I’m in love with the way you feel

I’ve really been enjoying this song from the Juno soundtrack. It could be the 90s’ video-game references, or the fact that it’s really comfortable for any teenage dude with sub-par vocal abilities to play and sing. See, that way I can channel my emotions, without inciting possible complaints to the Department of Neighbours Who Won’t Shut Up. (It’s an obscure branch under the Ministry of Manpower)

Nah, but on a serious, less legislative note, it’s one of those rare songs that I easily relate to: It’s quirky. It’s easy-going yet there’s a deep romanticism to it. Most importantly it feels natural: none of that hyperbolic “My heart’s in multiple pieces. One’s here and one’s there.” sentiment. It sounds like something you’d possibly write yourself. A love song for the less dramatic. And at the end of the day, the single most important thing that I love about this song is that you can almost visualise singing it, with someone special, on a casual and lazy afternoon in bed.

Discounting the many necessary CIP hours (and some physically aggressive old ladies), it’s been a tough but refreshing couple of days. I’ve actually been seizing time out of the CIP days to read comic books in the library (just like the nerdy days of yore with Xiu Ming and Omar), and apparently, in my comic hiatus since 2010, Ultimate Spidey has died, Tony Stark is the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D, Darkseid basically thrashed the DC multi-verse in Final Crisis and Batman was slain in the same arc. (but was found to have survived by travelling back to the dawn of time, through the Ages of Men, and returning to modern day Gotham City to establish Batman Inc.). To sum up… some serious fictional shit went down these past 2 years

And of course, since I’ve already turned this into an unabashedly nerdy post, Diablo III finally came out. Oh sorry, I didn’t give it the appropriate kind of hype…

MOTHER OF GOD IT’S HERE!!! IT’S HERE!!!

DIABLO III IS HERE!!!!!

It’s been extremely fun so far. The game-play and character development is exquisite, masterful even. Accessible to new players while not alienating long-time fans. A fundamentally infinite amount of customisation. It deserves that 6.3 million sales.

But the thing is, as fun and addictive as it is, as a long-time fan of the industry itself I can’t help notice some structural flaws. For example, given that the game is based on a “slot machine” appeal (everything is randomised, so acquiring incredible loot is akin to jackpot), the auction house really limits the viability of randomisation. Because if you’re able to refine your searches to buy the best possible equipment at the most competitive prices, that doesn’t give much space for the development of artisans.

That Rare cloak you found at the end of a forsaken dungeon was thrilling the first time, but what remains of it when you’re easily able to find an even better one on the Auction House? It’s no longer “treasure”. The auction house renders it trash. Stock. It’s no longer “the Cloak”, it becomes “a Cloak”. It loses it’s psychological appeal. The game, loses it’s psychological appeal once you realise this.

Apart from that, I had issues with the story. Because with lore as rich as Diablo’s universe (I’ve read three incredible novels based within this universe!), it isn’t difficult to create a nuanced, well-paced and moving story. It has all the potential to deliver a haunting, emotionally-engaging audio-visual experience, but the writing just limits its appeal to guys like me who really value story and characters in video games (I think it represents the maturity of the medium). It’s extremely simple and clichéd, just shy of being offensive really. 

So really, my grip here is that Diablo III could have been a masterpiece. If perhaps more thought was given to how the Auction House functions alongside the game itself, or if the writers stayed up a couple nights more to craft a more appropriate story, it would have established itself as a classic. The kind of game you’d remember.

Anyway, I leave you with a montage of pandas rolling down a slide. If you don’t feel that this is amusing, well then it may be possible that you’re dead inside.

Follow me on Tumblr! As an African-American man from the ghetto (or Haw Jie Kang) would put it, “that’s where it’s at, bro”.

These fishes in the sea they’re staring at me

So I’ve really been enjoying Tumblr; it’s hipster… heaven Words that make your heart flutter. Colours so exquisite I don’t even know the proper adjective to describe them. But like I’ve said before, it’s so classy (especially the theme that I’m using) that it’s almost restrictive. It’s a seductive… straight-jacket. I’m a fool for consistent trends so I can’t really re-blog an enrapturing picture of glacier mountains or a quote by Malcolm X, then follow it with a gif. of a cat shuffling. So, you know, WordPress (where all the arbitrary and nonsensical humour’s at) is like a breath of fresh air.

