I received a MINDEF notification for a call up yesterday.
Usually, such events are associated with shock, cursing and sadness on the part of the receiver. Mine was more than that.
Part of me thought it was a very very bad joke.
Reason? The date of the ICT was 12/10/2010 to 29/10/2010.
For those of you who are wondering what's wrong with that date, take a second look at the month of the call up.
Like hello? It has been repeatedly clarified to us that those who are headed off to institutes of higher learning(IHL), which is practically the entire RJC cohort, will either be deferred(overseas cases) or be called up during a common black-out window(local cases). That above date hardly complied with that.
It can only mean 1 thing. Someone somewhere screwed something up. And the administration failed to pick it up.
Now half of me feels like posting my NS call up email on failblog and then write in to the straits times demanding an explanation. Usually, i can take things pretty calmly. But with the burden on an unlimited workload, seeing such a mess up is pushing me to the verge of explosion. And if i require a deferment, i actually have to send a copy of my uni acceptance letter, a copy of my course time table, as well as a copy of my exam time table. Of which i have none cause i've missed all my uni briefings so far due to work commitments.
How much trouble is it going to cause me to procure all that? Surely much less than a simple write-up to the straits times. Well, SAF better pray they clear this mess up soon, not just for me, but for 10 of my platoon mates as well, or risk a serious blow-up.
noobify†™
ys
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Great 6N swop?
Ok i'm somewhat inspired by this great idea of an event that recently took places in the RI staffroom. To those of you wondering what i'm doing in RI staffroom, you're way behind time, do something about it.
Ok back to the event. This event was called the great RI swop. and to spare myself from having to describe it, i've attached the email that i received instead.
----
Dear teachers,
The SWC is proud to present the Great RI Swop!
Day: Term 1 Week 10, Friday, 12 March 2010.
Time: 10am - 3pm
Venue: Staffroom 3 Meeting Room
What EXACTLY??
Staff are to bring item(s) for swopping with others. The idea is that you get rid of things you DON'T WANT and bring home things that you WANT, and they may even be NEW! For FREE! How great is that??? And how environmental!!
Rules:
1. Bring only items that you do not want anymore and are in good condition. You can bring used CDs, DVDs, books, children's clothes, toys, baby items, UNUSED toiletry items like SHAMPOO, HANDWASH (think Christmas gifts that you just had no use for), photo frames etc etc.
2. If you bring ONE item, you may pick ANY ONE item to bring home with you. If you bring TWO items, you may pick ANY TWO!
FAQs:
Q1. What are some things I can't bring for the Great RI Swop?
Ans: No unethical and/or human-trading is allowed, i.e., you cannot swop marking/timetables/classes, or attempt to swop children, spouses, parents etc. Oh, pets also not allowed! On a more serious note, things for swop should be safe, hygienic and non-personal, which means no expired toiletries/items and no undergarments please.
Q2. Do we all have to be at the venue at the same time to do the swop?
Ans: No. Come in to the SR3 Meeting Room any time between 10am - 3pm and you may pick your item(s).
Q3. If no one wants the item(s) I brought, can I still pick item(s) to take away?
Ans: Of course you can!
Q4. What will you do with the leftover items that no one wants?
Ans: If you want to take home the item(s) that you brought, you may do so, but do indicate your wish to us. Otherwise SWC will donate the unwanted items to the Salvation Army.
Q5. Can I bring my item(s) in earlier than 12 March 2010?
Ans: Yes you can. In fact you are encouraged to do so, so that we can get some simple admin work done prior to the fantastic event! Just pass the item(s) to your Staffroom SWC representative! Please do so only from Week 10 Monday though!
Q6. Can I bring my item(s) only on the day of the Swop?
Ans: Yes you can!
Q7. I brought 3 items but I only found 2 other items that I really want. Is that okay? Do I HAVE TO find exactly 3 items to bring back?
Ans: No you don't have to. As long as the number of items you pick to bring home is less than or equal to the number that you brought.
Here's looking forward to a great swap swop day! :)
Warmest regards,
Your SWC
----
ok as you guys can see, it's quite an interesting idea. and it turned out very well in RI. so i'm wondering, should we, as a class, have something like that too?
ok a few points about it.
1. i suspect part of the reason why it turned out well was because of the large number of staff, which is definitely bigger than our class.
