Sentience Fragment

DANGER! DANGER!

2010-02-07T20:12:00.002+08:00

WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!
Google has announced the cease to FTP Blogging, which, if not rectified, will terminate this blog into eternal doom. Before this impending blogger-mageddon, I plan to hook up with (unfinished plan. details under wraps) once I'm done with this prerequisite project requirement and save this blog, and the rest of my site. I deem this, "Project (redacted)".

I'll see you real soon.

2009-12-31T23:48:00.000+08:00

Here I am. Final minutes of 2009. Sipping a Bacardi (what is this...) Freezer. Had a wonderful dinner. A bit much, but it was satisfying. The countdown shows on TV are rather sad. Typical.
This year, or decade, has had its ups and downs. Terror, War, War on Terror, Hope, Change and all that. 2001 was pretty sad. My life changed. Our lives changed. The world changed. We recovered. Picked up where we left off. I managed to bash my way out of secondary school and scraped my way to a tertiary education. Fabulous design school.
It was this decade too that when my PC died and I got liberated (brainwashed, if you will) and got my Mac Mini. Waves of Apple products followed. IPod, MacBook, iPhone, iMac. These are some of the good stuff this decade. Then I turned into a geek and gave a damn about gaming, tech and related matters. About time.
The 00's weren't all bad. Some hiccups, some life lessons, some regrets, but plenty achieved, lots of good people. I'm pleased. So here's to what's yet to come. You have 12 minutes.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T15:25:00.001+08:00

Mmm... edible Christmas.

Gratuitous Alien Nudity!

2009-12-23T09:49:00.003+08:00

Yes. I saw Avatar on Monday. I guess I should have watched it in 3D because 2D only almost justifies the $237,000,000 graphics and effects. Won't spoilt it too much, but if you ate Teppanyaki Chicken Burgers and Diet cola, you'll probably know it involves a bunch of blue-skinned aliens.
To put it bluntly, the story focuses on what humans do best: Exploration, Invasion, War and Making love to alien natives. The year is 2154. The nature-loving, human-hating Na'vi resides on Pandora, one of the three moons on Alpha Centauri A. The humans (sky-people) are there to mine and obtain unobtanium (go figure) and are damaging Pandora's ecosystem while doing so, yet another thing we do best. This obviously pisses the Na'vi off.
Avatars are the scientifically generated Na'vi made with Na'vi and Human DNA and is controlled remotely when you go ahead and watch the rest of the movie for yourself. Someone has to save the day, and it won't be the stereotypical army colonel.
I recommend Avatar. Definitely. Don't steal it. Go and bloody watch it, because your puny web-streaming or 1TB .avis won't give you shit. Even if you go and watch it in 2D, it be a wonderful experience. I liked the movie, it makes you think. Now excuse me while I brush up on my Na'vi.

Is this thing on?

2009-11-27T11:32:00.001+08:00

It was real scary in the Forbidden Zone.
Okay. Puff-x.com was down for a couple days, nay, weeks. I don't have an actual cause, so I'll point the finger at magical server elves, who scratched this website off the records. Anyway, the site is up now, fully intact, and I made a backup of the files here. I have some plans.

During my absense, or part thereof, two major things occurred. I checked my Twitter feed. Yep. Two.
November 14th: iPhone 3GS'd (left, Old Box, New Box, New Phone)
My Sis and I handed over our iPhone 3Gs for 3GSes to Singtel, who seem to be feeling some pinch from rival Telcos who announced their bite into the iPhone pie. I'm not a SingTel, but rather than let the iPhone's value dip further, we thought we'd just do the swap. It's fast, it's pretty and just as sleek, not to mention the video recording capabilities. Otherwise, it's the same phone after Restore.
(October 18th -) November 17th: Left 2 Die (right)
I think I mentioned... I DIDN'T?! Well, after my fiasco with Boot Camping Windows onto the iMac, I bought Left 4 Dead off Steam. I also took the liberty to preorder Left 4 Dead 2. The sweet bundle was S$92 with 10% off on L4D2. Washing my senses with L4D was fun, then the L4D2 demo dropped and that was even more fun. L4D2 then dropped at 1410hrs local on November 17th. Guess what, my preloaded files were corrupt, so I had to run a fresh download, twice, for 6 hours. It's still really good. I like Nick because of his sarcastic remarks.

