Aww man

I just missed 2 episodes of "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" cause I thought there would be History tomorrow. Which is good news as well. Because you know, I've only memorized up to Nazi Germany.

Seriously?

Okay it may appear as though I have a lot of free time but that is really not the case. I'm just supposed to stay up till 3.30 a.m. to watch the last episode of Smackdown before Wrestlemania. And I'm supposed to study the History Topic under Hitler at 1.00 a.m. My initial plan was to play Mass effect 2 for a couple of hours but you know how I get so emotionally attached to such stuff and then I get depressed again when I realise that I won't be playing it for another like 7 months. 7 months. Turtles get more video-game time than I do. Yeah Mr.Turtle probably has a higher headshot ratio than me. It is really depressing when that happens. So what do I do? I detach myself from the game and rant on my blog.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm too mature for my own good. Because you know, I know what I want to do with my life and that is seriously affecting my studying mindset. I want to venture into the videogame industry because that is what I am passionate about, probably as a designer or 3D artist if my art picks up or as a programmer cause I'm pretty good in Math. Maybe I should be a critic/reviewer/editor with a local gaming magazine because I like writing reviews about geeky stuff like videogames. I want to go to NTU or Digipen University in Singapore or if I have the chance , go overseas to further my studies. I just wrote a discursive essay on the factors of career choice and emphasized on the importance of interest in choosing a career. and this. This is what I love.

What I don't want to do is spend time writing a shitload of notes about the economic impacts of tourism. So when I do so, it is with dread. Which makes it all the more painful to understand.

I know that people my age don't really have a very distinct life goal or career in mind. They want to be "doctors" or "lawyers" or whatever job their parents brainwashed them into aiming for. And I am also not saying that "I'm better than you" or anything. Its just that since I know what I want, I'm prone to doing better in subjects related to my goal (maybe something like IT)*copies-and-pastes my paragraph on why passion makes you excel.* However, the downside is that I fail to see the importance of subjects that are not even a little related to my goal.

I wish that the education system could make reforms such that children can choose subjects based on their interests and talents. Maybe their rationale is that children are not mature enough to make important life decisions at such an age hence they have to offer all kinds of stuff from English to Geography. and it is a very good point. I mean, name me a few 16 year olds who know what industry they want to go into, what universities are suited for them or specifically jobs that match their skillsets and personalities. You'd probably end up with me and some other guy/chick named Tom or Jane. Which makes me return to my earlier point that I'm too mature for my own good. Just my two-cents worth, given that this is 'O' level year. I'm still going to do my best for the examinations y'know.

I once had a discussion with Shao Xuan about whether I should go to a polytechnic because they cater more to one's career options. Which is basically the point of all these rants. They offer specific courses like nursing courses. * Chuckles for a bit. People who are really passionate about (*insert desired career), would do much better than if they were to something general like "Science".

My parents' stand is that polytechnics are for people who need to get a job sooner than others due to their family conditions and what not. and that they work hard so that I need not be put into such situations and can get into a renowned university. Shao Xuan also said that "If you do well for 'O' levels, you can get into a good JC, which encourages you do excel in 'A' levels, hence it is easier for you to enter renowned universities like NUS and NTU which offer better courses to help you enter your desired industry. " Well these becaare all logical points, hence I would still decide to do well for 'O' levels and "get into a good JC". and by "good" I mean something like National JC which won't make my relatives ridicule me because nowadays everyone only cares about "branding" or what school are you in. *in a condescending voice*

I kind of admire those who do not have a clear goal for their lives. Because at this point of time they possess some sort of neutrality and a mindset along the likes of "I might as well do well in everything because I don't know what I'm going to end up as". The worse are those who don't know what they want to do with life and don't even work hard. You know who you are. I happen to fall under the category of "I know what I want to do, hence I do better in related subjects and hate that I have to learn other non-essential subjects".

In 4 years, I'll be going to a university. I tell myself that it will all be over soon and all I need to do is study hard to realise my dreams. But with the increasing amount of work that the school has to offer, I'm becoming more and more disillusioned.

Don't flame me or anything. Like I said, this is my opinion and that is what people post on thier blogs. Thier opinions. I happen to think that John Cena is an uninteresting wrestler who talks too much. Once again, my opinion.

