Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year 2010 - 31st Dec

Year 2009 will come to an end soon, at this time now, there's only another 15 hours and 19 minutes more to go. This year has been a pretty so-so year for me, with me starting my Masters in Uniersiti Malaya, with me starting to develop my website, a couple of relatives weddings and numerous new things in my life. Well, at the least I'm grateful that this year, there hasn't been any rough rides like the ones I had in 2006. Year 2006 was one of the worst years I've faced so far but yet I do not want to discuss about it any further. Well, as it is customary to make resolutions for the new year 2010, here are my resolutions for the new year:-

1> Complete and get my website running.
2> Complete my Masters in the first half of the year
3> Take effort to discover "the other half"
4> Buy myself a new graphic card for my computer
5> Buy myself a used but still working car

Hmm...well, that's all I can think of at the moment, but I think they're relatively achievable. Looking back at this year, it seems that this year was not really much of a year of achievements, I had not really accomplished much this year and therefore, I hope that the resolutions I made will be the accomplishments that I can talk about again this time of the year next year. The New Year eve celebration will probably be spent with relatives and family with not much parties and stuff.

Anyways, although I know its a little belated for christmas, but heck:

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND 

A HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

The Limits of a Human Voice - 28th Dec

I'm not sure if any readers out there actually remember the movie: "The Fifth Element" starred by Milla Jovovich and Bruce Willis on a mission stop Armageddon of the whole Earth in the distant future setting. Well, what I would like to highlight here is the opera scene by the blue alien diva or named as Miss Plavanaguna. Well, if you don't remember, here's the video (the focus here is last digital voice part, starting at 3:25 ):-



Now, that sure sounds like electronic synthesizers voice. It was thought at the time that it was not possible to sing them humanely and therefore the electronic voices were added at the time. But look at the following video of a girl singing the same opera, but only the last part where it sounds like synthesizers in the movie.



When I first watched this video, I was thinking that this girl would have screwed up at make herself look silly but in the end I was totally awed by her supreme voice prowess. This video has definitely proved that the human voice hasn't actually reached it's true potential and there's more than meets the eye in the human race.

Happy Winter Solstice Festival - 22nd Dec

It's Winter Solstice Fefstival today! We'll probably stay at home and have some home-cooked food such as chicken, prawn and miscellaneous items. Oh and ya, we'll probably have some "Tang Yuen" too. Tang Yuen are actually soft glutinous rice balls either eaten with ginger broth or just dry varieties. But anywyas, this festival marks the coming of a Christmas and New Year soon!

Blood Type Personality - 22nd Dec

Often, I'm being told that the blood type of a person may somehow reveal a little bit on the personality of a person, which is according to the Japanese. Well, I for one would believe that the personality of a person largely depending on his / her environment or condition the person was raised. But what about children? I'm sure that their personality is not yet fully developed and therefore, somewhat is assumed to be the more "pure" form of personality. The Japanese did in fact conduct a small unofficial test with kindergarten kids on the relationship between personality and blood type. Here's the video:-



I wonder how much of it is true?

Rev-Up Contest - 21st Dec

Want to win RM1000 every week?
Or even RM5000 as the grand prize?
Just become a fan of REVIVE Isotonic on Facebook and upload your videos or pictures of yourself
"revving" up and you might win huge cash sums! It's so easy, capture yourself enjoying (ask someone else to capture you or you capture someone else!) and you may win!

You can become a fan of REVIVE Isotonic drink HERE  Join Now!

Serj Tankian Orders Coffee - 10th Dec

For people who listens to System of Down music or heck, listen to Serj Tankian's singing, the video shows how he would sound like when ordering a coffee at Starbucks. I laughed really hard at the video. It's really funny and combines some of Serj's voice singing in the clip:-

Borderlands Review - 9th Dec

Borderlands, the game which I had actually finished quite a while ago but only now did I managed to a review for it.Well, first impressions before playing: This game must be really fun to play in multiplayer or singleplayer. Impressions after playing: This really is fun! The waepons are endless, I can get any kind of weapon! Playing with friends is cool! After playing for 4 weeks: Bah, this is getting kinda monotonous...kinda feel like the Claptrap in the main screen now looking at it...Anyways, here's a review on one of the more anticipated games of the year published by Gearbox. No Spoilers ahead!


