Accidentally sat through 3 hours of a hongkong serial today...
Betrayals and ties of blood; A much better theme than rivaries and revenge, don't you think?
Had a busy day once I tore myself away from the tv. Went out with some guys to toy shops around the city and had teochew porridge as lunch =)
-3H1U
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Monday, April 24, 2006
Moving up
I finally performed the role I'm supposed to be paid for and for 2 hours, I wasn't an overpaid programmer ;)
Still... I'm pretty daunted at what I have to do.
Mario Kart Arcade GP gave me a special rank of Nocturnal Racer today. No prize for guessing what that means.
-3H1U
Still... I'm pretty daunted at what I have to do.
Mario Kart Arcade GP gave me a special rank of Nocturnal Racer today. No prize for guessing what that means.
-3H1U
Sunday, April 23, 2006
For the love of gaming
JW is a hopeless addict, that much is known. I can blame it on genes; Cousins on both sides drown in computer games and only a single scholar among them - a cute young lady troubled by pimples and suitors ;) The boys share a dream to earn money in the gaming industry (not to be confused for gambling). I can't find enough heart to blow up their dreams so I share my creative juices with them.
From the moment I coded my first game in 1990 with the venerable BASIC language, I have desired to write games for free. I would put it under freeware and let it circulate the world via Bulletin Board Systems. People would wonder at the secret identity of the writer who goes by Midgard.
In the 90s, Midgard was my gaming persona while Joran was my nick in the BBS world.
Years later, I have restored the Magic Candle; sent Irenicus to hell; saved Earth in Operation Moongate but am no closer to making my first public release game. My programming skills are not up to scratch and I simply enjoy playing them more then making them. If I ever do one by solo effort, I would still launch it for free.
This posting was provoked by reading a letter in this month’s issue of CGW.
-2H0U
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Thursday, April 20, 2006
hooked and statistics
I'm currently hooked on two games: Gunmaster Onslaught 2
and MarioKart Arcade GP.
Check out my links! =)
I once read that a programmer writes 20 lines of code a day. Mine goes into the decimal points... The article lies!!
-4H0U
and MarioKart Arcade GP.
Check out my links! =)
I once read that a programmer writes 20 lines of code a day. Mine goes into the decimal points... The article lies!!
-4H0U
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
tired and article
Pretty tired, so there won't be any wolfy stories for a while.
Btw, the article on the startrek club is out. It's a fairly safe article to read, so I'm happy.
-2H2U
Btw, the article on the startrek club is out. It's a fairly safe article to read, so I'm happy.
-2H2U
Friday, April 14, 2006
Overwhelmed
[abstraction]
They attacked.
With sticks and stones and King running at my side, we charged at the wolves. On hindsight, that was a stupid thing to do but boys and dogs aren't known for their smarts. The Ulu ulu wolves retreated, melting away into the herd which was now panicking to the smells of a fresh kill. Bleating, they split into scattered groups. King and I now have a situation on our hands.
I left the herding to him and ran to my pony and I rode her back to the shed. There, I took out Uncle Wally's rifle and returned to the fields with best speed. The devious creatures were no where in sight. We spent the rest of the morning rounding up the sheep and drove them back to the pens.
When I returned to the house, Uncle Wally gave me a new assignment to fix the old tractor. His faith in me was warming and I had no wish to dissapoint him. However, I was never good at machines and had no idea where to start. Finding out what was wrong with it was an adventure in itself. At this point, I was summoned to the shed by Aunt Sally.
"Have you forgotten something?" she asked. I looked around and replied, "Did I?” "Yes. Let's wait for Uncle Wally to come before I give the two of you a piece of my mind. Boys simply can't keep anything in their heads."
Feeling annoyed, I left her side to look around, ignoring her demands to know where I thought I was going. I finally discovered the problem and closed the cabinet for the rifle and left without speaking to her.
I went back to fixing the tractor and King found me at a loss of what to do. My cousin was busy at another task and I felt bad that I had to interrupt him so many times. Finally, I started it up and found nothing wrong with it. I found Uncle Wally and reported my work to me, requesting that he test the tractor tomorrow. He gave me a smile and thanked me. Later, as I was lying in bed, I thought of my failures in the day and for the first time, had doubts.
[/absraction]
Anastasia gave me a treat of 3 sushis, 1 handroll, breans and 1 large bento set. It was nice and the quantity was beyond me (14 Apr).
