That doesn’t mean I’m going to let this blog die. I have a feeling it’ll come in handy one day. Even if it means I gotta pay US$35 or so per year just to maintain the server and domain, I think I’ll do it. However, the future of this blog remains uncertain.
*sad face*

So bored that I’ve actually decided to come back and revive this ol’ blog of mine. I don’t really have much to say nowadays, maybe I should go back to blogging about daily life? How interesting that would be… And I’m sure plenty of people would care!

Well here goes nothing…

Can’t believe I’m serving NS right now. I’m 19 this year. Damn I’m old. As for those who are wondering what it’s like to be a PES E clerk, it’s pretty uneventful, but IMO still better than serving out the 2 years as a combatant. At least you get to go home everyday, and you get to enjoy what MM Lee refers to as the greatest invention of the 20th century: air-conditioning!

Also, I’m back into my American Football/NFL addiction phase. Super Bowl just ended (Saints won unfortunately, though deservedly), but I’ve just started a new season on my PSP Madden NFL ‘10. Still, the difficulty I’ve set the game to makes it so damn frustrating that I stopped playing to come here and rant on about random stuff. And if I tune down the difficulty just a notch, everything becomes too damn easy. Annoying, to say the least.

And Chinese New Year’s right around the corner, not like it means that much to me anyway. Just the annual trek to meet relatives so that we can all pretend as if we still care so much about each other even though we only see each other once, maybe twice, a year. Oh wells, at least it means days off from work (in my air-conditioned office, where I am serving out my NS, may I remind you)

Speaking of NS, I got a new non-camera phone, the HTC Snap. And I’ve gotta say, using a Windows Mobile device gives me a new appreciation for the iPhone. Now I know why it’s such a big success. The only other viable smartphone OS is Windows Mobile, which is absolutely and utterly terrible. It’s like Microsoft was too damn lazy to reinvent the wheel, so they decided to take the standard Windows framework, strip it down to the bare essentials and try to build a mobile OS around it. Windows on a PC is buggy enough, and you have no idea how worse it gets on a mobile device.

I can’t wait to get out of NS and get an iPhone. Not to mention the physical QWERTY keyboard is a pain for me.

I have to admit I was pretty skeptical about this service when it was first announced, because it sounded too good to be true. Even now there arre people commenting that something like this can’t be fully realised for at least another 10 years. However, after watching the video below, I truly believe something like this is actually going to be possible within the next year or so. Reason being they’ve done so much technical stuff to surpass the current limits, not only that but they’ve also thought about the problems they’re facing from a new perspective.

For example the way OnLive basically works is that the game itself will run on they’re uber fast servers that can even run Cysis at max settings. Then, these computers will process whatever is supposed to be shown on screen, apply a video compression algorithm and what the user ultimately sees on his or her screen is essentially a video of what happened after each of their button presses.

Now such a thing would have been impossible in the pass due to current video compression techniques. Reason being they’re built to make each and every frame of the video look the way it should look. Meaning that if you pause a movie, the frame will show all the details perfectly, since a video is basically a bunch of images displayed one after another so when you pause a movie you’re basically staring at a single picture.

It would have been impossible to use such techniques to conduct live streaming of a video game, because the video would be too damn big. So what they’ve (somehow) done is to use a completely new video compression technique that makes the video look good while it’s in motion, reason being one would never actually “pause” a video game. Thus, while the game itself will look good when it’s playing, if you went and paused the video that’s being streamed to your computer screen, the resulting frame might or might not look good, as there’ll be packet losses along the way and stuff. However, this isn’t a problem at all since the video of the game will never actually be paused, thus solving the problem.

Pure genius honestly.

How do I know all this? From the presentation the CEO of OnLive gave to a group of students at the University of Colombia. It’s 48 minutes long, but it’s really informative about the service itself, and shows you how the many obvious problems they faced were ultimately solvable.

For those who don’t know what Avatar is, I highly suggest you go wiki it and read up on it. It’s definitely one for the books.

So why is it so awesome? First and foremost is probably the world of Pandora itself.

