Quickie

I just noticed yesterday that my blog's background appeared differently on different monitor's resolution. So, if anyone of you is seeing a somewhat oddly positioned background, that's most probably because your resolution is not 1280 x 1024.

This week I had two quizzes, one for calculus (which I screwed up really badly) and the other was physics (which was surprisingly good). I was quite emo the day when I had my calculus quiz. I have done lotsa practice and the questions that were given were probably some of the easiest questions I have seen before. Yet, because I was careless, I went and complicate matters and eventually ended up answering the wrong things. Sad as it is that's two marks gone, another 98 to go -.-".

Also I have just finished MGS1 yesterday, I have to say good games withstand the wears and tears of time. Now onto the next game in the series, MGS2: Sons of Liberty. I'm preparing myself for a very deep plot now. I currently know most of the events that took place in Outer Heaven, Zanzibar, and also Shadow Moses. Unfortunately, MGS2 is my least favorite series among the few that I have played. Mainly because I am controlling pretty boy Raiden. I still prefer good old Solid Snake though. = (

Here comes a new PS3 owner!

The person I am referring to is none other than Mr Seow Szeten. Finally some one to replace Leon. Sadly the only game we can play online right now is GTA IV. Personally, after I have finished the storyline, there was nothing much to bring me about to insert the disc into the PS3. My attempts to get him to buy COD 4 has failed miserably and now the only option is Burnout Paradise. Frankly though I have been putting my PS3 on standby to do odd jobs only recently, downloading demos etc etc.

For now I am more focused on my PSP as it has 3 of Hideo Kojima's finest work, Metal Gear Acid^2, Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops and also the PSX's Metal Gear Solid. Metal Gear Acid is probably the one that requires the most thinking as for most people who have played any Trading Card Game. The decision to put in an extra card could greatly affect your gameplay. The size of your deck would also be a factor as the more cards you have, the lower odds you have of getting a certain card. Personally I was a bit disappointed with the multiplayer part of the game as there wasn't a choice to pick a map that I would like to play on. After MGA^2, I have just started a new game for MGS, it feels very nostalgic to revisit Shadow Moses island all over again and at times you can really appreciate the extra features that they have added to the current versions of the game. Once I'm done with MGS, I would probably be playing MGS2 and MGS 3 on the PS2 first before laying hands on MGS Portable Ops. I hope that I can finish all these games in time for MGS4. Just can't wait for another 3 weeks to past. I am still very undecided on which version of MGS4 I will be getting. Seems like there are equal pros and cons in this matter and I will probably be making the decision during the time when I will be buying it.

Holiday!.....my foot

I hate holidays where you are still busy doing something which is not holiday-ish. Take for example today, even when there are no assignments to be rushing, I still have to study for my chemistry test tomorrow. About two thirds of the day spent doing so, how pathetic. Personally I know that the test would not match up to how hard the calculus test was, but being the kiasu people that I am, I just insisted on studying more. Most people would probably just read her notes as even she herself says it is sufficient but once again, yours truly has done what most people does not, reading from the text book. Well, I did not feel any smarter except that I pretty much know more about the organic compounds and their functional groups. Great.... one step for humanity and none from me.

Spent the rest of the day Devil May Cry-ing, damn I really need a new game, I am even planning to sell away my ninja gaiden game as soon as possible only after playing it once. The reason being, 1) I sucked in the game and 2) I want Burnout Paradise ! Anyways, I was playing on Human Mode ( Leon likes to refer to it as Pussy Mode) and it just did not felt as good when I was playing on Devil Hunter's mode. Enemies gets killed after a few hits and they don't do as much damage. Main reason I am still playing is because I want the achievements. I am quite the achievement whore I would say, I usually like to suck the life out of games that I love. Final Fantasy 10, and the Kingdom Hearts series just to name a few. By the way, to anyone reading my blog and has an interest in the game, I am selling it off at RM130 so please do message me if you want it.

Besides that, Crisis Core (Jack Sparrow's Version) has also been leaked about a week earlier than the release date and I am currently "obtaining" it via Bitcomet. Leon was rubbing it in since he got the game early today morning but can't blame him for it. He did try contacting me in the morning (way early like 1.00 am in the morning), but I was half asleep and knowing me, I need 6 hours of sleep before I can regain any sense of my surrounding environment. Hopefully by time I finish Crisis Core, I would have found a customer to buy that game from me. I need a new game for the PS3 and I need it soon.

Also, I hope that my desktop can be revived by the end of the week. I really miss it and my laptop is giving me a lot of problem. Microsoft Office '07 does not runs anymore, sometimes on startup, an error appears and I am forced to restart the computer, sometimes it doesn't startup at all, and instead it goes to a startup repair thing. I could almost throw the laptop out of the window if it did give me any more unwanted problem. I really wish I can bring my entire desktop with me to the US.

Oh yeah talking about the states. The University of Nebraska Lincoln is giving me a lot of trouble as they require me to sent ANOTHER bank letter to them. I wonder why is it that other universities does not have problem with the Bank Letter I sent them and only UNL is doing this to me. Troublesome people. I really wish all this trouble is worth my effort at the end when they give me my admission decision.

