Life in Motion

C++ Game Project

2006-08-18T00:41:00.000+08:00

12:36AM

Right now, our course group is working on a C++ text based game, and we are all excited about what we can accomplish. My group is working on a story based horror game, and are currently having difficulties getting what we want out of our program. Bryan's group is developing a game called The Fast and the Furious Food Factions. Sounds cool.

Just went for dinner at Vil'age for my SIGGRAPH meeting. We were discussing about our presentations regarding our trip next week. Heard that its on Wednesday at 10AM.

So tired ♪

National Day

2006-08-09T07:14:00.000+08:00

Returned from the US Yesterday. Too tired to blog. Got com skills and C++ test tomorrow. Will update soon on details about trip ♪

More SIGGRAPH goodness!

2006-08-02T03:34:00.000+08:00

Tuesday, 1 August 2006
At SIGGRAPH, I attended talks on computer graphics. Here are some notes that I have taken from them. If you have trouble understanding, feel free to send me an E-mail or use the tagboard.

8:30am-5:30pm
The Art of Storytelling
Room 205

The making of 458 nm, a short film

· Made during first 5 months at Filmacademie
· Uses strong images presenting a dark mood
· Audience plays important role

· STORYBOARD
1. Snails moving toward each other
2. Look like they are fighting
3. Make out
4. Bird eats them

Bird
· Chose bird to be dark and dirty, and constructed the mechanics of bird legs
· Leg is highly undetailed due to fact that only head is shown in the movie

Snail
· Inside of snail hard to develop due to mechanical movement
· Used reference images for snail
· Technique
· Structures inside snails include repeating arms that grow smaller to the back
· They designed the snail’s sex organs, but soon realised that their modeling was not needed. This was to avoid making a porno.
· Initial sketches were not very detailed because it would be hard for modeler to create

· Pipeline rigging and animation
o Used Softimage XSI
o Model shade and rig single elements
o Collect elements in database
o Build mainspine construction
o Connect elements of the mainspine
o Used constraints

Thursday, 3 August 2006

Sigh, the last day of SIGGRAPH. Collected more freebies. Here’s another cool talk I attended. Leaving tomorrow for New York.

1:45- 3:30: Wow! I cant believe my eyes: Innovation and Illusion

· Morphovision

· The presenter is Takashi fukaya from NHK Japan
o http://www.nhk.or.jp/strl/morphovision
· co-presenters are Toshio Iwai, Yuko Yamanouchi

· Morphovision is a 3D image display system that can change the shape of sold objects in real time.
o Thus generating a new 3d image, using the afterimage of human vision
o Solid 3d images which can be seen in various angles and change shape in real time.
o No need for special glasses

· Exhibit shows a model of a house which rotates and changes shape
· It uses a DLP projector, projection image, polygon mirror, scanning light, rotating table, and a symmetrical object which rotates at a high speed
· Projection image contrast is high, black image must not be too bright
· The polygon mirror has 12 faces and rotates at 100rpm
· The model is durable, has a symmetrical shape and rotates at 600rpm
· As light hits model with pattern, model is seen to be distorted due to aftereffect of human eye.
· Morphovision only requires simple construction.
o See morphovision booth

Livepic
· Presented by Makoto Katsura and masa inkage
o makoto@makoto.to
· Livepic is a drawing system and interactive display
o Literally breathes life into a drawing
o It uses our breath to drawà direct interaction
o After drawing on screen using a stylus, they can breathe on it to make their drawing move and animate.
o The user can change background of drawing using a card
o Drawings interact with each other with 2 dimensional physics
o Instead of interacting with other devices, there is direct interaction.
o An extension of the conventional drawing experience
o Redesign relationship between canvas and user
o Stimulate creativity and sensibility in childhood, drawings suddenly move
o For play and communication
· Related work includes:
o Thermopainter, daisuke iwai, kosuke sato, 2005
o I/O brush by kimiko ryokai and Stefan
· The inspiration for the interactive display includes:
o Dimension book
o KrHronos projector

· How it works:
o The led brush uses webcam behind screen to detect its position
o Breath is detected by infrared thermography, direction of breath is calculated, and drawing will move if breath is blowing in its direction
· Future possibilities
o Use more physical actions to move the drawing, like punching and hitting a ball
o AIR/BREATH HOCKEY!!!!!!!!!!!

