Ayie Ayie Ayie, You Little Butterfly

Today before group P.E., while walking to the toilet to get changed, Winston and me saw a butterfly! Its quite pretty and attention seeking, so we whipped out our phones and started to catch it so we can take a picture of it.. Can't picture it? Imagine 2 big guys with their schoolbags chasing after a butterfly with their handphones, in front of 2 basketball court full of people from the previous P.E. lesson... Yeah.. You get my point.. XD

So here's some of the pictures we took! We have concluded that our phones cmi la.. stupid.. though I got a few clear shots. Have a look =)










Oh, while uploading this pictures, I was reminded of a very very old song which used to be very popular.. Its quite cool actually.. Not sure if you guys heard of it before..

The song is called "Butterfly".. it used to be played EVERYWHERE, in supermarts, in arcades (para-para, DDR, etc) and it was one of the favorite songs to dance to when you're playing para-para.. If you still ain't sure if you heard of it before, or have never heard of it before.. Have a look!

Butterfly /Smile [From Album : Smile]
Written by Robert Uhlmann / Robin Rex

TJC OAC Duathalon 2008 - Everything in the Power of 2

Yeah.. that's the slogan for this year's duathalon.. Quite cool sia.. But why not just say.. "Everything squared." Short, precise and makes ppl think why.. then when they do.. they're be like "OMG thats so..." haha..

The duathalon today was quite fun la.. though i pissed off my partner lol. I haven't biked since Sec 1.. nearly 5 years ago.. lol.. and I have never used gear bikes before.. Haha.. 4 of us, 2 teams from the same class, met at the bus stop at 7am and walked to the meeting area together.. We were nearly late =P

The guys category got split into 2 waves, we're in the 1st wave with 45 pairs.. The route goes like that - 3km run by runner, 15km bike by biker, then finish off with 3km run by runner.. My partner ran and came back within top 15.. Then I went off whee.. I came back last.. On my way back, bikers from the 2nd wave overtook me.. LOL.. My partner was the last one left waiting for the biker to come back.. haahaha.. He took off after swearing a bit.. then he came back 3rd last.. Imba sia.. lol.. Anyway, after the whole thing.. we camped till 10am to collect the goodie bag then we zhao to eat lunch then go home..

The goodie bag wasn't much of a big deal.. December issue of Teens, 4 mini cookies from P.Osh, many many vouchers of companies which I either never heard before or never bought from before, a overseas travel safety guide (WTH?), a duathalon participant shirt, a puma cap... Overall the only useful and worthy items are the cap and the shirt.. mine was the biker one.. the runner's shirt design slightly different on the back.. the shirt design quite nice too =)

Here's some pics of the goodie bag (I took it at home with my phone haha):


The shirt, the cap and the puma plastic bag! The 2nd picture show the back of the duathalon shirt.. Bikers have 2 wheels with wings on it.. Runners have a funny looking shoe with a wing on it. Reminds me of the Boots of Travel in DotA and the ancient Greek magical running shoes thingy.. haha!

Oh look. Sloggi voucher! Whee.. I shall go and check it out sia.. lol..
Why don't they give guys Kelvin Klein's man's underwear vouchers.. So sexist.. So much for gender equality.. Sigh.. So disappointed in today's society..

Another boring day

Been sleeping sleeping for 4hrs per day for a few days straight.. my concentration is failing me.. nooooo... but somehow I suprised myself how I could still manage to answer impromptu tutorial questions (which I never ever do =P) with such high accuracy.. Man, i'm sick. Can't stay awake but answers can still fly out.. I should go see a doctor.

Today's cohort meeting in the audi and the maths "pep talk" was depressing la.. Got one sick senior class.. 11/06.. EVERYONE GET "A" for maths.. whole class A1 for both amath and emaths in "O" lvls. Then got a few siao kias.. throughout J1 and J2 get U and S, even during prelims.. then A lvl result come out, they get AAAA(A/B/C).. Then all the Math HoD and VP keep saying "oh they are very perservering.. very hardworking.. always prepare their tutorials beforehand... a lot smart students never work end up didn't get As.. blah blah blah" Sian la! I can't remember the last time I was considered hardworking and I have never done a single tutorial before lesson in my whole life.. Damnit. I dont wanna fail A lvls.. Noooooooo...

