...departed back to Adelaide for the family xmas gathering.
Rather, a series of gatherings since I have such a disjointed family.
I have to say, totally changing the subject at the very start, that sg.msn.com is totally lame. Unbelievably bad. In Oz when I click out of hotmail and get ninemsn.com.au it is informative, it is a reasonable news service, it is reasonably up to date, although the spider drawing story was carried for far too long. But sg.msn is unbelievably out of date, for cri'sakes it is STILL carrying pre-US election stories! I can well understand why Singaporeans pan it so much. Is it too much to ask that one person spend just one hour a day on it?
Anyhow, that is really neither here nor there ('cos it is waaayyyyy over there, in yankee land).
On Monday I fly back to Adelaide for two weeks. My main suitcase is totally loaded with stuff for other people; half of it is taken up by the bag of stuff for Paul and Cheng's baby from her sisters, the other half is xmas pressies for my family. They will all be marked "Have a Happy European Winter Solstice!" since I am so anti-xianity. I will carry a change or two of clothes in my carry-on.
So I am blogging just because I might not get another chance to for going on three weeks (I will be totally pre-occupied with moving to my new apartment when I get back).
Blogs are an accepted venue for whinging, and I have a few whinges of late, but I am far too mature a person to gab about such irrelevancies in public, so I won't. Sometimes I definitely feel like whinging a bit before I log on, but once I am on it seems like they are my problems and there is no need to offload them onto anyone else. So when I do whinge online it must be something that really upsets me. And the HSBC website not accepting my password and locking me out comes into the former category; especially when I suspect that it was the Asus password manager that was responsible. Firefox seems to trigger it whereas IE doesn't so much, and as if I want my laptop recording my financial passwords somewhere on my hard-drive, but in clicking 'cancel' I think it nulled the datastring sent to the server. With the big IE security issue now current I didn't want to use it, but Firefox has its own problems at times. Truth be told, I think Firefox is getting more problems with each new version. Whereas IE is slowly improving; it is good that it has multiple tabs now, but they could have built in tab duplication at the same time. Anyhow, I am just waffling on about browsers because I have nothing better to say.
So I might as well shut up.
Saturday, December 20
Monday, December 15
Didn't you always want...
A place by the sea?
Yes! Of course I do!
And now I have one!
Yes, the important news for this week is that I have a new flat!
I think what is called something like a 2+1+1 here in Singapore; meaning two bedrooms, 1 other room, and one hall. Also they are both what is called here 'common rooms' as in neither is a master bedroom. The 'other' room is a new addition (the HDB - Housing Development Board - is upgrading the estate) called a utility room, it does have a tiled floor, but no water points so it is not a laundry (so why tile the floor?), it is about half the size of one of the bedrooms. And the last 'room' is the entrance hall, which is wide and makes a small living room. There is a real kitchen, not just a small gas cooker (one ring, like a camping cooker) on a small cupboard in the corridor as there is where I am now. No, this one has a two ring gas cooker run from a gas bottle - so, a larger camping style cooker! That seems to be the way kitchens are here, and given that most families are cramped in small apartment and food halls are so cheap is it any wonder that everyone eats out? And that food halls are so busy all day long. No, this kitchen has a raised and tiled platform to fit a clothes washer and room for a large fridge and enough room in that same corner for a separate freezer if you choose, but more likely I will go for a pantry cupboard. And separate toilet and shower. There are metal security doors and windows, aircon in the two bedrooms, and wired for cable with two or three points.
Yes, it is an HDB, that is to say that it is in an estate that is several buildings constructed by the government to provide subsidised housing (that 85% of the population of Singapore live in). The estate is being upgraded, so the apartment has been renovated and is clean and 'dentless', the shops are being renovated, the playground is being rebuilt, gardens and lawns are being replaced.
The ground floor (first floor here, they speak American when it comes to architecture) is all shops and the second floor (which would be the 'first floor' in English or European) are apartments that are linked to the shops. The apartment has the same footprint as the shop below and there is a stairway inside linking the two. The one in this flat is locked. However, the other shops owners don't live in their linked apartments, they use them as storerooms for their shops; which means that I have no neighbours! So no possibility of noisy neighbours - which are my worst nightmare come true here, and also no worries for me about having my TV on late at night since I have no neighbours to bother.
There is a food court below, and although it was full of people when I was checking the apartment and we had the front door wide open, still I could hear nothing. So, very quiet.
Also it gets the sea breeze; as soon as you get one or two km inland here the night air does not really cool down much - I have found in my current apartment that there is no benefit in leaving the windows open at night, it is still hot outside. And I am on the top floor. But there the evening air was quite pleasant! So I will be able to open the windows at night and not live in a permanently air conditioned environment.
And it is only five minutes walk to the beach!!!
How cool is that?
There are two other 'blocks' (apartment buildings) to walk under, crossing a small local road in the process, then there is a motorway but there is a pedestrian underpass without having to go sideways any distance, then on the other side is East Coast Park! About in the middle of the park's length.
So; two bedrooms there to the one here, and they are significantly larger, one living room there that is twice the size of the one here, a kitchen that is maybe six times the space here that is labeled 'kitchen', and another small room. It has to be at least twice the size of this apartment. This one is dirty and noisy and old, that one is clean and quiet and new. This one costs me $2,300, but I think would be $1,500 if I took it on a long term contract. That one costs me $1,800.
The lease there starts on the 5th of January, the lease here finishes on the 9th of January 2009. So I have a few days to move (one suitcase and one box of stuff acquired) and arrange a fridge and maybe a clothes washer - my agent argued they supply one, but it will probably be second hand and only for the first six months, so I will want to buy a clean new one anyhow. My agent (a friend of a friend that has only just qualified - this was her first deal!) was also going to argue for a fridge, but I said not to as I wouldn't like what they got and that I would rather buy one that suited me.
I might get a clothes drier in time as well. People use these bamboo poles, like you see on Japanese anime, and poke them out their windows, and there are holders both inside (on the kitchen ceiling) and outside the kitchen window for these. I will also probably put insect screening on the inside of the security doors and windows, even though it is by salt water and there are probably few mosquitoes. I would like to put built-in robes in the bedrooms (where there are alcoves for such) rather than put clothes cupboards there, but we shall see.
I got a diplomatic clause written into the contract; which is to say that I can break it in six months if I haven't settled down into regular enough contracting by then, with a one month break charge. I have already arranged maid service; the agent / friend's auntie is retiring and would like some cash income, so she will come in once or twice a week for two and a half hours or so to clean and iron. We shall see how much time is needed. The flat is half the size of the last house I had in Australia and my cleaner there (my ex) came in for two hours twice a week. That cost $15 an hour or $250 a month, here we have agreed on $120 a month; but that will probably translate into $30 cash left out for her each week. $250 to $350 a month here gets a live-in maid (depending on her English ability, but plus the $5k a year government tax for employing a live-in maid, so really it is about $750 a month).
