Tuesday, September 15, 2009
So I was thinking of posting everyday during the holidays, like I used to do, but as you may have noticed, that isn’t really happening. Instead of trying to get my posts up to date, I’m just going to mention some stuff which happened over the past few weeks, and then I’m going to post daily starting from this post.The first major outing I had during this holiday was to Henderson Waves, with the sole purpose of having a surprise birthday celebration for Damien, Fiona and Julia. As you might have guessed, in order for the plan to be a success, they had to remain oblivious about it.
Easier said than done.
I met Fiona at Vivocity for lunch, and by secretly communicating with Syafiqah and Sarah, who were getting the food stuffs, I managed to prevent any accidental meetings.
Fiona and I met up with Julia later on, at Harbour Front MRT station, but since Syafiqah and Sarah had not boarded the bus to Henderson Waves, I quickly came up with several diversions, which included going to the toilet, getting food from Cheers and McDonalds, and walking out of the wrong exit from the MRT station.
Soon I got the green light to head to the bus stop, definitely a welcomed relief. It has been a while since I last used such amounts of brain power to plan, and in such a short period of time no less.
Once we got there, we just slacked and talked, and once the time was right, we ate too. Julia and Fiona opened their presents. Hope they like them. Actually, they better like them because the presents are from me.
As night began to fall, we headed back to Vivocity. I found it hilarious that they were disturbed when I mentioned the word ‘ghost’ or ‘Pontianak’. I was not supposed to say it, since it was the ghost month and all.
Well, I’m half Indian, and there’s no ghost month going on now for that half of me. And if any ghost wants to attack my other half, I have a name that got ripped off by some god, so I think I’m pretty well covered.
We took a bus back, and we went to eat at Marche. Damien joined us for dinner. Marche is nice when it’s quiet, but it was really noisy, crowded and warm that night. On the bright side, I managed to buy the most amounts of foods, and I didn’t spend the most!!
After that Fiona and Sarah left, and the rest of us headed over to Burger King where Damien ate an epic triple whopper. I was next to leave, because my dad wasn’t too happy about me staying out too late.
*All photos by Fiona and Syafiqah*
The next time I went out was to meet Say Yin at AMK Hub. I was checking for the prices of games, so after checking the game stores there, we walked down to Junction 8.
I bought 1600 Microsoft Points at a shop there, so that I could purchase Marvel vs Capcom 2, which costs 1200 points, from the Xbox Live Arcade.
We had earlier asked Yeow Boon if he would like to meet for dinner, so while waiting for a reply, we paid the arcade a visit. We watched a guy play Blazblue. A guy with some serious skills. But that was not the most entertaining thing I saw there.
Those of you who frequent arcades, I’m sure that you must have noticed these bright blue machines, usually surrounded by hordes of kids. If that doesn’t ring a bell, how about this: ANIMAL KAISER.
The game is hilarious. I’m sure everyone remembers MushiKing, that game where you scan beetle cards and watch beetles fight each other. Well, at least that’s sensible. Beetles fighting each other, in their proper habitats, with believable attacks. But that’s what also made it boring to watch.
Honestly, Animal Kaiser is crazy shit. Basically, kids pay $1.50 for 1 card and 1 match on the machine. Each of these cards features an animal or an attack, and they can be scanned using the machine.Z
So if you have a lion card, scan the card, and the lion will appear on screen. Once both players have scanned their animals in, they proceed to bash buttons, and the game works on a jackpot system. The digits spin, and they stop upon the press of the button.
The person with the larger number gets to attack. And it’s the attacks that are so freakin funny. Not only are they so overly exaggerated, the makers of the game actually went the extra mile to make the animals look cool during the attack.
Just to give you an idea on how senseless the game is, a shark can fight an eagle on dry land, and the eagle also has no problem fighting the shark underwater. Now, that’s what I call a WIN game.
I could explain some more, but all you got to do is watch this video:
After those, things were quiet. A little too quiet. I was bored out of my mind. Yes, I have an Xbox 360, a computer, Internet connection, and an abundance of video games to keep me occupied, but I’m just not that kind of person. I am in constant need of new experiences.
Several Saturdays ago, I met Yeow Boon at Plaza Singapura because there was supposed to be an NCC gathering. Heavy emphasis on the words ‘was’ and ‘supposed’. It turned out that the gathering was postponed.
We didn’t want to waste the trip to Plaza Sing, so we called Say Yin and Marcus to join us for dinner. In the meantime, we paid the arcade a visit, and spent about an hour in some LAN shop.