Give me a "Hell Yeah"

For those of you who like guns ablazing and people blowing up stuff ... here's the latest Tom Clancy game trailer for your entertainment. The game is called Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and is your quintessential FPS with a touch of awesomeness and of course ... tactical invisibility cloaks and shoulder-mounted rocket launchers. ROCKET LAUNCHERS FTW !!!

Mass Effect video: What do you see?

I just had to post this on my semi-gamer geek blog. This is simply and utterly the BEST fan-made music video for any video game that I know. Its 2minutes and 14seconds , it is succinct and it is wonderful. I just feel that it captures the beauty of the Mass Effect universe so perfectly. A bright and idyllic future, with the darkest of secrets. and that is the beauty of not only Mass Effect but all science-fiction projects. On a personal level, it really demonstrates the great voyages of Commander Shepard and his crew, aboard the SSV Normandy, doing anything in their power to save the galaxy from the Reaper threat and saving human colonies about to be hit by missiles hijacked by batarian extremists. Words alone can't describe the thoughts and emotions that this "trailer" brings about. The soundtrack ("What do you see?" from the OST of Sunshine) is top-notch and I've even added it as one of my blog tracks. Bravo. Bravo.

They made it, they made it.

Wrestlemania 26 in exactly 2 days!!!! Which makes it all the more bittersweet since I can't really be there. You know, one of my life goals is actually to GO to a Wrestlemania event. Wrestlemania 30 perhaps. I'll be approximately 20 by then. Maybe Jerome and Omar can come along. That is, if Omar can earn enough from his nursing job to be able to afford a trip to the States. Why don't we all take a moment to wish Nurse Khalid further advancement in his career? Okay, moving on from with the nursing course jokes ... more on my thoughts on WM26.

Well, technically the "Main Event" is going to be one of the world championship matches i.e. Cena vs Batista and Edge vs Jericho ... but all of us know that the real Wrestlemania match is HBK vs Undertaker in a Career vs Streak match. HBK wins and ends Taker's streak, making Taker's career obselete or Taker retains the streak and forces Shawn Michaels to retire. Both are very likely possibilities.

P(Undertaker winning match) = 1/2.
P(Shawn Michaels winning) = 1/2.

It is really a difficult match to predict unlike some others *cough Cena cough*. Personally, I like both future Hall of Famers equally. Seriously. I'm more of a Triple H guy. So I am 100% on the fence about this match. Maybe HBK ends the streak and retires at the same time. Or Undertaker forces Shawn to retire and quits WWE. Quoting the Cerebral Assassin on Raw, "If anyone can end the streak, it's Shawn Michaels". So we'll wait and see how WWE settles this. I'll go on a 1 year WWE sabbatical if it ends in a frickin DQ. EDIT: Which jerome pointed out is not going to happen. So just pretend that you didn't see that and save me the embaressment.

Edge vs Jericho, I'm totally on Jericho's side because I'm a total Jericho-holic. Over-cliche-ism warning. He is one performer that I love to hate, with the wrestling skills to boot. Anyway, up to this point, all the odds are in favour of Edge winning ( spear, spear, spear ) due to pro-Rated-R Superstar momentum since Royal Rumble.

Cena vs Batista, we all hate Cena. We sincerely hope Batista batista-bombs the living crap out of the Cena although deep in our hearts we know that Cena will win. Nuff'said.

Okay time ran out lol; basically I'm rooting for HHH, Orton, Rey Mysterio, Bret Hart and ShowMiz. and err ... Vickie Guerrero LOL.

Discursive Essay time.

Flame on!

Oh wow. Deadpool is Green Lantern. and The Human Torch is Captain America. Go figure.

hey apple

Wazzup *annoying orange tone. Because who doesn't love the annoying orange ?!

Well I plan to wake up at 5am tmr for qing ming festival. Yeah well good luck with that. I was supposed to finish my Physics paper by 3 but given my unnatural efficiency I have 32 mins to spare. and what better way to spend that 32 extra minutes by spreading my misery with the world wide web.

Well NCC camp is over. Wasn't as fun as one would expect but still pretty enjoyable. Food was incredible! (Thumbs up to food IC Xiu Ming, weighing at 91 kilograms apparently) Standard activities include Nerf guns, war games, movies, Playstation. Nerf war was pretty much ... unbelievably awesome. I was a frickin high throughout the specialist games man. Its not often that I exclaim "Suck it bitches". Because, you know, you just get the feeling that you're the titular Commander Shepard and aided by your lesbian alien companions ( Jerome ) and overweight krogan bodyguards ( Xiu Ming ), you annihilate the rebellious insectoid alien shitheads ( Juniors ).