I wasn't expecting to get a flat until I came back in January. I wasn't really looking until then, although I had done a couple of web searches I hadn't made any calls. But I had talked to Ivy about it and she asked me a few questions before deciding that I wanted something along East Coast Park area. She only took a couple of days then before she started sending me a txts on new apartments, then sent this one saying I had to see it that night. She had good reason for wanting to be the first to see it, it gave us the opportunity to make offers and close the deal before anyone else got to view the property.
I am so buzzed!
A newly renovated, clean, spacious and airy in comparison to this one, well appointed, good sized, conveniently micro located, wonderfully macro located, reasonably priced apartment!
I think that I am going to love this so much.
Yes! Of course I do!
And now I have one!
Yes, the important news for this week is that I have a new flat!
I think what is called something like a 2+1+1 here in Singapore; meaning two bedrooms, 1 other room, and one hall. Also they are both what is called here 'common rooms' as in neither is a master bedroom. The 'other' room is a new addition (the HDB - Housing Development Board - is upgrading the estate) called a utility room, it does have a tiled floor, but no water points so it is not a laundry (so why tile the floor?), it is about half the size of one of the bedrooms. And the last 'room' is the entrance hall, which is wide and makes a small living room. There is a real kitchen, not just a small gas cooker (one ring, like a camping cooker) on a small cupboard in the corridor as there is where I am now. No, this one has a two ring gas cooker run from a gas bottle - so, a larger camping style cooker! That seems to be the way kitchens are here, and given that most families are cramped in small apartment and food halls are so cheap is it any wonder that everyone eats out? And that food halls are so busy all day long. No, this kitchen has a raised and tiled platform to fit a clothes washer and room for a large fridge and enough room in that same corner for a separate freezer if you choose, but more likely I will go for a pantry cupboard. And separate toilet and shower. There are metal security doors and windows, aircon in the two bedrooms, and wired for cable with two or three points.
Yes, it is an HDB, that is to say that it is in an estate that is several buildings constructed by the government to provide subsidised housing (that 85% of the population of Singapore live in). The estate is being upgraded, so the apartment has been renovated and is clean and 'dentless', the shops are being renovated, the playground is being rebuilt, gardens and lawns are being replaced.
The ground floor (first floor here, they speak American when it comes to architecture) is all shops and the second floor (which would be the 'first floor' in English or European) are apartments that are linked to the shops. The apartment has the same footprint as the shop below and there is a stairway inside linking the two. The one in this flat is locked. However, the other shops owners don't live in their linked apartments, they use them as storerooms for their shops; which means that I have no neighbours! So no possibility of noisy neighbours - which are my worst nightmare come true here, and also no worries for me about having my TV on late at night since I have no neighbours to bother.
There is a food court below, and although it was full of people when I was checking the apartment and we had the front door wide open, still I could hear nothing. So, very quiet.
Also it gets the sea breeze; as soon as you get one or two km inland here the night air does not really cool down much - I have found in my current apartment that there is no benefit in leaving the windows open at night, it is still hot outside. And I am on the top floor. But there the evening air was quite pleasant! So I will be able to open the windows at night and not live in a permanently air conditioned environment.
And it is only five minutes walk to the beach!!!
How cool is that?
There are two other 'blocks' (apartment buildings) to walk under, crossing a small local road in the process, then there is a motorway but there is a pedestrian underpass without having to go sideways any distance, then on the other side is East Coast Park! About in the middle of the park's length.
So; two bedrooms there to the one here, and they are significantly larger, one living room there that is twice the size of the one here, a kitchen that is maybe six times the space here that is labeled 'kitchen', and another small room. It has to be at least twice the size of this apartment. This one is dirty and noisy and old, that one is clean and quiet and new. This one costs me $2,300, but I think would be $1,500 if I took it on a long term contract. That one costs me $1,800.
The lease there starts on the 5th of January, the lease here finishes on the 9th of January 2009. So I have a few days to move (one suitcase and one box of stuff acquired) and arrange a fridge and maybe a clothes washer - my agent argued they supply one, but it will probably be second hand and only for the first six months, so I will want to buy a clean new one anyhow. My agent (a friend of a friend that has only just qualified - this was her first deal!) was also going to argue for a fridge, but I said not to as I wouldn't like what they got and that I would rather buy one that suited me.
I might get a clothes drier in time as well. People use these bamboo poles, like you see on Japanese anime, and poke them out their windows, and there are holders both inside (on the kitchen ceiling) and outside the kitchen window for these. I will also probably put insect screening on the inside of the security doors and windows, even though it is by salt water and there are probably few mosquitoes. I would like to put built-in robes in the bedrooms (where there are alcoves for such) rather than put clothes cupboards there, but we shall see.
I got a diplomatic clause written into the contract; which is to say that I can break it in six months if I haven't settled down into regular enough contracting by then, with a one month break charge. I have already arranged maid service; the agent / friend's auntie is retiring and would like some cash income, so she will come in once or twice a week for two and a half hours or so to clean and iron. We shall see how much time is needed. The flat is half the size of the last house I had in Australia and my cleaner there (my ex) came in for two hours twice a week. That cost $15 an hour or $250 a month, here we have agreed on $120 a month; but that will probably translate into $30 cash left out for her each week. $250 to $350 a month here gets a live-in maid (depending on her English ability, but plus the $5k a year government tax for employing a live-in maid, so really it is about $750 a month).
I wasn't expecting to get a flat until I came back in January. I wasn't really looking until then, although I had done a couple of web searches I hadn't made any calls. But I had talked to Ivy about it and she asked me a few questions before deciding that I wanted something along East Coast Park area. She only took a couple of days then before she started sending me a txts on new apartments, then sent this one saying I had to see it that night. She had good reason for wanting to be the first to see it, it gave us the opportunity to make offers and close the deal before anyone else got to view the property.
I am so buzzed!
A newly renovated, clean, spacious and airy in comparison to this one, well appointed, good sized, conveniently micro located, wonderfully macro located, reasonably priced apartment!
I think that I am going to love this so much.
Monday, December 8
My Second Holiday
You're short a blog!
My entry a couple of days ago didn't make it up. I think that some setting on Firefox was killing the autosaves, and then wouldn't let the site redirect when I hit 'publish'. So all lost.
I went to the post office this morning and it was closed.
Why? I asked myself. I checked my phone, it was after 10 am and it is meant to open at 8:30. I checked the calendar in my phone to make sure it is Monday. (My phone doesn't tell me the day name, just the date.) So I checked the opening times again; the only thing that could make sense was the "closed public holidays".
Lo and behold! Today is an Islamic holiday!
(I have re-downloaded the Singapore public holidays document from the MOM.)
I have to get used to the idea of holidays for other religions.
This is cool, but so very different.
Yes, I was here for Deepavali, but it didn't impact on me in that I never noticed anything shut.
So, I was perusing this list of holidays (as you do) when it struck me that they really had the Christian ones wrong.
Well, to be exact, they have one Christian one wrong.
The most sacred day to Christians is Easter Sunday - not Good Friday.
I know this, I lived in a monastery for a while remember.
