Troy part 2.

Found this : Troy in 15 minutes.

Durians!

The fruit that some people love, while others just cannot stand. I never figured why. It's not family as some people in my family will eat them, while others just run away at the smell of them

It's not the country either. I have a few Chinese National friends who love it, while they too know some who loath it. Maybe scientist can start cracking! ;)

Anyway I had some today and they were good. But it also led me to think back to my army days when I had some close encounters with the durian kind.

Once during my Combat Survival Training (CST), my instructor pointed in a general direction and said there were durian trees there. Made some of us crazy enough to walk in that direction for what seemed like hours to look for some. Well suffice to say, no one found any. I still have a stinking suspicion that they took all that could be found just to spite us.

I also remember having traning in Mandai area and we were lucky enough to stumble upon some durians and they were the best thing we ate(as opposed to combat rations so it doesn't really say much).

My SISPEC training was the worst/best. It was durian season and the instructors brought back one whole rover full of durians so that they could eat, while we trainees had to watch in vain. Sigh. Well I can eat them now, so there.

Joke

It was opening night at the Opheum, and "The Amazing Cathy" was topping the bill. People came from miles around to see the famous hypnotist do her stuff.

As Cathy took to the stage, she announced, "Unlike most stage hypnotists who invite two or three people up onto the stage
to be put into a trance, I intend to hypnotize each and every one of this audience."

The excitement was almost electric as Cathy withdrew a beautiful antique pocket watch from her coat.

"I want you each to keep your eyes on this antique watch. It's a very special watch. It's been in my family for six generations."

She began to swing the watch gently back and forth while quietly chanting, "Watch the watch, watch the watch, watch the watch..."

The crowd became mesmerized as the watch swayed back and forth, the light gleaming off it's polished surface. Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed the swaying watch, until suddenly it slipped from the hypnotist's fingers and fell to the ground, breaking into numerous pieces.

"Shit!" said the hypnotist.

It took three weeks to clean up the theatre....

Shrek 2

Caught it today. It was good! There were tons of references in there that made the mind boogle. Lots of slapstick humour for the kids as well. I loved the spoof of Street Fighter. Really a must see.

On a side note, the book I'm currently reading keeps using the word "snafu". Wondering what it was, I did a google and ended up with this this.

Snafu actually stands for "Situation Normal : All Fouled Up". You can find more about it by following the link.

Which also reminds me of another word that frequently used up the US Army(or at least in books) : FUBAR.

That stands for F**ked up beyond all repair.

Any more? Post in the shoutbox.

More Milk and Cereals

Another remake of the classic Milk and Cereals.

FFX-2

Finally managed to complete this game. Yeah I know it's an old game and that I took (according to the game) 46 hours to do it, not including all those times I made it quite a bit before forgetting to save and dieing and thus having to restart.

You know there is a feature of the game called New Game Plus, where you start all over again with most of the things you had. Don't know whether to try that or move on to another game. Can't really decide.

Just for information:

Yuna : Lvl 68
Rikku : Lvl 67
Paine : Lvl 69

Story complete : 67%

Death

I attended a wake the other day. It was a friends father. He took it rather well as his father was stricken with cancer and he was more or less prepared for it. But it still sucked. Losing someone you love.

I make no qualms about it. I fear death. It terrifies me. What happens after death? For those religious people, who say after-life in one of it's many forms, well until it's proven, I'm not to liable to believe it. Imagine sleeping forever, that's what death is too me. Not being able to do the things you like, see the people you love. As such it really terrifies me.

I believe that every so called phobia in life comes down to fear of death. Fear of heights? More like fear of falling from a high place and dieing. Fear of spiders? More like fear of getting bitten and dieing.

Which also made me think. Fear of ghost. Why fear ghost? Because it can kill you? But then you have proof that there is an afterlife then, so why be afriad? Condundrum there. Not that I would like to meet one, thank you, it's been drilled into me by countless horror movies that I should fear ghost.

Been a long time since I posted this much, and I probably will only do such post once in a while. That's all for this time. Out.

Unicycling flash

Check this out. It's great stuff.

IPPT

Just has mine today, and I managed a pass. Everything was
computerised, each and every station is being done my machines. No
more chao kenging anymore.

For standing broad jump, it's the worst. The PTI's used to close one
eye if your shoe went beyond the line a bit. Now that it's a machine,
no chance at all. I saw a lot of line faults today.

