Categories
For the Geeks Game Reviews

EA Sports FIFA Online 2 Closed Beta Test Hosted by IAHGames – First Look

Note: If you still have problem with Hotmail, click here to install a client-based Mail beta – Windows Live.

I have a love hate relationship with IAHGames.  As an avid online gamer, I love the idea of having a game server hosted in Asia.  And that the server maintenance observes the Asia’s off peak hours, unlike the World of Warcraft (WoW) server that goes down almost all the Tuesday evenings here in Asia.  It may be foreign to some of you but believe me when I say this, millions of WoW fans in Asia are lost every Tuesday.  If I had a business, I would have targeted these lost souls and created some ease-your-WoW-withdrawal-syndrome themes to my business.  And I would have earned big bucks, since 2004.

I sort of hated (strong word, sorry, but thanks for the closed beta test invite!) IAHGames because of the way they handled the hosting of Hellgate London (HG:L).  OK, the parent company Infocomm Asia Holdings did the right marketing and financing (how can you miss the signage and the decorated jeep outside Funan IT Mall?) but fell short on technology and management.  Our Asian server went live before IAHGames could apply the crucial patch and from then on, our patch updates were horribly late compared to the American counterparts leading to Asian online gamers having to suffer from the bugs for weeks and months.  In the end, IAHGames found a solution to apply the subsequent patches without wiping the game progress; in the end, I quited HG:L because playing a buggy game is really no fun.

Enough of history.  Is FIFA Online 2 fun to play?  It has some elements of Championship Manager as you play the manager role in managing your team.  Each of your player has a set of stats and as your players level up, you get to customize your players by enhancing their stats the way you want them to be.  And you gain level as you play the matches too – be it as win or lose (wining has more points than losing).  There are football players and items you can trade with other online gamers (I have yet to find out how) so all these elements play like a typical MMORPG.  And unlike Championship Manager, you get to play the match too!

I have to admit that using the keyboard to play the match is less than ideal.  I failed to use my XBox 360 Controller that works with other PC games.  Anyway, playing with the keyboard does make in-game text chatting a lot easier with other gamers.  I always like the social aspect of the online games.  Because the game pace is usually fast, you can’t really chat that much.  But still, the game is much alive.  And I have to say, the online gamers are a lot tougher to beat than playing against the computer team.  I guess that is where the fun is.

Each online game lasts for a couple of minutes and joining a “World Tour” 1×1 match with another online gamer picked by the server seems fast (“League” is you against the computer), thanks to the Asia timezone.  There is 2×2 match too that you can form a team with your buddy.  But the waiting time was too long so we gave up.

Graphically, it does support wide screen format with the football players look 3D enough from a distance.  The replay is fun to watch too.  The close-up on the players tend to look cartoon-ish but that doesn’t bother me.  The voice commentary does seem to follow the game well, sarcastic at times (maybe I suck badly).  But of course, if you are to play for hours, some of the lines may appear repetitive to you.  The game does feel random in nature, which is good.  One time, one of my players was fouled due to hand ball.  I was like … what?!  Then there was a close-up replay to see how the ball did bounce off my player’s hand as he tackled the ball.  Amazing.  And some of the goals look so random that got me marvelled at my own virtual ingenuity.

FIFA Online 2 seems like a stripped- down version of the established football related games out there.  But if fast pace online game with character progression is your cup of tea, you may wish to give it a try.  I reckon they may give out free trial period like most of the online games out there.  Who knows, FIFA Online 2 may be one of those subscription free games.

PS. Some of the soundtracks are pretty cute.

Categories
Jamming Session

Weekend Drive-Up Jamming Session Inside PJ Hilton Hotel Room Ended Up Performing for 2 Long Lost Friends of Mine from My UK Days

I have yet another theory.  Ordinary events don’t get stuck in my mind.  Extraordinary events do.  I love to seek out opportunities to do something crazy, if circumstances permit.  To make my life a bit more memorable.  For instance, that one time after my buddy Sam and I got our miserable laughable bonus, we impulsively headed for our breakfast at The Fullerton and spent what seemed like more than S$40 for a hotel breakfast in our home land.  The power breakfast, as we called it.  No local does that.  Unless you are very rich.  At least we weren’t.  At least I am not (can’t say the same for my friend now that he is a big shot).  And that probably is the most memorable breakfast I had ever had to date.  It is out of proportion.  It is laughably ironic.