After watching the movie, it struck me that Avatar in 2009 is similar to what Star Wars was to 1977, except on a much smaller scale. Both universes were the brainchilds of 2 indviduals, James Cameron and George Lucas respectively of course. However, Avatar’s new universe is on a much smaller scale than Star Wars, because while Star Wars literally creates an entire universe, Avatar only depicts a single fictional planet. However, what this movie lacks in breadth, it more than makes up for in it’s depth.

In Star Wars, the universe isn’t very closely explored. Much of what the world is like is left to the audience’s imagination (hence the Extended Universe of books/comics/games/etc.). On the other hand, the world of Pandora is completely fleshed out, every single detail is explored and there are so many little touches that makes Pandora feel like a real place. It’s amazing how much painstaking work the graphics artists had to go through to create each and every frame of the movie, because there’s so much detail in each and every frame of the movie that I kept wishing I could pause the movie in between just to admire a particular scene. Everything from the colours of the jungle, to the creatures to the flora all around is just stunning to look at. Words really can’t describe the beauty of the world of Pandora and you really have to see it to understand the feeling that anyone who watches this movie will get.

Now the 3D technology is just amazing. It’s partly due to the way each frame is designed I guess, because everything just pops in 3D. There’re ambient particles in certain scenes that truly do seem to be floating around right in front of your face, and every time there’s a rear shot of one of the Na’vi, I felt like tugging at their tails. I never thought it’d be possible to create a movie that uses 3D technology that isn’t in the style of a Pixar film, but Cameron really managed to pull it off spectacularly.

Is this the greatest movie ever made? Not really. To me there are pacing issues and the story isn’t that great. The third act of the movie seemed to drag on for ages and I kept wanting the plot to just move along. Yet, even when it was getting slow, I was still in awe the entire time I was watching the screen. The story on the other hand is pretty ‘meh’.

Go see this movie while you have the chance to. Go watch it in the cinemas because that’s the only way to experience it properly, and watch it in 3D. You won’t regret it this one time.

Seriously? They didn’t even bother to hide the fact that it was a lazy port? How careless. Maybe that’s why MW2 PC was initially planned to be delayed so that they could go “CTRL + F “Xbox Live”, REPLACE WITH “Steam”. Seems like they forgot to do that unfortunately.

Well, at least they had enough time to take out dedicated server support, lower the player cap on a server, etc. Oh not to forget they had time to add mouse and keyboard support. Very vital.

What the hell Infinity Ward.

Obviously, this guy is no small-time magician. But I still wanted a few opinions on what the app was like or at least a hint as to how it worked (set-up time, difficulty, etc.) but I couldn’t find a single thing about it. Just official video demonstrations about the app which aren’t exactly the most reliable source. Besides, they didn’t even provide much useful information. Regardless, I eventually got it, hoping that it’d be good. Boy was I not disappointed.

For those of you who’re hear searching for the secret to Rising Card app, you’re in the wrong place. I’m not going to give out the secret. I hope no one does. This blog post is more for people who are thinking about getting this app but aren’t quite sure yet.

Anyway, on to the app. For those who don’t know the effect, I’ll briefly describe it here. Spectator thinks of any card (or chooses a card out of a deck, etc.) and tells you. You then take out your iPhone (or iPod Touch), unlock it, open the Rising Card app upon which you should see a hand holding a deck of cards face up. From here, you can either shake it yourself or hand it over to the spectator and tell him to shake your device. Either way, the named card will rise out of the deck.

It’s a really simple effect, but still pretty mind blowing. I’ve been pretty busy with school stuff recently, so I haven’t used this app with a particular routine or with any form of presentation yet (my bad, I know). But I’ve been getting pretty good reactions. Just to be clear, all I do is tell someone to name any card, I then take out my iPod Touch, open the app and hand it to them, tell them to shake it, and they’ll see their card rise out. Simple as that. I’ve gotten all kinds of reaction. A few of them smirked or sat there in (stunned) silence before asking how it was done. Most of them were completely shocked when they saw it rise out of the deck (I did not tell them what to expect beforehand), their jaws just dropped and they stared at me with huge eyes asking how the hell I did it. Then there are those who just freak out when they see the card. One of my friends almost tossed my iPod onto the table as if it were burning him. Not to mention he enquired as to how I did it with a significant number of expletives. All in all, I’ve gotten really good reactions for a trick that I never practiced beforehand and didn’t even bother to add ANY presentation whatsoever to the effect itself (please don’t do that )

