What Talking You...

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by itslef but the wrod as a wlohe.

S.H.E Play Autograph Session!

Woke up... almost 12pm. What the hell...LOL.

Sometimes, I wondered if I've lost the "Fire"... the "Drive" to go for such events. This is the first event I actually had to queue for since last year September...and I was really really reluctant. Perhaps I find it a toil on my physical body (Leg super pain from that first IPPT in 7 months)...and too mentally exhausting... or it's too much time wasted for the limited time I had...

Wash up and use Com a while...In the end still decide to go. Left home around 1pm for IMM.

Met up with Toby... realized that the queue is WAY TOO LONG. AT least 5000 people. So we went around shopping...

Look around Challenger, Best Denki, some Macintosh dealers...CD Rama...

Actually started queuing at 4pm like that. Was really really surprised to see Benjamin! Didn't know he's an S.H.E supporter! Haha... so I'm not the only one in camp who's crazy about S.H.E. Was really really lucky because we're actually the final batch to get to queue (before it gets cut)

Got the autograph at 5:30pm... shook hands with ALL 3 OF THEM~! Sooo... happy!

Ella handshake is the most "sincere" of them all...never change. Hebe smile is so sweet, especially when she smile at me~~ EEWWW...felt like I'm going to melt...

Hee...幸福的感觉...

At the moment... It felt like all the time I spent queuing was worth it... Hang around a bit to see their ending farewell before leaving...

What's more, I managed to exchange for Selina and Hebe's cover! (by stroke of luck) It's a really unexpected bonus!

S.H.E Max Pavillion Fun Party!

There's what I call a "priority list" for everything we do, and everyone order of it is different. To me, an S.H.E concert is extremely high up in that list - meaning unless is impossible, I will definitely attend. So sorry for the other 2 events I missed...

28th July 2007! Whew...finally made it after Jansen agreed to make a switch with me.

Was so shagged when I reached home late morning that day. (Most "Up-ed" night I've experienced) I just collapsed and woke up only at 5pm+... Of course head down to Expo right away...

Before everything, Thanks a lot to Jerry for getting the ticket for me, and Thanks a lot to Ah Quan (GS) for chopping a place for me...

The mini concert was great. It doesn't have the fancy effects, lightings, costumes and grand stage of a full fledge concert, but the environment is really good - especially considering it's free. Not much visuals (except for occasional pyros), not much dancing either. Think of it as a pure music event where you just enjoy the songs, indulge in musical heaven~ Haha.

The whole concert lasted a little over an hour with 10 songs. Highlight was probably the playing of the "Lame Zhong Guo Hua" video. It was definitely unexpected and caused quite a ruckus through the halls I think. But it's a really great segement. Love "Shuo Ni Ai Wo" portion where so many people were singing the chorus together. Love that song. Ending is where they played the piano singing "Lao Po"... then followed by finale "Mo Li"~

Singapore is the only other place where they held this concert beside the one in "Dan Shui", and their content is basically the same - so check out that one if you missed this event in Singapore. If a full concert is worth $148, this one is worth around $48.

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Actually wanted to rush over to Glenn's party when the concert ended at 9.30pm. But they said they're leaving soon, so never go. Then wanted to go home already... Mengzhi told me got buy my ticket...

So went to Marina Square to hang around while waiting for them... Spent like an hour at HMV... browse the whole shop... even documentaries, success stories of some guys...

Met "Ah San" at Mcdonalds after MZ arrival! Haha... Singapore is really small. Complain to him a bit about yesterday night... Saw him again outside the cinema after meeting the group... thought he say he going elsewhere?

Anyway... watched the Thai horror movie, "Alone". Been so long since I last watch a horror movie... Realized that all of us are quite "Hum"... Xuan Jie and Zhi Wei... myself also. Haha. Really can "Chua Sai" at those "hot spots"... the most unique one got to be that "walking on the beach scene"...

