tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71564460749915533452024-03-14T13:58:29.254+08:00Shadow PimpernelMy thoughts, my voice and my heart shall bloom in this sanctuary of the soul, rescued from my reality that had created them.Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.comBlogger149125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-31365635450432055702009-03-18T09:59:00.000+08:002009-03-18T10:00:05.754+08:00Crashing Akademi Fantasia (TV Game)To the truth, I've never watched one of Astro TV's premier shows in the region, Akademi Fantasia, mainly due to my lustful intimacy with my computer rather than my TV (take note however, I am now two-timing my computer with my cellphone, which probably explains why they never want to communicate peacefully via UBS cable anymore).<br /><br />But last Friday was one of the hectic-est (can I patent this word?) day for the last 2 months and a half I've ever been in MyGO. Reason pertaining was that completing the new AF game was of the utmost priority, so that Astro can make the most standard-telco-rates-apply money while the momentum is running strong. <br /><br />I can't really show you the full game we were crash testing, mainly because it's not fully completed yet at time of writing. Furthermore, I'm too cheap to hire a lawyer in case Boss Bun turns against me and sue for infringement of privacy, breach of contract, etcetera-etcetera. Now that I think about it, his attention span of two minutes would make court proceedings slightly difficult.<br /><br />So I can only afford this secret cellphone snappy.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/9764/afnewgame.jpg"><img src="http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/3381/afnewgamesmall.jpg"></a><br /><b>Everybody! Stop working and start playing. That's your boss's order! Now!</b></center><br /><br />If you're an avid TV SMS gamer or just curious to know how game developers do beta-testing, read on at your pleasure. It was something new for me too.<br /><br />When a system is done, head programmer (Supervisor-Christy) needs all hands on deck to abuse the game to the max. Once in the company's server, the main programmer of the game, in this case is green-jacket-guy Usuff, starts the countdown to tell the system how long it should run. <br /><br />Meanwhile, anybody who's glued to a PC has to access this dummy site that simulates a cellphone SMS system (but without the standard-telco-rates-apply) which connects directly to the test server. Since it was a dummy site, most staff of MyGO opened two or three of them, since the game system was designed to accommodate a Mongol horde.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/3104/afnewgame02.jpg"><img src="http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/505/afnewgame02small.jpg"></a><br /><b>Dummy SMS site. This image was blurry on purpose but I'm guessing you get the idea.</b></center><br /><br />The plan was to hit the AF game system with an overload of players, real-time scenario, so we can check for any bugs, failures or even sudden stalling of the whole thing, which Astro company most definitely don't want that (we work hard so you play hard, hehehe). This is what the cyber-universe community calls a crash-test.<br /><br />Once the countdown started running, it was like provoking a pack of hell-hounds. Everybody had only 20 minutes to get the highest score possible and with no minimum charge, who the hell wants to be skipping out of the <i>Numero Uno</i> battle, even a mock-up was it was?<br /><br />Not all the participating 8 staffs of building 2A, Jalan Wan Kadir 1, that's for sure. The greatest reward is in the play.<br /><br />It was a lot of fun, being the very first players of a very brand new game based on a popular reality show. Especially since it was a shooter style game and pretty easy to catch on. Once the 20 minutes was up, I managed a respectable 6th place (but about 200 points behind the 5th, bleh). <br /><br />Our top game designer Kenny, master gamer as he always have been, gathered 600+ point on the top. If this was a real TV SMS game, he would have spend over RM20 but since it was a mock-up, I'm sure he enjoyed his rich, dark, very sweet, one <i>gula-gula</i> Hacks prize.<br /><br />Again, the best reward is all in the play (Head programmer Christy was too cheap-lar~...).<br /><img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif"><br /><br />As for the AF game system, it survived our abuse and had kept its smooth run. After a bit of tweaking and a list of credits, it'll be ready for Astro TV's Channel @ 15 soon enough.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/2077/afnewgame03.jpg"><img src="http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/3653/afnewgame03small.jpg"></a><br /><b>Later that afternoon, Boss Bun gave a minor party to everybody to celebrate MyGO's stability.</b></center>Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com92tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-1399709563025459622009-03-10T09:19:00.001+08:002009-03-10T09:24:49.686+08:00Losing Internet, Now Asking For (Greedy) BroadbandTo sum up my week, it was one of those blazing hot Malaysian days where private companies everywhere in Kuala Lumpur put their air-conditioners to minus-bajillion degrees Celsius, making caffeine-powered morning cups form ice cubes by themselves or said drinker becomes an iceberg, whichever freezes first. Indoor plants at the window seat are confused; blooming spring flowers on one branch and growing winter icicles in the other. <br /><br />But I’m not here to talk about work. As much as I love my neighbour’s router, my conscience is creeping up on me about getting my own internet service provider so I can surf at my own time and discretion (not that I’m planning any online in-discretion anyway, midnight or daylight). After all, there’s only so much waiting and hoping and limited deep-fried crinkle-cut potatoes to keep me company during the waiting and hoping.<br /><br />Pushing aside my inner-Jiminy Cricket, two factors against me were the more obvious reasons to get an ISP, pronto. Motherly gossip from the Surau Aunties speaks that my neighbour’s son is having major exams this year so there’s no more mindless surfing in the late nights anymore (thus ends one similarity between us, kiddo). So his unsecured router is off on most days of the week and as a result, I’m having Internet withdrawal symptoms. <br /><br /><b>Internet withdrawal</b>: <i>A pathetic state of mind which an Internet addict goes through when he/she is deprived of all the virtual conveniences of online gaming, surfing, googling/wiki-ing, etc. Symptoms vary from addict to addict but common signs include pacing mindlessly, excessive consumption of unhealthy beverages, blogging, drooling while sleeping, annoying little nephews, blogging, counting ticks in an hour, memorizing the entire works of Tennyson’s, excessive hot showers, blogging…</i><br /><br />In between scarping my face off the bedroom carpet and text-messaging CASH to triple-three-double-nine (when the Fly.FM radio says cue to call), my dear, beloved older brother Abang Arsenal called me by my cellphone for the first time in an eternity to ask how’s my internship. The out-of-the-blue “Hello Liza!” was quickly explained when he requested than he wanted his laptop back by the end of April. <br /><br /><i>What da f---??!!</i><br /><br />My baby toy who I have come to depend on during neighbor’s router and McDonald’s food trips turns out to have been misunderstood about the terms after the adoption and now original parent wants it back. I thought it was a gift. Abang Arsenal thought it was a loan. Since that he’s the man who bought the Acer notebook, I have to concise it as a loan. <br /><br />To concise it further, this means my internet capability will be reduced to utter null after my internship (I had hoped to make regular trips to school before convocation to enjoy school’s wireless). That’s hell on my not-so-new online mmorpg, <i>Celestial Destroyer</i>. I’ve already joined an in-game family and an elite guild, with the emphasis on nighttime play. <br /><br />They’re all really nice but most of the active players are Singaporeans. Gamers, go figure... (hehehehehehe!)<br /><br />So! Leaving me with my long-time friend, HP Pavilion PC in the house, I sing to the tune of the primary school kid’s musical team-picking song; <i>“Which-broadband-is-the-greedy-broadband~? Please-go-out-and-buy-your-greedy-broadband~... So-greeddiiiiiiiiie~... Sent-for-<b>OUT!</b>”</i> (The song is which-shoe-is-the-dirty-shoe, in case my generation gap is at fault to your confusion).<br /><br />Said greedy broadbands in question on my mind are big-shots Maxis, Digi and Celcom. In case you’re wondering, Telekom’s Streamyx can’t afford me because I’m too cool to reconstruct my faulty previous home renovation blunder to install a fixed line.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.celcom.com.my/cep/xresources/CelcomCORP/index.html"><img src="http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/5813/celcom01.png"></a><br /><b>Current name on cellphone chip.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.digi.com.my/data_services/gprs/datagprs_mb_overview.do"><img src="http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/2343/digi01.png"></a><br /><b>Been considering for a while.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.maxis.com.my/personal/broadband/broadband_main_new.asp"><img src="http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/782/maxis01.png"></a><br /><b>Familial recommendation.</b></center><br /><br />I’m looking for an unlimited broadband on a monthly basis, particularly downloading the upgrades on various softwares I use for work and play, maximum under RM1000 installation fee and hopefully not-so-big penalty fee after I decide to hate the service. After I do more research on these three, I’ll post an update. In the meantime, I do appreciate if you could throw all your ISP frustrations at me so I know what kind of trouble I’m asking for. <br /><br /><i>So-greeddiiiiiiiiie~...</i>Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-33918873625697344082009-03-10T09:09:00.000+08:002009-03-10T09:18:40.527+08:00Games Review: World of Goo (Like Playing With Old Aunties)Blogging, like the facts of life, is an attribute of a person that grows with the person as the person grows up, though facts of life are much less embarrassing to discover as your interviewee did more research on your background on the internet. Especially after your promising interview with said company. <br /><br />Not that I have any horror interview stories to share (an interesting blog topic nonetheless) but a fact of my life that I’ve discovered while -trying to- growing up is being acquainted with a gaggle of old geese (to put it lightly) which I have mentioned around the blog messages as the Surau Aunties. <br /><br />For multicultural readers, a surau is a religious Muslim building too small to be a registered centre, too exclusive to include large memberships and too unofficial to pay taxes to the government. Kind of like private banks in United States, only without the current economic recession and the CEOs don’t disappear in private jets (surau members fly AirAsia, which is far easier to track them down as AirAsia’s flights aren’t that timely anyway).<br /><br />Surau Aunties don’t exist back in the pre-2008 Aidilfitri mainly because the said Surau (capital-S) I’m affiliated with wasn’t big enough to contain all their hot air, risking explosion. Now that the Surau had installed air-conditioning, every lady with pre- or pretend-menopause within a 30 kilometer radius flocked into the crescent-topped white cube to enjoy its climate control and exchange recipes, gossip and recipes for gossip.<br /><br />So before we deviate from the blog title, what does Surau Aunties have anything to do with the game I’m writing about? A lot of similarities.<br /><br />Oh God (pun intended), a whole lot of similarities.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/5818/72965636.png"><img src="http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/5214/01small.png"></a><br /><b>World of Goo.</b></center><br /><br />This simulation game was a smash hit when it came out sometime ago due to its simplicity of interface and yet the complexity of the gameplay, both adding up to a funny storyline into a whole lot of fun. Now if you know me, as I’ve yet to figure that out who is myself yet, I’m more of an rpg-fantasy-reader with dungeons and dragons around every corner, the 3D the better, especially when you beat a monster to crap. <br /><br />Naturally, I didn’t thought of reviewing said game, especially since I couldn’t find the *ahem* full version to download. But LM, the youngest intern in where I work, took a short break from his Devil May Cry 4 to play something less devil, more squeaking than crying and a whole lot of numbers multiplied by 4. <br /><br />So when the screams of death were suddenly replaced by sounds effects that can only be defined as ‘cute’, I had to check and see if LM had fallen sick and was playing a girly game. Far from the truth, World of Goo is a very tasking operation.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3136/14362851.png"><img src="http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/377/05small.png"></a><br /><b>Playing with their balls.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/8046/28603745.png"><img src="http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/1238/06small.png"></a><br /><b>Launch them gooey balls.</b></center><br /><br />Designers from 2D Boy games had come up with a unique and refreshing game that brings in a lot of physics into play. The goal is straight-forward enough; link a chain of balls from a limited number of goo to become a stable structure and get close enough to the suction pipe for the rest of the goo balls to disappear to. <br /><br />Infected with its cuteness, I downloaded a demo version to give it a try. Soon enough, I was building massive structures of web-linked goos, all trying to go against gravity in pursuing the elusive suction pipe on the other end. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/9430/49656285.png"><img src="http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/4265/08small.png"></a><br /><b>All goos are naturally attracted to the tunnel at the end of the light.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/4955/77476809.png"><img src="http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/746/07small.png"></a><br /><b>If your structure is weak, it’ll collapse into pieces.</b></center><br /><br />Here are no fight quests or boss monsters; your greatest enemy is gravity and wayward goos. There’s more to it than just building towers. There are also bridges across ravines and getting out of tight spots inside tumbling boxes and chambers. Every goo counts as most of the goos can’t be detached once they become the structure, only that good calculating (and occasionally, good timing!) can get the rest of the goos up toward the suction pipe.<br /><br />And just like designing a building, the taller you get, the stronger the winds, making your goo tower sway and rock, ever risking massive deconstruction damage. I often had to click Retry or use up a lot of Time-Bugs (to reverse a move) even after only 3 minutes into the game due to bad calculations. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/9158/96189908.png"><img src="http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/615/03small.png"></a><br /><b>Why some goo balls are detachable.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/4339/55543417.png"><img src="http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6501/04small.png"></a><br /><b>Extra goo balls receive new benefits.</b></center><br /><br />Hilarious. It is important that every goo ball’s mission is to serve the World of Goo Corporation for the advancements of goo balls everywhere. So innuendos and expressions and even references to real world irony are present in every chapter, like offshore resources, cosmetic surgery, politics and caffeinated beverages (in no particular order).<br /><br />Again, reminds us all how very cute human nature can be as lumps of goo. (hehehehehehe!).<br /><br />Which brings us back to how much playing World of Goo drew similarities between me being with my Surau Aunties and playing with an ever-moving force of miniature proportions poking fun in the form of jumping, squeaky, squiggly, yipping goo, that in all heart, each trying to fit itself into a purpose for something bigger and sturdier.<br /><br />Like a mass of goo, all my Surau Aunties look alike and I can never tell then apart.<br />Like a mass of goo, all my Surau Aunties squeak in high-pitched sound effects that I don’t understand but smile anyway.<br />Like a mass of goo, all my Surau Aunties think they’re more delicious than the other.<br />Like a mass of goo, all my Surau Aunties are hard to detach once they stick to you or got stuck to another Surau Auntie.<br />And like a mass of goo I’ve been playing with, all my Surau Aunties are best at picking up when you’re down.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/9357/80112608.png"><img src="http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/727/02small.png"></a><br /><b>During festive holidays, Surau Aunties come in storms.</b></center><br /><br /><b>PS</b>: Downloads for this demo can be found at <a href="http://www.worldofgoo.com/dl2.php?lk=demo">2D Boy's World of Goo Site</a>. <br /><b>PPS</b>: Coincidently, if you can’t enjoy the full version of the game, you can still enjoy the play-by-play YouTube commentary by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Shini1984&view=videos">Gamer Shini1984</a> about the full version of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_grEN-BFP0&feature=channel_page">World of Goo</a> (warning, use of excessive language. I mean, duuuuuh~...).Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-36191883871560384462009-03-02T11:02:00.000+08:002009-03-02T11:05:15.034+08:00My Pretty Face of Berita Harian... Sort-of.A few weeks ago, sometime before Tour de Langkawi caused a massive traffic jam between LDP and Taman Tun Dr. Ismail's residential roads, a couple of nosy reporters armed with a camera invaded the space where I'm undergoing my internship. Predictably, they were interviewing the said company, a games development with a contract with Astro TV and Blue Hyppo for as long as cellphone TV-games had been around Malaysia.<br /><br />Well, I'm not too big on reporters, even though I had aspired to join their club back when my Bahasa Melayu was better than my English (and reporting job was less dirty back then too). But when Berita Harian finally printed the centerfold story (coloured too~!), the interns' picture had more or less reminded me the nature of my position in this shoe box.<br /><br />I know I hardly put the full picture of my face in this blog for reasons of security, but in the one area I would have been happy to smile for the camera was *ahem*ahem* blocked by Bun's arm. Awww damn-it, I'm the intern programmer in between the 3 graphics guys. I'm the REAL game builder!<br />... <img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif"> ...<br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.bharian.com.my/Current_News/BH/Monday/Ekonomi/20090302092552/Article/index_html"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/mainpix1.jpg"></a><br /><b>Picture I 'borrowed' from <a href="http://www.bharian.com.my/Current_News/BH/Monday/Ekonomi/20090302092552/Article/index_html">Berita Harian: Ekonomi</a>.</b></center><br /><br />The picture is dated Monday, second of Match 2009 (today!). Haha, but for the laughs, that's the nature of many work environments. The joy is better in the job itself than the distraction that follows it, which in this case, a photographer who could have shown that girls can be game developers too.<br /><br />Anyways, let me introduce you to my fellow interns. The boss in the coffee-chocolate shirt is Boss Bun himself. Bun is not his real name, naturally, but it was a nickname way back in university in United Kingdom. So everyone in the company calls him Bun. And yes, he's as big a gamer as the rest of us (occasionally helps with the music score on his guitar, so I've heard, hehehehe...).<br /><br />Intern in far right is 3D artist no. 1, Zubs. Zubs is part of his real name but most folks around here call him Zubs (again, my secretive blogging nature, *squeak!*). Picture in his computer monitor is the texturing he's working, on a 3D model of a pot/vase/barrel/some other object, depending on his range of attention. He's one of the two older interns, fellows from the previous batch who came in the company a month early than me and Dinnie.<br /><br />The Chinese guy in the red shirt squirming under Boss Bun's hovering presence is LM, another 3D artist. He's the youngest intern and most inexperienced. But oh-my-God he plays Devil May Cry 4 like it had been designed for him. Everyday, not a noon-hour goes by without a hacking-and-slashing hell-monsters with great sound effects. <br /><br />See the pretty blue laptop, half-closed? Probably to hide his Dante-inaction (hehehehe!). LM's the only non-university intern. He's only here for a short job while wating for his SPM results. <br /><br />Then there's me, sitting next to LM, just behind Boos Bun's arm/ You can't see my face but yes, I'm the girl with white headscarf and red shirt, covered by a coffee-chocolate sleeved arm. There's no pretty graphics on my monitor, even if you could have seen it. As programmer, I command piles of codes and written in a sequential order. And according to a chart my Supervisor-Nizam had on his cubicle (wow, a freaking dreaded box!), programmers are at the bottom of the developers' chain.<br /><br />Nice... as an intern programmer, no wonder I'm invisible.