Tuesday, April 05, 2005

About time for an update don't you think? So here it is...

Today started off typically enough,the old wakeup-oncomp-brushteeth-playmaple routine. Trying to level up,which is like,oh so difficult.When i was slaughtering a herd of fire boars though, I received a SMS from Chienzz,asking me to meet him at 1 outside his school. Wierd,isn't he supposed to be in a lecture now? And he told me that he intended to skip C Maths Lecture. What a guy.

Anyway,I couldn't keep to the appointment,as my grandma was out,with the key.It was until 1.20pm that she finally set foot in the house,and handed over to me the reins of the outdoors. Change of plan:Meet at Toa Payoh Interchange.Fair enough,but impatient chienzz wanted me to get ther in 5 minutes.Woah,no way man,I know you're reading this by the way.Yes YOU,CHIENZZ,don't turn your head around trying to act innocent.Nonetheless,I managed to arrive there in 10 minutes,and still ended up waiting for him.Sheesh.In the meantime,I continued my reading of Man,Civilisation And Conquest, a two-year history textbook for European Schools,which i just found out...

After a simple meal of prawn noodles,we made our way to Popular bookstore.Chienzz wanted to buy Ten Year Series,wanna get ready for promos.On the way,he enlightened me on the happenings in his school,like how he was bullied,how his belongings got vandalised,how tough F Maths is,how horrific chemistry is,yada yada yada....And he repeated it about nine times for the entire outing.Soon Augustine came to look for us.I don't know how he knew we'll be there,but he just did...awesome...

With a phonecall,we the terrific trio took the subterranian public transport to Orchard road,to meet up with Timonty and Jasmine Incoporated,to hang out with them. Went to Macdonald's, then loithered in Kinokuniya for a long time,laughing and making jokes out of everything that could be made a joke out of,like Sauron's finger's model. LOL. With that we went home.

There,done.Another boring day of my boring exsistence chronicled.Until next time.Tata.

MapleTip:Warrior Job Advancement At Level 30
If you like one-handed weapons and the defense of shields,a Fighter or a Page would suit you. A Fighter is more on the offensive side,with skills such as Rage fully maximising a warrior's weapon attack capabilities.It is not quite the same for a Page,as Threaten scares off monsters, allowing the Page to pursue and hunt them down at his/her leisure.
A Spearman excells in ranged attack,although not as long-ranged as compared to other classes.A Spearman's attack exceeds those of a Fighter and Page by far,and although the latter and former can both use spears and polearms,the Spearman pushes unleashes a spear's or polearm's true potential.To make up for the defense lost to having no shield,Iron Will increases the weapon defense as well as Magic defense for the entire party for a short time,incliding the caster.

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Good evening ladies and gents,glad you all can make it here tonight. Just kidding,couldn't think of a better way to start things off,must be the writer's block on my table.Hmm...Gotta take action soon.

Anyway,today I had a rather-oh what's that word-holy,appointment with one of my schoolmates,Hai Kiat of 4J,today. He cordially invited me to his church's easter celebration happening today and tomorrow at the Indoor Stadium.
I'm impressed.
The church could actually afford to book the ENTIRE stadium for 2 days,and let the public enter free of charge.Wow.
Anyway,we were supposed to meet each other at Kallang MRT at 1pm,only the both of us, cos all of his frenz didn't respond to his invitation.Poor guy.You oughta be ashamed of yourselves, Hai Kiat's so-called "Frenz".Upon arrival,i noticed the station was jam packed with people of all ages,sizes and colors.I had a hunch they were here for the same reason i am.If it is so,the stadium would be packed.It was hilarious watching the lady inside the "fish tank" shouting to the bystanders to "Stand Back!" Priceless.
After a long walk to the stadium,we were told to queue up.Crap,i hate queuing,and the person behind us tried time and time again to cut our queue.But his efforts were thwarted by Hai Kiat, who made use of his bulk to seal the passageway. Atta boy!
An hour and a half later,I was finally seated on a comfy reclining chair inside the comforts of the stadium,shielded from the harsh torrential rains that were coming down in sheets outside. Won't want to be out there when the mini-tyhpoon is on a rampage.Brr.... With the compulsory pleasantries and greetings exchanged,we sat down and waited for the show to begin.
Or so I thought.
The show didn't start until three.But when it did begin,it was kicked off with a series of rock-style biblical hymns,something totally new to me.I was amazed,but held it in check,didn't want to embarass myself in front of 17000 people.It was sorta cool and scary watching the people there singing along and moving to the beat.They were swaying their hands high in the air and jumping on the spot when the music got loud.They were sure a fervent and zealous lot,totally devoted to their faith,and that wasn't nessesarily a bad thing. Ha ha. Sadly,I didn't have the courage to join them. I just stood there and clapped my hands to any rythum my mind could make out from all that racket.
Then came the interesting part. A play.In a mixture of English and Mandarin,the drama wing of the City Harvest Church played out the dramatic story of Christ and his noble demise. Not that I had not heard about it before,but the way they tell the story makes it feel like I'm listening to it for the first time.Remarkable.
After another series of hip-hop praising tunes and a long prayer,the show was officially over. Good,for I'm starving. Rushed outside to acquire some sustenance,and they were VERY expensive sustenance indeed.A fish sandwich plus a simple hotdog amounted to 9 bucks. I was like "OOOkkkkk.....".Cursing under my breath,we started the long journey home.
I felt like telling you guys,my regular customers(Thank You),about my day today,and it is what you have just read. Sleep tight everyone. :)

