Pirates Game

Its funny how there are somethings in your childhood you just don't want to grow out of. Some people continue their childhood hobbies into adulthood, some people take their passion and turn it into an occupation. Games have always been a big part of my life, even though I can safely say my parents never really splurged on me that much. Most of the games I played were PC games. Never had any console games - I had to go to my cousin's house to play.

In secondary school the interest turned to comics, and later on the highly addictive collectable card game called Magic. It was Wei Ning who introduced us to the game, but later on it was the bunch of us - Jun, TM, Adrian Mah, Kangwei and myself who actively traded and played the game amongst ourselves. The Magic game is still hugely popular today. If you ever go by Bishan MRT, and you see a bunch of schoolboys sitting at some corner playing some card game - well, we used to be like that.

It has been many eons past since we picked up our Magic decks, but we would still go to the comics stores to check out the new stuff that comes out. So it was 1 fine day after dinner at Cineleisure, TM and I popped by the Comics Mart there. And we saw this display featuring some Pirates card game. And it looked damn cool, because in every single pack of cards, you could build 2 ships, get gold coins and a mini dice!!

A part of me said, I'm way too old to be interested in this. But another part of me said, heck, its a game that allows you to build little pirate ships!!!

So it has been about a month since we each bought 2 packs of cards, and as TM and I predicted, Jun is slowly spending his entire savings on the cards. But we haven't looked back. Its pretty popular in Singapore apparently, and I like the gameplay - you need a combination of good cards, luck and tactical awareness to win.

Part of my 'fleet'
The game is about using a combination of ships and crew not exceeding a pre-defined total points. So it doesn't matter how many ships you have, you can only play a limited number. And you have to maneuver them along the surface to different islands to collect gold or destroy enemy ships.

Jun's Spanish Armada coming after my British Warship
So if you think about it, it isn't much different from the Sandbox models that they use in the military, where they move toy troops and tanks around to simulate the actual warfare and tactics. But this is much cooler, because its about Pirates!! TM's gf said that we were caught in a time-warp. I guess that is true in a way, but doesn't everyone like to do something that reminds them of their childhood once in a while?

Beijing Day 3 - Great Wall of China

I didn't expect to be able to see the Great Wall this time around, given the limited time in Beijing. I also assumed that the Wall would be in the outskirts of Beijing, and would be relatively inaccessible. But my dad's business associates offered to drive us there, and now there was a freeway directly to the Great Wall, so getting there took no longer than half an hour.

Approaching the Great Wall, it was clear why this still remains one of the greatest wonders of the World.

Impressive at a distance

Thousands of years on, and still the wall remains intact. And not only the endurance of the construction, but the sheer difficulty of building it in the first place. Climbing the mountains is already pretty daunting, let alone pulling tons of rock up its slopes using ancient machines. And I was told this is the relatively easy part. At certain sections the mountains are higher and steeper.

Daunting up close

Before arriving here, I didn't know what to expect. Well I was in for a surprise. Climbing the Great Wall was literally a climb. And the first part of the wall was really the steepest. I don't recommend bringing little kids and the elderly here, because it can be extremely steep. Going up there, I wondered if anybody had fallen to their death before. It was quite easy to fall from the steep steps. But I very quickly got those thoughts out of my head.

The first section of the climb

When I started off, I wanted to reach the peak, which I thought was the right-most tower. I made my way up, plotting my way up with photos taken at different sections (go to my flickr site). I took about 1 and a half hours going up, and must have climbed the equivalent of at least 20 stories. And when I finally reached the tower, it still continued upwards along the mountain ridge! I decided to bring the Great Wall adventure to an end, and made my way down, which wasn't that easy, given the steepness of the steps.

After lunch, I pretty much had the time to myself, so I went alone to Wang Fu Jing, did a lot of window shopping. With that, the trip to Beijing pretty much came to an end.

