Stupidpower's blog

2011-09-18T23:55:00.002+08:00

Moving my blog to...

http://fifthazure.tumblr.com/

:D

Video Game Storytelling

2011-09-18T20:41:00.001+08:00

Let's take a step back from social issues and politics... And look at a often forgotten art form- storytelling in video games. Video games single-players campaigns are basically movies which players can interact with the story, experiencing it, feeling that they made it happen, and is part of it. Its potential is HHHUUUGGGEEE. If a movie about risking it all to save another's man's life is so touching, video games can bring that further. And it has been brought further. Who didn't feel shock when the nuke went off in Call Of Duty 4 and you are left crawling on the ground, looking at the mushroom cloud and your doomed existence? It doesn't have to be shocking; the "fuck yeah!" moments of triumph when you stand on a mountain of corpses, accomplishing something vital to the story. For me, Halo's (except Reach and Wars) endings has always been awe inspiring- the "fuck yeah" moment followed by the beautiful soundtrack of the game.

I am going to focus on FPS for this one, simply because I don't play enough RPGs to fully talk about it. But FPS are the equivalent of action movies, and its storytelling is important, too.

A good video game story does not only take place on the surface- there must be substantial canon to hold the universe (of the story) together. Halo has done this extraordinarily well, even though the execution of the campaigns in the video games has always been slightly weaker. Well, at least the earlier days, before Microsoft and Bungie retcon the shit out of it.

The Halo Universe is extraordinarily dark. Let me give you a synopsis if you have forgotten. In the 26th Century, Humanity has colonized deep space under the hegemony of the UN. However, with this hegemony, perpetual insurrection (read: Current state of Iraq/ Afghan wars) has been ongoing, and by the very best estimates, the rebels will overrun the UN in 30 years. The worse, 10.

Desperate times need desperate measures, and the UN abducted a few hundred kids for the only reason that their genes are compatible for argumentation. These kids were forced into strict military training at extremely young ages than turned into Super-humans, with extremely high fatality rates, while many others became crippled.

But before this Super-Soldiers can be used to fight rebels, an unknown alien empire bounded by religion suddenly attacks and declares a religious genocidal war against us, which we have no chance of winning.

It get much, much darker. Like orphans being turned into suicide warriors, and the religion of the aliens being to ascend to heaven by activating relics from an ancient species. Unknowingly to them, these are weapons used to wipe out life in the galaxy to starve a parasitic race called the "Flood" of hosts.

Of course, these were activated killing its creators because the flood overran them, the arguable master species.

The whole universe of Halo is dark, sad, desperate. There are no goods- and while people who don't read the books do not know about this, you can always feel the huge implications in the games. Its such a powerful backstory that even if the game's storyline sucks, this drags it along extremely well.

On the other extreme end, there is the type of storytelling in Call of Duty and most twitchy shooters in the market today. They are Michael Bay movies, in a nutshell. Paper thin plot devices carrying a player from 1 setpiece (ie. a dramatically epic battle scene).

When scrutinised, these stories just fall apart with glaring holes (Read this if you have played the campaign of Modern Warfare 2), but the huge explosions and OMFG battles make you not notice them, at all. I mean, who the hell questioned the humanitarian implications of the EMP in Modern Warfare 2? You just see planes falling from the sky!

Its bad, there is now way around it, but similarly to Michael Bay's movies, they make a fuckton of money as consumers don't care about the finer aspects of storytelling.

Now, I have neglected Role-playing games, because their storytelling is completely different. While in most FPS, you are just pawn being pushed through a predetermined story, RPGs custom tailor the story for you, with different endings. And this is where the true innovation really lies. The problem here, is RPGs has a niche market- most consumers are more interested in the OMFG setpieces previously mentioned. But games like Mass Effect (I want to play but still don't have the chance, so I can't really comment on it.. Sry) are trying to bring action into the genre, which is a great step forward. The problem? Typical RPG encounters don't need a huge amount of design. FPS/RTS battles need to be choreographed with X type A enemies coming from angle 1 while Y type B enemies coming from the right- very time intensive, and with alternative storylines, the creators do not have enough time and resources to make such a complicated game profitable. But its starting to change now, with better AI.

A typical script for a Triple A RPG release these days is 5 novels long- so you can see how intricate this aspect of video game design can be. A good story in any medium- be it movies, books, TV Shows or Video Games, make the player feel for the character feel for the characters- and video games are at that stage. The potential for interactive storytelling is limitless- and I have no doubts that video games will become the premier form of storytelling in the next 20 years.

Fun fact: The video game business is bigger than Hollywood.

Basically, summed up:

Frankly speaking: Gender equality/gay rights

2011-09-06T01:16:00.001+08:00

No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty save in accordance with law.

-Constitution of Singapore

That phrase single handily sums up my reservations about this issue. All people, regardless of nothing, should have the legal right to strive for happiness in whatever way they see fit. However, there should be moderation by the law- provided the law is drafted if its scientifically proven to harm the user significantly. Period. Not by social or cultural taboos, or some religion.

So homosexuality. Does it cause harm to the body? No. The only thing people can even argue is the (rumored, I can't be bothered to check) higher rate of HIV/AIDS in homosexual males, but thats because the American taboo/prosecution of gays (promoted vigorously by various churches).

If we draft laws to social taboos, this country would be no better than Iran. Will this means gays should be able to get married and have legal sex? Yes. But does that eck you out? Me too. But that does not mean the law should be against them. This logic is called "discrimination".

The difference between "minority" and "prosecuted minority" is huge. In this society, the moment we allow this to slip, its going to spread to other minorities, like people of different race or socio-economic background.

Well, thats my stand. Agree or disagree, its based on the same values of harmony that this country has used for so long.

Than there is gender equality.

All I really have to say is...

