我的第一次

Okay, less the one time long long ago that my cousins and I anyhow whack, this can be considered my first time playing squash... Me, yuwei, wanyu, and wanyu's new scandal. (oooo guess who guess who? But blame wanyu for the lousy picture quality.)

Two tallies.

One tall one short.

Still one tall one short. Oh but i look kindof taller here =)

My socks!

Yayyyyy

My thousand AU's joining the slave camp in Raffles Place for winter internship. Yays~ Not to forget Miss Siew too. Welcome to the club, both!!! Though wanyu just reminded me that I wouldnt be in office very much during the period =\

Well, still good enough news to keep me happy for the whole week =)))

4 Deserts Race

Known as the 4 Deserts Race, the event takes in the salt plains of the Atacama in Chile, the riverbeds and hills of the Gobi in China, the undulating dunes of the Sahara in Egypt and the icy flats of Antarctica. Participants can tackle all the deserts or just one if they choose. And while organizers provide water and lay on tents and bathing facilities each night, everyone is expected to carry their own food and other essential gear.

People from all walks of life compete. Some just want to cross the finish line, others want to win; the time difference between the front runners and the back of the field can be in excess of 50 hours by each race's end. The number of competitors on each leg of the 4 Deserts Race is strictly limited (up to 180 on the Gobi March, but capped at just 80 for the Atacama) so early registration is essential. While your fitness levels dont have to be tip-top (you can stroll the entire legth of the course if you wish), you had better have deep pockets. Each leg in 2009 will cost you about USD3,100 to enter.

http://www.4deserts.com

Hmmm...

Addressing an HP management-training session, computer pioneer DAVE PACKARD says:

"Many people assume, wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money. While this is an important result of a company's existence, we have to go deeper and find the real reasons for our being... People get together and exists as... a company so that they are able to accomplish something collectively that they could not accomplish separately - they make a contribution to society."

Have you seen my new posters?

MYC Dhoby Ghaut Open House

Music for Young Children (MYC) - Dhoby Ghaut Open House on Sunday (21/09/08)!http://www.mycsingapore.com.sg/

Mamma Mia - The Movie

If you've seen the stage musical (which I haven't), this is probably just another chance to experience it without having to pay the much-higher stage musical admission price. And perhaps if you are a big ABBA fan, then hearing wall-to-wall tunes by the Swedish uber-band will elevate your 108-minute viewing experience. I'm not sure, though, what else there is to offer the rest of us.

Mamma Mia is not a bad movie. It's just not that good either. Still, despite the mostly-less-than-average singing, the lack of symmetry or story arc, and the impossibly sun-splashed sense of glee that permeates the film, it has the weird power to alter moods. It doesn't matter how you start off when you sit in your seat. By the time you leave, you get the sensation that you're totally at ease, swinging barefoot on a hammock, and listening to the sound of ocean waves in the near distance. Mamma Mia isn't so much a musical as it is therapy for the curmudgeon in need of a smile.

The film benefits from a cheery performance by Meryl Streep, who plays single-mom Donna Sheridan, owner of a gorgeous little hotel on an out-of-the-way Greek island. Her work is hard, the surroundings are crumbling, and her mortgage is crippling. Her equally cheery 20-year-old daughter, Sophie, played by Amanda Seyfried, is about to get married but doesn't know who her father is. After reading through her mom's diary, she surmises that there may be three possibilities - Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), Sam (Peirce Brosnan), or Harry (Colin Firth). She invites them all to her wedding, hoping that her intuition will tell her who it is when they meet. But singling out her Dad is much harder than she had imagined.

The worst thing from the entire show was Pierce Brosnan's voice. Sorry, 007. He can ably hold a gun, but he has no ability to forcefully carry a tune. But the absurdly beautiful setting of the movie did truly amazed me. Consider it a super-showy travelogue - vibrant colors, breathtaking views, and the weather is always sunny.

"Is that Grandpa?" a four-year-old wondered.

"No, honey," her mother told her. "He's not here anymore. That's just his body."

She worked at this, how the arms that held her and the lap she sat in were no longer him.

"You know how when we go to Florida, we leave our winter coats at home because we won't need them there? Well, he just left this behind because he doesn't need it anymore." And this appeared to make perfect sense to her, and she went to play, full of love and certainty.

Quarter Life Crisis

Yes, i think i'm having a quarter-life crisis.

Information

Nearest MRT: Yio Chu Kang MRT Station

For drivers: You can either park at Grassroot Club ($3/entry) or at NYP Carpark A (free parking but have to walk over)

We are expecting around 100 guests, including Jill's secondary, JC, university, work friends and relatives. The best present to bring along would be yourself!

Please R.S.V.P. with Jill at 98288204 or gohjill@yahoo.com by 21Jul'08!

Pictures from Europe

I promise to upload more Europe pictures soon (I hope). I'm still in the process of collating them. Meanwhile, please refer to yuqin's. hahahah. At least she started on the Doha ones le.

Sorry for making use of you friend, but that's what friends are for right. heh heh

Home!

Back from the long breakaway. Sightseeing, photo-taking, eating, map-reading, walking (ohh LOTsa walking), shopping, and now jet-lagging.. Waking up at what was 4am for the past 5 weeks aint easy.

Long Beach, Nice

Lessons learnt:
#1: Never trust people when they say "everywhere in this city is walkable".
Of course it's walkable, it's just HOW LONG you can take to walk. Actually, they ARE walkable la, but never underestimate the distance you will need to cover.

#2: German trains are never late.
Yes we happily sat at the platform and watch the short train leave at the other end, thinking that our train was late. Thankfully there was another one an hour later.

#3: Always leave enough time to get to the train station.
- Ran to the train station with our backpacks and many other chapalang bags
- Checked out which platform to board (and if the train has left)
- Hopped on to the nearest cabin door
- *pants*
and the train starts to move.

#4: Never plan shopping days to be on a Sunday.
We were lucky enough to not had any shopping days clashing with Sundays till the last Sunday of the entire trip. We SO wanted to shop-till-we-drop in Nice and even woke up early that day. Finally accepting the truth that the shops are not going to open up, we went to the beach to tan instead, with Ms Lim under her umbrella. Even the ah-mahs were staring at her (they must be thinking "stupid chinese" again).

#5: When they tell you "beware of pickpockets", you better beware of pickpockets.
Especially so in Italy.

The psp is in Bintan and so no new games for me. TV's not as interesting now. I'm gonna (attempt to) upgrade my brain and read business magazines =) oh and i'm including exercising as part of my daily life now. Time to pick it up again. I can't believe how lazy i was to clock a record of not-jogging-for-3-years (excluding the one time that i ran, gave up after the distance of 2 bus stops, and walked back). "I-need-to-study"'s an excuse, friends! Let's get some tan too!