When I told my band manager Selrol that I was planning to bring along all the band equipment from Singapore and practice with Wieke in Malaysia over the weekend, her response was, “No shit!”.  Uh-huh.  Everyone thinks that I am nuts.  OK.  I can be nuts some time, because I can.  So I have weighed my gears.  Close to 70kg of equipment that filled up the entire car boot.  And I had to align them carefully so that they all fitted nicely.  So what exactly did I bring to PJ Malaysia with my car (in the order of importance)?

  • Cynthia the bassist and backing vocalist
  • My Les Paul Deluxe electric guitar
  • Cynthia’s Warwick bass guitar
  • Wieke’s Yamaha acoustic guitar
  • A heavy acoustic guitar amplifier
  • My huge guitar amp and effect processor, VOX ToneLab LE
  • A 12-channel mixer
  • 2 microphones and 2 mic stands
  • Handheld recording device, Zoom Handy Recorder H2
  • Cables, lots of cables
  • Clothes and other stuff
  • A laptop to store recorded materials from the handheld device

After that horrifying experience with the Malaysian Custom, I was worried that they would tax my close to S$10k worth of used gears.  But they didn’t inspect my car.  Phew!  At the hotel lobby, I was asked twice: Are you the wedding singer?

I love Facebook.  I really do.  Thanks to Facebook, my two long lost friends Kah Lok and Kenneth turned up at my hotel room (last seen more than a decade ago with zero contact since then … I remember that one bus terminal scene with tears in my eyes).  And we performed for them, inside our PJ Hilton hotel room, with the studio set up.  Like real!  Like how we are going to perform in The Heeren this November.  We played a song, we took a break and chatted.  I love the intimacy between our band and the audience.  I am inspired.  While Jason is aspired for online broadcast, Cynthia is aspired for public performance, I think I have found my own aspiration: private performance.

All five of us surprisingly got along really well.  We’ve had so much fun.  And that is another story to tell.

Mental note: Write to Ovi by Nokia and suggest that they should display the captions and titles within the slide show.

Related Blog Entry: Yet Another Road Trip, Yet Another Small Step Towards Our Goal

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

Crucibles of Leadership by Robert J. Thomas – Great Leaders Are Made of This?

In this rather crowded market of management books on leadership, two things I find intriguing about Robert Thomas’s new title “Crucibles of Leadership”.  First, the concept of an experience-based leader development.  Second, using the medieval alchemists’ vessel – crucible – as an analogy to the defining moments that are capable to transform us.  Can this book deliver what it promises: How to learn from experience to become a great leader?  That depends on how much you can get out from this book that comes in three distinct parts; each part may have a better appeal to a certain group of readers with different learning styles and backgrounds than others.

Part One – Experience Matters

I in particularly enjoy reading the first part of the book, “Experience Matters – But Then What?”.  Having played music as a hobby, I can certainly relate to the author’s analogy to how the artists practice while perform, and perform as though it is part of their practice routine.  And this idea of constantly learning and reflecting upon what we’ve experienced appears to be one of the focal points of the book.

I am also intrigued by how the author identifies different types of crucibles – defining moments that transform our lives in either a positive or negative way – and how different types of crucibles may emerge more frequently in a particular course of our career than the others.  For instance, we are likely to learn from the new unknowns at our younger years than say, setbacks that happen more often during our mid career.  The gems, to me, are the tabulated information throughout this part one of the book on how to benefit from different types of crucibles.  They add much clarity to the case studies illustrated.

According to research, in many fields, it takes ten years of deliberate, intentional practice to take us beyond novice and adept and to achieve the status of expert.  And to be an expert is to be able to adapt, innovate, and to move between genres or to inject originality.  To apply this to leadership development is something I have not previously thought of.  But how?  That is the next part.

