Born in the wrong era? No. There is no wrong era.

10 games whose storyline i've always wanted to find out more about but never came around to

1. devil may cry.
2. xenosaga.
3. tenchu.
4. jak and daxter.
5. megaman zero.
6. klonoa.
7. castlevania.
8. king of fighters.
9. halo.
10. onimusha.

first impressions.
looked like a bettered ICO at first...graphics, character design, architecture...all similar(expected: same creators...)
thought it was just gonna be another ICO...maye a bit better...
dead wrong.

ign calls it the "Adventure Game Of The Year."
1up calls it "Pure Genius."
game informer says it "Breaks Storytelling Barriers That None Of Us Knew Existed..."


They're right.
the game is amazing....
i foresee an addiction coming up and many sleepless nights accompanying it....
wanna find out more about the story too...

resolved, i will, with the wisdom available to me, try, to my utmost, whatever is within my limit of capability to stop a fight if i ever see one.

bought shadow of the colossus at $35. looks good. can't wait to try it out.

shall write a manifesto on video game ethics and value when i have more energy.

it's hard to get the signature of a very busy man.

my arms are hurting.
this is what u get when u do many push-ups after months of not doing any.
the reason for my push-ups?
i'm a bad gambler.
played tai-di yesterday at lcc's house. do push-ups for the number of cards that you have remaining when someone games. when still got a lot of cards, multiply it by the number that you threw.
this wasn't that bad. had to do like 30 plus?
sat was worse.
as a motivation to enter baskets, we promised push-ups for those that went in.
yu han entered one...and i said that i'd do 30 before that....
dong entered another...and i said i'd do 50 before THAT. wah...peng.
do until arms super nua.

anyway, yesterday's dinner was cool. turtle's a good cook! his crabs are just getting better and better and better.
mel wanted to eat crabs too but his folks thought it better that he only try out seafood when he's older. lest he kena allergic reaction.
stanley brought wine too. red and white. kc didn't want any...until he discovered that it didn't contain any alchohol. haha. stanley's allergic to alchohol. so he bought sparkling grape juice instead(which i honestly think tastes better).
me and dong went shopping before that. found a cool gift for lcc. managed to find a RoMP set! always wanted one for myself(think i'll try to make one someday). saw it on thinkgeek a long time ago(it's still there); pleasant surprise to find it being sold here. kinda like when my bro got me my airzooka. i think lcc likes it.
kinda sleepy now. been sleeping early the past few nights. fall asleep on the floor, wake up the next day to discover that i went to sleep without bathing. but that's not a problem.
my right wrist is injured again it seems...though i'm not sure why. maybe i'll sleep with my wrist-support tonight.
wonderful night. cooling rain. :)

10 series that i would like to have read, but didn't continue/start/maintain

1. prince of tennis
2. bleach
3. eyeshield 21
4. full metal alchemist
5. samurai deeper kyo
6. hikaru no go
7. busorenkin
8. rave
9. initial d
10.tsubasa chronicles

disclaimer 1: this is in no way related to Mr Lewis' "Mere Christianity" and i dare not claim equality with his writing standard. i just thought that this was a cool name...and i could only wish that someone would write on man as man basically is, based on sound doctrines, as described in the Bible.

disclaimer 2: these are merely my personal views,a nd are not explicit teacings fromt he Bible.

water mill is an anagram for walter lim.
walter lim is a p5 boy from acs primary that i met during the camp.
he's famous among the group leaders for having a very cute face and a pair of very cool oakley specs.
i call him speed king of the bath cos he bathes very quickly. it's like he's here one moment with his towel and toiletries, gone for a while, and then back again with his hair wet and his clothes changed. and his specs give him the extra speed master look. cool kid.
he wasn't in my group but i had a couple of encounters with him over the course of the camp. chatted and lamed around with him usually.
walter lim is also the only student that completed my station in the fear factor activity.

i was a station master in the fear factor activity along with ms lee.
my station was named "iron heart, lungs of steel", while his was "touch fear".
at my station, students had to blow a balloon until it burst. as for the "touch fear" station, students would be blindfolded and were then required to put both hands into a box and leave them there for a minute without squirming. waht they didn't know was that in the box there were baby frogs hopping about in a small pool of water.

if i'm not wrong, these were the 2 stations that most students didn't dare complete. and it left me wondering why.

it was explained during the camp that it was due to sin that we begin to fear because creation is no longer "good" as it originally was.

i thought of it from another angle.
the 2 stations that we took charge of, "touch fear" and "iron heart, lungs of steel", are 2 very common fears and their root fear is in a sense the very same thing.