Surf's Up

Yet another game made out of a movie, Surf's Up is a racing game in which all of the participants are penguins riding atop surfboards. In the game, you complete laps around courses situated on ocean or river environments. You get to perform a variety of tricks in the air by pressing the correct sequence of buttons when projected upwards on certain obstacles or ramps. There are also weapon boxes scattered around the track, although you don't have much control over the tricks. The attractive 3D graphics generally put the system's horsepower to good use. The frame rate also remains smooth, even when waves are crashing down and the characters are performing somersaults in midair. Characters bounce around constantly as their boogie boards pass over waves. That, combined with the splashy landings, gives Surf's Up the same sort of look and feel as Wave Race or Jet Moto. The sound effects mainly consist of generic splashing noises and brief repetitive character comments. If you don't like the soundtracks that come with the game, you have the option of making a playlist using your own MP3 files by placing them into the game's folder on the memory stick.

Races are still loads of fun despite not being able to control your character's acrobatics. The real question is how much play time you'll actually get out of the game before you're done with it. The single-player championship mode consists of five meets that contain four courses each, for a grand total of 20 races. A three-lap race typically takes roughly five minutes to finish, which means you'll only need about two hours to finish all 20 courses and earn the championship. Going through the championship unlocks courses for use in the free surf mode, as well as additional characters that you can use in all play modes. The free surf mode is nothing special as it simply contains one-off races, time attacks, and survival races using the standard courses. The multiplayer mode offers different options depending on whether or not your friends have their own copies of the game. As many as eight people can compete in races and in Mario Kart-style arena matches if everyone has a copy. However, if there's only a single copy to go around, you'll be limited to two players and have half as many locations from which to choose. The multiplayer isn't compelling enough to compensate for the sparse single-player offerings, but if you can find some people to play with, you will definitely get a few extra hours out of the game.

Overall, the game doesn't offer much in the way of content. If you're a great fan of the movie, you'll appreciate the way the characters are portrayed and enjoy speeding through races with them. Just don't expect to get more than an afternoon or two out of the game before you're finished with it.

Yuwei's gonna be in Bintan for a 3mth internship! So excited for him, even though it's only a 40min ferry ride away. It's still considered an "overseas internship" k. Anyway we just read about Xiaxue's entry on her bad experience at Angsana Resorts Bintan. We dont really read her blog all the time (yes, i refuse to contribute to her ads dollars) but because of the internship, yuwei better read up on any news about the resort. It was really bad publicity for the resort but some stuff wasnt really their fault (like when the tar on the beaches stained her clothes, it was a common beach and they cant stop the tar from coming onto the beach rite..) From the way they reply her, they probably dont care about her swearing them upside-down haha. I'll still visit Bintan anyway, to visit Yuwei =)

By the way, 5th May is a Monday, not Tuesday. 60hrs before the flight, I just realised that I'm leaving on a different day that I've always thought so. It's on 5th May 320am!! It changes alot. (1) I cant talk to Jiakai online anymore because by the time she reach home, we'll already be on the plane. So she better access internet somehow and reply my how-to-get-to-ur-place-in-paris mail. (2) I cant collect our train reservation from STA on Monday because we're already on the flight (again). Luckily uncle's there to help. Thanks uncle Gary! It's gonna be his 5th trip to STA, opsy! (3) We're taking the same flight as Kah Yong! Yay more in-flight entertainment! haha (4) I only have half a day to pack my stuff after sending yuwei to the jetty on Sunday. Yes I wanted to start packing only on Monday but it seems impossible now. I better start tomorrow. (5) I need to reschedule things I plan to do Sunday and Monday all on Sunday! (picking up walkie talkie from Jingwan, buy snacks/sweets/biscuits, remove my half gone nail polish from my toes, settle credit card bills etc.) *Panicks*

Flower Stand Tycoon

Flower Stand Tycoon is about a chic urban floral business with some hefty profits to be made. In the game, your Uncle Pott's has a dream of nurturing a great florist business. Fortunately for you, however, Uncle Pott's is more of a bioengineer than a businessman, and would rather spend his time inventing new flower cross-breeds than being a salesman. He hands you his van, $700, and an old flower cart to start, and you're sent out to make your fortune as a budding Flower Stand tycoon.

To start, you'll need to stock your cart with inventory. Inventory includes both flowers and merchandise. The variety of flowers you can sell will increase with further research. Merchandise (like balloons, teddy bears, and wind chimes) is earned as you reach certain objectives, such as taking over competitors territories. Until you've bought the refrigerator upgrade, your daily supplies can not be carried over the next day, so select carefully. While restocking, you can also adjust your prices to meet with customer demand.

Once you've gotten your cart stocked, you are ready to select a target neighbourhood. Your flower stand is mobile, and can travel to a different neighbourhoods each day. You may purchase more carts later on in the game, allowing you to visit different neighbourhoods at the same time. The features of each neighbourhood and its customer base are unique, so you'll find differences in the amount population and customers' favourite flowers. After selling flowers in a neighbourhood, demand will go down temporarily. It may take several days for demand to replenish, which is why its a good idea to visit different neighbourhoods each turn.

As the day is being played, you can observe your carts on display monitors. The customer's reactions give you vital feedback on your business strategy. Satisfied customers are market with a happy face. Disgruntled customers may be upset over high prices, long wait times, or lack of flower variety. At the end of each day, you will get news article hinting at things that affect the following day's sales. As you'd expect, you may buy a variety of upgrades for your carts. Lights attract more customers, and music makes them more patient. Calculators improve your speed, and refrigeration allows you to roll over unused supplies. Larger carts can handle more inventory, plus have a bigger presence and attract more customers. Allocating more money towards Uncle Pott's research means you'll have faster access to new flower types. Advertising means more customers and better market share. You'll also have regular access to research which can assist you in making strategical choices.

Later in the game, you will begin to have competitors. Each neighbourhood will give you a statistic on your market share, along with the competitors'. When your market share is higher than all competitors, the neighbourhood will be highlighted in your colour - orange. Competitors will also have their own highlighted neighbourhoods. You can take over by getting a higher market share, but they can likewise take over your territories, so its important to keep an eye on market share trends.

You'll notice numerous similarities in Flower Stand Tycoon to both Fairy Godmother Tycoon and Ice Cream Tycoon. The concept of market share and competitors is a nice twist that makes the game more interesting. While not unique in mechanics or theme, it is relaxing and never turns the pressure up too high. All things considered, its fairly easy to learn how to play, and most of the rules can be figured out as you go. However, while tycoon games always have an audience, Flower Stand Tycoon doesn't seem to offer anything special or interesting to the player. The game play also appears open ended, with no real goals outlined for the player other than "becoming a tycoon". There aren't any major twists, the plot is rather minimalist, and the game play can be somewhat predictable. In contrast to Fairy Godmother Tycoon, which was full of humor and clever cutscenes, Flower Stand Tycoon is a bit more plain. There are no jokes or interludes or anything of the sort, short from the cute newspaper headlines shown in between each day. While it's tough at times to figure out what the main point is, other than earning a daily wage, Flower Stand Tycoon does offer accessible tycoon gaming with a no-pressure attitude.

