Opportunity in many forms

Sometimes there are just various opportunities available around me.

At my workplace, and in the project which I'm part of, there is a requirement to have 2 team members to be in London at any one time. There was a bit of stigma last time, in that some felt it would be a very trying time. Living in a far off country, unfamiliar culture and environment, time zone difference, sense of loneliness. Maybe that was true in the beginning, but wow, has things changed this year. We used to have one person going 3 months at a time. This year, we've had team members going for almost a year. For the project, it would ensure more continuity in terms of knowledge retention. And with a bit of courage, people can travel to many other nice places that many just dream about. From London, it is so easy to hop over to Europe for a weekend. Even London itself is known as one of the most happening cities in the world. Not to mention the amount of daily allowance the company bestows on someone during this time.

In short, I will say that these long term oversea assignments is not for everyone. Some already have the personality to be able to adapt, some need to have the potential to adapt. If one has neither, it would not be a pleasurable experience. But for those that do have what it takes, the opportunity should really not be missed....


Recently I had to participate in a RFP and the follow up Presentation. If I were to list all my inadequacies, it would be a long list. I am first to admit that I do not have much knowledge and experience with these kind of things. Most of my work is in operational support on old legacy systems. The projects I handle are very small scale. Very low hardware and networking knowledge. I am also not familiar with the client, but every other colleague involved in this effort is. They can readily spout many points heard or observed from the client gained from previous visits to their office, whereas I cannot. So for all these reasons and more, I felt like a fish out of water. I also received critique that I was too quiet during discussions. Of course, that made me feel like I was performing even more poorly. Discussions for the preparations were always done late at night, and I had errands to run early in the mornings. At times I felt like a zombie and was too tired to focus.

So I could have banged my head on the wall, and admitted defeat, just go along with the motions. But I knew that I would be no better off if I did. I tried my best to overcome my shortcomings. Don't know if others can acknowledge any improvement, but heck, if you allow your life to only feel validated by the yardstick others impose of you, it would be very unhappy indeed. Better to have checked your own measure of success, ensuring it is honest of course, and validate against that instead. I don't believe I have grown leaps and bounds, but I think I have grown. Until I am thrown into another challenge, only then can I review my improvements. So I await for the next oppurtunity then.

My next challenge is One Hundred Pushups. Wish me luck!

Seek and pursue!

Persona 3: FES... Momento Mori

Alright, I finally finished one round of Persona 3: FES. I had actually played Persona 4 first. But since Persona 3 is fresh in my mind, I think it's best to pen down what I have just experienced.


The setting for this RPG is in a Japanese highschool. Ain't it interesting to note that all the cool stuff happens in Japan high schools? hehehe

Basically, special student were born with a gift to control a power called Persona. The English translations in the game say this is a latent psyche ability within an individual. But to awaken the power, the students use a device called an Evoker: a tool shaped like a gun. So guns are used for shooting things, and to use the Evoker, you are supposed to shoot your head.

That's right folks... blow your brains out.

Bang! Bang!

The hero has the ability to control many different Persona, setting him apart from others. You can combine Personas to create new ones, fuse them into weapons and of course, use them to kill monsters. Yes, Japan always has many monsters and no matter how many heroes are born to vanquish them, monsters always come back... so that we can continue making use of them for new RPG stories.

Any key concept is that your Personas get stronger as you develop your social links with friends. Better relationships yield better rewards. Of course some of your friends are girls, so this means... you should start as many girlfriend relationships as you can. Oh... but if you are in the serious level of your relationship with more than one girl... and if the other girl catches you with said girl, all your girlfriends will turn sour. Realistic huh?

Girl 1: "He loves me"

Girl 2: "No, he loves me"

Girl 3: "The boy is mine"

You also have a smart canine companion as part of your team. And this little fella doesn't need to shoot himself to use his powers. Guess the dog is more capable than the human team mates?

Woof woof! No silly guns for me thank you...

There is a running time and calendar concept in this game. Certain events require the calendar date to be triggered. Sundays are non school days. There are even holidays, school trips, etc.

As you fight monsters, you get tired. This affects your accuracy and agility. There will be times your attacks (or adversely, your enemies attacks) take advantage of your inherent weakness, or is just plain lucky strong. These times you get knocked down. Any damage sustained is higher than normal. If you are able to knock down all your enemies, your team can perform All-Out Attacks. They rush in as a group and open a can of whoop ass on your foes.

Yes, the can of whoop ass is like an Adam West Batman rerun

Despite the very low level graphics, the story line is engaging enough. There is almighty supreme evil boss for the final show down... which is later explained to be not really evil. The hero will do a courageous deed in protecting his friend in the end. No spoilers from me though... go play it yourself!

This is one game where FAQs are highly recommended. I didn't realise there are long school holidays in January, and developed my social links poorly. Only 2 girlfriends! There are 3 more girls I could've dated! Also, there are special armor equipment in the game that are in the form of lady swimsuits. There are also stuff like toilet brushes, spiked bras and other eye opening things to discover and play with.

