Merry Merry *Belated* Christmas~

Merry Christmas to Everyone.... though I'm a bit late.... like.... 3 days? Haha, but it's the thought that counts eh?

I've been terribly busy lately, dragging myself around town and all over KK just meeting with friends, running errands for my mom, having fun, working out, and also planning how to end our beloved year 2010.

Weather in KK has also been terrible lately.... When I mean terrible, well, I don't mean terrible like London =) fortunately for us, we don't have snow. But still raining throughout the day puts you off doing your daily chores like making ginger bread men for Christmas or going out to get Christmas decorations..... though I never do any of those.... but you get what I mean...

Luckily it ain't snow ^^

We don't wanna end up having New Year celebration in Igloos do we?

But meh, the weather don't stop us from having fun. Like I said, I've been kinda busy lately, so I never had time to sit down properly and write a proper blog post.

Sadly though, Christmas this year was kinda silent. Although we used to celebrate it with something like a countdown and flooding DiGi's telecommunication lines with useless greeting SMSes, this year was just a usual night with a cup of tea to warm myself. It wasn't that bad though, considering the very day of Christmas itself, I was out all day from morning till night.

So besides busying myself running all over town, and besides the times spent drooling over some scandalously wrong yet erotically stimulating pieces of art.... like.... 0_0

@_@~!! *nosebleed*.....

Dreamcity vs Users by *lehanan on deviantart.com

It's amusing how a pencil can produce such.... *ahem*..... graphic effects.... wish I could draw like that.... but if I could, I should be a manga author instead.... and I'll write/draw a manga of my life....

Okay... =.=" bad distraction.... back to Christmas.... where was I.... besides running around town, I've been spending most of my time hanging out with my friends over the past week. And I'm leaving for a road trip to the Tip of Borneo tomorrow, hopefully with some interesting stuff to update.

Hmm.... distracted by that eye-popping piece of pencil created characters.... I forgot what I was gonna say.

Anyway, if it isn't too late, here's 3 things I wish I could have for Christmas:

1. A Happy New Year, yea... literally... I mean.... a happy new year, next year ^^
2. A new phone. My phone seriously needs a changing.... it's falling apart =(
3. Lastly of course, as the lyrics of the famous christmas song goes: "All I want for Christmaaas~~~ is youuuu~~~"

In the meantime, I think I've gotta go pack for tomorrow's road trip.

So, Merry Christmas to all, and.... yea, that's all for now =) New Year isn't here yet, hehe

Sometimes, when the sky and the sea and the shore wear the same shade of grey.

It looks like the world has come to a stand-still.

 ~

Amnesia: The Dark Descent (Game Review)

I've been meaning to introduce a couple of good Movies and give some movie reviews, but there's quite a few of them and they sorta.... piled on top of each other like a cheese burger and I don't know where to start. So in the mean while, I'll write a review about a Game I just played instead =)

So among those HORROR fans out there.... including fans of Ghost and Horror Movies, this is a must-try game that, in my own personal opinion, tops the charts of all-time horror games out there.

Introducing to everyone:

If YOU haven't played THIS, you haven't played **** of Horror Games.

You know, the best thing about Games are.... YOU're in control of your character's fate. Unlike watching movies where you could call the actor a 'wuss' or actress a 'pansy'... In games, you get to choose what you wanna do with your character other than running headlong into a wall because of fear and "konking" your lights out.

If you've played Resident Evil, Good~ If you've watched Ju-On, Even better~ If you loved F.E.A.R, Bravo~ You're ready for Amnesia~!!

Amnesia is my personal favourite First Person Shoot--..... No, First Person Explorer (you'll find out why soon).... game that I've played so far... Topping my experience with Doom 3, F.E.A.R, Resident Evil, and many more. Although in true honesty, Amnesia can't be compared side by side with these games because of one main thing. Amnesia is NOT an Action Shooter game.

Similar to F.E.A.R, this game gives you the Best of spine-chilling, neck-aching experience. But in F.E.A.R, you tend to realize that after playing an hour or so into the game, their scare tactics wear off, and fail to give you that bone-stretching jump out of your chair. Because the game soon turns into more guns blazing and laser targeted missiles flying rather than horror, and even if the horror were there, you just knew when it was coming.

Amnesia, on the other hand, is more of a puzzle solving, (although the puzzles aren't mostly hard, so you have to keep your eyes peeled to LOOK OUT for hidden levers, doors, and stuff, because it's really DARK.... and sometimes it's just hard to see), exploring, adventure game, where you're a guy whose lost his memory, who roams about this castle finding clues to what you should do.

However, Amnesia wins!! in terms of horror~!! Why? Throughout the whole course of the game, you have your ONE and ONLY best weapon~ Your Rusty and Trusty Oil Lamp~!!

Pardon the non-halal picture. Obviously the game designer hadn't considered that problem =)

Yes~!! instead of being able to shoot down the ever-so-horrific bogeyman roaming the corners of dark hallways, you are given no weapons to confront your worse horrors, hence First Person Explorer =.=" So the only alternative you have, is to RUN and HIDE in a dark corner, or cabinet, face the wall, and pray to God that your nightmare walks away without finding you...

I like it because it induces a real-life feeling where you're hopeless and helpless.... instead of being the all-time superhero who's invincible against the tens and thousands of zombie hordes that come rushing to you... In THIS game, survival is prime! So, HIDE~!!

But wait!! You can't hide too long in the dark!! Because poor Daniel (the character you play) is afraid of the dark!! And he'll start whimpering, and hearing non-existent sounds and footsteps and think he's going crazy if you keep on depriving him of his light source. He also goes insane if you keep staring at the monsters that are looking for him....

