Category: My Good Life

Categories
Diary Fantasy & Sci-fi Movie Reviews

Celebrated Christmas Eve With Avatar, An Impromptu Dinner Party, And A Midnight Mass

A Merry Christmas to my readers.  ¡Feliz Navidad!

While we were queuing to enter the AMK Hub car park, out of nowhere, Cynthia asked what do people really mean when they say Merry Christmas to one another.  Good question.  I wonder how many of us genuinely ponder upon the good news of the birth of a savior – God in the flesh of a man – when delivering or upon receiving such a wish.

*     *     Ø     *     *

I have a theory.  I think “Avatar” has some borrowed ideas from the game “World of Warcraft”.  No spoilers here of course.  And I bury my theory at the bottom of this entry.

*     *     I     *     *

The question is not whether you should watch “Avatar” or give it a miss.  It is an experience not to be missed.  If ticket price was to be pegged with the movie budget and if you are happy to pay S$10 for “He’s Just Not That Into You”, watching “Avatar” would have cost you S$100.  So, what motivates the filmmakers to pour in $240 million – a budget is closed to what it took to create the “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy – to make a movie?  I suppose pushing the film boundary with new technology (and hence money) so as to give the audience a never-seen-before experience often pays off.  I remember how the first installment of “Lord of the Rings” wowed me to the core.  And somehow, the next two installments did not seem to be as visually stimulating as the first one.

Now, the question is: Should you watch “Avatar” on 3D or not?  We picked the 3D version.  It was an unique experience.  It works especially well with computer generated imaginary.  It makes sense when you think about it.  For real life objects, the 3D effect has already been take care of by the field of depth.  Objects in the background are often blurred out.  Using the current 3D technology on real life objects as seen in the film tends to make the image less sharp with washed down color, though it is without a doubt a wow factor to see a gun or grass bushes popping out of the screen – however blurry it seems.  The same effect on the computer generated imaginary is absolutely stunning.  Personally, I find the 3D goggles occasionally gave me a faint headache.  It is like the discomfort I experience when an object is placed very close to that one point between my eyes.  Cynthia finds the goggles keep slipping down and of course, you can wear the 3D goggles on top of your spectacles.  Also, if I am to watch another 3D movie, I would bring along a cloth wiper to clean the goggles.

Back to the question.  3D format is for an unique cinematic experience and the non-3D format is for the visual effect in its full glory.  Either way, you can’t be wrong.

After watching “Avatar”, I asked myself: What moves me a great deal when watching “Avatar” or “Bodyguards and Assassins“?  I think it is bravery against formidable adversary.

*     *     II     *     *

Just before we entered into the movie theatre, my sister texted me and asked if we wanted to catch up in the evening.  Did I have plan on the Christmas Eve?  A Christmas Mass and my ‘date’ with Mark to show him how to joust in the World of Warcraft.  I guess jousting would have to wait (sorry Mark!).

After the movie, TK asked what’s-for-dinner.  Good question.  In this two weeks holiday of ours, Cynthia and I have hardly put our heads together for any planning.  So, why not invite our good buddy and my sister and her hubby for a home cook dinner?  One minor logistic challenge though: we don’t have meat in our refrigerator ever since we have become vegetarians.  TK volunteered to buy roasted duck and we boosted our menu to a 4-course meal: green salad, soup, pasta with roasted duck, and our dessert was a birthday cake for TK.  So few stones, so many birds!

We had a lovely time.  And it is good to spend Christmas Eve with family and friends.

*     *     III     *     *

We did not plan to attend the Midnight Mass for we planned to attend one of the earlier slots.  Personally I prefer the one at midnight.  It appears to be more authentic.  Cynthia feels that Midnight Mass is a bit too late.  It is true.  The calling of my bed or the comfort of my home was hard to ignore especially when the Mass has passed the 1 am mark.

We arrived at the Church before 11 pm.  Seats are hard to come by on Christmas.  11.30 pm the choir started singing the Christmas songs.  Surprisingly, the quality of the choir this year was really good, at Christ the King.  Even the priest commented that how nice if we are to have this level of standard for our Sunday Masses.  The Church was full, our priest was exceptionally energetic, and the congregation was in high spirit.  Personally, I would like to thank those who have made this Midnight Mass such a memorable experience.  I think the nonstop rounds of applause said it all.

