Blah blah blah

Approximately 31 days until the release of Kingdom Hearts II.

Grandia III seems nice, but I know I won't have time to complete it by the time KH2 is released.

Sigh. School is so hectic, nothing to say about it. Except maybe our class play, which turned out much better than I thought. Okay, well, looking at the script, it was quite okay, but the acting part is a totally different story. As in it was really good.

Right. I'm running out of things to say, so goodbye.

Tales of Legendia

Bought it last night.

So far, 10 hours into the game, it's not too bad. Overall story progression is okay, though some parts of the dialougue seem a little slow. Battle system is rather interesting, considering this is the first "Tales of" series for me.

And well, my cold developed (developed!?) into a fever for the weekend. Head's been heavy all day and nose is almost always blocked. Haha... And I could still play games in the state I was in...

Well anyway, now that I'm okay, I better start on the shitload of homework. Else I'm boned.

5 stars, maybe...

I Not Stupid Too is a really great movie.

It is something that us teenagers can relate to so much. Or should I say, Singaporean teenagers. The movie has its fair share of touching and funny moments. It's placed in a way like this - just when are you on the edge of tears, they throw in a funny part. And it happens in reverse. Still, they're quite well blended.

It's a movie with lots of lessons and positive-thinking values. Having a rotten people doesn't mean you have to throw it away; cut off the rotten part and it's still edible. (Well, something along the lines of that... It's not exactly how they said it.) There's also something about finding the key to the locked door in your life. It remains locked unless you bother to make an effort to find the key. And find more chances to look at the good side of a person, not always pinpointing the bad points. After all, no one in this world is wholly good or wholly bad.

I would recommend everyone to watch it; more so if you're a teacher or parent. (Heh heh...)

See red yet?

Yesterday and today are rather boring, I must say.

Second day of Chinese New Year was spent at my grandparents' place, and uncle's actually. Well they live just a few houses apart. So there was this lion dance troupe that they invited, and I sat so close to it that after it ended I was partially deaf. Yeah I was being stupid. And I didn't really know my cousins well, never really talked to them in my life, so I just sat in a corner. Under the sun, might I add, while they were in the house.

Rest of the morning and late afternoon was dedicated to TV-watching. MTV Asia, AXN, StarWorld. I was constantly switching between them and pausing when something was of interest.

Well for today I rounded up my money and set off for the game shop. I just had to buy something. Stared at the japanese version of Kingdom Hearts 2, priced at s$102! The shopkeeper reccomended the new Dragon Quest, but I didn't like the characters in there, so I averted my view towards Tales of Legendia for awhile, but dang, it's japanese too. Finally I set my mind on Final Fantasy IV Advance. It's definitely not the best among those, but well, I haven't even played it before, it wouldn't hurt.

Maybe I should have waited a little longer. Within the next few months, it'll be the arrival of a whole bunch of games... Ugh, I almost forgot I'm still paying for FFXI. It's driving me bankrupt.

Gonna have "Chinese New Year withdrawal syndrome", as termed by a friend of mine. XD

Corsair

Ah, it's Chinese New Year's Eve.

SquareEnix has revealed another job in the new expansion, Treasures of Aht Urhgan. It's the Corsair, who wields a "6-barrel gun" and apparantly has luck-based abilities. Looks cool, but I'm still more interested in the Blue Mage. Don't know if I'll still be playing when that time comes, though...

Temporarily out of games at home... So damn bored.

Oh well, looking forward to the dinner tonight.

Just Another Rambling

The Math test didn't turn out so bad. At least I didn't fail.

Flag day was... Bad. I mean, after all these events involving NKF, who would want to donate? People avoided, pretended to be on the phone, fumbling with their bags, or looked away entirely, like I wasn't there. I can't blame them though, but, sigh... Us students were made to do it. It's not like we had a choice.

Yet there were still exceptionally generous people on that day. I remember the Caucasian who winded down his car window to pass me $4 while stopping at the traffic light. No, don't get me wrong, I did NOT go tapping at cars, asking for donations. Rather, he did it voluntarily. There, a perfect example of a kind heart. I couldn't help but smile as I placed the notes into my seemingly empty tin. The two notes were all that were needed to make the tin heavy, heavy enough.

Naturally, with it being so light, it was sure to be rejected. I told them I had already tried my best, as should every other student tell them that. Well as long as you really have, and you know it, who cares? Of course I said that there were notes in there. She greatly doubted me, and asked another helper to check with the torchlight.