Its not only this. There are so many different ways men are socially obliged under chivalry to be double standardized.

For one, men should be legally allowed to be raped. Singapore rape laws explicitly applies to women according to the women's charter and my understanding (correct me if I am wrong).

The above isn't my point, really. I do agree men should uphold chivalry where they can, but women should be expected to do their part in this dance and not just assume only men should be gentlemen.

Each are good at different things- Men are generally stronger, more gruff, but do stuff in a straightforward way while ladies are generally more dexterous, and care more about the details. Not only that, the cultural landscape have different roles for men and women. (ie. dress code, chivalry)

The law should be used to enforce equal opportunities for all regardless of gender or religion or society, and no affirmative action (ie. extra rights to compensate for a perceived lack of rights in the past) should be taken. Thats it. Equal rights. Not pro-women, or pro-men, as it is perceived.

Singapore has already abolished most of the old traditions which oppressed women, and now we need to ensure affirmative action is not carried out to too much of an extent. The old values in Confucius and Shria law regarding women has largely disappeared, but still lingers. But as my generation with generally more liberal ideas mature, I believe, this will disappear completely one day.

But until then, the law must strictly toe the line between bias against either one. Which we have not been doing very well.

Thats what I believe in, anyway

Fear and Stupidity in Singapore Politics

2011-09-01T20:28:00.002+08:00

It's arguable if excessive power is a worthwhile traffics for progress, but it is undeniable the PAP held and used it's excessive power brutally for the last 50 years.

Like all systems with excessive power, fear was in the heart of it? Oppose them verbally? They will use ISA and lock you up. Trying to oppose them in parliament? You will be bankrupt with defamation lawsuits in no time.

All this happened. History has not been kind to the PAP in this regard, and anyone who denies this can't see a car if it was about to hit them. However, it's arguable if this excessive use of power is with it, with the growth of Singapore from a slum to our metropolitan city.

However, this fear is fading away. With the rise of he internet, people can comment on the government anonymously. They can now reach the Singapore populist without going through the censored Singapore press (which, by the way, is one of the more censored in the world). Anonymity has allowed voices to be heard, controversies to be fairly expanded upon, and opened the eyes of Singaporeans to the previous fear tactics and torture (yes, the PAP tortured ISA detainees. Torture.)

I am so enraged today not because of that. I am still undecided whether all that fear was worth it for modern Singapore. But instead, I became frustrated at the stupidity the PAP old guard to shut the fuck up. Case and point:

"[Presidential Election] showed strong support for PAP"

-Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Yaacob Ibrahim

Wait... The one so clearly backed by PAP barely won it at ~30%. Woah?

Pointing out that the combined vote share for Dr Tony Tan and Dr Tan Cheng Bock - both former PAP MPs - was about 70 per cent, Dr Yaacob said: "There's strong support for the party in that sense. But it's clear that there are people who are divided, as explained by the Prime Minister, (who) were basically having to decide between two very good candidates."

WHAT THE FUCK? >.<

No, PAP. Do not fool yourself. You are on the loosing end. People do not want the close PAP relation to Tony Tan. Thus Tan Cheng Bock, who, ran as an independent, even trying to distance himself from his PAP MP past, championing when he spoked out rather when he agreed.

...As proven by foreign press with sensational and awesome headlines....

"Tantamount to a humiliation"

-The Economist

“There is currently a disconnect between the constitutional role of the president and what people would like to see it evolve to,” said Vishnu Varathan, an economist at Capital Economics (Asia) Pte in Singapore. At first, Tony Tan had looked like “a shoo-in, but the other candidates have come out strongly.”

-Bloomberg

A close presidential election confirms the growing rift between the ruling party and the public

-Wall Street Journal

The PAP old guard has been known to make plain retard statements (repentgate), but this shit has to stop. Don't get me wrong- they are efficient and flat out one of the most effective in the world, but if they continue to think they are in a comfortable political situation, we'll just have to find a new government.

I don't care if a government is good, if it do not have the support of its people, it is illegitimate and must be taken down. I want to clarify at this point I am not anti-PAP, but there must be sufficient opposition to make this democracy a legitimate one (ie. ABLE TO BLOCK BILLS.) before any alternatives can be heard.

If they really don't start implementing some populist measures instead of those aimed at blind growth, or stop making plainly wrong and offensive comments, they will lose more than a single minister in the next elections.

A Reflection on the Presidential Elections

2011-08-28T07:08:00.001+08:00

My body woke up naturally at 6 just after going to sleep at 3am. Typically, I just slept in till 11 or even 1. But today was different.

Tony Tan had barely, and when I say barely I am comparing it to the closest elections on an International skill, not the 10% vote difference "close fights" we typically see here in Singapore.
it came down literally, to the wire. 0.34%, or 7269 votes in 1 direction. That's shocking, even to me. I predicted a roflstomp by Tony Tan due to the diluted opposition votes, with Tan Jee Say close 2nd due to his political base.

I was wrong. I underestimated Singaporeans' political maturity. But I am happy to be wrong. Let me explain why:

Now, lets analyze this by vote share, since numbers are too confusing.

Tony Tan: 35.19%
Tan Cheng Bock: 34.85%
Tan Jee Say: 25.04%
Tan Kin Lian: 4.91%

Up until this point I believed Singaporean elections were based on bases, ie. the lowest denominator of each political side. I believed there are 3 demographic bases to appeal to: 1 pro-PAP, 1 anti-establishment opposition, 1 independent.

We never really got to see how big are they, and this election shown them in clear daylight. 25% of Singaporeans who voted for Tan Jee Say wanted a clearly opposition member in office. Thats the opposition base, while 35% voted for Tony Tan, a man who is generally despised by most Singaporeans. I understand the actual bases are significantly different, and I know of people who voted for opposition in the GE but Tony Tan in the PE. But the margins are roughly there, and thats the rough shape we need to make sense of politics. They voted for a clear side while there are alternatives, period.