*     *     IV     *     *

I think this section may not make me the most popular guy in the planet, as everyone loves “Avatar”.  While watching the show, I could not help but to associate some of the scenes to an online game that I live and breath for 5 years.  If you have not watched “Avatar”, the following slideshow probably would not make sense to you (and it certainly would not spoil your “Avatar” enjoyment if you see it either).  It is hard to explain in words so I took my avatar in World of Warcraft, traveled around the world, and took some screenshots for illustration’s sake.

Categories
Diary Silly Me

Seat “Chopping” And A Non-Existence Bazooka Lens

A quick doodle

Two unrelated stories to share here.  One from Cynthia.  One from me.

What is seat chopping?  For those who live in Singapore, we all know what this means.  For my overseas readers, no, we don’t literally chop seats here.  We simply don’t chop anything in Singapore.  Not even the trees.  We move or relocate the trees along the highway when we have the need to add an extra lane or two.

So what does “chop” mean in Singapore?  To be honest, I am not born and bred here.  The word’s origin to me is fuzzy.  I interpret the word or verb quote-unquote chop as “occupy or obtain ahead of one’s need while denying others of the resource or opportunity”.  A clumsy interpretation I admit.  But by now you should how clumsy I can be with words.

Monday afternoon, Cynthia met with her Indonesian girl friend from Bali and they have not met each other for more than a decade.  Under a hot sun, they walked from point A to point B.  The sun was so hot that it gave Cynthia a headache till the evening, as she recounted her afternoon story to me inside our car.  I do not know where point A was.  But point B was a food court at Tanjong Pagar, a location Cynthia seldom roams.  Lunch time near the city center, we know how crowded the eateries can be.  So while Cynthia queued up for food, her friend carrying tons of shopping bags was tasked to look for a table.

Cynthia’s friend has found a table in a nice and quiet area.  As Cynthia placed the food onto the table, she noticed a package of tissue paper as well as a fold up newspaper.  Too late to do anything now.  In Singapore, white collar workers often “chop” the seats with packets of tissue paper put onto the empty seats or tables.  After a seat is confirmed or reserved, they head out to look for food, queue up for food.  Personally, I do not do that, unless I am with a group of seat choppers.  I do not do that because by the time I look for food, queue up for food, get my food, one or two persons could have benefited from the seat.  Especially so for some of the more crowded eateries like Amoy Street Food Court.  The flip side is, by the time I get my food, I would be faced with a sea of tissue paper and empty seats reserved by the seat choppers.

Not long after Cynthia and her friend started eating their meal, a Singaporean woman came by the table taking back the package of tissue paper and the newspaper.  And she said, “Did you know that these seats are chop?  Are you new here?”  Cynthia was about to leave the table while her friend was reluctant to do likewise, imagine having to carry her shopping bags and her meal.  Cynthia’s friend replied with her Indonesian accent …

“No, I do not know.  I am from Indonesia.”  And she signaled to Cynthia and continued, “And she is not from Tanjong Pagar.”

Cynthia is not from Tanjong Pagar?!

I was laughing in tears when I heard Cynthia’s friend’s reply.  And so was she.

The Singaporean woman – friendly as it seemed – said, “It’s OK.  We have found another table.  Just to let you know, this is the culture here [in Singapore].”

Singapore culture?  Really?

PS. I have nothing against seat choppers.  Just so to let you know that I am still your friend.

*     *     *     *     *

Monday morning, my sister dropped me a message in Facebook asking me to check out her comment on one of my blog entries.  Lora had a phone conversation with our mom in Hong Kong.  She ended the message with: It is quite funny and I hope you won’t faint.

Rewind to a week or so ago, my mom called me on my home phone.  And she acted quite strange, repeatedly commenting on how expensive my lenses are.  She even threw in some numbers and I was shocked that she knew the price of camera gears.  The numbers did not seem right but I was not thinking much.  In fact, I confess that I was not 100% with the phone call.  I am a lousy person to have a meaningful phone conversation with.  My attention simply drifts before the first minute is up.

So I replied, “Well, these are quality lenses and the photographs look great, no?”  And my mother went on and on about how rich I have become.

Over the weekend, my mom called my sister and said, “You brother has bought a lens for S$20,000!”  I can imagine my sister was as shocked as I would have been had I pay attention to what my mom had said over the phone.  In my defence, my sister mentioned that it is not possible to spend that kind of money on camera gears.  My mom insisted that she has read it in my website, together with dad as the witness.

