Friday, August 29, 2008

Further Afield

RAWR


Looking back I realise that the only time I ever type long, semi-coherent entries are when I'm rambling about movies/comics/games. Lately posting about my life has taken something of a backseat on this blog.

Which brings me to my announcement: I'm moving! Or rather I'm moving blog. My new blog can be found at www.iplayinverted.blogspot.com. It'll mostly be dealing with my geeky/nerdier pursuits becausethat's what I like to write about...

Ocassionally I might mention something about uni life...


Toodles!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

A Bad Feeling...

There's no way i can break this gently so I'm just gonna out and say it:

OMG SHIA SQUEEEEEEEE!!!


As you can probably guess, I watched Indy 4 today (Every time I say that I think Bollywood; I don't know why.) with Grace and Reena. It was... fun. Entertaining. But then I must say I went in with virtually no expectations other than wanting to see Shia and the Hat. Though the ending was BAD. Even for my miniscule expectations... If you've got a good telly, one of those movies better for watching on DVD I think...

Unless you want to hear Indy stealing Solo's line that bad... yes, 'I've got a bad feeling about this.'


I should probably do a bit of an update on actualy shite happening in my life since this isn't a movie-review blog... So uh, yeah... here goes: Got offers from NUS FASS and NTU Sociology, think i'll go with FASS, am teaching at a day-care which is tiring if fun, busy reading Darknet (A little outta date but vaguely terrifying in what it reveals about American copyright law) on those bus rides to and from work and hopefully I'll actually finish it so that i can go and read my dad's book on the black Swan theory and some weird comprehensive guide on American history he also foisted on me; my dad's actually got pretty good taste in books, as in they're not the boring type... that sounded so shallow somehow...

Uh, I don't really know how that last sentence got hijacked in to a long, wierd rant... Usually a good sign to, well, sign off.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Deeply Moving

Whelp, I've gota free moment and type-itchy fingers so I guess I can throw up a proper review of Iron Man now. :) And after those fiascos we call Spder-Man 3, Fantastic Four- Rise of the Silver Surfer and... actually every single Super-hero movie other than the latest Batman one, it's great to finally have a proper Super-hero movie on the market. (Yes, I'm lambasting the Spidey movies. I know, I raved, but once the buzz of 'ohmygod,aspider-manmovie!!' had worn off and I cast a jaundiced eye back, I realise two things: web-slinging scenes aside, they're not that great- and Tobey McGuire is a very special kind of ugly and chinless.)

I was never a big fan of Iron Man. A guy who gets all his powers from a suit? How lame is that? What if disaster strikes and he's not wearing the suit?? (Yes, I would have made a great supporter in the pro-mutants movement...) And then the Civil War arc came along and he got Spidey to reveal his secret identity... Well.

But in this case I'm willing to cast aside my usual snobbery and dissociate the movie character from the comic one. Because really, how can you not like Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark? He plays the character so very well (and looks disturbingly like him), from the eccentric 'drive-everyone-from-your-board-to-PA' nuts to the sudden change realization of what exactly his weapons are used for today, it's all very much believable. There's also plenty of moments for giggles as he displays a very boyish learning curve with his Iron Man equipment. (I won't go in to the details but let's just say it involves a Road-runner-esque moment where his face is enthusiasticly introduced to the wall/ ceiling.)


The big finale though was a little dissapointing in that Stark's suit wasn't running at full-power. So rather than a real men-in-robot-armour throw-down, we got Stark getting smacked about until he outwitted the other guy. While such a victory might be more in keeping with the brains-over-brawn theme of the movie, I miss the eye-candy.


Right, last point in this far-too-long post: am I the only one who picked up the socio-political commentary about how the powers that be sits on their asses unless it behoves them to get involved? Yes, I'm talking about the bit where Iron Man flys in to Afghanistan to kick some terrorist butt after seeing it on the news. Interesting how the US government has firepower in the area but doesn't get involved until they get a bogey on the radar which really scares them in case the terrorists are air-borne. After what's been going down in Myanmar, the picture this depicts is... unsettling. While I suppose no government owes it to the rest of the world to play playground monitor and sacrifice their own people and resources to do it, such an expectation doesn't sit well with the moral posturing the USA's always thrown about. It doesn't go down so smoothe either with the surprisingly loud idealist in me who's been shouting 'why can't we all just get along?' for the last... oh, six years or so.