This means the majority of Singapore is not polarized, instead, will make wise votes. And that is a whole 40% of swing votes in any next election, which give me hope of actually having a substantial opposition stay in parliament, not just that 2 people for show. This shows political maturity, not like what you see in the world's oldest democracy, where both party only appeal to the bases, not moderates, causing polarization. For Singapore, it shows we are indeed listening to feedback about various candidates and making a choice.

This also means the PAP is, indeed, an legitimate government which has been voted in by voters who know what they are doing, not "vote PAP because I don't care". Take this for what you will; personally, I am just reinforcing my notion that the PAP, despite its clear flaws, is a good government which the people indeed want.

It also shows how weak Tony Tan' presidential support will be. I am pretty sure this is the closest election we ever had in Singaporean election, and this is the first one where a candidate with minority votes actually won. Singaporeans have spoken: Tony Tan is disliked, or at least, not preferred by 70% of us.

But this is how elections vote. The diluted votes from the pro-opposition and independent bloc are the sole reason, I believe, Tony Tan was victorious. But I will not have it any other way. In most countries, years of political dilution has caused all politics to condense into a 2 party system, polarizing issues, misrepresenting what people really want. This showed up with the American government failing in spectacular fashion in front of the world just a few months ago. Singapore can't be afford to like that- like the PM said, we are small, and a political deadlock means we are all screwed. I much rather have a bunch of smaller opposition with enough say but not given too much power.

I may not necessary agree with the results, but this is how elections work. Expecting anything else from the cold hard numbers and current political state means you don't fully understand this type of widely practiced democracy. There are NO runoffs, thats just a rule to live by. You can argue its needed, but not for this results. Electoral law supersedes any ongoing debate, and you must acknowledge Tony Tan is the rightful winner.

I may not politically agree with him, but I will support him. Maybe not his policies, but I know he has been the legitimate winner of the ballot. Thats how a democracy works. Someone you didn't like won? Sit down, deal with it. The majority had said otherwise, and fighting would be pathetic. Its the beauty of democracy, of elections, where officials go to office knowing there are people willing to vote them out if the fuck things up too much for either side and must toe the line between various kinds of people. So, lets wait, shall we? Whether is him or Sitoh Yi Pin, they won fair and squared, and should recieve our support, at least until they fuck up in out opinions. Give them a chance, because many of us wanted the other side of the isle to give the opposition a chance in the GE. We should have this double standard.

-Fin. Maybe I'll go back to sleep, but I'am too energized. MLG and revision. :D

A Reflection On The Singapore Spirit

2011-08-09T02:40:00.000+08:00

It has almost been 50 years since we became the only country in the world to achieve unwanted sovereignty. We are the child which Malaysia left to die.

But we done pretty well for ourselves. An oasis in a region in the world condemned with poverty, imperialism and political instability, we have come so far. However, the successes of this city state should be common sense to most of us now, so I'll skip this part.

This year's NDP theme is "Majulah! The Singapore Sprit", talking about resilience and determination and all that great political jizz. But is the "Singapore Sprit" definable? Can a single entity, be it government or anyone else really summarise Singapore in a single buzzword clogged definition? I don't think so.

Behind the smog of propaganda and "National Education", I do believe there is a "Singapore Sprit". But it is not definable. It is made up of millions of people's collective morals and ethos, each different from the other.

Nationalism has came a long way in Singapore. A immigrant nation with mainly 1st or 2nd generation descendants, we are ripe for conflict. Even the Malays are not native- Singapore was practically empty until the British set up a port, and only then did people come down from places like Penang or Malacca.

Nationalism was non-exsistant in the '60s- China is gripping the chinese with cold war politics while Malaysia toyed with the Malay's minds. Our flag reflects this- the five stars are not for the values; they represent the 5 stars of Communist China's flag. The crescent? New nation my ass. It is the Islamic crescent. Even LKY has admitted to this. Our national anthem was Malay for the pure and simple reason of making them feel this Island is still their native land.

Its brutal. We thought merging with Malaysia will allow us to develop a more unified national spirit, but all that did was unleash the UMMO political hounds, inciting violence.

No one believed in this nation when it was thrown out of the gates by a UMMO who gave up trying to convert us.

Fast forward to today. Boy had we grown. Being Singaporean is no longer something to be ashamed of, we can now say where we are from with pride. Something happened- and it was not natural.

If we were to cherish anything Singapore has accomplished in the last 50 years, let it not only be the economic strides, but the coming together of peoples from far and wide under a common flag. One where we are the beacon where people point to when saying multiracialism is not only viable, but the only way. If there was a single Singapore Spirit, it would be the common patriotism (for most people, at least), not "determination or dedication or competence".

This is my view, at least. You could agree or disagree, and I, as with most Singaporeans, are open to other's opinion and beliefs. That's Singapore.

Happy Birthday, dear nation.

Halo and Me- a Reflection

2011-08-06T00:31:00.000+08:00

I believed I had talked about this many times before, but I can't emphasize how big has Halo been in my life. After watching this ViDoc... Wow. Just wow.

Bungie is awesome. This 1 hour long homage to fans has production quality beating 90% of all documentaries. It details the history of Bungie and Halo. If you remotely like Halo, watch it. Its going to be worth your time.

For me, it sparked a strand in my heart I rarely remember. But when I do, I could only reflect on the impact that this game had on my life. Its shocking, how what little social life I had centered around this inanimate object.

But let me start from the start.

So, I don't really know when I actually found this little gem of a game. All I know is long long ago, I found this game called "Halo Trial". I was somewhere around the age of P1-P4, and since I was at that time spending all my free time on free internet games (often trials of full games, since my parents thought games then cost too much).