<br /><br />For the short of the blog message, the other 2 interns are another 3D artist, Dinnie, and a games designer, Nadia. Dinnie is the guy sitting on my right (you can see his head in a profile in the photo) and he came in at the same time I did. Dinnie is the 3rd 3D artist and is buddies with Zubs, coming from the same university and all. <br /><br />The lady-not-in-the-picture is the only other female intern than myself, named Nadia. She's also from the previous batch as Zubs, specialty in game designing. Her table is somewhat on the wall facing the cameraman so she's completely covered by Boss Bun (Boss Bun was never a small guy or liked sitting small, I noticed). Like LM, she brings her own laptop to work, a powerful Acer which I totally envied.<br /><br />There you go, the people of my station who I work with. The environment is great, as long as you understand that pizza and fizzy drinks are the main source of fuel in the company. Maybe if I stay a little longer than my internship, I'll finally get a real photo capture someday *winks*.Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-23177184733538569652009-02-26T11:49:00.004+08:002009-02-27T11:00:58.647+08:00Full Games Review: Celestial Destroyer Online (3D MMORPG)<center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/logo-CD.jpg"><br /><b><a href="http://zx.cubizone.com/eng/">Celestial Destroyer Online</a></b><br /><b>Developers:</b> Beijing Perfect World Co, Ltd.<br /><b>Publisher (MY):</b> Cubinet Interactive</center><br /><br /><b>Introduction:</b><br />The original 3D MMORPG was a Chinese version called Zhu Xian and was made by developers Beijing Perfect World Co., Ltd. Recently, two versions of the game have been released in South East Asia; one in the Philippines and the other in a Malaysian server under Cubinet Interactive.<br />It is a free-to-play online game that is currently in an open beta version since January 2009. The game had been distributed online through various file-hosting servers and publicized in miscellaneous banner advertisements in game based websites. Free DVDs are also distributed throughout selected retail software outlets around Malaysia. <br />Celestial Destroyer Online’s story is based on a well-received online Chinese fantasy novel. Players are immersed in the land of ancient China that is filled in mystic and mythology, overrun by evil monsters, to investigate the outcome of the novel’s three main heroes; Zhang Xiaofan the betrayer, Lu Xueqi the heartbroken and Bi Yao, the daughter of a heretic clan.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/CD_slyriver01-1.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/CD_slyriver01-small.png"></a><br /><b>Stunning visuals of the 3D world.</b></center><br /><br />Like many online games, users are required to register for a user ID before they can create a male or female character to play as. Once entered into the world, players are given some basic weapons and equipments to begin, along with a starting quest that helps players to become familiar with the common essential features like inventory, interactive interfaces and in-game trading. <br />Players progress by completing mission quests and gaining experience points to level up character status. Mobs that are killed occasionally drop treasure items, which players could sell or use to craft special equipments. Once a player had reached a certain experience level, a mandatory quest would appear that required players to choose an alliance with one of five different clans in the game world. Each clan differs in strength, spell-casting ability and available magic items. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/GhostLordClan.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/GhostLordClan-small.jpg"></a><br /><b>Male and female characters of the GhostLord Clan.</b></center><br /><br />a) GhostLord Clan; barbarian-type abilities. Strong in defense and melee attack but weak against multiple mob hits.<br />b) GreenCloud Clan; mage-type abilities. Capable of long-range and large area attacks but weak in defense.<br />c) Joyous Clan; assassin-type abilities. Specializing in critical hits and instant kills but consumes excessive energy.<br />d) Skytone Clan; healer-type abilities. The only clan with protection and resurrection skills but not as powerful in melee battles.<br />e) GhostTrail Clan; parasitic-type abilities. Mysterious clan that is unaligned with either the righteous sect or the heretic sect.<br /><br /><b>Features:</b><br />Some of the unique features of CDO set it apart from most of other MMORPG. This includes the pathing system, player-kiling system, skill combinations library and clan contributions. After the clan system, two of the more notable features are the Kozo Amalgamation and the Pet Master system. <br />Kozo is a talisman players can bind their characters with to increase personal statistics and posses an exceptional skill. With constant use, Kozos can be upgraded to higher levels or players can combine two Kozos to melt into one to produce new and unique skills. The latter process could also possibly create an entirely new, stronger Kozo. <br />Most Kozos are available based on choice of clan. Kozos float around the player's in-game character and this enables other players identify the character's clan; Skytone clan's Kozo is bright pink while Joyous clan's Kozo is shaped like two little bells. Completing certain high-level quests would be rewarded with rare and unique Kozos. Players are encouraged to experiment with Kozo combinations to find best attributes to suit gaming style. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/CD_skytone01-1.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/CD_skytone01-small.png"></a><br /><b>A Skytone Kozo, the Rebirth Bead, and its skill in action.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/kozo-dice.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/kozo-dice-small.png"></a><br /><b>A GM with custom Celestial Dice Kozo floating on his left shoulder.</b></center><br /><br />Another yet to be implemented is the Pet Master system. It is the bearing and training of magical creatures that players can choose as combat assistants in the mob field or city war. Like Kozos, Pets are bounded to a player’s character, can be raised to become stronger and learn special skills. There are many equipments that can be discovered which are only for Pet use. Pets can also be ‘sacrificed’ momentarily to empower the player's fighting capabilities.<br />There are many types of Pets to choose based on player’s experience and preferences. Certain quests and items can only be unlocked with possession of a Pet.<br />As the English version is still in its open beta version, features that have yet to be implemented but are promised are the following quest chapters for level 90, World Aviation, advance Kozo for GhostTrail clan and other versions of animal mounts.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/boarv33fo1.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/boardisplay01jg3-small.jpg"></a><br /><b>Pig Pet. Click to see evolved version.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/tree3qb3.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/tree1ii2-small.jpg"></a><br /><b>Tree Pet. Click to see evolved version.</b></center><br /><br /><b>Content:</b><br />As the game was based on an existing novel, there is a large variety of dialog, quests and miscellaneous monsters players will encounter. So far in the open beta, there are six or eight types of monsters on each map field, not including boss spawns. The game server handles up to 15 channels at a time so players can disperse around and play selectively without crowding the mob field.<br />As players progress by completing the main quests, they also unlock many side quests, mostly to achieve treasure rewards or large experience points as players discover more and more details of the fantasy world. There are also unique side quests that occur periodically and repeatedly at certain real time hours and only on selected channels, such as fishing competitions, poetry-hunting, group missions and boss-spawning. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/untitl10.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/untitl10-small.jpg"></a><br /><b>Quest box to help you keep track.</b></center><br /><br /><b>Gameplay:</b><br />A lot of the interactivity and playability is basic point and click with customizable keyboard commands and are not hard to master. As a result, the solo quests are mostly repetitive and quick to complete. Certain enhancements to the individual gameplay includes skill combinations library, which players can activate a customized pattern of skills of self-buff or party-buff and trigger a sequence of strategic attacks towards a potentially risky mob.<br />A lot of the game’s capabilities are mainly to encourage large multiplayer groups, such as items trading, duel tournaments, party level-grinding, family alliances, guild wars and even in-game marriages. Players made full use of the world chat to offer item crafting, selling empowered equipments or request to form parties for missions.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/1203559511664ew6.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/1203559511664ew6-small.jpg"></a><br /><b>GreenCloud sword skills in action.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/1184556649497jm0.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/1184556649497jm0-small.jpg"></a><br /><b>GhostLord powerful attacks in action.</b></center><br /><br /><b>Visuals:</b><br />One of the best aspects immediately noted in the game are the 3D visualization and detailed graphics. Most of the terrain is based on the natural environment; the garden-like SlyRiver town, the hilly forests of GreenCloud map, the wide plains of Skytone field and etc. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/1185949601399hh0.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/1185949601399hh0-small.png"></a> <br /><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/1207623304099dm8.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/1207623304099dm8-SMALL.jpg"></a> <br /><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/1215746294408zv6.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/1215746294408zv6-small.jpg"></a><br /><b>Click the Thumbnails to see bigger picture.</b></center><br /><br />There is a large skill tree system in CDO and each spell skill also posses its own animation effect sequence befitting the player’s choice of character; GhostLord clan’s powerful spell-casting causes the ground to shake while some spells of the GreenCloud clan exudes swarms of sword-shaped auras during battle.<br />Another feature of the game that is visually attentive is the large variety of animal mounts that players can purchase. Riding mounts give users an advantage to their in-game mobility and character customization. Mounts can be ridden by two characters at a time.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/CD_slyriver02-1.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/CD_slyriver02-small.png"></a><br /><b>Two currently available mounts.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/fish03mm0.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/fish03mm0-small.jpg"></a> <br /><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/hu03jo7.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/hu03jo7-small.jpg"></a> <br /><b>More mounts than just these are yet to come.</b></center><br /><br /><b>Sound and Music:</b><br />Much of the music used in the game are based on oriental instruments, such as flutes, chimes and strings, to give a very eastern feel, and the scores are mostly as long as two minutes apiece. Though the arrangement appears to be pre-set and unchanged, each maps of the game world had its own music score inserted periodically so players can be more immersed into the theme of the environment as they travel across the game world.<br />Sound effects are mostly kept at a typical package. Other than running water, combat attacks and monster cries, there are no other specific market town atmosphere or terrain-echo footsteps like in other MMOG. Both sound and music volumes are adjustable in game settings.<br /><br /><b>Overall pros and cons:</b><br />-Visually stunning environment and dynamic animations. Easy to level-up characters and master the controls. Lots of interesting new features. Multiplayer-friendly gameplay capabilities.<br />-Still in open beta version, many of the better features are still locked or unavailable. Quests tends to get repetitive. Some dialogs have not yet been translated and are still written in Chinese; this confuses many international players. Although it is free to play, certain in-game items can be purchased with real currency to Cubinet Interactive or by converting it into in-game currency, depending on the ever-changingexchange rate. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/boss_3ty_1b.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/boss_3ty_1b-small.jpg"></a> <br /><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/boss_7wf_3b.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/boss_7wf_3b-small.jpg"></a> <br /><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/boss_5sz_3b.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/boss_5sz_3b-small.jpg"></a><br /><b>Jusr few of the Boss Monsters you'll encounter.</b></center>Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com73tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-41463985190129507782009-02-02T12:12:00.001+08:002009-02-02T12:14:21.275+08:00Love Thy Neighbour's RouterWhat I had always wanted for a long time was a kick-ass 3D capable portable computer with wireless processing so fast, it's only legal in a small group of selected WiFi restaurants (because it puts other users to shame... boo-hoo...). <br /><br />See my new toy?<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/laptop01-small.jpg"><br /><b>Smooth, silent keys...</b></center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/laptop02-small.jpg"><br /><b>Somewhere I belong...</b></center><br /><br />It's my Acer Aspire. Though the specs were pretty mediocre as compared to my PC, the wireless modem, which is my most pressing need, is damn fast. And the webcam's icing on the cake.<br /><br />Rejoice. There <em>is</em> a God.<br /><br />My new sweetheart is second-hand, courtesy of older brotherly love (of which, the administrator-pic is still a football avatar) even though I had planned to pay him at least RM$800 for it when I heard he was selling. Reason pertaining for getting it as a freebie (a <em>very</em> good freebie) is that I suspect Mak had convinced him of an old story *cough* <em>pinjaman</em> Pity-Pity-Aunt *cough* [/pun].<br /><br />But like a Ferarri lost in Tioman Island, no highway means no go. <br /><br />So as blog topic hinted, I'm hanging on to my neighbour's very nice and very fast connection and never telling them about it too.<br /><br />Oh, come one. Which do I ask? Neighboour Auntie-J or Neighbour Pak Guga? I suspected the latter since our houses share a wall. It started sometime back when MySis brought along her laptop to my house to do some work; she also brought along Oversized-BabyNabil (maybe in case she got bored and decided to chase after a diaper). <br /><br />She didn't expect to suddenly discover an unsecured network in the middle of the living room and neither did we (then again, our laptop is a a year 2001 paperweight). <br /><br />So ever since, though Prolink exists only as a name in the laptop's network device, it is always a very good friend of ours. Heck, nobody had paid a cent. Of course, availability is subjected to the will of the neighbour whose got the control (weekend nights are the longest online time) and if he/she suspected anything, which as unsecured networks go, neither had mentioned anything back in the last Hari Raya Open House.<br /><br />Back then, it's only MySis's laptop that detects the signal. Now that there's a working machine with permanent residence in the house, obviously the whole family wants to dig in my Mozilla Firefox (though, without a USB Mouse, being touch-pad illiterate as they all are, I still rule... muahahahaha...). Mak wants Asian Food Channel, Ayah's checking on his new friends in Albania and Lil' Bro... being Lil' Bro, he just wants to register courses for school (Mr. No-Imagination).<br /><br />Call it a guilt in the gut, but I do wonder if it's really okay to hog on my neighbour's router? I mean, they worked and paid to get the connection speed they asked for and here's me tagging on their bandwidth. Like a pedestrian with his bum on the wide bumper behind the bus, hogging free rides around town.<br /><br />I can't be the only gal on the block who turns on their laptop for free ride. So I wonder, are there a lot of readers out there who enjoys their neighbour's signal as much as the neighbour does but never saying anything about it?<br /><br />I know I do. I mean, I could say it's for work but I do more work at workplace than at home (also, I plan to super-upgrade its memory once I get more money). At home, whenever the signal's on, gaming instincts just takes over.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/laptop03.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/laptop03-small.jpg"></a><br /><b>Love thy healing bubble...</b></center>Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com276tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-3735392786312170812009-01-22T09:12:00.000+08:002009-01-22T09:22:21.025+08:00First Paycheck is Like First Sex... Need HelpWooooooow... Chinese New Year comes early-la for me! Yahooooooo...!<br /><br />I don't care if you think I'm making a fuss over something as common as this for the average ordinary citizen, but for hell, there's only a few handfuls of 'first time's in your life (like first word or first civil arrest) so I really got to plan how to spend this memorably. <br /><br />Especially being that it’s the first hard-earned cash I’ve been given that didn’t come straight out of a wallet <em>*cough*</em> Ayah <em>*cough*</em>, I just thought I’ll photograph it for memory’s sake (and to remind myself how damn cheap these people are, even for an intern).<br /><br />The amount is only about RM$455 though. But as compared to my previous choices to work at, I’m still better off, I think. Companies with exposure to trouble-shooting, customer service and networking. Actually, I hate networking but I picked it out because that way, I build character (Character = Grumpy). Most internship jobs fluctuates between RM$200-RM$600 I’ve heard, but I didn’t do much research on that part though. I was more interested in a fast graduation and formally call myself a graduate.<br /><br />Oh crap that. Please excuse me while I do money-check-porn.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/8356/firstmoneyyd8.jpg"><img src="http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/4727/firstmoneysmallnk3.jpg"></a><br /><b>I have MONEY! I freaking have money that’s mine! Mine, mine, mine, myyyyyyyiiine! All <em>mine</em>!!</b></center><br /><br />Okay, I confess. I already know how to spend a bit of it already.<br /><br />It's a trip to Majlis Bandaran Petaling Jaya. <br /><br />To pay my parking fine. <br /><br />Yeah, talk about a deflating orgasm. <img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif"><br /><br />Hey, why don’t YOU try to find a parking space around TTDI on every freaking weekday morning. Previously, I had resorted to get myself parking at the residential area near the Damansara Specialist Hospital. Unlucky me, it came the day when the men-in-uniform left me a pricey love note on my windshield. Of course I didn’t tell my dad. He had the bad habit of blowing things out of proportions when it comes to money (my first money, what's more). <br /><br /><center><a href="http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/310/mygrogroupoldwx8.jpg"><img src="http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/9516/mygrogroupoldsmalleb5.jpg"></a><br /><b>The office party at MYGO. These were the leaving interns posing with the 2 bosses.</b></center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/5461/ccmmonsterew1.png"><br /><b>The project I had worked on is so top secret, even one of the major characters is not allowed to be seen in the intro screen <em>*laughs*</em>.</b></center><br /><br />Still, the resulting three hundred bucks is nothing to sneeze at. But now I’m at a bind. As I had been living the beggar-student life, I have completely no idea what to do with the extra cash (I don’t pay taxes yet). <br />-I already got new shoes <br />-And a second-hand laptop <br />-My current favourite game is a free-to-play (heh...)<br />-I haven’t read my hefty new novel yet; <em>Twilight</em><br /><br />All that’s left is to eat something different. Maybe I’ll try <em>Wendy’s</em> at Giant Kota Damansara. Blearg, put it at the bank until further ideas. Or the next paycheck (hehehe!). <br /><br />MySis and Abang Arsenal told me how lucky I was since they weren’t being paid for anything during their internship (both had internships close to their universities). Then again, my older siblings and I had a wide age gap between us so times must have changed since then. <br /><br />It did got me wondering about other people’s internship jobs, particularly since it’s so interesting that nowadays, you can actually get paid to learn a real hands-on-skill, whereas back then, interns doing a good job is its own reward. Based on the current situation, how much do interns of today actually get paid? <br /><br />Can anybody tell me about their first jobs? And what to do special with the first paycheck?Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-5783706600289153462009-01-20T13:03:00.002+08:002009-01-20T13:08:36.143+08:00Things That Had Happened Since...Just for the habit of updating, here are some of the stuff that I've been through since I stopped for a while. These events were in order between the months of April 2008 to January 2009. It's kind of a lot to squeeze into one blog entry but I'm going to try to put them in chronological order.