I like the movie in that it actually has a storyline, not just a movie which sole motive is to "scare the audience to death". The plot twist was really great. How the female lead is reveal as the antagonist, and the spirit of the dead sister actually appeared to help the male lead towards the end. Towards the end it became like a murder thriller instead of horror. The ending was...creepy. Movie Club gave it 3.5 stars. Not bad.

After the movie went to "Tong Shui Cafe" for supper. We played the "Twenty Four" game again... Chill around until almost 4am before Ken and 7 other people sent me home... First time in my life got so many people see me home... LOL.

Reached home...

Concussed again...

ZZZ...

3 Seconds! 3 Seconds!!!

Ahhhhhhhh! What the hell was I doing...

Took my IPPT today. First time use the ELISS system. Here are my results

Sit Up - 40 = 5 points
SBJ - 216 = 2 points
Pull Up - 8 = 3 points
Shuttle Run - 9.8s = 5 points

And finally...

2.4KM Run - 12min 23sec = 1 point

WTF!!!

Haiz...sian... so happy when I passed all the 4 static stations. In the end failed 2.4km run. Don't know why towards the end, I felt like vomiting. I really put in 100% already... run until going to collapse but still falls short by 3 seconds...

Our team all "gone case" also... Not trying to look for excuse, but I think one of the main reason is I'm not familiar with the route (first time run). I thought after turning at the junction it'll be very close to finishing, but actually the distance is much longer. And of course lack of conditioning is another big factor...

Anyway, over means over liao... better luck next time bah.

The night before, went out with Darren and Mengzhi for the first time together. Kind of funny how we didn't know we share a common friend. Anyway, never do much... Just walk around and talk a lot of crap...

Reasons To Sign On...

Quoted from Keeptouch Community Forum...

I got a few friends who hated army very much and waited eagerly to ORD. 1 month before they ORD they sign on.

Some of the reasons why they sign on:

- They love cookhouse food

- "Dunno" what to do after ORD

- Want to "xian" (woo) a charbo inside the unit

- Want to retain physique and pass IPPT

- He owed loan shark alot of money, and after he signed on, he refused to book out so that loan shark cannot find him.

- He got his GF pregnant.

- Saw the SAF ads on TV and got inspired, thinking he can really be that "Garang"...

- He needs to look after his pregnant GF...and the funniest thing was that the child is not his.

Strange Phobias...

This world is really 无奇不有...

We do know the common phobias like fear of heights (like me), fear of darks, of enclose spaces, etc..

But I bet you've never heard of phobias like these!

Phobia of Prickles, of Peaches, and even Balloons!

It's so bizarre yet so hilarious looking at these videos you wondered if these people are faking it. But I seriously give them my condolences if their phobias are real.

Another one hot topic going on around here, the infamous blogger, Xia La... Xue, just wrote an article entitled "The 7 Most Disgusting Bloggers" in Singapore, which caused a huge backlash from Steven Lim, the "ultimate superstar from Singapore Idol".

This has cause a rant in some of the most famous bloggers site, including Mr Brown~ You may wish to check out on their "exchanges" with each other.

Mr Brown also put up a very interesting podcast lately about "Xiao Li Fei Dao". Don't miss it.

The "New New" Birds...

has arrived!

What does this means? It means I'm "up-ed" another level, another rank in seniority. Meanwhile, the "semi-new birds" have settled down and I'm getting along well with most of them. Yun Zhen is getting kind of... crazy around here. Somehow I've been teamed up with Edwin a lot of times, so he's the one that I'm most familiar with.

There's still definitely some issues left... but with the revolutionary August arriving, I think we need to do away with all that.

S.H.E Play Concert...

To be able to make it to this event, I need to free up 2 weekends. 22nd and 28th. But I got the "You know what" on BOTH days, making it impossible for me to do so.

22nd is the date of exchanging the tickets, while 28th is the actual date for the concert.

Thanks a lot to Jerry for offering to help me exchange the tickets! Hopefully I will be able to free up the 28th to go for the event.

