AngelTimes Edition

Church Day

2006-10-14T22:03:00.000+08:00

Hello~! while my whole family is watching korean drama (Humans are sentimental creatures), my dad is sharing his financial burden with my mom, I'm buzy typing away here and there in MSN. I doubt I have much opportunity to make daily records of my life in the future, but still I'like to keep this blog updated as frequent as possible.

Xenosaga III Flash Update Chapter 3
Right now, Shion Uzuki tachi, was brought back by that strange light into Milita, 15 years ago. A month before the horrible incident that occurs on that planet which laid everything to waste. The federal government then was in a gridlock situation with the U-Tic Organization, everything looks calm on the surface but the people was just as tense and nervous beneath.
Anyway, the story pick up from the Mines, after Shion and party joined the Captain Matthews and the others back onboard Elsa. Allen, reluctantly break the news to Shion about Kos-Mos state, that she suffered heavy damage in her last battle with Telos back in the Holy Land.

Shion and Jin Fighting Telos

After visitng Kos-Mos in the maintaince room, Shion was devastated by the news heavily and collapsed on the capsule containing Kos-Mos.
Around noon, Professor stated that due to the space-time anomaly that brought them into the past, might end up destroying the whole universe due to the unstable latent heat. In order to return back to the future, the same amount of latent heat energy needed to be contained and compressed. The energy conservation law. Allen bluntly asked if it was possible to do that, but professor sternly replied that it was not possible due to the lack of energy output.
Heartbroken Shion, sneaked out to the city to observe the situation as she can't stand doing nothing and watch the events unfold. On the way to the city, she and Allen found an abandon U-Tic Transport near the road-side. Sensing the presence of approaching vehicles, they hided behind the bushes to observe the situation. Another transport carrier came by and several U-Tic researchers emerged from within. Susou Uzuki was among the few researchers and after closer examinations of the abandoned transport, he gave orders to obtain the vital datas and incinerate the dead realians andleft the scene. After they left, Shion said she wanted to find out what her daddy was up to, and modified their I.D of some dead researchers in the transport so tat they can move freely into the city where Labryintos is.

The guards in the city left Shion and Allen pretty much alone due to the researchers outfit they were wearing. As they wandered around the city in search on a way to enter Labryintos, the residents and the guards in patrol expressed their opinions on the current state that Militan is in now. There was an interesting conversion about a group of children fighting, and one of them had an red aura. Looking through a binoculars the Shion saw her younger self playing by the swing looking lonely and sad.

Okay that's it for Xenosaga III for now, the rest I'll post it up next time.

2006-10-14T02:22:00.000+08:00

Haha~ Finally I have another chance to post new informations up in my blog today. Had quite alot of fun today, but morning was wasted on Xenosaga III. I find the current chapter very much in-depth and have some scenes that is simply heart warming! The scene whereby Shion had Kelvin Winnocot watering the plot of flower bed was hilarous! Awww! Poor kos-mos was almost scraped by this Telos, a Kos-Mostic Android which looks just like her except have an evil-ego! Duhz... The plot itself is getting thicker and I have tons of questions on my inquistive mind with regards to the testaments (lol!) and the Vessels of Anima, their existence and why the heck, Virgil was involved as well. Oh well, this is only the beginning of a two part finale so the story was just getting started!

KOS_MOS :x
I managed to draw Kos-Mos during my sare time today too, the by-product of a much better masterpiece!
Anyway her eyes are pretty much shaded and gives her a haunting look, I had her shaded and pretty much re-modified after the real copy and ta-da! The hair wasm't that well drawn and I had to spend some time erasing the fluffy stuff from her head! Hm... Her arms are a little bit awkward and stiff .<
I still think the original draft look nicer, except when it got zap into the computer, it just went off. Oh well!
Anyway this is Kos-Mos Hm.. Maybe I'll draw Shion next, or Jin! I think Jin wielding that red sword just look so Jedi. lol. His latest in-game costume resemble a guy from Xenogears, can't remember who....