Speaking of the need to breathe, I’ve really been keeping with my plan of “Slave away and violate the UN Declaration of Human Rights so that you can make it for Diablo III“. I did so much math yesterday, that even the Nescafe Mocha Latte from 7-11 went “I can’t deal with that, bro”. Also, the fact that I’m blogging, I think, is a testament to how stressed I am. Not… because it’s raining and the shower’s probably going to be cold.

It was Star Wars Day a couple days ago and I wrote a short post on Tumblr. Pardon the lack of humour, I was trapped by cinematic shots of mountains and profound language :)

On Vesak Day, the 4/5 guys and girls came over to chill. Y’know watch a couple episodes of Friends, refusing to play Pictionary and Scrabble (which I so painstakingly dug out from the depths of an old cupboard). We watched The 40 Year Old Virgin which I thought everyone would enjoy? What I did not know was… the amount of breasts.But the girls were cool about that. Mature individuals. Who took care not to knock over my Storm Trooper collection. They made a reference to how Steve Carell had action figures as well, but honestly I would have taken more offence to the former.

Nothing else fundamentally interesting happened in the past couple of days? Although there was this one time when I went to the library… and I finished my Normal Distribution Assignments… in the most boring way possible.

Visit my Tumblr guys, and fall slowly in love with how classy it is.

Snow of Thrones

My new Tumblr Blog

I’ve really been enjoying Matt Fowler’s (of IGN’s Wrestling Wrap-Up’s) “Kneelift!”. Inspired by it, if you will. Well, that and I thought it’d be a nice way of diversifying my procrastination outlets. I think it was Lord Keynes that once said “The Internet consisteth not only of Facebook and Twitter; but of Tumblr, wherein thy hipster’s influence is sufficiently known.” (That makes total sense.) More importantly, however, the place’s a cache of funny gif.s and we all know how much I enjoy gif.s of women slipping.

Next up on So You Think You Can Dance...

I’ve been digging the design of the site so far. In terms of blogging, it’s like discovering a new flavour of Snapple. Minimalistic, hipster Snapple, with a hint of citrus.

I’ll be reblogging all the wonderful things that I love: infinitely exquisite photos of the stars, Game of Thrones, old-school comics, electric guitars, pictures of General Greivous in an overcoat, Victoria’s Secret Angels etc. The theme’s incredibly classy but almost inhibitively so, such that women slipping on what-appears-to-be-cake seem out of place really. In that spirit, I was thinking of limiting the amount of LOL pictures, as much as it pains me, but using those gif.s on my arbitrary posts here on WordPress.

That’s hardcore Economics for you.

Sweet Child on the Acoustic

So Zi Hang and Kenneth cancelled on Karaoke today for school-based Corrective Work Orders. (I’ll make insensitive jokes about that in later posts) Given the amount of time I had freed up, I thought it’d be fun to do a cover. Of a cover.

(Something cropped up with the WordPress player; you guys’ll have to go to my old blog http://me-myself-and-nic.blogspot.com/2012/04/blog-post.html)

It was an impromptu thing so there was one take and a couple of mistakes, some of them legitimate.

Basically I learnt the song a couple months ago on the electric, so whatever I played in the video is purely Slash’s progression, on the electric, in the original song. But during his acoustic cover of the song, Slash replaced some heavy pull-off/bend parts with improv. that would be more suited to the acoustic, so during those specific moments you’d probably see me just tapping or palm-muting. Or you’d see me playing the progression nonetheless and it sounding out of place. Also at the end of the solo, I realised the ending progression for the electric was too fast for the acoustic strings, so I… very professionally… looked into the cam and smiled like a fool. (Like any rock star would.)

I know the sound quality isn’t great (to be honest it sounds like a tortured elephant. A very melodious elephant who just broke up with her boyfriend.). But that’s an issue with my cranky 5-year-old amp and the phone it was recorded on. So if you see me brooding around in school, and you’d like to hear more without mild bleeding in the ears, donate some cash to the New Amp Foundation.

(Yes, there’s a foundation.)

So yes, it’s no Sungha Jung but I had fun filming it Take note that comments that aren’t a)encouraging, b)positive or c)life-affirming will be promptly deleted.