Anyway there are certain limitations that anyone considering purchasing this application might want to know. First, you have to know the card (either they tell you, or force, or they pick a card and show you, etc. you get my point). One more thing is that really observant spectators might notice something amiss, but whether that happens really comes down to how well you’re able to present the trick. Other than that, I can’t really think of other limitations.

The trick itself is really easy learn and requires little practice to master the moves themselves. How you present it is obviously a different thing altogether. Even if people spot the secret move you’re making, they can take your iPhone and try it out for themselves and even if they copy your actions it won’t work for them (that happened to me once, it’s when I realised how awesome this app is). The sacred rule of magic that states “never do the same trick twice” can actually be bent slightly, at least from my experience. I’ve done this trick five to ten times on one of my friends and she never could figure out how I did it even when I did it in slow motion without any patter. Even for say groups of five people I can do this trick at least twice without them realising how I did it. In fact I’d think doing this trick at least two or more times makes it more effective because then spectators will stop thinking that you somehow set it up the first time. Yes, this trick is that strong.

The unfortunate thing about a magic app on the iPhone is that people automatically think you’re cheating the moment you pull out something that has a computer in it. Even if they don’t figure out the secret to the Rising Card app they’ll just chalk it up as you doing something fishy with a device. Unlike sleight of hand or even gimmicks where their brains just can’t think of any logical explanation for a trick. However, as far as iPhone magic apps go, this is most probably the best one out there right now.

“It was just very rude, period,” West added. “I’d like to apologize to her in person.”

So far so good.

Leno brought back the subject of West’s late mother and asked him what she would have thought about the incident. West gave a good 20 seconds of pause before saying “Obviously, I deal with hurt, and so many celebrities, they never take the time off, and I never took the time off, really. I’ve really never taken the time off. It’s been music after music and tour after tour. And I’m just ashamed my hurt caused someone else hurt.”

Wait whut???

“Obviously, I deal with hurt, and so many celebrities, they never take the time off, and I never took the time off, really. I’ve really never taken the time off. It’s been music after music and tour after tour. And I’m just ashamed my hurt caused someone else hurt.”

What in the world is he trying to say?

“I deal with hurt” – err, do you always get stabbed or something?

“and so many celebrities, they never take the time off” – what does that have got to do with this “hurt” you speak of?

“I never took the time off… tour after tour” – therefore… you need to interrupt her speech?

“I’m just ashamed my hurt caused someone else hurt” – WHAT IS THIS “HURT”? Is it a code word?

Video of the interview below:

Obama VS. Hitler – cutting healthcare expenditure VS Holocaust

First, they compare Obama to Hitler.

I am absolutely appalled by this. Do they have ANY IDEA what Hitler stands for? In case you haven’t heard of people like Anne Frank, Jews back then had to hide in secrecy, for if they were found by the Nazis, THEY WOULD BE KILLED. Many of the people who are against this bill claim that Obama’s cutting of Medicare expenditure by $500 billion over 10 years is the same as him employing Hitler’s “Final Solution” to purge all Jews.

Are they out of their minds?

First, part of this $500 billion that is going to be cut is going to come from reducing inefficiencies within Medicare itself, for example switching to electronic medical records which would facilitate easy sharing of patients’ information. Of course, doing stuff like that isn’t going to save $500 billion, and the funds for medicare will definitely be lesser than previously. BUT, does that mean having lesser funds for healthcare makes Obama another Hitler?

For those who don’t know, back during the 1930s and 1940s, Jews were all thrown into ghettos in Germany where they literally rotted to death. Later, Hitler’s Nazi party went around rounding up Jews as if they were sheep, after which they were separated into two groups of people: those who would go to labour camps, and those who would go to the gas chambers to be “exterminated”. For those who went to the labour camp, nobody cared when they would die. For those who were immediately sent to the gas chambers, they would all be packed into a room until there was absolutely no space in the room, after which the doors were closed and toxic gases were fed into the room. After awhile, the doors would be opened, and all of them would still be in their original standing positions, all packed together.