2. another part is that some teachers brought like 46 items and took none, thus starting a huge pile of junk for others to happily grab.
3. logistics could be a problem with the remaining junk(which in RI's case was donated to salvation army). Donating makes us feel good, but bringing it to the donation point could be a problem.
yup that's all. just something to get you guys interested. If it is to happen, we need a class gathering/chalet/whatever, preferably around may to august when the overseas ppl might be back.
Ok back to the event. This event was called the great RI swop. and to spare myself from having to describe it, i've attached the email that i received instead.
----
Dear teachers,
The SWC is proud to present the Great RI Swop!
Day: Term 1 Week 10, Friday, 12 March 2010.
Time: 10am - 3pm
Venue: Staffroom 3 Meeting Room
What EXACTLY??
Staff are to bring item(s) for swopping with others. The idea is that you get rid of things you DON'T WANT and bring home things that you WANT, and they may even be NEW! For FREE! How great is that??? And how environmental!!
Rules:
1. Bring only items that you do not want anymore and are in good condition. You can bring used CDs, DVDs, books, children's clothes, toys, baby items, UNUSED toiletry items like SHAMPOO, HANDWASH (think Christmas gifts that you just had no use for), photo frames etc etc.
2. If you bring ONE item, you may pick ANY ONE item to bring home with you. If you bring TWO items, you may pick ANY TWO!
FAQs:
Q1. What are some things I can't bring for the Great RI Swop?
Ans: No unethical and/or human-trading is allowed, i.e., you cannot swop marking/timetables/classes, or attempt to swop children, spouses, parents etc. Oh, pets also not allowed! On a more serious note, things for swop should be safe, hygienic and non-personal, which means no expired toiletries/items and no undergarments please.
Q2. Do we all have to be at the venue at the same time to do the swop?
Ans: No. Come in to the SR3 Meeting Room any time between 10am - 3pm and you may pick your item(s).
Q3. If no one wants the item(s) I brought, can I still pick item(s) to take away?
Ans: Of course you can!
Q4. What will you do with the leftover items that no one wants?
Ans: If you want to take home the item(s) that you brought, you may do so, but do indicate your wish to us. Otherwise SWC will donate the unwanted items to the Salvation Army.
Q5. Can I bring my item(s) in earlier than 12 March 2010?
Ans: Yes you can. In fact you are encouraged to do so, so that we can get some simple admin work done prior to the fantastic event! Just pass the item(s) to your Staffroom SWC representative! Please do so only from Week 10 Monday though!
Q6. Can I bring my item(s) only on the day of the Swop?
Ans: Yes you can!
Q7. I brought 3 items but I only found 2 other items that I really want. Is that okay? Do I HAVE TO find exactly 3 items to bring back?
Ans: No you don't have to. As long as the number of items you pick to bring home is less than or equal to the number that you brought.
Here's looking forward to a great swap swop day! :)
Warmest regards,
Your SWC
----
ok as you guys can see, it's quite an interesting idea. and it turned out very well in RI. so i'm wondering, should we, as a class, have something like that too?
ok a few points about it.
1. i suspect part of the reason why it turned out well was because of the large number of staff, which is definitely bigger than our class.
2. another part is that some teachers brought like 46 items and took none, thus starting a huge pile of junk for others to happily grab.
3. logistics could be a problem with the remaining junk(which in RI's case was donated to salvation army). Donating makes us feel good, but bringing it to the donation point could be a problem.
yup that's all. just something to get you guys interested. If it is to happen, we need a class gathering/chalet/whatever, preferably around may to august when the overseas ppl might be back.
Prince of persia
Ok this entire post is going to be my thoughts on prince of persia, game, movie and whatever. Those not interested, just stop reading at the post above, since the post below is rard's post on POP too.
firstly, the game. to be exact, the original trilogy of sands of time, warrior within and two thrones(i'll deal with forgotten sands later). Well, prince of persia is essentially an action-cum-puzzle game. action from the fighting, puzzle from thinking of weird ways from getting from point A to point B. Weird because normal people would never be able to achieve those feats. for example, running horizontally on a wall for a distance, then jumping off before you fall off onto another wall, jump back and forth between the 2 walls to get up. impossible, it may look, but it is precisely these acrobatics that make prince of persia unique. Prince of persia would not be prince of persia if the acrobatics were removed(remember this point).
