It’s such a joy working out with Mr Eric Goh, California Fitness personal trainer.

He springs the most unexpected surprises, leaving you in such stunned disbelief that you momentarily forget the pain of muscle burn because what you’re feeling at the moment is to bop him in the head with your last remaining strength.

In the beginning, of course, all is peaceful and innocent.

Mr Eric Goh smiles encouragingly as he makes your legs work for their keep.

He counts for you patiently as you work your quadriceps.

“One… two… three….”

Soon, your quadriceps rebel. They don’t want to do anymore and they demand a hot bath with no concessions.

So you tell Eric, “Cannot already! My legs are not moving!”

But Eric continues to smile at you encouragingly.

He says, “You can do it. Just three more and you’re done, okay?”

You grit your teeth and tell your quadriceps, “Quit whining and just do three more, then.”

They say, “OKAY FINE,” so you proceed.

With all your might, you do one count and Eric counts out, “O.”

Veins bulging from your temples, you force out another, and Eric counts, “N.”

Something starts niggling at the back of your mind.

Drawing on the last bit of energy you never knew existed, you do just one more and Eric counts, “E.”

Then you burst out laughing even as you stare daggers at him: “WEI YOU CHEAT!!”

Eric says, “Come on, don’t stop, that’s only one. You still have two and three.”

In utter disbelief, you numbly call on your last reserves, iota by iota, and, before you know it, you’ve finished doing T, W, O and T, H, R, E, E and you can’t feel your legs anymore.

Your quadriceps finally realise that they’ve been duped. As you try to stand up from the bench, they buckle over in rebellion and reduce you to an unglorious heap on the floor.

“Wah lau kena bluff!” you protest weakly as you pant exhaustedly.

And Eric smiles at you encouragingly and says, “Now, next set!”

I’m really pleased that someone found me important enough to insult.

Okay, this is not the first time I’ve been insulted, so it’s not a big deal, but the message came at a time I was about to write a blog, and I thought this as good a topic as any.

Here, the insult was posted on my Facebook wall:

Of course, the initial reaction of receiving an insult or criticism is often shock and dismay.

But then you get over it very quickly because you start wondering who could have sent it.

Then you reach the only possible conclusion:

Somewhere out there is a sad, lonely, angry person who is jealous of me, my looks, my abilities, my success (any combination of all that).

I honestly feel some pity for this person and I’m even sorry to have unwittingly caused someone distress simply by existing.

The last thing I want is to have anyone feel bad on account of me.

But then, feeling pity for an anonymous stranger can’t solve anything, so I can’t focus on that. If my critics want to say stuff to my face in person, I will welcome it and sincerely extend to them my greatest sympathies.

But since I don’t know who this person is, I am instead focusing on the fact that insults empower me. They are proof that I am someone. Honestly, you wouldn’t walk up to a nobody in the middle of the street and start insulting him because he’s a nobody.

So, to all my critics, thank you for your kind affirmation of my success. I hope you find your own success eventually.

Update: I just found out a few minutes after posting this entry that my critic has deleted his insult from my wall. Hmm, the mystery thickens.

When I came across the first mention of swine flu, my immediate reaction was, “Doh, not another one of those.”

Then I went on to ignore it because I had more compelling concerns on my mind, such as meeting work deadlines.

A few days after seeing talk of swine flu pop up all over the Internet, I still didn’t bother to read about it. Hype annoys me, so I reject it. The more something is hyped up, the more I try to ignore it.

It wasn’t until after my partner brought up the matter that I developed some interest in it.

He came home one day and said, “Hey, Singapore has just gone into orange alert! I think we’re all going to have to work from home next.”

Continue reading…

When I was in Kuching, our unofficial tour guide, Malcolm, brought us to a traveller lodge belonging to a good friend of his.

We had a crazy party there, me and the journalists who had been invited to visit Kuching.

I made a video of the madness. I was frankly quite amazed at how talented my journalist friends were and by the fact that we all clicked like old friends even though we’d only met each other the day before.