Uh-oh.  My parents are reading what I write here?  How?  They do not read English!

Apparently, technology is so advance these days that websites can be translated into another language on the fly.  But not so advance to accurately translate the meaning of I wish I have that bazooka lens that costs S$20,000.  This gives ‘lost in translation’ a whole new meaning.  If I have that kind of money to blow, my photograph of the moon would certainly look better than this.

Categories
For the Geeks

Let Them Come, For Frostmourne Hungers

The new patch 3.3 from WoW

Let’s keep it real.  Who am I – a regular dude who has a full time job with little time to invest in character development and elite raider networking – to dream of defeating the Lich King?  I reckon it would be a lot easier for me to get the S$1,288 life size legendary sword Frostmourne than the one in the game.  Fulfilling the fantasy of getting up close and personal with the Lich King in his dungeon aside, the new patch 3.3 has a lot more to offer.  Top of my list: the new Dungeon Finder.  The 5 icons below from left to right indicate if the roles of the tank (i.e. damage taker), the healer, and the three damage dealers have been filled.  In the case below, the game was still finding a tank for us.

Assembling a group of 1 tank, 1 healer, and 3 damage dealers now is a breeze

I think I can speak on behalf of my brothers and sisters in the World of Warcraft.  Two things suck being an Asian player in an American server (or we refer it as ‘realm’).  First, servers are down for maintenance on Tuesdays, off-peak hours in America but prime time evening hours in Asia.  8 to 10 hours, often to be.  Second, assembling a group of 5 to venture into a dungeon during Asian prime time used to be hard because most of the players are still sleeping (the Americans) or have gone to bed (the Australians).  Cynthia and I could spend 1 to 2 hours spamming the looking-for-group channel and we could end up going to bed not visiting any dungeon at all.  I reckon most players simply level their characters through questing.  But questing day in day out could drive us mad.  When we heard that the new Dungeon Finder is out, we were dying to give it a shot.

The new x-realm Dungeon Finder

Seriously, what took Blizzard so long to implement the idea of pulling players from different realms into a group for dungeons?  Especially for some of us who have such difficulty in looking for players for dungeon outings, any dungeon outing.  It turns out that to make this idea works is a pretty complicated matter not only from the technology point of view.  Here are our observations.

  • Finding a random group for a random dungeon seems fast.  At times within minutes.  That is great.  As expected, healer and tank remain as the hardest to come by.  Everyone wants to be a hero, to kill something.  No one seems to enjoy taking a beating or keeping people alive!
  • Exiting a cross-realm dungeon brings us back to the exact location of where we were prior to joining the dungeon.  Imagine being able to continue questing right after visiting a dungeon.  Also, once outside the dungeon, we can teleport back into it at any time.  That enables some of us to stock up reagents, poison, and to repair our gears.  Very nice!
  • There are rewards to be earned.  Did I mention a random rare pet Perky Pug that may drop?  There is also an extra buff that makes your random pick-up group (PUG) stronger.  But hey, if the group sucks, not even those 5% extra of this-and-that can save us.
  • Some players do suck.  Maybe Cynthia and I too suck.  Since now that we cannot ‘interview’ our team members prior to them joining our group like I used to (cross-realm conversations are normally not possible), we have to rely on luck to get the players who know at minimal how to play their class.  And more often than not, luck was not on our side.
  • OK.  That may be due to the fact that everyone are still trying to get used to the new interface that comes with the new patch (that new camera!), trying to cope with the absence of outdated mods (I miss my damage meter).
  • And / or because many players who have not had a chance to experience dungeons regularly have no idea what they should do inside a dungeon.  Now they can.  But skills are not built overnight.  I hope in time to come, players do get better.
  • Because of that, many players deserted our group and we constantly needed to go back to the queue and look for replacements.  Fortunately, the wait was not long, although I can’t say that it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.  Deserting a group should be discouraged or further penalized by the current 15 minutes ban before re-joining the queue.  What happens to patience and mentorship, friendship building and peace?

Nexus, completed via Dungeon Finder

We did complete one dungeon, after numerous change in players and dungeons.  We could have finished a higher level dungeon had the server not needed a restart (we nearly completed Azjol-Nerub in 15 minutes!).  I think more fine tuning of Dungeon Finder is certainly needed.  And I trust Blizzard on that.  Below is a trailer for this new patch 3.3.