The Bogeyman... Don't LOOK at him~!! Because he's scary and drives you insane

During most of the game play... you'd best be prepared and on the edge, just waiting for something..... or nothing.... to happen =) Many times you slowly open doors and the room goes "RooAAAAAHHHH!!!" and you go "WAAAAaaaaaAAH!!!" sending you butt-first into your closest darkest closet, only to realize that it was just the wind....

The game actually works wonders in keeping you just Anticipating.... and anticipating.... while everything is dark and gloomy... keeping yourself poised. And each time, JUST when it looks bright and sunny and everything seems like it's gonna be safe, the game just HAS to spoil everything and make you paranoid of everything again ^^

Oh, and did I mention I love the physics of the game, where you can pick up objects and throw them around, and in places where you think it's too dark (like the picture above) you could find some unlit candles or light source lying around and lighting them with tinderboxes (matches, modern terms). BUT! Keep in mind that you only have oh-so-many tinderboxes that you can pick up.... so use them sparingly.... and don't light up every room you pass by like your mother-in-law is coming for the dinner banquet. Ah~ and did I say that, your Lamp has limited oil too??

Having said so much, I still think.... reading won't do much good in terms of introducing such a fabulous game to you guys. So here's a good youtube trailer of the game I found:

Here's the direct youtube link just in case some people can't see the embedded vid and are actually interested in seeing it... : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEHPwAvrc_U&

One of the best horror games of all times, seriously. Once again, I introduce to all of you: Amnesia - The Dark Descent.

p/s: To play this game properly, you'll need medium high end specs on your computer... but the best thing of all, the game is only 900MBs =) 10 times smaller than any of those ass-whooping games out there ^^

Could you sign here please?

Man... I have GOT to get a proper signature.

It's a pain in the ass when each time somebody asks me to sign a document, all I can give them is a crappy half-signed half-doodled signature that a 5 year-old could do better than me. And lately, having stepped out into the working environment.... I've been having to see it more and more often.

I bet you've been to the bank, and when you wanna withdraw some funds, they ask for your signature? In my case, I have a different signature.... at every bank........ why?? Because each time I opened a bank account, I can't remember what kind of signature I used in the previous bank, much less be able to sign a replica of it.... so I just invent a new one on the spot.

No two signatures of mine are the same.... and everytime I withdraw money over the cashier from the bank, I get this double-take looking back at me to check see if I'm the same person as the photo on my ID card. Sigh.... I seriously need a proper signature.

Do you realize how some people's signature look so cool and elegant that even when you just look at their signature you'll go "This man has gotta be SOMETHING....", which in most cases, he is.

Like this.

Okay, maybe this one is a bit girly... with the 'love' and all, since it's Avril Lavigne's.... and she isn't a 'he' but yea... it's a good signature. I mean... it looks cool, and... yea, that's the whole point of it.

Then on the totally opposite side of the scale, we have the "What is this scribbling???" signatures.... which look something like this:

Would you just LOOK~! Who... I mean... who the hell's signature couldn't it have been??? For all I know it could be someone testing whether their pen still had some ink left in it; Or maybe someone decided "I am NEVER signing this document!!" and scribbled something for the sake of foiling the paper... but people mistook it as his signature and 'Tada~'....

You know, I once had this pastor... he's gone now... Not GONE gone... but, I mean... gone elsewhere... Japan maybe... I forgot. And he had the most curious signature ever....

Among the few times I went to church.... years ago.... which weren't even a handful of times... We'd get these 'leaflets' or 'bulletins' about the happenings around us and so-on, signed.... by the pastor. And EACH time I got the bulletin, I brought it home.... to compare the signature ~.~"

His signature was nothing like what I've ever seen. It looked like random scribbles, doodles, markings, whatever you can call a bunch of random nonsensical pencil/pen strokes scattered all over the place. A little bit of dots here.... a triangle there.... some zig-zags near the bottom.... then zig-zags again in the upper left... then maybe a circle in the middle of the zig-zags... an x in the corner... it was the most peculiar thing ever.... 

Unfortunately I lost the bulletins and can't show them to you today.... And I don't go to church anymore so.... yea...

I remember the first thought that came to mind when I first saw it was "This is a SIGNATURE!??"

Then again, back to myself.... I think I should spend some time practicing a good signature one of these days.

.

2 weeks back in KK

It seems I have once again lost the passion to blog. I'm not sure why, maybe I'm just not in the mood. I've been more in a brooding mood lately, just sitting around, staring into a blank wall and stuff like that. So pardon me if my posts seem a bit dull...

So, I've been back in KK, enjoying the daily icy cold wind thanks to the depressing weather lately.... for more than 2 weeks now. And what have I been doing? Nothing much, other than going out once in a while, and finishing an 'old-school' game known as "Final Fantasy VII"

I was in fact intending to write another post, more dedicated to the game, but it was turning into a full-fletched game review that would serve better on the forums of IGN or gamespot.com.... or some gaming website, so I didn't post it.

One thing I love about games, and movies, is.... it makes you wonder.... whether... there's actually something more to life, other than what we know it as. It makes us want to do more in life.... like... Could we someday, be someone set out, on an adventure to save the world?? And, it gives you odd dreams and fantasies that maybe one day you would be part of some cinematic character on a quest to prevent the planet's destruction, world domination, fighting for a nation... or whatever makes you happy =)

Who wouldn't fancy seeing some kind of bird + man + angel + demon hybrid species eh?

But after playing it all and through, you find yourself stuck just like everybody else, in a place where even your neighbour next door doesn't know your name.... much less expect you to save their asses.

For now, I guess I ain't got nothing much to update anymore.

Till I find something interesting, so long~