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

I will always rememeber this day,the agony that this day brought,the anguish that it carried.
Why? Why must it be me? Why? Oh the agony! The pain! The Horror! The...

Ahem.Got a little carried away.Do not take offense.The 2004 GCE O Levels Joint Admission Excercise Results were released today.First choice:Mass Communication in Ngee Ann Poly,out.
Second:Media and Management at Singapore Poly,flew out the window.Third:Media Studies and Management offered by Nanyang Poly,in my next life maybe.Fourth:Media and Communications Management in Temasek Poly,never.Fifth:Law and Management at Temasek Poly,welcome aboard.
As you can see,the results are horrid,grotesque if you will.I got posted my FIFTH choice, courtesy of the ever-loving MOE.-Curse you-But,all was not lost. I had applied for the Mass Communication Course @ NP under the Special Admission Exercise,sorta like an appeal. Hopefully,*fingers crossed* I can be granted admission into the course of my choice. Check back for updates.

Spent the whole of today playing Maple Story,guess this is what you call a slacker's life. Not too bad,both my warrior and thief gained a level.Progress,as compared to last time when I spent ten days just to gain 50% in experience,and the laggy server is no help either.I got disconnected from the server at least 40 times today.I'm not complaining,just lamenting loudly.

My thief-In-Game-Name:Theifingtom-started the day as lvl 14,wearing Black Dream Set coupled with Black Ninja Boots,all cheap,low leveled items.The only item valuable enough to tempt a scammer would be the set of Snowballs,my weapon.Hard pieces of snowball that come in sets of 800 each,which must be recharged at your friendly neighbourhood armory upon depletion.They do pretty decent damage,40-65 to Green Mushrooms,good enough for my level.
By afternoon,I had leveled my rogue,with some help from my Maple Pal Litnight,level 25 warrior.Thanks to her,I could change my clothes to an awesome cool-looking blue set. Way cool.

After that,I logged on as my warrior.Spartan118 was level 36 at first,but level 37 by nightfall.
It was a slow and ardous task of exp gaining,with each ligator killed giving me a mere 0.03%.
And my motivation to train wasn't there,facing the same old character everyday will produce that effect.In a bid to alter my destiny,I teamed up with Litnight and Xiaoyun03,both lower lvled players,and went hunting.My exp meter rose 5%.Still too slow.Xiaoyun logged off soon after,leaving me and litnight to bite the dust.I then "abandoned" her for a while,to finish off a quest.Guess wad I got? A stupid 10% scroll for helmet defence. I was like,"What in the world..."
You get what i mean.Angry,sad and perturbed at the same time,I marched towards the Kerning City Sewers with speed,and a blood lust.200 Ligators fell in my wake of destruction,and my exp meter rose steadily towards 100%,with 13 more to go.Almost immeidately,I was hit with shocking news.

Litnight,lvl 25 warrior,lagged and died,taking 10% of her present exp with her as she did.The worst part was that she was very,very close to leveling up.Bad luck girl.But one thing good did come out of her death.She found and picked up a Mithril Pole Arm just prior to her demise. It was a powerful level 30 weapon with a level 35 weapon's attack,a formidable partner in a battle.
Sadly,she couldn't use it,yet. So I asked if I could borrow it,and she agreed.You cannot believe the fun I was having with that thing.

With a visual prompt from one of my newest additions to my social circle,I finally located and added Mapine to my buddy list. Before I had actually seen her,I had envisioned her to be a level 40+ Wizard,not the level 25 warrior I found.Oh well,you can't get it right all the time can you?
Chatted and trained with her for a while,found that she was a very-oh whats that word-cultured,gentle person,sorta like tissue paper. Oh my,wad a wierd comparison I made. Oh well.

After dinner,I rushed the last few percent and YES! finally emerged a level 37 Fighter. Dilemma.
Which stats to pump?Strength or dex?Or strength and dex? Which skills to learn? Should I max out Power Strike,or should I increase my chances for Final Attacks?I pondered over these questions for 3 seconds,then made the appropriate adjustments.3 points went to dex,while 2 floated to Strength.I leveled up my Rage,learned a new skill called Power Guard-a very cool defensive spell-,and finally gave my Final Attack that little bit more possiblity. After which I went tracking and found my old fren.I then followed her to where the Gollems are,and watched her kick Gollems' stone butt with gee. Alright,I'll end here.My eyes are drooping.Good Night all and live your new lives as fruitfully as possible.Hmm...should i concentrate on training Spartan? Or should I level up my thief? Dilemma once again...haiz...