Update: On the next day, Cynthia and I took our characters to yet another random dungeon after spending an entire morning researching on how to play better (this link is no joke).  That random dungeon was tough!  But we had a good group.  Nobody dropped out (thank God!).  It was worth the wait (about 20 minutes to assemble the group).

Ah ha! Another complete. This time is the dungeon OK.

Categories
Diary Mysteries

(Dear Plant) You Look Ugly But I Think I Can Live With You

Mysterious Plant

I woke up this morning and realized that nature has delivered a plant to me.

Last night, I had a great dream.  Not the type that I could remember in detail.  But one that has such great sense of freedom.  Like nothing else matters.  Cool wind on my face.  In fact, I could breath the freshness.  I could feel the freshness.  The kind of tingling feeling that made the dream as real as it could get.  A similar experience when I visited the 3D theater inside Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.  Donald Duck and the splashing of water, towards the end of the show.  Cool air blowing inside the theater.  Water sprinkled onto the audience cued perfectly with the short clip.  And in this great dream of mine, right before I woke up in the middle of the night, I felt that I was watching my dream, inside a theater, with all these props there to make my dream more realistic.  But why?

I opened my eyes.  Water dripping from my air-conditioner splashed onto my face.  A splash of water on my wireless phone next to my bed, a splash of water on my library book, on my pillow, my bolster, and my face.

This morning, I examined the air-conditioner trying to see what has gone wrong.  Is it something I can fix?  My air-conditioner looks normal.  Except, water dripping from within.

I traced the water exhaust pipe, from the blower, through the wall, to the condenser, outside my window.  I opened my curtain …

… and got a shock!  I saw a plant outside my window!  Right inside the concrete tray that keeps my condenser in place.  Feeding on the water coming from my air conditioner.

A plant!  Not a tiny one.  But a sizable one that defies all hostile conditions.  Where does it come from?  Was it there all these while?  Or it exists after I have made an observation?  Stardust.  A baby appears at my doorstep.  I thought of that movie when I saw this mysterious plant.

I do not have any plant or pet living in my home until now.  This plant that comes from nowhere looks ugly.  But I think I can live with it.

Last night before I went to bed, I was worried that I may momentarily run out of things to write.  This morning I woke up and realized that nature has delivered a story to me.

Categories
Diary

Working Title: Wet Shoes And The Journey To Las Lilas

My lattest drawing: Wet Shoes and the Journey to Las Lilas

Some readers shared with me that it is fun watching the slide show of the behind-the-scene footage on how I draw.  Since we have already established the fact that each object of my recent drawings is formed with rationale, I shall focus on the story behind this drawing and showcase the behind-the-scene footage instead.

Some of you may recall my rather memorable experience in trying to sun dry my sport shoes.  Three years have passed and I found myself in the same situation.  Mid November, as I was near the Spanish school Las Lilas after work waiting for Cynthia to join me, there was a sudden heavy downpour.  So heavy that it was impossible not to get totally soaking wet even with a huge golf umbrella like mine.  So heavy that I have seldom seen something quite like this, even in a tropic island of ours.  My sixth sense told me that Cynthia would not have an umbrella with her.  So I braved the rain, walked all the way to the train station intending to fetch her with my golf umbrella.

Life is full of anti-climax scenes and renewed surprises.  When Cynthia emerged from the station, the rain had subsided, obliterated what appeared as an heroic act with now only my pair of wet dark trousers that did not look that wet against the dark color and my shoes that oozed out water from the stitching on every step I take as subtle evidents of what I had endured.  Those stitching that looks great as a design but is defenseless against heavy rain.  My socks were soaking wet.  So were my shoes.  As we crossed the street and passed The Cathay – our favorite cinema – the rain gathered force and Cynthia turned to me and asked, “Shall we skip this lesson, have dinner and go home?”

Erm … no.

What I did not tell you is that in the making of the previous behind-the-scene footage, I nearly set my stack of drawing papers on fire.  Candles are fire hazard.  Also, setting up the scene takes at least an hour.  But if you enjoy viewing these footage, I am happy making it.

Recently, I am reading more into Dalí’s work.  I figure that my drawings so far lack perspectives and a frame.  And I am intrigued by Dalí’s imagination and articulation.  To create this drawing, I have made numerous practice on how to draw my shoes in different angles.  I viewed them from close to the ground.  Imagine the discomfort of drawing in that position.  I could of course  put my shoes on my dinning table and practice my drawing.  But that would drive Cynthia mad for sure.

