New addiction

Yes, farming isn't really my forte these days.

I started on this Browser Romance of Three Kingdoms by Mixi and it was just amazing. The simple structure, where one has to spend time to gather resources (wood, rocks, metal and grains) to build all kinds of structures and weaponry before conquering other lands (some occupied by another player in the world).

It is more complicated than the farming ones, yet it has the right balance of being challenging yet doesn't cost too much of my time. Moreover, it can be accessed through Safari on my Iphone which means that I get to declare an offensive as I board the train and check its result when I arrive at Bishan.

Oh, no downloading is needed and it can be played on the browser itself, talk about innovations?

Games

PS Mervin was helping to organise a paintball session in JB for his cellmates and I tagged along, thinking that there would be a few of the army pals going (ie Robert, Marcus, Nigel, Justin) and guess what, I realised the day before that only Weijie would be coming. By the way, Weijie was from Alpha, and I was shocked after hearing Robert's reason ... no passport. LOL

Apart from being a bit older, Mervin's cellmates were fine, quite nice. And then the paintball sounded cheap by the way Mervin described (S$40) inclusive of bus. It was indoor, meaning that we were not hit by the rain and we played in an aircon shopping centre (ok, part of the shopping centre)

Please see the website of Dynamic Paintball. The deal wasn't bad at 45 ringgits (2hrs) but we had only 150 balls each. Additional 500 balls would cost another 130 ringgits so I guess it wasn't really worth the hassle. Anyway, there is no 'respawn' so it is real sad to be the first to 'die' and the mission is to detonate the enemy's base so there is no halfway line (ie. enemy can go over and shoot from your back)

JB definitely has different safety regulations: the rounds hit harder. 1st game was simple, our team won and I wasn't hit; 2nd game was unfortunate, hit by enemy in my blindspot (back); 3rd was largi worse, teammate who for some reason ran backwards, and since they were not exactly my friends, I fired a few rounds into him at close range, and he was probably angry with the pain and sprayed at me though he was supposed to be 'dead' (some Christians right, lol)

End of the day, I had 2 small bruises to show for my efforts, nothing as spectacular as the girls and some guys who got their skin torn (yes, it was that powerful).

My verdict: I still miss Robert who'd have taken nice pics for me

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For cell on Thursday, we went to the Settler's Cafe at SMU. Hard to imagine that guys all above the age of 25 to enjoy Primary School level game: Open Number to determine who gets to eat the finger food that we ordered.

We played something in the end, it was called First Hand. And I learnt something about the group and about myself through this game meant for those aged 6 and above. First of all, we know who require a longer time to react; and those who look at others without thinking; and as for myself, I realised that I have the tendency to dwell on past mistakes which affects my next game.

Need to watch out for that.

Shopping and Movie and Wii Party

Alright, have gotten my shirt for Shihui's wedding dinner next week, thought that I already have too many of such dinners to attend, only to find Shu having to go on consecutive weeks. Well, it happens when you get too popular lol

After shopping, went to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was such a sad story that tears fell from my cheek when Daisy visited the young Benjamin in the hotel room. Think it would all have been alright if not for the birth of the daughter because Benjamin just freaked out while considering the responsibility and all.

After the show, one can't help but to notice that it wouldn't be a problem if everyone ages backward but it is sad when Benjamin was the only one with such experience. Nevertheless, he lived a full life, experienced all sorts of things and I can't help but to think that we, Japan scholars are of such a rare species that no one could really understand our struggles sometimes.

Headed off to Stephanie's house for Wii Party (or Raving Rabbids Party). Had some good laughs and will scream when Darryl and Adeline start to upload our very unglamorous pictures.

Yuko

Was chatting with Yuko online, wrote about her before, really someone whom I can talk to regarding anything, and she had such good personality that she would share everything openly with me, including her current boyfriend and stuff.

Met with her during my trip to Tokyo too and I was thinking that this is the kind of person whom I would enjoy talking to and going out with. Just that it wouldn't be such an open relationship if we ever get attached. Unfortunately, life's like that.