Yet, even with the notes, she still asked me to go for another round. I had had enough. This isn't supposed to be forced voluntarism or donations for that matter. I said, "If you all really need the money, I'll whip up $10", looking straight into her eyes. For a moment there, she seemed stunned, but then again, they couldn't possibly accept my money at that time, I guess. She gave a slight nod, signaling approval of the tin. Booya!

Of course they would want more money in the tins... they earn more commision, don't they? I'm not exactly sure, correct me if I'm wrong. And donations... it's entirely up to the person whether they want to donate, you can't force them or anything.

I guess the worst part of it was when my friend came across two elderly women, who walked right past him without donating, and said loudly in Hokkien, "Cheat people one lah". Oh well...

This is how the society is. If it was perfect, there would be no need for this; people would come forward by themselves to donate. Welcome to the real world. Hmph.

A 15 Minute Ride

Bro spent 7 days in the hospital.

Mom stayed with him, all the while. Day and night.

House was managed by me, kinda. I didn't do much, but I won't say I didn't do anything either.

To the hospital and back from it - everyday. Pains me to see someone as young as him in this state.

And now, my 'rents are sick.

You ask me why I failed my math test - how could I possibly concentrate?

You don't understand the current situation.

Can't study for the test. House is in a mess.

Is a life or a test more important?

Don't blame me if I fail. I'm not sacrificing a life for high marks in a mere test.

Heartless fools. People are sick here, and there you complain, criticize. Aggravate the matter; add on the pressure.

Say you don't know me. Don't fucking care if I die. Become non-existant. Invisible, ignored.

Fine. I'll mark your words.

And the source of all problems is back.

Can't possibly go on like this...

Rainwater

Finally plucking up some courage, I've decided to log back on FFXI after like, a month. Or rather, it's a risk or letting myself being bored to death.

I've kinda lost touch with playing bard already. Has anything changed? I don't know. I don't have any friends playing as bard, either. It's more like they ask me instead. So I think I will refrain from getting into any parties for the time being, though I know that won't help. Anyway, there's a whole horde of new bards all rising in levels into the mid 60s to 70s range, it's rather difficult getting a party at "peak" hours.

Well I don't want to affect other people if I don't know what I'm doing. I didn't play bard in hopes of getting a dynamis or HNM LS easily, and it definitely wasn't because of the large number of invites. I play it because I like how a bard works in the party, not physically attacking monsters, but rather buffing allies and debuffing mobs. Sure it gets repetitive, but I like it. Heh. And I would say that I'm just an average bard; I'm always short on gil. I spend more time PLing friends, and when I myself need one, they all disappear. XD

When it's time for me to quit, I wonder who to give all my stuff to. An old friend? Or maybe a random person down the streets of Lower Jeuno? Split it up and roughly divide it with the LS peeps? Or decide that "My stuff is going down with me!"? Still contemplating...

Hmm... Kingdom Hearts 2, I'm still waiting. Maybe I'll just buy the Japanese version and spoil all the fun.

Oh, and I can't believe AMK Central's McDonalds actually ran out of curry sauce last night! Ahaha. But it's fine, I could make do without it.

Yeah well, peace out.

"New" Year?

First week of school was okay, to say the least. But well, the word "okay" is being abused by us, kinda. It seems like an acceptable response to most questions, although in this sense "most" isn't really as much as it seems. Duh.

I guess I'm all alright for the change in teachers. They don't affect me much, but there are exceptions, however.

Had quite a shock and a rather pleasant surprise this afternoon. Stepping out of the class, I saw someone dressed in casual wear heading towards our classrooms. Well yeah, it's obviously a visitor, or so it seems. But I found her hair strikingly familiar, and asked myself, is that Alev? Yup, right on.

Sigh, how I wished I could have stayed on longer to chat with her, but due to Biology Practical lessons after school, it didn't allow me to. Dang. It turns out that she's currently here on holiday. She did say that life in Canada is much better than here, and about how she's getting high grades for Math there (like 90+), and only a mere pass when she used to live here (A mere 52, according to her). And yeah, I remember that quite well. I kinda trudged my way down for lunch after the short meeting. Oh, and yes, she did remember me. Eh heh, that's nice to know.

Well I thought I should talk about it here, cause I just had a sudden urge. It's unique to me, in a sense. It's not everyday that this happens. Yeah, like duh, again. Oh well...

I finally got down to completing Suikoden IV after a month or so. Well the ending wasn't too shabby, but not the greatest I've seen. And I played through the Dot Hack games again, out of boredom or whatever. Maybe because the new trilogy is within a month of its release date. Ah yes, that and Kingdom Hearts 2. Though the latter is sometime in March. It should be worth the wait, I hope.

Well I've said what I wanted to say. So have a good day. Or night.