Got to interview the juniors. Probably the main gist of the entire camp. and it turned out to be pretty interesting too. We actually encountered a wild pokemon that was blocking our way to the parade square podium. Take a look.

But thanks to our trusty Pokeflute. Look at the results!

However, as Uncle Ben said" With great time spent interviewing juniors, you get sent out of chemistry class". That was what he said right?

But I got to say. 3 days and 2 nights in school in charge of adolescent boys does take its toll on you. By the end of the camp, I was falling asleep on Chin's shoulders. Who, by the way, got like violated by a bunch of cockroaches.

Really gonna quit Xbox-ing and other non-important stuff. Because I really cannot manage the workload of it all. Even though my level 21 Infiltrator has yet to recruit Thane or Samara but I have to step up and put Mass Effect 2 down. Hidden away in some Egyptian tomb or something. Those pharoahs are going to be very lucky mummies.

dum dum dum dum

The Arbiter in Halo is Captain Anderson in Mass Effect. *orgasm.

Guilty as charged

There are some things that make me really guilty for abandoning homework. But I would feel even more guilty if I did not post this.

So I was doing some nerdy-emotional-fulfilling research on Mass Effect 2. e.g. Mordin's background, what brand of underwear does Miranda Lawson wear etc. Came up with two very cool stuff. Well, "biotics", which are the Mass Effect universe's equivalant of the "Force" originated from a very peculiar South-East-Asian city. That's right, superpowers originated right here under the nose of the Merlion in sunny Singapore when some starships carrying eezo ( Element Zero ) had some accident and spilled a shitload of eezo over the Little Red Dot.

Well, some pregnant ladies were affected by this incident and APPARENTLY their respective children were found to be capable of telekinetic abilities and other cool stuff like manipulating dark energy and creating black holes. Plus, one of your teammates in the original ME : Kaidan Alenko. Yep, his mum was hit by eezo right here in Singapore but fortunately for us ... he turned out to be a bad-ass biotic fighting on our side. So a Singaporean bad-ass fighting intergalactic mercenary scum. Cool huh ?

For all you know, I might be a biotic. Yeah, mess with me somemore and I'll castrate you. With my brain :D

Secondly. Lemme introduce you to this beautiful woman called Tricia Helfer.

I first knew about her as the ravishing and foxy beauty that guest-starred on Chuck as Agent Sarah Walker's "replacement" as well as Casey's love interest ( LOL ! ). Then it became so much more. Turns out she has had prominent role in video games as well.

Veronica Dare in Halo 3: ODST ? Yep thats her.

EDI, the sexy-sounding AI from Mass Effect 2 that saved your ass more than once? Yeah, its all Tricia Helfer.

So ... beautiful woman ... video games ... science-fiction ... she's like ... every geek's dream girl.

Even Seth Green's on to her ! By the way, Seth is your public image of the typical geek, voicing Jeff " Joker" Monreau in ME 1 and ME 2 and appeared in Heroes as a comic book guy. Most people know him as the guy in " Old Dogs" with the gorilla.

Referring to the aforementioned Agent Casey ( Adam Baldwin ), well apparently he was in ODST as well ! Yep as Dutch, the scruffy ODST. Its amazing how all this is interlinked.

Hey Nicholas!

ohmygodddddd. I hate the sabbatical. All I do is sit in front of the computer daily and attempt chinese online quizzes only to fail 20 minutes later. >:O

Purely trivia

Wow its says here that this pornographic actress is a Star Wars geek. Not that I watch porn ... or anything. Just random trivia. From a website that offers random trivia. Truthfully, if I had to choose between a not so pretty chick who is a gamer or geek in some way and some random sexy chick who likes perfume and Twilight, I'll definitely go with gamer girl. Just my opinion. Although there is a probability of exactly 0 that I would actually be put into that situation. Not saying that geek chicks are an extinct bunch. They exist. I've actually met some of them though I didn't really possess the genitals to go talk to them. I'd be really lucky to even get to know one. But really ... a girl that can recite the codex of the Mass Effect universe is truly godsend. Meanwhile ... I'll stick with Kristen Bell.