Life is being a bitch but hell, without this problem, I wouldn't be the Way Loon I am today. So, just have to bear with it and pray hard that everything goes smoothly.

My life for Adun ?

Half of Korea's population are probably gonna get Starcraft 2 when it is out, and I do not have to be a rocket scientist to say that. If they can still be playing a game which is like a decade old, kudos to them, seriously. Who knows, there might even be some Starcraft cult worshipers out there. Those crazy Koreans....







Here's a couple of trailers, each containing the intro to each of the Starcraft universe races. I used to like the game back when I was smaller, but grew tired of it after a while. I was just never good in Real Time Strategy (RTS) games ever since I was small. Micromanagement is just not my thing I guess. Btw, my favorite race was and still is the Protoss. They are just so cool. I think I would get this game when it is out also even though I'm not a big RTS fan. Brings back memory I guess, just like when I was reading the Starcraft's novel. It felt good knowing that I can still remember some of the things way back when I just started gaming.

Speaking of which, I have also completed my reading on the 2nd Diablo Novel, Scales of The Serpent. Now only one last book to read before I finish The Sin War trilogy. Up until now I think the book only has a moderate storyline, nothing too outstanding. I still prefer the Starcraft novel more, but sadly the third book is not out yet. Graa

March wasn't as busy as I have expected it to be. I have quite some time on my hand, as you can see, I am even posting on my blog which I usually do not do that regularly. Somehow I can't help feeling that I might have forgotten to do something. I have a test this coming Friday, but I think I can finish studying for that subject in 3 hours. So, what is it that I am not doing? or am I just succumbing to guilt from playing on my consoles too much. Oh well, ignorance is bliss.

I have lots more things to talk about but it is time for me to caress my PS3. Till next time, buh bye

I Want My Mommy

Nooo!! My best subject Calculus 2. Test 2 no good. How ar? Die lore.

See how Malaysia's English helped explain the whole situation in one very brief line. Okie, to the more important matter at hand. Todays calculus test was really tough, and I think I have already lost at least 10/50 marks. Darn I was hoping for this test to go well actually. Truth to be told, I was expecting another 99 or better yet 100 in this test also but sadly, this isn't possible. With that, I would have to work my ass off for finals in order to obtain the A/A+ for this subject. Darn it.

Recently, my performance has been going downhill. It is during times like this that feel so pathetic and discouraged to do anything about it. I keep telling myself that I have to do better in my finals but isn't that procrastination? Constantly delaying my work for another time..... Grrahhh. Currently I have to score 4.0 for each subject besides ENL102 (which I expect to get a B/3.0), that is my only hope for maintaining my current CGPA at 3.8 and above. Aiming Magna Cum Laude, gg, just joking but it will be amazing if I can graduate with that kind of honors.

Also, today is also the first day for advance enrollment, and I have taken a look at the draft timetable. Holy mama, 3/4 of the subjects I want to is clashing at the same time period. This is bad..... I do not want to take any rubbish subjects anymore (ea: ENL One- O- Two). The 4 subjects being Cal3, Intro to Linear Algebra, C Programming, and Physics 1. Currently if I am not mistaken the only two subjects that does not clash is C programming and Intro to Linear Algebra. I will try to ask Miss Terry to try and change some of the time for the above mentioned classes so that I can at least get 3 of them. Perhaps one other class I will be taking is French 101 ? LoL Funny no? That subject cannot be transfered but currently I have ran out of subjects to take( at least those that I would really want to take *crosses out public speaking subjects*) and this seem like a fun subject to take. I have no idea why but recently I do feel like learning more foreign languages and less of those that I already know.

On a side note, I have finished kicking demons' asses Devil May Cry. Action from start to end, but I have to say that the dice rolling mini-game really is a waste of time. I could almost sympathize the poor sap who scored a S for their style but ended up with a D for time spent in a mission. XD Luckily I am not one of them............for now.

With DMC over, now is the time to start playing Assassin's Creed and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. Once done with that, DMC4 some more on higher difficulty. Those are just the game for the PS3, on the PSP there is Patapon, God of War, and Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core. The latter is probably the game which I anticipate the most since I have held myself back from playing the Japanese version of the game. So many games, so little time. Why isn't there a job named Game Player in this world. That would be so sweet...............for me. The closest there is to one is Game Testers but those jobs are not exactly fun to do. Although you get to play the game in advance, but you will be playing with a beta or maybe even an alpha or maybe even a Greek-name-which-I-dunno-and-comes-before-alpha. All you will be doing is playing through the same stage over and over and over multiply t with limit t--->infinity. Aww shit too much calculus. I hate you limits ..... I really do.... T.T

I Hate ENL102

Lets start by saying I screwed up my ENL102 Midterm. I had no idea why but throughout the exam my mind was blank and I could feel some nervousness within me with every passing minute. The essay that killed me was one the one on success where I could not decide between definition or illustrative essay. In the end, I blend them together to create a hybrid essay. How ironic, an essay on success which ensured my failure. =.=" I never like the subject and even now I'm still regretting it, more likely than not, it can't be transferred and it pulls my CGPA down. Bloody hell.... Fortunately the midterm is just 10%, and so it greatly reduced my anxiety over this matter. Well, better luck in the finals. In a worst case scenario I would at least hope for a B grade in this retarded subject.

