Thursday, March 09, 2006
yet another week gone
A take on what has happened the last week
Survivor Pulau!
Yeah, you read correctly. It's Pulau, not Palau. Pulau as in Pulau Ubin. Went on Sun with the gang for a photography trip (actually, more like a cycling trip for me. Make that perfect-excuse-for-exercise trip). It has been 11 years since I last went to Ubin and boy... has it changed a lot!! In the past, it was a rickety old jetty where u board the bum boats. Now, you have a mini terminal which has arrival and departure halls (ok ok, make it seating areas). No more dirt roads but tarmac (makes riding much easier, thought aching butts are still expected). What used to be a smattering of bicycle rental shops is now a full street a haggling with best deals for bikes. There were only a handful of seafood restaurants and now u have a whole cluster of them (with huge signs at the beach front too!). People there have become more enterprising by offering van rides for those who are too lazy to ride bicycles. And the best part? There's Ubin Resort! Chalet like place with the flying fox tower.... Wow...
But one thing that hasn't changed is the terrain of the island. It still remains torturous and trecherous especially the off road terrains and the slopes... God... I have never peddled so hard.. and only to reach the top at snail's pace. Note to self: Get your lazy butt to work(out)!!!
But if there is one place that is worth visiting there again: the quarry. Words cannot describe how tranquil and picturesque it is. Only regret not bringing swimsuit or I would have jumped in! Though I could never understand why the water had white sediments. I guess it's from the rock formations themselves.
Battle For Middle Earth 2 (BFME2)
The gang has a new game to play. Yeah.. it's time to fight for the one ring!! The game play is interesting and it is much easier to play than warcraft. And the powers you have are pretty cool! Each race has their own unique abilities and powers. But the interesting aspect of the game is to find gollum. Not easy when the map is huge and he's always running around in stealth mode. You can only sense him when he is near as you troops will shout "the evil gollum is nearby". Objective is to kill him and get the one ring back to your fortress. Once u do so, then u can choose to recruit either Sauron or Galadriel (depending on ur race). But u really have to wait cos these 2 heroes are 10k a pop and take helluva long time to come. If the enemy gets it... good luck to u
But the more interesting thing about the game is the censorship! When u chat, there are certain things which they will censor and replace with *. Here's a list of some of them:
General Swearing:
- fuc*, damn, hell, retard, shit, asshole, arse (arsehole is ok)
Religion (anything to do with religion is banned)
- God, jesus, judah, buddha (FYI Taoist is not banned, ha ha), allah, Christian, catholic, Satan, Devil (Demon is ok though... weird)
Sexual Connotations
- sex, anal, oral, gay, lesbian, dyke
This censorship is worse than the censorship in Singapore!!!! Ha ha... the gang has been constantly thinking of new words just to see if they are banned. Will add on to the list if something new pops up
Survivor Pulau!
Yeah, you read correctly. It's Pulau, not Palau. Pulau as in Pulau Ubin. Went on Sun with the gang for a photography trip (actually, more like a cycling trip for me. Make that perfect-excuse-for-exercise trip). It has been 11 years since I last went to Ubin and boy... has it changed a lot!! In the past, it was a rickety old jetty where u board the bum boats. Now, you have a mini terminal which has arrival and departure halls (ok ok, make it seating areas). No more dirt roads but tarmac (makes riding much easier, thought aching butts are still expected). What used to be a smattering of bicycle rental shops is now a full street a haggling with best deals for bikes. There were only a handful of seafood restaurants and now u have a whole cluster of them (with huge signs at the beach front too!). People there have become more enterprising by offering van rides for those who are too lazy to ride bicycles. And the best part? There's Ubin Resort! Chalet like place with the flying fox tower.... Wow...
But one thing that hasn't changed is the terrain of the island. It still remains torturous and trecherous especially the off road terrains and the slopes... God... I have never peddled so hard.. and only to reach the top at snail's pace. Note to self: Get your lazy butt to work(out)!!!
But if there is one place that is worth visiting there again: the quarry. Words cannot describe how tranquil and picturesque it is. Only regret not bringing swimsuit or I would have jumped in! Though I could never understand why the water had white sediments. I guess it's from the rock formations themselves.
Battle For Middle Earth 2 (BFME2)
The gang has a new game to play. Yeah.. it's time to fight for the one ring!! The game play is interesting and it is much easier to play than warcraft. And the powers you have are pretty cool! Each race has their own unique abilities and powers. But the interesting aspect of the game is to find gollum. Not easy when the map is huge and he's always running around in stealth mode. You can only sense him when he is near as you troops will shout "the evil gollum is nearby". Objective is to kill him and get the one ring back to your fortress. Once u do so, then u can choose to recruit either Sauron or Galadriel (depending on ur race). But u really have to wait cos these 2 heroes are 10k a pop and take helluva long time to come. If the enemy gets it... good luck to u
But the more interesting thing about the game is the censorship! When u chat, there are certain things which they will censor and replace with *. Here's a list of some of them:
General Swearing:
- fuc*, damn, hell, retard, shit, asshole, arse (arsehole is ok)
Religion (anything to do with religion is banned)
- God, jesus, judah, buddha (FYI Taoist is not banned, ha ha), allah, Christian, catholic, Satan, Devil (Demon is ok though... weird)
Sexual Connotations
- sex, anal, oral, gay, lesbian, dyke
This censorship is worse than the censorship in Singapore!!!! Ha ha... the gang has been constantly thinking of new words just to see if they are banned. Will add on to the list if something new pops up
# posted by Xallista @ 8:24 PM 
