Photos: Inner Voices on Out-of-Blog Living

: Aaaaacccckkkk!!!
: Now what?
: I’ve missed blogging here. *sob!*
: So? Why the screaming? Unless a nuclear virus had struck Blogspot, the blog’s not going anywhere.
: Yeah, but what is a blog is not to capture living experience in words for all to share?
: 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.
: Alas! Poor Quickening! I knew her, Baddie. A girl of infinite jest and excellent drama-cy.
: Drama-cy? English bard, you are not.
: You rather go Yoda?
: If I could write my assignment reports in Star Wars’ Jar Jar Binks, I’ll be done in 15 minutes.
: Oooo, meesa writes bad fishy Jedi speak!
: Oh, go screw a fish.
: Speak for yourself. Oh wait, you ARE me. Bad mood today, aren’t I?
: Effect is the cause of bad Jedi speak and feeling so very, very tired from doing homework.
: You still got assignments E-doc and Java programming. Bummer.
: Yeah and I’ll need to see an Academic Advisor soon.
: How come?
: Well, since I’ve finished that thesis report last Wednesday, I want to do Part 02 next semester.
: Next semester is the short semester. Think you can do it, all that graphic and courseware design?
: As long as it’s the only subject I’ll be taking (4 credit hours), I know I can manage.
: But that subject is not recommended for short semester.
: Hence, looking for the Academic Advisor. Then the Supervisor and the Project Moderator.
: You’re trying to finish everything this year, right?
: 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?
: Cuti-cuti Malaysia?
: *WHAM!*

Alamak, flat tyre!


No really, Ayah, I can do it myself-ler...

: Okay, aside from metaphorically hitting yourself, what’s with the photo?
: I was bored.
: So you took pictures of your dad changing your car’s flat tyre?
: I like work. It fascinates me. I could watch it all day.
: Ayah changing the Proton tyre is hardly Broadway exhibition.
: 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.
: Once a car salesman, always a car salesman.
: Amen.


Was at the school’s balcony. They’re having a 10th year anniversary festival.


Guess who came to play the guest of honour.


Gee, the Jalur Gemilang blue jumpsuit must have been a clue.

: 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?
: Call it what you will. Preferred isolation, peaceful viewing, catching cooling natural wind, extra vitamin D after all that PC sitting hours,-
: Influenced by Japanese anime schoolgirls?
: That’s a matter of opinion.
: Can’t hide the truth from me, sweetie. Passing over your love of solitary moments, what’s with the white tents on the school’s car parks?
: Why are you asking all these questions?
: I’m playing dumb funny so I can be serious genius when I need to do homework.
: Dumb, yes. Funny? Questionable.
: Haha, hoho. Oh, my ribs. Stop before you make me puke.
: School was having a 10th anniversary day and Dr. Sheik Mohd Shukor was the guest of honour.
: The Malaysian astronaut? You had a major, major crush on him once.
: Did not!
: Did too.
: No, you’re imagining things. He’s too much a celebrity than what’s good for him.
: You had his smiling picture as your desktop wallpaper for all the months he was in Russia.
: 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.
: Is that why you braved the crowds to snap pictures of his boyish good looks? And you don’t even like large crowds.
: ...


Patchy sleeps. Empty suitcases have this nice hammock thing he likes.


Original Turkish salami. Should be enough to last two months.


The most beautiful souvenir of all. And damn heavy.

: All the stuff had been unpacked, huh?
: Yeah. Mak and Ayah are doing the neighbourhood rounds, giving off presents to their old friends.
: Because said old friends gave them presents in their gallivanting trips.
: Impress to be impressed, that’s their freaky motto.
: Heh. And I can’t complaint.
: Yeah, check out the new ceiling fixture.
: Pure crystal?
: Pure crystal. This thing would have cost about RM 2000+ in the local chandelier shops.
: But they got it at RM600 in Iran.
: Yeah, and it wasn’t too difficult to put it up too.
: And it’s no small pretty balls hanging there. That thing took up an entire suitcase.
: Yeah, Mak had to buy a new Iranian suitcase to carry new Iranian chandelier.
: There was an even bigger one that Ayah wanted.
: He’ll probably chase after it in his next Middle East field trip.
: Oh yeah, there was a minor security scare at KLIA, wasn’t it?
: Yeah. X-ray machine scans their bags to see big round balls.
: Crystal show up as solids in the x-ray. Made the guards think of grenades.
: Well, they were coming in from Iran, of all places.
: Hehehe.
: But hey! Gave Ayah a reason to show off the chandeliers to the airport security.
: Hope we have enough wall lights to accommodate any more.
: Still, it IS very pretty. And you won’t see them in any other house for miles.
: Oh.
: What’s wish the ‘oh’? You sound dispirited all of a sudden.
: That means neighbors wants to come over and see the fixture right?
: Duh.
: Crap, more crowds.