Once Say Yin arrived, we waited for Marcus, who was coming from the SAF Open House. He brought along three friends, two of which I know personally. We ate at Ajisen Ramen. The pork thing was damn nice.
We saw the most epically named promotion of all time, the KAMINABE promotion. Say that out loud.
After that two of Marcus’ friends left, and we were left with Say Yin, Marcus, Yeow Boon, me, and Nicholas Tan K.S, who was our Sec 1 classmate. We went to Paradiz for some pool, then everyone headed home.
The next day, Say Yin, Marcus and Yeow Boon came over to my house soon after, and we played the usual Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Blazblue and a little bit of Halo 3. This time, we had Marvel vs Capcom 2 as well.
Then came the day that our semester test results were going to be revealed. I woke up early to check if they were up on the student portal, but there was nothing, so I went to sleep.
I woke up again at 2.30pm, and I realised that I could no longer access the portal, probably because of the number of students accessing it at the same time.
So there I sat, hoping for the best of results, and then my phone rang. I answered it, and it turned out to be one of my lecturers. He called to inform me that I was part of the top 10% in my course, and I had been offered a place in the Diploma with Merit program.
Basically, the program is offered to the top 10% of all courses in TP, based on the semester test results. In TP, every student has to take three different modules from three different courses throughout their poly life. This is called Cross Disciplinary Subject, or CDS for short.
For those in the Diploma with Merit program, you have to take four CDS instead of the usual three. But instead of choosing the three separately, you choose CDS bundles, which consist of 4 closely related CDS. Upon graduation, you get this extra certificate.
I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t happy. But I was honestly disappointed as well, especially for my Media and Society. I expected to do much better. But oh well, I should be happy.
For the first semester of poly, here are my results:
Click to enlarge
The next time I saw everyone, if I’m not wrong, was during our outing to Comex, or the Suntec PC Show if you’d like. If you don’t already know, I love these kind of events. I bought two games from the last fair at very reasonable prices.
Before I could head down to Suntec, I had to go to the army market at Beach Road first, to help by brother sew on his name tag and school name to his NCC uniform. Just being at the place reminded me of my NCC days, especially the times when we had lunch there during the Kayaking courses.
Say Yin met me there, and we had lunch at the place. The food there is generally good, and there is a large variety. Anything from pizza to TULANG, they have it there.
After lunch, and after collecting the uniform, we decided to walk down to Suntec. I don’t know why, but I’ve found this new liking towards walking around Singapore, rather than using public transport.
We actually reached Suntec early, something which does not happen often. We headed over to the arcade, where we played a bit of Marvel vs Capcom, and attempted the arcade mode for Blazblue. Different feeling using a joystick instead of a controller.
Soon Sarah arrived, followed by Marcus. We just slacked at the arcade for about half an hour, then Yeow Boon called to meet him at the convention hall. He was there with mom, so he couldn’t meet us at the arcade.
Syafiqah joined us outside on of the exhibition halls. I did not waste much time walking around this time, as I did during the last PC Show. I immediately went to see the location of the game stores on a map, and we headed for them.
I had quite a hard time deciding whether or not I should make any purchases. I was greeted by both heartbreak and temptation.
Heartbreak because games which I own were being sold at ridiculously cheap prices. For example, I have Lost Planet ($105), Devil May Cry 4 ($95) and Dead Rising ($94). Those are the amounts I paid for them. Altogether, those games cost me close to $300.
At the PC Show, the three games were being sold as a bundle. For about $75. That’s freakin ¼ of the price they cost me. Man, even typing it out makes me feel like biting my table.
Temptation because great games were being sold at great prices. The recently released King of Fighters had an attractive $50 price tag. Games like F.E.A.R 2 and Prince of Persia were sold at $39. There were a whole collection of games being sold at $15-$25.
In the end, I made my decision to purchase Guitar Hero 5 and pre-order Halo 3: ODST. GH5 cost me $73, while Halo 3: ODST cost $76. I decided to hold off from buying the other games, because there is still Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 this month, not to mention the upcoming holiday season games.
Initially, I was against pre-ordering Halo 3: ODST, since it could be bought on launch day at the same price, or even pre-ordered at any other store if I felt like it. But pre-ordering it at the PC Fair had one advantage.
You get Sergeant Johnson as a playable character for the new Firefight mode, along with the standard Halo 3: ODST console skin and the game. Rather than pre-ordering it else where for the same price and not getting Johnson, I decided to make my purchase there.
As for the console skin, I probably won’t be sticking it onto my 360, although it would look so cool. As we all know, the Xbox 360 isn’t exactly reliable when it comes to prevention against hardware failure.