However, i would not qualify a game as action just because of some fighting time you get. What an action game should do is get your heart pumping like crazy and your adrenaline flowing. Which prince of persia: warrior within does to perfection. It introduces this unstoppable(for most of the game anyway) beast called the dahaka who relentlessly chases the prince to infinity and beyond. ok no, it can't get past water, but water isn't something that is everywhere, so what results is a crazy heart-pounding, adrenaline-rushing chase whereby everything has to be done to near perfection without the luxury of time. This is what i call action(frustration as well, but that's another point), and warrior within would therefore qualify as a really good action game.
However, i doubt the same can be said for the other 2. In sands of time, the dahaka isn't after the prince yet, and in the 2 thrones, the dahaka is gone(and would have no reason to be around either). That said, i've never played those 2 before and cannot comment further(in case there's some dahaka-like thingy).
And speaking of dahaka chases, some of them can get ridiculously long. gerard you know there's some special weapon, which i accidentally found but couldn't spare the time to pick up, in the middle of the longest dahaka chase i've come across so far? the ones when you first defeat kaileena and then u have to escape the dahaka 4 times. 4 f***ing times with no sand replenishment. and the 3rd/4th one, after you've pulled out the 1st stone tablet, is ridiculously long. and there's this white colour weapon that looks like a glove in the middle of it. Crazy. Are there any longer chases than that? I don't think my heart or mind can take a longer chase.
On to the movie. 'Prince of Persia: the sand of time' will be released on the 27th of may, starring jake gyllenhaal and the pretty gemma arterton =). I'm looking forward to it, despite the storyline having nothing to do with the game at all. There are, however, a few potential pitfalls which i hope the movie will avoid.
1. The acrobatics must be there(refer to above mentioned point), else this movie should just be called sands of time. More specifically, the WALL RUN must be there. It's so unique and cool.
2. The ability to control time(if it is featured) must not be messed up. Time travel and control is a very intricate and delicate issue that is very hard to pull off well. (eg if in the future, you're gonna go back into the past to do something, then the something should be happening now)
Let's hope the movie does well.
And lastly, the game. 'Prince of persia: the forgotten sands' need no further intro(if you've watched the trailer rard posted). I have only 3 comments on it.
1. the prince looks very different from all the 3 versions in the sands of time trilogy. In fact, it looks like jake gyllenhaal. It makes me suspect that they're gonna use the movie to drive up publicity for the game, having similar release dates and all, hence the lookalike. Casual players like me wouldn't mind it, but i can hear the murmurs and criticism from the hardcore fans already, that their beloved prince is being changed. If the hardcore fans refuse to support this, this game could fare badly.
2. the game says it's going back to the time between sands off time and warrior within. meaning the prince has released the sands already, but hasn't been punished yet. so will the dahaka make a comeback? I hope so! What a great game it would be!(but no crazy chase sequences please)
3. the trailer shows the prince freezing water to do more imba acrobatics. like wow! now he can freeze water? Is that a stop time skill or a new skill entirely? I sense puzzles getting so much tougher, like when you think there's no way across then u realise u can freeze the water and run along it. crazy.
Ok so i've come to the end of a really long post. feel free to add further comments on this really wonderful game(and hopefully, movie).
firstly, the game. to be exact, the original trilogy of sands of time, warrior within and two thrones(i'll deal with forgotten sands later). Well, prince of persia is essentially an action-cum-puzzle game. action from the fighting, puzzle from thinking of weird ways from getting from point A to point B. Weird because normal people would never be able to achieve those feats. for example, running horizontally on a wall for a distance, then jumping off before you fall off onto another wall, jump back and forth between the 2 walls to get up. impossible, it may look, but it is precisely these acrobatics that make prince of persia unique. Prince of persia would not be prince of persia if the acrobatics were removed(remember this point).
However, i would not qualify a game as action just because of some fighting time you get. What an action game should do is get your heart pumping like crazy and your adrenaline flowing. Which prince of persia: warrior within does to perfection. It introduces this unstoppable(for most of the game anyway) beast called the dahaka who relentlessly chases the prince to infinity and beyond. ok no, it can't get past water, but water isn't something that is everywhere, so what results is a crazy heart-pounding, adrenaline-rushing chase whereby everything has to be done to near perfection without the luxury of time. This is what i call action(frustration as well, but that's another point), and warrior within would therefore qualify as a really good action game.