Cabela's African Safari

In Cabela’s African Safari, you can choose from 7, 10 or 14 day safaris including open safari, game tracking, baiting and herd hunting missions. The game features over 30 exotic species of animals including sable, kudu, gemsbok, eland, waterbuck, impala and much more species that you've never heard before, as well as all new African waterfowl and upland bird hunting. Cabela’s African Safari also features an unlockable Big Five Trophy level where gamers can experience the world’s most dangerous animals (leopards, lions, elephants, rhinos and Cape buffalo) at their fiercest. You can also gather hunter points for good trackings and great shots.

Hunters will have access to an arsenal of authentic firearms including big caliber weapons they will need to bring down charging rhinos and thundering elephants. In addition, all-new shooting controls and features including Adrenaline Mode, Hunter Sense and Shot Cam, allow gamers to hone in on their prey with more accuracy and ease. Hunter Sense, slowing down the animal's movements, is the most useful to me, even when it's only for a few seconds.

This game is not exactly interesting unless you enjoy animal-watching, but overall, it's still entertaining as a different kind of shooting game.

Mr. Bigshot

http://www.mrbigshot.com (click on the demo tab)

This is a simple investment game using real stock performances on the history of New York Stock Exchange. There are four rounds in the game, with each round set in a different year, ranging from 1977 to 1990. Given $100,000 to start with, you are to gather more wealth than the other computer players to be "Mr Bigshot". You will then have to pick one of the two stocks, "Big" or "Shot", and decide how much you want to invest in. Some simple description, such as construction firm or precision instrument producer, and figures of the stocks will be given. You will be given three chances to revise your portfolio each round/year, taking into account the performance of the stock in the quarter and recalling what happened in that year. For instance, prices of oil may increase due to a war in the last quarter so you better sell your stock by then if your company is sensitive to changes in oil prices. Also, when the Black Monday's coming up, do take precautions not to invest too much or to sell off your stock before that quarter. Some of the actions you can take after each quarter include holding on to the stock, switching to the other stock (you'll have to incur switching costs, of cos), and selling the stock. Dont worry about not being able to recall what happened in 1977, there will be short The company name of the stocks will only be revealed after the end of each round.

It's rather interesting and you can play the game for as many times as you want without getting bored too soon. They have quite a variety of companies and it is unlikely that you will get a repeated stock in the same period. Pity the game allows for only buying and selling of one stock at any one time; it would have been better if players are allowed to state the percentages of each stock to purchase, creating their own portfolio. Afterall, it's just a simple game hosted online using flash platform. It's rather noisy as well (the "host" of the game likes to chant funny phrases and the background music irritates me) so do remember to turn down your speaker if you are playing the game in the office or during a lesson. The game reminds me of the AA206 project hah. Now that exams are round the corner, it's a good game for a study break.

It takes some time to load, hanging most of the time. Closing the browser and clicking on the link all over again for about thrice should guarantee you a try on the game. So please be patient. Have fun!

SNGS Fiesta

Jiehui says everyone who went back to st nicks will blog about it. I'm a st nicks girl and I went back, so I must post something...

"The Traffic Light" with "Macs" at the back.

(The person in the background looks like my cousin! Right, jie? Right, hang? Look like ting jie right?)

There was a big glup going around for photo-taking. It even tried queueing for the run. The school was trying to make two Guinness World records - one for doing a 4x100m relay continuously in 24hrs and the other, I forgot (something bout having the most people covering the longest distance in 24hrs?). Dr William Tan was there doing a 24hr marathon to help in the fundraising. He's disabled since young and now he's a athlete, educator, professional healer and researcher. Didnt manage to catch him on camera.

With two SNG dolls outside the library.

While waiting for shawn in the hall... and trying very hard to take pictures with the full crest in the background...

This is the really cute horse ride that bobs up-and-down when you step hard enough to make it move. But the kids taking the rides were all so tiny that the horses wouldnt budge if the girls in-charged didnt go around pushing the horses. It looked really funny, each of them with a horse buddy making the horses bob.


Ms Foo Say Lian! Yay she could remember my name! I still have the little blue whale toy that she gave in primary 2! It was a present for scoring full marks in this math test but when she went thru the answers I realised she marked one question wrongly and I only got 98. I 挣扎 for very long before going up to her to tell her the truth cos I thought I would have to return her the whale. (I was only 8 okayy..) But ms foo very nice, she said I could still keep the whale. I've been an honest girl from then onwards =)

St Nicks primary girls...

More pictures...

Then I left at one plus cos I had to study for ... ... ...
AUDIT QUIZ!!!

Ok la, at least the quiz didnt turn out too bad. Hopefully I can get more than 5/10 this time round. I've been too slack this sem, thinking that I'm already stuck in my class. BUT I'm wrong! My 3 lousy quiz grades CAN drag me down one class =\ better work harder!

Am-I-Dumb.com

Am-I-Dumb.com - Dumb Test

The Sims 2: Castaway [Cheat Codes]

from IGN

Enter these codes during gameplay without pausing:

To unlock Cheat Gnome: R1, L1, Dpad Down, Square, R2
The Cheat Gnome must be activated before any other cheats will work.

Fill All Motives: R2, Dpad Up, X, Square, L1

Max Current Inventory: Dpad Left, Dpad Right, Square, R2, Square

Max Relationships: L1, Dpad Up, R2, Dpad Left, Triangle

Give All Resources: Square, Triangle, Dpad Down, X, Dpad Left

Give All Plans: X, Triangle, L2, Square, R1

Set Skills: Triangle, L1, L1, Dpad Left, Triangle

Enter this after going into Fashion and Grooming panel on the Pause Menu:

Unlock Vest and Tanktop: Square,R2,R2,Triangle,D-pad Down

GTA: Liberty City Stories [Cheats and Guide]

CHEATS from IGN

Note: These are direct prints from the game's internal files. There is no L1 or R1 for the PSP, but these refer to the PSP L and R shoulder keys repsectively. Also, some cheats cannot be toggled. Save your game before trying them or you may get stuck with a cheat you don't want!