A view oriented interface for block based modeling
· Presenters are Jun fujiki and Taketoshi ushiama from Kyushu university
· “Incompatible Block” is a program for block based modeling
o Relative to the user’s view, blocks are stacked on the same plane
o User can increase number of blocks by creating shadow
o A person can draw directly on the blocks in any view.
o When block shadow is created, block is considered to be floating
o When ending program, shape collapses
· This program was designed to solve the common problems of 3d modeling
o Like the difficulty in determining the true 3d position of an object in perspective view
· On the floor due to intersection of vectors
· When touching other blocks, block position in true 3d space is changed
· NOTE: PERSON IS SNORING BEHIND ME
· http://Tserve01.aid.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp/~fujiki/applications_e.html

Cubee: THINKING INSIDE THE BOX
· The presenter is Ian staveness and Florian Vogt from the University of British Columbia

· Motivated by artisyth project

· Cubee is a system where 3d objects displayed on the surface of a box using an LCD screen can be viewed in any angle
o box can be shaken to see physical reaction
o Only one person can view it at a time
o Sensors track the user’s head position and cube positionà runs to simulation engine and renders in real time
o Enclosed display space with 5 sides and full walk around
o Other real time simulations include fluid and deformable bodies
· Related displays
o Cubby 1997
o Static
o Media3 inami et all
o These use different tracking and mechanics

SIGGRAPH Day 2

2006-07-31T23:09:00.000+08:00

At SIGGRAPH, I attended talks on computer graphics. Here are some notes that I have taken from them. If you have trouble understanding, feel free to send me an E-mail or use the tagboard.

In the morning, there was computational Photography which I attended with Russell and Wu Shan. It was pretty boring, with a lot of technical details and stuff. Later, I decided to view the galleries and exhibits.

Art Gallery
The art gallery consisted of works of digital art done by 3D computer artists and painters. It was awesome; there were so many cool displays on the walls. I can’t show you many pictures of them, but I will do my best to describe them in detail.
One example is the

Emerging Technologies
This is the exhibition on new technology. It was very interesting, because of the mind blowing interactive displays and demonstrations.
One demonstration showed how water could be manipulated using electricity. Water was seen flowing from a fountain, and if a person moved his hand near the falling body of water, it would retract. This is because there is a small electric current flowing through the water, which would move through the air, and through the person’s body to the earth. Thus, depending on the closeness of the person’s hand to the water, the water would react and move.
Another demonstration I was impressed with had objects, like blocks and tablets, placed on a lit platform which sensed the movement of the sensors attached to the object. The objects were displayed in 3D on a computer screen, and if you moved the objects on the platform, the objects displayed in the 3D environment would move as well.
Also, there was a display of an unconventional DJ turntable. It used tablets on a platform in the view of a motion sensing camera. Depending on how you moved the tablets, you could adjust the volume of various sound elements like bass and glitches, and change the track to mix. To me, it was one of the few exhibits I wished I could have for my own, and was a serious eye opener on how music artists could change the way they create their content.

Boston

2006-07-30T23:06:00.000+08:00

29th July
12:30pm (NY time)

I am sitting on board the Acela express to Boston, and I just cannot wait for SIGGRAPH. This morning, we took a stroll through central park for breakfast at McDonald’s, where the hashbrowns are better than those in Singapore. In central park, there are trees which break the morning sunlight into threads of gold, people who take a refreshing jog and dogs which roll and play on the grass. We only managed to walk through the entrance and make a quick circle back, but the time there was worthwhile. We went back to the hotel to pack our bags, and check out. Eugene calculated that if we took the subway and bought individual tickets, it would be more expensive than a shared taxi ride. So to much delight, we hitched a ride in authentic NYC yellow taxis.
We arrived at Pennsylvania train station. It was a simple building, with nothing about it that would distinguish it from being an everyday office complex. Inside, people shuffled about, rushing to get their tickets and stared at the screens displaying train schedule information. We collected our tickets from the counter, and sat around for about one and a half hours to wait for the 1200 train.
We were not assigned seats on the train, so due to the initial mad rush to get on board, there were only single seats available, separating us onto different cars. Sarah is sitting diagonally across from me, resting her forehead in the palm of her hand and writing her journal in her notebook. Oh wait, she’s actually sketching :P This has been a tiring journey for all of us, and may things get better and better for the rest of the trip.

