Entries Tagged 'Me, Myself & I' ↓

Plundered from from Wikipedia: Defense of the Ancients (commonly known as DotA) is a custom scenario/map/mod for the real-time strategy video game Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. The objective of the scenario is for each team to destroy the opponents’ Ancients, heavily guarded structures at opposing corners of the map. Players use powerful units known as heroes and AI-controlled fighters called “creeps”. As in role-playing games, players level up their heroes and use gold to buy equipment during the mission.

I love dota.

Yep, here’s a screenshot of some weirdo who happens to have too much resources and decided to spell ‘I Love You’ using in-game units, or specifically, Chickens.

Yes, those are really chickens. They crow.

Here is a game of DoTA in progress (also plundered from Wikipedia).

It’s so good, that there’s already a couple of games that spins off from this mod, namely League of Legends and Heroes of Newearth, and then there’s news that Valves working on their version of the game as well, having trademarked, much to DoTA’s community’s chagrins, the name DoTA.

Still nothing comes as raw, as badly imbalanced, and as pure as DoTA itself, of which I initially refused to even play this stupid game, and of course, I grossly misjudged it.

I love dota.

It’s a tremendously easy game for newcomers to pick-up yet incredibly difficult to master, and adds the elements of luck, teamwork and bad strategy, no two games are ever the same.

Having been introduced to the addiction since early 2007, the game has evolved and continuously gets little bits of updates to the in-game stuffs, and it’s great news that there’s finally a tournament that’s worthy of DoTA’s calibre.

And the much promised, yet to be announced (datewise) tournament in WuHan, China is a big draw for me to maybe get a little professional and balanced (yes, no maphacks!) competition.

Now, gotta prepare myself dutifully, and cross my fingers for…

First prize: 11,000 Euros.

I love dota.

So, who’s interested in going to WuHan, China?

Remember the first time you went swimming?

You gasped, you frantically plundered the waters and it seems as if you’re just a small thingy in a huge body of water.

Well I guess you can’t say the same for the Singapore Cubs, or perhaps known as Singapore Men Under 15 Football Squad (or SMUFS, which sounds like smurfs eh?) when they overcame the physically intimidating boys of Montenegro.

Like a white sea, the Montenegrins are heads and shoulders above some of the diminutive Cubs, but for what was lacking in size, the Cubs made up for it with heart.

Fresh from a demoralising 2 nil loss to underdogs, Haiti, you’d think that these schoolboys would continue shedding tears all the way till YOG’s closing ceremony, but no, they picked themselves up and performed way above expectations.

Bah, they even played way better than my Saturday/Sunday soccer teams.

Just take a look at them, after they’ve scored the third goal, wasn’t it cheeky of them to mimic this scandinavian team’s ‘fishing trophy‘ goal celebrations?

And where’s this beach anyway, cos it looks real sweet and I might want to take a few pictures there too.

Anyways..

So with the Bronze in the bag, is this salvation for Singapore’s former Goal2010?

Perhaps..

Though I’m usually skeptic when it comes to the potential of Singapore football, I do have a hunch that our Cubs are going to be doing even better and more — that if they’re groomed professionally and meticulously, that they’ll grow to be giants of Asian football.

And then the skeptic in me sets in and reminds that whatever I propose earlier, it’s unlikely going to happen due to society’s pressure in insisting that a footballing career is not worth it.

Maybe they’ll say go to a University or Poly, then play football and when you’re done, you’ll have the academics to get back onto a corporate ladder — but all this after serving their 2 years NS term of course.

Maybe they just didn’t really know about Fandi Ahmad, Singapore’s finest ever footballer ever to grace our National colours.

Still kudos and a hefty congratulations to all the Singapore Cubs and everyone associated with them.

Although Gold and Silver slipped through, don’t worry, you can still brag about that Bronze medal over early morning roti prata or a late night mcdelivery meal.

And here’s to desiring that you preach humility, exercise diligently and execute greatness in your future endeavours.

… I can’t tell you what it really is. I can only tell you what it feels like, and right now it’s a steel knife in my windpipe.

The more I suffer, I suffocate, and right before I’m about to drown, she resuscitates me, she fucking hates me, and I love it.

On the surface it’s just verse after verse of a love-hate relationship, but beneath the veil it’s really a raw, sinister, possessive, obsession of love.

Do you get fueled up when his cold words ring through your ears?

Don’t your heart weep when her frail voice reeks of blind compassion?

Domestic violence, in any form is extremely condemnable, and it’s a disgusting act but it’s one that sub-conciously gets played out by anyone, and you’re simply full of denial and ignorance if you say you’re never guilty of it.

Admit it, your heart has secretly wished it so before, or you’ve mistimedly witnessed it before, even if it’s so much as a displeasing glare over a discussion.

Violence, is perceptive right?

