Steamed Fish

So, have played DoW2 through to the end.
There is only one campaign, space marines. No Eldar, Ork, or Tyrannid campaigns.
Major minus!

I am not really sure if I think that much of it, I tend to think that I prefer SoulStorm. Sure the graphics are good, but the gameplay, whilst different, is not better. The much vaunted strategic focus I read so much about is a major disappointment; it is not really any improvement, and no big difference, to SoulStorm and Dark Crusade.

Sure, I like what I can do with some of the units; building the assault troop up in skill so that their drop onto an enemy unit scatters and stuns them, building all my other units up to terminators (the commander is in terminator armour with a teleport pack). (I seem not to be bothering with my scout squad or the dreadnought - the dreadnought dies too easily and can't be healed 'cos he's a machine so needs the scouts to fix him {there are no work units, the scouts have absorbed the repair machine function}.)

But there is no sense of 'empire building' anymore; all of the management side of the game is gone. Now it is just drop in and fight. Maybe that is more realistic for a marine company, but it is not what I want in a game.

Bought UT3 (Unreal Tournament III). Yes, I already have it in AU, but that disc is in AU and it was only US$11.99 on Steam.
Yes, I bought it via Steam. How did I do that? I have been whinging for so long about how I couldn't buy things from Steam since I came to SG.

Ivy wanted me to install Yahoo msgr, since it is easier to use video with than skype and she doesn't have Microsoft msgr (msngr?). Since I was going to have it on my laptop and auto starting every boot and letting me know if there was any mail in my yahoo account, it wasn't going to be an issue that I would have to be checking multiple webmail accounts anymore, they would do the checking themselves.

So I used my yahoo account to open a new PayPal account in SG.
Then I transferred US$12.00 from my AU paypal account to my SG paypal account.
Then I tried to buy UT3 from steam.
No go!
Not enough money in account.
So I transferred another US$10 and then successfully bought UT3 from steam.
Which left my SG paypal account with US$10.01????? Go figure.
$0.00 is okay, but $0.01 is not?

Haven't had time to play it yet since I was finishing DoW2. The ending of which was quite a letdown.


When I opened this blog I couldn't use Kai Shan 'cos some kid had started a KaiShan.BlogSpot account, made two or three entries, then left it for three years. But the name was still taken. So I used KaiShan-SG.

When installing DoW2 you have to start by installing steam (I had to uninstall steam, download the newest version, reinstall, then restore my steamapps remember 'cos my steam account wasn't connecting 'cos steam had gone AWOL as it so frequently does), then you have to install Games for Windows Live and then open a GFWL account (called a 'gametag', huh? why? is 'username' not adequate? do the people at microsoft have to invent new words for everything?), and only then do you get to actually install the game. From disc.
Anyhow, 'KaiShan' was unavailable!!!
How many people are there in the world using this?
Naturally the wonderful microsoft windows product offers some suggestions; InscrutableKai etc. You know the sort of stuff.
So I used KaiShanIV, as in 'Kai Shan the 4th'. Sounded regal at the time.
You shouldn't be able to see it 'cos I restricted the account to my contacts list.

So now I have yet another Kai Shan type name floating around.
My steam account wouldn't take KaiShan and had to have a numeric ending attached as well. I won't tell you that one 'cos I don't remember if steam let me lock it to my friends list.

Anyhow, in amongst all of this I got into my windows live profile details and decided to change my surname to Shan, since I had locked my account to my contacts list only, and they are (nearly) all gamers that know my moniker. (As do my family, since my skype account is another KaiShan### account.)

Now my hotmail mails are being tagged "Kai Shan sent this on..."

That was not intended.
It should not have been a problem, but amongst all of this I also got in contact with Replay, the distributors of DoW2 in SG. Initially I was just visiting their website to see if the 'win a life-sized space marine statue' competition was still alive before I actually posted the form in. But since I was there, and since it seemed to be an easy to use site, and since they turned out to be the local distributors for another game that I have been playing and enjoying (Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI) I decided to mail their support team and let them know about the process I used to resolve my DoW2 installation problems. Their support page had a flier on DoW2 steam connection issues, so I figured that they had been hassled by buyers already. This lead to a friendly exchange of half a dozen emails before I noticed that I was being called "Mr Kai Shan".

Scroll down last email.
Sure enough: "Kai Shan sent this on..."

I have had 30 unique visitor this month!!!
This where I used to scream ("AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!"), go see previous posts on the subject.
Oh, the day I noticed that I had received my first two or three visitors. I seem to remember writing in large caps asking them all to go away.
And now that number has increased tenfold.
My private little space is being invaded.

Most from SG, some from US, Canada, UK, and then a smattering of countries with one.
I am betting that most are still just floating in after that spat on Mr Wang Says So.
Get ready, 'cos here I say something controversial again.

Was reading the Straits Times this weekend (got it to look for a job, found one possible). Noticed an article on an upcoming election in SG, there was a map with some electorates highlighted for discussion.

Strange map.

Maybe not complete, but I did not like what I saw.

There appeared to be electorates of rather inappropriate shapes.

You know, the sort that come under the term 'gerrymander'.

If you are not familiar with this term; it derives from some american, can't remember whether it was at state or county level - if you are that interested try wiki, but beware of that it is full of left-wing propaganda, anyhow, from some american called 'Gerry' or his surname started with 'Gerry' and he had drawn up his electorates to maximise his parties votes, and one was shaped like a salamander; namely a long thin body, with four corridors coming off that connected to four townships. The point is that electorates are meant to be as close to circular or square as you can get them, a bit of rectangularity is okay, but a bent shape with a bit that arches off on one side like a tennis racquet is not okay. That is drawing an electoral boundary so as to ensure that the benefits are maximised for one particular political party.

I do not like to see such things in Singapore.
They shatter my illusions.

The ones that particularly got my attention were, in order; Jurong GRC, Marine Parade GRC, and Jalan Besar GRC

On the positive side I seemed to read into this article (remember my innocence of SG politics) that SG has multi-member electorates! What a wonderful idea! And I don't just say that because I have been arguing for so many years that AU should do that. Well, okay, I probably do say that just because it is something that I have been saying for years that AU should do. I think that all electorates should have four or five members (all should be the same). This would give minor parties much better chances to get members into parliament. It would also mean (in the AU context) that whatever electorate you lived in you would (if you voted for one of the major parties) have a member representing you. And further it would mean that senior members such as ministers would not be leaving their constituents unattended by their being focussed on ministerial duties as there would be other electorate members to attend to constituent enquiries.

Also I couldn't help but notice that all of the opposition parties named, listed, and with their logos presented all appeared to be some form of socialist party. Given my views on the PAP being inspired by the BUF I think that this means that there is no representation of true right-wing politics in SG; lots of left-wing and the ruling party is third way - which, one could argue, as the synthesis of left and right transcends both.

Still, as my own personal politics are definitively third way (synthetic in the Hegelian manner) I don't find this latter to bother me too much. However, when these odd-shaped electorates are added to the banners flying everywhere advertising individual politician at public expense I do get a little concerned.

It is my own personal illusion, I know, but I want Singapore to be better than this.