12:50pm

Arrived at Stamford station. Waiting for people to get off.

5:00pm

Got to Hotel Doubletree in Boston. Cool Roomz. XD Later collected registration pass in Boston convention center. LOTS of heavy books on maths.

30 July

11AM (NY time)

Now listening to talk on introduction to OpenGl programming. Tough to understand.

The City So Nice They Named It Twice! New York! New York!

2006-07-28T20:24:00.000+08:00

UPDATE FOR 27TH JULY
Yesterday, we landed in New York with a beautiful red sky in the evening. We were still thinking about how Mun How would be able to meet up with us, but he should be ok. We were so excited about seeing our hotel (partly because we were exhausted :P) and rode a bus to the Holiday In on 57th street.

NYC taxi

Our room. Lazily Blogging at the moment:P

We dropped off our belongings in our hotel rooms. I am sharing a room with Russel, Gabriel and Conghu. We then had lunch at the wonderful restaurant called the Eatery. Ate extra large burgers, wich cost about S$11, but no matter. They still tasted good.

we then had a looong walk to Penn station, because we were not sure about where to go for the Subway. It was a bit scary entering the subway. Lots of shady characters and dark areas.

We pulled though and strolled ovet to the School of Visual Arts. Lots of cool stuff there. It is consists of many different buildings in spread around an area of Manhattan. There are many different courses available to students which are related to Visual arts, like film, photography, animation, computer arts, graphic design, illustration, and fashion, and it is the student's decision to choose which discipline to specialise in. The student can mix and match different

subjects, creating a unique subject combination for the 4 years course. I received a DVD containing the students works, and ill try uploading in the future.

We then rode the subway to the Pratt Institute of Art, where statues were seen in the campus gardens and squirrels climbed each tree. It was quite interesting, and while we waited, we watched student's 3D movies on a video screen. Cool stuff.

After the tour, we wearily rode the subway (again) and struggled to get back to the hotel. Fell asleep straight away.

For more photos, check out My Flickr Photos

28TH JULY

We visited Comcast centre, which is a cable company competing against other cable companies like DirectTV. It was pretty cool, seeing all the hardware and learning how Comcast buys and distributes TV programs. Also, we saw how they made ads for their commercials. The person who made the ad we saw for Comcast was a Korean guy, who had a Megas XLR figurine on his desk. His brother drew pretty well, and made him framed sketches as gifts. Our tour guide was Eugene’s sister, so it was a lucky and convenient experience.
Later, we visited New York University. Saw what they did for their media labs.
We went shopping and I bought some old Charles Dickens novels. I believed they were printed in 1866, but I am not sure. Maybe ill check on eBay :P

2006-07-26T21:32:00.000+08:00

5:38PM

We got on the china airlines flight at 2:55. I came early at 12, just as Mr. Eugene wong, our teacher advised.
It is so cool! At first, most of us were seated in front, because we checked in early. However, they shifted us to the back to redistribute the plane load. Now., i'm seated at the back in the aisle row with 3 empty seats next to me!!! Beauty sleep, Hoooo!~

Will land in Taipei airport.

10:13pm

At airport terminal, sitting at cafe. nothing to do but try to connect to wireless net with my laptop. Special thanks to conghu for his network card!

27 July 2006

4:38PM Singapore Time

I am now on board the Delta airways flight to New York. We had difficulties boarding our flight due to one of our team members, namely Mun How, being held back for interview with US customs. Sadly, we had to leave without him. Delta Airways is cool!!! There is cable TV for each passenger, and I am now watching the Adult Swim programme on Cartoon Network XD. Interesting cartoons, like The Boondocks (a satire full of swearing about racism against African Americans) and Ghost in the Shell 2nd Gig. There are other channels, like Discovery and History, and CD albums to listen to. Gabriel and Tristan are sleeping, and pretty much everyone is exhausted from our journey. We will arrive in New York at around 7:30PM Singapore time.

Ships In Spaceland

2006-07-24T14:54:00.000+08:00

Having Presentation of Spaceships now. Check these out:)

SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH, SIGGRAPH....