Only difference? They weren’t breathing anymore.

People are comparing THIS to Obama cutting $500 billion dollars from Medicare.

And let’s not forget the Holocaust isn’t Hitler’s only claim to fame, this following quote not from myself, and I’m not exactly sure whose story it is:

My mom was born in Germany in 1941. When she was 4, a group of SS officers showed up at the front door of a two-story flat where she lived. Two of them went downstairs, and two of them went upstairs where she and her parents were. She watched while an SS officer put a gun to her father’s head and threatened to shoot him on the spot if he didn’t drop everything he was doing, leave his wife, leave his family, leave his job, and “volunteer” to fight in the German army. (Near the end of the war, they were becoming desperate to keep the ranks filled, ultimately making children and old people fight..)

The two SS officers that went into the apartment below theirs did the same thing. In that case, the father in the apartment below theirs was shot in the head, probably for begging not to be taken away from his family.

And to think people dare to show up at protests with a picture of their President photoshopped to look like Adolf Hitler, a man whose atrocities can never be put down in words.

Coming Between Doctor and Patient

Second, there is to be medical review boards that will provide guidelines for doctors on what type of treatment would be appropriate for their patient. Now some people argue that this would prevent doctors from fulfilling the Hipprocratic Oath – putting their patient’s well-being before anything else, because they will have to choose between doing what’s best for their patient and being sued or getting in trouble with the law somehow.

Bulls**t.

First, the guidelines provided are only SUGGESTIONS as to how the doctor COULD go about treating his or her patient. It is NOT a mandate of any sort. There is nothing that is going to come in between the doctor and his or her patient.
Second, are people that naive to think that ALL doctors are doing the best for their patients?

Massive medical fraud exposed: pharmaceutical company paid doctors to prescribe drugs and run sham clinical trials

The fact of the matter is that due to the private nature of many pharmaceutical firms and thus their profit driven nature, coupled with certain irresponsible doctors, the patient’s needs are often neglected for profit’s sake. There NEEDS to be something that oversees healthcare in the USA in order to ensure proper healthcare for all its people.

End-of-life planning = “death panels”

Third the whole idea of there being “death panels” which is apparently a panel of “bureaucrats can decide who dies” according to Sarah Palin. In essence , it encourages senior citizens to kick the bucket earlier?

People who suggest this have got to be illiterate, or they are willing to take Sarah Palin’s words for it (which is probably even worse than being illiterate).

What the bill actually does is pay doctors for voluntary consulting sessions with older patients to discuss end-of-life issues which include stuff like living wills, learning about hospices as an option for the terminally ill, facilitating emotional expression, allow doctors to appreciate the psychological state and the suffering which their patient is going through, etc. Because let’s face it, we’re all eventually going to die, and this bill incentivises doctors to assist patients in making plans for this eventuality.

Where in the world does it promote stuff like mercy killing or euthanasia? In fact, it would block funds for counselling that presents assisted suicide as an option for patients.

Oh and let’s not forget to mention that back in 2003 or 2004, the Republicans were in favour of a similar proposal which would help senior citizens pay for end-of-life counselling. But now that the same thing is being proposed, it suddenly becomes “death panels”.

Sheesh…

Start Being Rational… PLEASE

In my opinion, people who are busy shouting and screaming at those town hall meetings really need to start educating themselves about what everything here really means. Also, they should probably learn to not have the patience of a 10 year old, because they’re screaming questions at Representatives and Senators without even giving them the chance to answer their questions before continuing to shout. There are times when the speaker will simply tell them that they are misinformed about a certain portion of the bill, explain to them what that part of the bill is really about, and they just continue shouting.

I do wonder how this whole fiasco is going to end…

Yet the game that really makes me want to buy a PS3 is a little downloadable game on the Playstation Network called Fat Princess.