Part Two – Personal Learning Strategy (PLS)

Some people may better appreciate this part of the book than others as it is more instructional.  You are asked to self-assess your capabilities in three dimensions: adaptive capacity, engaging others, and integrity and to craft your own PLS using the template provided.  Based on how you see yourself at peak performance within a certain time frame, where you are today, and what motivates you, the PLS prompts you to think of a set of action points to push yourself forward.  This part of the book even contains a timetable to guide you in assessing your progress and to review and amend your PLS periodically.

It seems like hard work, doesn’t it?  Going back to part one of the book, to be an expert require years of deliberate and intentional practice.  Hence, there is no exception to leadership development I believe.  And before we move onto the the last part of the book, how many of you have asked yourself the question: Why lead?  I personally think that author has hit the nail on the head.  Once we know why we want to lead, we know where our motivation lies.

Part Three – The Big Picture

For those who are working in the line of organizational effectiveness as well as at the senior management rank, you may benefit a great deal from this part of the book.  There are interesting case studies on how organizations can benefit from the preparing, deploying, and renewing existing and prospective leaders by means of a more active and creative use of experience.

Since the author Robert J. Thomas is executive director of the Accenture Institute for High Performance Business, I am curious about how PLS is implemented in Accenture, the global consulting company, today.  So I contacted my old friend from Accenture, where I spent a good number of years working as a consultant.  According to my friend, the terminology used internally may be different, but the concept used in his career planning and review is similar.

My personal thought is that though you may not in the position to influence and change how your organization develops leaders, by being aware that there are organizations out there that adopt a more experience-based approach, this may help you to move towards an environment that better suit you, especially when you start to build your own PLS and wish to see it links to an organization’s reward and recognition program.

In Summary

“Crucibles of Leadership” is certainly a book for those who appreciate a structured and disciplined approach to learn from experience.  Even if your current organization may not fully buy into this approach (if it does, all the better), it doesn’t stop you from having your own Personal Learning Strategy and in time to come, you may find yourself a more suitable environment to excel.  And for those who are in the position to enhance the organizational model, this book can be a good reference point.

Categories
Drama Movie Reviews Romance

Vicky Cristina Barcelona – And Beyond the Eye Candies …

I must be one strange dude.  I got lost between the two girls kissing each other inside a dark room and the three taking turn to kiss each other at the kitchen stove.  Now, just how probable that scenario can be even if I was born an American or an European?

Largely shot in portrait mode with the bokeh background blurring out everything but the characters, visually the film put much emphasis on the actors and actresses with the scripts in such fluidity to match.  I like some parts when the camera stays with the main character even when it is the supporting actor’s turn to speak.  It is beautiful.  It is beautiful if you can look beyond the lack of conclusiveness throughout the development of the story.  Light, indeed.  Perhaps that’s how the writer-director Woody Allen envisages it to be.  Like the beautiful strokes of stories intertwined in the summer of Barcelona, there is love of eccentricity, committing and reliable love, carefree kind of love, and unfulfilled love.  There is a certain degree of lightheartedness and a certain degree of sadness.  While the story is left unresolved, the incomplete love between the two artists played by Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz is simply intense.  Penélope is simply striking, in this movie.  She deserves an Oscar nomination, I agree.

Scarlett Johansson’s acting as Cristina is charming and I do enjoy watching Rebecca Hall playing the role of Vicky.  Cynthia and I both agree that Javier Bardem is not necessary the most handsome Spanish guy on Earth (to be able to charm both Scarlett and Rebecca with Penélope as the ex-wife … hmmm).  However Javier does come with an incredible credential in his acting career and he acts well in this film.

The Spanish actor and actress Penélope and Javier are the real gems of the film.  Since Cynthia and I are currently learning Spanish, we are happy to be able to pick up a few words within the Spanish dialogues.

Lovely scripts, lovely eye candies.  The question is, can you look beyond this plot of art with the unresolved, rather unrealistic storyline?

Categories
I See I Write My YouTube

The Unofficial Coverage of Singapore Motorshow 2008 with Pictures and Video Clips

The first thing after I have clocked 848 km driving to PJ Malaysia and back for a band practice was to head directly to the Singapore Motorshow.  Check out the montage below and guess which one is my favorite model?

I have created a video using the clips I have recorded during the stunt performance.  The performance is really awesome and if you have some time to spare, do click onto the link below.