<br /><br />Well, obviously my cousin Cammy* got married. Apparently, she and Mr. Groom (a USJ guy) met at university in England and had a whirlwind romance. Though they were both still learning, they opted to get married straight away (no engagement period, holy-F, slow down girl). I suspected it's a genetic thing since her mom (my aunt) got married at age 18!<br /><br />Baby Nephew No. 2 came into the world in late May. Thus, from now on, BabyNabil will be nicknamed as BratNabil and second baby shall be refered to as BabyNasar. Hahaha, MySis wanted the boys in her family to have their names start with the letter 'N' and any girls born shall have 'H' names. Reason pertaining is hinted at the said parents' own names. Heh, go figure.<br /><br />Oh and her husband's youngest sister is getting married too. Unlike my cousin, she choose a period of engagement and the part was just recently last December. AbangHuzir's sister was my schoolmate back at primary-to-secondary school, one of the cool-crowd gals, so we don't really meet face-to-face. I'm mentioning it that since I'm confirming to myself that I'm now at the stage in life were women should be tied to a man by her ring finger or else she's considered strange without one.<br /><br /><em>*Sighs...*</em> I'll worry about that one later. Luckily, with an intern job in my pocket, I'm excused from the comments, even though it won't stop the Surau-Aunties from poking he over their gates (Surau-Aunties are far nosier and scarier than Family-Aunties, eeep!).<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/3650/trip2mdecld6.jpg"><img src="http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/497/trip2mdecsmallgq0.jpg"></a><br /><b><i>I was at MdeC, btw. Took a look around in some of the best animators and programmers in the country... that are still residing in the country, of course. I still hope to work in here someday. I'm pretty obvious in one of the pics, hahaha...</i></b></center><br /><br />Do I like my job so far? At the moment, it's 50-50 since it's still all new to me. And the thing I thought I missed, namely the back and shoulders pain from sitting around for so long, well, I still don't miss that (hadn't had that kind of pain since the beginning of university). And I'm missing it even less right now as I type this, aaaarrrgggghhh!!<br /><br /><em>*Stops to stretch*</em> I'm getting pretty okay with the 2 systems they want me to get familiar with. One is a 3D SMS game with you play on TV to control your character. The other is for a super-massive 3D MMORPG project based on the early mythology of Langkasuka. I've read the tech book and the spoiler book and was impressed all the way. <br /><br />At the moment my bosses/mentors (wow, I have 2 of them!), Kristie and E-Rick (the later being that I never seem to find him offline during breaks) are getting me to work on the engine system and get used to building the world before they assign me to any map-building or level-coding. It's almost as similar as my RPGMaker 2003, except that it's in 3D (3D, PEOPLE, I'M WORKING WITH 3D!!), so I'm pretty excited (woohoo!).<br /><br />MySis had started out intern as a programmer too but now she's mostly in areas of trouble shooting, I think. In fact, my mom was a system analyst back when computers still came with punch-cards, 16-bits monitors and binary coding. So needless to say, computer's in my blood. Mak had built some of the country's first programs, MySis helps others how to make it better while I'm making programs that makes people useless.<br /><br />In conclusion, yes, I like my job (muahahahahaaa!!). <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-29488677066581675712009-01-14T10:08:00.002+08:002009-02-27T10:59:45.149+08:00Not-A-Games Review: Celestial Destroyer (3D MMORPG)<b></b><center><b><a href="http://shadow-pimpernel.blogspot.com/2009/02/full-games-review-celestial-destroyer.html">Full Games Review: Celestial Destroyer Online (3D MMORPG)</a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Shadow Pimpernel's longest and most extensive games review yet! I was playing so much at office that my boss made me write a report.</span></b><br /><br />*****</center><br /><br />Other than being able to blog again, having a readily accessible connection to cyberspace that does not include a nanny-firewall (but I still can’t access YouTube though) means that I get to try out neat stuff which I had never tried out before but had always, ALWAYS wanted to and was ashamed to call myself a game enthusiast since I’ve never tried it before.<br /><br />I’m yapping about the great leap from stand-alone system to the client server network... 3D MMORPG.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/logo-CD.jpg" /><br /><b><a href="http://zx.cubizone.com/eng/">Celestial Destroyer</a></b></center><br /><br />I had never played any kind of adventure games on a network before. There were 3 strikes against me; original software, technical capabilities and internet connection. The former is what I can’t afford, the middle is what I can’t afford to have and the latter is what I can’t afford to have all the time.<br /><br />And today, I still don’t have any of the damned 3. But since everyone around me is so generous to be taken advantage of, I finally became a proud member of the worldwide culture that young parents would rather let their babies starve of food than miss out on that “limited-time-only-magic yo-yo with super one-hit kill” (available with assorted power-ups; extra boost against ogres and politicians).<br /><br /><center><a href="http://zx.cubizone.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=169"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/06-CD.png" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://zx.cubizone.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=168"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/07-CD.png" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://zx.cubizone.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=168"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/05-CD.png" /></a><br /><b>Screenies from the main website.</b></center><br /><br />Yeah, it’s obviously the background art and 3D visuals that had captured me. As most 3D RPG goes, this is not as spectacular in the mind of a veteran (and I’ve been many times the cheerleader behind the plastic seats of many cyber-café veterans) but I feel that this game can really stand on its own right.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/02-CD.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/02_small-CD.png" /></a><br /><b>Damn, my character is sexy.</b></center><br /><br />It’s not a games review here, but rather, just showing an excuse what I’m doing when I’m not working on flying camera angles on my own system (more on that later, someday) and when I should be making reading rounds to my old bloggers’ blog. Don’t worry; I’m not an addict (yet). Pretty much, when I play RPG in my stand-alone (like Dungeon Siege 2, waaaaaaaay back), my habit is taking the Grandma’s Guide for Leveling Up RPG Characters (guarantee not to break your hips).<br /><br />After taking the most basic of basic requirement quests, I would look for a low-level monster...<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/01-CD.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/01_small-CD.png" /></a><br /><b>Aww, a butterfly...</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/03-CD.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/03_small-CD.png" /></a><br /><b><em>Go to hell, you F-ing butterfly!!!</em></b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/04-CD.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/04_small-CD.png" /></a><br /><b>Upgrade complete.</b></center><br /><br />And I would probably do this all the way until level 20+ or I succumb to melting pulp to a cheats’ trainer, which ever comes first. Tell ya the truth, I’m freaking scared of quests, any type of quests, especially the boss battles that without a very high-level character, they are usually 999x tougher to kill (but oh, so visually bad-ass). It’s just that I go by the principle that running away and not getting hurt can also be considered a “smart” move (I’m not a hack-and-slash tank machine; I’m a hit-and-run yella-clucking chicken).<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/SkyToneTempleClan.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/SkyToneTempleClan_small.jpg" /></a><br /><b>My dream clan to be in the healers’ category. Cos they’re yellow.</b></center><br /><br />Which, coming back at my old-lady style of beat-‘em-up. At the rate of my play-time hours, about 6 hours a week (hey, I <em>DO</em> work!), I probably hit my I’m-not-scared-anymore target character-level by the end of my internship.<br /><br />Bleeeeah, I’m just exaggerating (hehehe!). Who knows? I might take a bite at a major quest sooner than later. Hey, c’mon! It’s my freaking first online RPG. Although the game can have the players get resurrected in the nearest town after any death situation, there’s not reason to rush what I can experience at my own pace.<br /><br />Thus, why I say this isn’t a games review but rather, just a tit bit of somethin’ that’s related to games since it’s just soooooooo <em>me</em> (this is a blog, remember?).<br /><br /><em>Celestial Destroyer</em> is completely free to download, to install and to play. You can download the English version files (a pretty big 1.15 GBytes) at the <a href="http://zx.cubizone.com/eng/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17">Downloads Page</a> at their main website. The game had just been upgraded to open beta by now and you can still order your free games DVDs until January 19th.<br /><br />If you’re looking for me, I’m usually in the zone, around 9am (GMT+8) for only an hour on weekdays, but more-or-less for 3 hours on Saturday mornings.<br /><br />Just ask for the master ass-whopping butterfly-killer.Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-64902954275154096942009-01-12T09:22:00.001+08:002009-01-12T09:23:42.308+08:00A Wayward Pimpernel... Wannabe Games ProgrammerI’m not going to scream or shout anything big like a set of capitalized word like “I’M BACK!!!” mainly because I’m doing this on my company clock and I aim to stay here after I graduate (for reasons that they have excellent internet connection and at the rate of the recession nowadays, I probably be falling into that clichéd ‘jobless undergraduate’).<br /><br />Wow, so many words under one sentence. I guess my bad habit of talking about myself to myself still hadn’t abated. Then again, what is a blog if you don’t extend excessive bragging rights to the immense void of the World Wide Web? Har, har. Okay, keeping it short and simple (which is really said since I hadn’t updated my secret space for over half a year), my last post speaks of my short break from school.<br /><br />In April.<br /><br /><img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif" /> <img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif" /> <img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif" /> <img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif" /> <img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif" /> <img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif" /> <img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif" /> <img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif" /><br /><br />Not that I’m actually going to feel any better after this since hitting myself maybe seen as sexy in remote parts of Africa, but here in Malaysia, it ain’t mature..<br /><br />I may dust up a few parts around this place, getting rid of those widgets that don’t really mean a thing and fixing both Photobucket and Imageshack profiles. Particularly the lasy bit because one of the main reasons I had to quit was the excessively annoying firewall of my university is that they hate Imageshack and I don’t like to rely too much on Photobucket.<br /><br />As some might remember, I’m a graphics whore and I love to post images I might find from looking around stuff (see sidebar to details). Now that I have a faster internet line that doesn’t require $RM2 an hour, namely company’s PC, I guess this is a chance to redeem myself back into the Community of Self-Bragging.<br /><br />And so where do I start updating about myself? Hmmmm...<br /><br />Well I did say I’m working now. Though it’s just practical training, I hope to stick around here for much longer than the 3 months stipulated. Actually, it’s 4 months by university requirements but at $RM500 a month, I suppose the programme’s budget can only make it so far. It’s not that I love the job too much, I’m just more in love with what I can do.<br /><br />I’m a games programmer. In training.<br /><br />Hahaha, shouldn’t be a surprise there for my former readers, since I make massive games review like an illegal downloader on guilt pills. Really, I wouldn’t have had this opportunity if it weren’t for one of my lecturers who was moderator of my final project, which is entirely a whole other story so more on that later, someday.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8084/mygologoie3.png" /><br /><b><a href="http://www.mygo.com.my/">MYGO Solutions</a></b></center><br /><br />Apparently, there’s <a href="http://kdi.msc.com.my/DisplayProgramme.action;jsessionid=82F84EA5319D8261DCD484013E78D6A6?p=UGRAD">this programme by MDEC</a> trying to make Malaysia a happier place for delinquents and school-skippers by jumping into the internationally and grossly profitable industry that’s 3 times bigger than the movies. By sugar-coating it as ‘<em>I</em>nformation <em>C</em>reative <em>T</em>echnology’, the programme aims to produce ‘knowledge-workers’, aka Cyberjaya minions.<br /><br />These workers should be capable of hypnotizing dead beat working-class citizen into parting their money and their youth to be hooked to a monitor that glows and makes random beeping noises. Often, these unsteady-income individuals would be connected by miles of wires that link human-machine interaction by on sound system and multiple touch-sensitive devices that jack up adrenaline stimulation of their living bodies, just to make sure it’s still living.<br /><br />And every so often, a whole new method would be developed, fresh off the experimental lab, and is inserted into the machine, just to see how the stationary human would react (take note that a loud fart is NOT considered as a sign of life).<br /><br />So what’s the difference between game developers and sleazy doctors who treats institutionalized coma patients? Health insurance, I think.<br /><br />Well, that’s what I wanna be by the end of 3 months. This place is great, really. Closer to home so it takes less petrol consumption for my car to take me here. It’s also got great clients and had managed to stay afloat for a good handful of years. Not to mention a really cool massive project coming out sometime between August and September this year.<br /><br />I’ve just started on the first Monday of 2009 so I can’t report of any real experience yet. Wish me luck, though, as they’ve stressed that they do expect a lot from me. Gotta to end here for now (my boss is haranguing me on MSN messenger), more on this later of what are the changes to my blogging lifestyles later.<br /><br />Oh, one last thing.<br /><br /><center style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);"><span style="font-size:180%;"><b>“I’M BACK!!!”</b></span></center>Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-69620473086986934442008-04-30T12:03:00.002+08:002008-04-30T12:14:59.592+08:00I’m Freeeee!Well, the title says it all. I’m so freaking tired... and the holidays only last until 18th May! Gosh, I’m so damned to do so many things. I’m not confident I did well on one of the exams but I know I passed the project paper and that’s the most important one of all. Yeah, yeah, cross when approaching bridge, I get the proverb.<br /><br />So! What the hell am I going to do? Well, for starters, I guess I better update this here blog then. It’s true that parting makes the heart grow fonder and I’d say that this blog is too pretty to be parted for so long. <br /><br />Damn if I don’t sound like <a href="http://pinksterzisme.blogspot.com">pinksterzisme</a> <em>*bleh!*</em><br /><br />This is due to the instantaneous blog writing I have in my head. I’m practically thinking as I write and thus, nonsensical information ahead, readers beware les my evil Baddie drains your brain too.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif"><br /><br />Okay, there! I’ve exhaled a bit of ranting. Now for the more serious part.<br /><br />Today is Wednesday and so tomorrow, Thursday, will be the first of May. Haha, Labour Day. Makes me wonder if my sister’s inner parasite will decide if his infancy self wants to hatch yet or so. Don’t worry, the guy’s still in pre-birth mode, but the May month will be the final hour of which BabyNabil gets a little brother.<br /><br />The house in Kt. D’sara is being prepped and the hospital route has been planned in case of emergency. Now if only we can get BabyNabil to call himself ‘Abang’...<br /><br />For myself, tomorrow I’ll be at the MPH warehouse sale at Komplex Kelana Jaya. Now that my exams are over, it’s high, high, very HIGH time I get me a new paperback novel. Or a manga. Preferably a manga but I don’t think MHP got the same stuff as Borders. Or if they did, the juicy pickings I wanted are probably been devoured by the members yesterday <em>*hehehe!*</em><br /><br />Anybody going to the MPH warehouse sale tomorrow? Can belanja me makan? Alaa...<br /><br />The second next thingy for me in May in on the 8th of May till the 11th. In my previous entry, I said that I’m applying for a quick job scheme for my school following an International Red Crescent Bazzar coming up in Taman Tasik Titiwangsa. <br /><br />There should be food stalls, game stalls, maybe even a blood donation drive. Haha, takes me back to secondary school (nearly fainted at the sight of needle-into-arm, and that’s just my friend’s arm!). If anybody going to the IRC Bazzar in Taman Tasik Titiwangsa on those days, look out for a girl in a headscarf hanging around the blue-red-grey UNITAR booth. She’s definitely going to try to get you to enroll so be careful of her salesmanship skills!<br /><br />I’ll post pictures about everything soon. Gosh, my head still hurts. I really hope you don’t mind the constant excessive lettering. I’ll try to post a more normal, boring topic once I forget what day is it today. <br /><img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif">Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-89544844455859636782008-04-21T12:38:00.001+08:002008-04-21T12:42:44.671+08:00Blog Rants: I AWOL’d Myself!Hey all! I’m soooo hating myself for leaving you in the dark about my life. Not that I actually have anything interesting working on at the moment (if you call exams as interesting, I’ll give sex if you can get me A+ guarantees, promise!). <br /><br />It’s been a close shave but I got my homework done in time and time will tell how screwed I got myself into. Bah, see? Self-induced reverse psychology. And I don’t even have a license to treat myself. I wonder whom I can sue?<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/1104/evolutionoh4.jpg"><br /><br /><b><em>*cough*<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif"> <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">*cough*</em></b></center><br /><br />Passing over my imaginary selfs (selves? selfes? Damn English grammar), I give you some Post-It-Notes versions of my usually long-winded entries. I thought you guys might like a change of pace from the older entries of a bajillion-words per post, not that I would make this post any shorter. <br /><br />Me has baaaaaaaad habit, torturing you all to read my rants. On really ranty days, Guantanamo Bay prison sends me royalty money. My blog is apparently more torturously boring than Colin Powell’s WMD report on Iraq but not yet reached the painful level of looping repeated inquiries of ‘Are we there yet?’ in whiny child’s voice.<br /><br />I wonder if Malaysian prisons will accept ‘Dah sampai tak?’ loops of me in my whiny kiddie voice?<br /><br /><b>Note01:</b> My exams are on the 25th, 27th, and 30th of this month. Please don’t come in here looking for me unless you want to click my Nuffnang ads or something. I’m taking VR, Multimedia and E-docs. Next semester, I’m taking Project Paper 02 Part 02 (4 credit hours only) even though its not recommended for short semester. That way, I’ll be able to take Industrial Training for the August semester without any other subjects.<br /><br /><b>Note02:</b> Here’s an embarrassing thingy which I thought (believed, hoped, <em>for-freaking-sake-I’m-already-mid-twenties!</em>) I outgrew since <em>Fushigi Yuugi</em> aired on AXN channel; I’m in a fan-girlling phase once again.<br /><br />Damn. Quick, skip everything if you don’t understand or too wise and mature to stand utter nonsense.<br /><br />Well, I’m not going to hide it (since my very first promise to having a blog is that I shall be brutally honest) but I’ve become a <em>shojo</em> (fangirl) to a set of fictional Japanese anime guys (<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif"> bishies galore!). The first time this happened was with <em>Flame of Recca</em> series, then <em>Fushigi Yuugi</em> guys and now it’s the recently showcased on Astro’s Animax, <em>La Corda D’oro: Primo Passo.</em><br /><br /><em>*giggles*</em><br /><br />I’m not going to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiniro_no_Corda">Wikipedia-copy</a> the story of the manga since the info is practically everywhere, but I will say that it’s based on a PS2 game named Kin’iro no Corda and there’s a second game and a second game extra already out.