Besides the exam, the 2300 word essay that I wrote had to be edited in order to fit the maximum word limit of 1650(which she did not inform us about in the beginning). The best I could do was cut it down to 1700. These incident really added oil onto the existing fire. Her class is a waste of time in my opinion. The subject's coursework is also the heaviest among my other subject.Shitty shitty subject.

Next week there will be the 2nd test for Calculus and I am still very worried about it. The recent chapters are very tough I would say. Worse yet, I have barely started doing any exercise on the new chapter. Die lore ~.~"

Enough about college, back to what I love most, the Playstation 3. Although I did not have much time to play games like DMC4 and Assassin's Creed, I did downloaded a couple of new game demo. For some reason I think that providing a demo is a really great way to boost sales. Some of the demos that I played really did make me feel like getting the game.

Burnout Paradise is one such game. I usually do not touch racing games but Burnout is an exception. For some reason, the concept of "crash and burn" in the game really intrigues me. In the game, you really feel the need to crash your cars, just to look at how your car will "react to the environment". Other demo I have tried is The Club which is an FPS that Leon introduced me to, and also Lost Planet which is another shooter. Currently, I am also downloading yet another shooter which is Stranglehold, Tequila Time baby!

One thing I noticed from playing shooter games on the PS3 is that the right analog stick can never replace the mouse. I had a lot of trouble trying to aim at any incoming enemies. For now at least the Sixaxis is still a very good controller for all my gaming needs. For one, it is wireless and so I can just play any game while sitting at one corner of my room. The controller suits me fine since I have been a veteran of the PS controller design, since the PS1.

Deng wei I really wanna play God of War: Chain of Olympus. The song "Hold Devil's Pot of Tea" is playing in my head right now. For those who doesn't know what I am talking about here is the link

Gimme a break----- literally, i need one

Yes, I know it has been forever since I have written a decent post. Unlike Ben, I can't blog about anything and everything. Maybe that is why he is doing journalism and I am not. =P

This has been one heck of a week once more. 6 days of class including today's Calculus 2 replacement class. The day started out with all my daily routine over and over again. Sometime I can't help but feel dejavu-ish that every single day I am doing the same thing repeatedly. I forgot today is a Saturday, and well I left home at about the same time I usually do but reached at about 7 am. 1 hour before my class started, I almost felt like slapping the back of my head as I could have slept for an extra half an hour today. Class was alright and surprisingly I did not feel tired at all although I have only been sleeping for 6-7 hours per day for the past week.

To think that I only have one day off tomorrow, (and even then I have to study for next week's Micro test) is really sad and depressing. I can foresee already what I will be doing for the next couple of weeks and well it just adds to the already solemn mood in me. I forgot whether it was during this week (or maybe last week) that my application to Wichita State University is accepted. I would say they are very efficient unlike the other 2. Talking about the others, the admission office at UNL is having a slight problem with my application. Apparently, they need a Statement of Support from me that has the values return in but I am quite sure that I have written in all the necessary info for them before sending it. Troublesome lar~ The University of Wisconsin- Madison on the other hand is the one which has no updates or whatsoever on my application. Till date, I have only received one email from them. Whats even more annoying is that they actually sent it to my alternate email address instead of my preferred one. =.="

Besides studies, this week I did not really have much activities. The only time I spent with my girlfriend, besides the time sending her back from her University, is probably going to the Tian Hou Gong Temple yesterday. My girlfriend wanted to go pray and ask about some stuff so I naturally accompanied her and at the same time prayed together-gether. It is kinda ironic though as I usually do not go to the temple besides during the Chinese New Year, but I only went there the day after CNY officially ended. I am unsure of whether I have been to that place or not, I've heard of the place numerous time but have no fond memory of ever being there.

Let's see what else, err yeah, Game Developer's Conference was recently held, one of those big events in the gaming industry. A number of sequels were announced and quite a number of it are actually games that I have finished playing. Gears of War 2 definitely pique my interest, although the teaser trailer was just showing off Marcus Fenix vs-ing a Locust, what is more important is the fact that they will be chainsaw counter in the sequel (I hate it when the one getting chainsawed is my character instead). One word, "Awesome". In the tech demo we can see that there is an upgrade to what the engine could do and all. The environment are destructible, the water ripples like it is supposed to, and the blob of ........what the, MEAT?!? jiggles like its suppose to?? Sadly, for now the game is only announced for the 360 (XBOX)





Other game sequels announced are like Portal 2, the game with the AI which IMO is not that good in persuading a person. "THE CAKE IS A LIE!" or maybe not. The concept behind the gameplay is really creative and also unique. Something which is very rare in the gaming world right now. The part I love the most about the game is probably the credits, the AI actually sang the song. LoL, here's the video clip. P.S. If you have the time go look up its lyrics.