Met with Roadster for supper and had another round of food and talks. Yawnz.
Too much food, too little sleep.
-3H3U
They attacked.
With sticks and stones and King running at my side, we charged at the wolves. On hindsight, that was a stupid thing to do but boys and dogs aren't known for their smarts. The Ulu ulu wolves retreated, melting away into the herd which was now panicking to the smells of a fresh kill. Bleating, they split into scattered groups. King and I now have a situation on our hands.
I left the herding to him and ran to my pony and I rode her back to the shed. There, I took out Uncle Wally's rifle and returned to the fields with best speed. The devious creatures were no where in sight. We spent the rest of the morning rounding up the sheep and drove them back to the pens.
When I returned to the house, Uncle Wally gave me a new assignment to fix the old tractor. His faith in me was warming and I had no wish to dissapoint him. However, I was never good at machines and had no idea where to start. Finding out what was wrong with it was an adventure in itself. At this point, I was summoned to the shed by Aunt Sally.
"Have you forgotten something?" she asked. I looked around and replied, "Did I?” "Yes. Let's wait for Uncle Wally to come before I give the two of you a piece of my mind. Boys simply can't keep anything in their heads."
Feeling annoyed, I left her side to look around, ignoring her demands to know where I thought I was going. I finally discovered the problem and closed the cabinet for the rifle and left without speaking to her.
I went back to fixing the tractor and King found me at a loss of what to do. My cousin was busy at another task and I felt bad that I had to interrupt him so many times. Finally, I started it up and found nothing wrong with it. I found Uncle Wally and reported my work to me, requesting that he test the tractor tomorrow. He gave me a smile and thanked me. Later, as I was lying in bed, I thought of my failures in the day and for the first time, had doubts.
[/absraction]
Anastasia gave me a treat of 3 sushis, 1 handroll, breans and 1 large bento set. It was nice and the quantity was beyond me (14 Apr).
Met with Roadster for supper and had another round of food and talks. Yawnz.
Too much food, too little sleep.
-3H3U
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Wolves and twists
[abstraction]
I was out grazing the sheep with my sheepdog King. We watched the clouds sail by and we chased each other on the fields. Years have given me a good understanding of dogs in general. When they growl low in their throats, they are either warning you off or they feel threatened. On this day, I awoke to his growling and I saw him with his teeth bared, tail erected.
"What is it King?" I asked. He said nothing and I followed his narrowed gaze towards the sheep and I saw... What?! There were 3 wolves among the flock, hidden underneath skins of sheep wool. Ulu ulu wolves are among the smartest beast on land. Stories of wolves impersonating grandmothers or harmless sheep are not mere legends; they are right in front of us.
I turned towards King and gave a stern look, "Weren't you supposed to have gotten rid of them last month?"
King looked blankly at me as if to say, "Hey Boss, I herd sheep."
Swell. I can't challenge them now. Tomorrow, I shall bring my rifle out of the storage. Aunt Sally mustn’t know of this.
[/abstraction]
As I feared, our plans for a gathering fell through. I'm not too unhappy as I have predicted it and upsetted myself ahead of time. This frees me up for another event - Laser Quest. Thought it was dead.
Two other slips in organisation freed me up to join two other events. This's not a very good thing to happen around me...
-1H3U
I was out grazing the sheep with my sheepdog King. We watched the clouds sail by and we chased each other on the fields. Years have given me a good understanding of dogs in general. When they growl low in their throats, they are either warning you off or they feel threatened. On this day, I awoke to his growling and I saw him with his teeth bared, tail erected.
"What is it King?" I asked. He said nothing and I followed his narrowed gaze towards the sheep and I saw... What?! There were 3 wolves among the flock, hidden underneath skins of sheep wool. Ulu ulu wolves are among the smartest beast on land. Stories of wolves impersonating grandmothers or harmless sheep are not mere legends; they are right in front of us.
I turned towards King and gave a stern look, "Weren't you supposed to have gotten rid of them last month?"
King looked blankly at me as if to say, "Hey Boss, I herd sheep."
Swell. I can't challenge them now. Tomorrow, I shall bring my rifle out of the storage. Aunt Sally mustn’t know of this.
[/abstraction]
As I feared, our plans for a gathering fell through. I'm not too unhappy as I have predicted it and upsetted myself ahead of time. This frees me up for another event - Laser Quest. Thought it was dead.