<br /><br />The most recent updates on <em>La Corda D’oro</em> is that a Season 2 for the series is still hanging, the manga is still running but it’s getting very close to the end of the first game’s plot (the two new characters of the second game had been given sneak peeks on the manga) and that I’ve being going back and forth between a <a href="http://souya.livejournal.com/306992.html">fan’s game journal</a> and a <a href="http://forum.my-neoromance.com/index.php?s=3e3654999d03d56d59bab65ba57f9206&showforum=10">big fansite’s forum</a> just for any new illegal scanlations I could grab my hands on.<br /><br />It took many, many, freaking-hell many manga chapters before my two favourite guys, insultingly cool Tsukimori and sensitive jock Tsuchiura, to get from this dog-in-the-manger state...<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/manga_doro_01.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/manga_doro_01_small.png"></a> <a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/manga_doro_02.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/manga_doro_02_small.png"></a></center><br /><br />To this state. No matter the constant rivalry, they can’t disagree on classical music. Alas, finally! Ryo the Piano-Guy and Len the Violin-Man actually performing together. My bishie dream comes true. My fan-girlism ought to die happy now.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/manga_doro_03.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/manga_doro_03_small.jpg"></a> <a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/manga_doro_04.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/manga_doro_04_small.jpg"></a></center><br /><br /><b>Note03:</b> My cousin, who I shall refer to as Cammie, is getting married. She’s like 2 years younger than me AND she’s ahead of her two elder siblings. And ahead of a whole host of other cousins as well. She’s been studying in England for sometime now and Mr. Prospective Groom is studying there as well. <br /><br />The guy’s family is going to meet Cammie’s family (my Aunt Sidah) in the family home Seremban this Sunday. I, on the other hand, ill have exams (yes, exams on Sunday, <em>*bite me*</em>) and <em>Alhamdulillah</em> I thank God I won’t be in Seremban with my mom.<br /><br />Don’t get me wrong, I love my maternal aunts. But there’s a cackle of them and I mean a cackle because once you put the Jailani sisters under one roof, it won’t stop until every bit of your sanity had been dissected and your life’s business under microscope inspection. Being female myself, young single female, what’s more, I can’t avoid aunts like male cousins can so really I’m grateful to the Big Man above if He had a hand in this.<br /><br />Nothing against marriage per se, but I’ve already planned singlehood for life based on this simple equation.<br /><br /><b>Good</b>: Finding sincere partner.<br /><b>Bad</b>: Finding no partner.<br /><b>Ugly</b>: Finding partner with his pants down during best friend’s ‘happy time’.<br /><br />If there’s any advantage other than the meager 1/3 chance of soulmate success, I rather stick to marrying a career.<br /><br /><b>Note04</b>: As I’m writing this, today, I’m going to go for a short training meet for this part-time job I’ve volunteered. I need the money and it doesn’t seem to be very difficult. My school is going to join up to this bazaar coming up for International Red Crescent/Cross Day. <br /><br />I had joined secondary school Red Crescent so as long I don’t have to drill march around in a muddy school field in white pants, I’m cool. It’s not a quick buck scheme but it’ll get me out of the house and onto Tasik Titiwangsa on 8th to 11th of May and maybe a pinch or two to blog about during the school holidays.<br /><br />Heh, pretty much, that’s the end of the notes. Speaking of blogging, I don’t think I’m going to post anything for the rest of the week. Even my weekend images are on hold. My brain hurt when I think too much and for now, it’s too cluttered with course notes. <br /><br />Also, I’m getting tired too easily now. Mak says I’m not eating well enough. To the truth, she’s right. I’m been saving my lunch money in RM10s so I can keep them for a penny-wise-pound-foolish deal I might find in Ikano, the Curve or even OneUtama shopping malls.<br /><br />It’s also a great way (but bad system) to loose weight. Sheesh, my <a href="http://awindoodles.blogspot.com">Kelana Jaya cousin</a> (one of only 3 family relations who I dared to reveal the contents of this blog) says I’m not fat. <br /><br />Hahaha, very funny, Awin! <img src="http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/6185/hitthenoobyn4.gif"/><br /><br />Just hang on to my Feedburner will ya? Thanks! Read you all next Monday or so. So sorry for being AWOL’d!<br /><em>*cries*</em>Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-88735653381495817612008-04-14T14:13:00.001+08:002008-04-14T14:15:46.309+08:00The Never Ending Blog - Gary Gigax Tribute: Sword of the Three Souls - Page 5For the guys of <a href=" http://saphrym.com/blog ">Saphrym</a>, <a href="http://evilwoobie.com">Woobie</a>, <a href="http://ahkong.net">AhKong</a> and <a href="http://www.kennyljs.com">Kenny</a>, I haven’t done anything D&D before so I hope I did justice. For myself, I’m going to integrate this with a CGSociety image as part of my Weekend Images so this was a great idea. <br /><br />Thanks for the tag!<br /><br /><center><b>Sword of the Three Souls</b><br /><a href="http://saphrym.com/blog/writer/the-never-ending-blog-gary-gigax-tribute-sword-of-the-three-souls-page-1/">Page 1</a> | <a href="http://evilwoobie.com/2008/04/02/the-never-ending-blog-gary-gigax-tribute-sword-of-the-three-souls-page-2/">Page 2</a> | <a href="http://ahkong.net/the-never-ending-blog-gary-gigax-tribute-sword-of-the-three-souls-page-3/">Page 3</a> | <a href="http://www.kennyljs.com/2008/04/10/the-never-ending-blog-gary-gigax-tribute-sword-of-the-three-souls-page-4/">Page 4</a> | <a href="">Page 5</a> | Page 6<br /><br /><b>=====</center></b><br /><br />* Link to the page of the story you are continuing before your post<br />* Tag another blogger who will participate wholeheartedly (better contact him/her first before tagging)<br />* When the next blogger has published his or her continuation, edit your post so that a link to the next page of the story is published<br /><br /><b><center>=====</center></b><br /><br />Small winter drafts swirled around his boots, playing the leather straps. The uncomfortable cold was no serious discomfort to Serol. He had been in worse chills but it was not part of his legendary invincibility to make one’s self catch a cold, unless it was for a really good, albeit mystical, reasons.<br /><br />The white forest seemed endless. Frost on branches and snow underfoot. It was a return to monotony after his brush with the Cyclops patrol. There had not been any more attacks since he sliced those five like warm butter. <br /><br />“Vanguard group, that’s what they are,” commented his metallic companion.<br />“Were,” Serol corrected him. His throat felt dry and sore.<br />“Were,” said the sword.<br /><br />Serol continued onwards, thinking his previous survivalist thoughts when it occurred to him on something he had not yet noticed about the sword. Something, though in the world of incantations and miasma of spell casting, would have been perfectly ordinarily magical, but still uncomforting to Serol. Descriptively, he continued his pace through the uncharted woods. <br /><br />Only descriptively.<br />“Tharg?” asked Serol, quietly.<br />“Yes, boss?” answered the sword. <br />Serol was silent for a moment, to collect his thoughts. And to avoid any peeking roots or boles on the ground, lest he might trip himself in the discovery of his suspicions.<br /><br /><em>Tharg.</em> said Serol. In his thoughts.<br /><em>-I heard you the first time, boss. What is it?</em> The returned quip, coloured with sarcasm, also radiated through the warrior’s mind.<br /><br />That stopped him cold. Literally speaking, as though he avoided uproots, he nearly slipped into an ankle deep drift of snow.<br />“Psionics?” asked Serol loudly.<br />He reached to his back and pulled out the sword from the scabbard. In the fading sunset between the bare icy branches of the forest, the blade’s edge winked with pinpricks of red light. <br /><br />“Er, surprise?” Tharg commented with a hint of fretfulness. <br />“You communicate through mind-reading too?”<br />“Well, it’s not like we’re going to discuss the weather or tomorrow’s stew or anything.”<br />“You <em>spoke</em> to me just now. I heard it with my <em>ears</em>. Why didn’t you do that earlier?”<br />“Bah, please. If I could do psionics with every Jack-Knife and Slaying-Sally I’m passed on with through the woods, having the gift of speech would have been pretty redundant.”<br />Serol smirked.<br />“Thus, you talk only to draw attention?”<br /><br />If the sword had a tongue, it would probably be sticking it out at him in a very juvenile manner. Serol continued his paces through the forest as he listened to Tharg’s chatter.<br />“Well, the Cyclops group that had captured me, they were not much of conversationalists; intelligent conversation at any least. I’ve spent most of these captive years singing children songs in grunting noises to placate them from possible sword-worthy destruction.”<br />“Like?”<br />“I have this immense fear of them sticking me into a heavy solid rock and then tossing me into the briny deep of a bottomless lake.”<br />Serol chuckled. “No, I guess I wouldn’t want be in that position either.”<br />“It wouldn’t be so bad if I knew the lake might have a Queen of Nymphs to keep me company, but that’s asking too much, isn’t it?”<br /><br />The warrior’s lips curled subtlety at its ends. But then his expression turn annoyed when he realized that the sword had effectively turned him away from the original subject. <br />“Hey, why didn’t you do psionics before?”<br />The sword sighed. “It... it’s not a skill I can use unless I have a wielder.”<br />“Me?”<br />“That’s ‘I’.”<br />“What?”<br />“That’s ‘I’. Grammatically, you should address yourself as with ‘I’, not ‘Me’.”<br />The warrior blinked in confusion at the many changes of subjects. “I think I’m losing you, Tharg.”<br />“No you’re not, I’m strapped to your back. You <em>do</em> how to wield a sword, right? Let’s practice. Just use your good arm and raise it over your-“<br />It was going nowhere, other than grating like granite blocks on the warrior’s temper.<br /><em>Tharg!</em> thought Serol with all the loudness a mind can muster. <br /><em>-Boss?</em> the answer sounded weak.<br /><br />Silence filled the forest. Only the crunching of packed snow and rotten twigs under every step of Serol’s boots. <br /><br /><em>You only do psionics with</em> I<em>?</em> thought Serol.<br />-<em>That’s right. You’ve wielded me. I couldn’t exchange minds with you back then. It was only after you used True Strike spell and drove me into that Cyclops’s skull.</em><br /><em> So now I’m your wielder?</em><br />-<em>Right, boss. I mean, I can hardly keep shouting vocally on weak points while you’re hacking the enemy, can’t I? It’ll be like,</em> ‘hit, hit, hit, die, c’mon die already!’ <em>and of such like that.</em><br /><br />His better humour restored, Serol contemplated the steep hillock before him, thinking of ways to maneuver up between the hidden net of thick roots and ice-crusted branches. It was almost a vertical wall of roots and packed earth of ice and stones. But it was not too high, only some 15 feet by his eye’s estimate. He could climb it more easily if he possessed a pickaxe.<br /><br />He reached behind him and grabbed the hilt of Tharg.<br /><em>Aye, there’s the rub</em> he thought.<br />But no sooner he finished that thought, his gloved finger curled around the hilt, that something flashed his vision. It was as sudden as a lightning flash and equally sharp bright.<br /><br />The vision beheld to him was that of an armed being, human or something resembling human. It’s armor was a mix of something beauty and something hideous, with a skull of an animal adorning the shoulders. He wore a crown of jagged spines, securing sleek ghost-white hair that framed a face of pure malice. <br /><br />And that being held a sword in his hand, glowing with the colour of brimstone, the intricate engravings on the blade stood out clearly.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.cgnetworks.com/gallerycrits/133580/133580_1118412782.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/sword.png"></a></center><br /><br />It shook Serol so much, that sudden blinding vision, that it was some moments before he realized that Tharg was calling out to him aloud.<br />“Serol? Hey, Serol?”<br />Serol linked his lips. The frosty air had made them dry but his stomach felt like something wet and slimy was crawling inside.<br /><br /> Realizing that he still gripped the hilt of the sword over his shoulder, he slowly drew it out and looked at the weapon.<br />“Um, yea-“ he cleared his throat and tried for composure, “Yes, Tharg?”<br />“Are you feeling well? You looked like you got gas or something.”<br />“Yea. Or something?” Serol echoed.<br /><br />His eyes brushed briefly on the sword; daring not to stare too long less it might invoke that <em>something</em>. Or new things. Tharg, the Sword of the Three Souls, looked very little like that sword held by that ... creature. Tharg did not posses the same hilt or the engravings even though it was of similar shape and length.<br /><br />A vision of the past or a prophecy of the future?<br /><br />“Look, Serol, if you’re feeling unwell, maybe we can take a break?” asked Tharg attentively.<br />Lowering the sword, Serol shook his head. He returned to his previous object of study; the steep hillock.<br />“No, let’s keep moving. There’s something I need you to check for me for a minute.”<br />He walked away from the hillock, Tharg in hand, to a near-by clearing a few steps away, with very few trees in the way of his sight to the sky.<br /><br />Then he swung the sword and tossed it as high above his head as his good arm could heave without injuring himself. The sword flew straight up into the sky before gravity reversed its direction and toward descent. The sword sank into the snow close to Serol as it fell; the hard ground was too packed for the blade to sink upright.<br /><br />The warrior bend over the sword and picked it up.<br />“What did you see over the hillock?” he asked.<br />“Ooo, a settlement, boss. Not more than two miles away. Looks like a port village judging by that big river. Are we going there?” <br />“It depends. Are there boats? Sailboats specifically.”<br />“Maybe one or two of them had sails but they don’t really look like ferries to me.”<br /><br />Serol slid the sword back into its hilt.<br />“We’ll take our chances. That river village should help us get to one of the main ports that lead to Skyloon. And we need to stock up on supplies if more Cyclop patrols are coming after us.”<br />Serol jiggled the smaller treasures in his satchel; gold he had plundered while retrieving the Sword of the Three Souls. <br /><br />He contemplated the hillock again and instead of adventuring towards it, he took a bordering route. The woods ahead looked less dense but much rockier. It’ll be a pain to walk though but Serol pressed on.<br />“By the way, boss,” said Tharg.<br />“Hm-mm?”<br />“That was really scary of you to do that just now. I don’t think I’m cut out for real unexpected high-flying.”<br />“Sorry about that,” shrugged Serol absently.<br />“I mean, I’ll do it no problem, being almost indestructible and all, but a forehand warning is much appreciated.” The sword sounded sulky.<br /><br />But Serol just quietly muttered,<br />“The feeling is mutual.”<br /><br /><b><center>=====</center></b><br /><br />Yay, thanks for reading! The next writer I tag is... Actually, I don’t know who to tag to. Haven’t been blog-hopping many writers recently. Please, please, do you know anyone who would continue this? This story seem to be getting pretty good.Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com85tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-31788433070579732972008-04-14T10:34:00.000+08:002008-04-14T10:35:59.882+08:00Photos: Inner Voices on Out-of-Blog Living<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Aaaaacccckkkk!!!<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Now what?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: I’ve missed blogging here. <em>*sob!*</em><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: So? Why the screaming? Unless a nuclear virus had struck Blogspot, the blog’s not going anywhere.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Yeah, but what is a blog is not to capture living experience in words for all to share?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Don’t go poetry on me, Horny-Head. I’m trying to keep real life focused in my head and you’re crowding with junk.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Alas! Poor Quickening! I knew her, Baddie. A girl of infinite jest and excellent drama-cy.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Drama-cy? English bard, you are not.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: You rather go Yoda? <br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: If I could write my assignment reports in Star Wars’ Jar Jar Binks, I’ll be done in 15 minutes.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Oooo, meesa writes bad fishy Jedi speak!<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Oh, go screw a fish.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Speak for yourself. Oh wait, you ARE me. Bad mood today, aren’t I?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Effect is the cause of bad Jedi speak and feeling so very, very tired from doing homework.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: You still got assignments E-doc and Java programming. Bummer.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Yeah and I’ll need to see an Academic Advisor soon.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: How come?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Well, since I’ve finished that thesis report last Wednesday, I want to do Part 02 next semester.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Next semester is the short semester. Think you can do it, all that graphic and courseware design?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: As long as it’s the <em>only</em> subject I’ll be taking (4 credit hours), I know I can manage.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: But that subject is not recommended for short semester.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Hence, looking for the Academic Advisor. Then the Supervisor and the Project Moderator. <br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: You’re trying to finish everything this year, right?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: I want to take my convocation in 2009, no longer than that. Besides, I don’t have any more subjects to take. What else can I do in the empty weeks of the short semester? <br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Cuti-cuti Malaysia?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: <em>*WHAM!*</em><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/tyre01.png"><br /><b>Alamak, flat tyre!</b></center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/tyre02.png"><br /><b>No really, Ayah, I can do it myself-ler...</b></center><br /><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Okay, aside from metaphorically hitting yourself, what’s with the photo?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: I was bored.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: So you took pictures of your dad changing your car’s flat tyre?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: I like work. It fascinates me. I could watch it all day.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Ayah changing the Proton tyre is hardly Broadway exhibition.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Who cares? I had wanted to do it myself but Ayah loves the car more than me so he was afraid I might hurt it.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Once a car salesman, always a car salesman.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Amen.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/school01.png"><br /><b>Was at the school’s balcony. They’re having a 10th year anniversary festival.</b></center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/school02.png"><br /><b>Guess who came to play the guest of honour.</b></center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/school03.png"><br /><b>Gee, the Jalur Gemilang blue jumpsuit must have been a clue.</b></center><br /><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Don’t you think it’s odd that you seem to be the only student who enjoys sitting alone under the hot sun at the top of the school’s balcony?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Call it what you will. Preferred isolation, peaceful viewing, catching cooling natural wind, extra vitamin D after all that PC sitting hours,-<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Influenced by Japanese anime schoolgirls?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: That’s a matter of opinion.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Can’t hide the truth from <em>me</em>, sweetie. Passing over your love of solitary moments, what’s with the white tents on the school’s car parks?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Why are you asking all these questions?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: I’m playing dumb funny so I can be serious genius when I need to do homework.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Dumb, yes. Funny? Questionable.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Haha, hoho. Oh, my ribs. Stop before you make me puke.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: School was having a 10th anniversary day and Dr. Sheik Mohd Shukor was the guest of honour.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: The Malaysian astronaut? You had a major, <em>major</em> crush on him once.