Final thoughts on the trip:
Beijing is a huge place, and I would have loved to spend more time there. The city is pretty modern and growing rapidly, with construction of housing and infrastructure going on everywhere. And as the Olympic date approaches, the city will be even more vibrant. At the same time, Beijing is a city with thousands of years of culture. My only worry is that it that if the growth is uncontrolled, pollution and overcrowding will make it an unpleasant place to visit, and worse, cause the rapid deterioration of these historical sites.

Beijing Day 2 - On the road and Bei Hai (北海)

Had to wake up early - arrggh. But had to because I was meeting Allen and we had to prepare to meet a client in the afternoon. Had time to take a picture of the view from our hotel:

After a couple of hours of discussion, we made our way down to a nearby restaurant to have a meal. As it turned out, the restaurant we picked wasn't bad.

Beijing noodles

Spicy pork in water (can't remember the exact name)
We had to travel by bus to the meeting location, and I quite enjoyed the whole experience - eating at a local restaurant and taking the public transport. As a traveller, you always want to get a local experience. At the same time, it was very easy get used to because I understood the language, and there are already a lot of Chinese in Singapore. At the same time, its something new. I was very amused by how they ‘圈舌’ when speaking. Especially the taxi drivers or the so-called less educated - they could rattle off a string of sentences and I could not understand them, even though they were speaking Chinese. And like in the U.S when speaking to Americans you have to use an accent, I found myself developing a 'Beijing' accent to speak. Never would I have imagined myself doing that 5 years ago.

Other interesting things that I noted:

• In Singapore we address waitresses as ‘小姐’. They call them ‘服务人’. Apparently ‘小姐’ can also refer to prostitutes.
• They have TVs on buses, and they use some form of 'ez-link' type card as well. All pretty bad ideas to me.
• Every major bus stop has a customer service lady, to give directions on which buses to take. That's pretty cool.
  
• People are actually quite friendly. People were willing to give directions, taxi drivers are chatty. Only thing is that they speak loudly. It's like a natural thing. When they speak, their voices project throughout the bus.
• Not a single pretty girl. Yeah. Not a single one. 15 million people in Beijing and I didn't see any. Wat the crap!!
• We were walking along some side road and some military personnel put up a road block and were collecting money. And I could hear one driver saying (they are loud remember?) - ‘干吗的这条路也要给钱？’ It was quite funny.

It was about 4pm when we reached back to the hotel after the meeting. My dad and uncles were done with their meeting, so Allen brought all of us to Bei Hai, an imperial park. On the way there, we came across a whole village of old-style buildings.
Buildings from long ago
This was what I wanted to see in Beijing, the historial buildings and architecture. Too bad we were on a taxi, so I didn't have time to explore the place. We reached Bei Hai, and only after I read the sign did I understand the significance of the place. Apparently this place was an imperial garden, that was constructed from a thousand years ago.

It is a beautiful place, with beautiful landscaped gardens surrounding a huge lake. Yes, Bei Hai is actually a lake, and not a sea. And we could only tour the exterior gardens, because we had arrived too late, if not we could have toured the former imperial study quarters.

Where the emperor's children studied
There were other wonderful landscapes and structures there as well. One of them was the 9 Dragon Screen - a large wall that used colored stone and jade to create 9 dragons.

4 out of 9 dragons
We probably had time to explore like 10% of Bei Hai, before it got dark. I definitely must come back here again when I visit Beijing. But anyways, it was off to visit Tiananmen Square.

Next to Tiananmen Square was the Parliament House, which was huge and very impressive. It had stone columns at least 5 stories tall. Unfortunately I couldn't take a good photo of it at night. And we couldn't get up close to Tiananmen Square as well, because of some event that was happening.

Tiananmen Square with the Forbidden City in the distance
Still, I could see the giant picture of Mao Zedong. And Tiananmen, is actually just 1 section of the Forbidden City. The whole Forbidden City must be about 2-3 km long. I couldn't help but feel awed by the history of the entire place. Again, I didn't have time to explore the Forbidden City, so that's another "must go" on my next trip to Beijing.

Finally we made our way to Wang Fu Jing, the main shopping district in Beijing. We had dinner at a nearby restaurant. Most of the food was pretty decent, but one dish in particular was something new to all of us, apart from Allen, have never tried before - Fried Silkworms.