Now, a bit about The Fairview because I really liked it.

It’s a large heritage house that’s been converted to a budget hostel and is managed by a middle-aged couple who treat guests like friends.

With a 25-guest capacity and a price range of RM25 (S$10.40) to RM115 ($47.90), it’s located within walking distance from the city centre.

There are dorm rooms (good for trips with friends) and different sized bedrooms for couples or families. Totally a great alternative to staying at a hotel.

It actually looks rather creepy when you first step in because it’s so old and the furniture and decoration are, like, antique.

But once you get to know Eric and Annie, the friendly owners, and settle in, you’ll start feeling cosy and comfortable. The place probably looks different in the day, anyway.

They served us tuak, a rice wine made by the natives in Kuching.

There are different kinds of tuak which use slightly different ingredients. I really like the sweet ones. The one we tried at Fairview was sweet and delicious!

Annie showed us the guestbook, which has been signed by hundreds of happy and grateful tourists.

There was even a homemade thank-you card.

Most importantly, there’s broadband Internet, and you can make reservations online.

Actually, the guys in the video weren’t crazy because of the tuak and beer. They behaved like that the entire trip. It’s just them.

;)

Cheers to Malcolm, Nicholas, Javad, Wai Kit, Lili and Soh. And, of course, to Eric, Annie and pretty Flora!

As I mentioned yesterday, I had some trouble uploading videos to YouTube this round. I had to re-upload two videos in total, which is a big deal when you consider that each upload takes around four hours, give or take.

And I love that I’m writing for my blog instead of a magazine because, like, you can’t complain about trivial stuff in a magazine.

But people kind of like it when you complain in a blog. I noticed that I get more readers and comments for my ranting blog entries.

You people are just weird, aren’t you?

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Table of Contents

1. X-Men Origins: Wolverine video gameplay
2. Time Wasters by Swordplay
3. Sacred 2: Fallen Angel
4. Terminator Salvation game trailers
5. Geek garage sale!
6. Results of last week’s contest
7. Win an X-Men Origins: Wolverine poster!!

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine video gameplay

The game of the week is X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which released yesterday, for PC and Xbox 360.

I’m rather pleased with it. It’s an action RPG not unlike Ninja Gaiden II, but it’s Wolverine! It’s Hugh Jackman! Superhuman regeneration!

Here, I made a video of the gameplay.

It might be hard to tell from the video, but the cinematics are awe-inspiring (although we really shouldn’t expect any less from action games these days). The gameplay is also fun and furious. I love how cut-scenes and gameplay merge seamlessly to give players a cinematically immersive experience.

The autosave points are frequent enough so you won’t have to tell your girlfriend/wife to give you 30 more minutes to finish up (but of course she doesn’t understand so she’s yelling at you to come to bed right now) and you have no choice but to quit the game with the knowledge that you’d have to replay the stage again later because you don’t want to get ear hell now.

Mini missions guide you along the way to completing main missions, which keeps everything fresh and interesting.

The only downside for me so far is that the game tips for new actions/combos/skills sometimes flash away too quickly, before you’ve even had a chance to read a word because you’re too busy trying to save your own ass.

For example, if you watch my video, I had been mystified by spikes in the ground which I knew I could interact with but couldn’t figure out how.

It was only when I was editing the video and watching my gameplay in freeze frame that I saw the damn game tip telling me how to use the spikes. I never saw it when I playing the game.

But that doesn’t happen all the time, so it’s still within tolerance level.

Well, watch the video for more good stuff. Overall, I’d highly recommend the game.

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Time Wasters by Swordplay

Swordplay is my pesky li’l bro who spends all his time playing time-wasting games. To make him a little bit more useful, I’m sitting on him and making him recommend one fun and simple web-based game each week.

Today’s Recommendation: Peasant’s Quest

This is a super old-school TEXT INPUT game. It means you interact with the game by typing text commands.