Now the story of the game is relatively simple with not much twists and turn until you reach the ending. All the tension build-up would lead to a surprisingly weak ending.Heck, even the story itself is rather cliched of you saving the world. There's no back-story of any of the characters in the game, even for the NPCs nor for yourself, which makes it somewhat a blind wandering in the world, dictated by the flow the game have already set. This makes the game somewhat dependent on your own initiative to finish the game and also to reach the destination teh whole game was all about. If you lack the will, this is probably not for you. Although most quests are entirely dependent on your decision to do them, save the quests provided by the NPCs, I find myself constantly wanting to finish them just to see what else this game can offer. These quests themselves aren't something to be applauded of either, but neither are they lacking in variety: Search for items to build a custom gun (It's not really custom, more like a fixed assembly in which the parts are already scattered at pre-determined places), kill this amount of creatures and collect their stuff, switch off machines, kill bossess, and such. In fact, I would say that the gameplay is rather standard, but comparatively it has the fun element.


Graphically, this game is in a class on its own as it is not that realistic, but somehow it manages to model most things correctly and convincingly. It really has the comic book feel to it with the cell-shading, but sometimes looking at a something from a different angle would remove the cell-shading and reveal a realistic looking object. In overall, I really liked the graphics as it is something fresh from the usual realistic looking graphics in the latest FPS games as of late. The damage values, and the info screen for the items is rather a nice touch to the game and environment to the game. Due to the fact that the game has limited inventory (Not by the strength values we have but the number of items in your inventory), the info screen for the items eases the process of managing your inventory by letting you choose which item do you want to stock. After finishing the game, I would say that this game has done a very good job in providing unique looks for itself.

In other matters, this game did not meet up to my expectations actually. Is is boasted to have a multitude of weapons, tonnes of them with various variety, but the thing is that: where's the so-called rocket spewing assault rifle or machine gun? So far, I've only found a rocket shotgun and it's not even fun to use due to its horrendous accuracy. But accordingly, there were supposed to be guns firing all sorts of crazy stuffs with mixes here and there, but so far, it didn't exist for me. And I thought we were able to customize the vehicles? The only thing I could customize was the paint color and either a machine gun or rocket launcher as the mounted weapon. In fact, I would expect a much more detailed customization, such as having your own garage to store the various vehicles you created, armory to store the various weapons assembled from scratch and such. It just puts me off that there are only some parameter change in weapon variety.Although, the concept of having modifications for your grenades is a great concept and totally alters the gameplay in comparison to other FPS games available now.

Well, besides the ones shown above, I have here also other actual screenshots, with low medium quality texture and standard resolutions and they still look ok to me.

 

  

Overall here are the scores for the game:-
Story:- 5/10
Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay: 8/10
General: 9/10

Hyundai - Kia Scam - 7th Dec

Just when I thought I've seen the worst of scams through email, another came today with the exact contents as the following without any apparent reason which makes it obviously a scam:-

=================================================== 

£850,000.00GBP has been awarded to you. Send
yourName,Address,Age,Tel,Occupation
to(hyundai.Kia001@live.com)

=================================================== 

Well, I really can't believe how much effort they put these days.

Just like my old physics teacher used to say: Poor Thing Lah...

Another Powerball Lottery Scam - 7th Dec

I wonder if the scammers out there have anymore imagination? Previously, I made a posting on the Powerball International scam (1) HERE and I was wondering if they have moved sites as the previous site was offline now. Anyways, again I've received another one through my email today with the following content:-

======================================================================

POWER BALL ONLINE INT’L JACKPOT/ LOTTERY ASSOCIATION
ASIA PACIFIC REGIONAL OFFICE
 
Dear Sir/Ma,
 
We are Pleased to inform you that your email was 

selected among the winning numbers of the recently Lotto conducted from 

the Lotto Website and we shall be glad if you can claim your prize, 

please respond to this mail within 72 hours otherwise we will 

assume that you are not interested.
 