Two other slips in organisation freed me up to join two other events. This's not a very good thing to happen around me...
-1H3U
Sunday, April 09, 2006
Ubin 2006, Apr 08
The final tally is 21:60. I'll get them...
It has been close to 3 years since we last came to Ubin (2003). The "group" newly formed after the Ophir trip and Sisters' island camping, both in 2002. Some efforts were taken to "improve" the island but she remained largely unchanged.
The morning (08 Apr) saw our failed attempts in locating Chek Jawa and the afternoon saw our success at catching it at low tide. Silt has turned what used to be a cove into a mangrove beach. There were remains of what looked like a jetty, now having no water under it. It's not a beautiful beach, nor does it have a good view. Life teems on it and it can crawl out around you if you stand still. What irked me was that so called nature lovers had left their trash behind in some of the best spots to sit around. At one of these "campsites", the rubbish easily circled half the site, an area as large as the kick-off circle of a soccer field.
Rain forced us to flee the beach in search of shelter. We searched out the quarry and found it locked. On our way back, an ass went down the road at full speed. I was on the verge of scolding him when he skidded as he tried to do a turning stop. This donkey unfortunately was one of our member and possibly related to me, many centuries back. My account differs from Cheryl's version. Fortunately, he only suffered some graze wounds and some flesh removed from his foot, hanging by the skin. Idiot.
We washed up at the Info counter near the jetty while I failed to get that person to wash with soap. He's the type who bashes through thorn filled vegetation and he's squeamish of the pain that disinfection can cause? Next time I shall hold a mop to his throat and force him.
Dinner was at Terminal, a beer garden theme setup above the jetty on the mainland side. The price was decent and so was the food. We gave the drinks a pass as they were too expensive. We chatted till 8pm and went home to lick our wounds.
-5H2U
It has been close to 3 years since we last came to Ubin (2003). The "group" newly formed after the Ophir trip and Sisters' island camping, both in 2002. Some efforts were taken to "improve" the island but she remained largely unchanged.
The morning (08 Apr) saw our failed attempts in locating Chek Jawa and the afternoon saw our success at catching it at low tide. Silt has turned what used to be a cove into a mangrove beach. There were remains of what looked like a jetty, now having no water under it. It's not a beautiful beach, nor does it have a good view. Life teems on it and it can crawl out around you if you stand still. What irked me was that so called nature lovers had left their trash behind in some of the best spots to sit around. At one of these "campsites", the rubbish easily circled half the site, an area as large as the kick-off circle of a soccer field.
Rain forced us to flee the beach in search of shelter. We searched out the quarry and found it locked. On our way back, an ass went down the road at full speed. I was on the verge of scolding him when he skidded as he tried to do a turning stop. This donkey unfortunately was one of our member and possibly related to me, many centuries back. My account differs from Cheryl's version. Fortunately, he only suffered some graze wounds and some flesh removed from his foot, hanging by the skin. Idiot.
We washed up at the Info counter near the jetty while I failed to get that person to wash with soap. He's the type who bashes through thorn filled vegetation and he's squeamish of the pain that disinfection can cause? Next time I shall hold a mop to his throat and force him.
Dinner was at Terminal, a beer garden theme setup above the jetty on the mainland side. The price was decent and so was the food. We gave the drinks a pass as they were too expensive. We chatted till 8pm and went home to lick our wounds.
-5H2U
Friday, April 07, 2006
In another's eyes
At work, two of our teams merged together and a new org chart was born in a PowerPoint slide.
A new boss was inserted between me and my current one, we were shifted around to different teams and I now suddenly have 4 pairs of eyes I have to be wary of.
Roadster choi-ed me for dinner, after doing his part in promoting the economy. Had prata and talked about old games again. ;)
Non reply is really starting to get to me. I think I'll sit back, kick my shoes off and see if anyone notices the silence.
-4H3U
A new boss was inserted between me and my current one, we were shifted around to different teams and I now suddenly have 4 pairs of eyes I have to be wary of.
Roadster choi-ed me for dinner, after doing his part in promoting the economy. Had prata and talked about old games again. ;)
Non reply is really starting to get to me. I think I'll sit back, kick my shoes off and see if anyone notices the silence.
-4H3U
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Day 4: LAN admin & catching up
[Morning]
A round of sad faces.