2006-07-24T01:34:00.000+08:00

AARGH. So much work, so little time. Im leaving on Wednesday for a field trip to Boston. Need to pack, and pay $$$$.

The field trip involves attending a conference called the Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH). It is a conference which shows the latest technological developments in computer graphics, and has courses on things like learning how to render cloth and stuff. Im really looking forward to it, cos there will be all sorts of cool stuff, like getting my face scanned in 3D, walking through mist that really isnt mist but is in fact a hologram, AND, freebies!!! Thats right, there's actually FREE stuff in something that costs so much cash. Cool freebies are for example, mugs, movie size posters, wind up toys and a Darth Vader T-shirt which says 'who's your daddy?' on the back.

I will update as I can about the trip (if I can find an internet connection there -_-') and record all that goes on so that you, my readers, can experience the awesomeness that is SIGGRAPH for yourself.

And finally, ive finished the project which ive lost so much sleep with. My first model made with MAYA 7.0, the FX87 Desert Valkyrie! Enjoy ♪

Late Update

2006-07-02T07:13:00.000+08:00

Hellos. This is a late update ♪

Great news: I have been shortlisted for the SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics) conference thats taking place in Boston, Massachusetts this year! I'm really looking forward to travelling there this July.

On the 27th of June, we had a SIGGRAPH confirmation meeting at 7:30pm. So many things to take note. For example:

DONT LOOK LIKE A TOURIST!!!!! OTHERWISE YOU'LL BE MUGGED!! Keep cameras and maps.
Write journal for trip (how troublesome :( but still, it would be good for my blog :P)

Strangely right now, I dont feel very excited about the trip. Maybe it is because if have already been to parts of america like California (Stanford University, San Francisco XD) . This trip will give me a clearer idea of what it means to be a game designer, and will clarify any doubts i may have about my course.

However, it's gonna burn a hole in my pocket. (Pricing is around $4K -_-') Special thanks to my parents for paying :P Ill keep you guys updated about it as often as I can ♪

MUSE: A Night To Remember

2006-06-16T14:56:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I could not go kayaking with my saxophone section because I had a bad stomach ache in the morning :P

Had to go for Calvin's ACJC concert at VCH, which is why I also could not make it for band prac. I invited Thow and Chin Por along, and met old Barker pals Jon, Matt Isaac and Sandu there. The concert was in a word, FANTASTIC :} The ACJC concert band played very well, with pieces like Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi, and Mononoke Hime. ♪

Thats me in the center XD with Sandu, Isaac and Matt.

BAND CAMP!!!!! (Written on 27th May 2006, 2:53AM)

2006-05-28T23:12:00.000+08:00

Friday was another day. Went to school in the morning and had a talk about the upcoming SIGGRAPH trip. Man, It would be the experience of a lifetime if I could go. I hope that my parents trust the sincerity of my enthousiasm about it and that they can afford the damn thing :P After that, my class had DEsociety, and we watched the film 'Shawshank Redemption'. Its story revolves around a banker who was accused of murdering his wife, and how he overcame that false accusation in prison. I really enjoyed it, and hope that there will be more inspirational films made in the same fashion in the future.

Later, I had to run home to pack some clothes for the night's band camp. However, I had french from 6-9pm at Alliance, so I rode bus 48 there. The minimum population for a class at the language centre was 8, but mine only had 6, including myself (how lucky! ;)

After the fun lesson, I travelled by MRT to NYP. Because of the clash between my french lesson and camp, I missed out on several events, including Earnest's (a fellow band member's) birthday party. His own cake was thrown in his face :P

During camp, we played games, and made new friends. My saxophone section waited for Mercy's committee meeting to finish. Time flew and at 2AM, I grew tired and left for washing up without the others. Right now, I am writing this in a notebook on a table piled with leftover bee hoon at the campus student centre:P Man, it smells:( Well, it'll be lights off soon, so I better get some sleep. ♪