Window Xp/Vista Major Makeovers

2006-10-13T01:50:00.000+08:00

Hey Guys, I'm back in the blogger scene after so long. Almost 1 whole week since I last blogged or tagged! Anyway, today little post is about how to make your Window Xp look alike to Vista! Here is a preview on my own desktop!

Window Vista makeover!

The easiest way is to download and install the skinpac: Vista Transformation Pack 5.5 and follow the instructions clearly! I advise those who wishes to try this gimick to do a system backup or enable system restore before installing the pack! And always stick to what the instructions! Some of the system files will be changed, but it should not defect or damage the system if it's run in the correct way!

For a more comprehensive guide and alternative methods please vistt the following site:

Link 1
Link 2

title

2006-10-04T22:50:00.001+08:00

Blogger became much more easier with performancing firefox! Guys if you
are currently using IE Browser firefox please try this extension out!
BTW> Okami rulez! I'm like 12 hrs into the game and the game just
get more and more interesting! HAHA! TO TPIANS Having holidays, don't
say holidays are meaningless cause it never is until you say it is!

2006-10-02T00:48:00.000+08:00

Okay, I had a terrible morning on a sunday! Gosh, I have to wake up at 5am in the morning and rush down to clementi MRT! Luckily I manage to get some sleep before I set off for the train stations in the wee hours or I'll be dragging myself like a corpse there! The morning breeze felt really refreshing and I had a filling breakfast along the way there. "I have to remind myself taht I was waking up for a worthy cause! Lol." Yeah, guess what? I'm helping out as a helper at NUS on Sunday for the children day event over there. The organizers are from a club called LEOs of "raffles city" and comprises of SP, NYP, and NUS students. Still, TP rulez caz the morale was the highest during the whole event!
There were an awful lot of commotions going on at the Bus interchange at Clementi at around 6am as the ASC and Leos people gather and we had to wait for the bus 96 to come and take all of us there! Desperate for air-conditioning and a good place to sleep, I can only pray that the bus will arrive in around 5min or so... But guess what? It took about 20 minutes to reach the terminal! And the seats are 1st come 1st serve basis! Tpians are about the last to enter so we kinda have to squeeze in with the leo people... I didn't mind the big crowd that was traveling with us at the moment but it's hard to intergrate into that environment. But I tried anyway, it'seems like I have to try harder caz it's sunday morning! And I'm so nt in any mood to communicate... It's just dull and dumb.
Along the 20minute bus journey, I kept glancing around the sceneries and half-listening to what the others are saying. The bus took us right into NUSS, near one of the annex library where the event is! What greeted me was this huge campus, slopes and old buildings. I just felt it's abit of a letdown but a great place to have a children day party because of the spacious environment, kidz always loved to run around. And we defintely wouldn't want to cramp 300 children in a dark confined area.

2006-09-29T23:20:00.000+08:00

Buzy week Alerts! More updates during weekend I hope! Was relieved that Computer was back to normal. Video adapter kinda short-circuited. I have lotta fun wif okami these few days (Japanese Arts are pretty) and DRP (kinda more read-ups then hands-on this week) not to mention debating! The new tournment season starts tommorrow and would end on sunday! Hopefully TP debating squad would get in the finals rounds.

Tech Review - Firefox (browser)

For those of you wanting a new outlook to your IE, why not give firefox a try? It's user-friendly, stable and can be personalised with numerous extensions! It simply a great gadget and a must have for all tech-gizmo collectors out there.
The themes and it's quick loading speed, not to mention its' stability can be compared to IE. The extensions that are avaliable for downloading are great additions to the functions of firefox! (Multiple Tabs, session savers, mouse gestures-which allows you to utilize mouse strokes as shortcuts for various actions which would be reptitious and troublesome! Dictionaries and music players...etc.)

En-route from Tamp back to Bedok inter!

Seems like I had a little bit of time during last few days so I attempted to walk from Tamp Inter back to Bedok! The Jouney on foot seems to bring a whole new dimension instead of taking Bus 69 straight from TP or TAMP back to bedok!

I manage to capture some of the photos while strolling back home. (I'm crazy about shooting greeneries! Lmao...)