The End is Near...

End of the year, that is.

While Japanese players get to enjoy and go crazy over Kingdom Hearts 2, every other person who didn't get it imported will have to wait for another 3 months or so. Sigh.

Finally done getting 100% completion in Final Fantasy X-2. It was during my second playthrough that I realized that I had forgotten to watch the scenes at the Chocobo Ranch via the CommSphere.

Not been up to anything lately in FFXI. At most, I was on only twice during the past month. Well thrice, if I count in today.

Argh.

Time flies, indeed.

Been a while.

But well, there's nothing much to talk about. I've been sick for like, 2 weeks and for the most part, was plenty bored.

And so I went ahead to max out stats in FFX, and oversouled every fiend through Via Infinito in FFx-2. And ugh, I'm at 99% completion. Where's the freaking 1% I missed!

Now, with less than 2 weeks left until school reopens, I wonder if I should get some work done. But the sight of books... Ugh.

My left ear is apparently "blocked". You know how sometimes it happens, and when you yawn and "pop", it clears itself. But it isn't working for me this time. It's been four days now, and I still can't hear things clearly.

Anyway, time for breakfast.

Later.

Hail to the Thief...

Steini quit FFXI today, once again.

Sigh...

And it seemed like just yesterday that we were all having fun partying.

Axl vanished without a trace. Martind, don't know where the heck he is now. Shadowwolf has most likely quit. Dikar, well, I don't know either. Finnh, rarely see him nowadays. Who's next?



Well let's not think too much, it's just a game after all. The real person is still there.

On to other things, Radiata Stories is rather difficult, I must say. With time progression according to a clock, featuring day and night, which affect the appearances of NPCs, it makes it hard to be able to recruit people within the so called given time, and to do some other things. Makes it feel that I'm rushing to the station for the very last train of the month.

The battle system is very similar to Star Ocean: Till the end of Time, which was really good. Certain things have been slightly altered, though. You can press X to guard in battle. Other stuff like side stepping is somewhat in there, but you can only jump back this time. Assigning of different attacks to form combos make it so that you actually button-mash for the most part of battle. And it's really frustrating to hear the characters keep shouting "All right!" during battle and post battle. I think I've heard it more than a hundred times already.

Featuring lots of characters to recruit, like Suikoden, is not neccessarily a good thing. Most of the characters are junk, lousy to use in battle, and you "don't actually need them". Coupled with the day and night system, it gets really frustrating to attempt to even hunt down all of them.

Well I shall play on to see how it goes, and hopefully, it goes on the right path. It shouldn't be too bad.

Suikoden IV

That's the game I have been playing within the past week.

It's an awesome game. I completely changed my view about Suikoden once I played this. The bad impression I had gotten was from the previous game in this series, Suikoden III, because in my opinion, it was bad. I regretted buying it.

Now, with 108 characters you can recruit, one can't complain about the lack of characters. (Although, in actual fact, only about 56 can be used in battle.) The only probelm with having so many characters, is that it's hard to make everyone fit well into the story. Some join because someone else they know is on board the ship. Still, I think that's quite a minor problem.

Story wise, it's okay. Nothing too simple or complicated. Gameplay is good. You're sure to be kept busy if you're trying to level them all to 99. Most characters join by just talking to them through the course of the game, while you fight bosses and need to meet certain requirements for others. This, overall, balances out so you won't find recruiting characters boring or a chore. But then again, you only need to use a few of the lot to successfully complete the game.

Definitely one of the better RPGs I've played so far. Planing on trying out Radiata Stories next. Hopefully it'll be good.

Fire... On Fire

Watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire today. Well, it's yesterday now, seeing it's already 1A.M. About time.

Best of the 4 so far?

Maybe... It's just too bad many they cut out many parts from the book. Like the Quidditch World Cup, all we see is the entrance of the players, and that's it. It jumped straight to the Dark Mark part. What about the part where Rita was turned into a beetle? Well anyway, she isn't too important a character. Just that the book could bring out much much more of her obnoxious ways. More like the Quick Quotes Quill, actually.

Damn. Lot's of nice movies coming up this holidays. Gotta catch 'em all! Ugh... the phrase from Pokemon. And games too. Loads of RPGs going to be released.

Honestly, holidays...

Is there anything else to talk about?

Nope.

Finally Getting Somewhere

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire opens today. Haven't received any messages from friends about watching the movie. Well then, it looks like I'll be going alone, if need be.

Finally got back to leveling bard after months. And thanks to the frequent deaths, white mage sub will be gimped very soon. Now halfway to 71, and luckily I had done genkai 5 earlier.