More on that later. I loved it but eventually I forgotten about that, and moved on to whatever MMO was popular at that time (Before Maple was even popular) and played it with my friends. Runescape, bitch.

Skip ahead a few years. My dear friend LYX reminded me of that game, and I instantly remembered it. I don't really remember the name, just how awesome it was. So I redownloaded it. And wow.

Inside the trial was a single level level, The Silent Cartographer. I don't remember playing it the first time, but subsequently I loved the beach assault sequence. I would play that over and over and over again, and even today after playing so many other games I still think that is easily one of the best executed gameplay moments ever.

Thing about that level- the 2nd part of it always got me since I can't drive a warthog up that hill. I was very young so forgive me for saying that that sequence scared the crap out of me. I still have a fear of it despite able to easily clear it now. Especially the camouflage elites when you exit the Cartographer. Gives me the chills whenever I replay that.

But than I found Multiplayer. Online 18 player team heavy flag/ Oddball on Blood motherfucking Gulch. Holy crap that was fun. Banshees raining death from above, while I mastered the art of tank on tank combat. In Oddball driving multiple warthogs onto the small hill in the back Red base and set up a fort of rocket and regular hogs. Holy crap it was fun. Never mind no one else plays it, its good enough by itself. That 1 map was good enough for me. I played it almost every afternoon for hours. When I had chicken poxs, I was playing it. It was the bomb.

Eventually, it faded away from my attention once again. New MMOs are constantly getting our attention (Some less commons ones I played with friends are Space Cowboy and Rakion.), including Maple.

But than I was paired in the same class with my old friend Darric (Red Swastika School, 5/7 '06). And I was introduced to Halo 2. At that time, I don't even know Halo Trial was Halo. I thought it was just a awesome Sci-Fi FPS. It took Wikipedia to find that link between the 2 games. And when I found out...

Holy shit. So fun. SSSOOO FFFUUNNN. I remember going to his house during P5/6 nearly daily to play Halo 2 (We both lived practically next to each other and our school is 10min walk away). Lockout and Midship man... 4 player split screen. I was hooked. Holy fuck that was fun. (I probably shouldn't swear, I barely learnt that word yet then). Endless hours of fun. ENDLESS.

Keep in mind what we did play it on a 360 he does not have LIVE, so we don't know the wonders of online yet. But who cares. Its awesome by itself either way.

I literally wasted my so many hours of my life playing that game...

After Halo 3 launched, I got to taste abit of it, but...

...PSLE happened. I won't get into the details, but I remembered riding in my mom's car as we went to pick up that Xbox I always wanted on the exact last day of PSLE at courts megastore. My mom even went everywhere to find that Halo 3 Limited Edition I wanted (Thank you so much <3). She got cheated $30 for that at Sim Lim Square (TT). But either way, I got it.

And the next few months were the best I every had up to that point of my life. Halo 3 EVERYDAY for 5 hours, going to either me or Darric's place. (As I remembered the team was LYX, Darric, me and Aden with occasional guests (correct me if I was wrong)). We played it to hell and back. To the very last day of school, and even into the early holidays. Nirvana.

I eventually plugged my Xbox into Xbox Live. I was the only one. HHHOOOOOOLLLYYY SSSHHHIIITTT. Big team matchmaking with 4 friends. Thats the life. Ultra Nivana, if its a word. And furthermore, I have people to play with when alone. Win-win-win-win!

Then, it stopped. Just stopped. I don't know why, maybe its because we are drifting apart due to lack of school or whatnot, or maybe it was because Darric moved, but it eventually stopped and never really fit again. I still dream for that day I can experience that type of fun with the guys again. Call me guys :) Lets do something wild after the 'O's.

Halo slowly slipped away once again without friends to anchor it down. I was introduced to COD4:MW by Chee Hao. And fuck, thats my new craze.

Eventually, after some bitter argument and SNAFU, I was sent into Maris Stella High School, leaving LYX in Hai Sing Catholic (Sorry dude, I still never wanted it to be this way...), which basically means my ties to old friends was severed. And what's worse is that my parents appealed especially late, and I was sent into a class with no old schoolmates, even.

For someone like me with near zero social skills, I was scared as hell. It took me awhile, but I eventually drifted towards the right crowd. Than I met Joshua and Tristan, which I have to say, is the first other physical persons I met with subscriptions to XBL. I was douchey at first with my elitism of Halo knowledge, but he certainly showed me who boss not too long after. And there I was once again. New Halo buddies, tearing shit up online every fucking day (or weekend, I don't remember). Except this time, via XBL. Not as good as LAN (maybe because of school work), but still unique and awesome in its own way.

And the first trend of illegal gaming in the school? Halo Trial. What a coincidence. Except this time we learnt how to mod it.

We played for 2 years. Custom games all the way. 16 player game was surprisingly different than 4 player, as you expected. However, I did introduce to them Call of Duty 4, which they than found a port for the Mac and commence massive craze in school!

(Insert Halo 3:ODST somewhere here)

MW2 killed our Halo group. At the same time, we changed classes to Sec 3. Gaming was at a backseat now. We just couldn't meet up and LAN in school any longer. I eventually moved on to Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which they did not catch on. Halo was no more. We do play once in a while, but other than that, nothing.

And with no one really to play XBL with and than chat about it in school, the social aspect of multiplayer gaming slipped out slowly. Last year, Halo: Reach did bring the magic back a little, but we were too fractured to truly enjoy it to the max.

And I find myself losing interest in Halo. Reach was fun, but it was stagnant. It simply couldn't stand up in depth to newer games, and I find myself running short of time to game anyway. I eventually got a PC, and moved mainly to PC gaming, particularly RTS. I haven't touch my Xbox for a long time. When I do, I hope everyone will have XBL, with the 'O's over. Everyone, not only 1 group. My dream is to get back the times after PSLE. I hope that will happen. I can only hope.