So anyway, here's to Iron Man, a kick-ass movie that's deeper than those turds in the review section of The Straits Times give it credit for.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Meandering #3

I think this is the 3rd of my 'meandering' posts... And it's labelled as such because I'm not really sure what I should be blogging about. I guess I'll start with this:




Likey? CtrlAltDelt has an animated version. Not as good as the comic but not too terrible either. I have no idea why but I find the theme song strangely addictive.


This was going to be a longer post but I just remebered I have some transcription work for my mom in the wings so I'm off.

And watch Iron Man. It beats any of the Spidey movies pants down. Alas.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

My other car's a Decepticon

Yeah, so driving's cool. My Dad finally let me stick an Autobot sticker on his car. :D

Only my younger brother and eight-year old cousin think this is as cool as I do... huh, funny. Still, it adds a little more perk to the fact that I gotta wash it too...


Anyway, My brother talked me in to running over a caterpillar with the car today... it's a long-ish story... remind me to get it out some day.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Freakin' out

Ability to type in complete, gramtically correct sentences still on blink. Something to do with cars. All Dad's fault. Nothing more to say on that. Still freakin' 'bout it. Lack of warning was not appreciated. Honestly? Deep-ending not pleasent experience. Adrenaline rush though. Whoo. And thought had ass covered on probably eventuality.

Personally, blame disjointedness on Rorsarch. Watchmen. Completed wierd bad mumbly tendency already present. Is good way to type, less work. Heh, lazy.

Picking up goods tomorrow. Deep breaths. Blueberries. hah!


RvB put up new pictures today. Family photo theme. Not as good as last batch. still some good shit. Need some local friends.


Going to watch Life now. First roughly-proper-ish sentence of night. Go me.

Monday, April 21, 2008

oops

Ooops. I killed Ethan... because I voted 'knee'... nuts. Was kinda curious to see how long things could keep going for without getting Ethan killed.


first day at work today. little kids!! cuteness!! lost ability to type in complete sentences. oh well.

will hopefully be more comprehensible in next post.

making up words as i go. nuts.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Two to Tango

Why is it with every mini-series Rooster Teeth's done for RvB so far, someone I like dies?? Seriously, first York (haha, Noo-Yok like them yanks down in Joisey says.) and now Washington?!? Is Washington even dead? And poor Delta! Stuck with South Dakota who turns out to be something of a b****... I wonder how long she was on Command's payroll? Ah the plot thickens...

Uh, yeah, I did just watch the last episode of Recovery One in case it's not friggen' obvious.


Short post today before I run around to get supporting documents for Uni apps. That'll teach me to not study for big national exams... I hope.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

when chall we three meet again...

Just got back from the class dinner at Fish & Co. Food was good but I have the usual complaint that it was too noisy for proper conversation to be easily had. This is why I prefer gatherings at houses rather than restaurants. But then, so much more to clean up... :p Still, good, fun evening.

Afdhal saw me reading Capote and gave me a quick run-down of the movie. (I actually very much enjoy discussing this kind of thing with Afdhal because he's so well-informed. Unfortunately I have nowhere that kind of interest or retention he does and often talking to him leaves this vague, floundering kind of feeling. The kind I get when some of my true otaku friends get down with each other. Conversationally I mean. What were you thinking?) The gist of what he described was that Capote did not help the man he was in love with (a convict) and let him die because he was basically writing their relationship out as his next book and it needed a good ending.

This got me thinking: firstly, if Capote were a woman, would his romance still hold the same disquieting note as it does in the movie? What if being gay is what adds to the 'originality' of the thing so to speak? In which case 'originality' sounds an awful lot like just putting the next most risque thing out there. Whereupon the talent becomes the ability to gauge what that thing is. Too far ahead of the curve and it'll just be too much for sensibilities. Too little and it becomse mundane.

There was a secondly... what was my second point? Ugh, yet another brilliant example of what facebooking while you blog will do to your thought process...


I really like climbing on stuff. I don't know why...

And if other people can't get up on it? That simply adds to the pleasure.

I don't know why my psyche's built that way but it is. Oh well. Makes for good pictures at least.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Recovery One

Watching RoosterTeeth's New mini-series recovery one. :) Awesomeness as always. It's pretty cool the way they took Tex and the freelancers and introduced it in such a retarded way yet thought it through enough that's it's been worth two whole mini-series of plotty stuff so far. It's good to see Delta again too. And North and South Dakota? Cute.

I don't know why but Washington makes me think 'Tex as a guy'....


Hmmm, probably some other stuff I should (or could) talk about but nothing's really coming to mind... Oh well, guess that's it for this post then.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Ooh, spooky.