Yes, I know that most Christians think that Christmas is the most important day of their religion, but trust me - very few Christians know their own religion very well.
In order the major Christian holy days go; Easter Sunday, Good Friday, Christmas.
Think about it; the weekly holy day is Sunday isn't it?
And why? Because it is the weekly celebration of Jesus' rise from the dead.
For Moslems the weekly holy day is Friday, for Jews it is Saturday, and for Christians it is Sunday. It is not Friday.
This should highlight to you that it is the Sunday in Easter that is important, not the Friday.
However I notice for 2009 that there are three holidays listed on Sundays that are flagged as "the following Monday will be a public holiday" and given that most dedicated Xians would want to celebrate mass on both the Friday and the Monday, I would advise designating the Sunday as the official 'day' and the 'preceding Friday' as the public holiday. Make sense?
Technically, of course, Xians should have two public holidays for Easter and not have one for Christmas.
Truthfully, of course, Xians shouldn't have any public holidays.
'Easter' is the European harvest festival and 'Christmas' is the Pagan Winter Solstice. Xianity stole both. Well, 'rebadged' them and burnt to death anyone who disagreed.
I have been thinking for a while about posting something about girls and guys. Specifically how one thing that I hadn't seen was an Indian girl with a Chinese guy. Well, last night I did.
I had dinner at some little arty restaurant in Little India. The tempeh burger was okay, nice, but like a lasagne - too much of the same, I get bored. The smoothie wasn't that great. The desert was really good, and a lot of effort went into its presentation as well.
So, I have seen a dozen European guys with Asian girls, half a dozen European girls with Asian guys, half a dozen Indian guys with Chinese girls, and now one Indian girl with a Chinese guy. Most of the Asians with Euros have been Chinese, but that is a representative selection of Singaporeans.
I was getting worried, and to some degree still am, that the relationship between Indians and Chinese in Singapore is like that between Northern Europeans (Anglos mostly) and Southern Europeans (Italians, Greeks, etc.) in Australia.
Which brings me to another point.
I am not too used to seeing 'Caucasian' all the time on forms, but see it a lot here, on both government and corporate. Seems every form that I fill out asks my race. To be honest, really truthfully honest, I find the term 'Caucasian' insulting. I am not Caucasian. Yes, I am white skinned, with fair hair (born blond, darkening through my life {yes, 'blond', 'blond' is masculine, 'blonde' is feminine}) and blue eyes. This makes me European, or Aryan, it does not make me 'Caucasian'.
My heritage is from the North West of Europe, not from some hills as far South and East as you can get and still pretend to be in Europe. I claim descent from peoples that have been civilised for over a thousand years, not just hauled out of tents within living memory.
To give some comparison; do you think that Chinese people would like being told that when I was growing up they (and anyone with eyes like that) was referred to as 'Mongoloid'? Especially when also informed that 'mongoloid' was how we referred to our children with birth defects that lead to 'different' faces and reduced intellect (now a days referred to as Down Syndrome). No, I don't think so. And I feel the same way about being called 'Caucasian'.
Addendum; 'cos sometimes you think of something five minutes after you publish...
To further complicate this for most of you; what does 'Caucasian' mean anyhow? If some person is filling in some MOM form and ticks 'Caucasian' what is he or she saying? Are they just saying that they are of European descent? What about dark haired brown eyed people that happen to be, or descended from, European? What does an Australian business professional with brown eyes tick? 'Cos he sure as hell isn't 'Caucasian' by any defninition of the word.
To me brown eyes is brown eyes. Seriously I do not see any difference between a brown eyed 'European' and an Asian.
Maybe they put 'mixed' or 'other'?
After all, Aryans are blue eyed, any brown eyes come from mixed breeding with other races. By 'Aryan' I refer to the Celts, Tuetones, Greeks, Romans etc that European culture is derived from. The mixing mostly comes from Iberians, Lapps, and other pre-Aryan Eurpeans in the north and west, and Arabs, Turks etc in the south and east of Europe.
If anything 'Caucasian' must strictly mean blue eyes, blond hair, and white skin if nothing else. Mind you red hair is not from the Caucacus, it is from Scandinavia - which just highlights the difference that I am making.
(BTW, yes I have blond hair that has darkened as I have grown, but I have a red beard {when I don't shave} which also darkened as I grew.)
My entry a couple of days ago didn't make it up. I think that some setting on Firefox was killing the autosaves, and then wouldn't let the site redirect when I hit 'publish'. So all lost.
I went to the post office this morning and it was closed.
Why? I asked myself. I checked my phone, it was after 10 am and it is meant to open at 8:30. I checked the calendar in my phone to make sure it is Monday. (My phone doesn't tell me the day name, just the date.) So I checked the opening times again; the only thing that could make sense was the "closed public holidays".
Lo and behold! Today is an Islamic holiday!
(I have re-downloaded the Singapore public holidays document from the MOM.)
I have to get used to the idea of holidays for other religions.
This is cool, but so very different.
Yes, I was here for Deepavali, but it didn't impact on me in that I never noticed anything shut.
So, I was perusing this list of holidays (as you do) when it struck me that they really had the Christian ones wrong.
Well, to be exact, they have one Christian one wrong.
The most sacred day to Christians is Easter Sunday - not Good Friday.
I know this, I lived in a monastery for a while remember.
Yes, I know that most Christians think that Christmas is the most important day of their religion, but trust me - very few Christians know their own religion very well.
In order the major Christian holy days go; Easter Sunday, Good Friday, Christmas.
Think about it; the weekly holy day is Sunday isn't it?
And why? Because it is the weekly celebration of Jesus' rise from the dead.
For Moslems the weekly holy day is Friday, for Jews it is Saturday, and for Christians it is Sunday. It is not Friday.
This should highlight to you that it is the Sunday in Easter that is important, not the Friday.
However I notice for 2009 that there are three holidays listed on Sundays that are flagged as "the following Monday will be a public holiday" and given that most dedicated Xians would want to celebrate mass on both the Friday and the Monday, I would advise designating the Sunday as the official 'day' and the 'preceding Friday' as the public holiday. Make sense?
Technically, of course, Xians should have two public holidays for Easter and not have one for Christmas.
Truthfully, of course, Xians shouldn't have any public holidays.
'Easter' is the European harvest festival and 'Christmas' is the Pagan Winter Solstice. Xianity stole both. Well, 'rebadged' them and burnt to death anyone who disagreed.
I have been thinking for a while about posting something about girls and guys. Specifically how one thing that I hadn't seen was an Indian girl with a Chinese guy. Well, last night I did.
I had dinner at some little arty restaurant in Little India. The tempeh burger was okay, nice, but like a lasagne - too much of the same, I get bored. The smoothie wasn't that great. The desert was really good, and a lot of effort went into its presentation as well.
So, I have seen a dozen European guys with Asian girls, half a dozen European girls with Asian guys, half a dozen Indian guys with Chinese girls, and now one Indian girl with a Chinese guy. Most of the Asians with Euros have been Chinese, but that is a representative selection of Singaporeans.