Fried Silkworms
Yes, what would a trip to China be without trying out some strange food? It tasted ok though. Slightly bitter and crunchy. Not something I would crave particularly. But who knows what properties silkworms might have? Maybe I'll get silky smooth skin after this...

Out on the streets, there was even more strange food on show - lizards, centipedes, seahorses and some kind of worm. All barbequed and ready to be eaten. Nope, I wasn't prepared to get a stomachache, so I didn't try any. We spent some time exploring Wang Fu Jing, before heading home after a long day. Next day would be a trip to the Great Wall.

Beijing Trip Day 1 - Dust and Traffic jam

**I uploaded my Beijing Trip photos to Flickr. Also, all the pictures were taken with a lousy Free Creative DiVi Cam. After this I'm taking my award-winning HP camera back from my dad.

The trip to Beijing was really quite unexpected. The week before, my dad asked me if I had any friends that were proficient in Chinese, and could go to Beijing on short notice. The only person I could think of was Ben in Shanghai, but he couldn't make it. My Chinese can't make it as well, but I wanted to go along, not to just have a holiday, but to meet my business contact there - Allen. In the end, they (my uncle Alan, dad and Henry) had to make do with my Uncle Alan's Chinese in the business discussions, which turned out to be slightly better than mine.

Anyways, Day1 was basically travelling there on a 5 hr flight on SIA. We left at 5pm and arrived at about 10pm. Took us about an hour to check out. Which was fine, considering that most airports I've been to are not as efficient as Changi Airport. So we stepped outside to get a cab. And the first thing I noticed was the dirt on the road and in the a ir. Every car there seemed to be covered in a layer of dust. The air was breathable, but then again, it seems that in China, people have the license to smoke anywhere. From waiting at the taxi line, to the next 3 days in Beijing, I've had to experience people smoking everywhere , even in air-con restaurants. So that made the feeling of pollution even worst. But back to the dust. I knew beforehand that Beijing, and the whole of China, is suffering from pollution problems. Beijing in particular, due to the depletion of forests surrounding the city, has resulted in sands from the Gobi desert blowing into the city. Adding the effects of construction due to the Beijing 2008 Games, and the growing number of cars, Beijing has become a place where the color white doesn't exist. Seriously, everything seemed to have a tinge of yellow on it.

We got a cab, and found ourselves stuck in horrendous traffic - at midnight. It took us a good 20 minutes to get out of the airport vincinity, which I thought was ridiculous given the time. They had better do something about it if the city is going to support the Olympic Games in 2008. Finally, after an hour in a taxi, we got to the hotel at 1am. Had to wake up early the next day to meet Allen.

My "Googled" Desktop

Yeah... its been almost 2 months since the last entry, but its hard work - blogging. Anyways, I recently replaced the computer, so now its been fitted with a Core 2 Duo E6300 processor, 1 GB ram and a ATI 1900GT graphics card. So I decided to tax the computer a bit more, and installed the Google desktop software I've been wanting to try out. AND ITS DAMN COOL!!! And the more friends that use it, the cooler it becomes. So I'm here to convince all you guys to use it, and other Google apps.

Here's a screenshot of my desktop with Firefox open to my customized Google homepage.


On the right is Google Desktop, docked to the right side of my desktop, and the Firefox browser displaying my homepage. Both can be customized, and as you can see, I've included in my homepage:

• Technology News Feeds (Wired News, Slashdot,Engadget, Google Tech news)
• Current News Feeds (BBC, Google Top stories)
• Sports News Feeds (ESPN Soccernet, BBC Football)
• Useful Apps (Google Calender, Simple Calculator)
• Fun stuff (Joke of the Day, Google Video)

You can add and remove sections that you don't like. For example, in my laptop, that I use for work, I have BabelFish Translation Tool,To-do Lists. There are tons of web-games that you can put on the page as well.

And for those not so technologically savvy, all the sections are RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. It means that any website enabled with RSS, can be included as a section and updated in real time.

