Now I know not to walk too (obviously) alone

One of the things I've set out for myself to learn is that, if I ever bump into a situation where it feels a little weird, if it is not an outright crime I'll take it as a learning experience.


And this is one of them.


Today, while I was on my way to GameWorks Seattle (to be precise - I was in between 6th and 7th Avenue) a guy called Cavalli Cash, and his partner Cali, pushed this CD/DVD set to me for $25, offering me stuff and claiming something along the lines of getting enough sales to have them appear on MTV or something, I didn't really remember.


Normally, I remember if I were in Singapore, I'd watch out for these people and give them a wide berth. The problem is, I'm in unfamiliar land, and this time I traveled alone entirely (to squeeze in some local arcade time) so I'm not protected by what I would call the "stopping force of groups ignoring you outright".


And indeed, I do think that $25 has just flown off, because off my head the first thing I saw was gangsta rap, and I distinctly remember disliking gangsta rap (in a way, I prefer Eminem's because he at least makes stuff that resonates with an international audience, and/or has catchier tunes) so I had a sneaky feeling I wasn't getting the worth.


But, and this is a huge BUT - if my mother's taught me anything, it's to "spend money to avert disaster." This is not to say you spend money indiscriminately, but that if money can potentially solve a problem that feels like it's burning either your bum, or is a nagging doubt at the back of the head, just give it up so that you get a safer passage out out the situation.


Given the origins of gangsta rap itself, who knows if I would get mugged if I refused? ^_^;


On a side note, there may have been other reasons why. I'll show them in picture form when I'm done sleeping. ^_^;

Friends = free rides?!?!?!

Singapore's small enough that trying to cramp friends into a car is usually something not very welcome even when presented with the right opportunities, and to build up to that stage usually means you're really good friends with that person.

But I speak in the Singaporean context.

Here, I've gotten a grand total of three free car rides (excluding the one that the apartment manager gave us to familiarise with nearby amenities - and to pay rent ^^;) and these are friends I don't already know for more than six months, like just weeks. It seems that they're a lot more open to giving people rides here, since it's such an ubiquitous transport.

In other news, I've got to remember how to do a roll on concrete properly. I knocked my knee (specifically, the point in my right leg just underneath the kneecap) and that was a week ago, during Friday of HvZ week. Now, touching it gives a YEOUCH response so I've got to be careful not to overdo it.

In yet more other news, I just finished the mid-term test for MAT140. While I don't say that I've gotten it all right, I do think I've prepared fairly enough for everything, except proofing questions for matrices.

Really, how could I forget that in the case of AC = CB, not only will C = I yield you A = B, but A = C^-1 will also lead to C^-1C = I, therefore making CB = I and making B also = C^-1??? For a while I thought if ONLY C = I will A = B... zzz. Since I was supposed to DISPROVE the theory, then I should say if AC = CB, A = B ONLY when C = I and A = C^-1, and everything else...

Shucks. How do i prove everything else =_=;

Ah well, test done. Just wait to get less than perfect score then >_>;

We're halfway there~

And today we met up with a CTO (yet again, names I always fail to remember). Had pizza and discussed a lot about our next six weeks in DigiPen, which was a priceless experience, once again, hearing from the professionals.

The story so far...

Since this week is HvZ week, I'll do a recap of the game so far from my POV.

But first ---

Mr Ellinger has requested us to meet him next Monday at 11.30am (i.e. 8.30pm Monday, Singapore time). Mr Lam, do drop a message if you want like, Skype together with us when we meet him (lol)

And then...

THE STORY SO FAR...

Due to a random admin error on both sides, one form of mine (the waiver, like the one Mr Lam gave us before we set off here) didn't get to Nicole, so I wasted Monday morning's sleep going to school early. No Tuesday missions either.

Generally speaking, I find the 6.30~6.45am time block a good time to go to school for HvZ purposes, because of how deserted the whole place is save for the people who're firing up the kitchen and preparing admin stuff. I (think I) saw Mr Claude Comair (I'm really horrible with faces! I should take note of him from now on) and he was pretty surprised at a student who's ostensibly much earlier than he is, I think.

No, it's just for the game unfortunately >.< the Washington morning is so hazy and chilly, I don't know if I'll have any other reason from HvZ to go early. But I'll strive to keep trying the 8am arrival timing (instead of the 9am timing) so I get a good breakfast of eggs instead of running to school on empty.

I DIGRESS.

Anyway, Wednesday night's mission was a blast. The zombies have gone half-half by this time, but we still manage to only lose like ten of us (me not included). I should really provide a picture idea of what happened, but I'll leave that to later during the weekend (which I don't think will be spent outside of Sammamish Ridge).

So, part one, we went to the back of the cafeteria, around the parking lot, on an escort-the-scientists mission. We got hit by one wave per spot we tried to "collect samples from", so it was pretty crazy as about five of us would go down per spot. I almost got tagged too, but the guy tagged me after he was shot in the stomach by Kevin.

Everything went south when (allegedly) the zombies started a respawn one minute earlier than they were supposed to, causing general chaos. That was also the reason why we lost more men at the last spot, including my project partner (oh no!).

(He's now a gleeful zombie. Herp derp >_>)

 The upside is I survived, and I got a vaccine for it. I got ONE tag too. So awesome -_-

Thursday's night mission was cancelled because of various school stuff like mid-terms (one for MAT140 is up next Thursday).