Okie, I'm bored of writing my post already. Time to stop now. *Yawns*

Short Break

I apologize that I haven't been maintaining my blog for quite some time. I was really busy (actually still is, only less). All three universities applications are done and that is one heck of a burden off my back. Probably will receive the admission decision when it is nearing the finals for the 1st semester, so I am not gonna stress myself over whether I will be accepted or not.

Oh yeah, I will not be giving anymore summaries on the Bleach episodes. I figure that if you are like me and watching the anime, you would most likely be downloading the episode and seeing it for yourself, rather than read from somebody's blog about what is unfolding in the world of Shinigamis and Hollows.

Recently besides watching Bleach and Naruto, I have also started watching Family Guy. They are surprisingly alike The Simpsons, for example both are a family of five(excluding Brian the dog). Peter and Homer are probably the biggest jerk in their own world. Both Stewie and Maggie has an IQ which you will never find in a baby their age. Another thing is that they both featured a lot of really funny antics.

Oh yeah before I forget. My desktop's motherboard is kinda screwed up and I would need to take it back to Low Yat to claim my warranty. It is really troublesome that I have to go all the way there. For some reason, I dislike people over at the Low Yat and Sungai Wang area. People who work in Low Yat are really bad mannered, and occasionally you will get the feeling that people there are just interested to serve you when you have something to buy. I am not just making any kind of speculation, as I have proof to support my statement. About a month or two ago, I went and claim the warranty for my sister's flashdrive from the shop I got it from. The dick head which "served" me, speaks and act as if I was responsible for his parent's death or something similar to that. On the other hand, the reason I dislike Sg. Wang is because the place is infested with seafood. Once again, this species of human has a tendency to speak and act like they own the place.

Recently, I have also been picking up a lot of hobby which I abandoned when I was younger. I have learned to appreciate reading more nowadays, although I must admit that not all the books I read are study related. I have finished reading the first Diablo novel "Birthright", and has started on the second entitled "Diablo: The Sin War, Scales of the Serpent". Another more unique hobby is assembling Jigsaw Puzzle. The other day, me and my girlfriend went and bought a Kingdom Hearts Jigsaw Puzzle which contains 1000 pieces. Me and my girlfriend have started working on it since yesterday and our progress is shown in the picture. Hopefully I can get the puzzle done before my break ends.

Surian Prom '07

Yesterday was all about preparing for the night that my girlfriend have been awaiting since the beginning of the year. She always likes this sort of gathering, but in contrast me who dislike crowded places. What can I say, I am a natural introvert and most likely would still be the same in the near future.Yet, I can still accept this sort of gathering because my girlfriend is there with me. Seriously, do not expect me to go to any freaking function alone. I will either leave after an hour or so, or jump out of the nearest window that I can find. So, last night was rather uninteresting for me, maybe cause there was really not many familiar faces around to talk with. Wai Hong is the only 1 present which I could chat with besides my girlfriend but he has his own partner to attend to also, so well you (should) get it.

The food there was probably very sucky for a hotel's standard. The dessert was probably the more "interesting" dishes. Some of the activities that they had reminded me of my year's prom, and that is actually a bad thing, cause I would rather have that piece of memory erased permanently from my brain. Overall, I think that the night was rather dull. After the prom though, I just took my time to drive home and sidetrack a bit so that me and my girlfriend had more alone time to spent together. I felt more comfortable being around my girlfriend more than anything else. By time I have sent my girlfriend home and arrived home back in my room, it was already 2.22 am. As it was already that late at night, my system was beginning to shutdown. I just changed my clothes, jump onto the bed and next thing I know it was already 11.30 in the morning.

Today, everything was back to normal, read 2 chapters of Starcraft's novel, tried Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts ( it came with the graphic cards that I bought), went looking for my girlfriend for a bit, came home, had dinner, played Monster Hunter and now blogging. Nothing too interesting but that's the way I live my life.

Oh yeah, this week's episode of Bleach is out. Bleach 153 "The Devilish Research! Szayel Aporro's Plan". Ichigo kicked that very same Privaron Espada's ass again and left after that. In the episode almost everyone met an Arrancar/ Privaron to do battle with. Even Rukia met up with an old friend which was supposedly dead, and that is now an Espada serving under Aizen. Thing are starting to heat up, more battle to come.



Still on Bleach, the movie will be out this coming Saturday, on my Birthday! Frankly speaking I wish one of the present I can have on that day is an English subbed Bleach movie. The trailer shown during the opening song of this week's episode really wanna make me pee in my pants. I have a couple of them below. The first screenshot shows Hitsugaya most likely facing against Soul Society and the second is none other than the Captain Commander himself, wonder if he will use his Bankai. He is one very macho old man. XD



Guess thats all this time. I feel like reviewing a game soon just dunno which, any of the reader can recommend 1? Feel free to leave a comment in the chatspace.