So simple, yet so fun

Released just 2 weeks ago, the game has been receiving rave reviews all around, being praised for its unique cartoon-ish style, team-based gameplay, and most importantly simply being a game that’s really really fun to play. For those who don’t know,  Fat Princess gives you kind of a top-down/isometric view of the battlefield, with online multiplayer that supports up to 32 players. You can switch to any of the 5 classes on the fly by simply choosing what hat to wear at your base. The goal of the game is kind of like a traditional CTF match, except in this case the “flag” you’ve got to bring back is really (as the name implies) a fat princess. The catch is that by feeding your own princess more cake, she gets fatter and thus your opponents move slower when carrying her, making it harder for them to capture her.

Why DotA is so damn popular

I’ve had my eyes on this game since it was first revealed at E3 2008, it instantly caught my attention thanks to its simple gameplay, yet extremely charming style. The thing that really won me over? Team-based gameplay. As any gamer who has played CTF matches in any FPS game will tell you, impeccable teamwork is of utmost importance if you want to succeed. Furthermore, the simple top-down view really nails it for me, because there’s just nothing more satisfying than watching your teammates running along right beside you as you all work towards the same goal. Thinking about it, this is probably what makes DotA so popular here in Asia:

1. Simple objectives
2. Team-based play with an eagle’s eye view of the battlefield

It’s the same case with Fat Princess. It’s just so satisfying to successfully complete a mission with your friends.

Why oh why aren’t there more games like that…

It’s a real pity more developers don’t make games like that. The only other game I can think of which has similar components is another small, overlooked game called “Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia”. It was simply a co-op game for up to 4 people where each character had a gun or two and you ran around shooting monsters up (with a top-down perspective of course). It just seemed so much fun to me, but unfortunately the PC port of the game was so bad that it rendered the game unplayable for me, which was a real pity.

If only…

If only more developers would create games with simple objectives, team-based gameplay, and a top-down view of the battlefield.

Or if only I had enough cash to buy a PS3…

Of course, the thing that’s been taking up most of my time over the past week or so has been Avatar: The Last Airbender. I just finished plowing through all 3 seasons which amounts to about 60 episodes. In retrospect, it’s pretty amazing that I actually watched the ENTIRE series in the first place, considering how I almost never finish watching ANY TV series in the first place, let alone a cartoon show.

I started watching Avatar after the show was repeatedly recommended by the hosts of the Totally Rad Show, and I thought I’d give it a shot. I heard about the show in the past, but paid little attention to it since it was a cartoon. That was until Dan made a really bold statement: “It’s as good as Star Wars”. I could hardly ignore it after hearing that.

Now, here I am, 60 episodes later, thinking that it isn’t exactly as good as Star Wars. In fact, I desperately wished this show wasn’t a cartoon aimed at children, but a more adult series. Because in a show where the main premise is that there are four nations at war, all of which have special powers to control the elements of fire, water, earth and air which they use to fight each other, the show is a lot less satisfying when not a SINGLE person in the entire series actually explicitly dies. I mean for crying out loud, there’s a fight scene in almost every single episode, yet no one ever dies. It just feels really weird to me…

Of course, a movie based on the show is in the works, due for release next year. But seriously, when you have a show that draws most of it’s inspiration from ancient Chinese culture, why in the world did the director (M. Night Shyamalan) cast every single role to a white kid? Even the main character, who’s a bald, Chinese monk, is played by a white kid? Seriously?

Besides that, from what I’ve seen thus far, The Last Airbender isn’t exactly shaping up to be a blockbuster movie. All the pictures I’ve seen of the filming thus far look really bad. Everything just doesn’t look and feel the way it’s supposed to be. Of course, all the footage that’s been released thus far has merely been a teaser trailer, and things could change a lot in a year of production, but I’m pretty nervous as to how the movie is going to turn out.

That being said, the TV series is probably one of the greatest stories ever told. The characters are all really well thought out and developed, and I really felt attached to every single one of them. The twists in the story are pretty cool and unexpected, and you’re always wondering what’s going to happen next. By the time you reach the third season, it’s like reading the last 200 pages of a Harry Potter book, you just don’t want to stop.