Ligerzero, did you quit again? That would probably be a yes, considering that he sent me all his gil and some crystals and equipment. But what nice timing! I desperately need the gil for all the expensive bard JSE in another 2 levels.

Rickimaru, Jakal and me went about to do Zilart Mission 5, the parts which required killing mobs. We did the ones in Behemoth's Dominion and through Ifrit's Cauldron. And yes, it was just us three. Something called the "kiting" method, where you cast gravity on the mob, run a distance ahead and nuke, while throwing in the occasional bind. I am the one keeping them refreshed with ballad.

For the ones in Cape Terriggan and Sanctuary of Zitah, we had additional help. A paladin, a monk and a black mage. We handled the mobs perfectly well, despite websites saying that you need a ninja tank.

Time to do the other parts, solo.

Sayonara

I've decided to give up on Promyvion-Holla. I'm tired of failing loads of times, of gathering all the people with suitable jobs. I don't want to touble those whom I know. They've done them all, and they don't want to go through all of this again. I understand how they feel. I would rather realize that it is my loss, for not having enough luck or whatsoever, than to make people feel as though I'm so desperate that I forced them to help me.

Went to the airport to send someone off this morning. I guess seeing them leave with a smile doesn't make me feel all that sad. I couldn't cry; tears just wouldn't come out. Not to say that I was happy to see her go, but this sense of joy just came over me, because of, well, some problematic situations going on here. Nothing beats being able to be free of it. Well, Yuni, good luck. Even if I forget you someday, the memory won't be lost, ever. It's deep within your heart; you just have to find it, as Sora of Kingdom Hearts had said.

I returned home in less-than-high spirits.

I just realized. I'm the only asian in the linkshell. You know, maybe I shouldn't be there. If only it wasn't for my first mentor...

You don't need to know.

Nuances

Okay. So we're supoosed to go to this website stated on the math worksheet, and do whatever's inside? Apparantly, it's not working. It says here... it's being hosted in a different location, and they need... donations? That's the most I make out of it. But it comes down to this - I'm not going to do it. Not when you gave us a faulty address to begin with!

So that's one task down. Now I have to type two letters explaining for the day that I was absent for Conquer 'O'. Formal letter format, with parent to initial on it. And the content is just going to be like, two lines.

Feeling kind of depressed today. What is wrong with me? It's not like anything happened.

Logged on to FFXI for a minute or so, noticed how everyone else was perfectly blended in through the chat log. Uh huh, I'm Asian, Singaporean to be more exact. I speak Chinese, and for whatever reason, people in the game have such fear of chinese-speakers. Or loathe them, as a matter of fact. Why indeed? Because, the moment they see Chinese, they associate it with gil-sellers, and gil-sellers are widely hated by people all around. Why again? Because they sell gil, and make the game unfair for everyone else.

Look at all those people with "perfect" gear. Whether they really went through infinite hours of farming or through HNMs, or merely bought the gil, I don't know. No one will know, unless they tell us. But you can be quite sure that someone who completely doesn't know what he is doing, but surprisingly decked out in stuff like Leaping Boots, Emperor Hairpin and such, has most possibly earned them through buying gil. Doesn't mean that just because you have the best gear, you're a good player. That's just wrong.

So I have controlled myself not to speak chinese much outside of the linkshell or tells. In fact, why the hell am I even speaking chinese in the linkshells? No one in there understands chinese. People raise eyebrows when I'm seen PLing chinese players, because the same old thought is in their minds. "That, is a gil-seller. Stay away." Was I wrong in PLing them? Maybe I was, but it never occured to me that they were gil-sellers. I had asked them what was the main reason they play the game, and all they say is because a friend had introduced it to them.

Once I had the chance to meet several chinese players in Valkurm Dunes. And that was when I chanced upon this all Asian Linkshell, a mixture of Singaporeans and other chinese in whatever place. I was rather surprised when I saw the people in there; some of them were notoriously referred to as none other than gil-sellers prior to that, and this is where most of them had gathered.

The most ironic thing was that a fellow chinese player had told me that the Linkshell was "bad". She told me to toss it away. Okay... so unless you're a gil-seller, you will say that it is bad. Thus, the conclusion is that not all chinese players are gil-sellers. (Right. Duh, you might think.)

Enough about that. Now that I've finally taken the chance to just spill everything out, I don't feel that bad inside anymore.

Quote: Tarfur - "We will eat like kings... and there will be cake."

Still laughing to that this very moment. I thank you for your very entertaining statements. Haha.

Hempishere

Really busy for the past few days. Busy playing, heh.