Heroes & Aliens

Nothing about wearing thighs or little green man, just that I have been watching Heroes for the past few days. I have finished watching Season 1 last night before going to bed, and today I started with Season 2. Not too bad I might say, but personally up until where I have watched, I prefer season 2 more than season 1. My favorite character is probably Hiro Nakamura, the time traveling/ teleporting dude. Like who wouldn't which to stop time or teleport around. I personally would, saves time traveling, no need for driving. And for time bending, you can go back to before you made a mistake and fix that. Of course in reality, there are no saves and loads just like in video games.

Besides watching Heroes, my secondary activity was probably reading the Starcraft Novel which I bought the other day. The story is really very interesting (at least for me), maybe because the story is from the universe of Starcraft, one of the earliest real time strategy games that I had played before. It is amazing how something which I have not been playing for more than a half a decade, can still bring back some memories when certain names and words are mentioned. The book can really absorb me in once I start reading them. Maybe because I can really visualize what is going on, even without a single picture in the book.

It is already almost until the end of the semester break, can't wait for the semester to start although the subjects I am taking are still those boring ass subjects which has almost nothing to do with my major. One thing though, at least I know I am doing something more productive and not sitting around all day just relaxing. Frankly speaking I can't help but feel guilty when I am being over relaxed. It makes me feel weak sometime thinking about it, but IT is the thought of it that makes me feel even more discouraged to do anything about it. Bah~ I'm hopeless.

Anyways, tomorrow is going to be my honey's Prom night, hope I can adjust to a "younger" (well, they are 2 years younger than me after all) group of people. At least I know Wai Hong is going to be there. I have someone to talk to. *Joy* Hope the way I dress tomorrow will not disappoint my girl though.

I am the *not free*

As some of you might have known, I have not been posting for quite some time. All I can say was, I wasn't gaming ........*not totally*. In this week time , I guess I have learned one of those most important thing you have to know when you are studying for a computing degree: How to build a PC. Maybe the building process isn't that important, but what does, is knowing the architecture of what is in the chassis. I boldly admit that before I had the chance to build this PC, I had no idea how some stuff looks like even though I have read about them before. Some example are like the SATA and IDE cable, what they are use for and so on. Before I continue on, I must thank a certain good friend and all around good guy, Benjamin, because he was the one who taught me how to assemble/ disassemble a PC, followed me to LowYat Plaza (not once but twice) to get my PC parts, and made sure all goes well and constantly guide me whenever I did something wrong. Mei is lucky to have him =P.

So, back to my PC, we managed to get quite a lot of good parts at a low price, and by the end of the day, we used 3.1k for buying all the hardware. Of course that's not for the entire PC, I used my old printer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, DVD rom and an external HDD. The new parts include the following:
(1) Asus P5KR mobo (P35 chipset)
(2) Asus EN8800GT 512 MB GDDR3
(3) Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 (2.4 GHz 1066 FSB 8 MB L2 cache)
(4) 2 x 1GB 800 MHz DDR2 Corsair RAM
(5) Cooler Master Chassis which came with a 460W PSU
(6) Western Digital 160 GB HDD

It wasn't easy deciding the parts I wanted, even though on the night before I was awake till 3 a.m. looking at the price list at lowyat's website . Even on that day I made a lot of changes to what I initially had planned to get. I would not say I was in a rush to get the parts but some might disagree. Although I wasn't a professional, I did ask for other's opinion such as Ben's friend(Jay) who is also another tech enthusiast. From him, I learned things such as XP can only run at max a total of 3.5 GB ram (the main reason I switched to a higher performance 2GB ram). He did gave a lot of good advice IMO, and I would like to thank him for that again.

Probably what surprised me was how powerful my new rig was, for one, it ran on High Settings for Crysis. What was even amazing was the fact that, it did not lag and yet it looked so freaking good. That changed slightly when Ben applied a DX10 skin mod for Crysis, but still that was only a very minimal lag. Even though my PC is no powerhouse, it is already capable of running the most demanding game at high settings, and that, I have nothing to complain about.

Oh yeah, since I just got my PC, there are still a lot of stuff I had yet to install which includes the Nokia Phone Software so I could not upload any pictures yet. Darn, now I can't show off my new rig.=P

Then today, I brought my girlfriend over to APIIT/ UCTI to register for the foundation program there. If everything goes fine, she will be starting her course mid of January. I have to say, UCTI has a really nice environment to study in, even the facilities there are very well done. I did actually considered studying there before I came to INTI but I have chosen the current college now mainly because I wanted to do a degree which allowed me to study in the US.

Right after that, we went shopping at Midvalley Megamall, my girlfriend did her usual window shopping and once in a while bought some stuff, and I just followed her to everywhere she go, excluding the lady's toilet. It was tiring but I did not mind, my girlfriend was back to her usual self, maybe cause one of her load, which is choosing where to study has been done and over with. I would gladly go shopping with her if she wanted to, even if it was tomorrow. As long as she is happy = ). We had dinnner at Sushi King and I just ate and ate non stop to recover the loss energy from all that walking. After that, we continued shopping for a bit before leaving.