My Diablo III Beta Weekend

I was sitting on my bed and there was just this awkward feeling of having the urge to do something, but also inertia to not to anything productive. So my first thoughts went to my blog.

But nothing really thrilling happened in the past week. Except perhaps that Gloria from Literature class (last year) caught me in an exceptionally douche moment, drinking Latte and enjoying the movement of the mini-watefall at Serangoon Garden… Also, I got really really sick on Thursday night. A tremendous tale. Full of strife and heartache. But now it’s over and we can all move onwards into a whole new adventure. An adventure involving Blizzard’s Diablo III Open Beta Weekend!

Well Blizzard opened up the Diablo III beta for all to play over the weekend, though I gotta say that it isn’t as immersive as I thought it’d be. I’ve known that the series embodies many of the core-RPG elements that we find increasingly marginalised: dynamic loot system, randomised weapons and armour, complex crafting structures etc. So I was genuinely excited, in fact, looking forward to one of the most addictive experiences in recent memory… but it turned to be not quite so “I want to quit school and play this for a living” fun.

I’d say that it was definitely fun: decent graphics, fluid and enjoyable animations, the satisfying crunch of a skeleton disintegrating, the clunk of a skull rolling away etc. The system is built in a way to encourage infinite replayability so even in the beta all dungeon areas, weapons and armour were randomised. Therefore, as in a casino, it’s the fundamental appeal of scoring the “jackpot” equipment that keeps the game fresh and enjoyable. So for a game that’s built on this (very intelligently designed) psychological black-hole, I was kinda disappointed by how fast that appeal dried out. Ironically because I recognise how the system works, as the “new but functionally similar” stuff appeared, I also saw the redundance of it. Although I’m not supposed to. It pays to be astronomically blind in Diablo III

With Skyrim, it was pretty clear: “screw the education system, (nay, screw society) no one shall tear me from the virtual, loving embrace of flying lizards and photo-realistic mountains.” But throughout the Diablo III Beta, there were instances where I went, “You know, maybe my Crisis Decades Template needs a lil’ tweaking. I like the Garamond font. Maybe I should use that.” Font-replacement would never have occurred on the account of Skyrim!

But once you start to process the experience, I think a lot of the sentiment of repetitiveness despite technical infiniteness comes from the limited scope of the Beta (we were only given the first section of Act I, up till a level cap of 13). I’ve been very finely attuned to isometric style gameplay since Dragon Age in 2009 so (in all arrogance) I found the enemies to be rather easy. More fodder than challenge. In the actual game, it’s definitely possible to up the ante so there’s going to be more fun from that angle.

Additionally, because of the level cap, we were really restricted to the basic level skills and equipment whereas in the actual game we’re easily going to be seeing more flashy, powerful (not to mention colourful) enemies, armour, dungeons etc. much more quickly.

Plus, I knew fully well the experience was going to end past the Skeleton King, but in the actual game the drive from story progression is easily going to be seven or eight times more powerful, which would counterbalance the stale feeling I got towards the end of the weekend. So if the actual game manages to solve that, it really is going to be as addictive as Facebook suggests.

In my case the picture’d be more like:

Hello Girls. So… I’m Back. I’m going to be deconstructing Nicholas’ social life for some time. Suffice to say there won’t be any fundamental changes in your lives. Move along now, and thanks for the co-operation.

Does anyone love the way they are?

My most pertinent lesson from Karaoke today:

I’m actually really good at rapping.

I was never quite sure about where my future was headed, but now I’m thinking of pursuing a career in the hip-hop industry. Start using words like “swag”, “ain’t” and “dawg”. Reduce my sentences to monosyllabic words. Reduce monosyllabic words to even shorter, two-letter words.

Life decisions aside, I… really love the chord progression on Stars. Plus there’s something wonderfully free about Dolores’ dancing

But I love you just the way you are.

Star Wars Time

I’ve always loved the Star Wars references in HIMYM so when they devoted an entire episode to Trilogy-watching, you can imagine my relatively contained glee.

So yes, basically “Trilogy Time” was centered around Ted, Marshall and Barney getting together every three years to watch the original Star Wars trilogy in its entirety, and it was funny, clever and sweet. Robin was immensely entertaining as Rhiannon, Ted’s imaginary bass-playing, “crunchy and earthy” girlfriend.