2006-09-28T16:28:00.000+08:00

I'm back! I haven't been updating this blog recently due to some technical issues and my computer broke down again. On top of that, work have been really building up on my work desk (drp) and I can't really say I'm really getting much results out of whatever my field is. I'm still persisting though. Hopefully by the end of this holiday I can at least be able to accomplish something.

Schedule for 23rd Sat 2006:

2006-09-23T00:25:00.000+08:00

Schedule for 23rd Sat 2006:

Japanese Interclub Schedule:
1800 - AE to test movie at LT24 beforehand
0745 - Morning call
0900 - Reporting time for ALL subcomm members - DO NOT BE LATE
0945 - Group photo taking!
1000 - Ushers to be waiting at entrance of bus stops
1045 - Pre-screening entertainment to start - AE to prepare music videos
1115 - NANA the movie starts (runtime 113 minutes)
1245 - Caterers arrive
1315 - Movie ends, lunch begins
1600 - Interclub ends (that is, if we can even talk that long)

Okay~ I think I would end up as ushers... Well, that sucks for me.
I wish I can get a proper job. Anyone got any recommendations?

Gaming Review 2: Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra

2006-09-23T00:12:00.000+08:00

Okay the next game would be Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra!
The three part series (originally 6 part) is about to end in this grand finale! Will the universe be destroyed by the notorious Udo? Just who the heck is Vectors? What's wif the U.M.N? All these would be answered within the game itself.

"The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what's preceded it."

Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra Review

It was supposed to be a six-part series spanning multiple systems and more than a decade of time, but out of nowhere, Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra suddenly became the end of the best-selling RPG franchise instead of the middle of it. To that effect, the team at Monolith Software has packed a starship's worth of storyline into the thing, making the game just as heavy (if not more so) with its dialog and cutscenes as the first episode. Of course, the plus side to this is that longtime fans of the series can expect every last question they've ever had to be answered (and answered dramatically), with the downside being that there's a whole lot to take in all at once.

"Is that Fei from Xenogears???" -Shion

Following Shion Uzuki's departure from Vector a year after the end of Episode II, Also Sprach Zarathustra begins with Shion's quest to learn her former employer's involvement with the Gnosis phenomenon. Naturally, the story expands way beyond its initial setup -- including (but not limited to) the Elsa's quest for the Zohar, the spiritual understanding of what "God" is, and who's been pulling the strings for all three episodes. With its heavy emphasis on themes like the circle of life and deception (ie, everybody in the universe is a damned liar), Episode III certainly has a much better story than Episode II. It's also nice to see the focus shift back to Shion rather than "Captain Chaps" himself, Jr., and the fact that there's a time travel element is a bizarre but needed twist.

"Take all of that!" -J.r

Closing Comments
There hasn't been a more engrossing RPG trilogy in this last generation than Namco's Xenosaga franchise and the strong, if not sudden, ending in Xenosaga Episode III certainly proves that. While this last installment may not be on the same level as other PS2 classics like Final Fantasy X or Dragon Quest VIII, it still tells one hell of a great story that, when combined with the previous two games, stands on its own as a powerful piece of science-fiction. Sure it may not have the greatest battle system or be the most technically brilliant, but at the end of the day it manages to keep you glued to your seat with complicated theme and mature subject matter -- that's no easy feat. Hopefully, we'll get to see the gang again some day.

9.0	Presentation Improved load times, an absolutely enthralling storyline, a powerful ending, and easy-to-access menus give Episode III the best production values in the series.
7.5	Graphics There is definite slowdown during cutscenes and character animation is on the stiff side, but the keen artistic design, cool facial expressions, and expansive environments shouldn't be overlooked.
8.0	Sound While not as good as Episode I's musical score and strangely downgraded to stereo from 5.1, the soundtrack and voice acting in Episode III are both of a high level. Audio effects are solid.
7.5	Gameplay A tweaked combination of Episode I and II's battle systems works well with a nice variation of tactics and fun ES combat (but there's nothing original here). Some boss battles can last an hour.
7.0	Lasting Appeal A bizarre puzzle-based mini-game, a number of sidequests, and a couple of hidden goodies should keep you busy during the game's 40-50 hours.

