Yoko Kanno-Butter Sea

Now, in case you didn’t know, I bought myself a monster of a PC last year for my birthday. I’ll post the specs later in this post, but suffice to say, when it was bought, it was one of the most badass rigs out there baby! It still kinda is .

Anyway, I bought a bunch of stuff recently for my PC to spruce it up a bit. Bought an additional 1TB HDD (it’s a Caviar Black bitches…one of the best 7200 rpmers out there) to store all my sitcoms and shit. Also bought some additional cables,fans and lights for the case. It’s looking really awesome now. Take a look:

My PC: Kanno. Yeah, that's a Fight Club poster in the bg ;P

Side View

Top Fan

Inside

Thermalright True Black Heatsink

My poor Macbook has a severe inferiority complex

My current specs:

• Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-920 2.66GHz (8 cores)
• Motherboard : DFI LanParty UT X58-T3eH8
• Graphics Card : MSI Radeon HD4890 1GB DDR5
• RAM : Corsair Dominator 1600MHz 6GB Kit DDR3
• HDD 1 : Western Digital VelociRaptor™ 150GB 10000rpm
• HDD 2 & 3 : 2x Western Digital Caviar Black™ 1TB
• Power Supply : Coolermaster Real Power Pro 1000w Modular PSU
• Casing : Antec 1200
• Mouse : MS SideWinder™ X8 wireless
• Keyboard : Logitech G-15 gaming keyboard

Still planning on buying more stuff for the PC later .

Get Back – Ludacris

Swinging elbows welt the night,
Babas make the world seem right.
Wonder filled memories fleet,
amidst emo rants and tweets.
Sunshine pierces through in cones
on houses made of bricks and stones.
Imaginary friends return again
as another week begins.

Osanpo Tachikoma – Yoko Kanno

I chew gum and resist the urge to run to a 7-11.

To buy smokes.

I check my mailbox impatiently.

Often thrice a day.

I read more Murakami.

And remember that cold rainy afternoon in Takayama, when I crept into that cozy little cafe across the road to the temple.

And ordered hot cocoa.

I should get back to reading now.

It reminds me of Japan.

It makes me feel whole.

The moon shines down on a sleeping lizard,
Little fish rain from the sky.
Outside the window there are soldiers,
steeling themselves to die.

(Refrain)

Kafka sits in a chair by the shore,
Thinking for the pendulum that moves the world, it seems.
When your heart is closed,
The shadow of the unmoving Sphinx,
Becomes a knife that pierces your dreams.

The drowning girl’s fingers
Search for the entrance stone, and more.
Lifting the hem of her azure dress,
She gazes –
at Kafka on the shore

-From the novel Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

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So now that I’ve absolved myself of the guilt, let me just say that the Mass Effect series have to be two of the most engrossing, amazing and fucktastically brilliant games I’ve ever played. Rarely,if ever,do sequels live up to…nay…astronomically exceed the expectations laid down by their predecessors. Mass Effect 2 builds on the incredible story laid down by Mass Effect and takes it to a whole new level of complex storytelling awesomeness.

My pimped out ride

Typically speaking, Mass Effect 2 is a space sci-fi RPG cum Third Person Shooter. I wont go into the storyline or the technical aspects of the game.You should read a full blown review for that…or watch this video review:

Anyway,Mass Effect 2 has consumed my life. I eat,sleep,breathe and even dream Mass Effect 2 these days. What makes this game so special and different than the others? Well, it provides a unique experience to each player, which is quite an achievement for a story driven (as opposed to open ended) game such as this. Get this…ALL the decisions you made from Mass Effect 1, get transferred to Mass Effect 2 0_0!!! Pretty fucking sweet huh? So, in the first game, if you saved an ancient alien race from extinction, there’ll be repercussions. If you let the government (galactic government ofcourse) die in the last game, there’ll be repercussions. Even if you shoved a gun down the throat of a fan in the last game…well guess what…there’ll be fucking repercussions!