Google Calender. This is my calender, with the shared users displayed. As you can see, the Havok and Dennis's calender are also displayed, I can see any events planned on any of these calenders. Its a little under-used no doubt, but think of the possibilities. Create and share calenders! Group outings, birthdays and what not can be planned easily with this.

The Google Desktop is even cooler. You can customize it pretty much like the Google Homepage, and this is the list of my gadgets from top to bottom.

• Music Player (currently playing Chemical Brothers)
  
• Google Search Bar
• Day/Night Clock (Background, darkens during the night)
• Google Email (still being indexed by Google Desktop)
• News Feeder (automatically retrieves all U.S news, or any other country selected)
  
• Photo Gadget (my favorite gadget!!)
• Web clips (RSS feed of all my subscribed feeds)
• To-do list

Music Player. This is the default music player gadget from Google. It controls the Windows Media player, so any songs playing in Windows Media can be controlled by the gadget. There is another gadget that controls iTunes too!

Photo Gadget. This is my favorite so far, cos it automatically scrolls through all the photos that you have on your computer,and any photo feeds online. Yes, that's right. Any photos from websites that support RSS feeds. Flickr supports RSS!!! Go use it and give me your URLs! Lousy Friendster doesn't support RSS yet, so what's the point of uploading your photos and blogging there? Here's my RSS feed: http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/ photos_public.gne?id=26666745@N00&format=rss_200 Or if you're interested in just viewing photos, go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26666745@N00/

Lastly, Web Clip Gadget. Again, it updates with all the latest news from subscribed websites. It can also be updated from blogs. Here's some of the feeds I subscribe to:

• Paradise Reel (Jun's blog) : http://cineaste.blogsome.com/feed/
• The Mr Brown Show: http://www.mrbrownshow.com/?feed=rss2
• ESPNSoccernet: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/rss/news?cc=5739

So, if you have a blog with RSS, give me your feed URLs. Mine is: http://dethkil.blogspot.com/atom.xml

And other cool stuff that Google Desktop does - It can search files across all your computers. So for example, if you install Google Desktop to all your home computers and select the right options, you can search for any files located on any of these computers! And no need to open your browser anymore to search the web. Simple type 'ctrl' twice, and a search bar appears on your screen. So my friends, get Google on your desktop and get "wowed".

Germany 2006: The highlights (part 2)

I remember Germany 2006 for its sheer drama. The group stages had good football being played, but when the knockout stages came, there was high tension, tactical battles and a number of unexpected outcomes. I'll start with what I remembered most in chronological order.

Great football
It started with the Czech Republic's 3-0 thrashing of the U.S.A. That got me excited about the Czech's chances, because they were the best team in Euro 2004. Players like Neved, Poborsky and Rosicky were controlling the U.S.A midfield. 2 great goals from Rosicky sealed the 3-0 win. Unfortunately, the Czech's lacked strength in depth. The moment Jan Koller got injured, their chances at the World Cup evaporated. They lacked striking options and they were kicked out in the group stages.

The next best game was Spain vs Ukraine. It was quite an easy match for Spain. They got 2 penalties and scored the 3rd from a free kick, but it was the 4th goal that was contender for goal of the tournament. Puyol intercepted a ball at the opponent's third of the pitch, did a 360 degree spin to get past 1 defender, then passed the ball to a teammate, continued running to the edge of the penalty area, and headed a pass into the path of Fernando Torres, who ran in and scored on the half volley. Amazing play! More so by the fact that it was created by Puyol, a central defender.

Finally, the highlight of the World Cup - the 6-0 thrashing of Serbia & Montenegro by Argentina. Every goal was a beauty. The first goal involved a backheel by Sorin down the touchline towards Saviola, who slipped the ball into the path of Maxi Rodriguez, who lashed a right footed shot into the goal. The second goal was, in my opinion the best goal of the tournament. It characterized everything about Argentina's play. Controlled patient passing to wear down opponents. The 2nd goal involved 24 passes. The 24th pass was a backheel by Crespo into the path of Cambiasso, who lashed the ball into the net. From that point on the S&M team knew it was game over, and Argentina were displaying exhibition stuff. Lionel Messi (I was very disappointed he did not play more) and Carlos Tevez came on in the 2nd half, and terrorized the defenders and were involved in the last 3 goals.

