Thursday

random plug

Very funny post by pfctdayelise, about a tourism ad spoof in Australia, I loved it =p

The Spider of Doom

The Spider of Doom is a pretty funny story. It's conceivable.. barely... the way you go "omg how could anyone be so stupid?". =p

quote: It's also worth noting the website presumed authentication if it could not find a cookie saying that the user is not logged in. Genius.

Tuesday

is everyone the same

I haven't met anyone new for awhile, then this week I meet half a dozen people. Maybe I'm too quick to categorize and stereotype. But everytime I met one of them, I mentally fleshed them out with my preconceived notions and assumptions, filing them away into their cubby holes of how they fit into society.

Girl from Botswana. (check. the same contradictory loner yet friendly behaviour as i've seen several times) Mainland chinese girl (check, the accented english, the contradictory enthusiasm and shyness). Pakistani guy. (check, the pride, force of character, the desire to be liked, the cologne).

But what's this? Ash has interesting friends. =p Perhaps more on them next time, if I get to meet them again.

Sunday

FF-AC soundtrack

Thanks to a friend from college I got a listen at this.

It's a very disjointed soundtrack, mostly instrumental, and I believe anyone who has "not" watched the movie will completely not understand this soundtrack. A lot of random tracks in there which I would not have put in, some of them sounding like mere ambient background sound rather than proper arrangements.

Of course there are some gems. There are a few piano solo pieces, which are as good as any of the compositions coming from an FF series. Character themes, and in particular the Tifa battle scene song is quite mind boggling. = )

There's a fair amount of J-Rock compositions. Some are obviously meant to be listened to in sequence, as they were played in the movie. Chase of Highway is a hard driving rock beat, with a repeating guiter riff that verges on being repetetive, but imo saved by the overall excellence of the composition. =p The frenetic pace continues on into their edgy and manic rendition of Jenova, done mostly in the minor key - then a vaguely chaotic yet harmonic guitar lead emerges at the end, transitioning to a major key. Gives a very nice imagery, like suddenly hearing a clear voice cutting through the babble of a hundred lesser voices. Ends on a resounding chord, fades, then transitions into the iconic song, "one winged angel : sephiroth".

This song is best described as a rock song with full orchestral and choir backup. Turns out very rich sounding, it's quite amazing actually that it doesn't sound muddied with so much at the composer's fingertips. There's still a clearness and clarity to it, and the interesting chorus of sounds is very memorable. Compare this to some of Yuki Kajiura's compositions which tend to at times get over-heavy, like a painter splashing on too much paint on a painting, so that listening to it becomes heavy and burdensome. Very convincing ending to this song.

The track immediately after this is the resolution to this series of songs, "cloud smiles". A clean, clear and simple theme, orchetral, a nice contrast and resolution to the rock themes earlier. Forgive me if I am wrong, it's been awhile since I've sat through one of these performances, but I think the lead is played by a clarinet.

Saturday

free will and other ramblings

I had a strange dream. Waking up from one of these is like rushing to the surface after being drowned, bursting upwards and outwards gasping for air.

I blame the alcohol (it's the easiest thing to blame for all the world's ills). I had a few glasses of remarkably good white wine, which I really enjoyed.

I rather suspect the quality of my speech, or my voice inflection changes when I have been drinking. No one has yet told me this, so I don't know if I am just imagining things. This is the problem with subjective reality.

For example, in a dream : do you actually have free will, or do you just think you have free will? Are you responsible for your actions while you are asleep? Does the fact you are willing to commit a cold blooded murder of your rival in real life while asleep indicate your true feelings and intentions, or are they like watching movies you truly have no control over?

I know for sure we are likely to dream about the things and people we obsess about the most. And for dreams about people we know, they probably act in character, exactly how we expect them to act.

So perhaps a more revealing feature of dreams is not what YOU do, but rather how other people act towards you.

So in this dream I am walking past the train station, and I meet an old friend I hadn't seen or thought about in years, and she gives me a hug. Simple everyday actions are infused with feelings in dreams : and this hug tasted of desperation.

Tuesday

hmmm

Yet another article on this topic, The Science Of Sexual Orientation by CBS.

(yes i also went to school with sparkly nail polish once or twice =p but telling anymore than that goes into TMI territory, and not anything I can tell anyone ever, at least not at this point I think, ehe)

Listening to a pair of old CDs - by Passion Worship Band. Till this day I don't know who they are, or what they are -> it's not a band, not a person, but more of a movement perhaps. I have no idea who sang or performed the songs - they are live recordings - but some of them are truly entrancing.

This is the Passion One Day Live CD. Recording and packaging what is essentially a single day worship conference just feels wrong and smacks of commercialization, but I guess if you were there, it would serve as a keepsake or memory of the event. And for those who weren't, it allows a small glimpse into what it was, I guess.

