Wednesday 22 August 2007

don't worry, be happy!

first of all, apologies for not being able to visit any of efx2 pages or even reply the comments that you beautiful people left in my blog. either my proxy or efx2 server doesn't like me very much. i can't even get into any single page without waiting for gazillion of hours and patience is one thing that i'm severely lacking when it comes the internet and or any other IT equipments in general. if fact, it would be a miracle if i could submit this entry.

i must've woken up on the wrong side of the bed (even though it was the same one as yesterday or many days before) because a lot of things that could go wrong went wrong. initially, when i went down to clear up the last few remaining dishes, there was a very scared feline that was running around the house looking for an exit. opened up all doors and windows but the horrified cat just could not think straight and kept bumping into furnitures and brick walls instead. after several minutes of running around, i finally managed to corner the cat and picked it up. the worst thing that you could to a terrified cat. it was gnawing my fingers like it was enjoying its best catch of the day and unfortunately the f word slipped out of my mouth and i seriously hoped that alyssa who was running around with me did not register that into her fairly impressive long term memory.

when that was all settled, i went back to the business as usual routine. i was thinking of sending the car for a regular maintenance service which will also provide me the opportunity to fix the non-functional spare key. i remembered that i stashed the key somewhere around the house so that i could easily find it should the need arises but ironically, i just couldn't remember where that place is. spent a few precious minutes looking for the spare key before finally giving up and postponing the plan for the car service until tomorrow so that i can look for the key tonight.

as i was sitting down to wear my shoes, a loud ripping sound suddenly came from the worst place possible. checked it out and found a good and airy centimetres of split pants. and like most of the people i know, we don't exactly get ready to the office with hours to spare and i simply didn't have the luxury of time to let wifey sewed it up or went upstairs and ironed another one. moreover, it happened in the most obscured place possible so unless i'll be walking around upside down eagle spread the whole day, nobody would notice anyway. so, i'm feeling a little airy today and please don't ask me why i would be sitting with the most civilised poise for the whole duration of the day.

if you're thinking that i would be grumpy with such a bad start of the day, i can tell you that you are very wrong! despite all that, i'm still happy. happy, happy, happy!

Monday 20 August 2007

persons behind the avatars

warning, this could be long! proceed with care

before i stand to lose the last few remaining minuscule readers of this semi-stasis blog, i am going to submit a "properly" written entry. but what do i write about when all my life nowadays revolves on lastchaos? about the game, naturally.

and before you hit that 'x' mark thinking that this is about another video/ computer game review, don't! because this is not about a game review. it is the human side of the game and somehow, the wonders of human nature never fails to amaze me, more so when they are safely obscured behind the avatars of the game.

for the uninitiated, mmorpg games stands for multi-media multi-player online role playing game. while you could still play the lone ranger and be oblivious to your surroundings while playing the game, interactions between players are encouraged in the forms of added bonuses, complementary skills and powers between characters to coerce the players to play together. so, what do you get when you team up humans with superpowers to be playing together with practically nothing to lose (especially since it's a free-for-all kind of game?

the first interesting type are the ones whom have serious inferiority complex issues. i am talking about those higher level players that are virtually invincible to the much lower level players and just go around killing lower level players senselessly without any much logical reasons and nothing to gain except bad reputation. that's why the only reason i could think of is serious inferiority complex issues. when one person whom doesn't have anything to be proud of in real life are given powers beyond their imagination in the virtual world, what do they do with it? establish their superiority towards the lesser beings would be a logical step. imagine what would happen if those kind of people are given real responsibilities in real life?

as the cliche goes, there are these group of high-level, good samaritans as well to provide the check and balance. these defender of faiths are the ones that hunt for those inferiority-complexed scums and provide a carefree environment for those lower level players devoid of those void-in-the-donkey's-behind players, also with no apparent tangible gains except for goodwill. doesn't it say a lot about the player behind the avatars?

while theoretically avatars are supposed to provide a gender-free, race-free, age-free and discrimination-free environment, as you all know they don't. the game servers are located independently both in the you-es-ay and bolehland but i have found one s1ngaporean guy whom had relocated from the you-es-ay server to the one in bolehland just to feel closer to home. interactions play a vital role in the game and and when you have to communicate with other people, as always, language barrier notwithstanding, people tend to feel easier and be more open with their own kindred. even though he reaffirmed that the social network in the you-es-ay servers are a lot more helpful than the ones he found in bolehland where people there sometimes go to great lengths to helping him out instead of generally a more kiasu (selfish) crowd at home whom would just ignore him many times he was asking around. reminds me of that hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri malay proverb (sorry can't think of the equivalent one in english).

when you are dealing a lot with teenagers, those raging hormones definitely provide an interesting mix into play. despite being busy slaying monsters everywhere, believe it or not, you have some of these teenagers suggesting directly or indirectly of different kind of activities that would involve a different kind of excitement. usually, i would just dismiss all these as background chatter but there was this one time that it had became so unbearable that i had to make it stop. not that i'm completely sterilised and became oblivious to that kind of excitement but i was more interested in avoiding her to quit the game altogether and depriving me of the crucial support line that i have been enjoying in her company. oh no! now i beginning to sound like an old man.

i have a lot more pointers to say but i think this should be long enough. hopefully it's enough to keep my readers coming to this blog, or NOT!

