Monday, March 26, 2007

Time flies by

I wonder how I should start this entry… It’s been 1 week since I last left something in this blog; it must have grown mushrooms all over.

During this extra 1 month holiday, I hunted for those old Final Fantasy games that I never played before when it was released years ago - starting from the 8th then to the 7th and finally the 9th.

I played FF8 twice – I blogged an entry about it after I finished it for the first time, skipping many side quests. Then I decided to play it again by completing all the side quests, spending a total of 100+ hours in the game; 40+ on the first attempt and 60+ on the second attempt. I must say that I’m only impressed with the FMVs, especially the ending as it makes the game worth playing and the final boss worth fighting for.

Next I played FF7 and consumed a total of 50+ hours and was totally disappointed with it – both the game play and the FMVs. The final boss – Sephiroth was just too easy to be defeated. It is like what many people used to say – taking candy from a baby. The only reason I played this game was because I watched the anime first before playing the game and couldn’t understand why and how Aeris died.

During the final week, only then the downloading of FF9 is completed. I planned to play it after I finish my coming semester. But then, curiosity overpowered me and I tried it immediately after the download was completed. At first, I was worried that if I am unable to finish the game before my semester starts, I’d definitely screw my results again like how I did it during my 1st semester.

Not wanting the same thing to happen again, I hardcore the game (minimum of 10 hours and maximum of 20 hours per day) and gave away 5 days time for it. The ending FMV is also very generous like FF8, giving a feeling of satisfaction to any players who had completed the game. The only difference is that there are no more crazy limit breaks (ultimate skills) like Squall’s Lionheart technique, combo with meltdown will cause insane injury to almost anything; dealing a caped damage of 9999 continuously for like 16 or 17 slashes.

Besides that, I watched a Japanese series – Hana Yori Dango II. It is something like a romance + comedy series, with twists and turns here and there. A total of 11 episodes, overall a movie worth watching. Warning: This movie can cause tears to fall uncontrollably in certain episodes.

*******
I had been playing a ‘game’ with my dad this month. It goes something like this – he will not sleep until I sleep. Sometimes until 3am in the morning. The only reason he did that was because I was starring at the monitor for hours without rest. Knowing that he had to wake up early to send my bro to school before 7 in the morning, I had no other choice but to go to bed, emptying my thoughts and think of something peaceful only then will I be able to sleep, only to wake up after 4 hours later.

My friends had been calling me Ah Pek aka old man recently. Many thought I would mind or fret about it but actually I don’t, in fact, it is something unique to me. I’m quite positive that in Swinburne, there are only 3 people with the Pek surname – me, and my two cousins. Maybe they were right since I only slept for a few hours everyday. I’m positive that I’ll be including a pair of spectacles into my list-to-get real soon. I won’t be getting the old man spectacles though.

There are times when I questioned myself why did I join the choir club last year, what were the reasons or what had I wanted to achieve by joining that club. During the first few meetings, I felt uneasy when we were sitting in a circle facing each other and wanted to quit the club. To me, such clubs are not my cup of tea. But I was proven wrong.

I had so much fun every time I attended the meetings. There are times when a training session consists of 80% laughter and 20% singing (for me I mean, unsure about the others). I can still picture Ee Sing being the conductor, it is not that I laugh because he couldn’t conduct or anything but I laughed and laughed because he is a person whom I can call an entertainer, just spending a few moments getting to know him and you can have the best medicine on earth – laughter, for free.

Besides that, I get to know many new faces and become friends to me. I admire the courage in Johnson; he is just so… so… funny. During orientation day when all of the clubs were given a chance to introduce themselves and inviting new students to become members of the club, Johnson was the one who did all the talking.

It goes like: Swinburne Choir Club, Swinburne Choir Club! If you can talk, you can sing! When there are students approaching us, he would say to the guys: Ok, you will be tenor and you will be bass; as for the ladies: Ok, you will be soprano and you will be alto (only when students come in pairs or groups).

As far as I know, there were only a few clubs performing during the orientation day. Choir club sang The Phantom of The Opera, we performed well. Well, at least the mistakes we make weren’t obvious :P.

Soo Bakh Do club performed self-defense for ladies; I was wondering, what if the kidnapper, robber, rapist, or w/e you could think of is also talented in martial arts?

Then the Dancesport club dances some weird dance waving their hands and legs like a lunatic with some annoying music that I never seen before and will never ever be interested in. No offence to that-kind-of-dance lovers.

Last time, smiling is harder than anything I could think of. I know I know, a lecturer of mine said I should smile more. But I never really tried to do so. Until now, I dislike taking pictures or posing in front of the camera. Unlike many people, I don’t like the pictures posted in friendster, especially when those pictures are categorized under posing.

A few examples are acting cute with tongue sticking out or pointing at their cheek or w/e stuff they add into their pics then they would leave a tag like “I am ugly right?” or “I am fat”. Sometimes I feel like saying this right into their face – IF you are UGLY or FAT, why the $@#@% you post your picture for the public to view? Are you trying to tell the public to say: Oh no no, you look [Insert honey-coated words here]. Again, no offence if you are a poser.

Back to the topic, I had been forcing myself to smile even though it feels like tearing my mouth apart just to form a tiny smile. Ever since I joined the choir club, seeing the rest smiling easily fills me with envy. How I wish I could do so too.

Until now I couldn’t give myself a proper reason why I wanted to join the choir club. Maybe I wanted to join the club to sing my heart out. Maybe I want to meet more new faces. I am glad that I didn’t quit the club or I will be regretting for the rest of my life, as I can say that the choir club is a place I can call home where all the warm faces of everyone makes me feel at ease.

Chen mentioned in his blog that there are more than 50 students joining the club. I managed to invite my cousin to join the club since someone requested saying something like: if she joins the club, I will be present every meeting. I’m not sure if they are talking about my cousin or someone else but heck, I went to her and engage a conversation with her. The funny part is when I converse with her using hokkien while she uses mandarin to reply back to me. Ok, the happiest guy in our club is one of the best support hero in DotA, HolyKnight! She is joining the club, I am sure you will be extremely pleased even though you are not showing it out. ^ ^

Chen, Jeff and Kelvin asked me to try playing RO. Ok ok, I know, I’m from the jungle, I never played RO before though it was extremely popular in the past years. All I was told to do is to create a character, go out of town and fight porings to level up, change job and go leveling again.

The problem is… I can’t find any porings. Actually, I couldn’t find the town’s exit. Moving around without any direction makes me feel very lame so I left the game 30 minutes later. I am a certified newbie in RO, no?

Today is the day that marks the beginning of my new semester and the end of my holidays. Ouch!

Edit: Names removed as requested :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's the Mortal Kombat theme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMf40daefsI