Related Entries: Motor Show Singapore 2008, Motor Show Singapore 2006, Super Import Nights – Worth The S$10 For The Cars And Babes? You Decide!

Categories
Music Journal Whacky Thoughts

Yet Another Road Trip, Yet Another Small Step Towards Our Goal

By the time you read this, Cynthia and I may have reached PJ Malaysia to meet up with Wieke for a band practice.  Nothing is going to slow us down for our November performance at the Heeren, Singapore.  Not even the temporary relocation of Wieke.

I have a theory I concocted decades ago and it has been recently supported by a research publication (look out for my upcoming book review).  It is not a complicated theory really.  More like an observation; a theory that I keep on verifying all these years.  In general, we need 12 years to master a skill by practicing it regularly and be good at it.  Depending on whether you are the half-filled or half-empty type of person, you either envy that someone who is what he or she is today and you are not.  Or if you pick up that skill today, at this very moment, 12 years later, you will get to somewhere you want to be now.  Because 12 years is usually what it takes from novice to adept.  And if you have the talent, the right guidance, and the right opportunity, you may become the innovator, define your own genre or domain of knowledge, and inspire the next generation leaving a legacy behind.

Why 12 years (the research result suggests a 10 years duration instead, which is close enough)?  I love to play music since young.  Having to put aside my (self-taught) passion with the piano due to my moving to UK for study, I picked up the guitar as my new hobby.  One day in UK, my good Malay friend played the lead guitar solo of “Sweet Child ”˜O Mine” from beginning to end.  I was thoroughly impressed.  I asked how long he has been playing the electric guitar and he said 12 years.  At that very moment, I knew that if I was to start back then, I would be some sort of guitar hero 12 years later.  OK, I did try but didn’t quite get there.  I discovered my passion as a songwriter composing music via my guitar instead with close to 160 songs written today.  Since that day of “Sweet Child ‘O Mine”, 12 years of acquiring, refining, and mastering any given skillset sticks in my mind.

Some say life is a journey, not a destination.  But then, to me, there is not much of a journey other than aimless wandering if we don’t have a destination in some forms and shapes, is there?  I wish to continuously share the music that I create, music that I create with others.  That is my end game.  And this journey has its ups and its downs.  Perhaps all of us in the band are consultants by day, we have tons of healthy debates, high level brainstorming and visioning, and our never ending gap analysis.  No, we can’t do that.  That is beyond us.  Yes, we can try that next time.  That will sound good.  And in the mist of all these progress tracking, ad-hoc practicing, we go around doing our own things, busy with our other hobbies and commitments.  At times I would ask myself: Where are we heading?

I think the answer oscillates from online broadcast to live performance to just having a good time.  And for now, we have lined up three practice sessions for a weekend visit to Malaysia.  It should be fun.  As a bonus, I am meeting one of my long lost best friends whom I met in UK.  Gosh, he and I have been through so much.  He was there when my heart was shattered into million of pieces time after time.  I was there tried taking care of him whenever I can, even if I have to experience my first time being inside an ambulance on siren.  Thank you Facebook.

Unlike many things in life, you always have 24 hours in a day.  And baring any unforeseeable divine intervention, 12 years will lapse and one day you will look back and say: Had I started 12 years ago …

Categories
J Pop Music Reviews

Rimi Natsukawa 夏川りみ – Self Selection – My Comfort Album

There is comfort food.  And there is comfort music too, I reckon.  You know how it is like when every time you listen to a particular song or album and that triggers a particular memory of yours?  Maybe “Last Christmas” was played when you gave your first kiss away, maybe “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing” is your theme song with that special someone, or maybe you were listening to “Woman In Chains” when you first discover what romance is.

So I was on a plane to Chennai, India – which by the way, if you haven’t got the chance to check out the complete 2-set photo albums, I invite you to take a look (montage below).  For lack of entertainment choices on the SIA flights, I put Rimi Natsukawa’s new album on repeat – on my way to Chennai, and back.  I did sample “Self Selection” (あいのうた ～セルフセレクション・ベスト～) in several occasions at HMV Orchard but somehow, the album didn’t talk to me.  My first (and second and third) impression was that the sound is kind of old fashioned, kind of different from the rest of the J-pop I am so used to.  Needless to say, after the trip, I bought her album.