Weapon Set 1 UP, SQUARE, SQUARE, DOWN, LEFT, SQUARE, SQUARE, RIGHT

Weapon Set 2 UP, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, DOWN, LEFT, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, RIGHT

Weapon Set 3 UP, X, X, DOWN, LEFT, X, X, RIGHT

Get $250000 L1, R1, TRIANGLE, L1, R1, CIRCLE, L1, R1

Restore Armor L1, R1, CIRCLE, L1, R1, X, L1, R1

Restore Health L1, R1, X, L1, R1, SQUARE, L1, R1

Increase Wanted Level L1, R1, SQUARE, L1, R1, TRIANGLE, L1, R1

Wanted Level Never Appears L1, L1, TRIANGLE, R1, R1, X, SQUARE, CIRCLE

Weather: Sunny L1, L1, CIRCLE, R1, R1, SQUARE, TRIANGLE, X

Weather: Clear UP, DOWN, CIRCLE, UP, DOWN, SQUARE, L1, R1

Weather: Overcast UP, DOWN, X, UP, DOWN, TRIANGLE, L1, R1

Weather: Rainy UP, DOWN, SQUARE, UP, DOWN, CIRCLE, L1, R1

Weather: Foggy UP, DOWN, TRIANGLE, UP, DOWN, X, L1, R1

Spawn Rhino L1, L1, LEFT, L1, L1, RIGHT, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE

Faster Clock L, L1, LEFT, L1, L1, RIGHT, CIRCLE, X

Destroy All Cars L, L1, LEFT, L1, L1, RIGHT, X, SQUARE

Random Pedestrian Outfit L, L1, LEFT, L1, L1, RIGHT, SQUARE, TRIANGLE

Pedestrian Riot L1, L1, R1, L1, L1, R1, LEFT, SQUARE

Pedestrians Attack You L1, L1, R1, L1, L1, R1, UP, TRIANGLE

Pedestrians All Have Weapons R1, R1, L1, R1, R1, L1, RIGHT, CIRCLE

Faster Gameplay R1, R1, L1, R1, R1, L1, DOWN, X

Slower Gameplay R1, TRIANGLE, X, R1, SQUARE, CIRCLE, LEFT, RIGHT

Perfect Traction, Down=Car Hop L1, UP, LEFT, R1, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, DOWN, X

Media Attention Meter L1, UP, RIGHT, R1, TRIANGLE, SQUARE, DOWN, X

Commit Suicide L1, DOWN, LEFT, R1, X, CIRCLE, UP, TRIANGLE

All Green Lights TRIANGLE, TRIANGLE, R1, SQUARE, SQUARE, L1, X, X

Aggressive Drivers SQUARE, SQUARE, R1, X, X, L1, CIRCLE, CIRCLE

White Traffic X, X, R1, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, L1, TRIANGLE, TRIANGLE

Black Traffic CIRCLE, CIRCLE, R1, TRIANGLE, TRIANGLE, L1, SQUARE, SQUARE

Spawn Trashmaster TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, DOWN, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, UP, L1, L1

Cars Drive On Water CIRCLE, X, DOWN, CIRCLE, X, UP, L1, L1

Unknown X, SQUARE, DOWN, X, SQUARE, UP, R1, R1

Follow Me DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, TRIANGLE, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, L1, R1

Bobble Head World DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, X, L1, R1

Upside Down DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, X, X, SQUARE, R1, L1

Upside Down X, X, X, DOWN, DOWN, RIGHT, L1, R1

Unknown UP, UP, UP, SQUARE, SQUARE, TRIANGLE, R1, L1

Unknown UP, UP, UP, CIRCLE, CIRCLE, X, L1, R1

Unknown UP, UP, UP, X, X, SQUARE, R1, L1

Unknown UP, UP, UP, TRIANGLE, TRIANGLE, CIRCLE, L1, R1

Change Bike Tire Size CIRCLE, RIGHT, X, UP, RIGHT, X, L1, SQUARE

Display Game Credits L1, R1, L1, R1, UP, DOWN, L1, R1

All Vehicles Chrome Plated TRIANGLE, R1, L1, DOWN, DOWN, R1, R1, TRIANGLE

by Edison Carter

Infinite Ammo CIRCLE, SQUARE, L1, L1, TRIANGLE.
by RCOOL93

Disable Collision Damage UP, UP, UP, L1, L1, R1, R1, UP, UP, UP. (Unverified)
by Deano.G7_buzzin

GAME GUIDE from IGN

Gives clear instructions on how to go about completing the missions: http://guides.ign.com/guides/723575/index.html

EuroTrip update: 3 meetings and we're up to Vienna nia.. still got Italy and rest of France. whooo excited bout the trip, but damn sian of planning..

Patapon

If there is one genre that has really flourished on psp, it would be rhythm games. Titles like Lumines, beats, Parappa the Rapper, and Gitaroo Man have made the handheld a must-have for any fans of the rhythm genre. While all those games were fantastic titles, Patapon manages to blow them all away with some of the most unique rhythm-based gameplay you'll ever experience. Combining gameplay from a wide swath of genres, the developers managed to create a game that is part rhythm-based, part RPG, and part RTS. It's not always easy for developers to successfully combine genres to create a greater whole, but Patapon absolutely nailed it. There has never been anything quite like Patapon.

You play the roll of a long missing deity to a tribe of big-eyed warriors, called Patapons, who have been banished from their land and have lost the will to fight. In order to help the Patapons regain their former glory and achieve their final hope of seeing the mysterious 'it' at the end of the world, they need you and your mighty war drums to whip them into shape and get them motivated for some serious combat. To get the Patapons moving, you need to issue commands by pounding your war drums in the appropriate combination. Each drum is mapped to one of the psp's face buttons and require that you tap them in 4/4 timing to successfully issue your command. For instance, to tell your little warriors to attack, you would have to tap O,O,Square,O, or to advance, you would have to tap Square,Square,Square,O. As the game proceeds, you learn new commands. At least the game is smart enough not to throw them all at you at once. By the time you learn a new command, you'll already be fully adept at all the previous ones.

The core of the gameplay in Patapon revolves around three types of stages: hunting, battles, and boss fights. During a hunting level, your goal is to defeat as many animals as you can in order to get valuable ka-ching (the game currency), meat and resources needed to make new troops for your army. During a battle level, your goal will either be to fend off an enemy attack or invade their territory. It's during these levels that you're the most likely to find weapons and armor to upgrade your troops. The last stage type is the boss battle. Every four or five levels, you'll be confronted by a massive high-level boss who towers over your troops and laughs off their puny attacks. This is where you will have to be strategic about what types of troops, weapons, and tactics you will use, since the wrong choice can end up with all of your poor Patapons painfully eaten or crushed.

There are 6 types of Patapons in the game: archers, infantry, javelins, cavalry, huge brutes, and musicians (with deadly tubas). Each type has its own specific strengths and weaknesses, making each group deadly in some instances and next to worthless in other. Fortunately, it's pretty easy to figure out which troop type to use, thanks to the ridiculously detailed stats screen. There is a huge variety of funky weapons and armor in the game and 'rare item hunter' gamers will have a field day trying to track down all the rare and unique items buried within the game. The world in which the Patapons live is also packed with unique and fantastic looking venues, from flaming deserts to dilapidated ruins haunted by huge dinosaurs.