Mother's Day

2006-05-14T19:54:00.000+08:00

The last few days were a blur. There was homework to do, and stuff to buy. My C++ textbook cost me $50 and burned a hole in my wallet [-_-‘]. Anyways, today is mother’s day, and I would like to wish her well for her business at the Red Dot Art Museum.
Hmm..E3 2006 in Los Angeles Just finished, and it was awesome. Man, I’m looking forward to all the next gen consoles, like the Nintendo Wii (Pronounced as ‘wheeee’ :P) and the Playstation 3. Sadly, it will probably burn another hole in my wallet [‘’-_-‘’].
Also I cant wait to play upcoming games like Final Fantasy XIII (W00t!!), Metal Gear Solid 4, and yes, Halo 3. The ‘Wii’, practically pwned the show floor, but I have hopes for the other consoles, and that the PS3’s strengths can be fully utilized by developers.
Oh yeah, the picture above is of my Alto Saxophone and a Curved Bell Soprano Saxophone, which belongs to my band section leader at NYP, MercyJ I mean, I have never seen a curved bell soprano, and its even given the nickname ‘Baby Sax’:P . Its so cute, and looks a lot more like a toy Alto rather than a real musical instrument:P

Rain, Rain, Rain

2006-04-27T05:13:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was just another day at Nanyang. We found out that our C++ lecturer, Mr Gabriel Tang, was leaving the school, and some of us would miss him. After C++, my class had a 3 hour 'break' from 10am to 1pm, so we decided on going out of campus for fun:) Half of us went to play LAN, the other half which I joined played pool. We returned to class at 1 only to find that those who went for LAN came back half an hour later:P Had Intro lecture for Visual Art Techniques at 4pm. It was quite interesting and fun for me, but some like Ivan from my class felt like sleeping:P We were taught a bit about storyboarding, and camera angles and stuff.

Anyways, I'm currently working on some projects now, so I'll update once in a while. One being a presentation, where we have to launch a video game console and convince an audience (our lecturers -_-') that the console would be successful. Made a group of 4 with Zhen Rong, Ajay and Ivan. We decided have the Playstation 3 as our console(although most of the others chose the same thing :( ) , with background info on the PS1 and 2.

Sigh, I lent Chin Por my copy of Ridge Racer, and his friend loses it:( Thankfully, he got hold of the guy and things are ok now.

P.S: Some poser using various aliases has been spamming my Cbox lately with vulgarities. Please help me chase this guy away by tagging:)

CCA Selection

2006-04-18T23:35:00.000+08:00

Today, we had our introductory lecture on digital entertainement systems. Mr. Tang, our lecturer, told us that this would be our most 'fun' class:) This is because we would mostly be discussing about game development, design, and watch tons of videos:P He showed us useful websites for research, but it was mosty stuff we already knew (I mean, who on earth who loves video games does not know gamespot.com?) and at first, it felt pretty wierd to have a lecturer show us the latest games on IGN and graphic cards from ATI and nVidia (You'll never get that in any JC :P)

Later, went to Club Crawl for CCA selection. A week ago, I looked up the NYP Wind Orchestra's practice schedules, and already began attending their practice sessions. So I was just visiting Club Crawl to see what other CCAs I could join:P Was looking for the Sakuran Japanese Cultural Club booth, and met Jareth there. He told me it was at the other end of the hall, but in fact it was just a few blocks behind me (what a sour guy...... -_-') In the end, I joined the French, Japanese cultural clubs, and the LEO (Leadership, experience, Opportunity) club, which basically involves community service and teaches you about organising such events.

After lunch, I attended math class, and our tutor is quite a nice guy. Pretty avid video gamer, and shares interesting thoughts about the battle between Microsoft and Sony. Then, I took the MRT home and slept:)

P.S.S: What's wrong with the Chuck Norris facts? I find them rather humorous (:s)

Here's a video of a banned Coca Cola commercial I uploaded. Enjoy!

Trinity Christian Centre

2006-04-16T14:02:00.000+08:00

Yesterday, I went to watch Sonia's Easter Production at 7:30. I arrived early, and reserved a seat for Calvin (although we were told not to reserve seats :P) As I waited, I grew bored and sketched the buggy pictured above. In the end, Calvin and I sat in separate seats. The show was quite energetic and fun. Sonia was one of the choir singers, but I could only see her for 5 seconds because a pastor was blocking my view :P Anyways, the whole event was quite interesting, and I had an interesting talk with a parent counsellor, who happened to be an instructor at the NYP Guitar Club (What a coincidence! :) Calvin, Sonia and I then walked over to McDonalds at Serene Centre to grab a bite (Strangely, I was the only one who was hungry and ate :P)

FACT:

Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.