And That’s Just My Second Menstrual Day

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 1.00am
Location: At the PC, my bedroom.

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 round the Turkey nation trip and I can’t enjoy imported cheese while feeling like a piano had dropped on me.

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 2.30am
Location: Still in my bedroom. Guess where I was.

Can’t sleep. Got up and made finally Data Flow diagrams and Flow Chart diagrams for project.

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 6.25am
Location: Doing the Slinky in my bedroom.

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.

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 7.30am
Location: At the PC, my bedroom. Again.

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.

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 8.00am
Location: Downstairs in the living room.

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.

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 10.00am
Location: At the PC, my bedroom. Also again.

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.

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 12.00pm
Location: At the kitchen.

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.

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 12.30pm
Location: My bedroom. Oh, look! A PC!

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?

On the road to school for extra work. They should really take down these BN election banners already.

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 1.00pm
Location: At school. At the PC. My life is dead.

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.

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 2.15pm
Location: Leaving school. Ironic because I’ll need to come back here later.

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.

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 3.00pm
Location: At Ikano Power Centre.

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).
Went to Popular bookstore: No green plastic binder.
Borders bookstore: No green plastic binder.
MPH bookstore: No green plastic binder.
Tesco hypermarket: Surprise! No green plastic binder. But got nice cool 100+ drink.

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.


Some fellas were doing some maintenance work on the fountain.

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 4.15pm
Location: Time’s up! At the printing store.

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.

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 5.15pm
Location: At home. Not in my bedroom, thank you very much.

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).


Yaaaay! I also got chocolate Kisses!

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 5.45pm
Location: In the car, going to another printing shop.

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 *sob!*

-Student Log-
Time: Wednesday, 6.15pm
Location: Back to school. Typical.

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.


Multimedia Majoring. Into the slot they go.

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.

Damn hormones...

Suicide Aftermath: The World After You Died

It’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.

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.

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 Bleed it Out while you’re at it.

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.

Let’s just get thing over with it.

It may take a few minutes to a few hours to die, but you died.

You died.

But it’s not the end yet.

Oh, don’t you know? If you have sought help, maybe if you checked online for the after-effects of suicide, maybe you would have thought twice about blowing a bloody hole to your head.

Everything’s always about you isn’t it? Well, let’s not argue on that anymore.

Because you’re dead.

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.

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.

Then there’s your girlfriend, your landlord, your doctor, your lawyer, your university fees and all kinds of miscellany.

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.

But nothing matters anymore anyway. You’re dead after all.
And they all will soon find out.

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.

But he found you. What do you think he felt first, looking at your lifeless body?

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.

But you don’t wake up.

You couldn’t wake up.

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.

Haha, now they want 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.

Aren’t you?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

But you were pronounced brain-dead.

Now it feels real, doesn’t it?

Oh wait, you con’t feel anything anymore.

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?

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 now she cares. Where was she when you needed her?

To your family, the doctors explained. Your family exclaimed.

All of a sudden, there’s an empty void in their lives where you used to be.

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.

Did you ever think of that?

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.

Touche.

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.

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’.

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.

Memories of a sucide victim.

You’re better off being forgotten. And this is how the whole world forgets you. And the world will forget you.

All it takes is time.

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.

It’s your sucide. Your ghost 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.

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.

But you didn’t.

Since she can’t be angry with you, she’s blaming your brother. She wants someone to blame. It’s her way of telling herself that she’s got nothing to do with your problems.

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.

He’s starting to look like when you were at your worst.

What a happy memory you left behind.

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?

Would you be surprised to know that instead, she’s trying to think of happier thoughts of you?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

To the end of your short life.