"touch fear" essentially reveals our fear of the unknown. because we don't know WHAT we will touch, we dare not put our hands in. and what made it worse was that ms lee didn't reveal what was inside and acted like it was no big deal(reverse psychology at work); even when people guessed that frogs were inside, he said nothing and insisted that they be blndfolded. so they guessed correctly but still didn't dare.

as for "iron heart, lungs of steel", it reveals our fear of not being in control. in blowing a balloon until it bursts, there is a build up in the tension felt, until the climax when it burts, then there is immediate relief. the problem lies in the fact that we don't know, and cannot control, when the balloon bursts. some people(girls generally) fear the loud sound, and some, the imagined pain that would be felt, but i think that the main thing is that they are not in contol, and they hate that feeling. kinda like when we are about to receive an injection, we don't know what to expect the pain; the nurse decides.

these 2 fears basically show our resentment of losing our "godhood". as fallen creatures, we desire to live independent of God, as a result, we make ourselves god of our own lives. we hate to give up our control. we hate to not know and trust. all fears, i believe, stem from this.

why do we so fear public speaking?or confessing our feelings to the person we like?
because we cannot control how people will think of us. and because of the many risks of humilation...which is humbling...which also goes against our perceived godhood. we want glory, and in humiliation, we lose that 'glory', we are lowered from our pedestal.
i believe that fear did not exist before the fall because we could completely trust in God. we had 100% assuarance that God was in control of everything and that all we needed to do was to obey.
just that we blew it.

but

one day. someday. all fears will cease.
now. we wait.

camp was pretty different this time for me.
wasn't a group leader, but instead assigned to watch the sec 3 and sec 2 group leaders. kinda like a shadow.
generally followed sam and kit around, occasionally glanced at the others, and helping to take sam's group every now and then.
i must admit that sometimes, it was frustrating, but other times uplifting.
the details....too disorganized to pen down, but i guess i must remember that God will help us to grow as he pleases and will use us as he wishes...
generally quite high throughout the camp, no doubt due to the kids that surrounded me day and night. plenty of rubbishy nonsense, bhbing, and crazy antics. apart from those few moments that required me to be serious, i was be pretty much siao the rest of the time.
bobbed my head incessantly while i went around singing techno songs at night. haha, need to get those songs man...later ask chris or jonh to send. waha.
apart from thsoe belonging to sam's group, i also managed to interact with kids from other groups as well due to the fact that i didn't really have a group of my own to look after(left that to sam..).
met some cool kids.
on the whole it was a helpful experience. learnt new things, tried new things, reminded of my inadequacies.
enjoyed talking to the kids. just that losing my sanity is not really in accordance with my nature and can be rather tiring. but they love it when u go mad, so for their sake...bo pian.
but not that bad la, wouldn't mind doing this again.

back.
tired.
it's usually the case after camps of any sort.
need sleep.