Friday, February 18, 2005

Today was a day in which it is spelt as D-A-Y,a typical day except that mine was filled with travelling,a LOT of travelling...

The day before,me,Zinc aka Si Yin and Xuan Yu,all colleagues(ok,fine once were...)arranged to visit the open houses of two Polytechnics,namely the young and vibrant Republic Poly and the scenic Temasek Poly.At first all was settled on Wednesday,that we would visit BOTH Polys on Friday.But,as luck would have it,one of their co-workers took ill,and was issued a three-day Medical Certificate,with effect immediately.That laid waste to our plan,and the backup was initialised.Why?Because although Xuan Yu still remained off on Friday,the other had to take over the duties of her fallen comrade,as per Jasmine the supervisor.She didn't had much choice. To quote her,Jasmine said the following to her,"Eileen took MC,you come tomorrow at two ok?", in Mandarin.The die was cast.There was no way to reroll it.Si Yin submitted to her fate and did the most logical thing:inform the "coordinator" of our so-called "outing"-yours truly.

It wasn't too hard to right the wrongs though,tricky maybe,but never difficult.At first I suggested to her to let Dickson, another one of our working pals,to take over her place instead.Why Dickson?Because they are both cash-register-trained and the most trustworthy in the company...according to sources whom I will not disclose.The suggestion however,was thrown down the waste paper basket,as Jasmine would not approve of it.Morever Dickson could not change his shift again.So Jasmine's iron will still held.She did however,allow Zincate to arrive two hours later,no more,no less,no strings attached.That gave us more room to work with,and I finally decided to put the visit to TP(Temasek Poly)back one day,to Saturday.Anyway I planned to go on both days,so it didn't make much difference.Thus the plan was corrected and implemented the following day.

The Time Of Meeting(TOM) was at 0900 hours sharp,and the Point of Meeting(POM) was outside the Prime Supermarket.As a punctual person who hates latecomers,I awoke from my deep slumber at approximately 0810 hours,with a little help from my faithful alarm clock and my trusty 3200. After a bath,I dressed appropriately-no sandals with long jeans and no dark color over dark color-and hurriedly left the house.Time-0824.

Since there was still time,I proceeded to the hawker centre named Kosma food centre for some early morning sustenance-steamed rice cakes with salted radish bits.Exquisite.Shortly after,I headed to the POM with fifteen minutes to spare.I was first,no surprise.Seeing nothing interesting to take part in or take heed of,I whipped out my Mp3 player and swayed to the tunes of Jay.Time-0846.

My first associate arrived at 0853,seven minutes early.I smiled.At least she knows that punctuality is a virtue.As for the other one,he arrived at 0915,exactly fifteen minutes late. Apologising profusely upon arrival,he joined us as we boarded the bus and later the train bound for our terminal destination-Republic Polytechnic.

It was 45 minutes of combined bus and train rides,and we reached RP early,too early.There wasn't a single soul around that was our age.Following sign after sign,we finally found ourselves at
mailto:Megabites@RP, campus's only canteen.Xuan Yu skipped breakfast,so he was hungry, and promptly ordered himself a chicken chop,only to find it too sweet for comfort.Numerous complaints later,we followed yet more signs and finally got to the entrance and were rewarded with goodie bags.In them was a booklet for us to complete with stamps,after which we would receive a prize.Sounded attractive,only we didn't know where to start.That's when two RP seniors approached us and asked if we required any assistance.We replied unanimously.

First stop:the School of Technology for the Arts.We learned from our very helpful guides that RP adopts a different system of education from the rest of the Polys,the Problem Based Learning system,or PBL.That meant that getting a diploma at RP would involve a lot of hands-on experience.That's what we got at our first stop.We were told to make clay figures and decorate them if we wanted a stamp.We reluctantly complied.After staining our fingers with the sticky,icky subsolid clay,we earned ourselves a stamp each,although i dpn't know how Xuan Yu got two...Still at the School of Technology for the Arts,we were next told to write poetic masterpieces using given words.We hurriedly finished and left with yet another stamp.

Our guides then took us to their school,the School of Applied Science,or SAS they so affectionately call.Once there,we were told to complete a simple jigsaw puzzle before our real task,building a spaceship,using Lego bricks of course.One of was tied at the wrists and led to a room where a completed model stood,and told to memorise the structure of it,exactly...I stood there for about two minutes and finally began to give orders.Hilarity ensued.In the end we only got 60% correct,which was quite good according to the people there.We then proceeded to our next stop,CSI:RP.

------To Be Continued---------