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Did not!<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Did too.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: No, you’re imagining things. He’s too much a celebrity than what’s good for him.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: You had his smiling picture as your desktop wallpaper for all the months he was in Russia.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Well, that was long over. He’s getting redundant. Time will tell if he made any real progress to any local astronaut training in the future. <br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Is that why you braved the crowds to snap pictures of his boyish good looks? And you don’t even like large crowds.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: ...<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/cats_sleep01.png"><br /><b>Patchy sleeps. Empty suitcases have this nice hammock thing he likes.</b></center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/salami_sandwich01.png"><br /><b>Original Turkish salami. Should be enough to last two months.</b></center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/lights01.png"><br /><b>The most beautiful souvenir of all. And damn heavy.</b></center><br /><br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: All the stuff had been unpacked, huh?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Yeah. Mak and Ayah are doing the neighbourhood rounds, giving off presents to their old friends.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Because said old friends gave them presents in <em>their</em> gallivanting trips.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Impress to be impressed, that’s their freaky motto.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Heh. And I can’t complaint.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Yeah, check out the new ceiling fixture.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Pure crystal?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Pure crystal. This thing would have cost about RM 2000+ in the local chandelier shops.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: But they got it at RM600 in Iran.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Yeah, and it wasn’t too difficult to put it up too. <br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: And it’s no small pretty balls hanging there. That thing took up an entire suitcase.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Yeah, Mak had to buy a new Iranian suitcase to carry new Iranian chandelier.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: There was an even bigger one that Ayah wanted.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: He’ll probably chase after it in his next Middle East field trip.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Oh yeah, there was a minor security scare at KLIA, wasn’t it?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Yeah. X-ray machine scans their bags to see big round balls.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Crystal show up as solids in the x-ray. Made the guards think of grenades.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Well, they were coming in from Iran, of all places.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Hehehe.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: But hey! Gave Ayah a reason to show off the chandeliers to the airport security.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Hope we have enough wall lights to accommodate any more.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Still, it IS very pretty. And you won’t see them in any other house for miles.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Oh.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: What’s wish the ‘oh’? You sound dispirited all of a sudden.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: That means neighbors wants to come over and see the fixture right?<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/angel.gif">: Duh.<br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif">: Crap, more crowds.Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-77558365481539924302008-04-10T11:31:00.001+08:002008-04-10T16:06:30.400+08:00And That’s Just My Second Menstrual Day<em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 1.00am<br />Location: At the PC, my bedroom.</em><br /><br />Redoing Project Paper 2 Part 1. Some bad last minute decisions. Had been working for 5 hours straight. Decided to finally hit the sack. Parents are coming home from their <a href="http://shadow-pimpernel.blogspot.com/2008/03/from-klia-to-iran-bye-bye-parents.html">round the Turkey nation trip</a> and I can’t enjoy imported cheese while feeling like a piano had dropped on me.<br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 2.30am<br />Location: Still in my bedroom. Guess where I was.</em><br /><br />Can’t sleep. Got up and made finally Data Flow diagrams and Flow Chart diagrams for project.<br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 6.25am<br />Location: Doing the Slinky in my bedroom.</em><br /><br />Freakingly overslept. Cursed very nice but stupid dreams (sheep riding round-and-round the Ferris wheel). Proceed to go downstairs to turn off house alarm and back porch lights. 13-year cat Patchy had stayed indoors that night. His bladder must have failed. Cleaned smelly corner of the house. Other than that, fed both cats and the koi pond fishes.<br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 7.30am<br />Location: At the PC, my bedroom. Again.</em><br /><br />Had a bath and forgo breakfast. Time is of the essence. Managed to complete System Design report but have small idea how to do Multimedia Requirement Analysis. Whoever made that project guideline ought to be shot and I want to be the frustrated student who does it.<br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 8.00am<br />Location: Downstairs in the living room.</em><br /><br />MySis came over with the maid, the baby nephew and more importantly, the MyVi car with a full tank of petrol. Finally, something was done on time. Noted to the maid of the smelly corner of the house.<br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 10.00am<br />Location: At the PC, my bedroom. Also again.</em><br /><br />Had a call from Mak. They’ve just arrived in KLIA and Abang Arsenal is picking them up. Too bad I can’t go but I still need to do comparisons table on authoring tools (the software used to build other softwares). Then realized that I freaking don’t have screenshots of either tools and would have to search online.<br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 12.00pm<br />Location: At the kitchen.</em><br /><br />Parents are home from Turkey, yay! For souvenirs, they brought a huge meaty chicken salami (Malaysian salami are wimps and no, that’s not a sexual innuendo) and also got that salty, earthly imported cheese I wanted. Would have immediately go on a sandwich making frenzy but there’s no bread and I still have Appendix report to finish.<br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 12.30pm<br />Location: My bedroom. Oh, look! A PC!</em><br /><br />Finally finished! Ate some Kisses chocolates and M&Ms for sugar boost. Still need to find the authoring tools’ screenshot from the Internet, edit the Table of Contents, print the 40+ pages out in 2 colour copies and secure them in green binding plastic. It’s the last bit that worries me because who the freaking hell makes GREEN blinding plastic?<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/on_the_road.png"><br /><b>On the road to school for extra work. They should really take down these BN election banners already.</b></center><br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 1.00pm<br />Location: At school. At the PC. My life is dead.</em><br /><br />Discovered that the online messengers Meebo.com and Ebuddy.com both had been fire walled by school (crapcrapcrapcrap). Currently using IloveIM.com for MSN account. Hope it lasts. Wanted to go to blog, at least to click ads but running out of time. Saved by Wikipedia and found those tools’ interface screenshots.<br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 2.15pm<br />Location: Leaving school. Ironic because I’ll need to come back here later.</em><br /><br />Report officially completed. Now need to print them out into professionally looking books. Uploaded files into Mediafire.com account since I don’t know if my thumb drive got virus or not and don’t want to infect printing PCs (and screw up the documents). But I need to look for green plastic binder. Checked bookstore at Giant. Nothing. Checked Giant hypermarket itself. Also got nothing.<br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 3.00pm<br />Location: At Ikano Power Centre.</em><br /><br />Still looking for green plastic binder. It’s stupid report documentation but needs to separate it from other courses (got blue, red and black report binding as well). <br />Went to Popular bookstore: No green plastic binder.<br />Borders bookstore: No green plastic binder.<br />MPH bookstore: No green plastic binder.<br />Tesco hypermarket: Surprise! No green plastic binder. But got nice cool 100+ drink.<br /><br />Hadn’t had this much walking workout since my Red Crescent camping days as section leader. Too busy to almost forgot to take camera photos of the 10,000-Billion kilometres worth of walking I did.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/the_curve_again.png"><br /><b>Some fellas were doing some maintenance work on the fountain.</b></center><br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 4.15pm<br />Location: Time’s up! At the printing store.</em><br /><br />Phone alarm went off. Must send in report ASAPossibly-Freaking-Quick. Printing lots of paper takes time and school’s report collecting is at early evening. Took a chance and decided to use black plastic binder. Went to favourite printing shop and gave download link so that they can print out my report. Going nice and smooth, decided to go home and be impressed with Mak and Ayah’s traveling tales.<br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 5.15pm<br />Location: At home. Not in my bedroom, thank you very much.</em><br /><br />Parents bored that I was driving around with schoolwork and not enjoying their Middle East souvenirs. Managed to allocate one hour sitting around with baby nephew and listening to how snow in Iran’s mountains are so soft. Convinced Ayah that no fish had died in his absence and that the crooked metal curtain blinds in the kitchen wasn’t my fault (stray yellow cat snuck in the house and banged his face to the kitchen blinds. Really).<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/chocolate.png"><br /><b>Yaaaay! I also got chocolate Kisses!</b></center><br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 5.45pm<br />Location: In the car, going to </em>another<em> printing shop.</em><br /><br />F**king favourite printing shop not my favourite anymore. They screwed up the colour pictures and now all my screenshots and colour diagrams looked like it’s been splattered by some digital rotten tomato (too much red). Paid only for the black and white printing. Went to the more expensive shop. Had to withdraw the last RM50 from ATM machine <em>*sob!*</em><br /><br /><em><b>-Student Log-</b><br />Time: Wednesday, 6.15pm<br />Location: Back to school. Typical.</em><br /><br />Driving to school in the late evening hour. Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong is nicely empty because I’m the only driver who needs to go to work in the evening (the road on the other side looked like a long car park). With me are two very nice clean and crisp copies of my project report, about 40+ pages each, worth a big chunk of my semester grades.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/project_paper_part01.png"><br /><b>Multimedia Majoring. Into the slot they go.</b></center><br /><br />And that’s only my second day on ‘that bloody time of the month’. This Friday, I plan to add 3 liters of Coca-cola and other caffeine drinks just to see if I can make jumping jacks while doing Java programming. <br /><br />Damn hormones...Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-6780043121585374052008-04-02T13:45:00.000+08:002008-04-02T13:48:20.190+08:00Suicide Aftermath: The World After You DiedIt’s over. This is the end. You haven’t eaten a meal in 24 hours. You would like to enjoy a last meal but full stomach slows the dying process.<br /><br />You’ve decided how you’re going to die. Maybe a neat cut to the wrist with the kitchen knife, parallel to the blood veins, then sit in the cool bathroom and turn on the faucet so that all the running water can help speed the bleeding. <br /><br />Painful as hell at first but maybe later it’ll probably feel like falling asleep. Hey, let’s do some irony and play Linkin Park’s <em>Bleed it Out</em> while you’re at it.<br /><br />Or maybe you got hanging on your might. Let it all be over real quick. Isn’t hanging the way how executed prisoners’ die? Heh. You’re a prisoner all right. A prison you can’t get out unless it’s ethereally. <br /><br />Let’s just get thing over with it. <br /><br />It may take a few minutes to a few hours to die, but you died.<br /><br />You died.<br /><br />But it’s not the end yet.<br /><br />Oh, don’t you know? If you have sought help, maybe if you checked online for the <em>after-effects of suicide</em>, maybe you would have thought twice about blowing a bloody hole to your head.<br /><br />Everything’s always about you isn’t it? Well, let’s not argue on that anymore.<br /><br />Because you’re dead.<br /><br />Now we have to clean up your mess. Did you know that you’re leaving a big dead body behind? And it’s not going to move by itself, you’re already gone. Let’s see who is probably going to find you first.<br /><br />Hm-mmm, your f***ing family perhaps? Your b***hing roommates? They’re probably wondering why you’re missing for so long. There are so many things still left unfinished. Bills and rent needs to be paid. And the car can’t start. Again. Oh and your boss at work called. He said that you’re fired for that ‘sloppy mess of a project’ or whatever else you screwed. <br /><br />Then there’s your girlfriend, your landlord, your doctor, your lawyer, your university fees and all kinds of miscellany. <br /><br />As a matter of fact, all the real life you’ve tried to fix, tried to avoid, tried to wade shit-deep in are all looking for you.<br /><br />But nothing matters anymore anyway. You’re dead after all.<br />And they all will soon find out.<br /><br />Oh hey, it’s your little brother, banging on the door. He probably wants to borrow money from you again. Or maybe he finally won something big and wants to celebrate with you. You’ll never know maybe.<br /><br />But he found you. What do you think he felt first, looking at your lifeless body?<br /><br />Shocked, yes. Then, he probably laughed. It’s a big joke, isn’t it? He patted your shoulder. He brushed your neck. He slapped your cheek a couple of time. He’s starting to get confused. C’mon that’s really over doing. Just stop holding your breath and wake up. Time to wake up, big brother.<br /><br />But you don’t wake up.<br /><br />You couldn’t wake up.<br /><br />But that was your idea, wasn’t it? Have you ever wondered if you might still feel something after your death. Maybe like in the movies, you get an out of body experience. Will you see the discoverer of your dead body call the emergency number? Oh, there’ll definitely be panic and confusion. More people joined in. They want to do something, anything, to help you.<br /><br />Haha, now they <em>want</em> to help. Too bad they didn’t try to help you when you were still alive. When you were suffering. But you’re not suffering anymore.<br /><br />Aren’t you?<br /><br />The paramedics have arrived. They’re professional. They see dead and dying people all the time. Maybe they can do better what the ones before them couldn’t. Your heart had stopped beating. Your lungs had stopped breathing. Slowly, whatever that’s still functioning in your still healthy body is dying with your soul.<br /><br />The paramedics have arrived. Guess what they’ll be doing is trying to revive you too, more professionally. Can you still make it? Can you still come back? No, you’re death. But they’re not giving up. Because that’s their job, saving lives. Even if the person doesn’t want to be saved. <br /><br />Maybe you have a small chance. Hey, you woke up! Well, not literally. The paramedics managed to wake you up a bit. Your heart starts beating. It’s a big irony isn’t it? The spirit is unwilling but the body is strong. Or maybe the devil hadn’t taken your soul yet and you had some second thoughts. Would that be enough to rescue you?<br /><br />It gave the paramedics hope though. Now they got to get you to the hospital. Fast. Now. Ten minutes ago. Through the whole ambulance trip, the paramedics keep trying to wake you up. In the hospital, the doctors took over your lifeless body. They’re all trying to help you. <br /><br />You must really enjoy the attention you’re having now. They’re probing and poking at you with needles, tubes and things. Gosh, what a great time you’re having.<br /><br />But you were pronounced brain-dead.<br /><br />Now it feels real, doesn’t it?<br /><br />Oh wait, you con’t feel anything anymore.<br /><br />But your family could. And they did. All kinds of negative feelings. Look, they’re just outside the emergency room. It’s your mother holding your father’s hand in a death grip. Why are they crying? They usually avoid you and so why are they here? <br /><br />And your older sister is there too, throwing mean and dirty looks at your little brother. Maybe she’s blaming your little brother for your pain. Oh so <em>now</em> she cares. Where was she when you needed her?<br /><br />To your family, the doctors explained. Your family exclaimed.<br /><br />All of a sudden, there’s an empty void in their lives where you used to be. <br /><br />Sure you did some bad things, worse things and a few better things. Your family hated you. But they loved you first. You were an extension of the family tree. You were a fruit your parents bore. You were the balance between your siblings amongst the branches. <br /><br />Did you ever think of that?<br /><br />Bet you should have thought about that. Maybe you did. Maybe you did know that deep down inside they do love you and they would be devastated when you killed yourself. Making the ones who love you suffer guilt for your death, the manner of your untimely death.<br /><br />Touche.<br /><br />Was that your idea? Wouldn’t it have been better if the only ones who truly felt bad about your actions were the ones you really wanted to hurt? Like your boss or your landlord or your girlfriend. Now that you’re gone, your boss would have nobody else to blame or steal ideas from. Your landlord would have nobody else to sleaze money from. And your girlfriend would be all alone.<br /><br />Or maybe they wouldn’t care. Your boss never liked you anyway. Now he’s burning inscense and muttering scriptures to ward against whatever bad luck your suicide might cause against his business. Your landlord don’t care you you either. Now he can finally get someone with more money. The new tenants don’t have to know about that ‘bad room’. <br /><br />As for your girlfriend... well, she’s alive. You’re dead. She’s going to have to move on without you. No matter how fond were her memories of you, they aren’t going to help her in anything except reminicing. She still has a future. They all do. The earth turns, the sunrises and all that’s left of you are just memories.<br /><br />Memories of a sucide victim.<br /><br />You’re better off being forgotten. And this is how the whole world forgets you. And the world <em>will</em> forget you.<br /><br />All it takes is time.<br /><br />Starting with the ones who love you. The stuff that had depressed you and forced you to shut your own eyes permanently had already begun to haunt your family. Oh no, you’re your bills or your personal artefacts. Not the phone numbers in the ledger or the project report in the computer.<br /><br />It’s your sucide. Your <em>ghost</em> is slowly eroding the lives of everyone around you. Did you know that you’ve left a legacy of despair? Too bad you’re not around to witness it. <br /><br />Your sister is blaming your brother. She was pissed at you for making all this guilt and misery on her, making a mess of your life and a havoc of your death. All she wants was a perfect, normal life where people died of old age, no matter how bad life turns. No matter how bad life turns, everybody still choose life.<br /><br />But you didn’t.<br /><br />Since she can’t be angry with you, she’s blaming your brother. She wants <em>someone</em> to blame. It’s her way of telling herself that she’s got nothing to do with your problems. <br /><br />Your brother is confused. He feels guilty too and it’s eating him alive. He kept playing questions in his head, the ‘whys’ and ‘what-ifs’. Should have talked to you more, should have read the signs. If you could see him, you would see how weak and meek he looked, sitting there on the floor. He’s just taking in all your sister’s abuse. Taking it, taking it, taking it. <br /><br />He’s starting to look like when you were at your worst.<br /><br />What a happy memory you left behind.<br /><br />What about your parent? The two who knows you since you were very small. You mother was the woman who gave birth to you. Did you want to hurt her? Make her think that all those years of raising you was a waste of time and money?<br /><br />Would you be surprised to know that instead, she’s trying to think of happier thoughts of you?<br /><br />She’s a mother. Like all mothers, they have hopes and dreams of their children. Every hug, every sport’s bruises, every exam’s marked answer sheet. She had been happy to have you as her son. <br /><br />She did. There should be more happy days. Your mother is trying to tell herself that it was all just a bad dream. That you’re still alive and living miserably, but alive. She’s old and tired. She should be sleeping. But she stayed awake, waiting for that phone call you always make on weekends, even if it was just to ask for money.