I love the singer who sang the cover one pure and holy passion. She is what Passion is. Never could find out who she was.

Monday

omg

just discovered that Cassandra Claire has updated with Draco Veritas chapter 17a since... well, awhile back. I swear she takes 4 months per chapter or something. Such a slow pace o_o but I do rather like the story she's taken us on.

Draco x Ginny please kthx =p

Sunday

Sometimes

You wonder whether someone has changed, or whether it's you that's changed. Everything in life is relative, after all.

Friday

don't let go

will you forgive me if i feel this way? : coz we just met : tell me that's ok

Time to change this I think = )

Tuesday


Reached the cap for armour physical damage reduction when maintanking Chromaggus. He hits really hard. = )

Monday

Epic Geared

So many WoW epics =p Muahaha.

Armour:
Helm of Wrath
Dark Iron Helm
Eshkanders Collar
Medallion of Steadfast Might
Amulet of the Darkmoon
Puissant Cape
Green Dragonskin Cape
Breastplate of Might
Dragonbone Wristguards
Gauntlets of Might
Belt of Might
Flamewaker Leggings
Sabatons of Wrath
Onyxia Blood Talisman

Weapons
Thunderstrike
Obsidian Edged Blade
Quel Serrar
Deathbringer
Eshkanders Right Claw
Eshkanders Left Claw
Heartstriker

Why I have so many weapons -> they keep dropping in the instances and no one wants them! And to be honest, I actually do use all them, situationally. I was one of the three maintanks on Broodlord Lashlayer, one of the Draconid bosses in BWL. I had around 9100hp and 400 defense fully buffed, which is necessary since he has an insanely strong Mortal Strike attack... it hit one of our less geared tanks for 7500 damage, and he died instantly =p Especially since the Mortal Strike debuff reduces healing effects by 50% for the next 4 seconds, so it's difficult for healers to save you.

Saturday

are you afraid

What are you afraid of?

My friend tells me a story. This is a guy who works out in a gym, takes personal defense classes, and he is a very driven and fearless person, focused to the point of obsession. And he has a lot of anger in him. A mugger accosts him at night with a knife - he breaks the mugger's elbow and knee then calls the police. Then he comes back, and tells me some things which I cannot repeat here, and then asks whether I think he is insane.

I have been mugged before. I will admit that I only pretended to put up a fight. It was three of them against me. In retrospect, I would be just as afraid of hurting them, as of being hurt myself. If I had injured any of them, I would be forever afraid that his gang will take revenge on me, and I would walk with that fear every night for a very long time. You never know how long a person's determination can last, even if he has to let it burn throughout his time in prison. This relates very well to the philosophy in Enders game : you never commit to a fight, unless you know you can win so completely that your enemy will never be able to take vengeance on you. Which usually means killing them. And all their friends. And all their friend's friends.

Violence is clearly the action of last resort, no matter how justified you are. It took me many years to understand this. We always cheer for the vigilantes, the ones who fight back, those to beat the odds, give the bad guys what they deserve. Remember the case, where a mugger beat up a woman and broke several bones in her face, then took her possessions and got into his car. She struggled to her feet, walked up to the car and pulled out her gun and shot him dead before he could drive off. It's cold blooded murder, but her actions don't shock the majority of us, and in fact you will find most of us silently nodding our heads and agreeing, yes, he got what he deserved, good on her.

Well, I can walk past the spot I was mugged now, without any traces of fear or panic. It's just a few hundred meters away from where I live right now.

Thursday

Vaelastrasz : Red Dragonflight


Vaelastrasz downed last night. An incredibly fun and technically demanding fight. Your team has to output about 1.3 million points of damage into him within 3 to 4 minutes otherwise you lose. Just a rundown of his abilities - he casts a magic effect on players, killing one every 25 seconds roughly (you cannot save them) frequentily targeting the maintank... he cannot be taunted, so you need to place secondary tanks high up the aggro list to take over... his fire breath AOE does 4500 fire damage to a large area... frequent fire nova with 120 yard range for 1500 damage... physical attack for 2000 damage on plate wearer, 3500 on leather, and god knows how much damage on cloth wearers... hmm, and he cleaves, works like chainlightining -> it jumps from player to player, killing entire groups at once. His burning flames debuff is something like 5000+ damage every 3 seconds while it's active on you. Very cool fight.

And Xany scored the highest damage output on this boss on our kill attempt, 460dps, or a little over 110,000 damage inside of 4 minutes. The chat conversation after that was amusing, since she's new to the guild, by my invitation, using a crap green weapon, and she's already proving her worth (and the worth of all my player recommendations too =p). Chat went something along the lines of "all you other rogues, you're fired". Go girl, hehe =p

I like to fancy myself as the warrior that has the highest damage mitigation, but shall be for the healers to decide =p