My social life has been Halo. Nothing but Halo. It has been the core and I will forever cherish it as such. I might be repeating this, but I am shocked at how this game can allow socially awkward forever alone me to attain great friends.

This ViDoc really touched me.... I really hope this trend can continue. Guys?

/End 1 hour 30 min post

The Demerit Point System

2011-07-20T21:37:00.005+08:00

Mr Kwok, please read this... You cannot preach to the school about giving 1 day's grace for forgetting to wear tie than just give demerit points just because my "Form Teacher said so".

MY FT said she don't care about our conduct grades anymore, its almost like she has vested interest in bringing the class down.

Let's begin, shall we?

The "demerit point" system is based on the traffic police's own demerit point system, lets go to that.

Alright, the Traffic Police's(TP) demerit point system works because its only demerit, and it can be dealt to exactly who do it, with severe consequences.

If that was the system, I would be fine with it, as in "You cannot get a very good conduct grade once you chalked up 10 points".

That would be perfectly fair. The fundamental flaw with the school's system, on the other hand, is it is also a "merit point" system. Think about it. If motorists are rewarded with points for good behavior with the opposite of fines, than we would have great behavior, but how do you define "good behavior"?

The TP demerit point works because there are very specific examples of what deserves one and what does not. For example, speeding. But in the school, we do not have thousands of people just seating there and crafting this type of precise laws. We have a very general school rule, which contains the rule which punishes defiance. Yes, it works in school, but when you throw this set of loosely defined rules into a "demerit point" system, you will have unequal punishments! Imaging if different TP officer fines motorizes at different sets of speed limits! How unbelievably stupid will that sound? And the school can't even say they are standardized! Mr Kwok punished me just because "my form teacher says so" while he himself said a completely different thing just 5 minutes ago!

If that isn't the definition of inconsistency, I don't know who to laugh at. Myself for committing thoughtcrime or .... Oh crap, I committed thoughtcrime again.

"Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. There's no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It's merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control.

-George Orwell, 1984

....I really don't know. If its such a great system, why don't you call it the "merit point system"? Why "demerit"? Make it sound more "newspeak" like?

...I really don't know. I don't few mad, I just feel hopeless. Trapped in a catch-22. If I could work hard in a direction for merit points, maybe I won't feel so sad. But merit points are like the end of the rainbow. You say they are there but there is never an end. I asked different teachers what can I do to get merit points. They replied by just walking away.

Let me just put it this way. When a teacher can run out of things to scold you with and resort to ranting about this system to the class which is also a victim of, you know you have a problem.

Failure to launch: The destruction of the US Space program

2011-07-19T22:32:00.001+08:00

I always loved space. When I was in P1/P2 I would crumple up aluminum foil to make them look like astroid and played them together with my Apollo die-cast figures. I wanted to learn science in P3 (and excelled at it, mind you) because I want to learn about the stars, about planets, about the vast frontier of space. I mean, I knew about the Voyager missions, the Gallieo mission to jupiter, and even remembered the 2 Mars Expeditionary Rover's names- Spirit and Opportunity. Hack, I even checked the Cassini probe's website to see if there are new pretty pictures of Saturn, its ring and the moons. Funny thing is, I knew being an astronaut was impossible in Singapore so I opted to want to fly planes instead, which I still dream of today.

It shouldn't effect people this much, but whenever I look at the world's leading space program, I feel anger and sadness. Its as though the US are destroying the 1 thing I still admire about them. Its heartbreaking.

So lets begin, shall we.

The Space Shuttle, the iconic space plane of the last few decades is going to be grounded any day now. That will live the US with no way to send their astronauts into space. This is pathetic, and its not because of the risks of the shuttle or the dangers of space itself. Its because of the most pathetic reason the could possibly be-

Politics.

The space shuttles are still flyable- they are not aging exceptionally fast or whatnot. The main reason they are being axed is because of the cost to fly spacecrafts into space, and the US treasury can't afford that. Never mind that the US military spends more money on air condition than NASA's allowance.

The entire half-century budget of NASA equals the current two year budget of the US military.

-Neil deGrasse Tyson

But more on that later. I am fine with the space shuttle retiring. What really gets me, is the stunning lack of a follow-up plan. Bush proposed a heavy lifter rocket to return to the moon. Obama axed that. Instead, the ideologue (Remember "Change", anyone?) now envision the US going to MARS. Fucking MARS.

And the entire project- all the work until than- scrapped. Years of planning gone. Hell, it took the REPUBLICANS, the exact same people threatening to wreck the US economy now to push Obama to at least let the blueprints survive.

And even if all debt problems are solved magically, I can assure you the next administration is going to axe it just like Obama did to Bush. And even if I accept that they will somehow get the will do do it, their plan is flawed to the point it won't even take off.

The new rocket ordered by the US congress is so grand; yet with NASA's current budget, it cannot happen, and you have NASA administrator Charles Bolden opposing that- keep in mind he needs every thing he gets. (read more)

I will be damned if the Americans will go to Moon in the next 20 years, much less the Mars.

Alright, human space exploration is out of the pictures. How about robots? We have been using them to explore the other planets for decades now! I mean, if there are no human astronauts, what about robots to inspire them?

I hear they are making the James Webb Space Telescope(JWST) to succeed the Hubble Space telescope. For those who don't know, practically every photo of stuff outside the Solar System has been taken by this 30 year old telescope. Its most famous is this:

There are literally thousands more. Google it. That single satellite has caused millions of children to get inspired by space and science (including me). Its the arguably greatest invention in the world.

So the JWST with its state of the art technology will be able to discover more, and inspire more minds, right.

(http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/07/07/congress-puts-nasa-and-jwst-on-the-chopping-block/)

FUCK. FFFFUUUUCCCCKKKKKKKK.