I was getting worried, and to some degree still am, that the relationship between Indians and Chinese in Singapore is like that between Northern Europeans (Anglos mostly) and Southern Europeans (Italians, Greeks, etc.) in Australia.
Which brings me to another point.
I am not too used to seeing 'Caucasian' all the time on forms, but see it a lot here, on both government and corporate. Seems every form that I fill out asks my race. To be honest, really truthfully honest, I find the term 'Caucasian' insulting. I am not Caucasian. Yes, I am white skinned, with fair hair (born blond, darkening through my life {yes, 'blond', 'blond' is masculine, 'blonde' is feminine}) and blue eyes. This makes me European, or Aryan, it does not make me 'Caucasian'.
My heritage is from the North West of Europe, not from some hills as far South and East as you can get and still pretend to be in Europe. I claim descent from peoples that have been civilised for over a thousand years, not just hauled out of tents within living memory.
To give some comparison; do you think that Chinese people would like being told that when I was growing up they (and anyone with eyes like that) was referred to as 'Mongoloid'? Especially when also informed that 'mongoloid' was how we referred to our children with birth defects that lead to 'different' faces and reduced intellect (now a days referred to as Down Syndrome). No, I don't think so. And I feel the same way about being called 'Caucasian'.
Addendum; 'cos sometimes you think of something five minutes after you publish...
To further complicate this for most of you; what does 'Caucasian' mean anyhow? If some person is filling in some MOM form and ticks 'Caucasian' what is he or she saying? Are they just saying that they are of European descent? What about dark haired brown eyed people that happen to be, or descended from, European? What does an Australian business professional with brown eyes tick? 'Cos he sure as hell isn't 'Caucasian' by any defninition of the word.
To me brown eyes is brown eyes. Seriously I do not see any difference between a brown eyed 'European' and an Asian.
Maybe they put 'mixed' or 'other'?
After all, Aryans are blue eyed, any brown eyes come from mixed breeding with other races. By 'Aryan' I refer to the Celts, Tuetones, Greeks, Romans etc that European culture is derived from. The mixing mostly comes from Iberians, Lapps, and other pre-Aryan Eurpeans in the north and west, and Arabs, Turks etc in the south and east of Europe.
If anything 'Caucasian' must strictly mean blue eyes, blond hair, and white skin if nothing else. Mind you red hair is not from the Caucacus, it is from Scandinavia - which just highlights the difference that I am making.
(BTW, yes I have blond hair that has darkened as I have grown, but I have a red beard {when I don't shave} which also darkened as I grew.)
Wednesday, December 3
Baby, want to see me live on cam?
This is so funny following the last entry.
I had two winks on Adult Friend Finder recently, as mentioned in the entry before last, and I have had a couple of interactions with both since then. One just finished five minutes ago.
The first was bad English, African sounding type, elements of a form letter in it, and so obviously about to lead into a request for money. Came through the very next email; "I am stuck in Nigeria and need $561", really? I don't think so.
The second was, supposedly, this couple of 21 year old SG girls.
I don't think so.
So, she sent me an invite to add her contact to my msgr ("msn" as she called it), and we just opened a chat. She asked if I would like to see her naked on cam. Well, I was looking for a deep and meaningful relationship, but naked cam could be a decent consolation prize. So she directed me to some website and asked me to log in, which was going to require credit card details and automatically dock me $40 USD each month. "Not what I was looking for. Bye" and both deleted and blocked her in my contact list. During this time her contact pic changed from the beautiful young Eurasian with long hair and great tits to that of a somewhat average looking, short haired, not exactly thin, and definitely middle aged American.
What a total disappointment :(
All say "Ohhh".
(Aside; I hate how women prey upon mens unfulfilled sexuality. I have a very low opinion of prostitutes, as I also have of the men that frequent them.)
So, funny stories aside, what has happened recently?
Got my PEP yesterday. The 'green card' really is green :D
So, a five year work pass for Singapore, and I was told no need for re-entry visas with an Australian passport. Cool.
So todays task was to open a local bank account.
I had wanted to use Standard Chartered 'cos their boss was on TV last week saying that the financial 'crisis' hadn't affected their bank too much and he viewed it as a great opportunity. Just the sort of bright and happy sort of person that I can support in business! Yah!
Unfortunately it turns out that whilst they may be one of the biggest banks in the world Australia is not in their purview. An office in Sydney, but no branches anywhere; which is exactly the problem that I have been having with the National Australia Bank in Singapore.
So, the back up plan was HSBC since I know that they have branches in Adelaide 'cos a cute little (little? she was 26, but looked and behaved 16 {in Australian terms}) (Malaysian) Chinese girl that I (almost) fell in love with used them.
So now I am ready to receive payments.
The next step would be to get some payments...
No, really that is second priority, maybe do some talking to agencies, but I don't want to start until January 'cos I have to be back in Adelaide for Xmas so that kind of knocks half of December out. And December has already started!!!!!
I guess that I have to go Xmas shopping now...
I hate shopping soooo much!
Especially when it's not for toys.
And I have to think!! What does Mum want? What to get Noel? (Mum's husband {and yes, I just used a non-possessive apostrophe, but it's a possessive, get it?}) What to get my sister? My niece? My nephew? And maybe also my Father, his wife Proo, my brother Shane. 'Cos it will be too late to do any shopping when I get there.
Aaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhh...
I had two winks on Adult Friend Finder recently, as mentioned in the entry before last, and I have had a couple of interactions with both since then. One just finished five minutes ago.
The first was bad English, African sounding type, elements of a form letter in it, and so obviously about to lead into a request for money. Came through the very next email; "I am stuck in Nigeria and need $561", really? I don't think so.
The second was, supposedly, this couple of 21 year old SG girls.
I don't think so.
So, she sent me an invite to add her contact to my msgr ("msn" as she called it), and we just opened a chat. She asked if I would like to see her naked on cam. Well, I was looking for a deep and meaningful relationship, but naked cam could be a decent consolation prize. So she directed me to some website and asked me to log in, which was going to require credit card details and automatically dock me $40 USD each month. "Not what I was looking for. Bye" and both deleted and blocked her in my contact list. During this time her contact pic changed from the beautiful young Eurasian with long hair and great tits to that of a somewhat average looking, short haired, not exactly thin, and definitely middle aged American.
What a total disappointment :(
All say "Ohhh".
(Aside; I hate how women prey upon mens unfulfilled sexuality. I have a very low opinion of prostitutes, as I also have of the men that frequent them.)
So, funny stories aside, what has happened recently?
Got my PEP yesterday. The 'green card' really is green :D
So, a five year work pass for Singapore, and I was told no need for re-entry visas with an Australian passport. Cool.
So todays task was to open a local bank account.
I had wanted to use Standard Chartered 'cos their boss was on TV last week saying that the financial 'crisis' hadn't affected their bank too much and he viewed it as a great opportunity. Just the sort of bright and happy sort of person that I can support in business! Yah!