One major frustration with Patapon's gameplay is the lack of explanation of what to do. It is not uncommon to hit a level where you cannot proceed unless you have a specific miracle or item, and the game tends to do a horrible job at explaining where to go. I spent an hour trying to defeat a massively fortified castle, only to find out that I needed to go back a couple previous levels and kill a random gold bird which would give me a miracle I needed to destroy the fort. There was no indication from the game itself that I needed to do that though.. Still, this only slightly lessens the enjoyment of the game.

While much of the game is quite silly (especially the mini games), the way the game handles the actual conflict between the Patapons and their enemies is extremely interesting. Though you are out to regain the old glory of your tribe, the enemies are trying to stop you because they honestly believe you are savages, trying to bring around the end of the world. They will plead with you to stop, curse you for destroying the world, and will display acts of courage, selflessness and worry for their companions. In their eyes, you are the one trying to destroy the world. Watching the enemy soldiers refuse to retreat so that they can help defend their friends is surprisingly powerful. Patapon makes you think about the reasons behind your actions and the reality of your unending swath of destruction.

The maturity and intelligence in which the developers handed the story is worthy of applause and is yet another reason why Patapon is so amazing. In the end Patapon is a surprisingly long and deep game that is half the price of most psp games. A surprisingly potent story, mixed with the most unique and addictive gameplay, makes Patapon an easy recommendation to any psp owner.

Concert

concert last sat was great! yayy.. the juniors are good, i think we can dont go back to help le muhahah. we're not really needed anyway, feiling's just missing us haha..

me and yuqin really want to be at the reservation/ticketing counter next year. pls employ us, ntuco! afterall, we're accountants-to-be..

planning for the europe trip is harder than we imagined, from google-mapping to translating foreign phrases on babelfish.. 2 sleepless nights and we're only halfway thru the 13 cities to visit. but still... it's gonna be so *quotes jiakai* eggciting!!

The Golden Compass

Like Narnia, The Golden Compass is a game based on a film based on a fantasy novel, and it even goes so far as to summarily lift hunks of gameplay directly from the older title. Yet for some reason, the designers picked all of the bad stuff while leaving behind the good. And just for good measure, the psp version suffers from incomprehensibly awful glitches that essentially break the game.

If you aren't familiar with the accompanying film or the novel on which it is based, you will probably be rather confused by the game. As Lyra, you seek to save your friend Roger from the grasp of evil folkloric kidnappers known as Gobblers. Lyra is accompanied by her daemon, Pan, who is the physical embodiment of Lyra's soul, and she is occasionally joined by a hulking armored polar bear named Iorek. Lyra also possesses an instrument (the golden compass of course), which can answer any question that she asks it. You'll figure out what's going on piecemeal and with the help of short clips from the film. Yet, you'll likely never care about Lyra or her companions, and important chunks of exposition are completely glossed over, leaving you wondering what's going on or why you should care.

Gameplay is a mess. There are a lot of ideas at work here, but none of them pan out particularly well. First, exploration. You spend a lot of time roaming about doing busywork, particularly in an insanely long and boring sequence on the Gyptian vessel. The highlight during this level is... ...mopping the deck. =\ In other levels, these tasks may have you hiding under furniture or throwing snowballs, but none of them are interesting. They are also generally sliced up by cutscenes and other gameplay mechanics. Platforming ushers in more mediocrity. Granted, there are some nice ideas here. Lyra can use Pan as a grappling hook and latch on to poles for simplified Prince of Persia-inspired swinging, which allows the duo to glide for short distances. There are also beams to keep your balance on as you cross, though these moments seem to take forever because Lyra walks across them so slowly. The controls are superloose, which is deadly on the dock level--one of the dumbest platforming sequences ever concocted. Not only do the slippery controls make Lyra a pain to maneuver, but you can't manually control the camera, which makes it impossible to judge distance. Even worse, the camera has a tendency to move on its own in the middle of jumps and balancing acts. Expect to reload this level countless times while cursing the designer who created it.

The game relies heavily on timed button sequences, already one of the most overused mechanics in modern-day games. Attacked by a giant bee? Press some buttons in the right order. Need to push over an ice bridge? Press some more. Even some boss fights are won in this manner. There is some action buried in here, though it's found mostly in the game's first and final levels. Playing as Iorek, you'll paw through three types of enemies: witches, Tartars, and wolves. Once you build up enough rage by using standard melee attacks, you can pound the ground to do extra damage. You can also hold two buttons down to grab an enemy and fling it around, but for the most part, you can defeat this tiny assortment of foes by mashing a single button. Some levels are capped by boss fights, which aren't hard, but thanks to the lack of player camera control and the shoddy hit detection, they're plenty annoying. There are still more elements at play. Sometimes Lyra will try to deceive other characters, which requires you to perform a set of minigames. Some of these games function properly, at least, such as one where you push the left analog stick in a whack-a-mole variant. Others are simply terrible and so poorly explained that you may have no clue how the minigames even work the first few times they appear.

At their best, the production values simply fail to capture the fantasy magic of the film or novels. At their worst, they're broken. Animations and environments are crude while there is absolutely no imagination to be found in the bland art design. There are also some weird graphical bugs, such as blinking polygons and pixelated seams. These issues are less noticeable on the psp's small screen than on its console counterparts. Sound fares even worse. The musical score is fine, if unmemorable, but most sound effects are either embarrassingly clunky or missing entirely (and this version is missing even more than on the console versions). The only consistent audio comes from the spinning of the umd as the system is forced to constantly pull data from the disc. Loading screens populate the game with wild abandon – you'll find them between levels, during levels, while engaged in conversation and, astonishingly, even in the middle of combat. Furthermore, sound is often not synched with the onscreen events, to the point where unrelated noises, such as the noises of Iorek fighting, will occur when something else is happening onscreen.

Initially, the wide variety of gameplay elements make it seem like there's going to be a lot to do in the game. Unfortunately, most of these facets are too repetitive, too frustrating, or too boring to keep anyone's interest. The fact that the psp version suffers from a string of unimaginable technical problems makes it even more embarrassing. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, the game is just the latest in a string of movie tie-ins that sacrifice good gameplay and proper quality assurance for the sake of a quick buck. It's without question amongst the worst games to be release on psp.

Me and My Katamari

As a portable interpolation of Katamari Damacy, Me and My Katamari pretty much makes good. With hundreds of unlockable items, plenty of new challenges, and some downright zany environments, the Katamari series is surely going out on a good note.

At the beginning of Me and My Katamari, the King and the rest of the royal family go for beach-blanket fun, splashing about in the ocean. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of a chain of small islands nearby, the King gets a little too rambunctious, causing a tidal wave that wipes the islands off the map. He then makes amends by sending his son, the Prince, out to collect matter out of which to create new islands. This is where you come in. The opening cinematic sequence for Me and My Katamari establishes the delightfully irreverent and mildly insane tone that the series is best known for, though the game is pretty lean on cinematic sequences through the rest of the game, which is a little disappointing.