Hmmm, I make be entering the kingdom of Retardia Spasticia here but I blame it all on this thread. Yeah, I'm checking out spooky paranormal shit on the internet now. Go me. As opposed to what I should be doing. Which is making jello.



Is it just me or does the hooded figure look... phallic? I mean, who, seeing something like that goes: 'OMG, a hooded dude the likes of which we never see in everyday life and therefore readily associate with random shadoy figures'? Wouldn't it make much more sense to go: 'Holy crap. A giant thing as commonly found in some guys pants.'


Issues? Yes, muchly. Terrified for A Level results?

Damn straight.


On a side note, I love the satisfying 'crunch' of bone and cartilidge breaking when you beatdown an opponent in Halo3. Much better than the metallic sound you'd get which would be more relistic considering you're supposed to be hitting metal.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

of headshots and things...

Well, I finally did it. I finally got off my ass, connected my 360 up and signed up with XBox Live. So yes, I'm now playing Halo online! Happiness. :)

Interestingly enough, people seem to be able to tell I'm a girl... And before you even do the whole 'duh, you're voice ain't manly' thing, there's a bajillion pre-pubesecent annoying, foul-mouthed, immature, stupid, noisy boys on XBox Live too. What is wrong with them?!?! Is there some kind of requirement that if you're a gamer under 14 you have to be utterly retarded??

Which is why I try not to let on I'm a girl... Being humped by other players in co-op loses it's appeal to me somehow...


Someone helped me unlock a coupla skulls though. :) So yes, there are nice people out there... But what really wierds me out is I found myself speaking mandrin into my headset to a guy from Taiwan... -_-U
Sigh...


Anyhow, my gamertag's S7R4T4, read: strata, and with some luck I'll be able to get myself a decent rep or something.


I'll do another post some other time to bitch about the lag on swords...

Friday, January 25, 2008

Meandering 2.5

Nyargh, I really need to freak out about what I found out but I can't freak out here because some people actually do read this and the wierd thing is that I'm freakin' out because I can't tell anybody. AND that I totally saw this coming!! Or not. Well, maybe. I dunno. Blargh (honkhonk).


On a less cryptic note, I have a gay-dar! And it freakin' works! Awesome! Go me!


Uh, yeah...

I was going to pretend to be normal and do a proper post but... *looks shifty* yeaaaahhhh... too late for that now.

Would it be beyond weird if I put up a personal add for a co-op buddy? Hmmm...

Monday, January 14, 2008

'...like two assholes on their first date.'

Not been posting again so here's an uber quick update before I get to the main point of this post. Watched Eastern Promises with Caleb and Char (and lunched with Deb). Watched American Gangster with my grandmother (and found out she watched Eastern Promises too... zomg.) Finished Assassin's Creed (so dissapointing. I was hoping for more. yet, i'm not too surprised. never a good sign. And what is it with the final boss battle? last bit was very much like Fable the Lost Chapters.) Lunched with Steffi and went shopping. finished up my job with Mediacorp. Not necessarily in that order. Oh yeah, Priscilla (ugh, spelling) from SD2(i think) got my job. :) cute.


And with all that out of the way, I can move on to the main point of this post: bitching about Gears of War. Yes, I've finally gotten round to playing it and I'm being a complete wuss and playing on Casual. The Locust scare me, okay? And I'm playing alone all the time now since my bro's out of town. So I like that they go down easy.

Even so, it's hell of a lot more tactical than Halo... Seriously, even on casual, if you don't stick by the maxim of 'duck and cover', you're toast. Not like Halo's Easy at all... and the enemy units are soooo much smarter. they flank you, all the time. I mean the AI engine does make them do dumb shit occasionally but on the whole they're pretty smart, pretty co-ordinated and available in hordes. Plues the emergence holes are... interesting. I'm playing Act Two now which is where it's dark and you've gotta watch out for the Kryl (I think) and man, it's crazy, creepy and fun. And the weapons require a little more thinking too... (Think Hammer of Dawn)

Plus, you're actuall in charge of delta Squad which means you need to give orders. It does help since Dom's an over-zealous sumbitch and Baird's kinda a chicken shit. Cole... Cole's actually not been too bad so far. Except he doesn't seem to get the "duck and cover" bit so well...