Messi scoring the 6th Argentina goal
They became my favorites to win the tournament, but unfortunately they let me down in the knock-out stages.

Dramatic moments
I love football, not just for the wonderful skill and technique displayed by the players, but also for the exciting and dramatic moments it can produce. Indeed, football matches can be dull, and at times it can almost put you to sleep (England comes to mind), but just one moment of skill or mistake by a defender can get you off your feet cheering.

One of the first moments was the extra-time goal by Argentina against Mexico. Argentina weren't playing their fanatastic football, and were held by Mexico 1-1 in extra time. The 2nd half of extra time started, and Sorin played a long ball from the right to Maxi Rodriguez. He must have received some message from above to do something special, because he deftly controlled the ball on his chest, and unleashed a curling shot into the top corner with his weaker left foot!!

Going into the top corner
It was truely a moment of inspiration, and a goal worthy of winning any match.

But nobody beats the Italians for drama in this World Cup. The Italians, long known for their defensive prowess and boring spectators to death with their catenaccio play, used a different script this World Cup, and conjured up 2 of the most dramatic finales in 2 different games. The first was the first knock-out game against Australia. Australia was not supposed to have an inkling of a chance against Italy. This was only their 2nd appearance in the World Cup, and they were going up against the 3 times World Cup Champions. The Italians were dominating, but early in the 2nd half, Materazzi got himself sent off, reducing the Italians to 10 men. But as the commentator said, "The Italians are the pass masters at playing with 10 men". I thought to myself, yeah... the Italians are going to use every trick in the book to win this game. The game swung in Australia's favour after that, and they kept attacking without making any breakthrough. And right on cue, nearing the end of the 90 minutes, the Italians decided to wake up and play football. 3 minutes of added time were to be played, and right on cue, at the 92nd minute, Fabio Grosso made a run into the Australian's penalty area, and at 92 mins 51 secs, 8 SECONDS before the final whistle, fell over the unfortunate Lucas Neill to earn a penalty. Deep down I expected the Italians to win it, but not with such drama.

Watch Grosso's "earning" a penalty against Australia.
The semi finals against Germany ended in similar dramatic fashion. Both teams were tied at 0-0, after playing an exciting 90 minutes without any goals. In extra-time, the pace was slower, with the Germans, with their superior (in fact the best) record at penalty kicks, happy to play for a goal-less extra-time. But Italy, in extra time, had 4 strikers on the field - Gilardino, Del Piero, Iaquinta and Totti. But it was a defender who made the breakthrough. At the 119th minute, just 1 minute before penalty kicks, Pirlo made a superb "no look" pass to Grosso, who curled a fantastic shot inside the German's right post. It was another Italian job. Score and leave no time for opposition to equalize. And just when you thought there was no more time, Italy went on the score another goal on the counter attack, with Del Piero scoring with the last kick of the game. In terms of drama and excitement, this was undoubtably the best game of the World Cup.

The Final
This was a repeat of the Euro 2000 final. France vs Italy. While in 2000 it was the best attack against the best defence, in this match-up, both teams had the best defences - Italy having only conceded 1 and France conceded only 2. It wasn't a classic final. Italy put on the shackles on Zidane and France showed Italy that they could defend as well. Instead, it was the Italian defender Marco Materazzi who had the most eventful final. He conceded the early penalty (a very soft one I might add), in which Zidane chipped in delightfully. I thought this would open up the game, but Italy equalized very soon after, with Materazzi heading in the equalizer. So the game went into stalemate again.