<br /><br />And how’s Dad? He’s trying to organize your funeral. The extended families had to be notified. Your coffin, your obituary, the religious community. Then there’s the death certificate. Oh and not to mention the police report. Suicides have to be filed in for the police records.<br /><br />That’s a whole lot of people who will soon know that you’ve killed yourself. It’s an entire circus of grief and shame. Imagine how he would beat away from some overly curious questions. Yes, my son killed himself. Yes, he’s young. No, he wasn’t married, please stop asking.<br /><br />Looks like the last memories of you in this world are all about your suicide. Your life and your suicide. Your problems and your suicide. Your pain and your suicide.<br /><br />Is that how you wanted to be remembered? The world may soon forget you, but when they remember to think of you, it will be all about your suicide. And the effects leading to it. <br /><br />To the end of your short life.<br /><br />Bad relationship?<br />Lawsuits maybe?<br />Health issues?<br />Mental problems?<br />Inheritence troubles?<br />Familial history?<br /><br />All sorts of speculations. Then they stir their <em>nescafe susu</em>, chew on their <em>roti canai</em> and talk of other things.<br /><br />So you’re gone. The ones who love you hurt the most. The ones who didn’t care about you goes on to forget you. And being gone, there’s nothing left in the world about you. The longest legacy you’ll ever leave behind is nothing more than a statistic on the National Suicide Registry.<br /><br />And that’s the end of you.<br /><br />So before you separate yourself from God and the rest of the world, think very carefully of what kind of legacy you’re leaving behind. <br /><br />It’s far more than a heavy dead body.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/suicide/MH00048">Survivors of Suicide: Healing after a loved one’s suicide.</a><br /><a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Happens-To-Suicide-Cases-After-Death&id=500278">What Happens to Suicide Cases After Death?</a><br /><a href="http://www.cmha.ca/bins/content_page.asp?cid=3-101-103">Grief After Suicide</a><br /><a href="http://www.behindthebadge.net/suicide/index.html">Contemplating Suicide?</a>Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-53852172602900493912008-04-02T10:48:00.002+08:002008-04-02T11:03:41.610+08:00Games Review: Astro Avenger 2 by Sahmon GamesIf there’s anything I love more than RPG genre games, it’s flying shooter arcades. In fact, it’s the very earliest game arcade game I’ve ever played.<br /><br />Remember when Windows was still in 95 and there wasn’t any Pinball game, there was this sci-fi jet-fighter game. I totally forgot its name (it was so damn long time ago, bleh!) but some of my fondest memories of visiting my grandmother in Tangjung Malim was playing on my uncle’s PC and shooting the crap out of midget enemy ships on pixelated visual.<br /><br />After dearest NekWan passed on, I still hadn’t changed. Still love flying shooter arcade.<br /><br />This gem I found is from Sahmon Games production. Yes, I haven’t heard of the gamehouse, but apparently this game is a sequel from the first one by Divo Games. Yes, I haven’t played that game either, but the reviews of the first games sounded pretty good. <br /><br />And from the online buzz, second game sounded to be better.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/AA201.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/AA201_small.png"></a><br /><b>Astro Avenger 2 by Sahmon Games</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/AA202.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/AA202_small.jpg"></a><br /><b>Rocket-pigs eats your ‘dirty strings.’</b></center><br /><br />The story is short and sweet, little to no characterization, which, despite my stance support for in-depth storyline in games reviews, I really don’t mind it all that much in shooters. <br /><br />Must be the adrendaline. <em>Gameplay</em> people, it’s the <em>gaaaaaaameplay!!</em><br /><br />After the first wave, a new order had risen and human are actively colonizing the distant planets again. Then comes a whole host of alien ships with bigger and badder asses marauding and taking over the human colonies, raping the field and burning the women.<br /><br />Boy, <em>that</em> is evil.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/AA203.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/AA203_small.png"></a><br /><b>Awww, look at my babies. They take care of mommy-ship very well.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/AA204.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/AA204_small.png"></a><br /><b>F**kf**kf**kf**kf**kf**kf**kf**kf**k...!</b></center><br /><br /><b>Storyline:</b><br />Short and sweet, not much interesting to me. Other than a background story, there’s no special characters, no dialogue, not even an angry supervisor with a volatile temper, a bad comb-over and spitting half-chewed cigar in a Russian accent. Just your ship, a secret weapon and an alien population of 60 trillion and reducing. <br /><br />Oooo, really fast reduction, me likes.<br /><br /><b>Gameplay:</b><br />Now here’s where it gets interesting. What I usually do with space shooter is keep holding down the left mouse button, stay to bottom of the screen and watch out for the enemies’ laser and the rockets (mostly the rockets). <br /><br />I call it the ‘drunk flying’ strategy since you flying all over the place. I still do that but with great restraint now.<br /><br />Your ship is included with the laser’s battery packs that recharge themselves. Continuous firing makes it go really low and that’s really shit when you get in a tight spot with these blue alienships with mean guided missles (I call them Rocket-pigs). <br /><br />Your currency is plasma, which you use for repairs, upgrades, your own set of rockets and having little baby droids watch your all-360 degress. I can get stronger lasers but I still prefer laser no. 3 aka dirty strings, because it’s so effective.<br /><br /><b>Visual:</b><br />Awesome. I liked the damage look on the ship as your life stat goes low. The animations’ aren’t superific but they they’re all pretty sexy hot. I buy each rocket class just to see how it blows up (stay away when your nuclear misslles blows though; can cause collateral damage).<br /><br />The best part is that the screens isn’t slow or choppy and I use a piece of crap that’s only pretending to be a PC. <em>*hehehe!*</em><br /><br /><b>Music and Sound:</b><br />Nothing superific but I can definitely say that it does not suck. I usually turn off the sounds but I liked how certain little aliens occasionally give this digitize little ‘oww’ after I killed them. <br /><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif"><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/AA205.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/AA205_small.png"></a><br /><b>Using the Immortality shield, I turn myself into a hamsterball-cum-wrecking-ball. Too bad it doesn’t last very long.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/AA206.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/AA206_small.png"></a><br /><b>Big Boss Crap. I knew I shouldn’t have used up the immortality shield so quickly.</b></center><br /><br /><b>My own helpful tips for playing Astro Avenger 2:</b><br /><br />- Adjust mouse sentitivity to suit your hand-eye coordination.<br /><br />- Be mindful of your battery packs. Your laser gun slows down when it gets too low and that’ll be a b***h against the Rocket-pigs.<br /><br />- Keep upgrading your first and second laser weapon to full potential. Once you get at least new ship No. 3, then use money to upgrade new laser weapons, preferably new laser weapon no. 3. Having new ships before new laser weapons means that your upgraded battery packs won’t run dry too quickly by your shiny new gun.<br /><br />- Once ship upgraded, keep holding left mouse button while flying at all times. I managed to get best ship inside World 3.<br /><br />- Forget having babies in the earlier levels. Upgrade your ship past puberty first.<br /><br />- Stay close to your babies. They tend to wander off. Better not have babies if your favourite strategy is ‘drunk flying’.<br /><br />- While in earlier levels, sell all your rockets. This way, you get new pack when you kill the first wave of alien ships. However, remember to stock up with at least 15 rockets prior to big boss battle (laser does very little damage).<br /><br />- When you see the Big Boss, preferably to use laser no. 3 or no. 4 (auto track-and-kill). Keep to sideways of screen. Best applied by getting behind Big Boss, giving you 3 seconds relapse before it literally turns over and upside-down, spitting its shit at you again.<br /><br />- See Last Boss. <br />- Last Boss is hell to kill. <br />- Stock up on shiplives and plasma (money). <br />- Get lots of plasma; sell lesser rockets leftover. <br />- Secret Weapon needs Plasma; nothing else can kill Last Boss.<br />- Kill Last Boss.<br />- Die Last Boss, die.<br /><br />PS: Downloads for this game can be found at <a href="http://www.reflexive.com/AstroAvenger2.html">Reflexive Arcade</a>. If you want the cracked version, ask me nicely.Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-88445110812581640382008-04-01T08:33:00.002+08:002008-04-01T12:41:21.315+08:00Desktop Images: Sci-Fi Landscape InspirationsThis is going to be a very quick images entry, possible for the next weekend. You see, it’s the semester’s crunch hour. I don’t think I can be blogging around for a while, maybe for 2 weeks, more or less. Need to catch up on a few hundred tasks I’ve put off.<br /><br />Maybe once in a while I might drop a note or two, not as long as I always do though. Even right now, having a few bits and pieces to adjust, sneaking in a sentence or two. Hope you don’t mind my missing hours. <br /><br />When I get free time, I’ll get a more meaningful entry going, a discussion or two, maybe even a new game review and an updated slide show for month of April.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/Chambers_by_ZoranC.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/Chambers_by_ZoranC_small.png"></a><br /><b>Chambers by <a href="http://zoranc.deviantart.com/">ZoranC</a></b></center><br /><br />Oooo, this just screams Alien movies. And futuristic Japanese anime. And every other sci-fi themes tales while creepy poison colored ante-chambers nobody is allowed to know about. <br /><br />Haha, can’t help it if I like scenes that looks something like a reject on the <em>Halo</em> games series. Blending both sci-fi and fantasy ideas (aptly known as sci-fantasy) is one of my favourite ways to dream about. It’s outrageous bordering on the ridiculous but it’s my idea and few folks have it.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://features-temp.cgsociety.org/gallerycrits/71114/71114_1203939787_large.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/rail_haven_small.png"></a><br /><b>Rail Haven by Marco Rolandi</b></center><br /><br />Found this art in CGSociety.com. The artist had imagined a broken civilization of which people traveled the world across vast sea-swamps leftover after the oceans had been so polluted and drained into the earth’s cracks. Cool scheme, I had imagined a drained world as opposed to the floods of Noah’s Ark in one of my story ideas.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/Rescue_big.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/Rescue_small.jpg"></a><br /><b>The Rescue by </b><a href="http://designnrg.deviantart.com/">designnrg</a></center><br /><br />It’s kind of dark to see (had to adjust me settings and turn off the lights) but the composition is quite detailed to study. Almost every kind of flammable disaster is portrayed but the really nice scenes are at the top and bottom of the picture; the ship on a mission at the bottom and the twin speeding flyers on a star-night backdrop.<br /><br />It’s almost as if it’s two images linked into one pictorial narrative. Check out the artist Deviantart website for more landscape art.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/Docking_Towers_by_RAEVONA.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/Docking_Towers_by_RAEVONA_small.png"></a><br /><b>Raevona - Docking Towers by </b><a href="http://antifan-real.deviantart.com/">Antifan-Real</a></center><br /><br />Saving the very best for last. The artist called this skyline scene of a city as Revona’s docking towers. This picture is currently the backdrop for my desktop picture. If these are just the docking towers, I wonder what’s the business capital is covered in. More colourful landscape art in his website, too. <br /><br />PS: Will be posting a few random back-up entries from time to time. See you guy in... as soon as I’m done! Aiyo, banyak kerja-lar… <em>*bleh!*</em>Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-59886108996226084922008-03-29T11:12:00.001+08:002008-03-29T11:16:44.852+08:00Desktop Images: Female Characters in FantasyThere never seem to be a shortage of roles to play for females when in comes to the fantasy genre. I suppose that the story pertaining to be a conflict driven fiction, one of the most unlikely sources to build up drama and suspense comes by giving a God-damn super power to an unlikely young feminine protagonist.<br /><br />Who am I kidding?<br />Female authors use ladies because it’s something they can relate to while male authors use ladies because they think always only of sex.<br /><br />Try it. Pick up any male-authored fantasy genre book in the local Popular Books store Borders and I promise you by chapter 3-5, you’ll find a girl in heat and she’s not afraid to get a man wet. <br /><br />Haha, innuendos aside, it doesn’t matter whether I use both male or female characters in imaginary realm I weave. Both of them hold unique ends of perspective when it comes to handling a crisis. <br /><br />If you’ve been following the Clinton vs. Obama campaign in US-of-A (you must have been stranded on an island with a volleyball if you hadn’t heard of them), check out the slings and arrows of outrageous stupidity written by the political media and compare notes. One out of four articles will definitely discuss their democratic issues based on gender standpoints.<br /><br />Bah! Enough blabbing. Back to fantasy. This week, I’ve collected the artwork of which includes the theme of female characters in various situations. It fascinates me on how so diverse their variety are. <br /><br />Menfolk art, although just as diverse, seemed to be restricted to mostly recurring images based toward medieval/futuristic soldiers in all so many kinds of brooding battle poses that it’s getting really monotonous.<br /><br />I’ll keeping looking though. It’s not as if Google’s a small search engine... <em>*hehehe!*</em><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/goddess.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/goddess_small.png"></a><br /><b>Oh Goddess! by <a href="http://www.alon.tw/">Alon</a></b></center><br /><br />Alas! Art by Alon from CGSociety.com<br /><br />The story goes that a servant was trying to pour a glass of wine for the king, but the mischievous goddess from the wall painting crack a joke on him by rising his hand and pour the wine onto the king's head. The servant was terrified and didn't know why this happened and what to do, the others terrified too and hurried to get out of the way, because they knew -- he is dead for sure....<br /><br />Touché.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/new_order01.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/new_order01_small.png"></a><br /><b>New Order by Sunhee Lee</b></center><br /><br />The artist, Sunhee Lee, didn’t have a website to commemorate a profolio nor does she even has a story to go along with this magnificent piece created using Painter and Photoshop. So I’m going to write my story for the art.<br /><br />She’s a battle-weary regent appointed amongst a magickin folk for liberty against an oppressive unseen enemy. The clan had just finished a stalemate battle and things weren’t going any better. Her armour had been shed, wounds were being tended. You can see her wings were slowly healing. She was strategizing a new woodland-based tactical maneuver when a message arrived.<br /><br />The great tree-home had been besieged. Both her children had been kidnapped. If she wants them back, she must sign the declaration of surrender...<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/hope.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/hope_small.png"></a><br /><b>Alienation by <a href="http://michellechuang.net/">Michelle Chuang</a></b></center><br /><br />She’s definitely one of my favourite portraiture artist, as opposed to landscape artists. I already have her other work, the commissioned <em>Legend of the Vampire</em>, as a tableau to one of my characters for my <a href="http://shadow-pimpernel.blogspot.com/2007/11/game-project-unlocking-pandora.html">project assignment</a> (which really needed a blog update; working on that!). She drew this from an inspiration while visiting the newly opened Taipei 101 tower. <br /><br />For myself, I too have a story formed in my head the longer I look at it, a sequel to my project. It’ll be a much darker continuation and who knows if the original characters will survive what I’m throwing at them?<br /><br />Or, maybe I can just grab someone’s hand that’s holding a goblet of wine and... <br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/kaguya-hyme.jpg"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/kaguya-hyme_small.jpg"></a><br /><b>Kaguya Hime by <a href="http://www.kagayastudio.com/">Kagaya</a></b></center><br /><br />Kljs of <a href="http://www.kennyljs.com">kennyljs.com</a>once posted a small image called ‘Madonna Blue’ by this artist as well. I knew immediately that the picture was an older rendition by the artist; the sky was all wrong. <br /><br />This is another artwork by the same artist, his very latest masterpiece. Kagaya is a Japanese who uses Greek mythology as inspirations. Check out his Zodiac series on his website. <br /><br />Or if you walk along Tesco hypermarket, you can find really bad quality of his art in the jigsaw puzzle shelves. I don’t know who pirated them, but trust me, it’s better that you check the website.<br /><br />The picture here is a rare step to an old Japanese mythology/faerie tale called the Bamboo Princess. <br /><br /><em>...She tells the old foster-parents who found her in a bamboo thicket and have brought her up with lots of love;<br />"I am not a common human being in this world. I am a Moonian.<br />I came down from the Moon as I was destined to. And now it's time for me to return home.<br />My compatriots are coming for me on the night of next Full Moon. I must go with them.<br />I've been in sorrow since last spring to think that you will grieve over my leaving." ...</em><br /><br />PS: Oh, one more thing. I've changed the picture for April's Ascension (see sidebar). The ole one just wasn't dramatic enough forthe story I had in mind. Check the end of April for the complete tale but I definately prefer you hurl suggestions on what the month's image means to you. <em>*hahaha!*</em>Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-61241324815451372332008-03-28T11:38:00.000+08:002008-03-28T11:43:38.425+08:00Photos: I Eat Five Major Food GroupsRegular readers know that my folks <a href="http://shadow-pimpernel.blogspot.com/2008/03/from-klia-to-iran-bye-bye-parents.html">took a trip</a> to the far away land of sand, anti-USA and “there are no gays” (as quoted by the government’s Top G-Man). Regular readers would also know that my female parental unit is also the sous chef in the house kitchen.<br /><br />I had a chat the other day with <a href="http://blog.kavilan.com">Kavilan</a> on MSN chat. He’s going through a vegetarian period at the moment and how there’s no really nice veggie restaurant that can trumps what his mom can make.<br /><br />Like him, I pretty much eat whatever Mak cooks. Almost.<br /><br />Yes, I miss her cooking (more so when I read <a href="http://recipesfromacookwannabe.blogspot.com/">YozoraNiteSky's new blog</a>). Even more so as I sure use some good hot food while doing the study cramps. My busy-ness notwithstanding, I’m only allocated a small currency for the 2 weeks they went MIA (not including petrol money).<br /><br />Nonetheless, I made sure I’ve been eating all five major food groups.<br />Canned, frozen, instant, delivery and take-out.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/bad_mee.png"><br />Mee goreng’s a failure. There was too much of it, seasoning’s all wrong and I think it was a bit under cooked. Then again, I used Mamee instead of the old favourite Maggi. Like this also, can-ah? ... maybe not.</center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/veggie_mush01.png"><br />Frozen. I thought of experimenting something like a veggie soup by using steamed mixed veggies. Call me crazy but I thought it might work.</center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/veggie_mush02.png"><br />Experiment failed. I ate two mugs of orange mush. It was a hot meal and that was good enough for me during those rainy days. Maybe I needed to add more olive oil and veggie stock?</center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/breakfast.png"><br />Okay, so I don’t always cook badly. I’m really good with eggs. Omelette, <em>mata kerbau</em>, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, you name it. Made myself some meat and toast.</center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/soup01.png"><br />Aaaah, Campbell’s chicken and mushroom soup. I thought to make it more filling by chopping some whole mushrooms, also <em>caaaaaaanned</em> (pun intended).