Current score:
Islamist Terrorist 1 Good Guys 0

If they haven't got him in the condon within a few hours, it is not unlikely that he has escaped the noose. Is he holed up? Is he already in Indonesia? Hard to say really.

I set foot at Thomson Plaza for the first time since 1992. It was gloomy with tired and forgettable shops. A good eighteen years later, the place was still filled with tired shops though the mall had been refurbished with a new facade in the form of metal-cladding and an ubiquitous Starbucks joint at an outdoor seating area. Like the past, the place was full of activity, mostly people in their fifties and sixties eating and wandering around. Were these the condemned of a consumerist hell, wandering and questing in a lifetime for the holy grail of the cool product?

There was a Shizuoka Yajimaya bookstore there in the early eighties.

On another note, I opened an account with a Dutch bank today. The staff were kinda incompetent. I was puzzled at the number of mistakes made.

The score so far:

Terrorists 1 Good Guys 0

If they can't capture him in the first few hours, it is going to get difficult. Was there collusion with an outside party? Is he still in the country?

It's almost time to go home! Whee!

Hmmm.. Wilson just spotted Nose at Borders. I thought Nose had left the country for good?

DRAT! Another short post down the toilet thanks to blogspot. It saves at the wrong moments and loses posts.

I shall have to save for short posts too.

I am looking at quite a few new games. 'Sins of a Solar Empire', 'Universe at War: Earth Assault', 'Supreme Commander' and 'Supreme Commander: Forged Alliances'.



Wilson is recommending 'World in Conflict' and 'Company of Heroes'.



I need to make a list. A list of priorities. Heh. Speaking of which, I have still not played 'Galactic Empires I' and 'Galactic Empires II' yet.

So, the clown escaped during a toilet visit! One would have thought that this was the stuff of Hollywood make-believe. Oh no.

I don't take Gamespot seriously as I think that it has sold out about a decade ago to large corporate interests as it is always pandering to the large, successful game companies and to their series games which had a lot of investment riding on them. Sequel after sequel appear to be highly praised. Good reviews? These are seemingly tied to access to interviews, previews and free games.

Rather than celebrating good gameplay, reviews are often fixed to a preconceived notion of how a 'genre' or game must be. How tiresome. Oh well, computer gaming has grown up. The cottage industry of the eighties is lost. Forever.

Addendum

Mister Paradox sent me a revealing article about Gamespot.

Dangerous Islamist on the loose

A would-be terrorist has escaped from the Onraet Road facility known as the Whitley Road Detention Centre. That is quite near from where I stay. Hmm..

After watching the news last night, Funnyman Wei Yi called up and asked me to wear my reservist gear, meaning the helmet and webbing and patrol! Grrr.... I'm done with my reservist, that clown has still to complete his 13-year cycle. Heheh.

I just got back from a run. 9:30. I wasn't in the mood to run though the timing for this run was faster than my usual 10:00 timing. I had done a 8:45 previously.

Tree

A ballpoint pen doodle done when I was manning a cash register. Leaky ballpoint pen. 11cm x 12cm.

Rainfall. Finally.

It had been dry for twenty-one days.

Insular

It is just as I expected. 'Persepolis' did not beat that Pixar cartoon.

'The Ideal Condition' - Paul Hartnoll

I had pretty much given up on Orbital after the partial fiascos of the last four albums. Due to Kelvin's recommendation, I listened to this new Paul Hartnoll effort which was a present surprise. The first three tracks cast a msmerising spell until broken in track 4 by the lacklustre vocals of Robert Smith (from the Cure) in 'Please'. 'Please' is the first single from 'The Ideal Condition' which I thought was highly inappropriate unless the record company had hope to pull listeners by the 'star power' of Robert Smith. After all, he is still worshipped in one quarter, mainly that of Goths. All in all, I found this new album to be mellow, pastoral even, without the insistent driving beats of some of Orbital's best. There were a few other tracks that were reminiscent of the best of early Orbital but they were far and few in between. A rather middling effort actually.

The Ideal Condition

1. Haven't We Met Before?
2. For Silence
3. Simple Sounds
4. Please
5. Unsteady Waltz
6. Nothing Else Matters
7. Patchwork Quilt
8. Iggro
9. Dust Motes

Recommended with reservations.

I'm trying to finish 'Joan of Arc' and 'Titan Quest: Immortal Throne'. It's been a while since I played them. I am not far from finishing them.

For a moment, I was considering stopping the play of Mobile Weapon: Battle Stations. However, the developers refunded my ship and gave me a new lease of life. I am continuing. Whee!

What a fine day. I haven't seen rain in almost two weeks now. The grass verges by the pavements are mostly yellow. I heard that there was actually rain at various parts of Singapore last night.