Then today jammed after lessons for Mardi Gras.. damn it was shitty.. My stupid guitar only 3 pickups.. so soft.. then Fawwaz's guitar so bloody loud, I can't even hear myself -.- Went to get new strings today (my old ones were 3 yrs old lol).. Whee!! Just realised my guitar is sian. Looks damn cool with all the Hexagonal screws, but so bloody irritating when changing strings... unscrew here, unscrew there, screw here, screw there, screw everywhere..

Sian, tmr Duathalon, H3 test in 3 days, then 3 days later 11th National Olympiad in Informatics (i.e. programming competition).. And I barely started studying, and I haven't touched programming for weeks.. Siannnnn... Why all the impt dates together one.. SIANNN

Ragnarok Battle Offline (RBO) Revisited

Just a few days ago.. I got hooked up again with a game that I've played last time.. in my Secondary school times.. I'm sure most of you heard of the (used to be) popular Ragnarok Online (RO).. This is a side-scroller OFFLINE "version" of it..

Its... Ragnarok Battle Offline (RBO)!! Below is the introduction video when you start the game.. It looks quite cool =)

P.S. Forgive the low quality (i used 3frames/sec, if not the vid will be HUGEEE) and lack of sound (the real video is damn nice).. I took it using SnagIt. Its a freeware.. maybe I should talk about it next time... ^^

Well.. Basically its like most side-scroller single player games.. you choose a character, you run around in a 2D world kicking monsters butts. Only thing is, in RBO, your characters can "level up", increase status points of your character, learn spells based on their professions (similar to RO) and you can actually play with your friends!! You can input up to 3 players on the same computer, i.e. 3 people can be playing their own characters and working together to complete a stage. This brings all the fun together as everyone can benefit from each other's spells and there are many combos to be discovered. Cool eh?

While creating characters, you may pick 1 out of the 6 first-jobs in RO (Swordsman, Archer, Mage, Theif, Acolyte, Merchant) and choose either Male or Female. Obviously each job will learn different set of skills/spells, each with their own requirements. An interesting thing here is that the game makers made a difference in the Male and Female characters. Male characters tend to be stronger while Female characters have access to certain abilities that Male characters don't, and some of these abilities are actually very useful and/or powerful. So don't be surprised if you see your friend playing a cross-gender character! Oh and not to forget, if you complete the game with all 6 characters, you get to unlock secret jobs!

To add spice to the game, the game makers have added 3 "expansion" updates to the game. These include the Arena mode, where players can try to get the best timings for clearing a certain set of monsters.. To cater to the English speaking (and obviously non-Japanese speaking community), a fellow gamer Sara Leen has come up with an English patch that will translate essential parts of the game into English, such as the title screen options, your spell names, etc.. However, it only works with the 3rd expansion. This means if you want to play RBO in English, you gotta download all 3 expansions and install them.

Besides the cute (and personally I think it looks damn cool as well) graphics and animations, the fun part of the game comes from ganging (or you may say GANK!) the boss at the final part of the stage. The harder the boss, the more people fighting together, the more fun it is when trying to beat it. Whats more? Since this is an offline game, there are no "obligations" (as compared to online gaming.. Those familiar with Frozen Throne would know how much "leavers" are hated online) to finish the stage when you have something more important to do. You can either press the "Pause" button and come back to it later, or simply close it.

Well obviously nothing is perfect, the boring parts of this game kicks in after a few stages as the mobs are just "wasting your time" before you actually reach the final boss of the stage.. Since this IS a 'simple' offline side-scroller game, there isn't much variation in the way you can fight, so you will end up using at most 10 different skills/spells (usually you use only less than 5).. This kind of repetitive action is what puts most people (including me) off games like Maplestory..

My final verdict on this game: 6.5/10
Cute graphics. Attempts to provide variety to the game through different characters. Good for casual playing, especially good if you have friends who play it together with you. But it tends to get boring after a while if you're a hardcore gamer. Tends to have low replay value unless you're bored.

Some RBO related links:
The official RBO website: www.ragnarokbattle.com/
The Wikipedia page on RBO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnarok_Battle_Offline
A very informative guide to RBO: http://cmcforums.mrx.ca:8000/showthread.php?tid=4306

25/3/08 Digital Life - Microsoft Strikes Again.

I don't read newspaper on a regular basis. Today, my dad happened to buy the Straits Times... While flipping through, the Digital Life caught my eye (well, as usual =\).. Out of all the stuff in it, I'm sure anyone who reads it would probably know what's the "focus" of this issue of Digital Life..