</center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/soup02.png"><br />Watch it wiggle, see it jiggle. I swear it was like jelly when it so neatly slid out of the tin can. Imagine that if it gets into <a href="http://robbyaoi.blogspot.com/2008/03/robby-on-national-newspaper.html">some guy’s gut</a>, it still wiggles and jiggles.</center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/soup03.png"><br />Ooooo, sunk like quicksand. I think I’ll use the excess mushrooms from the can to make some grilled cheese-and-mushroom burger (update on that later).</center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/drink.png"><br />To be more realistic, most of what I had were just instant coffee. It’s quick and uplifting. Okay so in the long-term we all still need to eat. I still got some of that really bad mee goreng I couldn’t stomach.</center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/kitty01.png"><br />Ooooo, hello there? It’s the neighbour’s cat.</center><br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/kitty02.png"><br />Hey sweetie. You want a snack? <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/devil.gif"> </center><br /><br />Haha, so I’ve only been eating 3 of the 5 food groups. Only yesterday I spend some money on a large Burger King set (damn you <a href="http://toosuperheroes.blogspot.com">2heroes</a> and <a href="http://simonso.org/">simonso</a>!) and some of their cheesy sticks. Right, I’ve done take out. I’ve still yet to get something under ‘delivery’.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/pizza_no.png"><br />Oh gee, let me think...</center>Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-77163208630997784642008-03-27T14:49:00.001+08:002008-03-27T17:43:28.952+08:00Being the Middle Girl in Break-UpsI was reading <a href="http://negativenegativepositive.blogspot.com">Raising Mercury</a>’s blog the other day. She wrote an entry about arranged marriages but that’s not what I’m rambling today. I dropped in a comment about I don’t think I’ll ever decide to get married and if I do, I’ll just agree to whoever that comes by. <br /><br />My decision was mostly influenced by the horror stories I’ve heard while growing up, sitting around with all my aunts and aunts’ friends. Hard working women suddenly becoming their husbands’ first wives, divorce stories, infidelity, back-stabbing at work because of it and even children blaming themselves and getting high.<br /><br />But then... that decision was also cemented by my own less-than-happy experience.<br /><br />If you go to my school today and ask for ‘the girl who fixes relationships’, you’ll get blank stares and shrugs and they’ll mostly say, “I don’t know whom you’re talking about.”<br /><br />That’s good because I plan to keep it that way.<br /><br />I don’t ‘fix’ relationships. I’m not a Dear-Abby girl; I’m not a psychiatrist or a couples’ counselor and I sure as hell don’t want to do this for a living.<br /><br />I’m just an observant girl with a sensitive side who doesn’t like to see my gender to mope in the dark with a box of tissues, saying stuff like her world is ending just because her special guy no longer sees her as his special girl.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/heartbreak01.png"></center><br /><br />My first experience as the middle girl started in secondary school. My best friend, a buddy for over 10 years, had a break-up with her boyfriend of almost a year. I know the guy personally and he knows me and I know the two of them were a ‘sort-of’ couple around school. Holding hands, having private times, that sort of thing.<br /><br />Then it all stopped.<br /><br />Yeah, I was shocked and angry with him. I even confronted the guy during one pendidikan jasmani class as balls were being put away (pun intended). He didn’t care, just took things for granted and said that “she’s just not I thought she was anymore”. <br /><br />Apparently everything he thought she was, (funny, vivacious, active) became <em>boring, corny</em> to him.<br /><br />I decided then that if his mentality was like that, then I shouldn’t care. But what I do care was that my BF shouldn’t hide herself when I know that she really is funny, vivacious and active.<br /><br />In retrospect, I guess I shouldn’t have been such a busybody. I was overprotective and pushy at trying to get her back on her feet. I made sure she stopped doing things that reminded her of <em>Him</em>. We hung out at Uptown D’sara. We brought junk food from this BP gas station store during almost every recess and ate them in the dark and empty school hall, not bothering to clean up after ourselves.<br /><br />Eventually, she did pull herself together and only then I told myself it was safe to leave her alone again. But I guess she wasn’t the same as before, even to all her other friends. In poetry, the light in her eye was gone. <br /><br />Although just at 17, I never thought she overreacted. Her own single mother was a divorcee still fighting for alimony from a father always looking for money to finance his, ahem, “lifestyle”.<br /><br />We drifted and then completely lost touch after I moved to Kt. D’sara.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/heartbreak02.png"></center><br /><br />My second experience got from being in between this dating, older couple that was great to me during my first year. They had just completed diploma and we shared co-curriculum classes for two semesters. There were hip and young and not shy with anyone.<br /><br />And yes, they broke up.<br /><br />Why they broke up, that’s a private story that theirs only; I didn’t push for details either. They avoided each other and just moved on. But they share the same friends and go to the same classes together. They made it look like it was all mutual separation and it fooled me too.<br /><br />One semester, I found the girl in my class and the guy in another class on a different day. I don’t share their other friends and they knew that as well. <br /><br />The girl asked me a few seemingly innocent inquiries. You got IT class, right? What time? Oh, he’s in your IT class? Who else? Do you do project with him this semester? Is he still using his laptop? <br /><br />I indulged her for a time, partly because I thought she might be missing him and partly because I thought if I tell her these things, she’ll soon get over missing him. I had a lot of patience but it was wearing thin. <br /><br />I didn’t want to knock her some sense by the same way I did with my ex-BF, mainly because she’s a nice girl even though I don’t know her as well as my ex-BF and I didn’t want to drift off from her friendship, in case I screwed up on the same way my I did with my ex-BF.<br /><br />Do any of you ever have a class that not only you <em>don’t</em> look forward to see the lecturer but also one of the students? Well that semester, I had two of them. One to observe and the other to rattle answers to.<br /><br />No, he’s not sharing project duty with me. Yes, he’s still using his laptop and he has a Liverpool group photo as his desktop background picture. He’s okay at class, talks just as much. Yes, he talks to other students and yes, there are other girls and yes, he talks to the girls too.<br /><br />At those days, I kept telling myself that she needed it. Nowadays, I wondered if I’ve been cursed in a dream when I was sleeping. <br /><br />After a while, out of curiosity, I called the guy up and asked him nicely about how’s things between he and his ex. He said that they were cool. So I dropped the confession of what I’ve been doing for his ex, about being an observant spy and stuff.<br /><br />“Oh.”<br />“Well?” I quipped.<br />“I know you were watching me.”<br /><br />Crap. Busted.<br /><br />“And I watched you too”<br />“You have?”<br /><br />Crap and shited.<br /><br />“But I thought you were watching me cos... Cos, I thought, you... you felt something... about <em>me</em> and I thought, well...”<br /><br />Ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshishishiiiiiiiiiit...<br /><br />The phone conversation just went downhill from there. Why did I call the guy in the first place? It was a very selfish reason. I wanted to stop being the girl’s secret hidden eye to this guy’s activities when she’s not pretending to be not desperately missing him.<br /><br />I didn’t know what else to do but I placed myself first.<br /><br />I told the girl that I spoken with her ex. She got irritated but not yet angry. She asked why and I told her, with much abbreviation, that he might be taking miscues from me if I paid him any more attention. <br /><br />I don’t know if she got the hint but I do hope so. I avoided the two of them altogether; I didn’t dare approach them. In case she wanted any more favors and in case he... well, I don’t feel the same. I don’t want a guy to love me because he thought I love him, when I don’t.<br /><br />That’s just way too full of shit.<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/heartbreak04.png"></center><br /><br />Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of the story, at least for the guy.<br /><br />This was just at last year. His ex had already left school with her diploma; he stayed and changed his program for bachelor’s degree. We shared same classes again but we hadn’t seen each other in years and so we’re both just as cool as two former classmates from a bygone era.<br /><br />He’s changed methinks. More outward, more flamboyant. <br /><br />Freer, if I have to be drama about it.<br /><br />Then it came again.<br /><br />I got a call from him early one morning. Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bed. I remember I had slept in and was oozy, doozy like gelatinous mush. He sounded in a panic and wanted me to come to this empty parking lot near school (now known as Kelana Mall).<br /><br />My first thought was that he was making a joke; my second thought was that he had hired Ah Longs to kidnap me for money.<br /><br />But I came to that parking lot anyway (I needed to use the internet at school) and he wasn’t there. I hung around the area for a few minutes before I got impatient enough to give him a call.<br /><br />It turns out that he was at school and was watching me from, I kid you not, the freaking flattop roof of the school’s building.<br /><br />It turns out that he had been secretly dating with a girl from God-knows-where and now she wants to get serious. She wants to introduce him to her family and friends. She wants to know his family and friends. She wants to spend public holidays together. She wants to love and commitment and wish-for-the-future, all the stuff not-ready guys too chicken to give.<br /><br />I said, wtf, what the hell do you want me to do? I don’t consider myself as his ‘friend’ anymore. A classmate, an acquaintance, somebody you pass the lecturer notes to. Times change people, more so if you haven’t kept in touch.<br /><br />What he wanted was for me to talk with his secret girlfriend. Tell her than he wants more time.<br /><br /><em>Huh?</em><br /><br />As it turns out, there was this young girl, pretty and bertudung lagi, doing the lepak at the other end of the parking lot. I had never seen her before and I don’t know how to talk to her. Most importantly, I had to assess what the heck am I doing at the moment and what I need to do. <br /><br />Well, duh, my first reaction was to step out of the business and let the man take care of whatever mess he dropped himself in. But my next thought was totally female-oriented. Was this girl waiting for her man? How long had she waited there? Had she called him? The day was getting hot, why hadn’t she called him?<br /><br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/heartbreak03.png"></center><br /><br />It was the most nerve-wrecking day I ever had, except the time when my sister was in labour. I was the one who approached her and introduced each other. I told her the truth, mindful of being tactful and offered to belanja her makan at Burger King (hey, I was hungry too). <br /><br />Of course she was suspicious. Between fries, I told her why the guy had sent me, adding my own thoughts like maybe he was too scared or he needed time away to think or maybe he didn’t have money to buy Burger King. <br /><br />I also expressed that I was just a stranger who knew him in the past and that he’s going to owe me a big favour. Funnily enough, I thought she was actually really nice and considering. She was patient listening to me, understood what I was saying and for a few moments, blamed herself for pushing him. <br /><br />God, I hated it when strangers cry in front of me. I don’t know her very well; I have no idea how to comfort her. I don’t know what to say, what truthful words I can say, to make her feel better. I can’t simply pat her on the back and say ‘you’re young’, ‘everything’s going to fine’ and ‘he’s evil jack-ass’ (even thought I really wanted to say the latter).<br /><br />What I can give her was a measure of pride.<br /><br />I walked her back to her car. We made polite conversation, tossed quips and sallies, not the friendly joking kind, just funny tales as two strangers in a chatroom might, like Sadam Hussein’s hanging and other people we might want to hang. I made a point not to touch ‘The Guy’ subject.<br /><br />I never saw her again, even though I still do have her phone number. I’m not going to guess if it was a break-up or not. I’m only speculating so don’t take my word for it. Through his other friends, I do know that he’s taking up practical training now. <br /><br />And ‘The Guy’ never paid me for the Burger King meal either.<br /><br />And there you go, confessions of a serial middle girl of relationships on wobbly ground. Banyak drama-kan? Why do I get in these situations I don’t know, maybe I offended Cupid or something somewhere. But they’re life stories and with real people with mending heartbreaks.<br /> <br /><center><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/heartbreak05.png"></center><br /><br />Maybe because I’m a paradox. I’m a romantic. Cynical, yet romantic. I love happily ever after fairy tales (Disney’s <em>Enchanted</em> movie was a fav). Though real life could never imitate fairy tales, the virtues it represents like courage to commitment, being true to the other person, stand-by-your-special-someone and all that junk can be achieved.<br /><br />It’s not impossible to find true love.<br /><br />It’s just not as easy as it seem either.<br /><br />For myself, I don’t think I’m cut out for it. I’ve seen it come and go, mostly the going that’s tough. <br /><br />At the time of writing, I’m free from all potentially exhausting lovers’ spat, thank you very much. Though I have another friend, a nice girl whose about to graduate sooner than me and having some boyfriend troubles of her own. The guy is much older than her and already working. <br /><br />If it goes south... I’m willing to step it. I may not a perfect track record, I’m not an expert and yes, I’m not paid to do this. <br /><br />Still, the human heart is emotionally stronger than most people think and it shouldn’t have to sit and mope in depression while life is still too long and too full to waste.Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-3589431850060207962008-03-26T15:50:00.001+08:002008-03-26T16:19:28.390+08:00Photos: Walking in the RainFor the past 4 days now, it’s been raining all afternoon. There’s an epidemic of coughs and colds amongst students at school this week. Both students and lecturers are sucking down Fishermen’s Friend sweet like its Vidocine in Los Angeles. I’m having an annoying tickle in my throat myself. <br /><br /><em>[sarcasm]</em><br />Great... just great...<br /><em>[/sarcasm]</em><br /><br />It’s nice actually, to finally be alone in the house. Of course, being young single Malay girl, I’m not allowed to housesit all by myself, no matter how many heavy-duty golf clubs I armed myself. Abang Arsenal comes to spent the night at the downstairs room <br /><br />He doesn’t usually stay in, bachelor that he is, at times going out to <em>mamak</em> places, more so since it’s the football season on TV and we cancelled Astro sports channel months ago.<br /><br />I think it’s going to rain again today. <em>*siiiiiigh*</em><br /><br />Rains always got me thinking of clean, cool thoughts. It air gets clean and refreshing, yet the sky is dull and overcast. When I was younger, in primary school, I would take an umbrella and just take a long stroll at the playground near my house.<br /><br />In the rain. Alone.<br /><br />Of course I got thrashed by my folks for doing a potentially little-girl-alone-in-the-rain-kidnap-her-now stunt but those were the days before the Nurin Alert. I like to walk a lot. I get fidgety if I don’t get out of the house.<br /><br />Even now. Especially when it rains.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining01.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining01_small.png"></a><br /><b>At school. Traffic gets heavy and half the students are rushing through the wet air and wet walks to get in time for classes. Others, like this fella here (who I won’t name, heh) is just waiting out the hours.</b><br /><br /><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining02.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining02_small.png"></a><br /><b>I couldn’t afford to stay. It was getting late and I want to go home. Okay, my real excuse is that when I walk in the rain, I rather do it alone. The world is getting so noisy but at that moment, I can hear my own thoughts.</b><br /><br /><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining03.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining03_small.png"></a><br /><b>Yes, I was soaked through. Just my luck to be wearing my bright-coloured shirt too (no, I won’t show you how see-through I became). But my glasses were definitely dotted with droplets. It’s times like these I wished I had tissues to wipe it (and an umbrella, to not get wet in the first place).</b><br /><br /><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining04.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining04_small_other.png"></a><br /><b>The journey home. I found myself singing <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?nfw2njjyl3b">David Usher’s <em>Black Black Heart</em></a> with the music all in my head...</b><br /><br /><em>Black black heart <br />why would you offer more<br />Why would you make it easier on me, to satisfy<br />I'm on fire <br />I'm rotting to the core<br />I'm eating all your kings and queens<br />All your sex and your diamonds</em><br /><br /><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining05.png "><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining05_small.png"></a><br /><b>Haha, the garden sudah kena banjir... In some places, it can get right up to my ankles. The good thing about these continuing rains is that I didn’t have to remind myself to water the plants with my folks out gallivanting with their passports.</b><br /><br /><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining06.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining06_small.png"></a><br /><b>At least the fishes enjoy the rains. The biggest white-and-red dude on the bottom left is known as YB (Yang Berhormat or Yang Besar; either way, he’s a bully). They got really active, even when I wasn’t feeding them. Must be all that new fresh water.</b><br /><br /><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining07.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/raining07_small.png"></a><br /><b>In my room. My windows are closed. My wind chimes are silent... for now.</b></center>Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-12381534011281089092008-03-26T11:00:00.000+08:002008-03-26T11:02:28.163+08:00Games Review: Mystery Case Files, Madam Fate by Big Fish GamesHehehehe, I can’t resist hidden objects games, can’t I?<br /><br />Two reasons pertaining to yet <em>another</em> hidden objects genre game as a blog review is because firstly, I found that they really bring up blog traffic. Thanks to my 3 widgets (Feedjit, Nuffnang and MyBlogLog), the genre’s puzzles are some of the damn-est Help-Me-Google on the search count.<br /><br />I get a hit on my game reviews at least twice a day. Got to love random strangers. They have a unique IP address for my Statcounter. <br /><br />Well, let’s get started. Today’s blog entry is the review for the game I’ve cracked called <em>Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate</em> by one of the reigning lords of game developer and distributor, Big Fish Games.<br /><br />The game, which we shall call <em>MCFMF</em> for short, is the fourth installment for an ever continuing tale of you, the player, solving literary messy cases on behalf of Merry Ol’ England. <br /><br />From the previous <em>MCF</em> game, you left now-less-haunted-house of Ravenhearst to follow the call of help for Madame Fate’s, er, fate. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF01.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF01_small.png"></a><br /><b>Mystery Case Files: Madam Fate</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF02.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF02_small.png"></a><br /><b>Yeah, sure-sure. Look, I only accept cash or credit card, <em>not</em> super-real-big-win-lottery numbers, okay?.</b></center><br /><br />Madame Fate owns a crooked traveling carnival that looks to be on the brink of collapse but it’s her life, not her business, that’s bothering her to bother you. Her little shiny orb had just revealed that she’s going to die at the stroke of midnight!<br /><br />Of course.<br /><br />Well, some people just won’t die without a fight and fight sneakily she shall by using you to approach her suspects. As it turns out, from the mermaid to Fate’s fat son, <em>all</em> her employees are suspects to her foretold imminent death. Each has their own agenda to knock her lights out but it will be the All-Seeing Ball which will tell specifically the man with the smoking gun.