Was chatting and I shared about having this inferior complexity when I meet with じょあん and I was asked if she's really so special for me to feel inferior. I thought about it, yeah, somehow she was different. And perhaps, the pot of gold at the other side of the rainbow is so attractive because I can never get near it. Attractiveness aside, I realized that I would never be happy or satisfied and I'm giving up - albeit after 2 years and an impulse decision to fly to Hong Kong (笑)

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Had tennis this morning, my first in 3 weeks and my body was too tight due to the lack of exercise. The first 15 minutes was a homerun practice and haiz... think I have strained my groin with the running, must be the age.

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Been playing with Final Fantasy Dissidia for the past 2 weeks.

People, please be jealous. Thank you.

飲み足りないから持ってるの

Got to thank Astrid for providing her house last evening. Melvin and Robert's pizza was amazing. I never knew anyone could bake a pizza starting with just flour and yeast and well, who else could we learn from other than these Germans.

Anyway, only got to realise that I had missed Greg's birthday party but then again, I wasn't informed, so ...

Somehow, it was a great evening, minus the fact that I missed the Arsenal VS Man U match. Astrid wouldn't allow the TV to be switched on as everyone would be keeping their eyes glued on the TV. So it was a chilling session with Pizza (which I helped in spreading the dough), tomato salad (which I helped in slicing the tomatoes) over Whiskey (thanks to Robert), Wine (thanks to Stacey) and beer (thanks for all who went to buy).

You know, I have never had a great drinking session ever since I came back (not that I drink that often and it was because I had given up on having great drinking buddies here). Yeah, it was fantastic, just drinking, chilling out with some Wii games in between. We left the house after 3am and frankly speaking, I didn't plan to leave that late, or was it early.

Reached home and laid on my bed without showering (I had not experienced this since I came back from my past life in Tokyo) and woke up with a nice little hangover which was cured with 1.5 litres of isotonic drinks. It was fun and I hope to upload some pics after I get hold of some from Anais and Stacey. Somehow, there is one fewer thing to miss back in Tokyo - Drinking Buddies heh.

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Oh, forgot to mention that I met Jiawei at Suntec, Ruiwen, Jin Bao and Yee Le at Raffles City yesterday. Well, there aren't many places for army boys to hang out over the weekends.

Icebreaker Games

I was doing Ice-breakers for yesterday's cell group and I played a game that is not a typical church game, till now, I'm not sure if I had created the right atmosphere. This game requires people who are sporting, who'll answer truthfully and spontaneously. This is how the game goes:

In each turn, one person will be posed with a question, for example, someone were to offer you money to leave your house immediately, what is the minimum amount that you'll demand? Everyone will try to guess the amount this person puts down and the one whose value is the nearest wins. Then another question will be posed to someone else and so on.

If the house means a lot to the person, he/she will want more money

But if the person can't wait to leave the house, he/she may even pay someone off to get rid of the place

How much are you willing to pay for Rolandinho's jersey, the one he wore on Monday when played against Singapore?

How much money will tempt you into running the year-end Standard Chartered Marathon?

How much are you willing to pay to have a 6-pack?

How much money are you willing to pay to bribe a Traffic Police in order to keep your driving license?

...

It may be a silly question to many but to the specific person, some things are really treasured, while some things are dreaded, and when we put a value to it, it gets interesting. I didn't plan to join in but since everyone was happily playing along, it finally ended with me and I was posed with this question:

How much will you sell your memories of Japan, including the language, friends, experiences for?

I wrote down $5 million. But even with $5 million, I don't want to sell it, not at any price.

But in another angle, these things can't be brought up to heaven, so why is it so difficult to let go. If I already have so much baggage at this age, I can't imagine myself 10, 20 years from now.

Could have added Sports in EURO 2008 and the Wimbledon

Alright, I need some help, I don't know how to group this entry

Church:
Went to church today and played ball game after that. Ben has brought me his guitar and yeah, I plan to do a fast on my comics and to start picking up the instrument in the next 40 days. Haven't confirmed how I'd do the fasting on food because I need to train for AHM and can't afford a full fast for 40 days, will get some answers by tomorrow.