Ohh I did went and got myself a couple of Blizzard's novels again. One of them being the 2nd book of Starcraft's Dark Templar Saga. I can't wait to start reading before my holiday ends. Hope I can finish them all. The other two is from Blizzard's Diablo saga.

Oh yeah I nearly forgot about Bleach for this week. Episode 152 "Ichigo Strikes Back! This is my Bankai", with such a title, you are sure to see Ichigo's Tensa Zangetsu. He is still in a battle with the Privaron Espada and this battle was the main focus of this week's episode. There are some funny scenes in the current episode that would sure to make you laugh or at least giggle. Below are some screenshots.

What's been happening......

Well, my parents are finally back from their Vietnam/ China vacation and I am glad they all came home safely. What I heard from my mom was that it wasn't fun, so thank goodness I did not go. I can't argue that I missed my mom's cooking after so many days of eating food outside.

Let's see what else..... Well nothing actually. I find it very weird how my days can pass that quickly when the only thing I am doing is playing my PSP. There was something different though, I am not playing Monster Hunster but instead I am now indulging myself in a remake of Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS1. The name of the game FF Tactics: War of the Lions. I can't say that I am a big fan of turn base strategy RPG but this game is another one of those "good but not the best" type of games for the PSP. In my opinion, one of the best part about it is that, every fight poses some kind of challenge regardless of your level. Since enemies level up at the same pace as you, no fight is an easy fight. One thing I didn't like though is the horoscope system. Unless you are very familiar with what star sign is compatible/ incompatible with which, it can be very frustrating to figure out which character is best used to fight whichever opponent.



Lastly, another episode of Bleach has been released. Episode 151 "The Raging Storm! Encounter with the Dancing Arrancar". This episode starts out funny but ends with a slight "wanting more" feeling. This episode introduces another group of Espada known as the Privaron and Ichigo and his friends each met up with a member of this Privaron. The next episode would probably show a lot of kick ass action but still the much anticipated fight with the real Espadas is what I am awaiting, but that would probably still be a long way more. ( I read the manga too, so I know the plot more or less). Will be uploading pictures for this week's episode as soon as I finish downloading the VLC player for taking screenshots.



Another day, another post. Before the end of today's post I would like to say, tomorrow is somebody's birthday =D . Okie not just anybody, but my somebody, and another somebody, for someone else. The sentence that came before this would have probably caused me to fail any English exam but that's not the point eh? ^^

Irony

I'm talking about my college transcript, just when I was planning to go to college to get it one of these days, the enveloped which contain my transcript was delivered to my house just this afternoon. At least that save me a trip of going to college or does it? I would still have to go register for the next semester's subjects that I am going to be taking. About the results, I got an A+ for Intro to Psych, but sadly my American History subject has a "W' ( which stands for a withdraw) beside it. Well, I just have to do better next semester. I am actually quite happy because my results were better than what I had expected.

Moving on, my family will be leaving for Vietnam tomorrow morning (way, way early in the morning) to go on vacation and leave me home alone to rust. Okie maybe I was the one who has chosen not to go. Vietnam gives me a feeling that it is really boring and I know better than to go on a boring trip. I wish my parents would pick a better vacation location. Every year its either China, China, or if we are lucky somewhere not China (but still within South East Asia). I wish they would go to places such as US or Europe. Bah, they are so unadventurous. =X

On a side note, since my girlfriend is free now, I can just spend that entire family vacation time with her instead.* Happy face* =D. We already have plans for tomorrow but still do not know where we will be going, but probably to that new shopping center, Pavilion. No idea how to get there but I have a car and the petrol, so that means its' time to explore. Finally I have some time to pak toh after a very very dreadful and long month.

Lastly, one of my favorite topics, Games. Crysis is awesome, its not like any other first person shooter mainly because you have to use your brains instead of just blindly rushing into a camp and go trigger happy. I spent some time with it, and found myself dying 90% of the time if I did just that. Rather you have to make use of what your nano-suits can do. I just love it when you switch to another mode and they say " Maximum Speed" or "Maximum Armor". One thing which sets this game apart from others, is physics and realism. For example, when your sight is blocked by some leaves on a coconut tree or something. Just shoot it and the leaf will actually react as though it is being shot at. What's more, if you shoot the trunk of that coconut tree long enough, the thing will come crashing down on your enemies or perhaps even yourself depending on where you stand. Everything in the game reacts to you just the way it should. Tyres of jeeps will go kaboom if you shoot at it. All these comes at a price though of course. Crysis is a system killer, because regardless of how recent you have bought your PC. It is impossible to achieve the best graphic settings, unless you are filthy rich and can afford the best of the best hardwares. Go take a look at the price of a stick of DDR3 RAM. Be amazed. For those who are still unconvinced just look at this.

Long Holiday

It has been roughly a month now since the holiday started, and u know what. I am beginning to feel really bored of it. There is nothing much to do. If I did not have my PSP I would probably have rusted. Maybe it's because I have nothing much to do. Hope things will change after my girlfriend's exams are over.