I don’t know what Swordplay is doing playing games like that.

I used to love games like this when I was a kid. But now, my brains will start a mutiny if I attempt to play such a game. It’s annoying when you can’t think of what command could advance the game because it could be ANY command in the world. It could be “lick toe” or “sing barney song” for all you know.

Still, this game doesn’t look half as bad because it’s part graphical and you move around using arrow keys.

It certainly brings back memories. Especially that annoying 8-bit music that clangs noisily when you first load up the game. The moment I heard it I was, like, OMG turn it off.

But it is quite funny all the same, by virtue of it being so old-school you’d feel embarrassed playing it in a public space.

And I like the tone of fun and humour in the game.

If you try it, let me know if you like it!

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Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

The Sacred series has quite a following, although it’s not really everyone’s cup of tea. It’s basically fun if you like killing and looting sprees, Diablo-style.

It’s been out for the PC for a while already, but it will be releasing for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on May 15.

Here’s an old trailer, which I’m showing because I love the song in it. Haha. It’s written and performed by metal band Blind Guardian specially for the game. The band even has cameo appearances in the game.

What’s good about the game

• Huge variety of fun quests
• Interesting variety of mobs
• Great audio (music and sound effects)
• Quirky sense of humour
• Beautiful cartoony graphics
• Variety of multiplayer modes (up to 16 players)

What’s not good about the game

• Poor plot
• World too massive with clumsy transport system
• Bugs present

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Terminator Salvation game trailers

This is the month of blockbuster movie games! Terminator Salvation the game comes to us before the movie, so we can get into John Connor’s skin before we watch the real thing.

Here’s a game trailer. (I have another better one but it wouldn’t upload properly after two tries, so I finally gave up on it.)

Terminator Salvation releases May 19 for the PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and, can you believe it, iPhone.

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Geek garage sale!

A storeroom raid at the Playworks office recently turned up chests full of loot which has been sitting around being of no use to anyone.

If you’d like to buy any of the geek toys listed below, just turn up on Monday to bargain your way to a good deal!

Playworks Garage Sale
1 Stamford Road, #02-04
Capitol Building
Singapore 178884

Date: Monday 4th May
Time: 11 am to 7 pm

Note: There are more items on sale than shown in the picture above because the lazy buggers didn’t take photos of everything.

Here’s also a not-very-complete list of stuff on sale:

Assortment of Xbox 360 games
Assortment of PSP games
Assortment of PC games
Assorted software (Anti-virus, backup, utlities, etc…)
Speed pad (Hard plastic mouse pads)
Orange box mouse mats
Everglide mouse mats (Big and small)
Everglide mice
Microsoft mice
Microsoft keyboards
GXL Rings (3 sizes)
Plantronics headsets with mic (USB or Audio jack)
Mini speakers
2.1 speakers
Assorted bags, cases, pouches
Wireless Multi-Function Routers
DLink ADSL Eternet Routers
Assorted Loreal beauty products (wtf?)
Knick knacks paddywack give a dog a bone

Check here for updates.

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Results of last week’s contest

Today, Mr Randomiser smiles upon the number 9.

Ah, Mr Randomiser, but who is number 9?

We would all like to know, because number 9 just won himself/herself… THIS!

Well, lemme give you a clue.

The winner is… someone who is orange with black stripes and growls and sometimes eats people.

LOLOLOL.

Must be your birthday luck shining on you, whaddya know?

Will the winner, and you better know who you are, please e-mail me? Thank you.

Oh, and congratulations!

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Win an X-Men Origins: Wolverine poster!!

I know some people like collecting posters, so I’m giving one away this week!

This poster measures about 16.5″ x 23.5″. And it’s also a little bit dented from being knocked about when it was rolled up. Hope you don’t mind. It looks pretty decent if you don’t scrutinise it close up.

Okay, if anyone wants it, just drop a comment before next Friday. You know the drill!

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In closing…

Just had a thought that today’s a nice day for this song.

Happy long weekend!