Unfortunately it turns out that whilst they may be one of the biggest banks in the world Australia is not in their purview. An office in Sydney, but no branches anywhere; which is exactly the problem that I have been having with the National Australia Bank in Singapore.
So, the back up plan was HSBC since I know that they have branches in Adelaide 'cos a cute little (little? she was 26, but looked and behaved 16 {in Australian terms}) (Malaysian) Chinese girl that I (almost) fell in love with used them.
So now I am ready to receive payments.
The next step would be to get some payments...
No, really that is second priority, maybe do some talking to agencies, but I don't want to start until January 'cos I have to be back in Adelaide for Xmas so that kind of knocks half of December out. And December has already started!!!!!
I guess that I have to go Xmas shopping now...
I hate shopping soooo much!
Especially when it's not for toys.
And I have to think!! What does Mum want? What to get Noel? (Mum's husband {and yes, I just used a non-possessive apostrophe, but it's a possessive, get it?}) What to get my sister? My niece? My nephew? And maybe also my Father, his wife Proo, my brother Shane. 'Cos it will be too late to do any shopping when I get there.
Aaaarrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhh...
Saturday, November 29
Don't get me started!
O oh - too late!
This from this mornings Nine MSN:
(http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=675815)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sex spells trouble, says Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader, on Friday said sex spelt fleeting satisfaction and trouble later, while chastity offered a better life and "more freedom".
"Sexual pressure, sexual desire, actually I think is short period satisfaction and often, that leads to more complication," the Dalai Lama told reporters in a Lagos hotel, speaking in English without a translator.
He said conjugal life caused "too much ups and downs".
"Naturally as a human being ... some kind of desire for sex comes, but then you use human intelligence to make comprehension that those couples always full of trouble. And in some cases there is suicide, murder cases," the Dalai Lama said.
He said the "consolation" in celibacy is that although "we miss something, but at the same time, compare whole life, it's better, more independence, more freedom."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And if we all follow his stupid advice then the species will be extinct.
At the best of times I have little time for the exiled leader of the planets most blood-thirsty and oppressive theocratic dictatorship. Where new-born twins were considered evil and immediately sacrificed to Buddha, where people were sacrificed under the cornerstones of Buddhist temples, where new Buddha statues were anointed with human blood, where Buddhist priests took young boys as their sex toys, where the peasants lived under the harsh whips of their monkish overlords. Small surprise that most of the country does not support him and that half of Tibet welcomed the Chinese as liberators.
All very easy for him to pretend to be a paragon of purity now, to pretend that the regime he lead was 'spiritual', to whisper pretty words into the ears of dumb Westerners.
I acknowledge that celibacy can be an important tool in a person's spiritual growth. But it is also an important tool in the emotional manipulation of the ignorant. And I fear that its use is more the latter here.
For example; the stupid and totally red herring statement that "in some cases there is suicide", well dufuss, there is that with celibacy as well.
I have lived in a few monasteries of a couple of different religions, and I am firmly of the belief that the majority of people that seek the 'spiritual' life are emotional retards escaping from the real world. God, the nonsense that I found inside Christian monasteries! And to me Buddhism is another unnatural religion, not too different from Catholicism. We grow from life, the cycle of birth and rebirth is how we evolved; to seek to escape this cycle is to seek an end to growth. Yes, I know that at some point we do evolve beyond the physical, but a 'Nirvana' that is presented as a state of 'nothingness' to me smacks of spiritual suicide, and to encourage fellow humans to stop procreating is to seek species suicide.
So, to me this all sounds like the Dalai Lama again showing the world that he, like the Pope, serves the forces of evil.
This from this mornings Nine MSN:
(http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=675815)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sex spells trouble, says Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual and temporal leader, on Friday said sex spelt fleeting satisfaction and trouble later, while chastity offered a better life and "more freedom".
"Sexual pressure, sexual desire, actually I think is short period satisfaction and often, that leads to more complication," the Dalai Lama told reporters in a Lagos hotel, speaking in English without a translator.
He said conjugal life caused "too much ups and downs".
"Naturally as a human being ... some kind of desire for sex comes, but then you use human intelligence to make comprehension that those couples always full of trouble. And in some cases there is suicide, murder cases," the Dalai Lama said.
He said the "consolation" in celibacy is that although "we miss something, but at the same time, compare whole life, it's better, more independence, more freedom."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
And if we all follow his stupid advice then the species will be extinct.
At the best of times I have little time for the exiled leader of the planets most blood-thirsty and oppressive theocratic dictatorship. Where new-born twins were considered evil and immediately sacrificed to Buddha, where people were sacrificed under the cornerstones of Buddhist temples, where new Buddha statues were anointed with human blood, where Buddhist priests took young boys as their sex toys, where the peasants lived under the harsh whips of their monkish overlords. Small surprise that most of the country does not support him and that half of Tibet welcomed the Chinese as liberators.
All very easy for him to pretend to be a paragon of purity now, to pretend that the regime he lead was 'spiritual', to whisper pretty words into the ears of dumb Westerners.
I acknowledge that celibacy can be an important tool in a person's spiritual growth. But it is also an important tool in the emotional manipulation of the ignorant. And I fear that its use is more the latter here.
For example; the stupid and totally red herring statement that "in some cases there is suicide", well dufuss, there is that with celibacy as well.
I have lived in a few monasteries of a couple of different religions, and I am firmly of the belief that the majority of people that seek the 'spiritual' life are emotional retards escaping from the real world. God, the nonsense that I found inside Christian monasteries! And to me Buddhism is another unnatural religion, not too different from Catholicism. We grow from life, the cycle of birth and rebirth is how we evolved; to seek to escape this cycle is to seek an end to growth. Yes, I know that at some point we do evolve beyond the physical, but a 'Nirvana' that is presented as a state of 'nothingness' to me smacks of spiritual suicide, and to encourage fellow humans to stop procreating is to seek species suicide.
So, to me this all sounds like the Dalai Lama again showing the world that he, like the Pope, serves the forces of evil.
Friday, November 28
A Day of Firsts
Well, a couple anyhow.
So this is the first time I am using Firefox in SG to do this. I used it in Oz, but have used IE here up to now. That is a pretty weak first, I know, but it is only there to kind of fill out the list.
I logged on to my Adult Friend Finder account, first time in a while, but that is not the 'first' for this. I had two winks, okay, one was a wink and hug. Both from here in SG, one was from a two-girl profile. I have had a few winks or messages before, but mostly they have been from Nigeria, or women in their 40s from China, or young girls from Thailand or the Philippines with shots of them naked in their profiles (I kind of shy away from women that have exhibited themselves to the whole world). So this was a first, well two firsts. And then I replied; another first. Whilst I was at it I did a search and also looked up some usernames whose profiles I have looked at before (back in Oz) and liked, and messaged a few of them. Another first.
I don't really like being 'winked', I have a gold account and have paid for standard members to be able to mail me, and say so in my profile. So I would rather something more informative than a 'wink', but there you go.