So today.

I decided to play G.I. Joe. After hitting two zombies outside the main gate (taking my tally here to 3), I got above my head. I taunted a crowd of no less than five freaking XXL-sized zombies, and realising quickly I was hopelessly outnumbered, I began to shoot the closest one, failing which I just decided to make a fast dash around the building to the front door.

Reaching the door, I managed to tag an unsuspecting zombie (taking my tally to four) and I got the zombies to crowd me around the safe zone, taunting me for my free vaccine. (side note - since when did zombies have human intelligence?!?!?!?!?!?!) So I was like, okay, gentleman's agreement:

1. They would hand me some of my darts back. Of course they didn't hand everything... But it was enough darts for one-shot-one-kill, but of course that was not going to happen

2. I would take two minutes, inclusive of reload time, after which I would be out of the safe zone and I'm free game for whoever can tag me.

I began a sprint, like some gun on a 1v6 Western-styled duel, only with one bullet cocked and everyone else just trying to catch me. I tagged the original guy who accepted the agreement on behalf of the group - then ran past a completely hapless girl zombie and dashed the way I came - back around to Pascal again!

Here's where things got panicky and hairy - I missed my chance to get in to the safe zone from the Pascal side, and I made a split-second decision not to go there - it was hopelessly overrun by zombies. So I kept running, to the zmoking - wait, I mean smoking - corner, where I quickly realised it was a horrible decision because I have to go down the stairs, and up at the other side. Nevertheless, I cleared that zone, taking out a zombie in the way, then ran all the way around the area to the cafeteria safe zone...

...where Nick (zombie) was waiting for me. I shot him before I went in, so that rose my tally to seven total. But I expended nearly all my darts in the run.

Lesson learnt -

Never try to engage zombies by the group - unless you're doing it as a bait and switch.

Always engage from a safe distance - you don't want to crash into them for both health and game reasons.

P.S. After the above, I got 5 in random skirmishes. WOOHOO
P.P.S. I got epic tagged by trickery. While I felt good earlier, this really made me look silly - think playing into a death trap -_-

Lesson learnt #2 - never trust zombies -.-

Challenge Accepted!

It has begun.

Explorers' Spirits

So we went to buy money orders yesterday from the QFC on 90th. Probably safe now to conclude that both QFCs are good for settling rent, but since we only need to do this one more time it's not really that big a bother now, lol.

And, as though the explorer's spirits in us all have awakened, we (or rather, Ken urging, me echoing, and JW + Faiz dragged along) went around and discovered some landmarks we've previously not been aware of.

For example?

There's a board games store down the same stretch of shophouses adjacent to the bubble tea shop. While the guy was okay, I felt the service was a little flat. But he did stock a Munchkin Bites expansion, so I got it.

And I conclude that I suck at bargaining.

Orz

Next, we went straight on and banked left (instead of right, which would lead us all the way down to the 7-11 close to Shalimar) and we found ourselves, among other things:

1. A humongous cinema complex. One whole building by itself. This would definitely be inconceivable in Singapore, given our limited land space.

2. A medical center - wait, is this the same one Mr Lam mentioned? o_o;

3. A sushi place. It's open and conveyors are running, but... uhh... nah.

4. ULTIMATE MARTIAL ARTS! I KUNG FU YOUR ASS! Just kidding. But outside the shop there's a ninja event thing... lol?

(oops, forgot to take pictures here)

Then, we went down to Redmond Town Center, mainly because Ken wanted to go Gamestop to get a DS Dragon Quest RPG game and Jun Wei wanted Starcraft 2 (cue sweeeeeeeeeet graphics inbound). I stopped earlier at Hobbytown to see what they would stock for Nerf, but after looking at the shelf (of a grand total of three unique guns, what) I gave up (unconsciously it was probably instant, but I picked one gun up, pretended to look at its specs while knowing I won't buy a Nerf there -_-).

So after they're done with Gamestop we went downstairs, and explored the area a little. Then we found ourselves another board games store, and it has a much more awesome title to it.

Uncle's Games.

We played chess for a little while (from which I conclude in all harshness that Singaporean chess has failed to pick up yet another casual strong player - seriously?) and then we moved on to playing Munchkin Quest, which ended up taking 3 whole hours to play because it's so awesome.

And Faiz won because he beat the last boss on one single dice roll (by luck, LOL!) and, since we decided not to use my re-roll-all-dices card because it didn't really say "At anytime", then yea. We were running a little late for dinner, too =_=

I know I was probably dead tired by then (I am getting old...) because I fell asleep in a dungeon playing just two runs of Dragon Nest -.-;

[more misc pictures inbound here?]

Coding is (always?) fun!

Especially when you can do awesome things to it.

That's why we all code, no?

Today me and Austin (YES! NEW PARTNER GET!!) discussed over lunch about a top-down shooter influenced by Battlefield BC and Red Faction (and possibly danmaku, or bullet curtains). Without going into details, I'm pretty confident I can prototype something reasonable over the weekdays.

The GAM100 Team Project is shaping up pretty neatly. Yokatta~!

In yet more other news, the guys sans Jun Wei went to Bellevue on the new RapidRide Line that now serves Downtown Bellevue to Redmond. There's quite a bit of pictures from yesterday, and I'm sure I got a lot of images, but since I'm in school now (in class as I type this) that'll mean this post is

TO BE CONTINUED... orz