Oh my...

After my Kuching trip, I had to go to Kuantan for some more work. That was a week ago. The client was a university, and after 5+ year, I had to step back into U (although this time without the lectures and exams...)

It's feels familiar even though it's a different university than the one I took my degree. There was a subtle difference when you're there for work though. I can't quite place a finger on it.

Here's some more news:
I bought Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the Wii, downloaded Sin & Punishment for the virtual console and pre-ordered Super Mario Galaxy. I think that should keep me busy well into next year... Hahaha.

To those I have talked to, you people know that I'll be on a 2 week holiday trip to Amsterdam. My brother's currently working there, and since I haven't visited Netherlands yet, so why not? The trip will be taking place on the 14th of December and I'll be back on the 31st. I might make road trips to the surrounding countries like Germany or Poland while I'm there. Not sure what exactly is the plan just yet.

As of right now, I am currently divided doing a couple of things (excluding work), mainly getting my Flames of War 15mm Soviet army assembled, painted and prepped for gaming, guitar hero 3, "facebooking" and some other stuff. It should be an interesting finish to the year.

Also, it's almost the end of the year... I wonder how much of my New Year's resolution did I accomplish?

Whoa.

Here's a quick rundown of what has happened recently (or going to happen soon):
1. Been painting my Flames of War 15mm Soviet Strelkovy army (Infantry). I'm halfway done.
2. Friday 19 October 2007: Dinner with ex-office colleagues and former team members of Smart Tunnel at Kelana Seafood Restaurant. Pretty good food.
3. Saturday 20 October 2007: Hectic day. Too many things happening on this day. At 3, was the soft launch of my friend's game shop (it was already open, but this officiates it). There was quite a crowd. Played the Formula DE board game twice. VRooooOooooM!!!! Damn sweet game. Hahaha.
4. Watched the Everton - Liverpool derby match. A few choice words: The referee was BIASED. Enough said. Everton ending up losing 2-1.
5. However everything was okay after that as I joined the rest of the Ex-MAAO guys in the 24 hour comic marathon. About 50 people have to draw, ink and add dialogue their own 24 page comics (one for each hour) from 20th October 12 pm to 21st October 12 pm. It was crazy. Just from the small amount of people I chatted with, I could see the passion and drive these guys have. Gender, race, age, style wasn't an issue. Everyone was suffering (I mean, who doesn't suffer when they have to make 24 pages in one go. Talk about creative drain :P), but they were all doing it together. Cheers to you all, mates! I stayed with them till almost 4 am (security locks up the place), trying to give support. Maybe next year I'll be able to join too. :D
6. Sunday 21st October 2007. Went cycling in the morning. 50km. Pretty good ride. Made it within 3.5 hours after a breakfast stop of about 30-45 minutes. The only bad thing out of it? I got bitten by a stray dog. No bleeding, but I took a tetanus shot just in case. It's gonna bruise for awhile.
7. Oh, and I am flying to Kuching tonight as well. Got some work stuff to do.

Till next time, cheers.

It's the 30th of September...

Wow. Time flies. Again.

News time:
1. I am going to be the lead engineer for a small project. It's a good start :)
2. I bought Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy book.
3. I just came back from offshore. 3 days work.
4. I tried programming a game with Python. I am still stuck.
5. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass will be out very very soon. Game of the year nominee along with Bioshock, and Halo 3.

Time to get some sleep.

On a binge

In March 2005 I posted about a book I've bought and read when I was about 10. It was called the Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. If you have a decent command of English, read it. It's a fantastic tale of puns and words with numbers thrown into the mix. Well, I lost my old copy a long time ago. I forgot to mention it here that I have bought the book again about 2 months ago at a bargain price of RM25.04. Yes, it's that cheap. Considering the fact that it is was first written in 1961, that's a pretty good price. The book will last you a good 3-4 hour read, faster if you're speed reading, but you won't get all the details. It is a highly recommended book that detracts from the monstrous epics that we are usually forced to read nowadays. It's a light-hearted traditional English fun. Recommended.

Yesterday, I was on a book buying spree. I got myself the last copy of Northern Lights in MPH MidValley after reading Aimo and Onion's fantastic appraisals of the title. I will probably start reading it tomorrow.

I also got myself Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Just finished it about 10 past 12 just now. I would love to say, that the story was MUCH MUCH better than Order of the Phoenix. Finally the pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place. Good pacing, good direction, and a very entertaining read. The series ended on a high note, so it wasn't too bad after the slump the was OotP and the blah-ness of the Half Blood Prince.

Now for a surprise, I bought another children's fantasy book titled Tunnels solely based on the cover and summary on the back. It was a paperback version, and was going for RM40, so, I said to myself, why not? I'll probably be reading it last. I read the first chapter, and it sounds interesting enough tho.

On a different note, I might end up buying a new computer. With proper parts and proper Windows XP SP2 license. I'll be needing it to install XNA and Microsoft C# and .Net framework. It's about time I started living my dreams :) Of course, it'll be a side project thing :D For now :P

3 weeks...

After 3 weeks of having no internet and very limited connection to the real world, I am finally back on solid ground. When the Boeing 737-400 arrived at Labuan Airport, there was a huge thunderstorm, and the plane had to return to flight after almost touching down. We stayed in the air for about 30 minutes before successfully landing.

Lots and lots of work was covered during the time I was on the platform, and I even managed to watch both seasons of Prison Break (Season 1 was great, but Season 2's direction was pretty crap), the first season of My Name is Earl (Funny!), the first season of Kyle XY (figured out who Kyle was halfway thru the series), American Pie: The Naked Mile (passable movie... lots of fanservice). Stayed in a 6 room bunk with a bunch of cool guys.