In fact, the kind of music is called Ryukyuan and Rimi Natsukawa is a folk singer.  Is it an universal truth that folk genre produces better singers than pop and rock?  And when did the Japanese start to have songs in English titles and lyrics with English words?  Either way, Rimi Natsukawa is a great singer and all the songs she selected is 100% Japanese.  Inside the album jacket, she wrote a small passage for each song explaining why she chose it, when she played it, and what the song means to her (note: I read the Chinese translation).

Is “Self Reflection” for you?  Hard to say.  Are you open for traditional Japanese music?  Maybe you wish to check out this old video of hers and see for yourself.  涙そうそう (“Sparkling Tears”) is my favorite track of the album.  Sure it doesn’t have the dynamic of a typical pop song.  It does however invoke emotion, a peaceful type of emotion.  And to me, it works.  This album works.

Categories
Linguistic My Hobbies

I Survived 10 Spanish Lessons at Las LiLas School, Adiós!

How time flies when it seems like yesterday Cynthia and I first joined the Spanish lesson.  I may only get a fraction of what she got from our teacher Anna, I do learn a lot from Anna’s unorthodox way of teaching – letting the learners subtly define our learning objectives, allowing us to grow beyond the syllabus, and making each lesson fun.  Learning should be fun and it shouldn’t be restrictive.

Take today as an example.  Two guys from our class will be visiting Mexico for three months as exchange students for real.  So Anna started the lesson (our last in this course) with the scenario of these two arriving at the airport making friends with the locals.  So they meet this girl and …

At that moment, we were all tongue-tied.  Quickly we rewound to lesson one and asked me llamo XYZ, y tu (my name is so-and-so, and you)?  Next of course is where are you from, de dónde eres?  And then?

We all went blank.

Imagine, two guys and a Mexican lady, how about a beer?  ¿Quieres una cerveza?  How about asking her if she’d like to eat something?  ¿Quieres comer algo?  How to ask if you like me?  ¿Te gusta?  And if she does?  Me gustas mucho.

I love you is te quiero.

What else will our two friends need to know?  At the airport?  Where are the taxis, I suppose.  ¿Dónte están los taxis?  And the taxi driver would probably ask dónde van ustedes (where are you guys going)?  Hotel Hilton, we are going.  Vamos al hotel Hilton.  At the hotel, we may wish to ask where a decent restaurant is.  ¿Dónde hay un buen restaurante?  What time does it open?  ¿A qué hora abre el restaurante?

It is no fun with these two dudes dining on their own, is it?  We can always count on the friendly (and beautiful) Mexican ladies.  Would you like to dine with us?  ¿Quieres cenar con nosotros?  If the response is si, claro.  That is a yes of course.  Quizás is a maybe.

Over the dinning table, the girl may ask cuanto tienpo en mexico (how long are you staying in Mexico)?  And there and then in the class, we learned how to say the years (años), months (meses), weeks (semanas), and days (diás).

One of us asked how to ask the girl for a dance.  Anna told us that in Mexico, you have to ask the permission from her brother as seldom girls come out alone for dates.  Erm, OK.  ¿Puedo bailar con tu hermana?

May I kiss you?!  ¿Puedo besar la?

OK.  Maybe something should be left unsaid.  The dinner is lovely and when the bill comes, why let the girl pays?  Yo invito.  Literally means “I invite (hence I pay)”.  And when will we see each other again?  ¿A qué hora (nosotros) nos encontramos?  Or if the night is still young, why not catch a movie?  ¿Quieres ir al cine?

Our class went on and on creating fun scenarios, departing from our textbooks.  Our teacher Anna really enjoys our sense of curiosity and in her words of encouragement, we have gone far ahead of what beginner 1 class offers.  So here we are, 5 girls and 1 guy (me) heading to beginner 2 class next month.  Oh God, wish me luck.  These girls are smart, very smart.

Categories
I See I Write

So You Really Don’t Want That 60″ Full HD Plasma TV For Free?