Update For Orientation Day 2 & 3

2006-04-11T15:07:00.000+08:00

Hello, this is a late update:P The second day of orientation went better than the first. My group and I managed to talk a lot more, and we finalized our class cheer. It goes something like this.

Class DET0601 Cheer

O1, O1 we're the best,

O1, O1, w'ere the champs,

O1, O1, we'll beat the rest,

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-1!

Not bad I thought:) We then hung out at the computer labs, where there were about 500 terminals(imagine, massive CS matches!!! :}). I soon found out that as DET students, we may enjoy subsidized field trips overseas to events like Tokyo Game Show and E3!!!!!!!! And I was like, drooling all over about the idea. The lights, the games, the booth babes, the euphoria! :} Then on the third day, we watched a play made by year 3 students and graduates. Much better than the one we saw on the first day(it actually made some sense). Plus, it was extremely funny!("Dont u wish ur granny was HOT like me?, Dont u wish ur granny was HHOT like me!?" I couldnt stop laughing.....) So anyway, in the end, things turned out ok, and I am starting to look forward to creating stuff in the course.

P.S: Here's an amateur video of the PS3 demos at this years Game Developer's Conference.(sadly,there's no audio, but try to enjoy it:)

Orientation Day One

2006-04-05T21:38:00.000+08:00

Sigh. Today was a disappointing day. The first day of orientation at Nanyang Polytechnic. I thought things would be better, but I guess it could not get any worse.

I enrolled into Nanyang for a course named Digital Entertainment Technology. Well, the orientation was certainly not very 'entertaining' to say the least. I met my orientation group, who are quite a fun bunch. My only complaint was that there were not many activities to do. For example, the 'games' we played involved sitting in a circle along a hallway. Honestly, I am satisfied with my OG and OGLS, but it's just that during the orientation, I felt that things could have been better. We could have played games like basketball or soccer at the polytechnic's facilities (given that my group consisted mainly of guys...) and well, things went rather awkward (eg. during lunch, we sat together and hardly spoke to one another...). I hope things turn out for the better during the course of the year, and that i'll bond well with my future classmates.

FACT:

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

Birthday Outing :)

2006-03-29T23:23:00.000+08:00

Today, I went out and spent my birthday watching V for Vendetta with Aizat and Mary-Anne. The show absolutely RAWKED!!!!! I mean, for such a long time, I have not seen an action movie that actually has food for thought. The hero, V, had such a deep personality and character that it seemed possible for him to exist in the real world. This is much like Bruce Wayne, from Batman Begins, another great film :}

After the movie, I watched 'A Percussion Affair' with Mary-Anne at the Victoria Concert Hall. The violinist, Qian Zhou, was extremely skilled and I enjoyed the way she handled each musical piece. So overall, today was a great day!

FACT:

Chuck Norris originally appeared in the "Street Fighter II" video game, but was removed by Beta Testers because every button caused him to do a roundhouse kick. When asked bout this "glitch," Norris replied, "That's no glitch."

Post Birthday Bash Hangover (P.B.B.H)

2006-03-28T23:07:00.000+08:00

Man, I was tired. After the party on Saturday, I lay on my bed, and instantly fell asleep. However, it was all worth it. It was fun chatting with friends, old and new. Also, I was tossed into the pool, twice:) Kumar got to play the XBOX for the first time, and enjoyed it. Many thanks to him and Junwei, for now i can watch over 300 hours worth of anime:)

Rock on, ACJC!

Speaking of anime like Naruto, here's a video about "real ninjas".

Anger Management

2006-03-23T21:10:00.000+08:00

If there's one thing in life that I have learnt, it's that life can never be a bed of roses (in other words, life is a piece of sh!t). I enjoy playing video games, and one of my all time favourites is God of War on the Playstation 2. The story of God of War revolves around a central character named Kratos (pictured above), who's set on killing the god of war. This is because Kratos was once a Spartan general, who led an army of 50 men and had never lost a battle for conquest. But when he declared war on the Barbarians, his army was outnumbered, and was on the edge of defeat. In one solemn prayer, Kratos called out to the god of war, Ares. In exchange for his soul, Kratos requested the protection of his men and vowed to serve Ares. His wish was granted. To remind Kratos of his allegiance, Ares seared chains to the flesh on his arms, which were linked to his 'god-given' weapons, the Blades of Chaos. As a result, Kratos was possessed by Ares, and began leading his army into the destruction of cities and villages. The world feared him and his men. Upon awakening from his 'possession', Kratos realised the damage he had done, and set out on a mission to kill Ares.