I used to think that making a surreal interpretation of an object is easy.  But it is not.  I have to be able to draw the object in realism first before transforming it into surrealism.  As for the overall composition, I have also made quite a number of sketches in arriving to this final state.

This drawing took me three hours to complete (and many hours to compose and prepare).  Initially I thought doodling takes much lesser time than oil painting.  Maybe not.

Categories
Diary Photography

It’s Time Of The Moon Again

The Moon - ISO200, f/8, 1/800s

Last evening, returned home from a lovely dinner gathering with Symantec, Cynthia was already in bed.  I opened the window, cool air greeted my face.  As I extended my vision from near to far, from the golf course on the other side of the reservoir to the pitch-dark sky, I saw a bright dot.  It was the moon!  Quickly I dashed to my dry cabinet, switched to my telephoto lens, set up the tripod, and started taking photos of our only natural satellite.  The moon does rise up faster than I thought, so does the speed of rotation.  And if I line up the photos I took in sequential order, I can see how the moon rotates.

Different photographers have different preferences on subject matter.  Cynthia’s brother for instance loves to take pictures of insects found in around his Jakarta home at the macro level.  He would proudly show me images of insect eyes and hairs and what not.  I could faint looking at those.  As for me, I enjoy taking pictures of the monuments, candid pictures of the moment, and celestial beauty like the moon.

Avid readers of my site may think: Wait a minute, is this a déjà vu?  I have seen a photo just like this before.  Indeed, that was last December.  I think the photograph of the moon then was a little bit too bright.  Also, no longer do I need to hand hold the camera now that I have a tripod.  Hence a different setting that seems to make the moon looks a bit more 3D.

Last night’s moon reminds me of Italo Calvino’s “Cosmicomics (1965)”.  The short story “The Distance of the Moon” is the most beautiful piece of literature I have read that is based upon our moon.  Italo Calvino remains as one of my all-time-favorite authors.  Some of his books I have read more than once.  His work has made it to Harold Bloom’s “The Western Canon (1994)”.  Unfortunately, my zest of writing book summaries did not quite take form until 2006.  Perhaps in this upcoming 2010, I shall have a book marathon on all his works of fiction and have the book summaries posted here.

PS. No post-processing on this photo.  It is as it is, cropped of course.  Exposure setting: M mode, 1/800 second, f/8 and sensitivity: ISO 200.  Now, I wish I have that 600mm lens (that costs nearly S$20,000!).

Categories
Diary Photography

Still Wilfrid The Paparazzi, On Felicia And Nathaniel

My niece and nephew

If you recall, a year ago, I was happily sharing the exciting news of my nephew and I sharing the same birthday.  Decades apart, of course.  Looking back at that blog entry, what a bizarre piece of write-up I produced!  So much details then that I would have forgotten now.  Like I often say, keep a diary and keep writing it.  One form or another.

So I did get that dSLR camera.  Towards the end of our holiday in Indonesia, when Cynthia one day in her home in Bandung after we have visited her brother Eric’s home in Jakarta looked at my bulky camera gears, she asked, “You brought all these gears all the way from Singapore just to take pictures of Felice and Nathan?”  I nodded and replied, “Indeed.”

If the weather in Bandung was any better, I may have taken some dusk shots in around Cynthia’s house.  Unlike my trip a year ago, I now have a tripod.  But during our stay, Bandung rained and rained and rained.  Non-stop, every evening, which is OK, for I have prepared tons of things to do while relaxing at Cynthia’s home.

During this trip, instead of taking tons of photos, I have jotted down tons of writing ideas, including one possible book idea.  That book idea aside, I initially intended to start publishing the short stories inspired by my short trip to Indonesia starting today.  But then, why the rush?  Better rush the photos of my lovely nephew and niece instead, learned from experience.

Categories
Photography

Wilfrid The Paparazzi, At Volcano “Kawah Putih” (Bandung South)

Such mist!

There are many reasons to process the photos not long after the trip.  First, viewers are sharp.  They may ask why this set of photos is not as good as the previous set.  Second, some people may look thinner or … erm … quite the opposite then than now.  Especially after one long year.  Third, it is always good to get the photo processing work out of the way, as soon as possible.