By the way, it is the first time ever I parted with an S.H.E album... please take care of it for me...

And...

To Glenn: I am very very sorry...

My Gaming Story 4 - From Console To PC

My first ever computer came when I was around Primary 6. It was like Mac 3.1 or some shit thing I don't even know about. During that time I was doing with stupid games like Disney Hercules and that sort of stuffs.

I got my first "true' Computer (Secondary 2), the one with Internet. ^_^

During that time, I spent a lot of money on PC games, particularly Chinese ones. Hundreds of dollars, mostly on those Chinese Martial Arts games, which were my favourites...



In Order: 绝代双骄， 武林群侠传， 三国群侠传，三国志 (ROTK)

And basically lots of those "Wuxia" style RPGs. My craze for them ended around Poly period. (which is actually due to their own demise. The developers began churning out extremely crappy ones)

And I started playing those Tycoon Games, or the "Simulation" genre games. It was, and still is one of my favourite genres today. I just enjoyed building something from scratch and seeing it grows into an empire. Theme Hospital, Theme Park, Hotel Giant, Restaurant Empire, Casino Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon, Sim Cities... etc...

I've played practically every major Tycoon games out there. And I've been the CEO of restaurants, parks, malls, casinos, whatever you can think of.



The last 2 are the groundbreaking "The Movies" and "The Sims 2".

RTS/TBS is another one of my favourite genre...



1. Stronghold - The first Stronghold was one of the best RTS at that time. It reminds you of LOTR.

2. Warcraft III - If I were to name a game that have taken up the most of my time, it would be this. After FIVE years, I am still playing this game. From the days of climbing the ladder in clan "xxt" to simply playing dota in clan "oya", I've come a long way~



3. Heroes III - Addictive + Addictive = Obsession. I can play Hotseat with my cousin in this game for 10 hours straight. ^_^ And it still is the best in the Heroes Series.

4. Civilization 4 - The greatest turn based strategy game of all time. Enough said...

My Gaming Story 3 - The Playstation Era

1997 to 2001. These 4 years marks my "Golden Age" of console gaming. Everyday after school is playing games, mainly RPGs. That was my favourite genre at that time, and I've played almost every major RPGs out there... and I've brought at least a few dozen gaming guides.

4 of my favourite RPGs at that time...


1. Suikoden - My favourite RPG series of all time. I've played ALL 5 games (which are all inter-connected in the same world) and I've got the strategy guides for the majority of them. Although there were some downfalls after the move to PS2, Suikoden V brings back all its former glory. I can't exactly pinpoint what I love about this series... I love everything about it. Awesome storylines, superb gameplay, and unique elements (like recruiting 108 characters) that truly defines a great game.

2. Lunar - There's only 2 games in the series, and they're both unmatched. I've even got the full box package of Lunar II due to influence of the first game (costs me over $100). This game features the most memorable characters I've ever seen. When you play this game, you can really feel for each and every character. And the villian in this story is my favourite. He's not just your typical "I want to destroy the world!" guy. Watching the entire plot unfolds is like watching a top graded movie. By the way... this is the ONLY video game I played, which made me cried. Serious. Was so touched by the ending (the romance story between the male/female lead) when I first completed Lunar II.



3. Final Fantasy - Of course I can't miss out the most renowned RPG series ever! I've played ever game in the series and of course FF7 is the ultimate breakthrough in the RPG industry. I felt that the later FF tends to neglect the story for the graphics, but that's just my opinion. The gameplay and quality is still among the top in the industry. My favourite story goes to FF10 on PS2.

4. Wild Arms - I think it's one of the most underrated RPG series. So far there's 4 games in the series, and again I've played all of them. The "tool and puzzle solving" element is the most unique feature of this series. And it contains a lot of innovative ideas like battle cancel system. I have to admit though, that I don't' really understand the story a lot due to tons of technical jargon. It's the gameplay that makes the game stands out.

