C'est fini.

It is finished. Hurray! This feels awesome, even though I probably won't do well this sem, as usual, I think I studied as harder than I ever have in my student life, so it's all God's will, n'importe quoi.

Too bad the army won't let me rest even a week. Reservist starts on Monday, sigh. So much to do, so little time. And where is that email, urgh.

Prince of Persia

Well word is in the pipeline that there's an upcoming Prince of Persia movie based on the Sands of Time series. Interesting. The games were awesome, I hope the movie is too, though that Jake guy seems a strange choice for the role. Though he admittedly does look like the Prince, so oh well. Speaking of which I have such a huge backlog of movies and games, zzz. Though they don't appeal so much to me nowadays, it's such a strange feeling. Anyway. First picture is from the movie, the second from the game. Go see for yourself.

I love Boston's Photos.

Awesome right? It's the LHC, gonna be back into service soon. For the other pictures, go check out  http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/11/large_hadron_collider_ready_to.html. Read the comments too, quite... intriguing.

MacBook Air vs Bus.

Ok scrap that. I succumbed barely a few hours later and asked my bro to get some parts for me. Bought an internal HDD and a portable one, together with 2 RAM sticks. There goes my X'mas budget. :( However I stupidly forgot to get a spare SATA cable, so I can't use the internal HDD yet, urgh. At least the RAM sticks work, though I've no way to check if the dual channel is working. Benchmark tests look ok though, so hurray.

I've just spent something like the past 3 days mostly offline and studying, omg. My desktop has been relegated to the corner, my laptop to the nearest shelf and the work table is a messy pile of notes, tutorials and reference books. This is the pits. I've been taking breaks, but you know breaks tend to last longer than they should, so the less breaks the better! Grr. This is not me man, not at all. So much to cover, so much to assimilate, so much to master.

Anyway. Anyone thinking of getting a MacBook Air, check this out. It's from: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/26/macbook-air-meets-bus-bus-wins/. Apparently the freaky thing still works. Awesome.

Santa please take a look!

Sigh, I'm missing yet another IT fair. This year I've missed like 2 already, the first cause of exams, the second cause I was overseas. I have such a long shopping list, it's so irritating. My dad's banned me from going this time cause he's scared that I'll fall sick so thankfully my bro's free to act as my proxy. After the exams, I'm so going to go SLS and get some much needed hardware, omg. My PC is failing. My wish list:

- 1x 550W PSU
- 2x 2GB Kingston DDR2 800MHZ FSB Sticks
- 1x DVD Writer
- 1x 500GB SATA Internal HDD
- 1x HDD Cooling Fan

Unfortunately that amounts to something to the tune of $300. Zzz.

10 Ways to make your Girlfriend allow you to play DOW 2 Beta.

1. Explain how playing Dawn of War 2 raises your ability to do more things at once. In the future you'll be able to both do the dishes and vacuum at the same time.

2. Tell her that when you needed a hobby it was either Dawn of War 2 or the "Dungeons Camp; Dragons Live Community".

3. Women hate being rushed into things, so explain to her how Relic is teaching you patience. After all, the next patch is due in August.

4. Point out that the Ork race remind you of her immediate family and therefore this is your preparation for meeting the parents.

5. Tell her she shops too much and explain that your hobby is considerably cheaper. Then give her your credit card and kiss your freedom goodbye.

6. Patiently explain the various nuances and changes in the meta game until she tells you to play just to shut you up. I call this the "lesser evil" method.

7. Show her your über micro and tell her that the more you practice, the better you get with your hands.

8. Express how every time you use "Howl of terror" you think of her, and her lovely singing voice.

9. Promise her that if a man ever disrespects her, you won't hesitate to kick his f*cking ass! Just give him your GFWL ID.

10. You learn to be witty. for Example:

* Instead of saying "Honey, lets make love", you have learned to quote the Apothecary "My gene seed must be preserved!", Women love when you get all dramatic like that.

* After her parents have quietly said grace you break the ice by shouting "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!!" and dig in like a proper Ork.

* Impress her friends by acknowledging them as Tyranids and scream "Alien fiends!"


Taken from http://www.gamereplays.org/dawnofwar2/portals.php?show=page&name=tip-of-the-week-eight-more-dow2-time. Awesome.

So says Jackson Brown.

No matter how close to yours another's steps have grown, in the end there is one dance you'll do alone.

Blessed is the mind too small for doubt.

Yesterday I checked my mailbox and found an email from Marcho. The BB bible study group has finally ended it's run, as of 18th November 2009. After approximately 3 years of Wednesdays, it has 'run it's course' as Marc puts it. After much prayer, Marc and Oliver have decided to close this chapter, taking comfort that God has used the time to change our lives. It's effect on me was more of an awakening jolt though. Throughout the 3 years, my attendance has been spotty. There was always something else with greater importance and priority than the humble gathering of fellow brothers whose role was to watch out for each other and grow together in the Lord. Was planning to go last Wednesday but then I didn't feel kinda drained, so I decided to skip it once again. Every time, it felt like there would always be yet another meeting in the coming week anyway, so it's alright if I miss this one. Now it's gone and together with it one of the few core yet perpetually under appreciated anchors in my life. Another close friend's gone Atheist after languishing as a troubled Christian for too long. What's a guy to do when all these pillars in his life start crumbling down? He hunkers down, grits his teeth, reconsiders his position and focuses on the task ahead. Just whack, attaboy.

All good things must come to an end.

While taking a break from doing more Laplace transforms a few days ago I decided to log in to my old MUD to see how things were. Sadly it's really expiring it's last breath, as most of the core players move on in their lives and other more exciting games like WOW draw away any new blood. Reading the board notes of the players reminiscing, it's like taking a trip back almost a decade back to the days when we were kids with too much time and nothing to do but spend hours in a virtual world doing crazy things.

It's also awesome to see the American and generally older players settle into married life. Most of them are about 5 years our senior so most of them now hold stable jobs, have kids, etc. There's even a Facebook group now, the old MUD community is finally getting updated with the modern world. About damn time. I hope we actually get a reunion up, though it's not so hard for the SG pple since the GEP community isn't very big. We'll see.

Why does it seem like every alternate song on my playlist is mocking me.

Reading Week

Evidently this study gungho thing isn't working. Spent the weekend shopping, watching movies and catching up with Church people. So, the first day of the week has passed! Woke up at 10am to check my email then went back to sleep. Got woken up, yet again, by Sakinah. Sakinah, tu es un idiot, tu entende! Zzz. Luckily managed to sleep again.

Enjoyable evening though. Had dinner at Hediard, some intriguing French restaurant at Tanglin, with the immersion people. Weijie came in a spiffy shirt + vest ensemble colour matched to the restaurant, so he looked just like a waiter! Then adjourned to Clarke Quay for some dessert at The Chocolate Factory followed by some beer at some lap sup looking pub. The waitresses were mostly ugly and the singers were mostly out of tune. The beer was quite cheap though and even have free pool and karaoke, I like.

Sigh. Driving down Orchard road in a mini admiring the Christmas lights, that's how reading week should be. Unfortunately, it's probably going to be spent flipping through pages of alien looking equations and making notes. ):