However, i doubt the same can be said for the other 2. In sands of time, the dahaka isn't after the prince yet, and in the 2 thrones, the dahaka is gone(and would have no reason to be around either). That said, i've never played those 2 before and cannot comment further(in case there's some dahaka-like thingy).
And speaking of dahaka chases, some of them can get ridiculously long. gerard you know there's some special weapon, which i accidentally found but couldn't spare the time to pick up, in the middle of the longest dahaka chase i've come across so far? the ones when you first defeat kaileena and then u have to escape the dahaka 4 times. 4 f***ing times with no sand replenishment. and the 3rd/4th one, after you've pulled out the 1st stone tablet, is ridiculously long. and there's this white colour weapon that looks like a glove in the middle of it. Crazy. Are there any longer chases than that? I don't think my heart or mind can take a longer chase.
On to the movie. 'Prince of Persia: the sand of time' will be released on the 27th of may, starring jake gyllenhaal and the pretty gemma arterton =). I'm looking forward to it, despite the storyline having nothing to do with the game at all. There are, however, a few potential pitfalls which i hope the movie will avoid.
1. The acrobatics must be there(refer to above mentioned point), else this movie should just be called sands of time. More specifically, the WALL RUN must be there. It's so unique and cool.
2. The ability to control time(if it is featured) must not be messed up. Time travel and control is a very intricate and delicate issue that is very hard to pull off well. (eg if in the future, you're gonna go back into the past to do something, then the something should be happening now)
Let's hope the movie does well.
And lastly, the game. 'Prince of persia: the forgotten sands' need no further intro(if you've watched the trailer rard posted). I have only 3 comments on it.
1. the prince looks very different from all the 3 versions in the sands of time trilogy. In fact, it looks like jake gyllenhaal. It makes me suspect that they're gonna use the movie to drive up publicity for the game, having similar release dates and all, hence the lookalike. Casual players like me wouldn't mind it, but i can hear the murmurs and criticism from the hardcore fans already, that their beloved prince is being changed. If the hardcore fans refuse to support this, this game could fare badly.
2. the game says it's going back to the time between sands off time and warrior within. meaning the prince has released the sands already, but hasn't been punished yet. so will the dahaka make a comeback? I hope so! What a great game it would be!(but no crazy chase sequences please)
3. the trailer shows the prince freezing water to do more imba acrobatics. like wow! now he can freeze water? Is that a stop time skill or a new skill entirely? I sense puzzles getting so much tougher, like when you think there's no way across then u realise u can freeze the water and run along it. crazy.
Ok so i've come to the end of a really long post. feel free to add further comments on this really wonderful game(and hopefully, movie).
Monday, March 15, 2010
Okay I just realized from my membership points that I've spent about a thousand dollars on Challenger over the past 2 years. I must be their favourite customer man. Hm i feel abit stunned that i spent so much, but ah heck -- earn money don't spent then earn for what.
So, the next game i'm awaiting is Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. I'm glad they're finally going back to the storyline of the Sands of Time trilogy. The last one that was just released a year back totally sucked in terms of gameplay. But i loved the ending. Anyway the prince of persia is as imba as a slark with 6x eaglehorns. His acrobatics and fighting moves are quite leet, and the scenery of the environment is quite awesome also. Can't wait for its release.
See here for my review on Warrior Within -- the 2nd game of the series.
So, the next game i'm awaiting is Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. I'm glad they're finally going back to the storyline of the Sands of Time trilogy. The last one that was just released a year back totally sucked in terms of gameplay. But i loved the ending. Anyway the prince of persia is as imba as a slark with 6x eaglehorns. His acrobatics and fighting moves are quite leet, and the scenery of the environment is quite awesome also. Can't wait for its release.
See here for my review on Warrior Within -- the 2nd game of the series.
I was looking through the posts from a while back and chanced across something gerard wrote. So i decided i'd write something from my perspective.
List of games which I have impulsively bought over the last 2 years and never got down to finish playing:
Zero.
Shit I have no life. (\end sarcasm)
(But actually I really don't)
List of games which I have impulsively bought over the last 2 years and never got down to finish playing:
Zero.
Shit I have no life. (\end sarcasm)
(But actually I really don't)
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