It is a day of saddnes for some of us who remember the Pope as “champion of human freedom”, “tireless advocate of peace”, and “wonderful sense of humour”. He was one of the history’s great moral leaders and will always be remembered of. I have an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see him in person at the Vatican during our honeymoon trip to Rome. The memory is still so vivid. The Pope in his bright white robe. Now the question in some of our minds would be: who will be the next Pope.
I so tried not to play World of Warcraft. In fact, I so wanted not to. Wierd as it may sound, today is the day I wish my wife was in town so we could go out for movie or something … but she is overseas right now. In the afternoon, I messaged TK asking if he was free for dinner and movie. At first TK said yes and I was so prepared to go out and have some fun. In the end, TK needed to work so the evening was cancelled.
And first time for a long time, I resumed the recording of my music and guess what? My computer just refused to work. Damn it! I have tried for 2 hours and could just record one song.
What is wrong today? So I ended up playing World of Warcraft … I so tried …
Yesterday as I was trying to explain to JT what the online gaming World of Warcraft is like, JT kept on insisting that it is just a virtual world and you get nothing out from it.
This morning as I pondered, when you really think about it, the world we are living in, in this short 75 years of our life, what is our purpose anyway. In no way I am trying to justify the way I indulge in the virtual world but all the fun I have had, all the money that I have earned in that virtual world, what different is it from the world we are living in?
For those who believe in after life, heaven and hell, all the currencies that we hold, we cannot bring it to the after life. All the deeds we have done, there are consequences in the after life. I know the analogy is kind of cruel but face it, if you are not believe in the after life, you will just have all the fun you have had in this world.
What different is it from the world I am indulging in anyway? To some of us, this earthly world is not real compares to heaven. So?
Deep thougths we have had.
When my friend JT whom has lost faith in the modern day Metallica bought the latest Metallica album after watching watching this documentary DVD, I knew for sure it is a must-watch. Metallica is one of the biggest heavy metal band today and whether you like this kind of music or not, you will be amazed by what goes on behind the music scene – the struggles and all. I definitely recommend this DVD to fans and non-fans alike.
Today I was having a coffee with my colleague WT and he was sharing all the exciting new things that he has learnt during the 2-days Learning Organisation workshop. One of the case study was on how IDEO designed an innovating shopping trolley with three objectives in mind: (1) to radically improve upon the existing design in 5 days, (2) to reduce the no. of trolleys that go missing, and (3) to enhance the reputation of IDEO. The case study can be found here.
I have to admit that I am so much impress by the process and especially the end result. You can see the image of the trolley from the above link.
But what impressed me most about the workshop is that one should set a vision. With the knowledge of current situation, we can then align ourselves to the vision in everything that we do.
Kind of make sense … then I asked myself: what is my vision in life?
Don’t know … as of now.
Yesterday, one of my good friends BD popped me an online message saying that yesterday was her birthday. Wow, so many good friends of mine have birthday in March (hang on … have I missed my mother’s birthday … damn!)
After talking with BD online, I have realised that for the past six months or so, I have not been keeping in touch with my overseas friends and that is bad! I have my passion on my band, on writing music, and on playing online game. And ever since I have “digitalised” myself into a website address, I have seldom sent any personal emails to my friends.
And that is bad.
Sigh … in this civilised world, most of us have to devote nearly half of our lifetime – counting all the travelling time and the overtime hours – working. Actually, working by itself is okay so long as we can derive some sort of pleasures out from it. Painful is that abuses that come with the job itself. Abuses from the top, from the bottom, and from the level on par with you. It is kind of ridiculous that most of us have to put through these.
Work could generate a lot of satisfaction. But at the same time, when people around you – again, on top, from the bottom … etc. – keep on disappointing you from time to time, you can sometimes be put down and ask yourself: Dear God, don’t You have better purpose for all of us?
Abuses come in many forms and however way they are branded – professional or personal – they are still unpleasant.