I had a 700ml tub of icecream (chocolate ripple) for lunch. Meaningless as that is, it is still another first. My tum has been rumbling ever since. I would have preferred to have stopped half way or sooner, but the baby freezer compartment in the baby fridge in my baby apartment only keeps cool, not frozen.
I tried to check the status of my PEP application online. According to the website the MOM processes these in two weeks or less. According to the receipt and the website you can check the status of your application online. This is not exactly true; you can check the status online if you already have an SG ID number, which naturally I don't. So I phoned. Finding a number to call on the website took about eight screens as well. But it ends with good news; the application was approved, on the 26th, so two weeks on the dot, but the paper work may take up to a week to get to me. I need that letter before I can take my passport in to get the pass and return visa stamped in it. I guess this is a first; after all it is the first time that I am allowed to work in another country, it is the first step in leaving Australia. All that aside, it was damned good news to hear. Naturally, given my history with the Australian Public Service I was expecting problems, but no, a straight clear approval.
My right testicle is swollen and sore as hell. It being swollen is a first, I am assuming that I squashed it wearing jeans yesterday. I will wait and see how it is tomorrow before getting a medical opinion; if it doesn't go down then it may be something else, but I'm betting not, I can be pretty rough with those parts of my anatomy at times.
I guess with the PEP approved that I will book return flights back to Adelaide for the Xmas & New Year period. I know that I said I wouldn't do that until I had a job, but I was expecting it to cost a lot more, I webbed it the other day and apparently can do for less than a thousand ($700-ish plus taxes = $850-ish), booking from Australia all you can get is about $800 + about $600 in taxes = $1,400 at best, usually closer to $2,000.
It will be interesting to see if that italic works, I entered it fully manually because CTRL + I gives a huge line of span (i.e. open 'span' in pointy brackets then a long line of code saying font in emphasis then close span in pointy brackets). Blogger in Firefox did not use to do that. And so continues my frustration with Blogger.com's handling of emphasis coding. And yes, I know that there is no non-possessive apostrophe in that, but if I didn't put it there then most people would get totally confused, wouldn't they?
Now why did I get a gold account at AFF? Yes? No?
If 'no' then you can skip this bit.
Back in the days when I first started looking online for someone to share my life with. The first thing was a couple of accounts in Oz to find a local girl - only one came of that and she was too much head trouble to take beyond three conversations. AFF is global, though, so this account lasted longer than the others. Yes, it got put on the back burner whilst I moved on to Russian girls. That went nowhere, half of them were straight out to rip money off guys, half of the remainder were not serious, they just wanted to be taken out to fancy restaurants (a meal out costs them weeks pay), the others turned out to provide their own share of cultural issues. All this time the AFF account stayed alive but unused (free!!), then when I started to think about going to Singapore I actually paid for it to be upgraded into something that can message both ways. Runs out in March 2009 and I'll let it die then. I had kind of forgotten it once I actually got here, was hoping that it might be good for a couple of contacts before I arrived, once here I got busy on other things. I am surprised that it seems to have suddenly come to life. We shall see if I will decide to forget about it again, or if it delivers a living breathing woman.
Here's an interesting addendum; in Firefox I get red underline on spelling errors and correction options.
So this is the first time I am using Firefox in SG to do this. I used it in Oz, but have used IE here up to now. That is a pretty weak first, I know, but it is only there to kind of fill out the list.
I logged on to my Adult Friend Finder account, first time in a while, but that is not the 'first' for this. I had two winks, okay, one was a wink and hug. Both from here in SG, one was from a two-girl profile. I have had a few winks or messages before, but mostly they have been from Nigeria, or women in their 40s from China, or young girls from Thailand or the Philippines with shots of them naked in their profiles (I kind of shy away from women that have exhibited themselves to the whole world). So this was a first, well two firsts. And then I replied; another first. Whilst I was at it I did a search and also looked up some usernames whose profiles I have looked at before (back in Oz) and liked, and messaged a few of them. Another first.
I don't really like being 'winked', I have a gold account and have paid for standard members to be able to mail me, and say so in my profile. So I would rather something more informative than a 'wink', but there you go.
I had a 700ml tub of icecream (chocolate ripple) for lunch. Meaningless as that is, it is still another first. My tum has been rumbling ever since. I would have preferred to have stopped half way or sooner, but the baby freezer compartment in the baby fridge in my baby apartment only keeps cool, not frozen.
I tried to check the status of my PEP application online. According to the website the MOM processes these in two weeks or less. According to the receipt and the website you can check the status of your application online. This is not exactly true; you can check the status online if you already have an SG ID number, which naturally I don't. So I phoned. Finding a number to call on the website took about eight screens as well. But it ends with good news; the application was approved, on the 26th, so two weeks on the dot, but the paper work may take up to a week to get to me. I need that letter before I can take my passport in to get the pass and return visa stamped in it. I guess this is a first; after all it is the first time that I am allowed to work in another country, it is the first step in leaving Australia. All that aside, it was damned good news to hear. Naturally, given my history with the Australian Public Service I was expecting problems, but no, a straight clear approval.
My right testicle is swollen and sore as hell. It being swollen is a first, I am assuming that I squashed it wearing jeans yesterday. I will wait and see how it is tomorrow before getting a medical opinion; if it doesn't go down then it may be something else, but I'm betting not, I can be pretty rough with those parts of my anatomy at times.
I guess with the PEP approved that I will book return flights back to Adelaide for the Xmas & New Year period. I know that I said I wouldn't do that until I had a job, but I was expecting it to cost a lot more, I webbed it the other day and apparently can do for less than a thousand ($700-ish plus taxes = $850-ish), booking from Australia all you can get is about $800 + about $600 in taxes = $1,400 at best, usually closer to $2,000.
It will be interesting to see if that italic works, I entered it fully manually because CTRL + I gives a huge line of span (i.e. open 'span' in pointy brackets then a long line of code saying font in emphasis then close span in pointy brackets). Blogger in Firefox did not use to do that. And so continues my frustration with Blogger.com's handling of emphasis coding. And yes, I know that there is no non-possessive apostrophe in that, but if I didn't put it there then most people would get totally confused, wouldn't they?
Now why did I get a gold account at AFF? Yes? No?
If 'no' then you can skip this bit.
Back in the days when I first started looking online for someone to share my life with. The first thing was a couple of accounts in Oz to find a local girl - only one came of that and she was too much head trouble to take beyond three conversations. AFF is global, though, so this account lasted longer than the others. Yes, it got put on the back burner whilst I moved on to Russian girls. That went nowhere, half of them were straight out to rip money off guys, half of the remainder were not serious, they just wanted to be taken out to fancy restaurants (a meal out costs them weeks pay), the others turned out to provide their own share of cultural issues. All this time the AFF account stayed alive but unused (free!!), then when I started to think about going to Singapore I actually paid for it to be upgraded into something that can message both ways. Runs out in March 2009 and I'll let it die then. I had kind of forgotten it once I actually got here, was hoping that it might be good for a couple of contacts before I arrived, once here I got busy on other things. I am surprised that it seems to have suddenly come to life. We shall see if I will decide to forget about it again, or if it delivers a living breathing woman.