Voice acting is really top notch, and more than compensates the low level graphics. Actually the anime style graphics might charm some of you out there. Dark and slightly ghostly... it suits the heavy atmosphere of the game.

All in all, the final boss is a piece of cake. The tough parts are all the optional goodies in the games. If you'd like the badass equipment, you have to do some farming. If you want perfect relationships, you have to do some reading in the FAQs, as there some subtleties that you won't figure out yourselves because it is REALLY not obvious.

Persona 3 is actually a standalone game, but the Persona 3: FES is an extended edition that has a playable section for the story that happens after the events of the original Persona 3. If you intend to use FAQs, one strong word of advice...

If you are playing Persona 3... read Persona 3 FAQs. If you are playing Persona 3 FES, read Persona 3 FES FAQs. I thought since the front portion is the same, I could use any FAQ. Boy was I wrong, and the mistake is very costly. Ok, ok... you may think I'm dumb and a fool for making the mistake in the first place and I can agree with you.

So congrats to Atlus for making another winner. Reception of this game was really good in Japan, and around the globe. Not hard to see why. There's a lot of charm in the game. Not too much excessive randomness, lots of humour, and if you plan your strategy you are rewarded.

Two thumbs up! Can't wait to get into the FES portion of the game.

Gameplay: *****
Sound and Music: ****
Graphics: ***

Persona 3: Frustrations

Argh!!! I am towards the ending for the game. And there are so many holidays! My remaining undeveloped social links are all my school girl friends! Argh!!! I will never get my 3rd girlfriend at this rate. Why didn't the FAQs recommend you to work on school friendships first! Why why why! I'm wasting so many days!

ARGH...

Yahoo says "I can't talk now, could be under attack?"

It's amusing sometimes to see how friendly and cordial error messages from computer systems are these days. Just now, Yahoo in in "can't talk now" mode

Latest update:

I wonder if the interruption in Yahoo's services was due to the below or not major cyber attack from North Korea just a few hours ago. Sounds really coincidental.

Indian Heritage and Panna Cotta

Went out last weekend for dinner with my folks, and we decided to drop by a Northern Indian place newly opened in Taipan USJ called "Indian Heritage". It is facing the main road, same row as Thai Corner and EON Bank.

I am no expert in Indian cuisine. In fact I will say this is my first time trying Indian fine dining in Malaysia. I did try one similar restaurant in Melbourne Australia.

Indian Heritage had an attractive looking buffet lunch promotion for RM15.90++. Sorry for the blur image... my Sony Ericsson W700i isn't great in dim lighting.



Decor is quite classy I guess... there is a feature chandelier in the middle, the walls have a texturised pattern on them, and the captain is dressed in a formal looking suit. He actually wished my dad "Happy Father's Day to you sir"! Heck, I had forgotten myself... oh, the shame...

The restaurant has a lot of patrons on the weekend dinner time that we were there. A lot of wealthy looking Indians came, and some westerners too.

We went with Fish Methi (very very tasty), Chicken Kadel and a saag (spinach dish). Ordered a briyani and 2 portions of plain naan.

As a testament to the taste, you can see our bowls are scraped quite clean.

The total bill came to about RM75 for 3 people. It is a little on the high side I feel and the meat and fish was a little on the small side for portion size. They do give you tonnes of gravy though.

The service was good. The captain was friendly and the staff do come by occasionally to check if everything is good, is the food alright etc etc.

Definitely a good place to have a meal with family and friends.

On another note, I had bought back a packet of vanilla pods from my earlier trip to Bali, Indonesia. It is so expensive and hard to find it here in normal supermarkets. I tried to make a Panna Cotta with them.

Below are my results...

Panna Cotta is basically cooked cream with some hardening agent like gelatine. The only flavour I added was the vanilla pod and brown sugar. I didn't put enough gelatine so I couldn't get it to slide out of the cup easily. I also used cooking oil to grease the cup beforehand, but I think the gelatine was not making it hard enough.... so the oil didn't help. Plus, I didn't realise it was peanut oil... so it left a weird aftertaste in your mouth after the creamy vanilla custard sat in your tongue.

The recipe recommended tart fruit like strawberry or rasberry, but I substituted for seedless grapes instead. I did find a cool tip in a Jamie Oliver recipe to freeze the grapes to make it more interesting. Don't they look cool below?

When you bite the frozen grape, it's like a popsicle!



My parents loved it. I not so much... I still have quite a few pods left, and maybe I can try again next time, with much more gelatine, and margarine instead of peanut oil!

Bali Hai.... Bali Hai

Some months ago, some of my colleagues invited me to join them on a trip to Bali, Indonesia. Since I love travelling, I said "Count me in".

