burst out laughing! One of my friends ran out of the shop to laugh like crazy, while I turned around and laughed quietly. My other friend who asked in the first place didn't know whether to laugh or be frustrated. All in all, it was a funny situation!

The real kicker is that, it has happened to this friend of mine not once, but twice! The second time however, he was looking for hentai games. So he asked the shopkeeper (it was a different store) "Ada game panas-panas tak?". The shopkeeper looked at him quizzically but somehow looked as if he caught on. Then he showed the game ... it was Diablo. LoL, makes you wonder if they are all related or something. Considering the business they are in, you'd think they'd understand the terms people use. Apparently they aren't! This time though, we all laughed like crazy simply because we remembered of the last occasion that was similar to this (which was told above)! Oh god sometimes I think if there were a movie about things that happen in my life, people would laugh like crazy! Just goes to show that whatever it is, going straightforward is better although not funner!

Crash

My GW guild member recommended a movie called Crash. So, I went and watch it. I'm glad he did. It was one of those movies that was released under the public's radar on 2004. Despite that it won alot of accolades. Anyway, its a movie directed by Paul Haggis and it is casted by alot of big names like Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, Ryan Philippe and some others. Whats amazing about this film is that it manages to capture its idea and encapsulate it into an intelligent, orderly series of events.

The general outline of this film is that it shows how people react to racial stereotypes. How we, upon seeing a tattooed person, automatically brands him a gangmember. The only problem is, he might be and he might not be. At the same time, the film also shows us how stereotypes were born. Its a thought provoking film and manages to impart its messages. The film also shows us that no matter what people are, they have other things about them. For instance, we all hate bullies at school. But for all we know, he might be a bully but at home he has to care for his elderly parents who can't do squat. Its even more frustrating for him since he doesn't have siblings who can help him and his old folks are demanding people. The film makes us think that there is more to people than what they portray.

I would recommend everyone to watch this film, at least once in their lives. It will open your eyes to people around you.

Crazy weekend ...

GW (thats GuildWars for the uninitiated) has updated with loads of fun stuff yesterday in preparation for the sneak peek pvp event this weekend. What kind of sneak peek? 2 new classes and a number of new skills for the core classes that are coming out for the expansion (Its called GW: Factions). Should be starting at about 4 pm this afternoon. I think its gonna be crazy with the pvp areas being filled to the brim! Anet (the company that made the game) are dangling a carrot right at our noses and if they don't stop it, the number of people who are going to buy the expansion will rise exponentially. The cool thing about the expansion is that its a standalone expansion. Which means you don't have to own the original one to be able to play but like a Magic: The Gathering deck, you have an advantage in owning both to only one.

That being said though, this weekend might be filled. I have a kenduri to attend and help, a friend's wedding to attend and not to mention a look into d&d minis tournament that is happening this weekend at Comic Corner in Atria after lunchtime. In between those? Hopefully playing GW.

Of old times ...

I just remembered how fun it was to play at cybercafés (CC) last time. My friends and I would go there and play loads of games. The earliest of such was Quake. We played at the Java Café in Uptown Damansara. If I remembered correctly that was the time that most of us converted from keyboard play to mouse and keyboard combo. Anyway, it was fun times. We shouted, we screamed threats and we all had fun in the process. Nowadays though, thinking of going to CC are just a hassle. Either its too far or the games that we want to play are not available. Having said that though, there are some of my friends who still frequent Virtual Arena (VA) in Hartamas for a few games of war3’s (warcraft 3) most famous mod, DOTA.

Talking about games though, one cannot deny the fact that you have to come up with a nick to suit the game. My nicks ranged from Slice and Dice all the way to the one I am using now which is Koross. Most of this nicks were thought out seriously and with research while some were made at the spur of the moment. I remembered a nick I used during my Counterstrike (CS) days, it was SayItFast JoeBor with hilarious results! There was this one time that my friend was using that nick for fun and he was racking up the kills. The funny moment came when he was the only one alive in the team and he was killing the other team one by one ala Rambo. The funny moment came when one of the dead guys actually shouted in the CC “You can do it JoeBor!”. Probably its not that funny when you read this but it was funny when you heard that nick voiced out. If anyone else in the game didn’t understand what the nick really meant, it was made apparent when one of the guys actually said “Huh, say it fast? JOEBOR JOEBOR JOEBOR JOE … HAHAHAHAHA!”. Ah yes those were fun days.