And hey, Anais and Melvin came over last evening. Credits to my brother for suggesting our place rather than meeting in Woodlands where none of us stays in =P and our dog did well in being the star among us. Honestly, there are too few people staying in the north, as in direct north, how sad.

Army:
Will learn of my duties soon. Wonder how Eddie has planned it and in the midst of playing captain's ball just now, got to chat with my friend and ○○ gunner, Brian (yeah, lol). Heard there's a chalet thingie on Thursday and Friday for the entire unit. Guess it's for the anniversary and if I'm doing duty, then I wouldn't get to go!!! And for the anniversary last year, I missed the Sentosa trip because Gan wanted to spend time with his platoon and I took over his duty since I didn't yet have my men. Sigh* Most guys will get to enjoy 1 or won't get to enjoy any because the term as a ○○ is at most 10 months. Yet I'm doing a 15 months' tour and I get to miss both. Alright, enough ranting

Movie:
Rushed home to watch Narnia 1, only to catch the latter half and glad to have my brother explaining the first half to me. I won't comment on the story but the graphics and the make-up was fantastic, very impressive

Games:
Jim and gang will be having a Wii League in Joshua's place on Friday. Wonderful and I want to be there. With so many Wii(s) [KK, Xiaoping, myself, ...] hope we are going to sync the controllers properly (wouldn't want the controller linking to another set by mistake lol) Just that I wonder if I have duties on the day. Sigh* Life is so unpredictable here

Concentration

Somehow, it was a tiring day for me. I don't know why but I had been very sleepy throughout the day and my attempt to read Genesis once through without pause failed miserably when I got so distracted after an hour, reaching only 15 out of 50 Chapters. There is still a long way to go before I can reach my peak back in the JC days =P

So Genesis was about 4 Major Events and 4 Major Characters. Didn't get to learn much about the techniques for Inductive Bible Study and guess I'll have to do read-ups on my own (sounds impossible)

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Since it is such a boring entry, I wanna talk about how excited I got after reading about Metal Gear Solid 4 on Digital Life today. It received 10/10 and I'm sure it will be a good buy. Just that I'll have to invest in a PS3 first. Hmm......



But as I calm down a little, I know that I'm not a gaming person. I recently modify my Wii to play US games and bought Mario Kart Wii and Super Smash Brothers Brawl only to find my brother utilizing them more than me, unforgivable when I have more free time than him. A good combination between us which I contribute my money while my brother gives his effort.


Nevertheless, Mario Kart is fun to be played online through Wi-Fi with human players all over the world. Just my 2 cents worth, from someone who doesn't play games.

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Met Ruth Susanty at the City Hall mrt. Perhaps, it is a sign that I should continue taking the public transport.

みんなのゴルフ ポータブル２

Have been addicted to the game in the title lately. It is completely different from the Final Fantasy 7 Crisis Core which I completed a few weeks ago and honestly, I am not exactly a game person. My PS1 was a gift from my uncle, I bought my PS2 so that my room would look more guyish and I got my Wii because someone wanted it badly. I bought my PSP to play an interactive game called 'Talkman' and initially got my Nintendo DS for someone else. Yeah, just in case I'm perceived as an オタク ha

But this golf game is one of a kind. Simple to operate and cute to watch. start off by choosing one of the only 2 characters (A guy or a gal) and enter the tournaments (9-holes) or match-up with a single character. Win the tournament or match up to gain apparels, accessories, clubs, balls, other characters, or to level up (so that your character may be better at the drive distance, control, spin, ...), etc



In order to play well, several factors must be observed, such as the strength and direction of the wind, the club to use, the slopes, the elevation, the ground features, very similar to the real, physical golf, though I had only played once on the driving range (I wonder if it is how they call it)

The sequel has brought in new golf courses, in additional to the existing 6 in the first instalment, and more characters, be it new caddies or new golfers whom can be dressed up professionally or hysterically.



A very light-hearted game that all can defintely enjoy