super tired.
dong put dota on my comp. terrible fella.
quite fun...but not really my type of game. haiizz..but for the sake of relating with students better, i'm prepared to make some sacrifices...
went for lunch with mr ong, dong and chinks today. ate at a thai restaurant near church. food was good and got to hear more army stuff from mr ong...so cool. can't wait to go in! i wanna get one of those recon-type jobs where i have climb trees and use binoculars to search for enemys and report on their movements. that'll be awesome..
after lunch me and dong went down to meet ms lee and manu at harbour front to check out the dulous(which means servant in greek i think...).
the ship was smaller than we all expected and the place was packed. it was like mr ong said..nothing much actually. but ok lah, interesting to see the ship and some of the books...but go shalom and bras basah better i think.
next on the programme...vivo city.
such a foreign place to me...haha, i felt so much like a tourist.
but we were running late liao so had to rush a bit, no time for window shopping.
we still went shopping, but we did it guy-style. get in, get the stuff, get out.
it was decided beforehand that, in accordance with the annual tradition of getting me 'proper clothes on my birthday, this year, i'd be getting jeans.
so we chionged to gio, found a pair, got me to try it on, found that it fitted well, then bought it. no fuss. no problems.
thanks a bunch.
later tonight got to go down to the camp site of the p6 camp.
so after we bought the pair, had to head home liao. so here i am.
tired. bags not packed.
need to start now.

supported the mangrove ecology by feeding 40++ mosquitos today.
soccer ball has a hole.
failed to successfully lead the roof. dangerous climb.
playin with photoshop.
time to sleep.

been too tired the past few days to enter anything.
thoroughly bushed,
but it's been happy days! love the hols.
gonna cram 3 days of stuff in one entry. the next few days i think no chance to type again. either no chance, no time or energy. whatever it is, cannot is cannot lah.

been listening to the goong songs over and over again while faxing letters in the admin office(adeline's been listening to the cd recently). ok lah the songs.
the tunes remain in my head until the lyrics of the les miserables songs take over.
then those songs start invading my mind, and i'm not complaining about that.
while faxing i also came to learn that miss tay plays weboggle(she taught julia to play too) and gets 1st place sometimes...which is just...scary....

was pretty high on friday. crazy things were going through my mind...and i was generally quite happy. it may have been due to jon boon. i'm not sure. we played cs. fun. he's one of those people who will induce me to high-ness(although i know this sounds abit weird..and wrong, but anyway...), along with elsie and some others. i'm not certain of the exact reason, but i know when i'm high, and i know that there are things that will make me high, either people or situations.

but my point is that i don't really like that feeling. makes me feel like i'm someone i'm not. too hyper and smilely for my liking. which was generally what happened on sat. the p6's came over for the follow-up event and i kinda switched into that mode( i generally do when i'm around preteens). sometiems mild, sometimes crazy. sat was quite mild. but still, not my cup of tea. drains too much energy. need to sober up when i lose it..but taht's far from easy...

nonetheless, sat was a happy day too.
learnt that i can't play the guitar for nuts..but that's ok.
bumped into duck, phua(2 other guys who induce me to high-ness too), lun pin and some sec 4 ngee ann guy at the parkway mac after the leader's meeting; they were studying. the ngee ann guy acted like he knew me and i played along. called him jonh tan. his name was shawn...something..haha, lamer sia.

thanks for the spoilers. i really appreciate it. chatted with them abit until the food came. their a's ending soon. see if can play soccer with them..they say fri want play, but i think can't make it ba..see how lah.
linda's on a high-carbo, high-oil, high-sodium, low-fibre, low-protein diet it seems. i think mr spherical's been on it too...for the past 2 years...or more...oh well.

sun was yet another happy day!
chinks could make it for service! he no more english tuition(paper over liao mah). hsing joo could make it too, and that after dunno how long of pestering her mom. well done.
the message was...in need of much...much many things..but alas, it was exactly in such a situation that we got to apply what the passage was talking about.

played ping pong with daniel and yu han after tfc. haha. still can make it leh.
next time bring my bat and challenge them. my faithful blade shall serve me once again...
played abit with mr ong and dong too after that..then we went for lunch. chicken rice at katong shopping centre.

after that received a crash course on dota from dong while mr ong went to meet the north guys. played for an hour. which was all taht was needed. i'm hopeless at the game. can't play it for nuts too.