Well I can't named all the games I've played on PS and PS2. It'll take years. Here are some screens of some of my favourites ~



In order: Chrono Cross, Star Ocean, Brave Fencer Musashi, Thousand Arms, Harvest Moon and Monster Rancher...

It wasn't until late Secondary (2002) that I kind of gradually stopped playing console games. It's partly due to the fact we couldn't afford PS2 (only got it around 2004) at that moment, so I switched to PC gaming, as the games were more "easily accessible".

My Gaming Story 2 - History of Video Games...

Was watching this documentary called "The History of Video Games"... pretty interesting show. It shows how the "Founder of Video Game" started out with only 500 pound, creating the first video game "Pong" and made millions.

It shows the rise and fall of Atari, and some of the games that had the greatest impact on the history, from Space Invaders to Pac-Man, then to Mario and Zelda. It show until the late 1980s only though, so I guess it's a pretty old documentary.

Well anyway, I'll do a continuation for the Childhood Games post. After the NES period (around 1992), it went on to the SNES era. I still have some of the cartridges for these games in my possession! (and the Console)

The SNES accompanies me for most of my Primary School Days~



First screen is "Final Fantasy Mystic Quest", the first ever FF I played, and probably the first RPG I played.. The next one is FF5. My love for RPG is strongly influenced by my 2nd Bro, and I still remember spending hours just watching him play out the game~

I only started playing RPG myself when I got slightly older and able to understand what the heck they're talking about, and really enjoy the storyline.



The first Street Fighter I played, Super Street Fighters II Turbo or something. It's like the most memorable fighting series in history of gaming. Tell me a kid from the 90s who doesn't know who is Ken, Ryu or Chun Li...

The second screen is the first ROTK (ROTK IV) series I played, again under my brother influence. By the way it is through the game that I developed interest in the 3 kingdoms story.




Sim City, one of my favourite games at that time. I am so intrigue by this game, I've spent hours and hours on it. And Super Mario 3, another unforgettable one.



Zelda 3: Link To The Past. The Last Zelda game I playd, and one of the greatest games ever in my opinion.

Well... after the SNES period, my elder brother brought me the Playstation. (Around 1997) That's when I really became a "hardcore gamer". Almost all of my after school hours at spent playing RPGs. LOL.

My Gaming Story 1 - My Childhood Games

The screens before will definitely bring back a lot of memories if you're around 20, and has been playing games since young.

I was reading a lot of those "Greatest Games Of All Time", "Top 10 Forgotten Franchise of NES", "Top 10 Games That Changed The World", "The Most Influential Games"... etc...

So I suddenly had this motivation to revisit my childhood games. These are the games from the extreme distant past, those that I played and watched when I was in the Kindergarten, Lower primary days. Their actual release dates are mostly in the 1980s, some even before I was born.

First... the less well known ones...




Listed in order are Ice Climber, Hogan's Alley, Lode Runner, Clu Clu Land, Duck Hunt, Balloon Fight, Urban Champion, Circus Charlie, Elevator Action, Dig Dug. Have you tried any of them before?

Of course we have the more popular ones... Popeye and Donkey Kong! The 3rd one is "The Legend of Zelda", first in the Zelda series. The 4th one is classic Contra, one of my favourite games at that time. Don't know how many hours I've spent bashing through the 8 levels with my brother. Haha.



Here are some of the games I've spent the most time on...



1. Battle City... spent countless hours on it... Hate to protect the stupid crown thing.
2. Bomberman... don't know play how many times, over and over and over.
3. Originally called Rockman before it was changed to Megaman.

And of course, the one game that everyone still recognize even after 20 years...

4. Super Mario Bros! LOL...

There are a lot more but it's not viable to list all of them here. Like Breakout, Tetris, Space Invaders... all the games that we grew up with. It's a totally different feeling to be playing them again after almost 2 decades.

No doubt the graphics have grown completely outdated, and there've been countless games that have replaced them. But those classic games will always hold a special place in my heart, because they're the first of all games I've played. They're the beginning~ The origin of so many great games.

It's great to relive your childhood~