Here's an interesting addendum; in Firefox I get red underline on spelling errors and correction options.
Wednesday, November 26
Leg Cramps
Well, not cramps really, but I think that I have strained a tendon or two behind my right knee joint.
I was up by seven this morning. I think that my sleep patterns are reasserting themselves, the neighbours in the northern flat being reasonably quiet after midnight these days. So, what to do with a whole day ahead of me? I decided on the spur of the moment to hike the east coast again, but all the way from Little India.
Well, to cut a long story short, I was back by eleven, I never got to East Coast Park to even start the hike. Singaporeans must not like walking much, because one; they do not respect pedestrians, every construction site along the way, especially those by the National Parks, just cuts off walking paths without providing alternative routes; and two; signage for pedestrians is non-existent.
In short; how the fuck do you get to East Coast Park?
You would think that you should be able to head for the water and walk along it. Yes? Wrong! Unlike Anglo countries Singapore does not provide right of access to the water frontage, restaurants, golf clubs, and worst of all the National Parks, just block it off, usually without providing any way around.
The first obstacle was to get across the new inner-city reservoir. You cannot yet walk to the barrage and across it as promised on the one-TV-network propaganda show on the subject. No, lots of construction work with no alternative pedestrian access routes being provided. There is a bridge there, but it is vehicle only. So walk back a long way to find a pedestrian bridge.
Then to get from there to the beach. A series of roads blocked off, you think that a 'no through' sign at the start of the road wouldn't be too much to ask, would you? Then a golf course; that should be okay, where I come from you can always walk through a golf course and out the other side. Nope, doesn't look like this one works like that. Back out that road. Look, a track through the woods, there is a boom but it is raised, so it must be okay; yes? Wrong! Leads to an off ramp for some motorway with no pedestrian path. Walk back along the verge into a construction site covered with six inches of soft mud.
Somewhere around there I pulled or stressed a tendon in the back of my leg. Sit down by the reservoir to rest (not many seats, just a few of the concrete stumps), take of sweat soaked shirt, towel off, put on dry shirt, grab a taxi home.
This is SSSSSOOOOOOOOOO infuriating!!!!
Singapore has such potential for great walking! Yet almost every time I try it is sabotaged by a total lack of signage, maps, and suitable tracks / paths. I just guess that most Singaporeans can't comprehend the need by some people to be able to walk somewhere that isn't full of shops and shoppers.
Aahhh. Needed to get that off my chest whilst it is still fresh.
Eight people have viewed this blog; one yank, one pommie, six Singaporeans (one of whom is me). Three people have returned to view it, and another three have returned to view it a few times. I think that I am getting used to the idea. We shall see.
(I need a nick name for Singaporeans; 'singies'?)
Today is fourteen days, i.e. two weeks, since I lodged my PEP applications. The MOM website promises responses in less than two weeks. I am allowing today and tomorrow for any letter to transit the mail system, but if nothing by tomorrow arvo then I am contacting the MOM.
As you can see in the last blog entry, a whole week ago, Jaz was back in SG for a 'few days' and I saw her for less than two minutes during which she didn't speak to me. Nothing since then. Divination aside, I feel it is time to move on, put all the pushing and prompting by her sisters and friends to the side and give up on the idea. Whatever deity is trying to force these things can just rethink his or her strategies.
I bought S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky a few days ago. The purchase itself was a stupid test, I so nearly walked out of that store and off to find it somewhere else. Whilst I am enjoying the game and it has a few improvements over the first, there are some serious shortcomings. I have never played a (legitimate) game before that was so bug-ridden. Seriously, this game has been through a dozen patches and still behaves like beta code! There are serious graphics issues, there are data issues, there are logic flaws, there are things that are meant to be caught in play testing. This is like Microsoft and its habit of releasing beta for the public to test, which is why you never buy anything Microsoft until it has passed version X.0, but Clear Sky is 1.05.07! Which is to say; seven patches to the sixth release (1.0 being the first).
Yes, the game in essence is good, and fun, but I have been carrying a lot of stuff and have stood in one place to drop a lot of guns, then step across a bit to drop the ammo, then step across a bit to drop the other stuff (medkits etc) then turn around and the medkits have vanished! The guns and ammo are still there, but the ancillaries have gone. Also drop stuff on a roof, and come back and it has fallen through the solid concrete roof and into the building below.
A walk-through I downloaded said that there was a scanner at the very north west of the swamp (intro / tutorial) map. I found the cave, but no scanner, no amount of standing by the wall and facing the mattress worked. From reading a few things like that I get the feeling that there is a degree of randomness to some of the item placements.
Still, having said all of that, I still am enjoying the game. I wonder if there will be third party maps or mods? The world is a bit small, only a few zones, and the game machine has the potential to deliver more I think. I like that you can repair and upgrade weapons now by visiting tech guys; I am really only just out of the swamp (okay, I have walked through most of the three or four zones south of the part where it then goes one way and you are locked into the power plant bit) and I am using an AKM74/2 with scope, silencer, extended mag, and all the internal mods to enhance accuracy (as opposed to the other stream of mods that increase rate of fire). I got this rifle in the swamp believe it or not. At first I was using the machine pistol thingy, modified to take 9mm x 18mm, from the original 9 x 19 since that is harder to come by in the tutorial area, whereas every punk has a pistol that you can strip of its 9 x 18 ammo. And a shot gun, I got the pump action and modded it a bit, but left it stashed somewhere as I feel comfortable with just the AKM and a pistol. I am also trying to stay low on ammo; when you strip every corpse you can end up carrying thousands of rounds of ammo on you! Which is all useless weight, you really only need a hundred or two of pistol ammo and between eight hundred and a thousand of rifle ammo. This leaves you with a lot more free weight so you can get more from stripping corpses (I seem to kill a lot of bandits in this game) and then dump it all at stashes. I have one or two such stashes in a couple of zones so far. Then you carry all of this stuff to a trader and sell it to buy great new suits and stuff (they cost 20,000 roubles, so you need to sell a lot of guns to get one).
So you see; I am having fun with it even though it has some annoying bugs that should have been resolved BEFORE release; like entering a new zone and the sky goes vomit, which sorts out suddenly when you move along a few dozen metres. Like your gun getting stuck on firing on full auto when you get important radio messages whilst in the middle of a fire fight. Like two messages talking over the top of each other or a radio message coming in whilst you are in a conversation and the two voices drowning each other out. You lose vital info this way, it is not stored in your message log in your PDA, only the radio messages are, you lose the conversational ones. Like the game getting jerky and things happen whilst your screen was frozen. Like getting nearly killed from full health by being shot by a shot gun at very long distance by a guy that you have put two whole clips of solid rounds into. Like getting your head shot off by NPCs supposedly on your side firing whilst standing behind you! Like the NPCs bumping your character around instead of walking around you, especially in a fire fight when one comes where you are sheltering behind cover and your character is suddenly floating above your cover and you get shot to pieces. Little annoying things like that.