I’m expecting my 360 to die from RROD some time next year, and then I’m going to have to change it. If the console skin is stuck onto it, then bye bye console skin. Well, the console skin is worth $40, so if anyone is interested, let me know.
So I bought two games, and now I broke for the remainder of the month, especially since I am not allowed to spend the backup cash in my account. I’m still planning to eat a little into that backup to get Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 :D
On our way out the hall, I lay my eyes upon a girl of utter hotness. She was giving out flyers to the crowd. In this tight, form fitting, revealing silver outfit. I know I’m sounding like a pervert now, but yes, that’s what I am, so live with it.
Great body and pretty face. OK MOVING ON.
After we were done with Comex, we went to Marina Square, partially to escape the crowd, and partially because we didn’t know what to do in Suntec. Yeow Boon couldn’t follow us because he had to help his mom carry stuff.
We decided to play pool at Marina Square. Played for a good two hours, then we went back to Suntec to look for some place to eat. The queues at most places were scary, so we ended up going to New York New York for dinner.
The food was alright, but a little too expensive. Then again, we didn’t exactly have many other choices for dinner. All of us had half a chicken with cheese baked onto it for dinner, except Sarah, who did not want cheese because she is extra.
I met up with Say Yin, Marcus and Yeow Boon again yesterday, at Bugis. Yeow Boon suggested going to Iluma, because he wanted to try out the 4 story escalator.
That may sound impressive, the escalator being 4 stories and all, but in actual fact, it isn’t that big a deal. It’s about the same height as the longer escalators at Dhoby Ghaut MRT station and Suntec convention hall.
Anyways, it was the first time I went to Iluma. It’s really empty, quiet and spacious, which is what I like. I can’t stand being surrounded by people.
There is a Comics Connection there, which is awesome. There is a whole floor dedicated to foods. Mostly looks like Japanese food. Half of the fifth floor consists of this huge arcade, which is good because it has tons of fighting games, many of which you don’t see in other arcades.
The cinema takes up the half of the fifth floor. It’s a cinema, so it doesn’t have that large a variety of movies as Golden Village or Cathay.
The seventh floor is where the awesome happens. Honestly, it’s one of the coolest things I’ve seen in my life. And I’ve seen lots of things in my life. There’s this epic LAN shop.
It’s the biggest in Singapore. It’s huge, the lighting is dim, the air con is cold, the chairs are comfortable, the computers are powerful, and all the equipment are from none other than that little company called Razer.
It really looks like one of those game tournament halls, with rows and rows of computers, arranged 5 in a row, and two rows face each other. Perfect for playing team games which require 5 people in a team.
There’s also these three huge screens mounted on one of the walls. The screens play trailers and game play videos of recently released and upcoming games. Also, they have Guitar Hero available for play at the entrance.
To sum it all up, my kind of place.
We played two pub matches of DotA. We would have won the first match, if the enemy team did not leave. We owned the second match.
After DotA, we played Team Fortress 2. For those of you who don’t know, Team Fortress 2 was released in 2007, as part of The Orange Box. It’s an online shooter game where you choose one of nine different classes, and then go crazy.
In my honest opinion, Team Fortress 2 is waaaay above Counter Strike and Left 4 Dead in terms of fun. And we were just playing 2v2. Imagine if it was a full game.
There was one match where both me and my team mate were spies. The other team were scouts. So we used the camouflage to appear like the enemy scouts. So in the end, there were four identical scouts running around on the map.
Another time, I was a scout, and it was just me and a heavy left. I used by bat to hit him about 7 times, and it only took him two punches to put me down. And then there was the time when me and my team mate, both using scouts, batted down a heavy.
It may not sound like much when you read it, but honestly, Team Fortress 2 is an excellent game. I’m sorry I felt it was boring back then, but I’m finding it awesome now. If you’re still sticking to the overly stale Left 4 Dead, time for a change. It’ll be worth it.
As for today, I didn’t really do much. I’ve been playing lots of Guitar Hero 5. I decided to stop being a pu**y, so I’m playing the songs on Expert mode this time, instead of just sticking to Hard. I’m also solving all the riddles in Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Ok yes, so I guess that’s all the stuffs that have been happening since the start of the holidays up to now. I’ve come to realise that holidays in actual fact, are boring. No matter if you stay at home all the time, or constantly keep going out, it’s going to get boring.
But then again, once school starts, everyone is just going to be longing for the boring holidays all over again.
I’m just going to be looking forward to the remaining weeks of the holidays. Lots of plans to be carried out, but not that much time left! We’ll see how it goes.
posted @ 11:34 PM
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