For chin up as well. I thought I did 8, but they gave me a discount
of 2 and I ended up with 6. Quite pissed about it, but the machine is
supposed to be fair so quite lan lan.

The good thing though was shuttle run. Now, there are no blocks, just
touch a metal plate. I used to do above 10. Now no kick, managed to
do 9.8. I think some of you may now manage to do sub 9.

Running killed me. I trained for running by running at about 6pm. The
run started at 5 and it was so hot, I had no strength after the first
round. Sucks.

There were also a lot of commandos doing IPPT, not sure why all at
the same time though. Saw some of those who took the Sniper course
with us, but did not manage to say hi.

Just my review on the new computerised system. I'm gonna try for a
silver next time. Anybody "on"?

My Unicycle 

Beer is good?

Came across this wierd and twisted explanation of why beer is good. I don't believe it one bit but hey, it's good for a laugh.

A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. ! That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

Snowflakes

Make your own snowflakes.

Just too bad it's so hot in Singapore that it can't have snow. Haven't seen snow in my whole life.

Low day in my life

I just got back my results for my exams and boy do they suck. It really is terrible. A CAP of 2.43. Ugh. Can't do anything about it now but work harder the next semester.

I had rather high hopes for my results this sem but unfortunately things did not quite work out as I hoped it would. But life goes on. Just wished to post my feelings cause it's all bottled up in me with no where to go.

Things Japanese Kids have for Lunch

Why couldn't I have had those when I was a kid?

Time wasting flash.

Try it

There is supposed to be 360 ways to solve it (get all items to max) but I haven't figured one out yet.

Edit: I figured out a way, follow the steps below:
SPHERE
CUBE
EGG
HILLS
LADDER
PIPE
PROPELLOR
WHIRLWIND
COG
DISH
NOZZLE
TV

That will complete the teraforming of the planet, or what I hope is the objective of the game. Kudos to the creator, it really wasted a lot of my time.

There is also supposed to be other ways, anyone else have any other solutions post them in the shoutbox. I want to know.

Casemod

This case mod really takes things over the top.

Case Mod

Troy

Caught the movie today and found it a great show. Full of action/love/any other attribute required of a blockbuster. Only complaint I had of it was that it twisted the story to accomodate the background love story. That I did not like.

If the story was shortened/chopped to make it shorter, why not? If it was changed to make it better for the screen, acceptable. But change one of the most epic stories of all time so that millions of teenagers over the world can get caught up in the love story? Totally unacceptable by me.

But still it is pop-corn movie stuff and still watchable, especially the battle sequences which gave a rough indication of the heavy infantry tactics that were used at the era. The phlanax was used which was nice and the use of the human body mass to push back opposing troops was also a nice touch. I got that stuff from a book I read some time back - "Gates of Fire" about Spartans who fought a war out numbered more then 10 - 1, all in a bid to delay the opposing forces. A very worthwhile read and one to be hunted down at all cost.

Newcastle 3 - Saints 3

Woo!!! Newcastle could only manage a draw against the Saints and that means the result at Anfield would be meaningless. We have qualified for the Champions League!

Not really something to celebrate about as 4th is still a disappointment for us. I know we no longer have the divine right to win just about everything like we used to, but hopefully the cash injection from either Morgan or Thaksin will give us a boost in the right direction.

Now all we have to do is beat the Barcodes to put the icing on the cake.

YNWA.

Jaws of Darkness by Harry Turtledove.

I just finished the book and give it 5 out of 5 stars. It's another masterpiece by Harry Turtledove and a must read for fans of his books.

It's part of a series though and newbies should try to hunt down the first book and start reading.

A brief review:

It's about a war on a continent and like most Harry Turtledove books is a what-if situation gone out of hand. What if there were no such things as planes, tanks and atomic bombs during WWII. No persecution of Jews, no Pearl Harbour. Instead replace these with a fantasy setting, where dragons fly and behemoths role past defenses. Instead of an atomic bomb which kills thousands, a vile sorcery that uses the life-blood of thousands to fuel itself in the attepmt to murder even more. That's the basic setting, and if you are interested try to get your hand on the book and be engrossed.

New patch for Frozen Throne up.

Just went onto Battle Net and the new patch is up and downloading now. Will try to play a few games and give my impressions some time latter.

That is if I ever do play a few games. I'm kind of partial to custom games now, the variations are fantastic.

New Counter!

