Oceanshaft

Happy CNY everyone!

Ah well, Singaporean from Hiroshima came down to stay at my place for a few days, brought him round to Dazaifu, Fukuoka Tower, Ippudo ramen, etc. The highlight of last week, though, was the reunion dinner we had with some of the other Singaporeans. Lots of food (ingredients courtesy of S), spot of bowling, good fun.

It's back to school now though. Woah, almost February...

Chinese New Year is coming soon, and last week, I got my parcel from home. Yes!

Clockwise from upper left: kok zai (is this the right name? I can never remember), cashew nuts, fish floss (or pork, can't recall right now) pineapple tarts, shrimp rolls.

Haven't opened any of the jars yet, but soon...

Article on a speech by Manpower Minister Ng Eng Hen in the news today. Mr Wang also has some comments on it.

This reminds me - must get round to the application to be an overseas voter. Wonder if I'll get to vote this time round. Last time election boundaries changed and my constituency was a walkover, if I remember correctly. Would have to travel to Tokyo to vote, though, if I understand the system correctly.

One of the things I do on the internet is surf around looking for old abandonware, freeware, shareware and so on. I also like to read reviews of PC games that are coming out. Also visit sites like Home of the Underdogs just to find and read about old games that I used to play. So, what are the computer games that I've played that I liked and really stick in my memory?

Roughly in the order of playing :

• Digger
• Alleycat
• Sokoban
• Rollo & the Brush Bro.s
• Karateka
• Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?
• King's Quest III
• Menace
• SimCity 2000
• Wolfenstein 3-D
• Space Quest IV
• Dune II
• Warcraft I, II, III
• Starcraft
• Betrayal at Krondor
• Dink Smallwood
• Morrowind
• Gothic
• Star Control II
• System Shock II

And there are lots more, of course, all the way from old DOS games to recent ones. Recently have picked up Panda-glGo, N, and Nethack, all small downloadable games. Would like to play Civilisation IV and maybe also Spore when it comes out, but what I'm really waiting for and probably will buy (if I upgrade my PC so I can play it) is Oblivion. Coming out this year, I think. Morrowind really impressed me, and I think this next game from the same company will too...

What about you?

To all those foreign students still hanging around in Japan, how's things going so far this year? Although I don't believe in horoscopes, you might want to take a look at this forecast.

:)

Lessons started today, bringing an end to winter break. Yes, it's the start of a new year - 2006! What will this year bring? For starters, the World Cup is coming! Lots of football to watch. Hopefully I won't be too busy with school during that time. (Although, truthfully, will it matter?) Shouldn't have lessons next semester, so if I just plan all my experiments around the match schedule everything will work out, I'm sure. Actually, I'm not really that much of a football fan. I like to watch international matches, but I don't follow the Premier League nor Serie A nor the Spanish league. Can't keep track of player's names/records/etc. very well either. But the thrill still gets me. After all, it's the World Cup!

Why am I writing this when it's still half a year away? Can't you tell, it's because I have work to do but am suffering from low motivation and high distraction levels! Ugh. I am staying in school and not heading back home straight away (sense of responsibility - check) but work efficiency is really low (production level - much left to be desired). To think I spent a few hours reading forums on World of Warcraft, a game I do not even own... What other personally irrelevant information should I peruse next? The internet and Wikipedia await. So does that pink and white textbook on linear systems control. Red pill or blue pill? I don't want to wake up in the real world...

Hi, just came back last night from my trip to Tottori. Will try to post more later.

鳥取から帰ってきました！また後で。