Die you fucking Geth! No offense to my Geth teammate...

All of these cool elements make for a strong and personal bond with the game and the character that you’re playing. Sometimes the decisions you must make are very tough (like choosing which teammate to let live or let die). And there are literally a million or so ways in which the game can end,combined with who the hell survived,who’s loyal or what decisions you made throughout the game. For example, on my first playthrough, I played a shotgun toting Vanguard, who can rip through walls, slam into enemies and shotgun their fucking heads to oblivion. 3 of my teammates died and my entire crew perished (that’s how the game ended). On my second playthrough, I played a sneaky Infiltrator who can cloak and snipe your ass from miles away.Everyone survived in that ending . Ofcourse, the class you play with has nothing to do with the endings…it’s just a sum of all the decisions you make.

My bunch of happy misfits at the end of 2nd playthrough

And there’s romance too. Ranajay Shepard was a bit of an asshole though.Romancing an Asari in the first game. Then a human in the second. Then cheating on her with a psycho bitch. Then breaking up. Then hooking up with a horny crew member. Then romancing a Quarian even. All this while saving the galaxy .

Looks like Maria Ozawa no?

Time to look away now kiddies

And there's more

Press (F) to continue

There's something for the tattoo lovers too

Well…you get the point. Mass Effect 2 is really a gem of a game. If your computer can handle it, then you should definitely play it. As Times magazine aptly put it, “it’s the Avatar of video games — except it’s better written.” So with that I’ll just leave you with some more screenshots and reasons to play Mass Effect 2:

Some of the levels are really gorgeous.

The fights are really intense and eye-poppingly awesome.

Boobies.

You get to fight The Terminator!

Erm…

Fata...I mean...Sexality!

A final word of advice though, too much sex can kill ya. Literally.

Peace!

Anyway, here’s the fucktastic launch trialer for the game that can put many a movie trailer to shame. I’m going in for my third playthrough now.

January summary-

I went to Rawa islands for NYE with LEAP mates. Was fun. We were alone on the island. Got to snorkel for the first time in my life and it was exhilarating. I felt like a kid who had just learnt how to ride the bike and felt like showing off. Only problem was, I can’t swim even if my life depended on it. So I looked like a fish out of water. Wait…does that metaphor apply if I’m literally in the water? Played pool, drinking games, fed the fish,ate the fish,destroyed a few corals (just kidding!Never know what kind of trouble you could get in by posting shit on your blog),played with the friendly island dog and more or less went silly. It was relaxing.In a way.

Came back. Resumed work.Had a bad start to the New Year.Fuck that.FAT got postponed.Now I’m not sure if and when I’ll be going to Brunei.

Watched more sci-fi. Watched more TV shows. Played Mass Effect.Waiting for Mass Effect 2.Ate a whole buncha pizza.Ate a bigger buncha sushi.Had weird dreams.Watched Japanorama.Had weirder dreams.

That’s about it. Feel free to insert the word ‘fucking’ as you please before any (or most) of the nouns above.

Oh, and I was told (from a reliable source) that my New Year’s Resolutions for 2010 were rather dull and uninspired. I agree. I shall think of better ones.

I think 2010 should be more about self-improvement. So I’ll start off with a few simple pseudo-resolutions and add on more during the course of the year.

1. Lose weight and get into shape (i.e. No belly, minimal flabs).Ideal weight would be 64-68 kilos.
2. Learn how to cook (simple dishes, preferably meat).
3. Learn how to be ambidextrous (not sure how it’ll help. Just a small experiment for 2010).
4. Learn Japanese.
5. Improve my English. Read Wodehouse & do wordlists (as recommended by KJ).
6. Brush up on my history,geography & general knowledge (not sure how I’ll accomplish this though).
7. Smoke less. Cut it down to 1-2 per day. Eventually quit. Need more chewing gum for this.
8. Save a sizable amount of money by the end of 2010. This exculdes my savings from CPF

That’s about it for now. Rather ambitious I have to say. Let’s see how things pan out.