at night my aunts came over(as usual), and i enjoyed myslef listening to their conversations(as usual). so fun to chat with them. rae got a white ds and we were all competeing to get the highest score in big brain academy. wahahaha. i won. cool game. then spent the rest of the night talking to shane(first) and john(next. until i could stay awake no longer).
siong...shane was his usual self: hard to persuade, and not without logic in his arguments. as usual, a bit shaken after my conversation with him. still inadquate.
john was just bored so chatted with him about wahtever stuff came to mind. managed to share a bit too
:)
...but brain couldn't take it liao...shutting down by then.

and so 3 days went by quickly and happily.
tomorrow's gonna be another siong day.
and tomorrow's also the deadline for THAT. actually not the deadline lah, but as good as the deadline cos no chance after that until the deadline...
will write about the outcome tomorrow.

conflicts. we face them everyday.
some completely unnecessary and insignificant, others, important and crucial issues.
the fuss free way to resolve all conflicts?

scissors paper stone.

works wonders in many situations.

past few days have been tiring.
been falling asleep while talking to students on the phone...
yesterday i slept without bathing...
dear oh dear.

yesterday was cool though. not just the bathing part.
keith came down to climb and we had so much fun.
to think he had his c math paper just before....
his passion for the sport is so inspiring.
set some cool routes with him. tried some crazy stuff too.
a new climbing buddy!
and raj brought a new friend yesterday as well. zhi heng.
getting along fine with them.
this is the way to unleash the potential of the wall the wall.. slowly build a group of climbing regulars to share to or to involve and multiply from there....
climbing can be such a social sport. best. love the sport.

had a conference call with 3 fengshan studs just now. just learnt how to do that, in fact...learning new thinkgs everyday.
so funny..they talk very long...good thing incoming free. waha.
almost fried my ear until i figured i could use loud speaker and make my life easier.
cool bunch of kids. need to plan how to share to them next fri

discovered the existence of gunstar super heroes on sat.
it's the sequel to gunstar heroes and plays on the gameboy advance.
i have faint memories of the game(last played it like at least 12 years ago on the sega genesis?) but i know that it rocked.
gotta go and try out the sequel...ign rates it a 9 out of 10...can't wait.

school programs help you lose weight.
starved the entire day.
just had dinner.
i'm gonna stuff my face with junk food later.

doing what everyone else is doing is merely uniformity.
thinking like how everyone else thinks is unity.
in either, diversity can exist.
hence they are not necessarily shallow in themselves.

doing BECAUSE everyone else does. that's conformity. and that is the most shallow of all.

remaining distinct could simply mean being sure of why i do what i do.
i may do what others do, doing so because of a personal conviction. their reasons may be different from mine, although a similar action is manifested, but we remain distinct because of differing motivations.

some people may even share the same motivation or the same rationale as myself. that just means that we are united in our thinking.
we remain distinct still.
united distinctively...meaning that our distinction has united us.

we may share the same thinknig but display it through different means. that's ok. it's our beliefs that are united and we will be able to look past the different practices to see the similar convictions that we share.

now if in our distinct unity, we do the same actions, we are uniformly united in our distinction. another way of putting it is that in our smilar beliefs, a consistent behaviour has emerged that is a logical out-working of our starting conviction.

in that way, i still have a mind of my own, in the sense that it is one that is not swayed by the opinion of a majority. it may be provoked to the consideration of other factors which may lead to a change in stand, but it is the thinking that changes the stand, and not a mindless following of the practice of the group.

sometimes we do things simply to be different.
we like things that few people like so we can be unique.
when something becomes popular, we don't like it anymore because liking it means we are no longer counter-culture. we become part of the 'majority' and we may feel that we've lost our sense of individuality.
well, the thinknig behind this is not the issue at hand, but rather, in my opinion...from a more pragmatic
point of view...it's quite silly to behave this way.
i mean, so what if you're doing what everyone else does? you retain your individuality as long as you're not doing so BECAUSE everyone else does.
so...my point is..it's ok to like what others like or do what others do because doing so doesn't necessarily mean that you don't have a mind of your own.

umm...not sure if all this makes sense...
but anyway it's time to sleep so maybe i'll tweak this some other time.