We didn't count on the Swine Flu now permeating all corners of the globe. Indonesia however has not officially declared that it has any confirmed cases of the disease. Well, whether this is knowingly true or not, only God knows I guess.

So just to be safe, I donned a face mask in KL's LCCT and in the plane going to Bali.



So Bali is known as "the ultimate island". It's got nice beaches and seas, hills and volcanoes, and remains largely rural. The busy tourism business however makes the locals quite globalised: many Balinese are multi lingual, know the value of foreign currency in relation to their own, and lots have satelite tv.

Here is my room mate buddy, Chien Hui with me at Kintomani, a hill area close to the Bali volcano. I am doing a "kawaii" pose. Don't I look charming?



Here's June, our other travelling mate. She thought she looked kawaii enough by herself.


For the most part, Malaysians need to be aware that Bali is more expensive than Malaysia. A simple lunch of rice at a roadside stall can easily cost you US$1.50 (more than RM5.00). Back home, a similar plate of rice costs RM3.50 or RM4.00. To save costs, I highly suggest you stay at Legian or Kuta, which, while being the more touristy area of Bali, is also very centrally located on the island.

We did take a trip up north, to Lovina Beach, which is famous for its dolphins and black sand. However, the statue erected on the beach, is unlike any images of dolphins I am familiar with. They look rather beastly and frightening instead.

I aM tHe FRieNdLY DoLPhiN oF BALI!

No Bali trip will be complete without enjoying some fun on the beach. Here are my two smiley friends on an inflatable raft called "Big Mabel". This raft is dragged across the water by speedboat. We also spent some time snorkelling and diving. All this was done in Nusa Dua, south Bali.

We are lucky June had an underwater casing for her camera. We had some fun taking shots like the ones below.




We also had our first taste of Balinese food, called "bakso". Basically it is pork or beef mixed with flour to form meat balls. We must have been a bit unlucky, because the one we tried was not good at all. But we had other food which was okay, so that's fine... can't be roses all the time right?


One of our visits was to an art factory. In there, there was a piece I absolutely fell in love with: a painting of golden padi fields with some farmers. I am told it is done by a famous artist and is a limited edition piece. The asking price? US$100... which was out of my budget. I do pine for it sometimes... At least I have this digital photo for a keepsake.

So beautifully simple and stunning

We went to other places as well, like Hard Rock in Kuta. This hotel is really pretty. The bar has a raised stage in middle, the pool has an area with sand to simulate a beach, and the hotel walls are lined with electric guitars. Cool, cool, cool.


We spent 5 nights in Bali, blew our spending budget out of the water, two of us had slight fever (gasp!), but all in all, it was a nice trip. I may think of coming back here again in the future.

Bali Hai... Bali Hai...

Grandia III

Another RPG that I had the chance to play some time ago is Grandia III.

Again, although quite a few of the games I've played are long established series, I regret to say I have not played the predecessors. Grandia III is a Square Enix effort, the masterminds behind the phenomenally successful Final Fantasy series, which I love to bits.

Grandia III follows the exploits of young pilot, Yuki. Kinda sounds feminine, but I am no expert in names. In this picture, Yuki tries to 'touch the sky'...


The environments are beautifully drawn, as expected from Square. Some environments look really cool... you can even see hints of northern lights from this snowy landscape area.


On to battle mechanics... RPGs are all about fighting lots of baddies, right? One cool feature in the game is the ability to knock enemies into the air. Then, once they are freefalling back to the ground, you can do some extra moves that are more damaging and look cooler than your normal ones.

4.6 metres high... a new personal best!

The other nice part is the way magic is contolled. Anyone can do any kind of magic. Some are better suited to the job, but to have anyone to be able to do the super insane magic attacks gives you a lot of flexibility. You can even 'hatch' new magic by combining special items called Mana Eggs in a little machine that looks like a robotic chicken with 2 heads. You have to play the game to find out what I mean...



As usual too, all the characters have special moves that have lots of coloured lights and are real flashy. Also, you have to practice these moves to make them more powerful and also to learn new moves. However, the fights are rarely very challenging. Maybe because it gets quite easy to churn out special move after special move towards the end.

One of the key things I was hoping for was an engaging story line. All Final Fantasy games have such gripping story lines, so how did Grandia III fare?

To me, this game had some hits and misses. They reused the tried and true formula of a young upstart male hero protecting the fragile heroine. That's fine... it is a tried and true formula. The dream about Yuki striving to become a top notch pilot is believable. The plot development to bring all the main fighters together was also quite good and flowed naturally.

The final climax fight that leads you to meet the big bad boss was kinda boring. The struggle between Alfina and her brother, which is like the 2nd level big bad boss was also kinda boring. I guess there was not enough plot about character attachment or loss, so it felt like a let down. I guess not every story fantastic.

Also, not too many secrets or in game activities to delve into, and feels too straight forward at times.

I enjoyed the journey getting to the finale more than the finale itself for this game.

Still it is an okay game to while away the hours.