Yeah, your squad's AI's are pretty dumb sometimes. Which is really what I want to bitch about because Dom keeps running out and getting his stupid ass shot off by guys I could have taken. then when i run out to heal him, I get shot. After this fifth time this happened, I let the idiot lie there and bleed. He heals automatically when you finish off that bunch of Locust. Except while he's bleeding out, you get his bitching over the radio and no cover fire. Interestingly enough though, he never tries these crazy charges to distract the enemy when you need him too. Say when you're facing a trioka... Baird may be a chicken shit but at least you have steady cover fire so when you fall back to recoup, you don't have to worry about some shit-ass ugly locust popping out of his hole to walk over to your hiding place and whack you.

Well, I think I've ranted enough. The conversation in Delta Squad's pretty funny though. this post title is a line from when the Squad first splits and Marcus takes Baird with him (usually you get Dom. Hence my angst.)


Things like this though make me worry about my sense of humour...

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

bleeeeh

So for the first time in my life, I find myself depressed to be NOT going back to school. Just the ambience, the people I usually see... I really miss all that. Red wanted to crash orientation with me but I decided not to be cause I have work and if you did it right the first time, one ACJC orientation's quite enought to live through, thank you very much. I swear I had mud I didn't know mud could get...

Maybe a bit of the other reason is that I didn't want to go and watch a whole bunch of people starting their ACJC experience for the first time. I envy them that. I had a great 2 years, made some really good friends and I wish it weren't over. But it is and I shall content myself with crashing Spectra meetings. :)


Anyhow, I'm trying to bury myself in my job a little (a job which I might not have by the end of the month... Damn you HR people who want a five-day week for 400$ a month. NOBODY would do the work you want for that.) and now... I'm even more depressed.

I've been looking for info on the Dragon Boaters who drowned in Cambodia in November and... it's very sobering poking around on the memorial blogs and whatnot. Actually screw that, it's bloody depressing. Still, I've got enough material now that I think I can call it a day and go assassinate someone in the Harbour of Damascus. Or wherever else it is I'm in Assassin's Creed right now.


This is a compltely depressing new-year post. Yeuch.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

cowabunga dude!

I used to have a friend who bitched to me all the time about how he looked so young he was ID checked at every event he went to. I promised myself I wouldn't do such a thing having experienced first hand how spazzy it sounded.

And then it started happeing to me.

I got friggen bounced for an NC16 movie! WTF! ARGH, so full of HATE!


Yup, okay, I'm good. So since I didn't have ID on me, I went and watched Alvin and the Chipmunks. Which is a damn good movie. Or cute at least. God I love chipmunks.

But the show that lends this post its title is TMNT- which I finally got down to watching this afternnon. (that's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for you sad people who didn't have a childhood)
I just wanna say: I love Mikey.

Okay, that's not all I wanna say. For one thing, I'm really glad the movie was good- particularly the way the relationships between the turtles was portrayed. I especially liked the whole thing between Raphael and Leonardo- it's the big brother VS brother showdown you could always see brewing yet never really exploded that badly... Or did it? Damn I need to dig up my parents' old TMNT comics...

The funny thing is, I realise that I've actually been a TMNT fan longer than I've been a Spidey fan! There's this picture of me in nursery on my brithday with this HUGE TMNT cake in front of me. Think it was Leo on the cake...

Mikey's always been my favourite though. :) When my cousins and I used to play, I was always Mikey. Now though I see Mikey's... How do I put this... 'Not playing with a full pack'. And I wonder if my cousins were not perhaps trying to tell me something...

Monday, December 10, 2007

Class Party

We had a class party at Maurice's house last night. Brought my 360 (as compensation for not bringing food) and a frag-fest naturally followed. Ironically the guys in my class were more in to it than the guys at the Spectra party. Jing Wei in particular. For a guy who claims to think gaming is a waste of time, he's one sneaky *insert appropriate expletive here*. On the plus side I think I've converted Maurice to look inversion. Which leaves just Nat and Jing Wei as the only non-inverted freaks in my class now I think...

The girls tried playing too and I feel slightly guilty for not sticking with them to try and offer help but I just taught my eight and three-year old cousin how to play earlier this week. So I'm all out of 'newbie-teaching' patience and what not.


Well, I need to go reinstall the XBox and give the controllers their weekly wipe-down. (When you're using them at least once a day, controllers get grubby.)

Monday, December 3, 2007

Where religion enters, common sense leaves

Before you even ask, prom was great. I don't think I've ever exhibited such cam-whore-ism before but it was still fun. And respect to Amoz for understanding that when your Dad drives all the way to Shangri-La hotel to pick you up at eleven at night, you do not just tell him to turn around, thank you very much, because you've decided to go for the post-prom party. Sheesh. Pictures will be up on my facebook account. :) Even managed to get a picture with Sam- one of the most camera-shy guys I know (As opposed to Jing Wei who's actually a bit of a girl when it comes to taking photos. Which is the polite way of saying he's a bit of a cam-whore). And the food while paletable was definitely dissapointing considering we paid 98 friggen bucks. Oh well.