But seriously if you’ve never really seen domestic violence, then it’s either you’re blind, or you’re probably a piece of aimlessly drifting log.

You ever love somebody so much you can barely breathe when you’re with ‘em.

Got that warm fuzzy feeling. Yeah, them those chills you used to get ‘em

Ever fortunate enough to have felt that warm fuzzy feeling, or perhaps unfortunate enough that it turned cold and crushes you, like knives stabbing incessantly?

Like when you work to try and make things right, only to find your efforts thwarted and you’re made to wait, and later finding out that you were never really one of the priorities in life?

Like when you’re so close, yet you’re made to feel so distant, or worse that they’re spending time with someone else?

And then your heart starts with all these questions and your mind races everywhere.

And the moment you meet, it all goes away as if nothing in the world really ever matters anymore.

Then the air is squeezed out of you as your heart desires to get closer and suddenly time skips beating normally and rushes through.

Then it comes for goodbye, and it feels cold once again.

Come inside, pick up your bags from the sidewalk. Don’t you hear sincerity in my voice when I talk?

I’m tired of the games I just want her back.

Then you wonder if you should stay or leave, because it’s getting harder for you to stay especially after you’ve committed yourself and it’s one way.

Still you decide to stay, but then they decide it’s easier to pack up and see what life brings.

And then you decide that some things can’t remain the way they are and you disintegrate.

So you choose to burn away your memories, bridges, thoughts and everything because when it’s ash, it’s easier to sweep em under the rug.

Still it doesn’t go away that easily, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts.

Just gonna stand there and watch me burn.

That’s okay because I love the way you lie.

Love the way you lie – Eminem, Ft Rihanna. — & I love this song to bits.

The regret, the anger, the remorse, the satisfaction, the obsession, the hatred, the acquittal, the love, the joy, the sadness, the vindication, the mesmerization, the possession, the vileness, the sorrow, the forgiveness, the fights, the tension, the forcefullness, the blindness, and all the emotional trip that goes along with it..

(This post was actually written on Wednesday, 11th August, just to get the dates and time into perspective as you’re reading this. What began in the wee hours of the morning, reaches conclusion tonight, as I’m listening to Eminem’s Love The Way You Lie. I’m just saying.)

I should probably be asleep right now but i just can’t help but think of the stuffs that I talked of earlier with a very special friend, of topics, which most people would touch on at least once in their life but then come to forget all about it.

Here’s to hoping that the talks don’t go that way – forgotten.

Right or wrong is subjective, and it all depends on one’s perception and knowledge, but most importantly the motive and needs of whoever you’re talking and discussing with.

Who am I to say which is which and what paths you need to take, and who am I to judge on behalf of your judgements?

Now all I can do is to express opinions, my own judgements, concerns and motives, of which you did fairly asked, what my motives were early on.

Indeed, motive is a very important issue that needs to be tackled and tackled well by any parties that plan to get involve within anything.

Without motive, one is merely a passenger riding along, enjoying the scenery while others pull the bus along.

Without motive, one wakes up in wonderment and tired, and tends to drift away distracted.

Motive is the vitamin that keeps thing going — but wait, there’s a better drug than motive, which kickstarts things, brings up new events and most important of all, challenging you to tackle, and head on if you have to, any daunting obstacles.

I said that there’s a better drug than the vitamin, motive.

Motive is temporary, but this drug is permanent.

This is a drug that defines the good, the bad and the ugly.

It’s the drug that sets how you set out your lifepath.

But no, it’s not sold over the counters nor prescribed by doctors.

This drug is… inspiration.

Inspiration is the drug that defines you as a person and sets the characteristics that makes you up.

I think my friend was inspired in one way or another to dive deeper after barely scratching the surface of the design industry.

She’s conceptually talented, able to think outside the box, tackle on broad ideas, and in short, she’s driven.

That’s what inspiration does, it drives you forward, shifts up your gear and brings you to new places and experiences.

Motivation gets you worked up for the day, and maybe the week, but inspiration gets you worked up for the rest of your life.

Inspiration, it brings about a new meaning to life itself, and creates something out of nothing as you chase something, something intangible, something out of the ordinary, something that’s perceived as useless or wasted by most.

Well that’s just because they aren’t as inspired right?

Inspiration is the drug that wakes you up in the morning, in full anticipation for tomorrow, even though yesterday bore no fruitions. Yet.

Inspiration is the catalyst that makes the negative turn positive, the pessimists into optimists, and keeps you moving when everything else stalls.

Inspiration makes you realise that some things are near impossible, but that it’s never too much being wasted on which you’re going after.

I’m thankful that I’ve been inspired when I was younger but even more fortunate that I continually get inspired with every passing day.

Thankfully too I’m sane enough to know that I’m still nowhere near reaching my goals and my dreams, but I’m inspired enough to also know that that’s no reason to stop whatever it is that I’m doing.