Changed my coutner from the old boring one to a new one showing Yoda.
Or in Yoda speak "New counter I changed, er.... "
not sure how to continue it. Anyone with any ideas say it in the shout box.
To get your own counter click on mine and it will direct you to the site to get it.

Apology or why I often write before I think

In an earlier post, I made some scathing remarks about a friend and would like to take this opportunity to make an apology.

Sorry!

What I said at that momment of time was without thought and I regret it now. It happens a lot in life. You do something that really looks like a great idea at that time, then after a while you start to regret ever thinking of such a thing let alone doing it. It's probably going to happen a lot more times but you live and you learn.

On a side note, I went jogging today. I had earlier booked a date for my IPPT (fancy acronymn for fitness test) and was trying to train up for it. Managed 4km before deflating totally. This fitness test, for people who don't know, or don't live in Singapore is part of a keep fit program by our Army. Our Army uses conscription and thus all citizens 18 and above have to serve at least 2 years in the army.

This fitness test, thus is a test of how fit we are, so that when the time comes, they can send us to get bitten by *insert name of insect that sucks blood and/or causes general discomfort, i.e. mosquitoes* at some god-forsaken *insert place where before mentioned insects that suck MY blood and/or cause general discomfort lives, i.e. swamp* every year. Sigh, I just cannot wait.

Hillsborough Football Disaster.

I'm a Liverpool fan but a recent one. Hence I did not know much about the Hillsborough incident. I urge whoever reads this blog, be you a Liverpool fan or not, go to this page to take a look at the injustices done on that day.

Hillsborough Football Disaster

And yeah boycott the S*n paper if you live in England. it really saddens me to think what happened. My heart goes out to all the people who lost family over that incident. To thoes unforunate souls who lost their lives, rest in peace. YNWA.

Muni again or why I'm going to be an MCP.

Well I went for Muni again today and there were a few more people along. It was great fun other then the heat which was killing me. We also took quite a few (read every junction) stops. In fact it took us about 3 hours to finally complete the trial.

Well, I don't really want to say this as it is rather sexist and I hate to discriminate, but it was because there was a girl along and well due to her weaker constitution, could not keep up and we had to make frequent stops becuase of that. If you are reading this, sorry, but that's how I feel. Go excercise more, get fitter, before trying it again. I don't want to have to carry you all the way out if you collapse.

Anyway, since it was not raining this time, I managed better, with much less falls and the downhills were actually more fun since I did not have to think if I was going to die over the next hump or not.

On a side note, Liverpool won 3-0 to Birmingham yesterday night. Woo. 4th is getting so much closer. I can almost smell the Champions League spot. Hope we dun slip up.

MMORPGs

MMORPG or Massive Mulitplayer Online Role Playing Games are all the rage these days. And it all started with Everquest I guess. Well I found one, it's free (always a plus) and it does not require a fast computer. It's a very satarical take on RPG's in general and if you taste happen to run that way, take a look.

Kingdom Of Loathing

Pantomime - My word of the month.

Recently saw this word and was really attracted to it. The reason? I can't really make a sentence out of it.

Anyway at Dictionary.com they gave this as the meaning :

1. Communication by means of gesture and facial expression: Some tourists make themselves understood abroad by pantomime.

2.
1. The telling of a story without words, by means of bodily movements, gestures, and facial expressions.
2. A play, dance, or other theatrical performance characterized by such wordless storytelling.
3. An ancient Roman theatrical performance in which one actor played all the parts by means of gesture and movement, accompanied by a narrative chorus.
4. A player in such a performance.

3. A traditional British Christmas entertainment for children, usually based on nursery tales and featuring stock characters in costume who sing, dance, and perform skits.

Well there are some sentences in there but I can't really make up one on my own. Go figure.

Unicycle Hocky or now seems a good time to buy shin guards

Went for my regular session of unicycle hocky yesterday night, and boy was it intense. I had more then one UPFD (unplanned flying dismounts) and once landed wrongly from one. Another time the pedals hit my shin. Since my pedals had these little knobs to help improve grip, it pretty much hurt. But it was still fun and invigorating.

Anyway, another thing cropped up. My team was losing and there was this team member that started sulking. Well she was a young girl, and you know how it is. Her father was trying to impart some of his life's knowledge to her, telling her that "It's not whether you win or lose, but whether you have fun". That got me thinking, making all those lazy brain cells work, and it seems it's kind of hard to have fun when you are losing...

Guess that's why most people use the term "It's not whether you win or lose but how you play the game." And that's the way I prefer it.