The awesome games that came to my mind that my friends and I had loads of fun playing last time was Shogo (Doubt if anyone remembers this game), Rainbow 6, Quake (1,2 and 3), C&C: Red Alert, CS, Battlefield, Rome Total War, Vietcong, Serious Sam, war3, etc. There are probably more but I can’t recall now. Some of my friends were really good in those games too. Most of us were above average in the games we played but there are some exceptional ones that come to mind. I have a friend who is a pilot freak in Battlefield. He was very good piloting the copters in the game that one day he showed me how good he was. He could literally fly the copter sideways into a hangar building, move abit inside and then come back out without it touching the building or crashing. THAT’S FREAKING AWESOME! Till this day I still can’t pilot the copters properly. Another one of those really funny moments in gaming was when my friends and I were playing Rainbow 6 team deathmatch. It was some sort of a highway map where its literally a straight road with each team spawning at each ends. Anyway the funny part was that one of my friends was slow because he was looking around the road and admiring the hills and canyons. Then suddenly, without any gunshots fired, he died. The death music came on and we all went “Eh, macam mana ko mati?”. He was scratching his head and said “Aku tak tahu la. Mungkin kena hempap batu kot”. At this point, everyone literally stopped playing because we all went into fits of laughter. Just imagine, the best SWAT team the world has to offer and a member died because he was crushed by a rock. How the heck that happened in the game, I don’t know but it was funny nonetheless. Ah those were funny moments. Wished that there are more in the future.

Neverwinter Nights and Tribes ...

For some reason I have begun playing Neverwinter Nights (NwN) again. This is because of a certain fascination I have on a character from R.A. Salvatore’s works. I bet most of you are thinking of Drizzt Do’Urden now. Well its not. Its Drizzt’s arch nemesis: Artemis Entreri. He is the total polar opposite of Drizzt. Firstly, he is human. Secondly, he rivals Drizzt in swordplay (him being human and managing to do this is impressive enough) and thirdly, he is a lot more interesting as a character. Being the bad guy and a loner means he must be on his toes all the time (just to make sure that he doesn’t get backstabbed by the ones who he does business with) and he must be cunning and able to take his opportunities whenever or wherever they may come. Oh yes, Artemis has a lot more character than dear old Drizzt.

I just finished reading ‘The Paths of Darkness’, which should explain more my fascination of this character. Don’t get me wrong, Drizzt is an interesting character in his own right but that seems to lessen now ever since he is in a somewhat secure position now. He is among friends and the world doesn’t seem that big and daunting anymore. Whereas Artemis seems to be in a world where there are only enemies and friends are only people who would use you for their own ends and discard you once your uses are gone.

Anyway as I said, I’m replaying through the original chapters (OC) of NwN with this newly made character that’s supposed to be my version of Artemis and for the most part he is rocking. Never mind that I scoured the whole of the official NwN forums for a build that would indeed rock and still be something that would fit Artemis’ character.

In addition to that a friend of mine got me playing Starsiege: Tribes again. For the uninitiated, Tribes is a FPS game with a minor twist: jetpacks. In my opinion it’s a lot more challenging than the standard FPS games because now, you have to take into consideration of the z-axis as well. The most played game type is capture the flag (CTF) and this is where this game shines. Speed play a major role as stealing the enemy’s flag and bringing it back to your own base is something easier said than done. In fact, most people who play Tribes up to this day are addicted to the speed that can only be found in this game. This is the only game I think that a flag steal can occur in the blink of an eye. Just imagine that you are the flag defender of your team and you are standing vigilant. Glancing around trying to see from where would the enemy come from because deep down you know that if the enemy comes, it will be very fast. So you take your eyes off the flag for a second to take a closer look at the hill in front of your base only to be alerted by an onscreen text message: YOUR FLAG HAS BEEN STOLEN!. You quickly turn to the flag stand (just to confirm the message) and look around in panic to see if you can spot the flag stealer. In most cases, the only thing you’ll see is either nothing (which means you totally missed it) or the fleeting image of the flag stealer in the sky with your flag on his back quickly fading into the distance and you know even if you chase, it won’t mean squat unless the flag stealer does something stupid which is rare.

The learning curve for this game is quite steep and the amount of good players in this game would make newbies stop playing fast but if you are patient and master this game, the experience is fun! This game is available as a free download in Fileplanet so give it a try since its only 138 mbs big.

Great weekend with Starwars miniatures!

Last weekend me and my mates went to visit a friend at his new place. Its a very comfortable area and his apartment was on the 4th floor which was the highest floor on the building. After enjoying the view (there were some girls in the swimming pool below us on the ground floor) and helping his sis move the furniture in her room around, we decided to play a game of Starwars minis (which was the whole point of the visit anyway). We played on his veranda which was airy and cool and provided us with a good view. It started to rain at the beginning of the session but the lightning and thunder lent some nice special effects to the game.

