Thursday, February 21, 2008

Pro Tour: Kuala Lumpur and me

I've never been embarrassed to admit that at the core, I've always been a geek. I don't play or even follow sports on TV (except 'pro' wrestling like the WWE for a while), I'm easily amused by silly references to bits of geeky trivia (especially Monty Python ones), and I squeal like a Japanese fangirl when the latest Fallout sequel was announced two years back after a six-year hiatus; congratulations! I'm a geek.

That, and the fact that I play Magic: the Gathering, the number one trading card game in the world. Nothing screams geek more than grown men playing with and paying through the nose for pieces of colourful cardboard. Except maybe grown men dressed as elves and wizards and Jedi in a gaming convention.

To tell you the truth, the only reason why I haven't done cosplay is because I'm neither that crazy about anime nor do I have the money to do so.

Back to Magic. Each year, Wizards, the company that makes Magic, organises about four large scale tournaments called the Pro Tour around the world. A bunch of friends and I, being the Magic geeks that we are, had to go when they had it in Kuala Lumpur last week; it was a once in a lifetime opportunity as the Pro Tour never occurs in the same city twice, let alone in the Southeast Asian region.

My very own planeswalker card!

And so, I joined in the many side events that were organised during the four days of the Pro Tour. That's when I found out that I was bad at being a geek just as bad as I was at being a sportsman; out of more than 15 games I played, I only won a whopping three times. What's worse than being a geek? Being bad at it.

But that didn't stop us from enjoying ourselves. Furthermore, playing Magic for four days made me realise one thing; no matter how much I try, I doubt I'll ever be able to quit the game for good. It's just too fun, to say the least. Maybe go on a hiatus or something, but I'll likely keep on playing even if I keep being bad at it. Plus I have friends who can help me stay on in this game, and I sorta figured out a way to keep this hobby alive without killing my wallet or my grades (too much).

Anyway, the Pro Tour is over and done with, and as usual, I took quite a number of pictures. Because people sitting around a table with their noses deep in cards don't make interesting photos, here's some of the more interesting highlights of the four days.

We spent a lot of time trading and selling cards, which allowed some of us to leave the KL Convention Centre with more money than we entered.

This here is Seishiro Ookubo, a Japanese man who makes spectacular 3-D art with trading cards.


An oversized 3-D Clone up close.

He makes abacus-like life counters too!


Pokemon! He wouldn't take it out until we begged him because Pokemon was no longer under Wizards.



The main event at the Pro Tour was, of course, the Pro Tour. To tell you how huge this event is, a total of USD230,795 forms the prize payout, with USD40,000 going to the winner of the Pro Tour. The winner of Pro Tour: Kuala Lumpur is none other than Mr. Jonny Magic himself, Jon Finkel.


That's the typical expression of a Magic Pro; head in hands, deep in concentration. In one word, that translates to "constipated".

Being the obsessive fanboys we are, Brendan and I took pictures with Jon.

And then we headed to Chili's for dinner, where we refilled our bottomless Nachos four times.

One other memorable occasion was when one of us (Sam) lost his trade binder worth anywhere between RM500 to RM1,000. To cut a very, very long story short, we found out that it had been stolen by a judge thanks to the wonders of CCTV technology. We got the binder back, and the judge got a shitload of penalties thrown his way, probably worth as much or even more than the binder itself. This shows you why you shouldn't steal, kids!

All in all, spending four days playing Magic served only to cement the geek in me. Even though I know I'll never be able to earn thousands of dollars at geekery, seeing the Magic Pros doing well at the game and earning money while they're at it gives me a small sense of pride that I'm part of this much-maligned and misunderstood community. Hey, Bill Gates was is a geek, too. May geeks prevail!

MONEYYYY!

Pointless Fact of the Day:
The wildly popular Fallout role-playing game series started in 1997, continued in 1998 with Fallout 2 and hasn't received a proper sequel since (the spin-offs all sucked badly). It had a very cool 1950s-inspired post-apocalyptic (of the nuclear kind) future atmosphere to it; by 1950s, I mean computers with vacuum tubes and underground fallout shelters. If you like playing computer games, give the series a try. In fact, I'm currently replaying the ten year old Fallout 2 in anticipation of the upcoming Fallout 3 later this year. If you want the CD, I can lend it to you. Spread the (geeky) love!

Zhen was here at 1:17 pm, 0 comment(s)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Valentine's Day 2008

A little late to be posting this up, but I was busy last week (more on that in a future post). In fact, I'm also helping the new Monash batch with orientation this week, which once again results in more blogging material but not enough time to write them.