Yes. Soul Calibur III was really worth the money. It's probably the best I've played since SCII.

Right now I've completed "Chronicles of the Sword" once, and going through it a second time with an army of sword master classes. Also unlocked most of the stuff, except maybe some stage arenas and the character, Amy, who is... Raphael's foster daughter?

Haven't really specialized myself with any character, but I guess I'm fairly okay with Killik. Still learning the ropes. Needed more human opponents to practice with, so two of my friends and me did just that. But my friend here was merely button-mashing! And that, I tell you, earns you an easy victory, unless you guard impact ALL of the attacks, which of course, I couldn't manage.

My life seems to dim down quite a bit. Despite it being the holidays, and when I have an online game to keep myself sane and even lower the chances of me talking to myself. Yeah, I'm wierd. But, the maid is going back this weekend, and my father is on frequent business trips overseas, which leaves just three people remaining in the house. No prizes for guessing who. Heh. It's going to be really quiet, or so I think.

FFXI? I don't know what my aim is now. I'm wandering around aimlessly as a rather useless white mage. I stand in front of the Auction House for hours. I teleport people who shout for Holla randomly. I try to chat with people in both Linkshells. I attempt to solo for experience, only to fail miserably. I can't switch back to bard because I have no mood to transfer a massive amount of stuff over from mule. I never get in the mood to party. I reject all invites when I get them.

I shall not rant on. Keep them for another day. Eh heh heh.

Soul Calibur III

I got hold of my copy of the game yesterday.

Hurried to set up my PS2, which involved bringing all the wires, controllers and the console itself from my room out into the hall. Not that I would complain, but I had always left them all in the hall. Ever since my brother was born though, leaving such expensive items lying around is definitely not a wise option. Sometimes I can't even play in peace. He's dying to snatch the controller out of my hands. He's attracted to the lights of the reset button on the console, so much that he's always attempting to press it.

Now that's another thing. So, barely minutes into viewing the new features of the game, I was momentarily distracted by a sharp crackling sound, or at least that's how it sounded like. I didn't know what it was, and resumed with my game. Then it came again. And again for a third time. I looked around, only to catch, in the corner of my eye, the main powerpoint where my PS2 adaptor was connected to, spurting out wisps of black smoke. I was stunned. Then the screen went blank, and at once I rushed over to turn the switch off.

Whoa. That could have resulted in an electric fire! I let everything cool down, before I unplugged the two-pin plug. The plastic of the plug had melted, and one part of it broke off. Oh damn.

Well, at least I managed to get it replaced with a new one this afternoon. $25 for one. Ah, I'm broke. But I must say, the game is really good. Quite the step up from the previous (SCII). The most interesting thing would be the character custamization feature. Pick the gender, job and outfit them with anything you want. Of course, the items are gained through buying and unlocking, only if you have money, which is in turn obtained by fighting through the charaters' story mode. Haven't tried everything yet, so I don't really know about the other stuff in there.

Oh, and failed Promyvion-Holla again. 7 wonderful losses. Hope 8th's time the charm? It is considered a lucky number here at least, right? Luck is so not on my side. And I only did it because whoever didn't invite me for genkai 2. They all asked me to go- no wait, in fact only Schinn and Tarfur asked me to go. So I stood there like an idiot, waiting, waiting and waiting. No invite whatsoever. Basically I got the impression that I wasn't wanted, and there were already 6 people, or so I counted. Someone shouted for holla then, so I jumped in on the chance. It's not my fault, I hope? I was so damn bored...

Well anyway, looks like I'll be waiting, once again. Tomorrow, the day after, and more. With the Conquer 'O' programme ending as late as 1:30pm, it's largely affecting my gaming schedule! "We need to cover the syllabus" is what the teachers say. Okay, okay, I understand. My soft side is giving in.

Lastly, Selemat Hari Raya to everyone out there. Have a nice day... no, night. Heh.

[Edit: It's "calibur" and not "caliber". Sorry.]

Holidays...?

Today I learned that jack o'lanturns originated from Ireland, and was actually first made out of turnips, not pumpkins!

So while the people in the other parts of the world were probably celebrating Halloween, I was sitting in my room, and confined in there for nearly 12 hours, playing, of course. Well, not really playing, considering that half the time my character was just standing there, in front of the Auction House, with massive amounts of text in linkshell chat, and Jeuno shouts.

Managed to get my white mage up to level 37. Apart from finally being able to teleport, I can really "dump" it off after getting all the crap done. It's just a sub-job for my bard.

School tomorrow, thanks to the whatever conquer 'O' programme they have for us. Having holidays... is like not having it at all.

Baka? Sou dane!