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF03.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF03_small.png"></a><br /><b>There are lots of fun rides in Fate’s carnival. Play at your own risk.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF04.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF04_small.png"></a><br /><b>Your secret identity is safe, but you still have to play janitor.</b></center><br /><br />Just like in every hidden objects game, you need to find various items, from as mundane as birds and bees to as bizarre as fixing up a few spots like turning on a green light or placing a feather in a hat.<br /><br />That’s what made the <em>MCF</em> games so unique. Unlike other find-and-click-and-click-and-click-and-click-s’more techniques, this game requires you to complete a few non-repetitive tasks in other to get what the crystal ball is looking for.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF05.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF05_small.png"></a><br /><b>You can also interrogate the members themselves too, but most as not as easy as this one.</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF06.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF06_small.png"></a><br /><b>Each carny member have their own agenda against Madame Fate.</b></center><br /><br /><b>Storyline:</b><br />Oh, I could have sand in my eyes and still see the ending coming in from a mile away. But <em>MCFMF</em> games wasn’t it! It was not until investigating the last two suspects that I was beginning to think Madame Fate’s fate correctly and thought, “Hey, that’s different.”<br /><br />Still, it didn’t blow me away. Unlike <a href="http://shadow-pimpernel.blogspot.com/2008/03/games-review-cate-west-vanishing-files.html">The Vanishing Files</a>, MCFMF’s storyline have no character development other than just watching TV-like of their midnight activities. However, like all previous MCF games, it all ends with a <em>‘To be continued...’</em><br /><br /><b>Gameplay:</b><br />Methinks, is the best form for this game. There are some really original puzzles never seen before, or a totally new upgrade from old puzzles. I liked best was the Medicine Man and the Tattooed Man puzzles. They’re all quite challenging and I had to confess nooby-ness and surf for walkthroughs. <em>*hehehe!*</em><br /><br />There are also other little bits and pieces in the game that have no function in solving or aiding puzzle completion but they’re quite fun to click and see animated.<br /><br /><b>Visuals:</b><br />It’s not as pretty as the <a href="http://shadow-pimpernel.blogspot.com/2008/02/games-review-spirit-of-wandering-legend.html">Spirit of Wandering</a> game or the <em>Mystery in London</em> game, but unlike some few others, <em>MCFMF</em> really do hide their stuff instead of just chucking photo cut-outs in colour coordinated sections. <br /><br />Nothing special actually, only that it’s one of the really hardest games to find the stated objects. Not remarkable but pretty nice. It’s the puzzles gameplay that are much more impressive, thank you.<br /><br /><b>Music and Sound Effects:</b><br />Often overlooked, Big Fish Games made this flaw as usual. I did like some of the special sound effects like that crazy laughter when you click certain characters during the puzzles, but overall, it didn’t affect me as a player and mostly I just turn it off.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF07.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF07_small.png"></a><br /><b>See into the All-Seeing Ball... to fine more damn puzzles!</b></center><br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF08.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/MCF08_small.png"></a><br /><b>By solving the Ball’s riddles, you get to see the suspect’s final performance.</b></center><br /><br />Duly recommend this game for all hidden object games out there. Just make sure you have a weekend to spare as because this is a timed game and you probably won’t be able to leave your PC or you might miss something! <em>*hahaha!*</em><br /><br />I’m definitely looking forward to the next <em>MCF</em> in the series but I think I can wait, no problem.<br /><br />PS: A complete, step-by-step walkthrough for this game can be found at <a href="http://www.gamezebo.com/features/mystery_case_files_madame_fate_1.html">Gamezebo.com’s Tips and Tricks.</a>.<br /><br />Downloads for this game can be found at <a href="http://www.reflexive.com/MysteryCaseFilesMadameFate.html">Reflexive Arcade</a>. If you want the cracked version, ask me nicely.Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-73969455640346825192008-03-25T12:34:00.004+08:002008-03-25T12:41:49.167+08:00March’s Magic Image Story: The Sleeping Geyser<center><a href="http://shadow-pimpernel.blogspot.com/2008/02/februarys-flight-image-story-slaves.html">Previously: February's Flight (2008)</a><br /><br /><strong>COPYRIGHT JOEY B</strong><br /><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/Ice_Phoenix_Part_2_by_Joey_B.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/Ice_Phoenix_Part_2_by_Joey_B_small.png"/></a></center><br /><br />A traveler and self-professed student of history huddled herself into a ball on the rocky ground, under a bole of an ancient tree. The monsoon rains are relentless and her only protection from the wind, rain and icy coldness was her thick cloak of synthetic materials and the makeshift roof she constructed out of leafy underbrush. With her meager skills in wood magic, she had built a shelter thick enough to keep her partially dry and her cloak will keep her partially warm.<br /><br />Such survival skills were necessary; Ireulun had been cautious about the possibly risky situations of backpacking through this unknown world.<br /><br />It didn’t help her mood though. Half of her wished she could go back out into the night, back across the barren rocky lands and to the slaveship. It must have felt confused, to have found a master who wished not to be a master.<br /><br />The other half wished the slaveship would come fly itself and get her. Her resolve to allow the living flycraft make its own choice, the freedom to make its own choice, was slowly wearing out her patience.<br /><br />Especially in the dark, stormy night.<br /><br />Ireulun felt a sudden birth of mirth, possibly as her wits were driven out of her by the cold. She imagined what strange events would occur on such dark stormy nights, and would she be there to witness it. <br /><br />Hopefully not a hailstorm. Her little bush-house probably would stand little chance. And she wanted to sleep. By sunrise, the weather would be mild enough for her to leave her spot and find a more sufficient shelter. It was only early winter; the series of hurricanes that plagued the isles every winter had not yet appeared. Only very cold storms.<br /><br />Some perverse mind reader must have heard her thought and teased the storm to bring forth the little drops of ice she so despised. <br /><br />Ireulun groaned when something that sounded like pebbles hitting on a plastic tent reverberated above her. They were tiny at least, but some were still big enough to pierce through the leaves and batter her through her cloak. Rainwater dripped through the holes made by the hailstones as well, dripping on her back and chased away whatever left of the comfortable warmth she had.<br /><br />Ireulun groaned even louder, the noise ignored by the howling winds, the splatter of rain and little hailstones on rocks. She curled herself up even tighter and avoided the steadily falling drips from her tree ceiling, knowing all too well that she would not be able to sleep after all.<br /><br />She hoped she wouldn’t catch a cold.<br /><br />She kept her mind distracted by remembering the history books she had borrowed from the library of that town she left before and now going back towards it. She thought about what she learned about the winter storms of the islands. <br /><br />Apparently, it would start small, but as the weeks’ progresses, the series of hurricanes would plague the island chain. That’s when the spirits of water and air would rise and do battle against each other. Hailstones were one of the signs that the air spirits had come. <br /><br />Just her luck.<br /><br />A freezing wind crept under her shelter and chilled her bones. Now seemed like a good time for a hot cup of chocolate. She felt she could really use one. Slowly, she rose from her curled position and reached for her large backpack.<br /><br />In the inky darkness, she found the pocket where she kept several stones that glowed a white light when rubbed. Her hand found their smooth surface; her fingers pushed some of them around, making little knobby sounds as the stones hit against each other. <br /><br />She found the biggest stone, a large round one covered in a fishnet sachet. Pinching it out of her pack, her fingers felt stiff with the cold, but her eyes rejoiced in the gentle burst of light the glow stone emitted.<br /><br />It was bright enough for Ireulun to rummage through the rest of her things. She had to work quickly, the glowstones’ light were not substantial. <br /><br />She took out a thermos cup and a brown ball of dried chocolate powder. She reached out to one of the flowing drips and caught some of the rain in her cup, her hand shivering with the cold. <br /><br />Once her cup was full, she concentrated on using her magic to heat the water, chanting quietly to aid her concentration for evocation. She could have forgone the hot chocolate and just simply used the spell to heat her own body, but she wasn’t as good as that. She nearly had a heatstroke the first time she tried to heat her own blood. <br /><br />Besides, she liked hot chocolate.<br /><br />Slowly, steam rose from the heated water. Ireulun breathed in the rising warmth of air and letting it fill her lungs. Greedily, she drank before it was cool enough to drink so she scaled her tongue. In her jerk, she knocked the hand that held the cup against a protruding tree branch and the drink spilled to the ground. <br /><br />She cursed, damning only herself. A sad waste of hot chocolate.<br /><br />The hot chocolate was spilled on the hard, rocky floor of the shelter. It flowed downwards where gravity told it to flow. But Ireulun then noticed something strange. She watched her spilled drink, the flow suddenly started to reverse and then turn into a sharp angle. <br /><br />She blinked, but there was no deception in her eyes. The tiny brown water trail flowed out of her woody refuge. Ireulun touched gingerly on the earthen floor. There were no protruding angles, no rock pockets, nothing to indicate that the stone had been in the way of the strange flowing chocolate water.<br /><br />Her spilled drink flowed <em>by itself.</em><br /><br />Water was not supposed to do that, flowing against gravity was against nature. Unless magic was at work, all rules of nature applied. <br /><br />Unless magic was at work...<br /><br />She peeked out from her shelter and noticed for the first time that all the fallen rain, the tiny rivulets of water shifting and moving snake-like on the ground, was going in the same direction as her spilled drink. All water, even the rolling hailstones, was moving uphill.<br /><br />Ireulun looked up and saw that the rains were falling naturally, down to earth, flying with the winds. But when it water hit the ground... Something big was at work that night.<br /><br />Especially in the dark, stormy night.<br /><br />She was never the one to shy away from strange phenomenon. After securing her cape, cloak and a thick muffler around her face, she left the protective shelter of her brush and tree bole and followed the flowing water. <br /><br />The open night was still dark and dreary. She could barely see anything; her steps were guided only by the light of her large glowstone she kept close to her body.<br /><br />The place she was hiking through was a rocky wasteland with rockier mountains on the horizon. The stony path she took was white, filled with shallow moving water and strangely, quite smooth. An old dried up river? Was that even possible, water regularly flowing upstream during the winter storms?<br /><br />Eventually the rivulets became shallow streams, some soaked into her boots, the winds were as coldly fierce as ever. She kept away from the water, mindful of any possible torrents that might sweep her off her feet. That risky possibility and various others that might strike her gave she her caution.<br /><br />But they did not stop her resolve.<br /><br />Ireulun climbed an outcrop of rock to get out of the growing water and noticed the colour in the sky and on the horizon had changed. Shafts of dim light shade the distant mountains and dark red clouds covered the sky, scattered evidence of the night’s storm. Daylight was coming. The winds too had slowed. The rains had been reduced to a placid drizzle.<br /><br />In what she had learned about the coming winter weather of the islands, dawn and sunset was the mildest time for the storms. She had planned to make most of her hike during those twilight hours.<br /><br />She held her glowstone high above her head, trying to assess an overall view of her position. By the small light, she saw that the rock she stood on was just after the edge of a large basin of water. It was clear and cool, and eerily calm. A lake? <br /><br />It was a lake. Large and green, surrounded by rocks and cliffs. It betrayed no indication of its depths; its silent stillness was eerie to look at.<br /><br />Even if it were just a pool, this would have been a boon for the people of Crosswind Isles, as fresh water was hard to come-by, thought Ireulun. Why had they not taken advantage of this resource? Do they know it exist?<br /><br />Her hood was still soaking wet. She took it off from her head and squeezed the water out, taking advantage of the quickly growing sunlight to dry her apparel. Drops of the squeezed water fell over the rock she stood on and splashed into the lake. <br /><br />She watched the ripples on the water as she twisted her hood. The ripples caused by it were small but instead of dispersing, it grew larger and it gets further and further away from her.<br /><br />More ripples formed and grew, until the lake was swirling and churning by some internal, moving force. Ireulun apprehensively bit her lip. Had she disturbed a sleeping giant? From the very center of the lake, a whirlpool formed. <br /><br />It grew quickly, moving faster and faster like something had opened a plunger from the bottom of the lake. As the ring of the sun broke through from the thickening storm clouds, tinged blood red by the light, a massive shape began to take form in the heart of the whirlpool. <br /><br />It took on a winged form, an iridescent bird made of ice and running water shook its white head clear from the whirlpool, scattering shining droplets everywhere. It was beautiful and magnificent to not stare. But Ireulun turned her eyes away as the sunlight fell on its crystalline body; the reflected light was too strong to see directly. <br /><br />From the corner of her eye, She watched as the bird tested its wings. Every beat shook the waters of the lake even more. A gathering wind, peculiarly warm instead of cold, circled around the lake. The waves splashed noisily on the shore, some were as high as to push up against her ankles. She struggled to maintain standing on her rock. <br /><br />The bird then took off into the sky like a graceful rocket, but it’s form grew less solid with every height it gained. Less visible. It was as if its feathers dissolved into steam with every flap of its diamond-like wings. <br /><br />Ireulun watched in awe. The bird flew to the clouds; it’s form turning tiny against the rolling clouds and hot-red sky, before it disappeared. She looked back at the lake, or what’s left of the lake. The lake had reduced in size, greatly. It was much smaller than it was when she found it. <br /><br />The once enormous lake, fueled by uphill flowing water, had turned into a pool no bigger than a duck-pond.<br /><br />She climbed down the outcrop of rock and approached the site. The lost of water, what water taken by the flying spirit, had revealed something nestled between the rocks. In the edge of the pool, was a cavern. It was not a gaping mouth of hole on the rocks, but it was not a small crack either. Ireulun estimated that it was at least ten feet high and maybe fifteen feet wide.<br /><br />And it was black. And dark. More so as it hid in the shadows of the mountains, the rising sunlight did not touch anywhere near the cave. <br /><br />Ireulun held up her glowstone, still brightly lit, stretching it out in front of her, towards the cave. Trickles of water here and there curtained the cave, making small puddles that stream and snake in trails down to the pool. <br /><br />She approached it carefully; wary of possibly any new spirits might turn up to surprise her. Her feet touched the edge of the pool.<br /><br />Ireulun noticed another thing about the cave. Letterings, craved into some of the rocks, outside and around the cave. The alphabet looked familiar. Perhaps she could recognize the words?<br /><br />Spurned by her curiosity, she approached the patterned rocks. She walked across the water; it slapped ripples around her feet.<br /><br /><em>Crack!</em><br /><br />What sounded like a breaking glass rang from underneath her. A fissure in the bed of the pond formed between her feet, sucking in the water.<br /><br />She stopped cold. Inside her, she felt her stomach made an uncomfortable flip.<br /><br /><em>Craaaaaaack!</em><br /> <br />And with that great sound, the wet ground broke into shattering pieces and Ireulun felt into unearthly darkness.Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7156446074991553345.post-31301964527972821112008-03-22T16:07:00.002+08:002008-03-22T16:14:56.960+08:00Images: Artful Architectural WondersIt’s Saturday again. Unlike the previous weekends, I didn’t prepare in advance for the pictures I was suppose to put up for this weekend mainly because it slipped through my mind.<br /><br />So I had only a small inkling on what to show. My main idea was to look for surreal pictures, something like one of the angels in my old <a href="http://shadow-pimpernel.blogspot.com/2008/03/image-angels-and-whole-new-slideshow.html">Angel Images</a> entry a few weekends ago. <br /><br />Bah! Since I don’t have them, I dove into my piles of old stuff pictures and looked for inspirations in the ones that caught my eye.<br /><br />Then it hit me; buildings!<br /><br />Call it the KLIA roominess aftermath. I’ve made some really nice buildings images entries before, like the <a href="http://shadow-pimpernel.blogspot.com/2008/02/image-gates-beyond-time.html">epic-ly beautiful portals</a> I’ve submitted before. I loved those and they were part of this complex imaginary world I have in my head.<br /><br />So I present this week are some stunning architectures that were made by various creative artists.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/buildings02.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/buildings02_small.png"></a><br /><b>A Wizard School by Unknown Artist</b></center><br /><br />Hahaha, to tell you the truth, I don’t know who made this. It’s one of the pictures I took out in my really old stuff folders. I loved it for its 3D rendering of the really tall white Gothic-themed building and the lighting used here made it even more majestic. <br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/buildings01.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/buildings01_small.png"></a><br /><b>Old London at Moonlight by <a href="http://www.raphael-lacoste.com">Raphael Lacoste</a></b></center><br /><br />This is an artwork from my ever-favourite games-visual artist, Raphael Lacoste. The candyman behind the eye-candy of <em>Prince of Persia</em> and <em>Assassin Creed</em> games, he made this piece to emulate what it might have been in Victorian London times. <br /><br />I’m on all accounts an English/England/Englishland/Fish-and-Chips fanatic so I really got to put this up here.<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/buildings04.png"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/buildings04_small.png"></a><br /><b>Landing Zone by <a href="http://www.savinoff.com/home/">Dmitry Savinoff</a></b></center><br /><br />I knew the artworks of Savinoff neither through the game he and his friend had designed nor through 3Dartists.com webring for artists. Rather it was through a Google search for something sci-fi, during a time when I was still overly plagued with pimples that I discovered his fantasy and sci-fi wonders with digital pictures.<br /><br />This picture of his I have personally colour-printed and hung it on a wall in my room, close to my PC so I’ll be able to see it when I turn my PC on. It’s kind of like a very nice dawn-of-a-new-day thing it got there, don’t you think?<br /><br /><center><a href="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v383/prime_spirit/buildings05.png"><img src="http://www.imagehosting.com/out.php/i1646443_buildings03smallmore.PNG"></a><br /><b> Fallen Beauty by <a href="http://www.capturefx.co.uk/">David Edwards</a></b></center><br /><br />This is also another picture I’ve been thinking of printing it out and getting it hung on my wall. I needed a fourth wheel to get this entry moving so I took an express through CGSociety.com’s 5 Stars gallery. <br /><br />Oh my God, this is really beautiful. The detailing is exquisite, every part of the ruin provokes thoughts, speculation and questions on what it means to the artist. Was it a ballroom? A church? Was it ruined through neglect? An evil plot? <br /><br />I tried looking from his main site but I found even more beautiful pictures that rouse the imagination. Duly recommend that you visit all these artists, as their works, if I hadn’t had a blog to write about them, would be best described as... artfully wonderful.Quickeninghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05857905573393678482noreply@blogger.com5