Back on topic. Last year I wrote a poem about Valentine's Day; not that it's not stupid and pointless (despite myself never having celebrated it with a significant other before) but merely a commercialised, hyped-up occasion based on Saint Valentine, a person who may or may not have even existed. An analogy would be comparing Valentine's Day to Christmas; how did the birth of Christ lead to Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman?
This Day Of Remembrance

And so it arrives, knocking at the door,
The day of remembrance of an overlooked saint
Whose name remained in popular lore,

Yet causes unwarranted stress and strain,
Birthed from tales of sacrificial lambs,
An excuse for birth of affection feigned.

Though love so pure can from normal men stem,
More often than not, the heart does lie,
Catastrophes blamed on bodily phlegm.

Pitiful are flowers that wantonly try
To draw in a bee with petals of flame
When nectar alone will get them by,

For even Venus beat the fly at the game.
So thus I lie in waiting for the one
Who pierces my being by the whisper of her name,

And then I shall make this day of this month
No more or less important than another;
Every moment burns, fiery like the Sun.

The foolish are not mistaken, but rather
Seizing the day for unconditional love.
I too realise the folly of my endeavours,

But never will I let the florists and cardmakers gain
From this day of remembrance of an overlooked saint.
Of course I've already met someone who fits the description in the fifth stanza, and life is good.

But as I've mentioned before, Valentine's Day is not pointless. It gives people an excuse to be nicer to their partners, and to do things that they normally wouldn't do for somebody they love (like putting up a billboard advertisement to propose to a girlfriend). Nevertheless, for personal (and financial) reasons, I refuse to allow "florists and cardmakers" earn money off me on Valentine's Day. Yeah, I'm a cheapskate and will friggin' be one until I start earning a five digit (non-Indonesian rupiah-style currency) income.

Hence, on Valentine's Day eve, the girlfriend and I cooked lemon pasta for dinner. It turned out rather well, except for the fact that we overdid with the lemon as well as the portion; we made enough to feed four!

That's real Norwegian Smoked Salmon we're talking about here!

So, because we did this on the 13th, technically I still have yet to celebrate Valentine's Day. Props to me, huh? Now you can't call me a hypocrite for celebrating it.

Pointless Fact of the Day
Courtesy of Ms Lai Suk Yin, the polymath who usually follows me to choir.
Pasta al Limone
Serves: 2 people

Ingredients:
1/4 cup or a bit more lemon juice - you'll need about 3 or 4 lemons
depending on how big.
1/4 cup of chopped parsley
Grated Parmesan cheese, however much you like though about 1/4 to half
a cup works fine

Optional ingredients:
A nice big chunk of crab meat, or fake crab sticks cut up (the second is easier)
OR: thin slices of smoked salmon

1) Boil enough
pasta for 2 people. Half a box, 3/4 box should do, any
extra, keep it for lunch.

2) Drain the
pasta, season with salt and pepper, then toss with the
parsley, lemon juice, and grated Parmesan.

3) If using fake crab sticks, slice them into long thinnish strips,
put a teaspoon or two of butter/margerine into a small frying pan,
wait for butter to melt. Then quickly fry the slices up, just enough
for it to smell good and maybe get just a little brownish, but don't
need to. Just sort of cooking it to make it taste better only. When
done, pour onto
pasta and mix it all up.

4) If using smoked salmon, just slice it up and set aside on a plate.
Don't mix with warm
pasta or it'll become cooked smoked salmon, unless
that's what you want.

Serve with a nice green salad, with some tomatoes, if desired.

Zhen was here at 1:30 am, 0 comment(s)

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Chinese New Year 2008

Chinese New Year is back again, so welcome to the year of the Rat (not Mouse as Disney would prefer)! As usual, I spent the first four days in my hometown of Melaka, where 95% of my rather huge extended family lives. Four days of tidbits and relatives and house hopping, oh my! Must be fun, huh? To be frank, I usually face the CNY with some sense of dread, because the typical house visit goes as follows:
  1. Enter house and exchange pleasantries and angpows (yay!)
  2. Parents chat animatedly with the hosts, with intermittent comments by the kids
  3. Kids become bored after about 10 minutes
  4. Effect continues until end of turn we leave the premises, anytime between an hour and a half (at least!) and four hours
Cousins' children getting a feel of the CNY spirit.