[Noon]
Met with Blossom, Buttercup and Big one for lunch at Eunos. Rare moment indeed.
[Afternoon]
Rest of team settled in early. We earned our pay trading places and dirty jokes.
[Evening]
Met up with P, Cher & Alan for dinner at Bugis. Talk drifted once again to our time when we were in our ECA group. Surprise sighting of Alvin & Ludevick(?).
-6 Apr
A round of sad faces.
[Noon]
Met with Blossom, Buttercup and Big one for lunch at Eunos. Rare moment indeed.
[Afternoon]
Rest of team settled in early. We earned our pay trading places and dirty jokes.
[Evening]
Met up with P, Cher & Alan for dinner at Bugis. Talk drifted once again to our time when we were in our ECA group. Surprise sighting of Alvin & Ludevick(?).
-6 Apr
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
No plan survives the first contact with the enemy
I've been quite annoyed with plans going around me the last 2 months. They have the tendency to get the silent treatment or evaporate into thin air. Just moments ago, I messaged an ex classmate on whim and asked if he had received the mail on our upcoming class outing. He told me he received it but won't be going. "Then you never reply?", I scolded.
I'm being the bad guy here as just this afternoon (5 Apr), I spoke against what I considered "throwing a spanner into the works" when one of our member expressed disinterest and suggested an alternative. I've nothing against him personally but we already had 7 people who gave verbal agreements to the original plan. Instead of a free-for-all discussion of choice A-B-C, I rather have people who participate out of the sake of catching up, not because it's their choice of activity. If they don't like the activity and stay out, it's fine with me. Moulding the shape of the outcome and not turning up does irk me somewhat.
In the game of politics, I fancy myself the puppeteer. I'm not the organiser for this and I showed myself manipulating the outcome of this gathering rather openly, uncharacteristic of me. It might damage ties if the wrong eyes read this post but the cute thing with sharing your thoughts on the blog is that, "Those closest to you won't read it but those you never considered, do".
-5 Apr
I'm being the bad guy here as just this afternoon (5 Apr), I spoke against what I considered "throwing a spanner into the works" when one of our member expressed disinterest and suggested an alternative. I've nothing against him personally but we already had 7 people who gave verbal agreements to the original plan. Instead of a free-for-all discussion of choice A-B-C, I rather have people who participate out of the sake of catching up, not because it's their choice of activity. If they don't like the activity and stay out, it's fine with me. Moulding the shape of the outcome and not turning up does irk me somewhat.
In the game of politics, I fancy myself the puppeteer. I'm not the organiser for this and I showed myself manipulating the outcome of this gathering rather openly, uncharacteristic of me. It might damage ties if the wrong eyes read this post but the cute thing with sharing your thoughts on the blog is that, "Those closest to you won't read it but those you never considered, do".
-5 Apr
banished to limbo...
Looks like I'm condemned to stay at ulu ulu office forever.
This changes things, I hope I can meet my ex colleagues for lunch on Friday.
-5 Apr
This changes things, I hope I can meet my ex colleagues for lunch on Friday.
-5 Apr
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Extermination and Mutation
The devil's plaything had a boring task today: installation; cleaning; editing registry; hacking...
Lunch consisted of stale biscuits and potato chips.
Then boss's boss walked in and gave us new mission objectives: more pcs to scan; acquire new pcs; swap the non working pcs. Things got even downhill when all the new pcs we acquired from the storeroom failed to boot up.
This means another day in ulu ulu office tomorrow.
-4 Apr
Monday, April 03, 2006
Rejection and the Virus Saga Part 3
The job stint in July was rejected by boss, oh well..
I'm amazed the virus thing is still going on. I'll be going to the ulu ulu office tomorrow to clean it out. That's for walking around with a neon board, annoucing to the world that I'm the devil's plaything. A good thing though as I could check on some of my programs.
-3 Apr
I'm amazed the virus thing is still going on. I'll be going to the ulu ulu office tomorrow to clean it out. That's for walking around with a neon board, annoucing to the world that I'm the devil's plaything. A good thing though as I could check on some of my programs.
-3 Apr
Sunday, April 02, 2006
All Good Things
Title of the last episode in Star Trek: The Next Generation
I woke up at 8am (1 Apr), to my annoyance. I have racked up a huge sleep debt and my muscles were aching. Read the papers and started my games.