There were six of us so it was a classic 3 on 3, rebel alliance vs the empire. The rebel alliance's squad was comprised of all the notables: Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbaca, Leia, Wedge Antilles, R2D2 and C3P0 with some Fringe help from Dengar and Bosk. The empire team was lead by none other than the Emperor himself, followed by Mara Jade, Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, General Veers with the added Fringe strength of 4Lom and IG88. It was a great game. The rebels had the strength of numbers but the Empire had more potent characters. In the start it looked like the rebels had the clear advantage but as the game wore in, it steadily grew to the Empire's favour. Crippling the advantages of some of the rebel's power characters and some lucky ambushes led to the ultimate demise of the rebels. As Darth Vader sinks his saber into the last rebel, he uttered the words "You do not know the POWAH of the dark side!".

The man of the match was clearly IG88 with its highly successful supression firing and killing Leia and Wedge in the same round. The great moment of the game and also the turning point was when the Emperor got the jump on Leia, injuring her badly and killing the other rebel units who happened to be near her with his force lightning. After that, the rebels were scattered (as if their morale was low) and the majority of them went for Vader (who ran into a room to force a melee match). Which later became their undoing when they turned around to face the Emperor and ignored Vader.

The most shocking/surprising moment of the game was when friend A was about to throw the dice to determine if he hits the target or not. If he succeeds then the target would be destroyed. Fortunately, he doesn't need a high roll to succeed and at that moment of the game, the kill would benefit the rebels alot. Unfortunately, the randomness of the dice got him and he threw a 2 instead (which meant he missed). The funny thing was, when the dice was rolling and it finally flipped to 2 (it didn't even settle yet), friend B (who was on the rebel team and incidentally sitting beside friend A) literally jumped up and lunged into friend A and shouted "F*** YOU!!!". The funny part was that the number 2(from the dice) haven't even registered in our minds yet and the outburst happened so fast. Friend A was soo surprised that he was speechless for a few seconds. Hahahahaha! 'How fragile the bonds of trust during trying times'. Fragile indeed. Anyway he later apologised for his outburst.

At the end of the day it was a great game. Hope to have more of this sessions in the future.

How was school for you?

I recently acquired a manga called Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO). For the uninformed, manga is the Japanese word for comics. Outside of Japan,it usually refers specifically to Japanese comics. GTO is about a fresh university graduate who is living out in the real world trying to find a job. Unfortunately, Onizuka isn't what you would call a true student material as he was quite a rascal during his school days. Known to be a bike gang member, also part of a 2 man team the 'devil bomber', his reputation during his school days were well known. Anyway, now he is trying to find a job but unfortunately, he is still the same person he was before: a gangster and a pervert to boot! This might be bad for him but he has a dream to fulfill, and that is to become the greatest teacher in Japan! So the manga is about his journey onward to realizing his dream. He encounters a lot of trials and tribulations and just goes to show that being a 'bad apple' in school last time doesn't mean he knows all the tricks of the trade.

Anyway I liked the manga! The drawings are really good and the storyline is well thought out. Although it gets over the top sometimes (when does it not get over the top for a manga?), there were well thought underlying moral implications in there. Ultimately though, it gives rise to the question of "How was school for you?". Ah the memories ...

Sentinel loves coffee!

Heya,
While I was working at Starbux my friend came by and brought his humongous sentinel figurine. Apparently, you buy smaller figurines of the Marvel universe and you get parts of the sentinel. Collect the whole set and you get the whole sentinel! The set is called Marvel Legends and the idea is quite cool. Anyway, the sentinel itself is very cool with articulation! This gave me and my friend some ideas on posing it. The pics below are the result of such endeavour.

This is the sentinel relaxing after a day's work of killing off mutants. A sentinel's life is never easy!

Here's a closeup of the sentinel drinking his favourite cup of coffee. Since he doesn't have lips, a straw is needed.

Here we see him posing with his favourite coffee bean. He just loves his coffee.

This is what happens when you get drunk with coffee. Suffice to say, some people were killed the next day. :P

First Post: King Kong and MINES don't go together

Heya,
First post in what seems to be my blog! Oh well. It had to happen sometime. Anyway, whats with the title you say? Well I recently watched King Kong at MINES shopping center and although the movie was exciting, the crowd left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

Firstly, why oh why do parents bring small children to the movies (to watch King Kong)? Especially toddlers. I mean, its not like they will remember the experience. And come on, what toddler wouldn't be scared when there are sudden booming sounds coming from left and right? Suffice to say, my experience was ruined because of the constant whining and crying of the baby. Another thing, parents should chain their children to their seats. Man, they were running up and down the stairs in the middle of the movie! Add all this to the fact that there were a group of guys at the back of my seat who thought that chatting about the movie while watching was the ideal thing to do. The worst thing was that they were talking about lawak bodoh kind of stuff. Luckily though, the movie went up a few in the volume department during key action scenes that reminded me that I was here to watch a movie in the first place.

In conclusion, that has to be the last time I'm watching a movie in MINES ever again. And I'm going to watch movies at night to avoid having children in the theater.