One of the aforementioned kids' dads, performing his fatherly obligations. That's my sis in the background.

Ain't she cute? Aww...

I think this pattern applies to many youths out there too, or maybe it's just because the banana in me finds it tough to communicate well with my relatives, or sometimes there's just too few people my age to speak to, or the shows on TV were all in Chinese and without subtitles, or because I don't have a portable gaming system like a PSP and didn't dare bring a book back to read because they say it's rude to read while visiting people's homes and that the Chinese word for "book" sounds the same as "lose" and overly superstitious folks chided me for doing so in the past before.

Wish I had a PSP myself, or a DS. Nintendo FTW!

Sigh. But as Reb Tevye can attest, it's tradition... TRADITION! But at least I had an okay phone camera to alleviate the boredom, and I actually enjoyed myself at some of these visits.

Boredom in action. Wait, that's sort of a paradox.

Oh, and this year's angpow collection increased after slumping for several years! Whoo! I suppose everything else are necessary evils if you wanna get those red packets of dough.

My brother got a taste of his celebrity-hood when a random dude approached him for photos.

Well, there's just a couple more days until the end of the CNY, so enjoy them while you can. And if you aren't Chinese, go visit one today! But make sure that there are married people around first if you want them angpows.

A cousin of mind is getting married to a cool Indian dude, which explains this picture.

On the other hand, nobody is marrying the Hamburglar since the 70s.

Pointless Fact of the Day:
Our Prime Minister, Abdullah Badahwi first said on Tuesday that he won't dissolve the parliament on Wednesday, only to dissolve it after that statement has went to press. What gives?

Zhen was here at 11:36 am, 0 comment(s)

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Resolutions, schmezzolutions... again

Ofttimes I want to blog about something but was just too lazy to get around to doing it. Now that I'm in the mood, I suppose I'd better get around to writing about this ASAP. Also, all of you know how bloody verbose I can get.

Technically, I'm already an entire month too late to be making New Year's resolutions, but who the hell makes the rules anyway, eh? But first, let's take a look at how far along I've come since last April when I last checked on my 2007 resolutions:
  1. Pick up music
  2. Run (and generally exercise) more
  3. Be a good ______
  4. Game less
  5. Continue or rewrite my NaNoWriMo project
  6. Do well in my papers
  7. Stick to all these resolutions
1. Pick up music (FAILED)
Sorta expected. I just couldn't find somewhere to fit even more classes (or even self-teaching sessions) without some adverse effect on my studies... or wallet.

2. Run (and generally exercise) more (GREAT SUCCESS, IS NICE!)
Well... I definitely exercised more in comparison to 2006, though not by a very large margin.

At the Malay Mail Big Walk... Walking. Really quickly.

3. Be a good ______ (GREAT SUCCESS, IS NICE!)
This was just a catchall for the commitments I had in 2006:
  1. SJBAYS/TQ - With a camp and an unpaid (it's charity!) emceeing gig, I would say that I've done well.
  2. YKLS - Became a member of the chamber choir, sang at the annual production, went to Jakarta for the Asian Choir Games and even found myself a significant other; definitely a great success!

    The Young KL Singers at Move It!, our 2007 production.

    You really do meet people in the choir. *Wink*

  3. MUSA - The Monash Student Council had a rather bumpy, drama-filled rollercoaster ride of a year that would put The O.C. to shame. That was supposed to happen! Seriously.
  4. MNSM - I went from being the Nature Society's treasurer to being its president. And our membership ballooned by almost fourfold, and we had like four (or more?) successful activities last semester. Hell yeah!

    In Pahang with elephants.

  5. Family - I am still the child who does the most chores around the house. As far as I'm concerned, I'm all set.
Whoo!

4. Game less (HALF-HALF LA)
I probably still played the same amount of computer games in 2007 as I did in 2006. Even if I did play less, the extra time was probably filled with other things like downloading and watching Heroes, House, Lost, and an assortment of random movies.

5. Continue or rewrite my NaNoWriMo project (FAILED)
Gah! Not only did I spend 0 hours on writing fictional rubbish, I couldn't participate in last year's NaNoWriMo due to an extremely busy November.

6. Do well in my papers (EFFING FAILED!)
I'm pretty much particularly pissed about not pulling off this one. Out of the eight subjects I took last semester, I got 3 High Distinctions, 1 Distinction, and 4 Credits! That's four subjects within the 60~69 mark range! Pissed, pissed,
pissed, pissed.