Also, if you think about it, Rhiannon’s a really pretty name. If you combine that with Leia, another exquisite and sultry name, you get Lhiannon (adding that to my Google Chrome dictionary). If I had a daughter called “Lhiannon”, we could call her… Ah Lhian for short.

I think it’s cute.

*I’m actually serious about the name Leia. I’ve always been serious about the name Leia.  I think there’s a certain dreamlike, entrancing quality in names like Leigh, Leah or Lianna. (Although my spidey senses are telling me that Lianas are those twirly-wirly branches in the woods) Even words like… Allure… Lull… Love. If I continue, you might just fall for me, and we can’t have that happening can we? *

Anyway, in the spirit of true geekiness, you’d see that in season 2 the Stormtrooper in Barney’s apartment was actually a Phase II 501st Legion Trooper from Episode III (which was pretty bad-ass). However, the outfit that Robin and Quinn wear: that’s just a regular, ol’ Empire Storm-Trooper from the prequels.

And that is important… for reasons that sound completely logical to Star Wars nerds

Quinn in a Trooper outfit brings me to my next point: Storm-Trooper fantasies, which I really can’t convince myself to picture. Now Princess Leia: people have made well-thought-out arguments about why she’s is a completely legitimate, almost historical, male fantasy. And come on. It’s a golden bikini. You don’t not think about that. Two episodes and 245 minutes of conservative, layered dresses and all of a sudden, Princess Leia… is captive. In metal lingerie. That’s palpably sexy.

But… Storm-Troopers? You’d probably want to hang with a couple of Trooper-dudes at a bar maybe, talk about the state of unemployment post-Death Star… but you don’t really look at them that way. It’s not really a thing. Considering that they’re actually legions of manly clones with Mandalorian DNA… it’s chilling. Maybe it’s a reference to Neil Patrick Harris, but… well… no.

"One day my son will be cooler than me. I won't stand for that."

But really, aside from Barney’s really progressive fantasies, the rest of the episode was great. I talked about Rhiannon and they once again associated Marshall which Chewie, which I said in an earlier post, was because they’re both these gigantic teddy-bears with the warmest of hearts. His progression over the nine years was particularly moving, seeing as how he eventually gets everything that he really wanted: success as a lawyer, family, Lily etc. And lastly, the heart-rending bookend moment of the episode was Ted walking in with his newborn daughter, which was an incredibly sweet moment because recently we’ve been seeing him in this hopelessly destitute state.

(Also: back boobs. Sometimes I really wish that I’d picked Biology as an A-level subject.)

Nevertheless, when Barney whispered to little Lyndsy Fonseca that “Han shot first”? That moment really just… nailed the episode for me. It encapsulated all the humour and sweetness that binds you to HIMYM, and then as an added treat, you get a classic Star Wars reference that floods you with… these perfect memories. And it’s probably going to be one of those moments of HIMYM, like Rachel’s twist in the finale of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, that’s embedded really strongly in your memories of these shows.

Moving onto other fundamental issues you’d probably care less about: I got my PW results, back on Monday! I think prior to that I’d always assumed the worst for OP? With sexual harassment as a topic, your answers… could completely go south.  I mean, wrong. Your answers could go wrong, not south. Wrong. (See how easy it is!) So I wasn’t entirely confident by the end of the PW phase (as opposed to say, during Written Report, when I was a teensy-bit confident, just a teensy-bit). Nevertheless, I bought Skyrim that day and kinda dissociated myself from it ever since. Besides, I had a medieval world to save from dragons, giants and hyperinflation in the potions market.

So when I saw that “A”, it was less of a Shi Yin-esque, praise-the-Muay-Thai-Gods kind of thing (which I thought was more amusing than the results itself), and more of a “Well… that’s cool, that’s cool. Not too shabby, bro” level of reaction. As calm as a hamster. A laid-back, slightly medicated hamster.

As you might have guessed, I’ve become extremely needy and broody in school so follow me on Twitter to make me feel better! Also, visit regularly and let’s keep my visitor count above the value of 1 per day, if not for the writing, then for the funny GIFs. We all know that’s the real reason you visit