No its not another game review but yes, its Microsoft. It says on the front page "26th March, Microsoft unveils.." Here's a "summary" of the issue and a few of my own opinions =)

The whole hoo-ha is basically the new Windows Server 2008 and Vista's 1st Service Pack. Ignoring the "top-10 reasons" given by Digital Life, I've summarised the advantages stated in the issue into 3 points...

1) Windows Server's Hyper-V - enables virtualisation and allows system calls to be made directly to the hardware

The good: Think of the advantages of virtual memory and Direct Memory Access.. it should be roughly similar..

The bad: I can't see much bad things about it..

The ugly: What kind of name is Hyper-V? Reminds me of Pokemon.. Pokeball, Great Ball, Hyperball, Masterball.. whats with this.. Microsoft can't think of a cooler name? XD

2) Server Core installation option

The good: Install much much faster (1.7gb compared to 6gb full installation file), Lesser updates since un-needed things are not installed

The bad: Troublesome if you realise you need those things you didn't install..

The ugly: If you didn't install the full installation, your computer will probably look very naked, with specialised functions of what you need.. I dont know about you all, but my laptop desktop is filled with icons and shortcuts, and I think it looks nice =)

3) Network Access Protection (NAP)

The good: Increases infrastructure security by screening computers that join your network

The bad: Digital Life didn't mention.. but I'm thinking.. hell lot more restrictions while you're connected to the network? It might also mean longer time to connect to any network due to the "screenings"

The ugly: NAP is developed in partnership with CISCO?! Wt.. CISCO seriously seems to be diversifying.. is the security sector doing that badly? Didn't Mas Selamat just escaped? Shouldn't they have a lot of business? =P

Yup. Thats it for my 3 points. I know I'm no professional and you may even call me amateurish.. Whatever.. I'm just having my fun learning about this and sharing it with all the lazy bums out there ^^

Hey you. Yes you. Sitting there right on your chair reading this blog. Don't get your cheque book quite yet. Yes, this things seem damn nice. But since when do advertisements say any drawbacks of their products? Just like the obvious drawbacks of Windows Vista, as known by most people who refused to convert from XP (like me!), there probably would be such drawbacks in the newly upcoming "Windows Server 2008". I can't remember where I read it from.. some people claimed the new Vista update is causing problems on their computers.. many people reported crashes.. hah! If you're interested, its better to just sit back for about 1wk, read up on all the critics and comments, then make a value judgement on your own.. It IS your money anyway.. (though I don't mind if you give me some)

Oh by the way, this is the first time Microsoft is advertising through online blogs and communities!! Check it outttttt!

Blogs - http://www.microsoft.com/singapore/heroshappenhere/nomination.mspx

Facebook - http://apps.facebook.com/serverquiz/invite.aspx

Adventures of Captain Server - http://www.medialabsinnovation.com/captainserver/

I'm not sure whether the last game is fun.. but who cares.. Give it a try if it appeals to you or you just feel plain bored.. There ARE prizes to be won. Yes yes.. XBoxes, Office 2007, Vista Ultimate (what the hell is this -.-), the new Window Server 2008, etc.. Not being skeptical, but don't take part in these hoping for too much, I doubt you'll be the winner.. Probability wise.. No offence.. Haha.

A Lil' about Me! =D

Who am I?
我是谁？

Nononono.. this ain't Jacky Chan's movie. Well, I'm a Singaporean guy (hope you don't mind my Singlish), currently studying in Temasek Junior College (TJC) as a J2.. last year.. the year of the A levels.. damnit. Guessing from the chinese words on the 2nd line, you probably know I'm a Chinese (hey no offence if you're not haha), and erm.. I'm an aethist. Do you know what that means? DO YOU?! It means no GST (also known as ad valorem tax in other countries)!! Woo!! Screw you GST hikes, go to helllllll.... you made my $4 Student meals at fast food restaurants jump to $4.30 (KFC), $4.45 (Burger King), $4.50 (Mac's).. well, not like i really care.. its my last year as a beneficiary of Student Meal >.<>.<

RPG is born!

Yeah.. RPG is born today. 24/3/07. Some random day in some random year.

I was feeling bored trying to study for my NTU H3 Math.. I've been reading 2 friends' blogs, then this idea struck my head "Hey! Since you're bored, why not create a blog?" So.. here it is! I promise I'll update a bit more about myself in my next post kay. XD