The main reson I'm making this post though is about the Golden Compas movie coming out. No, I'm not going to watch it but not for some religious reason. It's because I've read the book and I just don't feel like coughing up money to watch some director's interpretation of the thing in film. That and I don't think Daniel Craig's that cute. No, what really gets me is the way the Christian church is (once again) responding to a movie/book with anit-Christ elements. Years ago when His Dark Materials was just a book, they did nothing, said nothing. Now that it's a movie, they're out condemning it in force as anti-Christ. Which acts as excellent publicity and makes even more people buy the book and watch the damn movie.
You'd think after what happened to with the Da Vinci Code (and to a certain degree, Brokeback mountain) they'd have learned. The only people who'd listen and not support this 'evil, evil' thing are the Christians who are least likely to be taken in by any such messages (Though if you're the kind of person who'll parrot these beliefs without actually having read the thing to formulate your own opinion, you might actually be gullible-read:stupid- enough to be taken in...) For everyone else... put it this way: if you were a start-up writer who didn't want to take the risk of engaing in a major advitising campaign to publicise your work, make sure one of your reviewers mentions it has anti-Chirst elements. After that, sit back and let the church do everything for you.

Okay, that's not technically true but I really don't understand why there's this huge fuss about the Golden Compas. Firstly, there's nothing particularly obvious in the way it's anti-Christ. So the angels are gay and god dies. Big whup. Nowhere in the book is anyone led to believe that this is anything other than purely fictional. And that Christians assume saying "oh, it's anti-Chirst" is going to make their non-Christian friends not watch the movie... well. The term I'd like to use here is "very special kind of stupid". Why should they care? Frankly I'm a Christian, I've read His Dark Materials (not for awhile though. If anyone could loan me a copy of The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, I'd be grateful), The Da Vinci Code and Brokeback Mountain and I have to say: so what? These authors are entitled their views and any thinking individual should be more than able to realise they're writing fiction. Why do Christians then insist on sullying themselves with denouncing these works and making themselves look- unfortunately- stupid?


Were that I knew.

Ironically, are all the dungeons and dragons type novels then not anti-christ too? Oh yes, they're fictional but they propagate a world without god and the existence of other dieties. Sacralige! They too must be burned!

Yay. Go stupid. (waves pompoms)

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Wake me if you need me

So I'm back from Bali without a tan to my name (whew), a hole (filled up) on the beach and my first ever white water rafting experience under my belt! I've been paddling about for... what, eight to ten years now? on various holidays but I've never done white water. (And I've only capsized once. Hah.) In all fairness though, it was hardly extreme. Still, fun and probably a good start for a first.

Finished Halo3 with my brother a few days back and then did the last chapter (from rally point alpha- yes, I am a lazy ass) on legendary just for the special ending.

SPOILER:(Not that anyone who reads this blog cares) It just shows the frieghter headed towards Onyx. I'm a bit dissapointed. And it makes me wonder if we'll ever see the Chief again. It was somehow less sad when I thought he'd just died... Funny. Maybe it's because Cortana looked so lonely. Wherase if they'd died together... well. Smart A.I.s only have a shelf life of about seven years anyway.Spoiler end


My Mom's gone off to China which means I'm on my own in figuring out my prom make-up. She showed me what to do- now lets just hope I don't botch it up.

Friday, November 23, 2007

Finishing the fight

I'm baaaaaaaaack.

I swear every time someone says that I see the Green Goblin in my head with his whacko rictus. Only it's not Norman, it's Harry. Which makes it more terrifying in a way...

What the hell Am I talking about?!? THE A LEVELS ARE OVER! Yes!


So, I went and got my XBox 360 (Elite- because shopping for electrical appliances with my Dad is never as simple as going in and just getting it. There's always a bigger, better appliance) and the Halo3 game. Legendary edition. So I now have and almost-life-sized Spartan helmet sitting on my desk. I'm, uh, starting to talk to it too... It also looks like someone decapitated the Master Chief. This is utterly bizzarre on so many levels...

I wanted to do a loooooong post after the A's but now that I'm here, I don't really want to say it all. There are cooler things I could be doing. Like playing Halo3. Gotta keep that GamerScore up! DOes anyone want to play? Text me! I need more ass to kick!


Oh yeah, watched enchanted with the girls in my class after the bio paper. :) FTW!