I think that wraps things up for now. You can check out my Steam ID if you wish.

A New hOP(e)

2009-10-31T19:49:00.002+08:00

This marks the return of Hopeless Optimism (until, you know, I go on Hiatus again). hOP #118 is out on a brand new page. The logo is different and the guys are no longer photoshopped. They're now redundantly drawn on Illustrator. #118 has a title, and so will #119 and the rest.

After much deliberation, I decided to shift Hopeless Optimism to a Blogger-powered Blog (Don't start, LJ-WP People), getting rid of the iFrame system forever. Now the old block strips can live together with the new strip strips, without worrying about iFrame sizes. This also means hOP has its own RSS feed now.

I'm still working out the kinks, adding in the strips as blog posts and dropping titles into the ones that don't have titles (i.e. Pre #118). I hope this works well.

Internship Ends?

2009-10-16T21:04:00.002+08:00

IT'S OVER!!
So it ends. 12 weeks. My internship with the fine folks at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research is over (or is it?). It's been fun, entertaining(!?), exciting and I learnt some deal of a lot. Thanks to the school for hooking me up to A*STAR, my supervisor for his patience and follow-up and fellow "colleagues" Jasmine and Ilyana (pictured) who has kept me sane for the aforementioned duration. I've learnt that XML still kicks ass. I've learnt that such projects has a working curve thats get steeper at the end. I've learnt that I cannot survive on the DES canteen food alone.
I enjoyed my time at my internship. There were the days that had it moments, but all is well. And now, I'm freeing up the tension. Excuse me.

Key to the City.

2009-10-06T08:58:00.004+08:00

What's Next for Niko Bellic?

That's it. That's 100.00%. I finished up GTAIV at long last. I was hung at 98.33% before I took Packie to a show, went for darts and a drink. Then the trophy popped up, and part of my hobby lost some meaning. I spent 76 hours (113 game days) in Liberty City, excluding all my superhuman cheat-code-using rampages I didn't save on. It's been really fun. Pity the DLC episodes won't touch the PS3. Time to get Arkham Asylum.

Follow the rest of the story, from the time I got the game, finished the story, finished the story under 30 hours and shot 200 pigeons.

What's wrong with this picture?

2009-10-05T10:43:00.003+08:00

Image possibly blurry on purpose.
Well, it's not really a glitch. Yes. This Mac boy installed Windows on his iMac. Just so I can play serious PC games. Namely, Left4Dead and/or Left4Dead2. I'm using xpize to ease the pain. I last used Windows back in 2004. Check my records. Then my Terminal died and I made the switch and I've been an Apple fanboy ever since.
XP didn't hookup with my internet so good, and the idiot light error dialogs are hard to figure out. But I fixed that. And I got out of there before my brain exploded. So again, Windows is for my non-alternative-OS gaming. Everything else runs on Mac.

Philanthropy?!

2009-09-29T19:55:00.003+08:00

It's really good. Trust Me.

Opens to official page

We've all seen fan-made content. Most of them are on YouTube involving college boys and their crazy antics. This, however, is nothing like I've ever seen. Three years in the making, "Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy" is a "non-profit, no-budget" fanmovie. I'm amazed at the "no budget" part, because the production values are rather high. These guys go for on-location filming, digital animation, weapons and a humvee! No. Unless you hate anything fan-made, Watch it. Now.

(Disclaimer: I'm a blind fan for the Metal Gear Solid series. I cheer for anything that has to do with MGS. I don't actually play the games, except for Metal Gear: Ghost Babel and Metal Gear Ac!d, so I'm probably the last person who has any say on what is good or bad for the series. Watch the thing and judge for yourself, but this was an hour well spent for me.)

Threadlessessesses!

2009-09-27T10:57:00.002+08:00

Fun at US$9.
(These new Blogger Post Editor controls are weird.) My shipment of Threadlesses have arrived! Acquired them from the 09/09/09 sale. Frantic, it was. Sale frenzy. Sizes selling out. Stock selling out. Site going down. But we managed to checkout, only discovering the next day that they extended the sale and threw in a few reprints to spark more wildfire.