We conduct the Lotto using Lotto as part of our tax 

relief program set up by the International Lottery Board and America Government, 

on this note we congratulate you and wish you best of luck as you claim 

the prize attached to this Lotto.
 
For more details visit:

http://powerballonlinejackpot.web.officelive.com/default.aspx 
 
THAILAND CONTACT PERSON:  MR.KANE  LEE.
(Winner’s directorate office)
TEL: + (66) 874-936-872
Office Fax: + (66) 273-452-16
LOTTERY CO-ORDINATOR.
 
Coordinator Power ball Jackpot Lottery
Regd No: 79472002

====================================================================

Well, lets see, any reader out there, try visiting the site and tell me if your ticket number is 

the same and your number is the same? I'm sure you will see the exact same number and exact

same ticket ID as me. Even in another email to another person who I don't even have any ties

with have the same numbers, as seen HERE

This really shows how much "creative" and how much reduced intelligence that these scammers have

in thinking of scams to place on others, and above all, I'm a skeptic in things that I did not join. Furthermore,

there are actually incoherency in the information provided:-

1> Powerball is only held exclusively in America (No Asia Pacific Powerball Associations)

Refer to the MUSL site: HERE 

2> The ticket you bought is only for you and has a unique serial number and is not repeated.

3> I've already bought the ticket, wouldn't they already have my details? Why provide again?

4> Shouldn't I have gotten a call from Powerball themselves saying that I've won?

5> Shouldn't they have a sort of a ceremony seeing that I've won? Others are having a 

blast in parties and ceremonies, as the pictures depict?

Strange but none of it has got to me. 

Powerball International Lottery: FAIL

Alien Movie - 4th December

In view of the upcoming game for next year, Aliens vs predator, I'm sure there are current interests on the aliens depicted in the movies are vast and therefore, here we have downloads for all the alien movies made so far that does not have any instances of predators in them. The main star is Sigourney Weaver who acted as Ripley in all 4 movies. The download links are as below, enjoy!

ALIEN 1

http://rapidshare.com/files/34015684/divx-alien2003.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015993/divx-alien2003.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016278/divx-alien2003.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016238/divx-alien2003.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015681/divx-alien2003.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016109/divx-alien2003.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016087/divx-alien2003.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34003002/divx-alien2003.part8.rar










ALIEN 2
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015886/aliens-zsiso-cd1.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016080/aliens-zsiso-cd1.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016021/aliens-zsiso-cd1.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016004/aliens-zsiso-cd1.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016235/aliens-zsiso-cd1.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015939/aliens-zsiso-cd1.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015995/aliens-zsiso-cd1.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34003241/aliens-zsiso-cd1.part8.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015912/aliens-zsiso-cd2.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015687/aliens-zsiso-cd2.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015921/aliens-zsiso-cd2.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016019/aliens-zsiso-cd2.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016065/aliens-zsiso-cd2.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015664/aliens-zsiso-cd2.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016028/aliens-zsiso-cd2.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34002911/aliens-zsiso-cd2.part8.rar

ALIEN 3

http://rapidshare.com/files/34104998/alien3.a.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34105076/alien3.a.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34105409/alien3.a.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34105504/alien3.a.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34105206/alien3.a.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34105200/alien3.a.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34104886/alien3.a.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34091730/alien3.a.part8.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34105283/alien3.b.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34105018/alien3.b.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34105413/alien3.b.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34105242/alien3.b.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34105352/alien3.b.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34105418/alien3.b.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34105624/alien3.b.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34091513/alien3.b.part8.rar

ALIEN 4

http://rapidshare.com/files/34015929/incite-alien4a-int.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015916/incite-alien4a-int.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016173/incite-alien4a-int.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016958/incite-alien4a-int.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016339/incite-alien4a-int.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015963/incite-alien4a-int.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015944/incite-alien4a-int.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34004258/incite-alien4a-int.part8.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016233/incite-alien4b-int.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34015709/incite-alien4b-int.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016583/incite-alien4b-int.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016010/incite-alien4b-int.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016176/incite-alien4b-int.part5.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016399/incite-alien4b-int.part6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34016116/incite-alien4b-int.part7.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/34004141/incite-alien4b-int.part8.rar