As I said; a really good game, with lots of potential, but released with a whole heap of bugs still in it.
I was up by seven this morning. I think that my sleep patterns are reasserting themselves, the neighbours in the northern flat being reasonably quiet after midnight these days. So, what to do with a whole day ahead of me? I decided on the spur of the moment to hike the east coast again, but all the way from Little India.
Well, to cut a long story short, I was back by eleven, I never got to East Coast Park to even start the hike. Singaporeans must not like walking much, because one; they do not respect pedestrians, every construction site along the way, especially those by the National Parks, just cuts off walking paths without providing alternative routes; and two; signage for pedestrians is non-existent.
In short; how the fuck do you get to East Coast Park?
You would think that you should be able to head for the water and walk along it. Yes? Wrong! Unlike Anglo countries Singapore does not provide right of access to the water frontage, restaurants, golf clubs, and worst of all the National Parks, just block it off, usually without providing any way around.
The first obstacle was to get across the new inner-city reservoir. You cannot yet walk to the barrage and across it as promised on the one-TV-network propaganda show on the subject. No, lots of construction work with no alternative pedestrian access routes being provided. There is a bridge there, but it is vehicle only. So walk back a long way to find a pedestrian bridge.
Then to get from there to the beach. A series of roads blocked off, you think that a 'no through' sign at the start of the road wouldn't be too much to ask, would you? Then a golf course; that should be okay, where I come from you can always walk through a golf course and out the other side. Nope, doesn't look like this one works like that. Back out that road. Look, a track through the woods, there is a boom but it is raised, so it must be okay; yes? Wrong! Leads to an off ramp for some motorway with no pedestrian path. Walk back along the verge into a construction site covered with six inches of soft mud.
Somewhere around there I pulled or stressed a tendon in the back of my leg. Sit down by the reservoir to rest (not many seats, just a few of the concrete stumps), take of sweat soaked shirt, towel off, put on dry shirt, grab a taxi home.
This is SSSSSOOOOOOOOOO infuriating!!!!
Singapore has such potential for great walking! Yet almost every time I try it is sabotaged by a total lack of signage, maps, and suitable tracks / paths. I just guess that most Singaporeans can't comprehend the need by some people to be able to walk somewhere that isn't full of shops and shoppers.
Aahhh. Needed to get that off my chest whilst it is still fresh.
Eight people have viewed this blog; one yank, one pommie, six Singaporeans (one of whom is me). Three people have returned to view it, and another three have returned to view it a few times. I think that I am getting used to the idea. We shall see.
(I need a nick name for Singaporeans; 'singies'?)
Today is fourteen days, i.e. two weeks, since I lodged my PEP applications. The MOM website promises responses in less than two weeks. I am allowing today and tomorrow for any letter to transit the mail system, but if nothing by tomorrow arvo then I am contacting the MOM.
As you can see in the last blog entry, a whole week ago, Jaz was back in SG for a 'few days' and I saw her for less than two minutes during which she didn't speak to me. Nothing since then. Divination aside, I feel it is time to move on, put all the pushing and prompting by her sisters and friends to the side and give up on the idea. Whatever deity is trying to force these things can just rethink his or her strategies.
I bought S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky a few days ago. The purchase itself was a stupid test, I so nearly walked out of that store and off to find it somewhere else. Whilst I am enjoying the game and it has a few improvements over the first, there are some serious shortcomings. I have never played a (legitimate) game before that was so bug-ridden. Seriously, this game has been through a dozen patches and still behaves like beta code! There are serious graphics issues, there are data issues, there are logic flaws, there are things that are meant to be caught in play testing. This is like Microsoft and its habit of releasing beta for the public to test, which is why you never buy anything Microsoft until it has passed version X.0, but Clear Sky is 1.05.07! Which is to say; seven patches to the sixth release (1.0 being the first).
Yes, the game in essence is good, and fun, but I have been carrying a lot of stuff and have stood in one place to drop a lot of guns, then step across a bit to drop the ammo, then step across a bit to drop the other stuff (medkits etc) then turn around and the medkits have vanished! The guns and ammo are still there, but the ancillaries have gone. Also drop stuff on a roof, and come back and it has fallen through the solid concrete roof and into the building below.
A walk-through I downloaded said that there was a scanner at the very north west of the swamp (intro / tutorial) map. I found the cave, but no scanner, no amount of standing by the wall and facing the mattress worked. From reading a few things like that I get the feeling that there is a degree of randomness to some of the item placements.
Still, having said all of that, I still am enjoying the game. I wonder if there will be third party maps or mods? The world is a bit small, only a few zones, and the game machine has the potential to deliver more I think. I like that you can repair and upgrade weapons now by visiting tech guys; I am really only just out of the swamp (okay, I have walked through most of the three or four zones south of the part where it then goes one way and you are locked into the power plant bit) and I am using an AKM74/2 with scope, silencer, extended mag, and all the internal mods to enhance accuracy (as opposed to the other stream of mods that increase rate of fire). I got this rifle in the swamp believe it or not. At first I was using the machine pistol thingy, modified to take 9mm x 18mm, from the original 9 x 19 since that is harder to come by in the tutorial area, whereas every punk has a pistol that you can strip of its 9 x 18 ammo. And a shot gun, I got the pump action and modded it a bit, but left it stashed somewhere as I feel comfortable with just the AKM and a pistol. I am also trying to stay low on ammo; when you strip every corpse you can end up carrying thousands of rounds of ammo on you! Which is all useless weight, you really only need a hundred or two of pistol ammo and between eight hundred and a thousand of rifle ammo. This leaves you with a lot more free weight so you can get more from stripping corpses (I seem to kill a lot of bandits in this game) and then dump it all at stashes. I have one or two such stashes in a couple of zones so far. Then you carry all of this stuff to a trader and sell it to buy great new suits and stuff (they cost 20,000 roubles, so you need to sell a lot of guns to get one).
So you see; I am having fun with it even though it has some annoying bugs that should have been resolved BEFORE release; like entering a new zone and the sky goes vomit, which sorts out suddenly when you move along a few dozen metres. Like your gun getting stuck on firing on full auto when you get important radio messages whilst in the middle of a fire fight. Like two messages talking over the top of each other or a radio message coming in whilst you are in a conversation and the two voices drowning each other out. You lose vital info this way, it is not stored in your message log in your PDA, only the radio messages are, you lose the conversational ones. Like the game getting jerky and things happen whilst your screen was frozen. Like getting nearly killed from full health by being shot by a shot gun at very long distance by a guy that you have put two whole clips of solid rounds into. Like getting your head shot off by NPCs supposedly on your side firing whilst standing behind you! Like the NPCs bumping your character around instead of walking around you, especially in a fire fight when one comes where you are sheltering behind cover and your character is suddenly floating above your cover and you get shot to pieces. Little annoying things like that.
As I said; a really good game, with lots of potential, but released with a whole heap of bugs still in it.
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