The year has passed swiftly. It is already November!

The Hobbit Trilogy

I watched the three Peter Jackson Hobbit movies in the last few days on Amazon Prime. It is just one unmemorable action sequence after another, chase scene after chase scene. There is no artistry, nor gravitas nor drama. Disappointing.

And he has made the simple tale very bloated, the additions are unnecessary.

His favourite cinematic trick? The panning panorama with the camera. The entire thing is edited like a music video with fast edits, anything beautiful is just lost as one shot after another is piled on the viewer. I guess the commercial success of them means that there will be more of these kind of movies and that most people liked them. The backgrounds, whether painted or computer generated or digitally painted were mostly like that of a computer game though there were a few nice backdrops. A few.

What a mess.

An Unexpected Journey - 5/10
The Desolation of Smaug - 5/10
The Battle of the Five Armies - 5/10

At the Battle of the Five Armies, the ridiculous combat scenes and the toy sets out of a computer game were unconvincing. The fact that Thorin's company of dwarves could now decimate the orcs whereas they spent the first two movies running from a mere orc warband, in other words the lack of consistency. It is entertaining enough to an extent I guess. I watched them like how I would watch a cartoon. There is no magic in the movies. I get a sense of magic and wonder when I read the book.

 I was at UOB bank at Upper Thomson earlier today. It was very hot, the sunshine was glaring. Afterwards, I was at Da Pablo at Cluny Court for a while, talking to Siu Hean. 

 It is almost the weekend. I can read and draw again!

Is the BBC biased?

Does the BBC seem to have institutional bias? I was wondering if the BBC's seeming anti-Israel bias would show in their coverage of the current Israel-Hamas War and I noticed that despite the BBC's attempts to be balanced, the BBC tried by showing only a bit on the Hamas atrocities and hostage taking, the BBC simply cannot shake off what seems to be their institutional anti-semitism. It continues to mainly focus on the Palestinian civilians while giving lip service to the Hamas terror.

This was written in November 2023. I didn't put it up as I wanted to monitor the coverage further. BBC's coverage seems slanted. In any case, most media corporations have institutional bias of their own kind. I think this would be that of the BBC, at least, it seems so.

 I spent a fair amount of time clearing up my study today.

Initial impressions of Diablo IV

This was something I wrote a year ago. I wonder why I didn't publish it.

From 12th June 2023 my initial impressions of Diablo IV:

• Drab drab drab. Everything is decrepit and run down, faded colours. Ugh. Extreme poverty. I am still in Act 1. It will change.
  
  
• Gameplay. I have five characters of all the classes up to level 20. It remains faithful to D3, D2, etc. The Necromancer has many of the same skills. Yet, there are differences. The skill tree is now a matrix.
  
  
• The game seemingly has a very strong Catholic feel about it. Exorcism, reverend mothers, priests, burnings of heretics, penance, confession and more.
  
  
• Monsters. So far, I see the same monsters as in previous instalments.
  
  
• So far so good, I am enjoying it.
  
  
  

My most used vehicles in War Thunder

My top 10 most used: (no. of battles)

1. OF-40 (MTCA)
2. Pvkv m/43 (1946)
3. Pvkv II
4. Leopard 1
5. T-72AV (TURMS)
6. AMX-30
7. JPz 4-5
8. Sho't Kal Dalet
9. ST-A3
10. T95E1

My favourite vehicles in War Thunder

My favourite vehicles, I have multiple favourites for each rank:

Rank 1 - Strv m/31

Rank 2 - M4A3 (105mm), STUG IIIG

Rank 3 - Jagdpanzer 38(t), Avenger, Pvkv II, Pvkv m/43 (1946)

Rank 4 - JPz 4-5, Ferdinand, ST-A3

Rank 5 - T54E1, Leopard 1, OF-40, Somua SM,

Rank 6 - T95E1, Leopard 1A5, Vickers Mk.3, Type 89, OF-40 (MTCA)

Rank 7 - Leopard 2A4, TTD, Type 90, Type 90(B), Ariete (P), Leclerc S2, Leclerc, Ariete

Rank 8 - M1A2 SEP, M1A2 SEP V2, Leopard 2A7V, Leopard 2 PSO, Black Night, Challenger 3TD, Type 10, Ariete AMV, Leclerc AZUR, Strv 122B+, Merkava Mk. 4M, T-80BVM.

I suppose for rank 8, I do like most of them.

Overall favourite? It shifts all the time. No real overall favourite at this moment.

Travails with poor connection from an ISP

I have used Starhub broadband for two decades now, the speed and quality have been poor since day one but I didn't change it as it is tied to the TV subscription which my father used to watch.

Right now, the connection is intermittent. It is unusable unless one uses it to surf, for other activities like gaming, teleconferencing, trading, and anything that requires a constant connection, it is impossible, it has been a week now and Starhub has been unable to resolve it. The service staff is polite and apologetic. What can I do?

 I have uninstalled War Thunder a week or so ago. I have spent a staggering 5100 hours over the last four or five years and I enjoyed myself greatly. I am taking a break from it for a few months. Afterwards, I will log back in and do a few things. I don't know if I want to play anymore.

I just threw out a stack of old newspapers dating from 2014. They were mainly the entertainment and restaurants secions. I was looking at places to bring Sweetie back then. Time really does fly. It has been nine years.

Uninstalling Diablo IV

I played the campaign and enjoyed levelling my necromancer to level 51. After which I stopped, I could not bear to continue to level 100. The story was silly, the campaign tedious and I could not imagine myself playing more. I did play my druid, barbarian, rogue and sorcerer to level 31-32. I have uninstalled last week. It was just enough.

New Diablo 4 patch

There is a lot of anger over the new patch. Phew! I have uninstalled. In any case, my characters are too low level to be affected.

Diablo IV uninstalled

Diablo IV uninstalled. A decent game, well-crafted but visually dull. The content is just boring and the story is silly. I will say more about it later.

Enough of it for now, maybe, I will play more when the expansion is released.

I have a level 51 necromancer, level 31 rogue, level 33 druid, level 33 barbarian and a level 32 sorcerer. I realise that I was bored.

 I tried Diablo IV tonight, not bad.

Pixel 7a

I ordered a Pixel 7a from Amazon over the weekend to place my five year old Samsung S9+.

• The Pixel 7a, first impressions:
• It runs hot, very hot as compared to my old Samsung S9+.
• It is a mid-range phone and it feels like one too whereas, the S9+ was state of the art and a first class mobile. Anyway, the Pixel 7a is just what I am expected, a generic, bland, mid-range but functional device that should serve me for 2-5 years hopefully.
• Interface. The Pixel 7a is somewhat clumsy in its interface design, it lacks a BACK button which the S9+ has thoughtfully provided which made it for a friendlier and faster use. Going back to the previous page or menu is dependent on back and every app in how it is written.
• The lack of an audio jack. Well, I don't use it for music.
• The lack of a SD card slot.
• It is manufactured by Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision), the folks who make stuff for Apple, HP, and many other companies.

It is impossible to get by through life without any mobile apps today. Mobile apps are needed for government services, banking and much much more.

Tropical Forest Sceneries

 

I went to the Tropical Forest Sceneries and it wasn't very good. It consisted of some photos, some books and a few paintings in two tiny rooms. That was it. If you had to make the trip there, well..