Friday 17 August 2007

jazz i am

just one of those silly quizzes that i got from a hard-core transformer fan, my normal supplier of a much more "inspiring" stuff whom is floored by a dental surgery, resulting in a much more subdued e-mail garbage.

I AM

61%

JAZZ
Take the Transformers Quiz

Tuesday 14 August 2007

another gift!

please excuse my lack of updates. too busy levelling up four characters and chatting with teenagers in the game :D.

anyway, i should have submitted this post last week but ... (no excuse forthcoming). the rezeki that came upon this blogging world seems to be very murah for me. who can claim to have received something from two people that they have never met within one year? i can.

last week, i received another gift from makteh for leaving a comment at the right time as described by her here. so, i would like to say:

Thank you mak teh

the acar buah is nice. sorry no photo. gambar hiasan is the one nicked from makteh's blog. it came by post to my office last week in a bubble-wrapped parcel. my kids and i had fun popping up the bubbles also, hehehe. that's a bonus.

Monday 6 August 2007

fierymaiden!

"o fierymaiden! whence art thou'?" uttered the weary knight ShiningArmour "for i fear we are kindred spirits"

i was tagged by yeop the cyborg with his fire tag. the tag says:


  1. Just write ONE sentence with words or even only one word related to "fire" and post it (can be in any language).


  2. Then tag as many people you think reads your blog.



tagging time. of course you know whom you are, the ones reading my blog. since this is a one line tag only, i am therefore tagging everybody who's reading this, hehehe.

--------------------------

you are forgiven for not understanding the sentence at all, for only the fierymaiden a.k.a primarybasic (who seems to have only a header in her blog, not sure why) would understand what i am talking about. unless you are also one of those whom has been sucked into the lastchaos mmorpg game introduced by pb. people, meet my latest cyber world alter ego, a knight that goes by the name of ShiningArmour. but in all those endless hours i spent playing, i have only bumped into her once!

did i tell you why i don't want to play any games nowadays? ok, i am going to tell you again anyway. because if i were to play games, i would be that obsessive, compulsive and megalomaniac game player. i would stop at nothing. hence, no quality time with family, no putting daughter to bed, no household chores, no 8-hour sleep everyday and until recently, no new blog posts! i am hoping i'll be coming to my senses soon enough (and hopefully this post will be the starting point).

here is another snapshot of my knight in action slaying a great horned beast.



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i would also like to use this opportunity to declare officially that i now have an additional nagger in the house. while i have been living with one (and getting use to the nags) for the past 7 years, another one has apparently blossomed to pick up the necessary skill in no time.

apart from the usual nightly nags before she goes to bed with:

ayah, bila nak tidur ni? hari-hari nak main game. hari-hari nak main game. kakak nak tidur dengan ayah. nanti esok ayah and mama lambat pergi kerja. ayah tidur lambat nanti esok mengantuk (dad! when are you going to bed? do you have to play games everyday? why don't you put me to bed anymore? if you sleep late everyday, you'll be tired tomorrow and wake up late and we'll end up being late getting to school and work);

she surprised me with another one today.

but let me give you a little background story. when you have been waiting in a car for an hour, with two very boisterous children, one perfectly healthy and one is coughing non-stop with shortness of breath, and upchucking the whole bottle of milk and her lunch onto her clothes and all over the seat, after issuing a crystal-clear instruction to come home slightly earlier so that we could bring the ailing one to the clinic, patience would naturally run on the lighter side.

so, when the awaited one finally arrived (with a good excuse, mind you), i was delivering my usual sermon when she suddenly interrupted with her very loud voice even though she would usually pretend to not listening and watch the movie or being more boisterous than ever.

ayah! hari-hari ayah nak marah je mama tu. cubalah ayah sayang sikit mama tu. ni hari-hari asyik nak marah je (daddy! why do you have to argue everyday with mama? why don't you show a little bit of compassion to her?)

well, kids are always exaggerating, of course. it's not everyday and i was not even raising my voice! if they say that your children are your mirror image, it's definitely wifey's and not mine :p.

needless to say, my sermon screeched to a halt and we ended up with sheepish laughs en route home.