Gaming News 1 Okami

2006-09-22T23:55:00.000+08:00

Playstation 2 Game Review: New and upcoming

Okay so it seems like I'm going to post up gaming reviews every friday! For today, the first game reviewed is Okami!

Summary
Okami is a game we've been waiting on for a long, long time, and for the most part it has lived up to our extremely high expectations. It's beautiful, charismatic, engaging and one of the most original games you'll play anytime soon. Sure, it's not perfect, and we may have picked on some of its flaws a bit more than usual simply because they're a little more obvious when everything around them is so great. All in all, Okami is a game that any self-respecting PlayStation 2 owner should pick up simply because you've never played anything like it before.

Game Review

9.0	Presentation Great and informative menu layouts, impressive story and fantastic dialog. Plenty of load points, though most aren't overly long.
9.5	Graphics Stunning. That's all there is to say.
8.5	Sound Great soundtrack to perfectly blend with the world. Voices are just mumbles but sort of works.
9.0	Gameplay The Celestial Brush makes the game and works brilliantly. Most battles are entirely too easy, unfortunately.
8.0	Lasting Appeal Lengthy main quest with tons of extra stuff to find.

Woohoo! My blog is now fully functional! Party time!

2006-09-22T04:21:00.000+08:00

This is going to be so awesome... I have everything up and running for this blog and it looks totally great. Hey guys, please remember to tag on my Zenmessenger once you are here. Keep the comments coming! Oh yeah, anyone knows how to do the "number of vistors" scripts? I also require some assistance with the web cursors and the graphic transitions codes. I wanted a cool trailing cursor. But can't find it anywhere. Any got it? Haha! Okay, I must say I really learnt alot about Java scripts and CSS from my inital setup experience with this blog. And the results are indeed very satisfying!
Oh well, I went for a jog with eric today and we did some minor exercise. Darn, NS is coming so soon and I felt that I'm still noobing at pull-up stations... Not to mention my 2.4km! Ns life is looking kinda bleak for me at the moment...

Just look at this guy! :D I wish I can do that! Haha, I got to remind myself to chin up, and do the Man thing you know. Go to Gym, and have a regular workout! Fight for a healthy lifestyle... Blah blah! At least eat more salads and cut down on sweet or oily food.

I have to say, that having a healthy body, mind and soul is what keeps the doctor away and not just apples! Whoever said that can feed on what's leftover from my fridge! Apples!

Mix up your choices within each food group
	Focus on fruits. Eat a variety of fruits – whether fresh, frozen, canned or dried – rather than fruit juice for most of your fruit choices. For a 2,000 calorie diet, you will need 2 cups of fruit each day (for example, 1 small banana, 1 large orange, and 1/4 cup of dried apricots or peaches). NO KFCS!
	Vary your veggies. Eat more dark green veggies, such as broccoli, kale, and other dark leafy greens; orange veggies, such as carrots, sweetpotatoes, pumpkin, and winter squash; and beans and peas, such as pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, split peas and lentils.
	Get your calcium-rich foods. Get 3 cups of low-fat or fat-free milk – or an equivalent amount of low-fat yogurt and/or low-fat cheese (1 1/2 ounces of cheese equals one cup of milk) – every day. For kids aged 2 to 8, it's 2 cups of milk. If you don't or can't consume milk, choose lactose-free milk products and/or calcium-fortified foods and beverages.
	Make half your grains whole. Eat at least 3 ounces of whole-grain cereals, breads, crackers, rice, or pasta every day. One ounce is about 1 slice of bread, 1 cup of breakfast cereal, or 1/2 cup of cooked rice or pasta. Look to see that grains such as wheat, rice, oats, or corn are referred to as 'whole' in the list of ingredients.
	Go lean with protein. Choose lean meats and poultry. Bake it, broil it, or grill it. And vary your protein choices – with more fish, beans, peas, nuts and seeds.