If you cancel the thing which inspire people, convince people that Space and science are worth looking into, than what type of fucking space program is that? Its not only the US- the when the whole world wants to know what Space looks like, they ask the US. Destroying NASA would mean destroying whatever moral high ground they have left- because "spreading democracy" is so clearly not working for them.

Its not the American public, its their cocked up political system, but that's another post. If America wants to regain its status as the world's best country, they need science, cause at this rate, China is going to beat them- they have political will to prove to the world. The US don't because they already believe they rule the world.

/End rant.

The Singapore Education System

2011-07-18T00:27:00.000+08:00

Well, since everyone only know how to say the Singapore Education system give people too much stress, I think I should rationalize the whole system, break it down so you can make a better judgement on the system.

So let's start. The system runs on 1 key word; the belief which arguably brought us as a nation so far.

Meritocracy.

Nono, its not some PAP buzzword that they use, this is one of the principal ideals LKY used to push Singapore forward in the early days. This term, in context of the education system, refers to exams. Primarily the PSLE, 'O' and 'A' Level standardized test, but also intra-school tests.

So why is this so effective? First thing you must understand is that the sole aim of all education systems in the world is to produce good workers for the economy; and Singapore's is designed around that too.

It is carried out in tiers; let me elaborate.

Tier 1: "IP"

The cream of the crop. The best Singapore can offer. This people will be groomed to take on big roles in the future. The government often picks out the best of this tier and push them for political or military leadership. However, this people are stress-tested, and there will be more than a few casualties. This tier, is hard to enter once you are assigned a lower one at PSLE.

Tier 2: "Express"/JC Level

This tier contains around the top 33% of Singaporean students. This people will be taught to become the "talent" the Singapore needs to pull ahead of the competition. They will be pushed and pushed to JCs- where ideally they will move on to University and develop their skill-set some more. However, this is a very volatile group; because of the 4 years secondary school course, they are 1 year behind when it comes to the next standardized test, the 'O' levels. This means the chances of falling out is very high; and the people here are usually rotated with the 3rd tier.

Tier 3: "NA"/Poly

The vast majority of people land here. Given 1 extra year to catch up to join the upper tier, there is a very high chance of catching up. Students here are generally still academically based, albeit with technical subjects added into the mix. While some will succeed in catching up, the majority will fill up the polytechnic spots. If that happens, their chances of advancing up slims down even more, as they start to be trained to be the strong base Singapore needs for its Industry-based economy. Read: Cooperate drones.

Tier 4:NT/ITE

The lowest tier, unfortunately the people here are usually stagnant and unlikely to advance, and the main aim now is not academic stuff, but preparing them for work, ensuring they can feed themselves and not be a burden to the government.

Sad? Yes it is. However, this cold-hearted system produces arguably the best workers in the world. It acknowledges those who work for it while accounts for the weakest. It trains people based on their level of proficiency, and ensures no "good brain" is wasted by having a bad education.

But it leads to problems. Students are locked in competition against each other, and other factors start to shine through- Economic background is one. Those who can afford tuition often go further; and to catch up with others, the poor must invest equally in their children- which is a huge problem. Furthermore, the competition to get ahead lead to a cold war-este "arms race": I must have more nukes than them so I have the leverage. In this case, its tuition and assessment books. This leads to huge stress on the students, something I am sure we all know ample about. But this stress is perhaps good for the economy; arguably its creates "iron-forged" workers which can take stress, and creates a competitive atmosphere in the workplace.

The magic of meritocracy.

However, the biggest problem other than stress is "drones".

In the 20th Century, the key ingredients were labor and capital.
In the 21st Century, the key ingredients will be ideas and energy.

-Fareed Zakaria, CNN

And thats the problem we are facing. Our traditionally industry, engineering based economy need to transition into a "critical thinking" based economy. Problem is our society isn't there yet. This sort of thing often comes from freedom of speech, open politics. Singapore has NONE of that. Many Singaporean voters just vote because they are scared or they don't care. Thats a problem, and to solve societal problems, we need education front and centre. And the gahmen knows that.

They have been pushing for a critical thinking based society for awhile now, most notably making social studies a compulsory subject. In addition, history and SS are both using the "LORMS" marking system. Take note the question asks "Do you agree" or "Explain your answer" It does not force political messages down out throats, but explain why they are done, and let you decide if they are good. Why do you think foreign talent questions has more criticism than pros? And if you notice, the syllabus pretty much explains the difficulty of governance- Domestic and Foreign issues.

CCAs also push students to become more diverse. As a chairman of a Infocomm club, I can say that there has been huge investments to my CCA field. Especially since IT will be vital to the economy. I am sure this is the case for many other CCAs, like the art ones, where there are paths for DSA and SOTA.

But all this theory is nothing if it can't be carried out without good grasp of the system, which is the 2nd most important part of the formula: centralized control, the MOE.

Its very easy to understand how a good government+ control over education is a very good thing, so let me contrast that with 2 other situations, both in the US.

1: 90% of Americans are christian, and a good proportion of them believe in what I like to call "bullshit science", where they ignore science and state that 1, global warming is not happening 2, Earth along with fossil fuel is formed 8000 years ago miraculously 3, Evolution is completely false.

Thankfully Singapore has a focus on math and science. But in the US, there are schools actually teaching that sort of bullcrap to students. You can instantly see what's the problem with uncentralized schools. (Which, coincidentally, most of those people view as socialism and thus is draconian)

2:US Teachers are paid shit. Nearly nothing. And the real fun catch is bad teachers can't be fired due to teachers unions tenures and are still paid. So good teachers paid nothing while bad teachers are paid the same just seating around. Its a recipe for disaster, which is what is happening in the US right now.