Borders Discount

25% off for purchases totalling S$75.00 or more for books, CDs, DVDs. Cardholders receive another 10% off. Click here.

The Seventh Tree

I'm listening to the new Goldfrapp album 'The Seventh Tree' which has been described as 'organic'. However, just about everything has been described as 'organic' these days and Goldfrapp's new effort is not certainly the first. I find the fourth album to be mellow with a hint of folk and far removed from the quietness of 'Felt Mountain' and the electroclash harshness of the 'Supernature' and 'Black Cherry'. A very stripped down sound.

The first single, 'A&E', is in my opinion, the best track on 'Seventh Tree'.

Good riddance, OpenOffice 2.3. Slow.

Crashing the System

It started like this. The old power supply in the system died some years ago. I replaced it with a HEC 550W supply which was considered to be reliable. (Wilson said so.) The ASUS P4B533 motherboard was also finally giving after seven years of abuse with two dead PCI slots. That led to intermittant voltage problems. Concurrently, the 'new' HEC supply was dying too, given that I have too many devices onboard, three HDD, one DVD writer, two or three PCI cards, video card requiring extra power and three or four fans.

There was also power leakage. The problems compounded and thus, it led to a chain of failures. Cascading failures. Something had to give.

Eventually, the power and heat issues led to a HDD failure. I lost photos and artwork. Oh well. Yes, I backed up everyone else's data except my own. Tragic.

A good power supply is very important. All the big branded computers out there generally use generic power supplies with a life span of 3-5 years, generally less. Three is the norm. Beware.

The Machine Age

Thanks to Wilson, I got the following:

1. 7Team 650W Power Supply
2. GEIL 800MHz 2GB DDR2 RAM Kit x 2
3. Gigabyte 8800 GT 512MB Video Card
4. Sony 20X DRU840A
5. Seagate 500 GB 7200 rpm SATA2 HDD
6.Intel Q6600 2.4 GHz (Quad)
7. Gigabyte GA EP35-DS3 Motherboard
8. Salman CPNS 9500AT Fan
9. Cooler Master- T05 Black Casing
10. Philips 220WS8FB 22" LCD

His recommendations essentially except that I opted out of the soundcard, keyboard and mouse and that I got Windows Home Premium and downgraded from a GTS to a GT video card.

I will be picking up a keyboard and soundcard soon.

My first new machine since 2001.

WOO!

What a way to start the morning. I hear from my colleagues that a young woman in her mid-thirties who works in the same building has passed away, leaving behind a husband and two kids. I have dealt with her previously. Heh. No confirmation as to the information yet. I am shocked. It seems that she died on Saturday. She died of lung cancer.

Lone Tree

Ballpoint pen doodle.

Theory

Illustration Friday theme: Theory

Ballpoint pen doodle. Drawn while manning the cash register. Heh. 9 cm x 8.5 cm. Cheap Chinese ballpoint pen which doesn't leak this time.

Dolmen

Ballpoint pen sketch, more of a doodle actually. Drawn while manning the cash register. Heh. 11.9 cm x 11.4 cm. Cheap Chinese ballpoint pen which leaks. Modified with ArcSoft PhotoStudio, a rudimentary graphics package.

Paths


Illustration Friday theme: Choose

Ballpoint pen sketch. 11.9 cm x 11.4 cm. Cheap Chinese ballpoint pen which leaks. Modified with ArcSoft PhotoStudio, a rudimentary graphics package.

I have a IT emergency here. My barcode printer is DOS-based. The original machine where the driver was installed is dead. I manage to find Windows-based drivers written by a third party but I have yet to test it. Let's hope it works.

Borders Discounts

20% off one full-priced book, card-holders get a further 10% off. Click here.

20% off one full-priced DVD. Click here.

For all Borders stores in Singapore.

Simply Priceless

Quoting from Soccernet:

"For City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson, it was three wins out of three against Sir Alex Ferguson. He has added this priceless double to a European Super Cup triumph over United in 1999 when he was at Lazio.

This ended United's 13-match winning streak, their best run in 103 years, and gave Arsenal a real boost at the top of the table."

Eriksson! What a hero! Bravo bravo!

I don't mind if Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City, Everton or Liverpool wins the title. Any team. Just not Man U. Okay, not Sunderland too, but Sunderland won't win anything, will it?

Manchester United 1 Manchester City 2

WOO HOO! Sven-Goran Eriksson had done it again! YESYESYES! Well done! Man U beaten twice by Man City! Simply inconceivable.

Nausea. Existential or physical?

The minor crisis is not abating.

This is irritating. I expect that this will escalate into a major crisis given the coming holidays.

I have suspicions, strong suspicions that things may not be as they seem. Then again, I could be wrong.

A minor crisis just now. My guard called. The night watchman had not come. I had to call the boss of the agency to ensure that there is a replacement.

There is a storm raging here.