Because I know for sure how I’m not going to achieve whatever it is that I’m trying to achieve.

And that’s to do nothing meaningful.

So.. are you going to do something soon?

It’s been a hell of a week, maybe a month, maybe a few months, and I’m still picking myself apart and asking questions as usual, but none that I’ve regret coming to of course.

For nothing would I trade those experiences ever, but ever since a month ago, I secretly wondered if I should think for what’s best in my self interest, and that is to not play second fiddle, to stop searching for sunken treasure, to just stop hurting myself basically.

Hurt myself? Woah, that’s gotta be something right? Indeed man, indeed.

Getting kicked out of a quarterfinal in a primary school soccer tournament and cried at that? That was pre-puberty disappointment, like a mountain falling on top of you.

Would you have cried if you had pinned extremely high hopes and expected so much and dreamed so much only to falter along the way?

And then there was Gunung Ledang when I was 15, which was basically torture and plenty of mozzie attacks to accompany te aching limbs. That’s peanuts.

NS’ stress tests, such as the canoeing around Singapore, even when I’m sea-sick as hell, and all those mind games? Well that turned out to be a fond memory.

Sure those times I was breaking the limit but this, this now, this relationship, this whatever this is, it’s brought me to depths I’ve never seen before and aches I’ve never felt before.

Questions whose answers are never really about right or wrong and it’s these questions that you chew on slowly, only to find them getting stickier and stickier the longer the gum gets pummeled.

Well I try to base my decisions without being judgemental on any preconditions and I’d like to get things done so that the next move can be made. It’s like a game of Chess, once you’ve made your move, someone else have to make their move or the game stagnates.

But gum, like chess, are minor issues, if ever they were problems.

This stagnation, this stickiness, this thingy, it’s not quite a problem, and not quite a solution either.

I love helping people, the more that they need my help, the more that I go out of my way to render it.

But do you continue with the aid when you’ll get hurt along the way, like how the Internation Aid Mission guys whom were slain recently while relaying eye care duties in Afghan?

Their virtuous deeds just got legendary status, thanks to a few extreme men with extreme ‘incepted’ thoughts, but I’m no politician so I’ll politically say that it was a great sadness to see the medical team’s journey ended this way.

Wait, they knew the risks yet they ploughed on selflessly.

What should I do?

I wish I could just lay out everything, and stand inside a wall of glass, before shattering them all to pieces — but I don’t want the shards to cut anyone, me least of all, even though I do know that sooner or later, pieces of glass will graze you, no matter how hard you try to evade them.

Now, if only I can see where that wall of glass is, maybe my exhaustion blurs my vision.

Sure, work and side projects have at the very least shown me where I need to go to keep on moving, but I can’t help but feel that slight tinge of helplessness.

Maybe I’m lost?

EZ-Link Card Stickers are all the rage these days aren’t they?

You go into Mini Toons, Comics Mart or GIfts Shop and you’ll find them littered all over the shop.

There are celebrity images, cartoon images and even common pet images, but what if you wanted your own pictures?

Well if you sometime wish that you could print your own family photos, facourite images or basically something that’s different and cannot be found in stores, thankfully there is…. *drum-rolls*…

StickerDojo: Stickers For Awesomeness.

I heard the stickers look great too. Aha! = )

Spread the customization. Spread the love.

Been rather occupied tying down a few websites at the moment, so pardon the lack of constant posts here these days. I’m just glad that StickerDojo is nearing its completion. There’s still chinks in there, but nothing’s perfect right? I’d love to hear feedbacks, good or bad, and ways to improve. Let me know ya!

Do you feel like you could use some extra time playing DOTA or the recently launched Starcraft II spending time with your children or loved ones and still be able to get your errands done on time, everytime?

Well did you knew that TaskRabbit could make your life easier by running errands for you — the best part being that you get to decide how much you’re willing to pay for a Rabbit someone to hop around for your errands?

Service networking they label themselves as.

I know I could use one anytime now to run errands on my behalf because the minute that I have the time to run my own errands, the shops are already closed — and this is why you shouldn’t join an advertising/exhibition/printing company if you’re a strictly 9-6 kind of person.

Btw, how did I find out about TaskRabbit? Because the idea struck me a few days back that I could probably start something like this (over here), and in my research today I found out that it’s already been started and running — and successfully too!

There’s a saying that goes “You’re never late unless you’re being told to do it.”

In my case, I think it’s “You’re just too late buddy!”

It happened a few years back when a thought struck me of an internet service that sends ’surprise packages’ to anyone who wants to keep themselves surprised, and during my research I found SomethingStore who did exactly what I wanted to do AND they did it successfully and earlier than me.

What else have you thought of that could put a smile on someone’s face tomorrow only to find out that you’ve been beaten to it?