Most if not all Singapore teachers are civil servants, which allow MOE to kick out bad teachers and promote good teachers. Whats the word? Say it with me, Meritocracy. Good.

The downside to centralized is it can be viewed as socialism; excessive government control which can use to alter the minds of children. But Singapore technically is socialist, albeit Democractic-Socialist.

Our system is cold hearted; yet one of the most effective in the world. We have the right blend of China-este mindless student drones and now have quite a good platform for critical thinking to develop (just look at the recent elections) minds for the future.

So I end of here, hoping you picked up a few things. I may be wrong, so please correct me if possible.

Quote of the Week!

2011-01-11T22:11:00.001+08:00

This feature is free for Xbox LIVE Gold Users.

-Microsoft, on so many things...

(Or, in non-marketing talk, you have to pay $15 a month for it)

Who in their right mind would want this?

2011-01-11T21:46:00.000+08:00

Seriously, who wants this? Its like trying to play call of duty with a joystick...

So here we go again?

2011-01-11T18:26:00.000+08:00

With the stress 4 stress setting in, I feel I need to destress. The way I destress best is by ranting on the sheer number of bigots in the world, or the social issues plaguing everyone, or just current affairs...

I will try my best to keep it reasoned.. But if I was unreasonable, please tell me, I want to hear any side of any argument.. But keep in mind I am destressing and at the time I am writing this post may be in a depressed or some other state where I can't think straight, so yeah...

Vanguard E1P1- Battle of Altine

2010-10-26T23:52:00.002+08:00

The rebellion is down but not out.

The UN thought controlling supplies to the other colonies will starve the rebellion of food and ship building materials. But they were wrong.

Since Admiral Pyotr Walker destroyed the bulk of the Rebel fleet at the Battle of Tirent 12 years ago, it was thought that the rebellion could not sustain itself. Walker, now the head of Central Command (CENTCOM) on Cygnus, warned of overconfidence- the very thing which nearly caused the UN to be overrun in the very war he managed to salvage.

However, complacency is everywhere in the fleet. The Bureau of Naval Intelligence(BuNaI), perhaps the most important part of the UN’s anti-rebellion efforts, does not have any concrete leads on alliance activity, not even capable of accounting for the 19 rebel warships which has escape annihilation at Tirent.

But everything will change in a single Garnerian morning.

5th July 2692

Garneria, Threshold System, Sector 2-E, Outer Colony

The Vanguard was 32 years old by then. Built to raise moral during the resurgence war, it had served as flagship of the UN Space Navy through 5 insurgencies and 3 wars. It is the oldest “frontline” ship in the fleet- and the largest, at that. It is a heavy cruiser, built to withstand ridiculous amount of fire. Nicknamed “lead buckets”, they are slightly bigger then light cruisers at 2.4km long but cost 20 times more expensive. Designed to serve any purpose from long range artillery support to rapid ground insertion, they are rarely built- only 3 were ever built by the UN in their 7 century space naval history.

The elite 35th Shock Battalion was deployed on a seemingly routine rebel hunting mission on the Altine, a terraformed moon orbitting Garneria. Their pods landed near Sumulta peaks, a series of mined, hollow hills. It was expected abandoned mines like this to become rebellion bases- already fortified by the titanium cave walls, they are perfect as bunkers.

As the 50-men shock battalion made their way to one of the known cave entrances, they are ambushed from pillboxes only accessible from inside the caves. Not taking risks on a routine mission, Lieutenant-colonel Ling called in orbital support. 2 minutes later, the Vanguard made its voice known by raining precision rounds. While the bunkers were caved in, it alerted the attention of others.

3 minutes later, unidentified ships were detected at system edge- somewhere no civilian ship will ever go- heading straight for the Vanguard. Captain Aryan disregarded them until they are closer and can be identified better.Pytor Walker (now a Fleet Admiral) was on board the ship and overturns Aryan’s order, ordering all ships in the sector to jump to Threshold immediately.

However, he did not clearance to order the 35th back. They were temporary under BUNAL control of the highest level- and the last thing he needed was the intelligence spooks on his ass.

With his orders clear, Aryan decided to maneuver the Vanguard to a less exposed location- however, that would mean leaving the 35th without support.

While the unidentified ships’ ETA was 9 hours, Walker decided it would be best to get reinforcements to jump insystem in case anything went wrong- within 6 hours, destroyers Atlas and Menuka joined the Vanguard in orbit around Garnenia. As the 35th was meeting unexpected heavy resistance, Ground Assault Craft Anglophile was also en-route to provide reinforcements. 3 other warships of the 5th battle group, 2nd fleet are inbound, consisting of the light cruiser Aires Faine and its escorts destroyers Royal Soverign and Faith Arc.

Even with reinforcements, the unidentified ships did not change their course. As the Anglophile deployed more troops on Altine, the 35th was called to return to the Vanguard.

3 hours to interception

By now, the gravitational radar of the Vanguard has managed to identify the classes of the incoming ships- 2 of them are cargo ships and the third one appears to be a passenger vessel. However, they are moving much faster then any of their thrusters will allow- implying they had been modified, likely into armed trawlers.

Walker will not take any more chances, and maneuver the ships into battle formation. Battlegroup Aires Faine is already in-system and moving at flank speed towards the situation.

By now, it is clear to everyone this is a rebel attack- not a lost merchant. UN space command keeps tabs of every ship in every system within human-controlled space, and ships which are not given clearance is most likely rebel. Worse, they appeared from the system edge, not the approved zones where FTL traffic is allowed.

As the ships started to enter the gravity well of Garneria, they changed their courses very slightly- and at that speed near the speed of light, it put them in a U-shape orbit around the planet. The UN ships opened fire ,but scored no hits. That is when 54 nuclear tipped missiles striked the 3 ships without any warning.