Link: http://www.4woman.gov/faq/diet.htm

Okay, lets move on to my social part of life! Okay, after the ASC camp, I realise I made quite alot of friends. Thanks to god, I'm having so much more friends right now! The camp was an enriching experience for me I must say. It's a wonderful place to meet up with leaders-to-be, and alot of juniors from my course and Applied science! Okay, TP rulez!

Then to my gaming life! I'm so major in this I think I'm gonna be a full-time gamer next time when I grew up. Though the odds are like 20 million to one. Okay I have to stop here. Cya guys next time.

Welcome to the blogger scene!

2006-09-21T02:30:00.000+08:00

Woohoo Guys, let's just say I'm so, very excited about starting my own blog! I mean I have kept journals before, but never an online blog like this. I have never thought about creating one of these online_journal before and it excites me, to think of the endless possibilities that goes along with blogging. Ironically, I'm still able to compose something, when I was about to sleep. Usually, my brain will stop functioning at around the bewitching hours, and then brain~ freeze! Zuh~ (If not I could just sprout nonsense and tok cok for hours. Yeah, I guess I could never go nocturnal, even if I do, I'm seriously gonna suffer sleep-lags for the next entire morning. I mean who doesn'?)
Oh, I guess I should do alittle bit more introduction about myself to inform the readers what kind of blogger and blog are you reading on! If you don't know me, you probarly just stumble across this blog for no reason or you could have linked it from another person's blog. But that's okay cause your not trespassing into private property, this blog is open to all readers and free to comments or feedbacks. If you have good advise to some of the problems I posted here, or want to share anything, go ahead and do it! At this point of time, you can either look up on my profile or listen to whatever information I'm about to feed you with.
Okay, my name is derrick and I'm 18 this year (time do fly!). If you traced my family lineage, I'm pretty much a chinese, though i really hope my ancestory would come from Japan or korea, or Europe, it would be nice to know if I'll to come from the royal bloodline of King Herold XII. Haha~ I like to fantasize alittle about my birthrights since I was a child, until I grown out of having four imaginary friends (Jesper, Peter, Fa~maid, Ail BaBa), Hello panda (distant relative of Hello Kitty) and pokemonsters (grow up Ash..). Woot, I'm so naive and (kawaii) those days. But looking back, these days are always the most memoriable ones, people always complain that they have no childhood, I'm glad I did have one. I did have a couple of good friends back then but I lost contact with all of them totally. (They will still be in your hearts no matter what, you won't forget them. Or So I thought...). I can say I was over-ambitious when I was little, I thought for sure I would be very sucessful in the future, very-entreprenuership. But I sort out my thinkings many years back, and told myself that I should never be too unrealistic or lose any sense of reality in this world. Ever thought of living in a hydrosphere? Forget it, human don't breathe in water. Ever dreamt of dragons coming to life, or Jurassic Parks? Hey, you can't expect fossil to re-animate dead things. Although science did make a drastic jump these recent years, still some things will always remain as fictional and we should draw a clear line in that area.
Okay, more juicy facts about my personal life. I used to study in a average primary school, get to know some really cool people, I still can remember them, comitted some foolish acts when I was there. So easily influenced by friends and peers, I was like brutally bullied by some pai-kai in the past. But that's okay, cause I myself was not so far off from some pai-kai. One of the more interesting stories about my ps days would be this "monster" saga. I was kinda lead into believing my fellow classmates were monsters (dear me!) I was conned and tricked by some good friend of mine. Although this sound stupid, it added some colour to my life back then. Hey, Mark! I'll never forget you. Haha!
Wow, such a long entry in my blog! Lol, okay, let's cut the long story. Anyway fast-forward, in my secondary school phase, during my graduating year I became more pessimistic due to some low-self-estem issues, which stems from poor communications. It's the worst phase in my life and I feel like a total loser. Seems to do everything wrong and can't make things right. I have to isolate myself from the entire society, and outcast myself (for no good reason). Darn! What went wrong then? Then I got into a really bad case of ???? and that just shut me down permenantly from the rest of the world.
I'm really glad I got out of that kind of situation and here I'm at the poly phase! Oh crap, it's so late already time to get a few winks. Oh, please do post your comments up, and keep me linked to the rest of the blogging community!