Go forward together one and all
Forward, onward whatever may befall,
Let's raise our heads high and lift our voice
Service to others is the Christian's choice!

Go forward, onward, over to the right
In service and brotherhood and love
Forward and upward, ever to the Light
Go forward and serve our Lord above!

St. Hilda's our Alma Mater dear
Go forward in her and have no fear
She is our teacher, parent and friend
Whate'er our path, wherever we wend!

finally learnt the meaning of what i wad singing all those years. really a dumb kid.
but good school nonetheless.

notre dame de paris.

note: when watching musicals or plays, make sure the dialogue's in english.

not bad lah.
finally found out what the story's about(all my life i only knew the disney version, and i'm not even familiar with THAT...didn't really like the movie)

apart from the fact that there was no live orchestra in a pit, the only other prob was that the whole thing was in french, so i had to constantly alternate between glances at the stage and at the projection of the translation.
tiring and a bit of a put off when i can't see the words or when i missed something on stage because of the time i took to read the translations.

what i learnt though was that the original story was written by victor hugo(i think). cool.
he wrote les miserables too(i think. but this one i more certain). one of my favorites.
would like to watch it again if i ever had the chance. that and joseph and the amazing technicolour dreamcoat. the two musicals that i would like very much to see again.
someday someday. must...

2 happening mornings.
next week 2 more.
so exciting.
thoroughly draining.
lost weight.
most enjoyable p6 bunch i've had so far though.
very spontaneous and yet still acceptably obedient.

thursday was out of the box. the kids go crazy over certain subjects...like marital status and birthdays and msn and contact number...
not exactly what i was prepared for, but hey, it just means more opportunities. :)

today...friday i went over to media side and terry came along for ootb!(he went with turtle...says i psed him. haha. i admit i did....waha)
grace took them yesterday so i was afraid that they might have found it weird that a new facilitator was taking them today...

indeed some, if not all, of them felt it to varying degrees...(one asked grace why she 'pao qi' them. heh. at least she still main trainer.)
but they warmed up soon enough. :)
all so farnie.
one group say can go zoo during hols(YEA!)
other group say birthday go out with them together with the non-existent girlfriend that they imagine i have...hehehe...since they so interested...see whether can share through their favorite topic. they won't know what hit them.

htet tun came down today when i wasn't down and made noise about not being able to go rec room. miscom and a wasted trip pissed him off. still, i remained adamant in my refusal to comply with unresonable demands.
so finally, he hung up on me.
min sen helped to talk things out(and scare away) on the other side. some of what min sen said apparently got in...i hope...
he called to apologise on his own accord a while later. just hoping it's not a move driven purely by pragmatism.
"i mean...will you forgive me?"
"of course!"
heh, that surprised me...

P6's. so cute.
they either make or break your day.
heh. actually, that goes for everyone.

dad's going audiophilus crazy.
a few months ago he got the grado...ok fine...
then after that, a few weeks ago he insisted on replacing the simple labtec speakers in the study with the amp from his room.
so then we had the harmon kardon amp with a pair of wharfedale speakers and a centre speaker in the study.
next...he went on to get a creative x-fi crystalizer thing to hook up to the comp...
that's not the end....
after that he brings down the nad amp from my room along with the celestion speakers for some test,
and today....he went down to town to get the robertson audio set from some guy he bought it off through yahoo auction...
it's some home theatre system he got at a good price he says...2 floor standing speakers 2 smaller side speakers and one centre speaker...
he was looking at yahoo just a few moments ago for another amp i think....
he's going on some buying spree....now got 10 speakers and 2 amps in the study....
FOR WHAT!?!?! taking up so much space...

last night kc asked me out to sunbird and we spent a few hours just talking about stuff...
moved from a stone bench to a see-saw to the monkey bar of a playground nearby before finally ending up on the top of a multi-storey carpark complete with ruffles and vanilla coke and candy mix.
got home and slept soon after....he stayed over as well cos it was too late.
today i came back from school and slept the rest of the time.
now i feel sleepy again...my body clock's really messed up...