In this cut-throat world we all live in, I suppose you need to ship fast or risk being second and, unless second place is good enough for you, forever envy the pioneers of your market.

I guess that to ship, you need to navigate clear waters.

But I’ll be damned for I see an iceberg ahead of me (translation: my dayjob), and sometimes, you need to face the music (the iceberg) before your story becomes the next blockbuster and where, hopefully, lessons are learned and a better ship is made.

Who knows, your story might even inspire an act, or an actor towards an even greater story (*koff* Dicaprio: From Titanic to Inception. Brilliance at work.)

I watched Inception, had to drag sis along cos others simply wasn’t able to watch it, didn’t wanna watch it with me or watched it already.

It wasn’t an easy show but here’s a quick review because I’m just darn sleepy and drowsy at the moment.

It’s solidly good, tight and very well paced, not much loopholes (there are holes, just not much) and has to be the best show of 2010 so far in terms of it’s score, action, visual effects, plot, characters, cinematography, continuity & editing and if I were to summarise it all in 5 words they’d be:

Multi-tasking. Dreamy. Captivating. Purposeful. Sad.

Sad, because the way I interpreted the movie, the dream never ended for Cobb, and that thought struck me midway in the movie, where I realised that the reality wasn’t really reality.

BUT, I shan’t spoil the movie for the uninitiated, and while I torture myself to come up with a decent review for another day, I’ll prod you to go watch it.

AND if you’ve already watched it, go watch it again, and this time try to catch the movie and perceive it to end differently than when you first saw it.

Interestingly, they didn’t tow away the bike even when I failed to pay up the installments after 3 months.

All they did was to call me up and ask me when I can settle the payment, and each time I’d tell them the next day. Funny enough they bought it each time too.

It wasn’t that I wanted to hold their money but rather it was mine — I wanted to hold mine and bike installments is one of those arrears where it’s still not so bad even if you don’t pay up after a month, or three in this case.

So yesterday I coughed up enough to settle the payments for 4 months instead, which includes the next’s, where at the same time, I’m finally debt free of that bike shop.

You know it does feel good to have that debt free feeling, and though I always recommend people to learn to leverage or stretch their dollar, there’s this satisfacton and no-strings attached sentiments when you’re paying off your final installments.

It’s that good.

So one commitment down, but everytime you settle one, more crops up, and that just seem to be the way of the world we live in eh?

It’s as if noone in their right mind would want to see you relaxed and free and everytime you’re sitting there, shaking the legs, someone will inevitably walk up to you and start asking for something from you, or worse, starts telling you the mistakes that you’ve done and expects you to rectify it.

Just typical eh, that nobody wants to see you doing nothing and still enjoying yourselves at it.

Pffft.

Oh btw, the iPhone 4 will be on sale 30th of the month. Hmmmmm…

I can’t sleep. I can’t sleep. I could turn myself in but I can’t sleep.

5.55am.

The mind wanders, thoughts dissipate and I find myself calculating stuffs that shouldn’t be calculated at 5-6am in the morning, like would it be a good thing if I started an online service where you pay for an item to be sent your way (or another place) and you don’t know what it’s gonna be? These guys beat me to it and I’ve been admiring them since 2 years ago and perhaps this shows that there is a wacky market audience for it?

Well I enjoy drawing, doodling and coloring stuffs and maybe I could do that and plaster them onto EZ-Link stickers for the mass like what I’m currently doing with Stick Anything Lah? (Ahaa, blatant promo here! =P )

Strangely there’s 24hours per day but I just don’t seem to have the luxury of a 2-3 hours stretch that I can spend on exhausting myself creatively, unless I stay awake like today, and that sucks, and I really need to exhaust myself creatively — otherwise all these pent up thoughts and stuffs stays pent up, slowly building itself, gradually turning cancerous. Well, rhetorically speaking of course.

6.15am.

I wanna sleep, but gee, what can you do to sleep huh? I need rest. I don’t know which one’s worse — that I’m neither wide awake or the fact that I’m half drowsy and half suffering the joyous torture of playing soccer with the boys at 1am in the morning.

And they even had the cheek to extend the session till 3am, where naturally I obliged and played along, as if I could knock myself out and sleep till late afternoon. Well I could but that means I’ll be ’shooting paper aeroplanes’, or ‘bubble bubble’, or ‘NATO-ing’ because…

6.25am.

.. I’ve soccer again in exactly 2 and a half hours later, over at Clementi with the ramshackled bunch of white-and-blue-collared football enthusiasts.

Hmmm.. I’ve no idea what collar I am, cos my work clothes hasn’t a proper collar, but rather a turtle-neck like, zip-collar. Ahh, zip-collared, that’s what I am!

Whatever that means right?

6.30am

I. Need. Sleep Ipad Zip-Collars Love.