7. Stick to all these resolutions (FAILED)
To my credit, at least I kept 2.5 out of 6 of the resolutions I made for 2007.

Nevertheless, I still think that 2007 had been the highlight of my life thus far. In the past year, I've done so much more
with my life than I thought was possible (at least by my standards).

My 2004/5 in Singapore comes close by a margin.

In fact, whenever random people (especially aunties, they tend to be nosier than most) ask me about the activities I'm involved in, with great pride I'd roll the list off my tongue as though memorised - Student council, Nature Society, Choir, temple activities, and for a while, the performing arts club - and then go into expository mode, droning on and on about the amount of time I spent on each activity every week.

Self-satisfying ego masturbation, call it what you will, but it's moments like these that remind me why I burden myself with so much on my plate in the first place: To show ofSelf improvement. I believe that with everything I join, no matter how much or how little effort I put in, I'm living my life just that little bit fuller. Especially at this stage in life, when I'm merely a student without as much responsibilities as a full-fledged adult, I have more freedom to indulge in endeavours that interest me.

I may not be in a place to say this as I'm no paragon of a student (look at my results!), but I do have an advice to fellow students out there; if something (or for that matter, someone) tickles your fancy, do something about it right now! You may not have the chance or opportunity anymore once you're working-aged.

Carpe diem!

And at the end of the day, you can always brag about your successes to your friends or heck, even your children. Bwahahahaha! Until an even more successful person comes along...

Of course, that's no reason not to keep on trying to do good with your life, eh? With that in mind, as well as taking into account my failure to meet half my resolutions for 2007, I'm coming up with a relatively more achievable and realistic list for 2008.


1. Maintain a Distinction average
Truth to be told, I didn't put 100% into my studies last year (surprise surprise). I really got too caught up with my activities to the extent that I became disillusioned with my course (a Business degree, incidentally). I lost interest to put it simply. However, I discovered the simple reason for this; it's because I didn't go to enough classes to understand and appreciate the subjects I took. Not this year, though. I'll make it through simply because of the following equation:

Because I pay RM2,500 per subject in Monash (not taking into account miscellaneous fees) and have a total of 36 contact hours per semester (3 hours per week over 12 weeks of study), that makes up to RM69.40 per hour. This means that for every hour of class I skip, I'm wasting RM70!

RM70, OMGWTFBBQROFLMAO!

So, the next time you decide to skip a class, think of the amount of money you're wasting. I will, and hopefully that will help me get better grades. A Distinction average is a realistic target, too.

2. Cut down on buying so much food
I don't drink much and I can't stand cigarette smoke; the only vice I have would probably be my expenditure on food, especially junk like chips, candy, chocolates and chicken (mmm... fast food). Yeah, I know I don't look it. The main reason why this resolution is here is not to protect my health but my finances.

3. Get myself a new laptop by year's end
I bought this desktop PC at the end of 2004; by the end of this year it'll be four years old, and probably time to retire this machine and move on to a more powerful, more portable one. Besides, I really really really want to play Fallout 3 when it comes out. Hopefully I'll earn or save up enough by the last quarter of the year. Nothing beats indulging in something with your own hard-earned cash.

And that's about it. I won't get too ahead of myself like I did last year. If there's something I learned, it's that coming up with too many resolutions defeats the purpose; because you already expect to fail at some of your goals, you might not try hard enough to achieve them. Hopefully, with just three I can concentrate better.

But that doesn't mean that adding more to the list in the future is out of the question either. Like I've said earlier; who the hell makes the rules about resolutions anyway, eh? Until next time, cheers, and have a happy Chinese New Year.

Pointless Fact of the Day:
A little plug for my choirmates Ian Chow and Tracy Wong. They released their joint album last month entitled "He Says / She Says":


A little blurb on the album:
"Ease yourself into a summery blend of soulful melodies and breezy folk-pop/rock. Without pessimism and affectation, Ian and Tracy, two Malaysian singers-songwriters, simply show the full range of their eclectic influences over the 13 songs from their debut album."

Yeah, that doesn't really shed a lot of light on the music available on the album. So take a listen to them at http://music.download.com/ianandtracy/! I especially like Bidadari. If anyone's interested in getting themselves a copy (RM20 for a limited time as opposed to RM25), you can inform me or you can get in touch with them directly on either of their blogs: Ian's / Tracy's

Support the Malaysian music industry! Buy the original.

Alternatively, sit in my car sometime and I'll let you listen to the CD.

Zhen was here at 3:34 am, 0 comment(s)