Snow Leopard GET!

2009-09-09T19:38:00.003+08:00

I eated your shiny X.
Obtained Snow Leopard Mac OS. I ordered it Sunday night. It was due to come in yesterday, but I wasn't home to receive it, so DHL was nice enough to have it sent this evening. Here's two things I didn't know. There's a Apple-type warehouse in Alexandria Terrace and the OS CD, packaging and documentation are allegedly made here (says so on the box, although still "Designed by Apple in California".)
So, er... no unboxing video. Just a few photos. My shipping box is nice and small. I'll probably get installations done this weekend. Maybe after I get my terabyte-harddrive from Comex and complete some time machine backups. I have noticed too that there's no serial numbers. Yeah, I know. Honour system. This is my first non-come-with-computer OS X.

2009-09-09T19:35:00.004+08:00

A New Challenger!

"I will protect Itsuki-kun!"

Why, yes. I obtained another figma. No.036: Mikuru Asahina Fighting Waitress ver.
This will fit right in with my Evil Witch Yuki Nagato.
figmagallery updated.

MacBook's back.

2009-09-05T21:49:00.002+08:00

Yes. My MacBook was gone. For a while.
Well, I didn't blog it. But I tweeted about this. My MacBook died 2 weeks ago. There's the hard drive on the left. The Hard Drive that failed. I'm not one who backs up stuff so that was a kick in the bum. But I keep my work separate on a flash drive, so that wasn't so bad, but I did lose everything else. I'll probably pick up a good terabyte's worth of external hard drive for Time Machine this coming computer smorgasbord exhibition.
I didn't get Snow Leopard yet either. Epicentre said they were all out. Figures. Probably just get it online from the SG Apple Store. Fresh starts. My MacBook got amnesia and the iMac's still young.

2009-08-28T13:38:00.001+08:00

I do believe I turn 21 tomorrow. Will be chilling out at the chalet event of the year! Too bad my Macbook's slightly under the weather. Some possible hardware issue. Poor baby. I can't work of my stuff because the school computers don't have CS3. Hard drive seems to be intact, so far.
Party-wise, I don't know what to expect. And the weather better hold up. Plenty of tweets, photos and some blogging, hopefully, in the coming days.

Posted with LifeCast

The In-turn Ship

2009-07-27T10:37:00.002+08:00

Student Internship Day One
Yes. I start my internship here and now. I'll be doing (classified information) in school using (classified information). First day, nothing's up. Probably because my boss from (classified information) will come this afternoon. Trying to find things to do though. The "office" is getting dark. Trying to make this day productive to the best I can (classified information).

2009-07-19T11:09:00.003+08:00

I suppose my non-blogging doesn't do this blog much good and the usual excuse of busy is there. But I am! I have been doing work. I got a 38-page cyber wellness book to print, and I haven't done the cover for that yet. I got voice acting to do. I have a 16 lines of Japanese script to memorize for a skit. I also have loads of other stuff I wanna do before I start my "student internship" end July.

Haven't got the time to get my eyes on HP6 with friends. We're all dying over this major project of our choice. I'm re-reading HP6 because I forgot everything about it. I don't even remember the events of HP7. I only know Harry gets hooked up with Ginny at the end. That's all I remember?! I'm a squib.

The moment the book (mine, not HP6) gets done. I'll post a pdf copy up for non-savvy parents to work their kids with. It's all mumbo-jumbo to me, but it'll probably get some lost parents started over their pornographic-watching, online-gaming, chatroom-stalking tweens. Yes, folks. The Situation in this country is that bad.

Hibi no Neiro

2009-07-10T14:20:00.003+08:00

Skype, much?

Another great video. Here's what a fanbase can do. Excellent coordination.

DANCE ALL NIGHT.

2009-07-09T22:14:00.001+08:00

Give these guys some money!

"Invent" by a UK duo, Tom and Matt. The video is mind-blowing and uses a bunch of HP printers and stop-motion effects. Just, Just watch.

The S is for...

