Wednesday, September 2, 2009
It's the holidays!Yes, that's a delayed reaction, considering the fact that the holidays started last week. Still, I couldn't resist. Sorry.
So it's been a long time since I've posted. You know, busy with projects and assignments. The usual excuses.
The past six months have been fun and hectic. Adjusting to the new lifestyle, learning through an education system that felt alien at the start, making new friends, discovering new places, falling in and out of love, deciding not to be a lustful beast, looking at my guitar with a new interest, and most importantly, growing up.
Considering all the changes I have experienced over that short period of time, I'm feeling quite a sense of achievement. Now, just 5 more semesters to go, and two years of National Service after that. Awesome.
I went out quite a bit during our one week study break. Went to Henderson Waves, which is that sky bridge at Mt. Faber. Great view and it's really relaxing there. A little too relaxing to study though. Went to Bishan library on Friday to attempt to study, then went to AMK Hub for dinner.
As you can see, we were studying.
After study break was over, it was time for exam week. Monday was Marketing, which was alright I suppose. Went to Esplanade library to study slack after the paper. Went to the airport on Tuesday, since we didn't have any paper.
Out of all the places I went to for studying, I find the airport the best. What's more, the food is good too, and there are tons of opportunities for stunt acts.
Essential Graphics was on Wednesday. Easy paper, but I was pissed off that I made this stupid, careless mistake that cost me two marks. Then Thursday came. Day of Media and Society. According to everyone, it was a killer paper. Despite the fact that I might have thrown away 10 marks for that paper, I'm still confident of getting a B.
After using way too much brain power for that paper, I was more than ready to accept the fact that the semester tests were over, and the holidays had begun. Went to Junction 8 for lunch with Fiona and Say Yin. We learnt the hard way that if you're going to Pizza Hut, order only pizza.
Once lunch was done, we walked around the place, considering whether to watch Final Destination or not. Eventually we didn't.
On the bright side, I bought Batman: Arkham Asylum at the bargain price of $60!! Seriously, it's a bargain considering how good the game actually is. More on that later. Since there was nothing left to do in J8, we went to the library and slacked there.
Nice box art
Say Yin and Yeow Boon came over to my house on Friday. Say Yin came first, and we played lots of BlazBlue. As far as I'm concerned, BlazBlue is fighting Game of the Year 2009. If I had known of it earlier, I wouldn't have wasted $90 on Street Fighter IV.
Soon Yeow Boon came and we played Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It was fun, because we actually rotated roles this time round. So everyone got to be drummer, guitarist, bassist and singer at least once. We also played several songs on Hard difficulty as a band, and we managed to pass them. Expert mode next time alright.
We played music games for a solid three hours, and then we went to have dinner at the Indian food shop. After that we went back to my house. Since it was already around 9pm, I asked them if they would like to stay over for the night. Yeow Boon couldn't since his semester test wasn't over yet, but Say Yin could.
After Yeow Boon left, Say Yin and I watched several SNSD and Chick vs Dick videos, and then I watched him play Mirror's Edge and Batman: Arkham Asylum all the way til 3am. Then we ate a bit, and after that we just talked until 6.15am.
Later that day, in the afternoon to be precise, I woke up. I checked my phone and I saw a sms from Sebastian, asking to meet him at Plaza Singapura at 3.30pm. I saw that sms at 2.40pm. Still, we managed to reach Plaza Sing by 4pm. Of course, Sebastian was already there.
We walked around for a bit and I saw this notice board outside one of the game stores, announcing that pretty much every single game due for this holiday season was available for pre order. Very tempting, but I thought the better of it.
Sebastian went to get the books he was looking for, and I went to get for Fiona a birthday present [Shiva is such a nice guy]. We headed to Burger King for dinner, since everywhere else was so damn crowded. After eating we went to get the mussels from Mos Burger. Awesome man. First time I was eating them, but I'm addicted nonetheless.
We walked around for a bit and I saw this notice board outside one of the game stores, announcing that pretty much every single game due for this holiday season was available for pre order. Very tempting, but I thought the better of it.