By the way I finished Gears of War. Really awesome ending. and it incorporates a very intense shooting portion at the end. So if you have been practicing OR your skills have already been honed since you were 2 months old ( which is my case ) ... it's gonna be a breeze and extremely enjoyable. So now either I return it to Shao Xuan ... or ... I could try it on "Insane". I'm gonna go with the second option :) Time to kick some LOCUST BUTT !

"Huuuuuuuuumaaaaaans !!!!" - an angry Locust Drone

I'll tell you what I did for the past 12 hours. Stopped blogging at around 1pm. So I loaded the "Gears Of War" Xbox 360 game ( borrowed from Shao Xuan ) into the 360 and started on the "Casual" Campaign. So far I have completed 4 out of the 5 acts. And I'm pretty much enjoying it!
The gameplay style is UNBELIEVABLY similar to Mass Effect 2. Here's a summary from Wiki.
"Gears of War is an "over-the-shoulder" third-person shooter that places emphasis on using cover to avoid taking damage while strategically moving towards enemy forces ...

The player can attempt an "Active Reload" of a weapon to reload it faster and temporarily boost the damage from the gun, but failing to perform the Active Reload correctly will cause the gun to become momentarily jammed while the player's character fixes it.

When the player takes damage, the "Crimson Omen", a red cog representing the player's health gauge, will fade into the screen, becoming more defined with larger amounts of damage. The player can seek cover to recover their health, but if they take too much damage, they will become incapacitated. Once this occurs, a skull will fill the center void of the omen.

The game features a five-act campaign that can be played alone or co-operatively with one other player. The campaign focuses on Marcus Fenix and Dominic "Dom" Santiago as part of their efforts in the Delta Squad to wipe out the Locust forces. The campaign can be played at three difficulty settings. From easiest to hardest, these are "Casual", "Hardcore" and "Insane". The "Insane" difficulty is unlocked only when the game is beaten on one of the other two difficulties."

However, I do get like a terrible terrible migraine after completing every act. I have to take like a 1 hour nap to get rid of the migraine. I mean I'm not SUPPOSED to get headaches because I am a First-Person-Shooter GOD. Yes the rumours are true. I am indeed the Master Cheif reincarnated into a Singaporean boy. Its unnatural for me to have a headache.

Back to the game. I have to say that the environments are extremely polished, individialised and refined. Truthfully? Whenever I load up a save game after taking a break, the graphics just blow me away. The maps are truly breathtaking. And this does not refer to like waterfalls and green pastures and some girl from Holland rolling in the meadows. You see, GOW is set in a post-apocalyptic world. The planet has been RAVAGED.

Yet this does not mean that everything looks like shit. When night falls, and there is a downpour, it is a really dark setting yet an unnatural beauty stems from it. There is an amazing attention to the details of the environment and the vibrant and diverse environments make for a feast for the eyes.

Well, I really have not completed the game. What, with one more act to go and not enough brain juice to pull through. I'll probably just spend like an hour tomorrow to annihilate the Locust Horde. *imitates Marcus Fenix and the sound of the chainsaw bayonet VROOM VROOM VROOOOOOM

Thank God Its Friday

TGIF. Wow I guess I have so much to blog about.

Quick rundown:
Cross Country '10
Jamming
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Theif

Cross country went pretty smoothly. 3.75 kilometres? Sengkang Riverside Park? oh yeah. and there was a cool morning breeze that felt immensly comfortable whilst running. One of the few times I actually kinda enjoyed a "running" experience. Of course I wasn't part of the top 20 (chuckles at the thought), but it felt rather satisfying. Although there WAS the fucking omnipresent nauseous feeling that I specifically get when running long distances. Well... that sucks.

Went home after that and just buried my head into a pillow until approximately 1.30 pm. Took a MRT to Woodlands for jamming session. That's where it gets interesting. Well, I live nearer to the school hence I don't take the MRT on a regular basis. Hence, I'm completely oblivious to MRT etiquette. So what do you do when you have 2 cases of PDA on your left? AND on your right? I swear to god this woman was ALL OVER the man. and the couple on the right were giggling like nursery school children and slapping on another as if to say

"you're so funny",
" no YOU'RE so funny"
" NO you're so funny "

Wasn't very "funny" to me. Well I just stared at my own reflection in the opposite window. and prayed for my sweet sweet release. otherwise known as Woodland's MRT station.