December 2008, we have visited Bandung.  And I have published four sets of photos.  This particular set of photos captured at the crater “Kawah Putih” is without a doubt my favorite collection.  Looking back, I wish my technique was better.  And the weather was really bad as well.  Nevertheless, I have attempted to put together an album with some … very offbeat captions!

  • Click here to view the entire album (53 photos)

Below is an extract of the album and oh, we shall be in Bandung by the time you read this!

Categories
For the Geeks I See I Write

Nokia E72 – And The Wait Is Over

The Nokia E72

I have friends who swear by the Eseries (while I am more of a Nseries dude).  When the E75 was out, I asked one friend of mine if she would get that but she got the E71 instead.  Why?  I suppose having the full QWERTY keyboard right underneath the screen does have its appeal, a design without a need to slide out the keyboard.  Knowing that I would attend this Nokia event, I did some homework, ‘interviewed’ my friend and got to know a bit more about Nokia Eseries.

Now that I have touched and felt the new E72, I can understand why my friend – in her own words – loves the Eseries.  For those who are constantly on the go and need an efficient phone and messaging device – both email and instant messaging (and also social networking), the Eseries is optimized for just that.  There are dedicated buttons on the E72 to quickly access the calendar, contact, and messaging functions.  Holding one of these buttons create a new calendar entry, a new contact, or a new message (imagine if my N97 has that!).  There is a button to instantly return to the home screen too and by holding it, you can toggle between various opened applications.  At the center of the phone is the new Optical Naviâ„¢ Key.  It senses the motion of your finger (or thumb) as you scroll your long emails up and down.  And you can use that key to scroll through any onscreen items.  From my brief experience, it feels responsive.  And I do like the keyboard design too.  The common punctuation symbols are easily accessible, a different experience I have with my N97.

In fact, the entire phone interface feels responsive thanks to the Symbian S60 3rd Edition operating system.  For those who are already using E71, this could be a worthwhile upgrade for the following reasons.

  • 5 mega-pixel camera
  • 250MB internal memory and supports up to 16GB microSD memory card
  • 3.5 mm audio connector (now you can use the standard earphones)
  • Able to synchronize calendar items to Outlook (on top of emails and contacts that E71 is able to)
  • Better battery performance
  • Slimmer design

And for those who are curious about the key features of email and instant messaging, on email, E72 supports Mail for Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes Traveler, Nokia Messaging service (lifetime license), and POP/IMAP.  On instant messaging, it supports MSN, GoogleTalk, OVI Chat, Y! Messenger, and more.  E72 is now available in Singapore selling at a RRP of S$750 (excluding operator plan and GST).  If you have questions for Nokia, please drop me a comment here or send me an email.

*     *     *     *     *

I have always enjoy blogger events hosted by Nokia and Text100.  And I had such a great time catching up with old friends, making new friends.  During the event, there was a little contest that involved a bit of instant messaging using the new E72 and a bit of creativity.  Shocking to me, I won this little Nokia Mini Speakers (MD-6).  I have no idea if Nokia does sell those little beauties but had I known such thing exists, I would certainly have bought them long ago.  Great for traveling (comes with a pouch).  And great for playing music in the bathroom while showering too!  These are active speakers taking in 4 AAA batteries.  Definitely better sound quality than the phone speakers, a design more geared towards the XpressMusic series.  So this looks really good pairing with Cynthia’s XpressMusic 5800 than my N97.

What a lovely gift!

Categories
For the Geeks Game Reviews

Almost 5 Years – A World Of Warcraft’s 5th Anniversary Inspired Post

A typical WoW screenshot in action

Yes, what you see here is a typical screenshot Cynthia and I see when we play an online game together, a massive one that players from different parts of the world gathered online.  Looks complicated but it is like driving.  After a while, it is second nature.

It’s been 5 years since World of Warcraft was launched.  Nov 23 was the date.  Wow!  Think about the subscription fees I have paid.  US$12.99 per month to be exact.  I have been their faithful subscriber since Feb 2005, when the game finally arrived in Singapore.

I am not disillusioned.  I know what is real, what is not.  There was a period of time when concerning family and friends tried their best to keep me in check, against game addiction.  I suppose if one spends too much time on something, not able to find time to do something else with someone else, collective wisdom would say: that’s no good.  And if one spends too much time on something that majority of people do not understand, collective wisdom would say: that’s even worse.  How about if one spends too much time on something that majority of people understand (or think they do), what would collective wisdom say?  Here are my thoughts.