The game uses an island interface that allows you to view the islands you've created while also allowing you to see what needs to be done. Animals will start popping up on Prince Island asking the Prince for help. Every mission you receive on said island has the same objective; you'll have X amount of time to get a katamari X meters wide. Even though it seems like this would get repetitive and boring, the diversified environments generally help the game stay fresh. The Prince can also travel to the Volcano Island, where creatures will present him with strange requests. Instead of constructing a katamari of a certain size, these missions require you to build a katamari containing the right products. For instance, one gorilla needs enough energy to fuel his rocket, so it makes much more sense to run over power plants than trees. Even so, it doesn't hurt to build up a large katamari simply because you'll be able to obtain more objects, which therefore adds a whole new element to the game. The final isle is the Beanstalk Island, which allows you to switch between characters you've collected throughout the levels.

While it might not have as many wonderful cinematic sequences as the Katamari games for the PS2, Me and My Katamari nails the overall look and feel of the series almost perfectly. The environments, which start you off inside a tiny room in a tiny Japanese home and eventually reaches the scope of a decent-sized metropolis, feature purposely blocky designs and a random selection and placement of items, both common and exotic, and often straight-up imaginary. The game has an incredible color palette of bright primaries and subdued pastels, and its unique sense of design saturates everything from status screens to the bear that walks around wearing a T-shirt that says "bear" on it.

While it almost perfectly captures the Katamari style, it makes also a few technical sacrifices in the form of midlevel load times, but are never more than a few seconds long. During these loads the game also kind of fudges the scale of the katamari to its surroundings, making the ball itself bigger while shedding much of the complicated geometry of the items stuck to it. Me and My Katamari's sound design matches suit, providing a catchy and eclectic soundtrack for the surreal action. A lot of the music is identical to that found in past Katamari games, which makes it an easy fit, though it would have been nice if the game featured a little more original music. Though the soundtrack is largely dominant, it's regularly punctuated with the confused, panicky cries of people and animals that you pick up with your katamari, which can be hysterical.

If you know what you're doing, you can play through Me and My Katamari in just a few hours, and it feels slightly shorter than its predecessors. Part of the sense of brevity can probably be attributed to the fact that there just aren't that many different environments, and they get recycled often, so that by the time you get to the end, you've pretty much had your fill. If you're looking for a reason to go back, there are gifts from the King hidden throughout the game that you can pick up and outfit the Prince with, as well as a small army of cousins that you can pick up and then choose to play as. There's also a pretty simple multiplayer mode, in which up to four players, each with their own copy of the game, can play a competitive game in which everyone tries to collect more items while knocking items off the other players' katamaris. Or, for the less competitive, you can exchange royal gifts with the other players.

The paltry number of levels in Me and My Katamari proves to be its biggest shortcoming, as the game otherwise does a pretty phenomenal job of re-creating the Katamari Damacy experience on the psp. The game's refreshing aesthetic, fun and simple gameplay, and its unhinged sense of humor is unlike anything else on the psp. If you've never played a Katamari game before, you owe it to yourself to try this one out. For fans of the series, this is a must-have.

Chocolatier

Gone are the days when we could fire up a game of our choice and spend hours toiling away, now we seem to game in stolen moments here and there. With that in mind, perhaps it is no wonder that casual games have become such a popular gaming choice (especially with women who make up the vast majority), as casual games allow us to either jump in and get those quick fixes of gaming bliss or either play them for as long as we want when we do have the time. In honor of casual games, we have Chocolatier, where a chocolatier sim that has you jet setting around the world, trying to find the best ingredients, and selling off your product to make the highest profit you can. Thanks to Sheya for the game =)

The story is that two sisters who have been fighting over their family's chocolate business, but neither could decide on what the other wanted to do. So, they splintered off, becoming business rivals, though one wants to restore the honour to her family. To do so, she is passing along what she knows to you, so that you may make the family business grow and prosper once more. In the beginning you will be handed a factory and a recipe for simple chocolate bars. With the recipe in hand, you will need to gather and maintain ingredients, ensure the fatory is in production, and sell the products to increase wealth and ranking in the chocolate world.

Ingredients can be found at every port city in the game that you can land at, though they would not offer the same goods. Though sugar is constantly prevalent, other ingredients like cocoa beans, coffee beans, cashews, lemons, vanilla sticks etc. can only be found at certain specific ports. You can choose to pay the full price for what the merchants are asking for, or you can attempt to haggle with them, but too much haggling can anger them them and cause their prices to soar. Prices at the various markets are also determined by things such as shortages or too much supply. Get news of demand and supply shortages or hikes from random characters at the bars or inns. In the factories, you will get to determine how many chocolates of that type that factory will make each week. You will have various revolving circles on a machine moving around, and how many complete firing of the required ingredients into each circle determines how many boxes of chocolate that factory will produce each week, as long as you have all the required ingredients. With the goods on hand, you can now head to the chocolate boutiques to sell them off. Now, there are several factors at play when selling your goods. For starters, sometimes people just get tired of eating your same chocolates over and over, so the longer you have one single chocolate bar going over and over, the lower and lower the cost you will be able to sell them at. Also, though people from an area might still love a specific type of chocolate, another port like London might be tiring of them. Throughout the game, you will be able to purchase some shops as your own, and there you will always get better than usual prices.

Along the way in the game, you will be stumbling upon odd quests, such as delivering a letter to someone or producing certain amount of chocolate boxes for a person and delivering them to them. Completing quests will net you more money or things like new recipes. Recipes come in four different flavors, such as bars, squares, infusions, and truffles, with each generally more valuable the one before. Still, you will have to spend quite an amount at each factory for upgrading to allow the making of more valuable candies.

Switching between ports costs you money and weeks , so plan your inventory full of supplies before you wander on an adventure. Graphically and visually the game is alright, simply doing what it needs to do to get its gameplay across. Music comes in several forms, such as the tense "factory out of cocoa beans" quickened paces to the more leisurely "explore as long as you want" background sounds. The sounds are pretty good though, featuring things like trains and ships going on voyages, the sound of a ringing cash register, and others. I found myself throwing away hours (one full day =\) to this game when I really should have been doing some work. I'm sure that not only will you have fun with this casual tycoon game, but you might just learn something too (chocolate history and facts).

I have also tried a few hours of the sequel to Chocolatier, which is called Chocolatier 2 (obviously). You can even get to create new recipes in Chocolatier 2 using secret ingredients from hidden ports around the world. And the game now track prices of chocolates and ingredients for you so a mouse-over would reveal past transactions. Also, instead of spinning circles in the factories (which made me dizzy), the circles don’t spin and instead flow differently on the product line. The game is as addicting as chocolate, and I’m all for a third edition of the game if it’s done right.