Went to the same place last year for jamming. This time we had Poh Seng, Omar, Adriel and me. Now ...... it MAY seem likely that I would be the singer ( they say I have the voice of angels ) ... but no, it was actually the one from choir, Poh Seng. Went on the lead guitar with Adriel on the bass and Omar on the drums. and we played "Its My Life/Confessions" from Glee and "Pork and Beans" by Weezer. Very very super jelly fun. Sometimes we would rotate positions so I or Adriel could play on the drums. But I hesitated when I was to sing because people shed tears of joy when I unleash my vocal chords unto the world. Aliff, the guy who owned the store, was seen to be sobbing as I sang the chorus to "Its My Life". Overall, the thing went very smoothly and we had alot of fun.

Went to watch an evening movie with Adriel, Poh Seng and Wai Ken at Causeway Point. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Theif. Well, I pretty much enjoyed it. Loved the depictions of Olympia and the ancient Gods. I also liked the references to ancient Greek figures like the daughters of Aphrodite, Hermes the messenger of the gods and Athena, goddess of wisdom. ( Although I keep thinking of her as the chick from CSI: NY ) Off the record, my personal favourite Greek God is Poseidon( in no way influenced by the movie) but my favourite GOD in general would be Baldr( Otherwise know as Baldur ) from Norse mythology. Always a fan of the underdogs.

However, I didn't enjoy some parts because of its believability. I guess when I watch stuff I always have to see a reason behind their actions. There were some parts of the film where you feel prompted to exclaim " Explain that in detail please" or "Are you kidding me"?

Overall however, it was an enjoyable experience and definitely a movie worth watching. Think Harry Potter meets Greek mythology.

Ciao.

Chuck

AXN showed a very dark episode of "Chuck" just now. I'm not really sure what to feel. Depressed perhaps? Well, Orion died and he's the only one that can get the Intersect out of Chuck's brain.

However, I liked how the integrated the Buy More subplot into the main plot with Fulcrum and Orion's computer. The part where General Beckham says something along the lines of "God knows what will happen if the computer falls into the wrong hands" and we see Lester accepting the computer. Genius.

Well, I'm a pretty optimistic guy. I'm one of those guys who wishes that Orion survived and Chuck gets the Intersect out of his head and he lives happily ever after with Sarah. But then the show would go to hell right ? Or did Orion actually survive? Okay now I'm questioning myself. Well he IS Orion. He developed the most advanced computer program in the U.S. He handles a Predator drone expertly.

Well, here's hoping the plot will continue to improve and we see some progress between Agent Walker and Chuck. I'm beginning to think Ross/Rachel isn't the most on/off couple on television. Cheers.

Jetpack

You know, karma is a funny thing. You think that life sucks because your newest science-fiction role-playing video game got scratched by your favourite Xbox 360 console and the next moment, you are GIFTED with something like JETPACKS IN HALO:REACH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yea you saw that right ! I repeat. J-E-T-P-A-C-K-S. Capital Letter J, Capital Letter S.

The first thing I said to myself when I saw the IGN special on Halo:Reach's Multiplayer was "F***! Oh my god JETPACKS?! " and I rushed to view the video. When they said something big that would be integrated into the multiplayer, I figured it would be like some new vehicle or smth. But seriously? Jetpacks. Never saw that coming. Nice one Bungie ;)

I guess it would easily integrated into the control scheme since in previous Halo games we have things like levitators. I caught a glimpse of a spartan stabbing another? Stabbing ? Maybe some stealth system ?

I can tell that Reach is really going to be a definitive Halo title. Bungie's ending the franchise with a really really REALLY big exclamation mark. Cheers.

oh and congratulations to our newest Sgt. Majors Smelly Bon Pi Pi aka Tan Kuan Ting and Deepakrishna. When are WE gonna get promoted ?

Ouch

Went to funzcentre today. Said they couldn't help me. Didnt have the appropriate materials. I sense a conspiracy theory to prevent me from playing ME2. At a loss for what to do. Maybe I should "scratch the scratches off", reference to a dear member of the Bioware community.

Fingers are numb from guitar playing so typing feels like hell. Why am I playing the instrument after a 10 year hiatus? Well we're going jamming after cross country !

Yeah just felt like posting. and remember to view that 99 balloons video. Very moving.

Moving

Beautiful story of love. I teared up a little when I saw this. extremely moving. Can't believe I stumbled upon such a gem, and I feel honoured to share Elliot's journey with you.