My phone had pretty bad reception on the barge, so I could only send text messages (and occasionally receive them). Voice communication was pretty difficult as the line breaks up to easily. Maybe it's time to get a new phone...

Ended up playing the DS and finishing Normal Mode and 3 quarters of Hard Mode. I love this game! Managed to get to Dungeon level 12 of Etrian Odyssey, and unlocked a bunch of stuff on Taiko Drum :D

Anyway, I have to return to the office tomorrow (or later today) to submit my time sheet and claims, so I guess I got to go sleep soon. Or something. Heh.

5 Months... Wow!

Hello everyone who still visits here.

Still alive I suppose. I am leaving for Labuan and the South China Sea tomorrow. After being in Pasir Gudang the last 2 weeks, work is taking me to Sabah. Lots of travelling. The money is good though, so I can't really complain. It's just quite tiring and hectic.

Anyway, right now I am playing:
(DS) Etrian Oddysey - A game for OCDs. Good fun.
(DS) Taiko No Tatsujin DS - Rhythm game based on the arcade drum game. Good fun!
(DS) Ouendan 2 - This game never gets old.
(DS) Ouendan 1 - Neither does this.
(DS) Picross DS - Close to finishing normal mode! :D After that, it's hard mode...
(DS) Yoshi Island DS - It's actually a sweet game...
(DS) NES emulation - I'm playing classics! Got the idea when Contra 4 was announced.

As you can see, my gaming time's taken up by the DS. Hahaha. Also, I've been playing a new TCG that's been out for a couple of months based on the Stargate Universe. It's a pretty good game with some funky card dynamics. If you ever get the chance, do try it out. I think there's a free online version of it (you can only select 1 starter) and you can opt to play it online instead. Me? I personally prefer physical cards. try a link from http://www.stargatetcg.com

Gaming news? PS3 price drop in the US? Microsoft to spend USD1.5B on XBox360 failures? Wii selling like hotcakes? E3? check out http://www.kotaku.com

Oh, and in other news, the last book of Harry Potter is out. I haven't read it yet myself. Read from Aimo and Onion-sama's livejournal about Northern Lights, so I might grab that next as my next reading. I wonder if the Wheel of Time has ended. I haven't read any recently.

Oh, and if you ever get the chance, get Regina Spektor's albums. Her songs are excellent! Highly recommended!

I'll try to post more, but I doubt I will be able to for the next 2-4 weeks. As I've said, I've got to go to Labuan and the stay on a barge to commission an oil rig control system. Much fun, but the working hour's 12 hours. Won't be able to bring my handphone along, and I doubt there's an internet connection there. I wonder what will happen when I come back...

Job Level Up!

The new job is pretty good so far. The environment is more controlled and a bit more relaxed. I can actually arrive at the office on time now. My body clock is adjusting nicely.

On December 26th, I lent my Wii to one of my old office friends. He's planning to pass it to me before the 8th this month. I have been depraved of my Wii during the last month or so, which means I can go on a Wii Binge later. Hahaha.

On the other hand, I owe a fair bit amount of money (bills and credit card), so I'll have to lay off the monetary spending until later this year. I've still gotta keep the cashflow running for the condo.

Oh, and Heroes is now running up to episode 14. Sweeeeet.

Back from Singapore

First thing first, I discovered that staying at a backpackers' dorm is more fun compared to staying inn your own personal room. We stayed at The Inn Crowd off Dunlop St. and the atmostphere was pretty brilliant. I met a guy from Bath who supports Liverpool (Sorry, I couldn't remember your name) and chatted up with two girls from Luton. All three of them were on their long vacation (dammit, why doesn't Malaysia allow such things?) and will be returning to England in 1-2 months time. So, to the Liverpoolian guy from Bath and to Lindsey and Carrie (I'm not even sure if the spelling is right...), this is Ahmad saying hi! :D

Well, regarding the tourney, I went 2-3 out of six games. And yes, I know that doesn't add up. I lost the first 4 of my games. But, on my third one, I pulled magic out of my ass and somehow I managed to bring my opponent down with me. And I did it with trash talking. And lots of luck. Most people wouldn't believe what happened, but it did. Judge Ben managed to get to the top 16 but due to a careless mistake (which he will probably never forget in his whole lifetime) he committed, he was eliminated in that round. Loco went 3-3, but lost to The Home Team thanks only two cards that his opponent played during their whole match. Ouch!

Food down in Singapore was alright. Not great, but it's enough to keep us going. I still prefer the food in Malaysia though. There's no live TV at any of the food places (when compared to Malaysia) due to copyright issues.

I still have 50 Singaporean dollars left over, but part of that is going to be used to pay for the rooms that Judge Ben booked and paid for. All in all, I have only spent RM350-- down there for a 3 day, 2 nights stay. It could even be cheaper if I stayed at the dorm for both the nights.

Oh, and today for some odd reason, my Supercard SD decided to crap out and not able to read my SD card. I can probably get it fixed somewhere, but until then, I decided to grab myself a Revolution 4 that seriously looks sweet with the DS lite.

Oh, and Singaporeans love their PSP. Note that there was an idiot at the tournament who kept playing HHH's theme song over and over and over again on his PSP. Nothing against the PSP, but he should at least think about others. :/

Quick post

Posting from Singapore. It'll be a long day ahead as it is the tournament day. Hahaha. I hope to get at least 3 wins (which I did 3 years ago). I think I understand the deck better now. Okay. Off I go to try to bash some heads in.

Ciaoz.

I can't remember

I wanted to write something here...

But I can't remember what it was. Therefore I shall blog about something else.
Oh, btw, if you have time to kill, visit Gpokr.com. It's a free no real life money Texas hold 'em poker gaming site where you can pit your skills and luck against other players online. I'm ranked 430+- after 1 hour of playing. Time to catch up to my bro! (he's ranked 50-ish)