So whats been happening? Well, Im not working as much as I wanted to work in these vacations. AMR interactive doesnt seem to have as much work available as I'd hoped but Im actually not disappointed. After another hectic session, I'm happy to suck in as much relaxation time as I can.
All my exams went relatively well and ive already enrolled for my next and last (YESSS!) session. So far during this session break Ive visited me good ole friend Al and as usual ended up spending the night. We had yet another Monoply game, and I was the first to lose yet again. If I have been gifted with anything, luck in games was not one of them... :(
Also watched some horror/slasher movies at his place on his fancy HD TV. Sweeny Todd: The Deamon Barber of Fleet St was soo much better on his TV than when I saw it on me humble PC.
Also went out for a long walk in the city and the harbour with Danish the day the exams ended. It was a great walk after a long session for the both of us and the sites and sounds of the harbour at night are always pleasant. I will never forget all the lights reflecting of the surface of the water.
Last week, I went with some friends from Uni for a long walk from Cogee beach to Bondi Beach. I had no idea such a walkway existed, and Im glad I went on the walk on such short notice. Here are some pictures of the event:
For pictures of me and the rest of the guys, just check out my facebook profile.
Whats on my mind
I thought I should start a new section into my blogs. This one is about what Ive been thinking of recently. I think a lot and so many of my thoughts and ideas are lost in the maelstrom inside my head. Here I can atleast put what I am thinking into words and atleast come back to it, and maybe one day turn it into some coherent whole.
I just got back from a trip to Mcdonalds with Danish and I was telling him if he ever noticed how soo many of these "religious" people we see on TV and sometimes meet in the streets have such dead eyes. I mean, has anyone ever noticed this? They're eyes have lost that sparkle of life and its like your staring at dead eyes. Its something that has always turned me off whenever Ive seen their faces. We were actually talking about something else but we touched on the topic of ones passions in life a bit and thats what lead me to this "dead eye phenomenon". We quickly agreed to how the eyes showed lack of any passion for life.
I believe in balance. Do things in moderation. Without that passion, we can never go that extra mile to acheive our goals. If your doing something with passion, then hardwork follows through naturally.
Ive also been reading a book my Dad sent me titled "Heroes of History" by William Durant who according to the book is a Pultzer prize winner, I believe, for his work on "The Story of Civilization". Ive read that "The Story of Civilization" comes in many volumes and is quite detailed. Heroes of History on the other hand is a big summary of what William Durant believes to be some of historys greatest heroes. The books has some very nice paragraphs that I would like to quote below:
"Man can be traced to about a million years before Christ. Agriculture can be traced no farther back than to 25,000 BC. Man has lived fourty times longer as a hunter than as a tiller of the soil in a settled life."
"Even in civilization the chief function of the male is to go out and hunt for food for his family, or for something that might, in need, be exhanged for food. Brilliant though he may be, he is basically tributary to the female, who is the womb and mainstream of the race."
Here is a nice quote from a Chinese philosopher Lao-tze born 604 BC:
"If you do not quarrel, no one on earth will be able to quarrel with you... Recompense injury with kindness.... To those who are good I am good, and to those who are not good I am good; thus all get to be good. To those who are sincere I am sincere, and to those who are not sincere I am also sincere, and thus all get to be sincere.... The softest thing in the world...overcomes the hardest."
Kung-fu-tze - "Kung the Master" as his students used to call him was born in 551BC and was a student of Lao-tze. Two paragraphs were drawn up by his pupils to summarize his doctrine. A doctrine that is beautiful in its simplicity and powerful in the truth that it holds, and as old as it may be, one should wonder why IS it so hard to implement? Here it is:
"The ancients who wished to illustrate the highest virtue throughout the empire first ordered well their own states. Wishing to order well their own states, they first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate their families, they first cultivated their own selves. Wishing to cultivate their own selves, they first rectified their hearts. Wishing to rectify their hearts, they first sought to be sincere in their thoughts. Wishing to be sincere in their thoughts, they first extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such extension of knowledge lay in the investigation of things."
"Things being investigated, knowledge became complete. Their knowledge being complete, their thoughts were sincere. Their thoughts being sincere, their hearts were then rectified. Their hearts being rectified, their own selves were cultivated. Their own selves being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being rightly governed, the whole empire was made tranquil and happy."
Just thought I should share some of this.
Apart from that, there is the usual spinning of wacky science fiction and fantasy tales, worlds and characters storming away in my head. One of these days I shall write some of it down and then hopefully it will become a coherent story. Right now, I have written enough in this first section. Let the passion never die!
Gamming news
I got Lost Odyssey a while back. Ive been playing it ALOT these past 2 weeks and am like about 35 hours in. Im on the last disk (of a total of 4). The game is very good for a traditional RPG but it has terrible loading times and a skill-link system that ends up being too much of a hassle, requiring frequent changes almost after every battle.
That is not my only gripe with this game. Infact, playing this game and also playing Final Fantasy 12, and 10 in the past I have come to realize the flawed design Japanese developers went about into this next generation of better graphics and VOICE ACTING in their games. Many times when playing FFX, FF12 or Lost Odyssey there are momments where I imagine these characters doing what they do but on a 2d pixilated Snes machine (like Final Fantasy III/VI) and I realize apart from the fact that they are now in 3D and actually say the dialogs out loud....there is NO difference!
Characters still have a FIXED animation for whenever they are shocked, another animation for when they are frustrated etc. You know Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII were very well written for text based games and with a few "mistakes" corrected can still hold up today. Alot of what made the stories so compelling were the text based dialogs. It allowed the imagination to run wild and nearly no line, no matter how silly it was, can sound bad because an image of the characters had already been embeded in your mind and you say the line out in your head appropriatley. Alot like reading a novel. None of this is helped with the terrible and cheasy english voice acting that accompanies these games. Learn something from Bioware and their recent Hit Mass Effect people!
Overall though the game is saved due to its relatively nice battle system. Its got that little addictive edge to it where you want to powerup your immortal characters and max out their skills. There are plenty of sidequests and secret bosses that open up in disc 4.
The game came with a 1 month free Xbox Live gold membership which i tried out with GTA IV and since I had the head set I was able to experience voice chat. The experience was smooth and alot of fun! and the best part was there was no lag! There were 10 players at one point and no lag! driving around, in a team, using the city alleyways and what not to your advantage, it was alot of fun.
Anime news
Still catching the latest bleach episdodes and they are still great even for fillers. The pace is moving fast and its almost like someone out there said "Hey, Ive heard what all these people say about fillers and Im gonna make a difference!", whoever that was, I salute you.
I also saw the Batman anime DVD which is meant to be a setup for the Dark Knight titled "Gotham Knight". It was good, not great. Alot like what they did with the matrix where different artist each animated an episode except these tell a singel if slightly disjoint story. It would have been better as a single episode with one artist if they wanted to do that.
Movie news
I went out with Won last week and saw Kung Fu Panda and it was amazing! One of the best CGI animated movies Ive ever seen. Not better than the Lion King or Finding Nemo, but Id put it comfortably right after those two. The whole cinema was laughing frequently at the many genuinly funny momments and the action didnt disapoint either. I would definately recommend this movie. Had another nice time with Won, were we caught up, talked, had a nice meal and ended the day with a brilliant movie. Next for me and Won is The Dark Knight!
Well, another HUGE post :p lol! I hope you enjoyed the photos and for more, check out my facebook profile. Till next time, haris signing out!