  1. Most of us have a letter of employment that says we are paid from 9 to 5.  But yet some of us pour in more hours for no tangible outcome.
  2. Most of us are convinced that we build useful skills as our career progresses.  But how useful are these skills as time goes by?
  3. Most of us have our eyes on promotion, having a new title.  But what does the title really mean outside your office?
  4. Some of us claim that never mind the long hours because we have fun at work.  How much of those juicy war stories really mean anything to someone who is not of your work domain?

What I am trying to say is that, you too are in your own world.  Everybody does.  We all have our passion and obsession, in different forms.

*     *     *     *     *

That dragon, earned it with blood and tears.

In celebrating the 5th anniversary of this one great game, fans are recounting and sharing their World of Warcraft moments online.  Hence, this post.

All Levels Begin With Number 1 (Before Death Knights Ruined It All)

The very first moment logging into the game was magical.  I was an elf.  My buddy Mark was too an elf.  Every moment in the game was new, and breathtaking.  How many of us in reality can look through the routines and find something fresh, and exciting?  Like every moment is a moment of discovery?  That mysterious forest; those spiders that killed me again and again.  Ah, good old level-lowbie.

Our Town Is Attacked Again (And Then Honor System Came And Vanquished It All)

In the good old days, opposing fractions often raged war against each other’s towns.  The first time I participated one was exhilarating.  Opposing fractions would form a long line facing each other, stayed out of each other’s attack range (much like the movies of the ancient wars), waiting for the number to gather.  Reinforcement flew in as news traveled fast.  Lots of taunting and luring to start the battle.  At a critical moment, someone would rally a group and march into the enemy line.  And then, the battle began involving easily more than 50 players.

As the attack progressed, it often broke into smaller battles amongst small groups (has anyone played the ‘egg and flour’ war in say birthday parties?).  I once thought that I was safe hiding behind a tree resting.  In the next moment, I saw 5 or 10 of them in front of me out of nowhere.  Uh oh.

The side effect of these unintended episodes was that not only did players take down other players, but they also took down the guards, the pheasants inside the town, basically halted all kinds of questing for those who wished to stay out of conflict.  So, the creator of the game has decided to take the battle out and into designated areas.  I miss those large scale town raiding.  Or as a matter of fact, being raided was just as fun.

General Drakkisath (In The Good Old UBRS)

The first time tackling the dungeon in a group of 15 online players was, as I remember, nerve-wrecking.  Raid leader’s commands were streaming through the chat window in the form of text.  Everyone followed order, for every maneuver inside the dungeon.  Flawless execution like an orchestra that all musicians play a different instrument, but the same song.  The quality of leadership and the bravery of the group was inspiring.  Although in much later, I too led groups to tackle different dungeons, although as time goes by there are newer and more complicated dungeons, I still hold dear to my first memory of the dungeon UBRS.

No, we didn’t kite General Drakkisath during my first encounter.  That strategy was derived much later, I think.

It Is Level 1 To 60, Or 70 Once Again (For The Horde!)

By the time Cynthia joined me, it was 2007.  First expansion of the game was out and she was attracted to the beauty of the new race blood elf, curious about what got me so into the game (I remember we had a bet or something).  To someone who has 8 level 60 characters back then, it is all the way from the beginning again.

Interestingly, Cynthia is my antidote to game addiction.  Because of character progression, there is little point in getting ahead of each other.  We complete quests together, visit dungeons together, and play the game together till today.  If she doesn’t play, I don’t play.  Simple as that.

Self-Actualization (For Now Before Expansion #3 Arrives)

2009 is an interesting year.  The game has evolved in a way that it is now much easier to attain “self-actualization”, even for the casual players.  Cynthia and I are now able to work towards improving our characters beyond the level cap tackling dungeons in heroic mode side-by-side with the serious players (or raiders).  We are exalted in major factions riding dragons (see picture above) and collecting exotic pets, collecting in-game titles.  We have a good pile of gold coins stashed up somewhere.  In short, all that we have ever wanted – given the real life constraints we have – we have.  These days, we rarely play, maybe a couple of times a week.

And when expansion #3 arrives, it will be all the way from level 1 once again …

Oh yes, happy birthday WoW.

External Link: World of Warcraft Anniversary Site