Completed the C&C 3 NOD Campaign on Sunday and the Scrin Campaign today, as usual all under Hard Difficulty. The last 2 NOD missions are commendably more challenging though, brings back the challenge of the old days a whee-bit - only if I pretend not to know that I beat it largely not due to tactics, but programmed “luck” and potholes in the AI - You can just miss out certain map triggers which will send the AI rushing, then you can just trick the computer into not attacking you so you can build a winning force - lame.

What I like about GDI is the new souped up Ion Cannon, it was just 1×1 square zap in the 1st C&C, then a3×3 zap in Tiberian Sun, a moveable laser in C&C Generals and now - an ion blast matching that of the Nuke! Totally Owning!

Sights that make your go Mmm! (My Ion Blast)	Total Annihilation	Love the mothership

Other nice cool favorites of mine have to be the Annihilator tripod which simply rocks on assaults, otherwise the Mothership is another personal favorite with a high energy humming attack it just makes you go “OOOhhhooo” with each zap.

Undeniably C&C 3 sets a whole new benchmark in stunning RTS graphics in the C&C world, otherwise the most disappointing series so far, I believe. It’s storyline is so weak, it’s just too predictable and amateurish - a typical case of GDI fight NOD, then invaders come blah blah. Whats more the GDI and NOD endings are like HUH? so abrupt? No Ion control options at the end of the NOD mission? *hint*hint* . Furthermore, CG cut scenes are very disappointing as well - there are only a handful of CG cutscenes in the whole game (which are all often reused). However, good thing EA stuck to the old Westwood styled human acted briefings prior to each mission. Man, just hope EA don’t screw up the the C&C series any further name down with each release. Come to think about it, Blizzard still makes the best story-based games I still love the Starcraft story, let be Warcraft and Diablo as well.

Spiderman 3 Opens tomorrow, man will the cinemas be packed tomorrow.

Came back from an afternoon swim straight after school on Friday. Loved it, the pool is so empty I even can have 2 dedicated lanes on the olympic pool for myself. I will be pushing my weekly Sunday swims to mostly Fridays now (missing friday track & field in the process), as we swimmers do not have to share the pool with ongoing children swim lessons who can easily take up more then half of the pool real estate. The thing is that it “was” a sunny day - perfect day for an afternoon swim and maybe a tan, till I got into the pool, then it’s cloudy all the way until I left the swimming complex, then the Sun came UP AGAIN (I can just hear the sun mocking me on my way home).

After going through my timetable for 2 weeks finally got myself more of less settled in it now, also with my class. In comparison to previous semester schedule, things are more flexible now with relatively more breaks in and between which I can squeeze in for quick study or hour long gym sessions. Though given this, it’s still too demanding to cope with a 30km a week millage with Track training and school contrary to that during ITP where I have to manage all my training myself. With that my weekly millage will be dropped to 20km minimum which is still within my target for 1000km covered in 2007, anyway I will see myself hitting > 20km a week (excluding track & field intervals and specific distances)

Interesting modules will definitely have to my Industrial Automation (IA), on top of Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics which are actually both separate modules extended in the third year from Thermofluids I & II. Mechanics III is dryer than ever with lots and lots of circles and calculation, though it’s my baby module I am really missing the more practical old Mech I & II days.

Reliving my old days, I still remember my young days when I built my first pneumatic Lego powered arm, helicopter or bi-pedal walker when I was still 10, having it lift or walk around, then there was the excavator and other earth moving construction equipment which I couldn’t get enough of. The IA module would be a favorite for me, being both practical and lots of hands on. Maybe I should automate my room door…

Last but not least, Linkin Park - What I’ve Done is my new favorite tune on my playlist now, can’t wait for Minutes to Midnight to be released the song just rocks!

Millege for week this week (7 day period) (excluding Track training distance)
Tuesday - Track & Field Training 12×200m intervals (2.4km)
Friday - Gym 3 sets + Threadmill (7km)
Sunday - Redhill/Tanglin Canal Route 2 Extended Rounds (14km)
Total Running Millage for 2 weeks: 21km
Total Accumulative Millage for 2007: 374.96km

School
It’s April and into the 2nd week of the semester. My new class is now DME FT/3A/10, which is a merged CIE class (my previously class went to 5 people end of last semester), so we have 20 odd people now, particularly the other class from the other DME CIE class. For the standard DME & DARE courses that I know of, it’s their commencement of their Final Year Project (FYP) this semester which takes up a weekly block on their academic timetable spanning all the way into the next. FYP is all on everybody’s mind now, from lecturers always calling us all up asking whether have we “found” a supervisor to my current and ex-class mates always asking whether I can join their team. I hate to reject people, but I’ve already formed my team and preliminary research had already started.