Now if there's one thing i can understand about Kratos' anger, it's that he's been pretty much haunted by a nightmare all his life. I share a similar nightmare.

MY MOTHER.

Yup, the crazy old lady that always seen at home, that constantly nags the new generation of young men and women in this world to do their homework, and that seems to enjoy shoving her foot up our asses.

I understand that she does it out of love (inverted commas), but does love have to often equate to pain? Just today, I was happily eating my dinner when MOTHER asked me to help her with sorting out materials for her work. I was focusing on gulping down the last spoonful of rice, trying not to choke, and looked at her but did not reply for 30 SECONDS. When I was ready, I replied yes, BUT she stared back with the coldest glare imaginable(at least roughly on par with Medusa's). She complained, saying that I should give her an immediate nod or shake of the head. I told her that all I was doing was focusing on chewing up the last mouthful of food(it was a big one), and then I would give her a reply. Then, she began shouting at me, saying that I should swear on what I said, show more respect, that it would make no difference for her to shout as I would treat my schoolmates and my future wife in the same way, and that my life was set on a road to hell (or something of the equivalent). I took my plate and my utensils to the kitchen, only to come out to hear her say that if I thought she was cursing me, I should leave our home. She said that once I walk out the door, she would never call me for help. I strode to my room and shut its door. She screamed my name at the top of her voice, and I forcibly stood outside my door. She requested an 'apology', and I obliged willingly.

"NOT THAT KIND OF SORRY!!!!!!!" She hollered. (she was talking about the kind that is verbal)

I reentered my room and slammed its gateway shut. It was a blend of emotions. Rage, frustration, fear, sorrow and a few others I cannot bear to mention. This was not the first time she had burst out like this. Even my uncle told me that my mom was an irritable/bitchy person, and that i had to love her no matter what. My mom works hard for my sister and I, and I am grateful for that, but must I tolerate the psychotic until I eventually go insane? There are people in the world who ask: "Why god? Why?" and I answer: "Because life is both a beauty and a bitch to behold." In fact, right now as I am writing this, I can hear my mom bellowing at my stepfather about what had just happened. Muffled words about how her dad (AKA my grandfather) left her on her own to take care of and defend herself. Once, she gave me a pillow for Christmas, which had the words 'My Mum is my Best Friend' embroidered on it. Now, I feel like cancelling those words with a big black marker, and writing 'My mum belongs in Woodbridge' on it. If my mum is reading this right now, I would like to tell her that sometimes what she says hurts, real bad.

Well, I gotta catch some sleep now for the preparations of my birthday party:) Oh yeah, when she decides to put her foot up my ass in the future, I can only hope it goes so far up that she can't pull it out, and I get to take her straight to hell with me.

FACT:

When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.

Returned from Malaysia

2006-03-17T15:30:00.000+08:00

Heys, just came back from Malaysia with my sister. We visited our grandparents, and had a lot of fun by lazing around and watching TV;) On Wednesday, I went to Sentosa and had fun with friends.

Arrgh! Buried in sand!

ACJC concert

2006-03-10T08:54:00.000+08:00

On 8th March 2006, my school band and I rocked the esplanade. Almost full house, I think. I really enjoyed my time at ACJC, and hope I can visit in the future. I will miss everyone that I met there, as they have made an impact on my life. Now, I have to move on to Nanyang Polytechnic, where I will try something different, and go for a career in game design. Thank you, my friends from 1SB2, the concert band, and Kim Dai Chi, for all of you have made my life a joyful one at ACJC.

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

I took the one less travelled,

and that has made

all the difference"

-Robert Frost

Panda kindergarten?

2006-03-10T08:27:00.000+08:00

China opened a kindergarten for baby pandas. Check it out!

Panda@Reuters

Captain Planet

2006-03-10T08:07:00.000+08:00

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this.

the first post

2006-03-10T05:58:00.000+08:00

Heyys,

Just started the blog. I will be updating soon.