True, many things I have learnt through my working life. But, how do all these that I have learnt contribute to my purpose in life? Each and everyday, thousands and thousands of us are transported to our working places where we do what we are told to do and each day comes by, we all get older. Each and everyday, a piece of our dreams vanishes in thin air.
All for …
Let me think. All for a sense of security after our retirement? Say our life expectancy is 75 and we retire at the age of 65 (no joke), say we all start work at 20-ish, most of us have to work over 40 years to buy 10 years of security after retirement.
No wonder the advancement of civilisation is so slow. Our society norm makes us so inefficient.
Sigh.
For quite a while, I have not been having lunch with my friends. Either I have an early afternoon meeting or I am having lunch with my colleagues. Yesterday, realised that my calendar was empty during lunch hour, I called up ML – a good friend of mine whom I see him more often online than in real life – for a lunch date. Here was how the conversation went.
Me: Yo buddy, free for lunch today?
ML: Hmmm … [sounded very relunctant] … got work …
Me: You need to eat right?
When I picked him up asking him what he wanted to eat, he led me to this hawker center. Just when I was about to put in parking coupon, he turned around and told me that it was his birthday today.
What??
Hard to imagine how to celebrate birthday in a hot and noisy hawker center, I took him to Holand Village and had Japanese food for lunch. Kind of happy that I was there to celebrate his birthday. I should start to keep track of my friends’ birthdays.
Every tuesday from 10pm till 3am, all the US World of Warcraft (WoW) servers are down for maintenance. So I always joke with my WoW gaming buddy in Singapore that tuesday is a “off” day for us.
In restropect, ever since I started playing WoW, I have saved a lot of money. For instance, I drop all the movie and dinner sessions (S$30 to S$40 per week) because I always rush home after work. Drinking sessions (S$30 to S$40). I get to eat early because once I started playing, I hardly have time to even visit the bathroom. I don’t need to spend money on any other form of entertainment (such as books, new computer games, and so on). I have maximised the usage of broadband Internet access and surely brought down the dollar paid per hour of usage. And last by not the least, my wife will have a peace in mind that I am always home after work each and everyday.
The game has affected me in many ways. From the most trivial of confusing real life with WoW life to the more serious case of dreaming inside the WoW after logging out from the game.
One day sending my wife to the airport, I stared at the orange sun on a cloudy sky and I exclaimed: Look, the sun just looks like the one in World of Warcraft! My wife’s immediate response was: Hey, it’s the other way round! The sun in WoW looks like the one in real life!
Duh!
More dramatically, one night my wife felt warm and passed the teddy bear onto my side. That was in real life. In my dream, I saw an attack of a bear (very common in WoW) so I quickly cast a flame blast in close encounter while in real life, I overthrew the blanket knocking the teddy bear away. In my dream, the next response was to retreat backward and prepare for a fireball. And so I did, in real life. I back up all the way to the door and that was when I heard my wife said: It’s me.
The fact that the quest system in WoW is designed so successfully does not help either. I have perpetually a list of to-do quests and one quest leads to another. That is what I have been thinking of the whole day, wanting to return to the WoW world.
Of course, while bored during day time, it is best to daydream about all the sweet moments I have with people online. Nothing beats the friendship of people helping each other from similar levels, the honour of people who are at a much higher level spend time helping the lower level players to get through tough quests while getting nothing in return, the fun of people who joke with one another in the midst of a long fight, and the tears that shed for party to split in different ways.
I so love WoW. The passion is comparable to back then when I started dating.
Today marks the second week of me playing with World of Warcraft. Certainly did not feel that long. I felt as though just a couple of hours has gone. Throughout the gameplay, I have tried my best in keeping a journal on my exciting experience.
If there is one game you are going to play this year, make it WoW. I guarantee that you will be mesmerized by this magical experience – beautiful landscape, engaging quests, and interesting people you will meet online.
What are you waiting for?