Adventures in Skullport

Since a few people have expressed their unbridled enthusiasm for spelunking, here are the character creation specs:

Stats: 28 point buy
Races: Standard PC races, racial variants, other races of up to +2LA upon request
Wealth: 2,700gp
Class: Any from WotC 3.5E books except Miniatures Handbook
Alignment: NO Chaotic Neutrals
Deity: Forgotten Realms Pantheon
Background: Mercenary company based in Skullport (Forgotten Realms), many adventures based in the Underdark but surface escapades in Waterdeep possible. Plan accordingly.

blogging with android

Trying out blogging with android. Feels pretty cool but silly as well. Its mid week! Hurray for weekends! Cya this Friday!

Test

The Price of Not Paying Service Charges to Samsung

Looks like Samsung is diversifying into the F&B industry. Else they would not have gotten the 'pay me service charge or Iwill not serve you properly mentality into their heads.

I am in a very pissed mood.

Long story short:
1. 2.00pm Wait to be serve at customer service
2. 2.30pm Left phone with them. Stated collection time: 5.00 pm
3. 5.00pm Reached center. Got feedback by customer officer have to wait for them to finish 60 customers in queue before I can collect my phone.
4. 5.15pm WTF. Send them a negative customer feedback email using the free internet provided by them at the service center.
5. 5.30pm WTF still waiting. Approach customer officer number 2 to try my luck. She passed her will saving throw.
6. 5.45pm WTF still waiting. Still plenty of customer in the center.
7. 6.00pm Went to approach the customer officer who serve me earlier. Thank goodness he responded and brought out my phone.
8. 6.05pm Out of Samsung Service Center. (Note: it only take 5 minutes to check everything is okay)

Summary of my email to Samsung.
'I would like to feedback to you on the horrid service I am experiencing now at the plaza singapura service center. I believe the problem here is that Samsung SC has failed to deliver as promise. I have passed the phone to your side for an upgrade for 2.5 hours and the collection slip clearly states the time of collection to be 5.00 pm. And when i am here your customer service officer states that have to wait for them to clear the other 60 customer in the queue before they can attend to me who obviously only need 5 min of their time to collect my phone. Afterall the collection time is 5 pm as per stated. I would estimate that will need another 1-2 hours more before they can finish all the customers.

Thank you for your precious time and hope that you understand that my time is just as important to me as it is to you.

Plus side:
It is fun giving them such feedback thru their website using the free internet provided by them. Afterall they made me wait so long.

Universal Studio

Hi all,

I have about $150 of universal studio tickets (expires in may 2011). Would like to know a show of hands who is interested to go? Basically, the voucher will used to subsidize the cost of the entry tickets.

Will have more updates later as the day approaches.

Happy New Year 2011!

Date:
Mar 16 2011 (March School Holidays)

Confirmed Going:
CatNRice
PrincessSlytherin
Mad Penguin
Wayfarer

Tentative:
S** H**

Edited by Mad Penguin: To hide our real names.

Black Swan

This is one of most intense and riverting movie I have watched this year.

Passionate horror.

Loving hate.

Graceful obsession.

Devastating dreams.

And a deep, dark spiral into madness.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0947798/

Merry Christmas to all and to these people in particular

As we all enjoy another Christmas safe and snug in our homes, let us remember those who help make it all possible by doing insane work to keep our infrastructure going. People who delve into the briny depths to drill for oil, people who work long and late shifts to maintain our utilities and then there are these guys in the video. Easily the most badass people outside of uniform, they work on power-lines suspended in mid-air every day to keep the juice flowing for us consumers. Wherever you are gentlemen, Merry Christmas and God Bless.



PS: That television program you're watching? Someone like this had a hand in the broadcast towers remaining operational.

2011: Year of the RPG?

2011 is shaping up to be a bumper year for RPG fans. Not only is Dragon Age II and Mass Effect 3 being released, Bethesda has announced Elder Scrolls V for 11th November and the Witcher 2 is also slated to be released on March 8th. If you harken more for JRPGs well.... Disgaea 4 and FF Versus XII are both in development but only Disgaea 4 has been confirmed for a 2011 release date. Atlus' Catherine and Level 5' Ni no Kuni might be out in Japan by then but its unknown if an international version of the game will ever be released. This is also true of Tales of Graces F. Patience is a virtue in this regard; Yakuza 4 did take an entire year to be ported overseas after all. The best JRPGs of 2011 (or projected to be released in 2011) seem to be on handhelds like Valkyria Chronicles 3 (and I curse the day someone at Sega decided to bring VC to the PSP) and FF Agito XIII. Overall it would seem that a CRPG fan will have a much better year than the JRPG fan.