Worse yet, no result has been uploaded onto the e-Campus. I don't even have any urge to find out my results anymore after waiting for such a long time(I will still be doing so on next Wednesday when I am going back to college).

Ever since I got the dongle for playing online, I found myself getting more and more addicted to Monster Hunter. Simply put, more people, less work. As I mentioned in the review, this game is really fun when you can play with someone else. After all, when you are against a 100 meters long dragon, don't you wish someone is there to back you up?

To Ben, good luck for ur chili padi eating days. Work hard and you just might get what your mom said she will give =D.

Games galore

There seems to be a lot of triple A titles out this couple of weeks. Gears of War, Crysis and Call of Duty 4 (all for the PC) just to name a few. Of course I would like to try for myself each and everyone of these games but since there are all on the PC, hardware is always a restriction. Despite lacking the necessary hardwares, I got myself a copy of Crysis and installed it on my laptop. Just when you thought the graphics of Bioshock could not get any better, Crysis comes along and immediately redefine the possibilities of gaming graphics. While the laptop is not the ideal piece of hardware to game on, it is a better option over my desktop. This are the following specs for my laptop:

(1) 2GB ram
(2) 512 MB Nvidia 8600M GT
(3) 2.0GHz C2D processor

Regardless of these specs, it did not prepare my laptop for the incoming graphics onslaught that is Crysis. From the very 1st cutscene, the framerate started to drop but was still acceptable. During gameplay the framerate increased, and it played a bit smoother. I had only played it for about 10 minutes but I can say that the game is rather well done, guns are customizable and your suit can switch between a few modes which would alter how you play the game. This is truly the game to switch your entire desktop for. Even if you are not doing it for this game, I am pretty sure that future games would still require a high end graphic card.

My results are still not uploaded online yet but I heard that the transcript can be collected in college already. I think that I might be going on next week to get it, while doing some research on the University that I would like to go to. Programming C is not that bad since I have already learned the basics from Kok Hoong before. For those newer topics though, I am still trying to understand what I am doing but there can be times where you really have to crack your head trying to understand how all this works. I think that I am a slow learner, because some parts where Kok Hoong said was easy, I still took a long time to understand. Sad really, but I won't give up on doing this = ).

I am bored......

As the post title states, I am bored. I have not step out of my house for the past two weeks other than to have a meal or fetch my girlfriend from school/tuition. Ben said that the results would be out on Monday but have yet to see it on Inti's ecampus yet. So, to kill some time, I finished watching Honey and Clover Season 1. Then, just last night, I started downloading season 2 last night and it took me less than 1 day to complete the download. I immediately started watching season 2 and just before writing this post, I finished watching the whole of season 2. Do I have too much time or what?Haha Well, from what I can say. Season 2 ties up a lot of loose ends in season 1, and it focuses on the more serious matters (work, relationship, and responsibility). Season 1 was definitely funnier but season 2 was the one that wraps up the whole story. It was good, I would say, time well spent.

Of course I still had other matters to attend to. Example like my girlfriend and her SPM, learning C, and learn to cook (from my Mom). It can be dull sometime but I can't complain much as I have the time to do whatever I want to. One thing which has been irritating me for the past week or so, is that I am in a pre-sick condition and it is making me really uncomfortable. By pre-sick condition I mean that I have some slight symptoms but not bad enough to require a visit to the clinic( not that I'm complaining).

Besides all of that, today a new copy of GameAxis arrived in the mail. The front cover is of the new game "Kane & Lynch" which I heard is a co-op type game. I have yet to read it (like I said earlier I just finish watching H&C a while ago), but I think they will be some juicy reviews on new games, and hardware to go with that. There was also a booklet which came with the magazine, which is also talking about a new PC game "Crysis". It looks really good but the recommended requirement are as stated below:
(1) Window Vista (DirectX 10 I guess)
(2) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or better or AMD Athlon 64X2 4400+ or better
(3) Intel X38 or AMD 790 mobo
(4) 2.0 GB ram
(5) NVIDIA Gefore 8800 GTS/640 or similar

What this means is. My desktop is close to nothing of the required specs. My desktop does not meet any of the above requirement and it is really sad. My laptop on the other hand still manage to meet two of the requirements (which is also not all that great).

Last but not least is a postcard from PIKOM stating that the next PC Fair will be on Dec 7-9. Anyone interested to go? I personally wish to get an external HDD that is portable (unlike the previous 1 which I bought). This time, it is still at KLCC just like the previous two times I went there. Talking about computer I am actually planning to go to Low Yat Plaza, maybe at the end of the week. I have to go there to help my SiS replace her bloody pendrive which stopped functioning, and also to get a USB wifi dongle for myself. Szeten, wanna go??

Lay back life

Well, 1 week has already passed, this couple of days I started reading one of the trilogy that I bought a couple of months back. The beginning is not really that interesting, as it is really straightforward and there is nothing much happening. Hopefully it gets better, because I don't want to read three books and end up saying that it sucks.