Sebastian went to get the books he was looking for, and I went to get for Fiona a birthday present [Shiva is such a nice guy]. We headed to Burger King for dinner, since everywhere else was so damn crowded. After eating we went to get the mussels from Mos Burger. Awesome man. First time I was eating them, but I'm addicted nonetheless.
Sorry for making you hungry. I'm hungry too.
Monday was Teachers' Day. While most people my age would return to their Secondary Schools, I decided to head down to my Primary School, because I'm closer to my Primary School teacher, and the Primary School is way nearer to my house than my Secondary School is.
There were many kids visiting, but I have a feeling that the amount of people from my batch who came back to visit can be counted with ten fingers. From my class, only five people returned, including me. But it was alright, since we managed to get a good, two hour long chat with our P5-P6 form teacher.
I left the Primary School for Bishan after that, because I had to collect my phone from the service shop. Took a train there, and luckily there wasn't much of a queue. I got my phone back. It's the same model, but a brand new unit. I was happy then, but once I got home I found out that while the phone works alright, it doesn't read my memory card. ****.
There was a 4K dinner that night, and we were supposed to meet at 6pm. I still had a bit of time, so I went to look for a birthday present for Julia [Shiva is such a nice guy x2]. I noticed several things in J8, but I didn't know what to get, so I went to AMK Hub to continue my search.
I finally bought the present, and before I left, I decided to pay the game store a visit. Got a pleasant surprise once I got inside. Bully: Scholarship Edition was finally out. A year and a half late, but better late than never. For those of you who don't know, Bully is considered one of the best games of the past console generation, and it was remade for the Wii and Xbox 360.
The game was supposed to be released in March 2008, but it was held back. While there's no official reason why, I'm guessing it has something to do with the "Over the Rainbow" achievement, which requires you to kiss 20 guys. Of course, the main character himself is male. Well, you know how Singapore is when it comes to homosexuality.
Met up with the class later on at Plaza Sing. I was late, because there was some problem with the train rail system, which caused massive delays. We ate at Pizza Hut [This time we ate PIZZA]. Since Pizza Hut was small, we divided into two groups, and sat at two different locations.
After my group was done, we went to Paradiz to play LAN. Played a match of DotA. 4 versus 3. I was on the 4 side. I attempted to use Lion on my own, and realised my mistake only too late. Without a team mate who could work with me and watch my back, I was food during the late game.
After that, we played Counter Strike. Not as fun as the first outing, when we played with 9 players on each side. This time it was more like 3 versus 3. I left half way through because I wanted to meet up with Yiling for a while, just to talk.
I went running with Yiling on Tuesday morning, and we had breakfast at McDonalds. I went back home, and spent the remaining of the morning and the rest of the afternoon completing Batman: Arkham Asylum, and playing through one quarter of Bully.
I'll probably be doing a review for Batman: AA soon, once I'm done with the Top 10 Most Anticipated Games 2009 post. As for Bully, it’s alright. You really have to be one of those gamers who think that game play is most important to enjoy it, because it falls short in terms of graphics and scale.
Also, it is kinda glitchy, especially with the Achievements. I was particularly frustrated with one 20 point Achievement which didn't unlock. It required me to attend 6 classes in game.
I have the achievement for attending 3 classes, and the achievement for attending 9 classes, but no achievement for attending 6. I know, doesn't make sense at all.
The achievements also have some severe lag problems. In majority of the games today, you expect to unlock an Achievement the moment you satisfy the requirements.
At the very least, Achievements should unlock the next time a game loads a new area. But in Bully, the Achievements can pop up as late as 5 hours after they were supposed to be unlocked. Frustrating if you are an Achievement whore.
Anyways, I am looking forward to the next 7 weeks of holiday. Many outings and game releases to look forward to. Not to mention all those hours of freedom I’m going to be enjoying until the next term starts.
After our previous holiday, which lasted for two weeks in June, I’ve decided that I’m going to cherish and enjoy this one a whole lot more, because I have the “Damn I wish it was the holidays again” syndrome once school starts, especially during project weeks.
I don’t think I’m the only one.
So yeah, to all poly students out there, congratulations on successfully completing the first semester of your poly education. Enjoy the holidays!!
posted @ 11:48 PM
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