Bad relationship?
Lawsuits maybe?
Health issues?
Mental problems?
Inheritence troubles?
Familial history?

All sorts of speculations. Then they stir their nescafe susu, chew on their roti canai and talk of other things.

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.

And that’s the end of you.

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.

It’s far more than a heavy dead body.

Survivors of Suicide: Healing after a loved one’s suicide.
What Happens to Suicide Cases After Death?
Grief After Suicide
Contemplating Suicide?

Games Review: Astro Avenger 2 by Sahmon Games

If 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.

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.

After dearest NekWan passed on, I still hadn’t changed. Still love flying shooter arcade.

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.

And from the online buzz, second game sounded to be better.

Astro Avenger 2 by Sahmon Games


Rocket-pigs eats your ‘dirty strings.’

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.

Must be the adrendaline. Gameplay people, it’s the gaaaaaaameplay!!

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.

Boy, that is evil.


Awww, look at my babies. They take care of mommy-ship very well.


F**kf**kf**kf**kf**kf**kf**kf**kf**k...!

Storyline:
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.

Oooo, really fast reduction, me likes.

Gameplay:
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).

I call it the ‘drunk flying’ strategy since you flying all over the place. I still do that but with great restraint now.

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).

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.

Visual:
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).

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. *hehehe!*

Music and Sound:
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.



Using the Immortality shield, I turn myself into a hamsterball-cum-wrecking-ball. Too bad it doesn’t last very long.


Big Boss Crap. I knew I shouldn’t have used up the immortality shield so quickly.

My own helpful tips for playing Astro Avenger 2:

- Adjust mouse sentitivity to suit your hand-eye coordination.

- 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.

- 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.

- Once ship upgraded, keep holding left mouse button while flying at all times. I managed to get best ship inside World 3.

- Forget having babies in the earlier levels. Upgrade your ship past puberty first.

- Stay close to your babies. They tend to wander off. Better not have babies if your favourite strategy is ‘drunk flying’.

- 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).

- 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.

- See Last Boss.
- Last Boss is hell to kill.
- Stock up on shiplives and plasma (money).
- Get lots of plasma; sell lesser rockets leftover.
- Secret Weapon needs Plasma; nothing else can kill Last Boss.
- Kill Last Boss.
- Die Last Boss, die.

PS: Downloads for this game can be found at Reflexive Arcade. If you want the cracked version, ask me nicely.

Desktop Images: Sci-Fi Landscape Inspirations

This 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.

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.

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.

Chambers by ZoranC

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.

Haha, can’t help it if I like scenes that looks something like a reject on the Halo 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.


Rail Haven by Marco Rolandi

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.


The Rescue by designnrg

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.

It’s almost as if it’s two images linked into one pictorial narrative. Check out the artist Deviantart website for more landscape art.


Raevona - Docking Towers by Antifan-Real

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.

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… *bleh!*

Desktop Images: Female Characters in Fantasy

There 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.

Who am I kidding?
Female authors use ladies because it’s something they can relate to while male authors use ladies because they think always only of sex.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I’ll keeping looking though. It’s not as if Google’s a small search engine... *hehehe!*

Oh Goddess! by Alon

Alas! Art by Alon from CGSociety.com

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....

Touché.


New Order by Sunhee Lee

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.

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.

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...


Alienation by Michelle Chuang

She’s definitely one of my favourite portraiture artist, as opposed to landscape artists. I already have her other work, the commissioned Legend of the Vampire, as a tableau to one of my characters for my project assignment (which really needed a blog update; working on that!). She drew this from an inspiration while visiting the newly opened Taipei 101 tower.

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?

Or, maybe I can just grab someone’s hand that’s holding a goblet of wine and...


Kaguya Hime by Kagaya

Kljs of kennyljs.comonce 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.

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.

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.

The picture here is a rare step to an old Japanese mythology/faerie tale called the Bamboo Princess.

...She tells the old foster-parents who found her in a bamboo thicket and have brought her up with lots of love;
"I am not a common human being in this world. I am a Moonian.
I came down from the Moon as I was destined to. And now it's time for me to return home.
My compatriots are coming for me on the night of next Full Moon. I must go with them.
I've been in sorrow since last spring to think that you will grieve over my leaving." ...

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. *hahaha!*