Besides that, I have also watched Ratatouille (thanks Ben), in my opinion, I think the movie is really good if compared to the previous computer generated graphics movie, such as Toy Story and all. A rat which aspire to cook, and eventually got his chance to do so, at a prestigious restaurant in Paris. How original XD. Although I am guessing most people would have watched it by now, I still recommend it to those who have not. Probably the most memorable phrase in that movie is "Anyone can cook". Not sure if thats true or not but I am willing to put that motto into my head as I am also learning how to cook =D.

Just this couple of days, I started reading on my C programming to refresh all the things which Kok Hoong has taught me during the 1st half of the year. Fortunately, the basics are still quite clear in my head and this helped a lot when I'm reading about it. For those who does not have an idea of what programming is like. It is basically things like this:

printf(" Hello how are you today?\n");
scanf("%i", &answer);

It might look complicated but once you understand how everything works, there is a lot which you can do with it.

Then last but not least, I have also been looking for other University to apply to for a Summer intake. I would really want to go to US as soon as possible, because the more time I spent here, the more I risk my credits not being accepted. I might be applying to Wichita State University where Zi Chang is currently studying at. The application requirements is not as high as the University of Maryland, and most if not all of my credit hours until now could be transfered there. I would still be trying to apply to the University of Maryland though even when I am there.

I have also done some skin change for my blog. The layout is still the same but I would really want some comments from you guys who are reading my blog. I wish I had photoshop though because I would like to remove the Bioshock logo from the background wallpaper, as all I want is the texture there.

Another quickie

There seems to be some way TM is finding out the time when I want to write a post, and decides to slow down my bandwidth. Every time I plan to write one, the connection would become really sucky and make it hard for me to upload pics.

Okie anyways, just to make it short. This is already the last week of the semester, next Wednesday is going to be the finals for Psychology. Studying hard but gaming harder. I am soooo in trouble.

So anyways while reading the online newspaper, I found this article "Older Gen. going Next Gen". So, obviously I made up that title, but this is seriously some really "informative" news. Time to convince my grandpa to get a PS3.

Besides that this week, I am also awaiting from the admission review by the University of Maryland. Cross my fingers and hope that I will be accepted. XD

Lastly, Bioshock gooood, finally managed to install it on my lappy after installing a new driver for my graphic card. The game is really exhilarating, keeps you on your toe all the time. Scared the living hell out of me a couple of time. Yet, leaving me thirsting for more.

Devil May Cry 4

Here's a new trailer of Devil May Cry 4 which is scheduled to be release next February. Simply looks amazing, mouth watering even.

Minutes to Meltdown

Holy !@#$, there has been a really big problem now with my Maryland application. It's probably the worse news ever, my previous semester's transcript had not been received by the University of Maryland. That was probably what I needed to boost my chance of getting admitted and now hope seems really bleak. Well, there is a small chance that they just might have misplaced the package. This is because according to the courier tracking service, my package has been sign and delivered to its address about a month ago. Currently, I have already requested them( UM's staff) to try looking for that package, and hopefully it will be there.

Sending another copy of my transcript is not an option as it will only be received earliest in two weeks time and from what they informed me, the review will be done by the end of October. All I can do now is pray really hard and hope this can all be over in a fine manner. I do not want to spend another 8 months here wasting my time.

Don't feel like talking about it even more, so time for this week's Bleach. There was no Bleach last week and this week's Bleach is titled Bleach 144 "Ishida and Chad, the quickening of a new power" and as the name suggests, two characters gained a new power or to be more precise, weapons. Now for the million dollar question, guess who are the two characters? If you can answer it, congratulations, you can do deduction of information. If you can't ...... need I say more? Ok, jokes aside, this episode has some minor fighting here and there but still worth the wait. There is also another new theme song which I personally did not like. Some screenshots of this week's episode.

Besides that this week, I basically took the whole week off as my personal holiday. But at least I had a MC to backup my absentee from class. Miss M had some improvement and I would say good for her. Still, I prefer Miss Kamal but she is on leave this week so wouldn't be seeing her till next week.

Before I forget, I would like to introduce you guys to a really good deal( in my opinion at least). For those FPS lover out there, this pack is probably what you should be getting. The Orange Box, 5 games in 1. It cost RM 175 and for that price you get Half Life 2, HL2: Episode 1, HL2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. Best of all, you will be given the chance to play online legally with other people. Although some would say "Dumb@$$ you actually paid to play original games", I for one am proud that I am beginning to support ori stuff. Of course, currently I am still not in the best condition to fully support original games but at least I gave it a start.

Ok so back to this, Portal was probably the fun-est game of that five. Mainly because it challenges your brain to think about how you would use a single method to accomplish your task. To give you a hint of what the game is like, imagine you can create 2 doors which are interconnected regardless of where you put them. As soon as you walk into 1, you will be coming out from the next. Well the game is really fun but unfortunately it only lasts a couple of hours.

For those who are interested you should get one now as the pack comes with a free carpet,oopps I mean gaming mouse pad. For further details, feel free to ask me about it, just drop a message in the chatbox. That's about it for today. Bye peeps.