In my game of Earth, I had a paper gain of 30~50 million as the price of oil went up to $97 / barrel. I think I'll hold on to it for a while as I'm currently having too much cash on hand.
In Guild Wars, I formed a party with some strangers and they got killed off except me. I was the one who resurrected them all and gained a level in the process *happy*.
In Gunbound, I had a string of luck as my team was undefeated in a series of very close games. I even had the chance to play Ice - a cute mammoth.
I wanted to play more, but I had to stop.
I was to meet my secondary school classmates at Moon River, a cafe beside Capitol. When I arrived at 8.06pm, I was surprised to see only Jamie there. After Shanheng and Doreen arrived, we decided to change the location to Chijmes. We messaged the others and made our way there. Joanne called me and was worried that she cannot gain entrance as her current state of dress was "very casual". I told her it doesn't matter.
At Doreen's recommendation, we picked Bobby's, which was famous for its ribs. At about 9pm, Qingqing and Shihan arrived. Most of us ordered the Ribeye steak. Price at $26.50, I thought it tasted better than the other ribeye steaks I had. My complaint was that their degree of cooking was inconsistent. We talked, Joanne arrived (dressed better than any of us in her casual state) and Clayton informed us via a text message that he would skip dinner and join us for drinks.
We drove to Wine Network, hidden in an unlit area that sells furniture and drinks. Clayton completed his flying lessons by telling us in a message that he will meet us another day (He was the instigator of this gathering). The white we wanted was not available so we settled for another. They cheese platter was ordered despite my dissuasion.
When it came, they didn't like it and guess who cleared most of it? The white we had was Saxonburg Chardonnay 2004 and I think I became a convert that night. I hated white previously as they were sour and bitter to my taste. This was sweet(fruity) and not dry. We ended it at 1am with promises to meet the following week.
-1 Apr
I woke up at 8am (1 Apr), to my annoyance. I have racked up a huge sleep debt and my muscles were aching. Read the papers and started my games.
In my game of Earth, I had a paper gain of 30~50 million as the price of oil went up to $97 / barrel. I think I'll hold on to it for a while as I'm currently having too much cash on hand.
In Guild Wars, I formed a party with some strangers and they got killed off except me. I was the one who resurrected them all and gained a level in the process *happy*.
In Gunbound, I had a string of luck as my team was undefeated in a series of very close games. I even had the chance to play Ice - a cute mammoth.
I wanted to play more, but I had to stop.
I was to meet my secondary school classmates at Moon River, a cafe beside Capitol. When I arrived at 8.06pm, I was surprised to see only Jamie there. After Shanheng and Doreen arrived, we decided to change the location to Chijmes. We messaged the others and made our way there. Joanne called me and was worried that she cannot gain entrance as her current state of dress was "very casual". I told her it doesn't matter.
At Doreen's recommendation, we picked Bobby's, which was famous for its ribs. At about 9pm, Qingqing and Shihan arrived. Most of us ordered the Ribeye steak. Price at $26.50, I thought it tasted better than the other ribeye steaks I had. My complaint was that their degree of cooking was inconsistent. We talked, Joanne arrived (dressed better than any of us in her casual state) and Clayton informed us via a text message that he would skip dinner and join us for drinks.
We drove to Wine Network, hidden in an unlit area that sells furniture and drinks. Clayton completed his flying lessons by telling us in a message that he will meet us another day (He was the instigator of this gathering). The white we wanted was not available so we settled for another. They cheese platter was ordered despite my dissuasion.
When it came, they didn't like it and guess who cleared most of it? The white we had was Saxonburg Chardonnay 2004 and I think I became a convert that night. I hated white previously as they were sour and bitter to my taste. This was sweet(fruity) and not dry. We ended it at 1am with promises to meet the following week.
-1 Apr
Saturday, April 01, 2006
Return and offer
I'm now posted back to my office near Sentosa for a period of 1~2 weeks.
However, the old company that I have been working in for the last 2 weeks offered us another job in a few months time. The job would be thrice as hard but the reward would be better. We'll need to have a discussion among ourselves over this.
Will update at a future date.
-eof
However, the old company that I have been working in for the last 2 weeks offered us another job in a few months time. The job would be thrice as hard but the reward would be better. We'll need to have a discussion among ourselves over this.
Will update at a future date.
-eof
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