菊花台 Lyrics

This is for me and angl and yuqin so we can sing during practices! (yes, huangsheng is doing the pop thing again)...

你的泪光 柔弱中带伤
惨白的月弯弯 勾住过往
夜太漫长 凝结成了霜
是谁在阁楼上冰冷的绝望

雨轻轻淌 朱红色的窗
我一生在纸上 被风吹乱
梦在远方 化成一缕霞
随风飘散 你的模样

菊花惨 澹地伤 你的笑容已泛黄
花落人断肠 我心事静静淌
北风乱 夜未央 你的影子剪不断
徒留我孤单在湖面生霜

花亦相挽 飘落了灿烂
凋谢的石道上 命运不堪
愁没都江 秋心在两畔
怕你上不了岸 一辈子摇晃

谁的江山 马蹄声慌乱
我一身的戎装 呼啸苍苍
天微微凉 你轻声地叹
一夜惆怅如此委婉

菊花惨 澹地伤 你的笑容已泛黄
花落人断肠 我心事静静淌
北风乱 夜未央 你的影子剪不断
徒留我孤单在湖面生霜

菊花惨 澹地伤 你的笑容已泛黄
花落人断肠 我心事静静淌
北风乱夜未央 你的影子剪不断
徒留我孤单在湖面生霜

credits:
song by jay chou
菊花 by angl and chryssie

Brave Story: New Traveler

Yuqin's been playing Brave Story: New Traveler recently, yes, neglecting her school work hah... I've caught quite a few glimpse of the game when she's playing and thought it looked interesting enough. Will try it out soon, it's recess week after tomorrow!!

On a day that starts out like any other, an 11-year-old boy's life is changed forever. As the main character, Tatsuya, and his friend Miki pass a leisurely afternoon, Miki suddenly collapses from an unknown illness. When the girl shows no sign of waking, the main character grows distraught over not being a better friend and not having the means to save her. Suddenly, a strange voice offers him a second chance: "Beyond the door you can change your destiny!" He soon leaves the real world and journeys to the world of Vision, where, as a novice "Traveler", he will surmount myriad ordeals in hopes of ultimately meeting with the Goddess of Fortune to have a single wish granted. The would-be hero quickly makes friends both strange and fascinating as he finds himself blossoming into a successful Traveler. The battles you'll run into (there will be a lot as you crisscross forests and beaches) are set up for the traditional turn-based, party battle. You'll have three slots to fill on your team, and as you get used to the game you'll get used to having Yuno (a half-kitten/half-girl) and Sogreth (a beefy lizard) as your backup.

Although your sword, Yuno's bow and Sogreth's battleaxe will be the primary way you crack the skulls of the gimblewolves and seductresses you come across, Brave Story features three concepts, friendship, courage and growth, that will greatly affect the way you beat baddies. The longer you toil away with the same set of combatants, the better friends your group gets to be. That sounds nice in the lovey-dovey way, but what it means is that the longer you're together the more ways you get to kick ass together. Unity moves open up as you go and involve everything from Tatsuya and Yuno pulling a pick-pocket, or stab routine to Meena and Tatsuya running to one side of the screen and bombarding the enemies with craziness. These team-up moves will be critical to beating dungeon bosses, but need to be implemented with some forethought because they drain your Brave Power (BP) meter. BP is the light pink meter onscreen that governs what kind of special moves you can pull off, which is that courage thing in the game. As you battle, the pink meter fills. When it's your turn to attack you can select one of those cool unity moves, or Bravura moves, which are similarly devastating attacks that you can do without another party member. The final element of the battle system is growth. Sure, your characters are going to get bigger and better through experience points and new equipment, but for Tatsuya to get an audience with the goddess, he has got to find these magical gemstones that fit into the faceplate of his sword. Each time he finds one, the sword changes forms and gets stronger.

The graphic during battles is something different in a normal RPG game. You get to see 3d views of the characters' strokes and moves instead of the typical top view of their heads. Still, after a few battles you get sick of them, especially when you're simply training them to be up for the boss fights. Sometimes you would wish that the noisy half-kitten would talk lesser. Afterall, Brave Story's pastel color scheme and menu system is that it makes me feel like I could be playing any RPG. Enter a dungeon, beat the randoms, beat the boss, upgrade your weapons and so on... Well, it's a solid RPG that's sure to appeal to fans who want a fun yet simple romp through the genre they love.

For walkthroughs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/psp/game/932265.html

Ultimate Block Party

We finally booked our tickets to Paris! Reserved actually.. And we didnt even need to produce our passport or ic at STA -.-" Tentatively we're flying off on 6th May, and coming back on 10th June, but the dates are flexible so we can extend if we really want to stay there longer! The lady at STA was really nice and she made us excited about planning the trip all over again. She even taught us how to swear at scary londoners if they try to rob us..

Yuwei got his interview slot to major in Hospitality and Tourism Management le! It's on coming Tuesday. I really hope he gets in. BnF is so boring; marketing and HR are abit too bimbo; he cannot make it for IT and Actuarial.. Please say good luck to him whenever you see him!

Now for the game.. Similar to Tetris, Ultimate Block Party is an addictive and extremely frantic puzzle game with a bright, flamboyant style to match. The focus of this game is on competitive battles, not solitary point chases. And those battles tend to get heated quickly, serving up quick and intense matches without forcing you through a protracted progression of levels.

Ultimate Block Party is a very simple game, starting out with a screen that is about a third of the way filled with colorful blocks. Every so often, a new row of blocks pushes up from the bottom, and you lose when the blocks reach the top of the screen. As time goes on, the blocks start adding up a lot faster. You can remove blocks by lining at least four blocks of the same color together in a square, at which point they'll disappear. There is a slight delay between when you match up the like-colored blocks and when they disappear, and during this time you can attach other blocks of the same color to make them disappear as well. That's all pretty simple, but the game offers a lot of room for advancement once you're ready to move beyond the basic four-block strategy. As blocks disappear, any blocks above will fall down, and if they're properly arranged, they'll create chains of disappearing blocks. Creating chains will get you various magic blocks. Arrow blocks will turn all blocks in their path the same color once they are activated; bomb blocks will change all adjacent blocks the same color; and flush blocks will clear all like-colored blocks on the screen. These magic blocks can be used simultaneously as well, and once you learn to use them to their full potential you can clear dozens of blocks at a time.