Did you know that the higher the resolution of your flat panel TV is, the shorter the optimal viewing distance?  OK.  Your eyeballs or your brain may get fried staring at those life-size-like … erm … eye candies.  Watching that beautiful Korean actress Kim Ah-joong at Singapore blogger EastCoastLife’s home on that 60” TV almost made my nose bled.  What was the gathering about?  I can’t recall a thing.  I want that TV (and that “200 Pounds Beauty” DVD too)!

Fortunately I did take some pictures last Sunday (see above).  Those lovely popiah she made.  Delicious.  Though I am literally (and proudly) a Singaporean and have lived here since 95, rarely do I get to taste home cooked Singaporean food.  Especially when I don’t live with a born-and-bred Singaporean.  Come to think of it, rarely do I get to taste home cooked Indonesian food either.  Something must be wrong in this picture.

Back to that contest I was blogging about, your humble Mr. All-good-things-must-share has made a site visit and confirmed that this 1.5 meter wide 60” beast does exist, in good shape.  I am not sure why Singaporeans are so shy.  If this contest was to host in Hong Kong, people would have dreamed of a hundred-and-one ways to up their chances.  Perhaps even getting your baby to pop out a bit earlier to enter the draw.  Seriously, all you need to do is to read her blog, answer 10 questions from now till October, drop her a snail mail (it is her contest, her rule, so please don’t be lazy!) and viola.  And if you don’t want the 60” TV for whatever the reason, for the love of Kim Ah-joong, please pass that to me.  Thank you.  I promise to cook you a very nice Cantonese meal while we watch “200 Pounds Beauty”, at my living room.  You can have my bottles of wine too since I don’t drink anymore.

On a more serious note, you may wonder why I so passionately wanting to spread the news.  New media is here to change the social landscape and I am glad to be a tiny part of it.  Do I wish to see some positive impacts to people’s life via the blogosphere as a new channel?  Certainly.  Bloggers are getting involved into areas that are dominated by traditional channels, doing impactful things that have never been done before.  To my best knowledge, LG did not ask blogger EastCoastLife to give the TV away.  I wonder what I would do had Nikon given me a D700 DSLR equipped with some of the top lenses and accessories.  Gosh, it is hard to give away an item that comes with a 5-figure price tag.

On a less serious note, forget about bribing EastCoastLife with breakfast and feet massages like many are doing right now.  Now that I know where she lives, I am going to infiltrate her home and invalidate the rest of the application forms except mine when the time comes!  Kekeke!

Related Website: Win a LG 60″ Full HD Plasma TV from ECL

PS. The optimal viewing distance for a 42” plasma TV is 99 inches for a HD-ready quality (720p) and 66 inches for a full HD quality (1080p).  As for a 60” flat panel full HD TV, it is 94 inches (versus 141 inches for a HD-ready one).  Time to reconfigure my living room for a 2.4-meter of viewing distance!

Categories
Comedy Movie Reviews Romance

Forgetting Sarah Marshall – So Real That I Almost Cried Watching

OK.  Almost.  I may not able to 100% relate to “Sex and the City”, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” is as close to big-boys-do-cry as it can get.  At least in my book.  I mean, there is nothing macho about getting hurt, is there?  And yes, men do the stupidest things when that someone we love walked away.  So many scenes within the film I can personally relate to.  Gosh.  I am hopeless.  Fortunately, the film is so hilarious that got the entire Movie Review Squad laughing all the way.  At the end of the show, everyone claimed credit for choosing the show.  Uh-huh.  I swear it was my idea, my pick.

It feels so real probably because the lead actor Jason Segel is also the writer of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”.  And he was the guest star of CSI for three episodes.  That probably explains the hilarious cut scenes of a CSI-look-alike TV series within the movie.  Jason Segel has also brought in some of his real life relationship episodes into the show.  No wonder.

Ukrainian born actress Mila Kunis is so totally hot.  And so is my breath-of-fresh-air Heroes actress Kristen Bell.  Cynthia asked which one I like better.  Huh?  Can I have both?  I don’t really know Russell Brand but if you were to ask me who is the true comedian of the show?  Russell’s off-beat-over-the-top-least-sexy-acting got me laughing all the time.  That guy is so funny.  Gosh.  Love his British accent too.

For the record, I picked the show.  I say so because I get to write this blog.  Ha!