Frankly speaking, I have nothing much to boot, but leading almost 7 teams to overall grade ‘A’ since year 1 has brought me lots of fulfillment and satisfaction, especially when my teammates receive their grade - the very essence to push and strive further for your best, with trust, strength and bonds built on every stop. Therefore, I prefer to work with those who I’ve worked with and trusted as a team and as a team leader - knowing your team member’s strength and weakness is the bread and butter of a successful group (besides having known our standard operating procedures, SOPs).

Those who come to me don’t see this - personally I hate pushy people, especially with my current 4 knitted members in my hand picked project team, many would say: “one more member won’t hurt, let me in!”. I am not judgmental on one’s abilities but No, I see things in the limelight of my team and integrity, more members will lead to diminishing marginal returns. Unless when an additional member prove to be an extensive asset where there will be exceptions.

It’s going to be a big project ahead of us. May the day come and we shall face it head on. We will rock the department.

Sports
The Track and Field team has got a healthy boost of about 40 odd new year ones, tagging along strong in attendance since last friday. It’s nice meeting up and socialising with them, especially when I try my best to make it for Tuesday training and tentative Fridays, where I would be pumping up more on schoolwork and managing my work. All we wish is for this strength to stay in the months to come, then that will be very very cool.

The gym now has a “new” regulation restricting students with long hair to enter, particularly only guys while all the girls can go in swinging their hair all around untied. Preventive measures not to get hair stuck in the weights and pulleys so as I thought? But why the sudden reinforcement of the haircut rule in the student booklet? “It had been enforced all year along actually… and only guys do weights in the gym… right?” So as the gym auntie claimed.

Besides those freaky monster recycling bins the Environment Club had sprouting all around campus, noticeably are some posters stuck around the grounds as well, particularly going against a certain operating system which calls itself similarly like 2 hinged apparatus which you can open and close for ventilation in your home. Take that ownage!

Oh yea, on that as well, completed the C&C 3 Tiberium Wars GDI Campaign round Tuesday. I replayed the whole campaign on hard difficulty after I got bored playing it halfway on normal. It’s just unlike the old C&C days, everything is all Noob friendly now, but hard is actually now that hard either too.

Would be clearing the NOD campaign by this week. And yes theres homework to do now too.

Here it is again, the TeenGames 2007! Just got details from my team manager Darius today. Would be participating in the adventure race again this year. This year would sadly be my last year too (Only under 24) otherwise, it would be only the “Big Boys” Adventure races like Safra Race and those overseas 24hr adventure races from there. Would be there to defend my team’s 1st Runner Up position from last year and go for Champion this year.

Organiser: SYFC, Salvation Army, Sports, Coalition Singapore, Bible Society of Singapore
Registration to be done through team managers with direct contact to organisation
Registration Fee: $10 per participant
(Leave a comment on this post for registration details)

Phase I (March)
Games Duration: March 12-29 2007
Closing Date: 28Feb 2007
Events
Soccer (5 Per Team, 2 Reserve 12&14 Mar 13&15 Mar)
Pool (5 Per Team, 27&29 Mar)

Phase I (June)
Games Duration: June 5-21 2007
Closing Date: 31 May 2007
Events
Rock Climbing (3 Per Team, 5&7 Jun)
Ultimate Frisbee (5 Per Team, 2 Reserve, 5&7 Jun)
Adventure Race (3 Per Team, 8&9 Jun)
Basketball (3 Per Team, 2 Reserve, 11&13 Jun)
Captain’s Ball (5 Per Team, 2 Reserve, 18&20 Jun)
Badminton (3 Per Team, 1 Reserve, 19&21 Jun)

Age Categories
Under 15 (> 1993)
Under 18 (> 1990)
Under 19 (> 1989)
Under 24 (> 1984)

This the first time the title sponsor, Mizuno is organizing such a run under the “Mizuno Run” name, contrary to those other low key Mount Faber races held over the past years, this is actually nothing new as claimed by many runners I know, well at least now I know!