Clearing several blocks at a time not only helps keep your screen clear, but it launches attacks at your opponents. There are several different types of attacks, depending on the color of the blocks you clear. Clearing several red blocks will make your opponent's cursor bigger, which makes it difficult to arrange blocks with any precision; clearing orange blocks will turn the inside of your opponent's cursor black and white, making it difficult to match up colored blocks; clearing yellow blocks will prevent your opponent from seeing the bottom few rows of his or her screen; and so on. There are six different attacks in all, and while they're difficult enough to handle one at a time, things really get crazy when you get hit with several attacks in rapid succession. When your screen is almost full, and you're struggling with some odd-shaped or immobile blocks while your cursor is showing only black and white, and all of a sudden your controls are reversed, it's easy to get overwhelmed and quickly lose a match. Each attack varies in severity as well, so while you may be able to survive smaller attacks without much difficulty, the more powerful attacks can stop you in a matter of seconds.

There are several modes to choose from in Ultimate Block Party, but a lot of them are identical. You can play the game single-player, in which you forget about the attacks and just clear blocks to reach the highest level possible. However, the best way to play is in multiplayer mode. You can play against the computer in arcade mode, campaign mode, or versus mode. Arcade mode and campaign mode are almost identical, except in arcade mode you get to choose which character you want to play as, whereas in campaign mode you're stuck with Kollon, the generic main character. In both modes you play through a series of battles against the game's eight characters, who each have their own style of play. The characters are silly and generic, and they don't seem to behave much differently from one another. There's Kollon and Marinne, who are sort of little-girl versions of Ken and Ryu, an overweight superhero, a hitman, a burglar, an actress, an aristocrat, and the president of wherever it is this game takes place. There are some brief pantomimed skits between battles in campaign mode, but otherwise the characters don't interact.

The visual style of Ultimate Block Party is quintessentially Japanese. The characters are obviously inspired by the lighter side of anime, with humorously disproportionate bodies and exaggerated expressions. During the battles they dance in place on the side of the screen until you're about to lose, at which point they start to get nervous. The backgrounds consist of simple city skylines and such, and you could easily play the entire game without noticing them. The blocks themselves are bright and colorful with happy little faces. The special effects that accompany the various attacks all look good, but they aren't so flashy that they detract from the game. The sound here is about what you'd expect from a puzzle game. There are the requisite blips and beeps as you flip blocks and move the cursor around the screen, as well as an annoying but probably necessary alarm to let you know when you are in danger of losing. The music has a very arcade feel to it, with catchy electronic beats that keep the action moving without getting annoying or repetitive. There are only a dozen or so different tunes, so it doesn't take long to hear them all. Regardless, the sound is good here, but if you play it muted you won't miss out on much.

Ultimate Block Party is a fun and addictive puzzle game that will keep you entertained for five minutes or a couple of hours, depending on how much time you have to burn. It's a refreshing change of pace since you can pick it up and get right into the thick of the action without plodding through a lot of tedious buildup. If you've hit the level cap on Lumines and are looking for a new puzzle game to while away the time, you should definitely check out Ultimate Block Party.

I MISS JIAKAI

I miss jiakai so muchhh. It's only been about a month and I've been sobbing under the sheets every night since she left for paris. My eyes are so swollen they can match jingwan's abalone. I feel sickly if I dont talk to her online at least twice a day. I only had one phone call from her and that was since many many weeks before boohoohoo. Jiakai will you call me more often pleasee.. I cant concentrate in class cos i'm too busy missing her. And on weekends, I cant concentrate on playing psp too, my spongebob keeps falling into spiky plants =\ When are u coming back, siew jiakai, my bitchy fren??

muahhhahah so lame..

Busy day today.. Woke up late. Fetched mummy to admiralty pri school. Went to airport to pick jiejie up. Thought I was 10min late but in the end it was 35min early (noted the wrong time plus flight delay). Met xizhu at T1. She's interning there and she spent half her lunch time waiting with me. Jiakai: pls note, another NICE fren of mine hahahah. Rushed jiejie back home cos meeting yuqin to go down to STA to get our flight tickets and student pass. Yes, we're going europe to visit our dearest jiakai.. BUT.. *thunder and storm (晴天霹雳)*.. yuqin suddenly realise her i/c, together with her passport, are all locked up in a drawer, which she lost the key to last week =( Searched around for locksmith number. Too late to make it to bugis now le so.. postpone again muahahaha. We should really book the tickets soon, the prices are as volatile as the stock market..

Will wait for jiejie to return so I can wash her car. It's seriously in quite a bad shape from squeezing 7 people in for half a day of travelling muahhahah. The carpets are grossss, there were even cigarette butts and random paper/plastic strips stuck to it. Managed to remove most of them before going to airport today. Shhhh dun tell jiejie =\ Meanwhile, will mug for next week's audit quiz. 7 seminars of readings more to go, with about 2 chapters + 2 SSAs per seminar.

Enough updates eh?

Khaiqing and grace, I miss you guys too!

Work Time Fun

Naming your game WTF (Work Time Fun) will surely get attention. That is one of many things D3 Publisher did right when bringing this Sony-developed game stateside. This quirky mini-game laden game has you playing a temp worker. You visit a placement office where your goal is to earn money. And that's it.

There are 40 mini-games in all; you start with a menu of four. One of the game, Pendemonium, has you capping pens on an assembly line. Sometimes the pens are backwards, so you must flip them over before you can cap them. This game, as you will discover after awhile, does not end! You just play it until you get tired of it. It's seriously just a no brainer game if pressing the same few buttons.

By earning money, you can visit vending machines that dispense capsules that either get you a new mini-game, a useless trinket, or a tool. The tools you unlock in the game are really lame. Handy Light is nothing more than a white (or other color) "light" for your PSP. It just brings up a white picture on screen. You can turn the light on/off, and change the light pattern. Really handy hurr.. Eye Spy is another one you unlock. You can hold this up to your eyes, pointing away from you. Using the shoulder buttons, you can blink (move the analog nub to move the pupils, too). Use Eye Spy the next time you are in a long queue.

You will also get random emails from co-workers, and sometimes, bonuses from WTFNet. Your co-workers ramble on about useless stuff, just like in real life. It's the type of game that makes you scratch your head in amazement, wondering how this made it out of Japan. But the reason the game is a success is because it is so offbeat and is a total time waster.

WTF also supports ad-hoc multiplayer. You can trade trinkets, but the most fun comes by "outsourcing" work, where you can subject your unsuspecting friends to doing menial tasks from the Sub-Contract menu. You can perform single or multiplayer jobs in ad-hoc mode. Keeping with the nonsense of it all, you "interview" potential workers, and can even reject them if you wish.

As with a lot of great software that rarely makes it stateside, this game is going to be a total turn off to some. Work is hell, part-time jobs are hell, but what better way to get through your day than by counting chicks into baskets? Yes the game is odd, and funny. And it gets a little more challenging as you start unlocking more and more games. This is definitely not a game for everyone. It's one of those love-it-or-hate-it games. If you're fascinated by the wacky side of Japanese culture, you'll definitely want to have a go at this game. Likewise if you prefer your games easy to learn and playable in short sessions, or if you adore retro gaming. However, if you like a little more complexity or brain work in your gaming, this is probably not the game for you.