And now for something completely different:
An early cinematic for the ending of Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm has supposedly been leaked. Bogus or legit, no one who could confirm this is talking.

http://kotaku.com/5709838/ending-leaked-for-starcraft-iis-next-chapter

Mass Effect 3 Teaser

Mass Effect 3 = War of the Worlds in the 22nd century. Thoughts?

Happy Birthday to the Mad Penguin

SITEX 2010

Anyone heading down to SITEX 2010?

War... War never changes

After an epic adventure in the Mojave, I have finally freed NEW VEGAS and establish it as an independent party!

No more NCR!

No more Legion!

Long live the King!



New Vegas is an epic game. After long hours of holan-ing and travelling, the breath-takingly and long game leaves an unsatisfied taste after completion. After all, I want to try out the unarmed build or the laser commander build or find all the companions or explore all the locations!

So much to do and YET I have already spent so much time completing (part of) the game...

Definitely a game that is value for money and entertaining. A few bugs is really nothing compared to the shiokness!

BUNDINESS to its max!!!

Distance Dreamer

Can't find the official mtv. Doubt there is one anyway. Just heard this song while watching a tv series. I find it quite nice and would like to share it :)

Best Video Game Advert Ever!

3 papers down, 1 to go! Go go go!!!

Inspiration for a Campaign

I've a vague wisp of an idea for a campaign. Anyone interested? Will flesh it out and post more details after my exams.

And now, back to the millstone.

Fallout: New Vegas is Really a J-Horror Game In Disguise

Some SOB left me for dead and when I woke up, that *thing* was sitting right in front of me. Here I thought I was buying into a CRPG but I was wrong. Sweet Jesus above, my mission must be to rid the Wasteland of the unnatural abominations that infest it! Starting with Uzumaki neck over there....

Wait... I was here for days now... does that mean I have become one of THEM?!

Tools and Toons

What happens when you leave your tools lying around and bring lots of soft toys to work?

Remember Work Place Safety.

A message brought to you by CatNRice

(Wonders of blu-tab, mallet and soft toys)

Not so sure why people love to bring soft toys and display them at work. You never know what could happen to them especially when tools are lying around and mischevious engineers who are on a friday mood high...

Checkout the tags.

And Now, A Quick Word From Our Sponsors

To make up for the recent lack of Down Under posts, here's a few photos. The first two show what I'm usually up to while on campus.

I must be mad posting the last photo. The moment I return to Singapore, CatNRice will descend upon me and extract the essence of Bundaberg from my blood.

The Hunter and the Hare

This is a story told to many children to discourage that laziness will get you nowhere.

Long time ago, there was a hunter. Once day he saw a rabbit run into a tree and died on the spot. Amused by his luck he thought, if a rabbit run into the tree each day, I will never need to hunt again! So happily he gathered the carcass home.

The next day he sat at the same location waiting for another rabbit to run into the tree. Unfortunately we all know what didn't happen.



Anyway just took this amusing photo as I make my way to ECP today. Apparently some hare was late and was looking for its hunter.

Play Beyond

An advertisement is ostensibly created with the singular goal of promoting a product, service or business. Its entire purpose is to increase revenue for someone and yet, strange things emerge from advertising firms that make you wonder when they came into the grip of the Devil.

For example this advertisement for the Sony PS3:



There are some unfortunate conclusions that one can draw from watching this ad:

1) The forces of hell itself are so pleased with the PS3 that they must manifest themselves into a generic Chucky simulacrum to express their delight.

2) The PS3 will cause all of the human-like objects in your house to be possessed by evil spirits. Come to think of it there is such a superstition in Japan where this ad comes from which is why dolls have rituals to placate them before they are destroyed. Extra bonus points for using something especially terrifying to your target audience.

3) This is your afterlife after you mortgaged your soul to pay for that PS3 with its notoriously high launch price. You. In an empty room. Trapped in that doll. With a non-functional PS3. FOREVER.

4) The PS3 will drive you stark, raving, gibbering bonkers. First childlike joy. Then sensory overload. Followed by despair when it consumes your life which is eventually supplanted by ennui as the stimulation of the PS3 makes you uncaring that you have lost your job, friends and family. Finally as the enormity of your folly hits you and drives you past those shimmering horizons of desolation, a regression to infantile behaviour.