I had not ran this race route before, neither was I very well updated on the route which I always frequent when I was very much younger. So I was pretty much “blur” as anyone else who was running it. The run saw ourselves making route from Henderson road up towards the industrial distripark, across the AYE towards Pasir Panjang road, then turning up the hill from Pender Road. Most of the race is fast paced (and especially crowded at the start) which interesting slowed to a steady crawl when scaling the hill itself - where everything all seemed to go at slow motion - really! The route covered all the highlights of the run which involves the route through Mount Faber landmarks such as the cable car station and comm tower.

Just as all which goes up, must come down - the route down was speedingly spectacular and the first time I’ve ever raced down a route so fast my legs couldn’t cycle any faster. We crossed CHIJ at Bukit Purmei towards my all familiar Tiong Bahru park - Delta House before circling Gan Eng Seng School and back up to Henderson road for the finish. Finished the race in about 55mins, which is not exactly spectacular for a 10km hill route, but at least I kept it within my target hour. Met SGrunners, TLR, Bee, Sotong, IMD & Brokie before and after the race, but missed their photo taking session lol, at least we have our own too:

It’s unreal having a race so close to home, races which I always take part are like long MRT or bus trips away. But this time, everything is all within close walking proximity - I can even warm up walking to the venue after breakfast at Redhill Market. But I guess those who really own all are those who just live right next to the venue - where some of us saw simply taking the lift up to their homes after the event - owned!

Good thing some parts of the race actually cover the very routes I run every week, only this time we get to run on the roads themselves! Couldn’t join the track team for lunch at VivoCity, as I had lots of chores to finish up at home, but that didn’t stop me from going for my 1 hour recovery swim thereafter.

Some noteable running snippets - running around my estate last is exceptionally enjoyable now - it had been a long time to now where I can finally run for 17km+ at ago with steady nose breathing and not much of a pant. Heart Rate 120bpm - 174bpm.

Millege for last week (7 day period)
Wednesday - Redhill/Tanglin Canal Route 2 Extended Rounds (17.56km)
Millege for week this week (7 day period)
Monday - Gym 3 sets + Sunset way Canal Route Extended Rounds (10.2km)
Tuesday - Track & Field Training (3km)
Wednesday - Redhill/Tanglin Canal Route 2 Extended Rounds (15km)
Friday - Gym 3 sets + Sunset way Canal 5.2km (5.2km)
Sunday - Mizuno Mount Faber Run 2007 (10km)
Total Running Millage for 2 weeks: 60.96km
Total Accumulative Millage for 2007: 353.96km

About 1/3 into the year with more than 1/3 of the targeted millage of 1000km for year 2007. Actually I was intending to retire my My DS Trainer 11 after last March’s Ambank KL Marathon, having clocked about 700km since then. Strangely, cushioning is still rather effective, so I guess I can put my new shoe purchase on hold. Some say it’s my rather conservative running style (no dragging, proper foot landings and no stamping) which prolongs the life of the shoe which I only wear it out for runs and it still feels much better than my other SAF Brooks training shoe with hardly 400km under it’s belt. Interestingly it’s always Nike and Reebok shoes which always fail within a year by sole tear, my Asics shoes can be used till it’s so worn out theres no rubber between the cushion and the ground. do live up to its name having the best consumer running shoes on the planet.

Would be giving the Bedok Reservoir run a miss this year.

Received my Ambank International Marathon Certificate of participation in the mail today, so did the rest of my team. It came mint-condition in a white A4 envelop with a return address to KL (yup it came all way back there). The cert inside is all colour printed with the typical pink event background with chip timings, etc printed, even my name is not spelled wrongly! (duh)

I really have to commend on the Ambank KL marathon, though it’s not an event as big and bombastic as SCM, it’s definitely very well organized, impressive!

This is so funny I simply just have to post it here. Phone recorded this on my bus trip to campus today with the funny stuffs around 5-6 secs of the 13 sec clip. Simply can’t stop chuckling each time I hear it, let be the all the commuters on that crowded bus who have to put up with it each stop.

Any ideas for your next message ring tone?
Download (free to use, uncropped .mp3 format)