2009-07-05T17:54:00.002+08:00

Friday has us seeing iPhone 3GS from the Red Telecommunicompany. iPhone 3G still good, so no need for 3GS. I will probably be hypocritical. I mean, I was the I-don't-need-an-iPhone hypocrite.
I also recently swapped out my mobile Internet plan for something more sane. I was paying $1.04 for 100kb, which is stupid. That makes one megabyte around $10.40. I petitioned for my plan to be changed, and now I'm paying $5.35 a month for a 10MB buffer protecting against shock bills, which always seem to happen on my iPhone. I'll be in the soup if a shock bill arrives with this data plan.

(No. I don't have a expensive local AT&T-equivalent $150+ wonder-data plan. My mobile plan has me at $28 a month. The world is my Wifi.)

Thank you for the Music, MJ.

2009-06-27T16:08:00.003+08:00

So I suppose the rest of you have already heard. Music Legend Michael Jackson died Friday morning local. I found out reading a Cult of Mac post, which is odd because it'll probably be the last place I'd think to read about his death. The presses were stopped before the word got to the newspapers so nothing there. Yes. I didn't believe it. It took me 10 minutes to realise what was going on (just woke up) before I turned on to BBC World.
I was very distraught that morning. That's like no way to start a morning. You totally don't expect such a sudden passing, like when Steve Irwin died. I stared at the TV for about 45 minutes. That was it.
I wasn't one of those diehard fans, but I don't know of anyone who can turn down his music. I liked his brand of music, but I will say I didn't know all of his songs. I grew up watching "Moonwalker" and imitating the moonwalk in a bad way. I turned 6 when he came to perform live in Singapore, so I couldn't remember much from that. Why, yes. He turned 50 when I turned 20 last year. We share a birth date. It's like a insignificant bond.
I'm not as sad as I was on Friday now, but I still can't get hold of that fact very well. R.I.P. Michael.

Meet Lawrence Westwood

2009-06-15T19:56:00.005+08:00

Your Excitable Friendly, Humorous Coward
It's The Sims 3! I got it over the weekend and like my ranting on twitter, it's DA BOMB. There are some serious changes to the game and I haven't much complaints about the stuff that's changed or the stuff that's new. The new iMac runs the game as expected (really, really well) and the graphics are brilliant. Sunset Valley is a beautifully designed town. Starting afresh, I realised I couldn't run the lives of 2 households at the same time, which was a small bummer, but then I figured i could concentrate all my Sim-godly powers more efficiently this way.
So now Lawrence Westwood is my first creation in the field of Politics. Definitely barely scratching the surface after 17hours of gameplay, there's so much more to do. And gardening! That's really cool! What more will life bring for Governor Lawrence Westwood? Well...

Super Conan O'Bros

2009-06-08T10:16:00.002+08:00

Brilliant. Just so you know what Conan's referring to, here's how it all started.

Hi, Mac.

2009-06-07T14:22:00.003+08:00

Mac Mini, Macbook. This is iMac. IMac, this is Mac Mini and MacBook
Only one word can sum this up, but it's a really rude word and I'd probably get a lashing for saying that word. My Mac Mini's Monitor has been moved to make way for my new massive 24-inch iMac. Everytime I look at it, I'm reminded that have the best parents and sibling in the world. Thanks, Mum, Dad and Sis.

24-inchers are huge. This one just fits snugly between my desk and deskshelf, fighting with my HP Photosmart for space. It makes me feel small, really (Uh oh. I think all that snugness is heating up the Mac. This could prove trouble, or self-paranoia). I have only 2 irks. It irks me that they changed it to Firewire 800. So I can't FireWire 400 my stuff from my Mac Mini. It also irks me that the included Wired Mighty Mouse is so damn short. Otherwise, the thing is a work of beauty. Stunning.

Here's hoping it doesn't become self-aware.

Now with LifeCast

2009-06-04T23:06:00.001+08:00

Let's see if this works. You know, Blogger seriously needs a native iPhone app. Not that LifeCast is all bad. I think there's a way to publish to Blogger (not via email, though. That has a bit of weird formatting issues) but I hasn't really thought about that yet.
Hopefully I can blog a wee bit more often with this thing, although now I can't see what I'm typing anymore because the keyboard screen is blocking the texfield.

Posted with LifeCast