The Atlas instantly collapsed inwards and the Menuka broke into 3 parts. The Vanguard, being the most armored ship in the fleet, managed to survive the 23 missles which hit her but is critically damaged. Aryan knew the Vanguard is too valuable to be destroyed, and ordered for the Damage Control (DC) teams to focus on getting the FTL cannon back online, ignoring the raging fires and disabled cannons.

Meanwhile the crew tried to figure out what hit them- and the only possible indication were 25 small meteor-sized objects the anti-meteor lasers managed to pick up. Walker figured the meteors which are evading the lasers are not meteors, but are small combat crafts. They had no counter measures as the UN strategists thought that such a small ship could not posses powerful enough thrusters to become effective.

With the Anglophile in 8 seperate pieces, the ground forces on Altine were stranded with no support and were quickly picked off by the bunkered rebels.

As the alliance fleet came out of their burn, heading towards the remains of the battlegroup, the small craft disappeared, presumably to reload. Everyone knew the Vanguard can not hold out against another strike- and with (fleet admiral) Walker on board, they can not afford to be destroyed. That is when the newly arrived battlegroup Aires Faine denies orders and head straight for the rebels. As it entered range of the ships, they managed to fire a few rounds in a futile attempt to buy some time.

Within minutes, all 3 ships of the battlegroup suffered the same fate as the Menuka and Atlas. But they managed to delay the rebels, and the Vanguard managed to get its FTL drive online. With its thrusters are still inoperational, it has no other choice but to jump in such proximity to a moon.

The gravity well caused by the jump shattered half of Altine. Such a big hemisphere could not be supported by its own weight, causing the moon to collapse into itself, shattering into millions of pieces.

Out of 150,000 souls the moon, there were just 23 survivonrs, lucky enough to be on a ship taking off the exact moment the moon collapsed. As the moon broke up, some of its debris formed a belt around Garneria. The larger pieces around the size of Britian crash into the planet, killing millions more and rendering the planet near inhabitable.

Vanguard

2010-10-26T23:51:00.001+08:00

The exams are over and I am board, so I m going to start writing stuff I had in my head for such a long time. To keep it short, its my version of the future- and hell, I could write a thousands of articles explaining the history of each character, weapon, vehicle, ship and any tiny thing of the universe. I know it may suck, but it is not meant to a space opera- more of a "fake documentary" about the struggle.

Vanguard

Episode 1, Phase 1: Battle of Altine- 5 July, 2692

Guy makes fire out of IKEA products

2010-09-07T00:59:00.000+08:00

FLAMMA from Helmut on Vimeo.

Another gulf oil rig explodes...

2010-09-06T01:00:00.000+08:00

NEW ORLEANS -- One person was injured after an explosion on an oil production platform in the Gulf of Mexico, about 80 miles south of Vermilion Bay, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Jindal said there are 100 barrels of oil in storage on the platform, and the company believes this is what's burning, not an active leak. But he emphasized that those reports come from Mariner Energy, and they had not yet been independently verified.

-WDSU

Shouldn't this be stopped by now? After the whole BP clusterf#!k?

The Perfect RTS?

2010-09-05T01:16:00.002+08:00

I like real time strategy games- but there is 1 big problem.

I suck at it.

Nevertheless, I still love the genre.

If anyone tried any RTS before, they will know how hard the learning curve is- for example, the first RTS I played is Command and Conquer 3- and until my friend told me to build more harvesters, I found the game unplayable with so little money.

So how can the best RTS ever be made?

To cut the long chase short, it can never.

Click on to learn why.

There are 2 aspects overlooking all RTSes- Micromanagement and Macromanagement. Both must work with the other to make the game fun.

Micromanagement refers to the unit-level commands. For example, switching the weapon of a unit to a bazooka to effectively combat tanks. This is most prevalent in the classic RTSes like Command and Conquer (TD-RA3) and Starcraft, where games between evenly matched players comes down to every minute command given to each unit.

Professional gamers love this type of game- since the games typically follow the few established build orders (ie. Macromanagement), the action- and the difference between win or lose- is all down to what each player does as the units shoot at each other on screen.

Many game punishes Micro-lapses, which is the failure to micro the unit in time. Take Napoleon: Total War- Usually, the game goes down to grand strategy, but the failure to notice calvary charging on your flanks may cause your entire line to collapse, allowing units to be picked off one by one.

However, with the high level of Micro needed in these games, the beginner will not be able to adapt to it so quickly- and will get trashed in online play, forcing them to quit the game.

So bring in Macromanagement. In essence, it refers to the grand overall strategy, in contrast to the unit to unit "every-mouse-click-matters" of Micromanagement.

Macromanagement usually refers to the resource base-building aspect of games- because the resources needed to build your units is the core of the game. By destroying the resource collecting, you will effectively strangle the enemy to death- thus deciding how much resource to gain and how much protection the resource collectors get is under Macromanagement.

DoTA is an important example- you only control a single unit and how you Micromanage that unit is your win/lose.

However, many games have another level of Macromanagement. The most glaring example is the total war series. Napoleon: Total War, for example, prefers Macro over Micro. There is nothing you can do to make your units kill the enemy any better- all you can do is make sure there are enough troops there.

Micro and Macro must work together for a game to be about strategy. While Napoleon: Total War may look like a purely Macro game, it punishes you severely for any Microlapse. Your flanks may fall just because of bad Macro to get your flanks covered, it may be because you did not put your men in the right formation when the calvary attacked.

So, what is the perfect RTS? One leaning towards Micro or Macro?

The answer is both. Different people like different things- Some like the intensity of Micromanaging every single unit in a battle which others like sitting back and letting the units hold their own in the position you told them to take. There will never be a "perfect strategy game", no matter what the PR calls it. But there may be perfect RTS with just the right ratio of Macro:Micro to suit you.