Milk and Cereals or why webcams start to sound like a bad invention

If you had seen the first version of milk and cereals and was bowled over by it, then here is the Asian Remake. Enjoy.

Seriously what were these guys thinking? What were they on? Milk and cereals I guess.

American Idol.

Well old news, but John Stevens was kicked out last week. I found this on someother place and it just rings so true that I have to share it.

An AMAZING last post by wykbbb from the idolonfox forums

Isn't it ironic that the least talkative, most reserved contestant ends up being one of the most talk about, controversial contestants.
Isn’t ironic a show designed to find the next big pop sensation, because of Young Red Head actually ended up introducing and getting a few teeny-boppers interested in Old Blue Eyes.

Isn't it ironic that the contestant with the least amount of "Personality", gained alot of respect, support, and/or fans based on a large part because of his personality.

Isn't it ironic that a week after Randy lectured America on voting for a contestant that they can be proud of , both Paula and Ryan tell John that they are “proud of him” after his performance Tuesday.

Isn’t it ironic that Ryan “Seacrest out” seems more sincere than Paula “the nice judge” when they tell John they are proud of him.

Isn’t it ironic that Nigel the producer went on Entertainment Tonight and announced that next week is Big Band week, knowing full well that the redheaded crooner was already eliminated.

Isn’t it ironic that tear-jerk moment of the evening wasn’t the heavily produced, melodramatic farewell video, but was in fact a single, simple, heartfelt word “Them.”

Isn’t it fitting that the last broadcasted word spoken by John Stevens on the AI stage is “Thank you.” (After the farewell video, John thanks Ryan when Ryan tells him he’s a talented class act.)

Isn't it ironic that the youngest kid on Idol ends up showing the judges, other contestants, and the viewers the true meaning of maturity, class and grace.

Well I wish him the best of luck in future. He was just in the wrong competition.

Liverpool 2 - Boro 0.

For those who have no idea, I'm a Liverpool FC fan. You'll Never Walk Alone!

Anyway, after yesterdays match, where we beat Boro with a penalty from Murphy and a Hesky goal, I'm starting to feel a bit more opptimistic. Maybe, there really is a chance that we can get 4th and the final Chanmpions League spot.

Of course, that may also mean that Gerard Houllier will get to stay another season, but I really hope the board wakes up and moves him along. Get another coach.

For more gossip and disscussions, visit the Koptalk Forums. It's a great place to have heated arguments with other fans. :P

YNWA.

Quiz - What royalty are you?

As a matter of principle, I don't like to do quizes. They tend not to be true. Well most of the time. I read once that such personality test are simply to generic to be of any use.

It was said that they did a personality profile on a murderer and made 40 copies before passing it to 40 unsuspecting people. 30 of them said that the profile fitted them like a glove. Either these things are too generic, or 3 out of 4 people are secret murderers. (Note: The figures used here are just examples but it was close to this)

Anyway

Which Royalty Are You? Find out! By Nishi.

Mountain Unicycling or it's a miracle I wasn't injured.

I went for a round of Mountain Unicycling(Muni) today at Bukit Timah(BT). Was supposed to go with a friend but he pulled out at the last minute due to "not feeling well". YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

Anyway, things were going fine, just ambling along, when all of a sudden it started raining. Well not exactly all of a sudden for the sky did look a bit dark the whole morning. But you know how it is with rain. The sky just opens up. All I can say it was a mircale I came away unscath. The track was a mess of mud and running water, my glasses kept fogging up, keeping me from seeing the road. Ugh.. I ended up near blind. But someone must have been looking after me (Unicycle God perhaps).

Another thing I would like to mention is that lots of mountain bikers were there. Some looked at me as if I was a joke while others went "You make me look like a sissy". Well there are all sorts of people out there. Muni ain't easy but it sure is challenging and rewarding.

To learn more about Muni, visit MUni Info

More things in the side bar

This things you see at the side, the side-bar(duh!), is such a wonderful thing. It just lets me add and add and add without any consequences.

As such I just added a list of anime that I am currently watching. I'll try to place the links to the bit-torrents but no promisese. For thoes who don't know what bit-torrent is, I'll point you to it

Bit Torrent

It's a file sharing client, not unlike Kazaa or any other file sharing clients you can find on the internet. More info can be found if you follow that link. Why am I telling you all these? As I said, nothing is free in this world. File sharing requires people to share and the more people who have bit torrent, the faster I can download. Forgive me for using you as I forgive you for using me.