In extra-time, closing in on penalties, that was when the talking point of the World Cup arose. It was unfortunate that this was the most exciting part of the Final, but it was certainly a dramatic twist nonetheless. The great Zinedine Zidane, 2 times World player of the Year, the best player in this World Cup, playing his FINAL game before retiring, with less than 10 minutes before the penalty shoot-out, had a few angry exchanges with Materazzi before driving his bald head into the Italian. I don't think anybody around the world could believe what was happening. Instead of lighting up the Finals with footballing magic, he decided to make an impact by making an impact on Materazzi. Well nobody knows what Materazzi said to incite Zidane, but it was certaintly not the fitting end of the career for a player as great as Zinedine Zidane.

I supported Italy for the win, but not in such an anti-climatic way as a penalty shoot-out. The second Finals I have witnessed decided by a penalty shoot-out. Oh well, I felt that the best team of the tournament won. Overall, it was a very exciting World Cup, not much great football played, but certaintly one with lots of unexpected moments.

Germany 2006: My thoughts (part 1)

After a hectic 1+ month of football, it is finally time to get back to the normal routine. Like spending more time at work. And blogging more. So here's my analysis on the World Cup 2006 and how it compared with the previous ones I watched before.

Overview
This World Cup wasn't about individual players. No player set the tournament alight, or brought himself to the forefront of football. While the last World Cup was about upsets, with Turkey and South Korea making the semi-finals, this one was about the Heavyweights - the traditional powers of football. All the previous winners except Uruguay made it to the quarter-finals. This World Cup was about teams and their tactics, and the team managers became the focus of the attention in this World Cup. England's Sven Goran Ericsson and Brazil's Carlos Alberto Parreira were criticized for their poor formations and refusal to drop star players, and both teams were rightly dumped out of the tournament after 5 poor games. On the other hand, Germany's Jurgen Klinnsman was applauded for turning the underdogs into tournament favorites with an attacking flair (something I have not seen Germany do before - play nice football); Portugal's Phil Scolari was considered the inspiration for getting his team to the semi-finals and Marcello Lippi for adding an attacking flair to Italy's usual catennacio style.

Playing styles
Another interesting thing for me was seeing the teams playing style - some sticking to their traditions while others losing sight of theirs. Let's start with the champions Italy. When they had to, they stuck to their 'catennaccio' style. Catenaccio means "door bolt" or "bolting the door" in italian, and it means to have a highly organized defense and play counter-attacking football. Of course, this makes for boring football, especially when Italy takes the lead, or when the team has achieved their objective. This was especially evident in the World Cup 2002 group game between Italy and Norway, where both teams got a draw, and Italy basically decided to sit back and defend, while Norway decided not to attack. It was terrible. But I also came to appreciate it in the games Italy played in Euro 2000. With Cannavaro, Nesta and Maldini, Italy had argubly the best defenders at the time. Against Netherlands in the Euro 2000 semi final, they played with a man down, and it was then I came to appreciate the catenaccio. In this World Cup, Cannavaro was the main man, and he had to play without the injured Nesta and the retired Maldini. Against the Czech Republic in the group game, they only needed a draw. Played their catenaccio style. They got a goal through a set piece, then sat back defend, then counter attack. Got the second goal. Game over. Against Australia, they got a man sent off, and again they repeated their performance in Euro 2000. Australia kept attacking, but Italy sat back until the last few minutes, turned it on, and bam! Won a penalty kick. Win 1-0.

France the losing finalist, combined their typical flair with resolute defending. France, along with Brazil had arguably the most skillful players in the world. Both teams had problems in getting their good players putting good performances. France managed to "turn it on" in the knockout stages. Brazil didn't.

Which brings me to Brazil, the biggest disappointment this World Cup. Brazil is famous for their 'samba' football - mazy dribbles, near telepathic understanding and passing, brilliant attacking football. They are the anti-thesis of Italy, with the motto - "Attack is the best form of defense". In Ronaldhino, Kaka, Robino, Adriano and even a buldging Ronaldo, they had players that any team would want. Unfortunately they didn't function as a team. They got to the quarter-finals without facing any tough opponents, and against France, Brazil only showed one aspect of their traditional style - the poor defending.
(above: I searched for 'Fat Ronaldo' under Google. This is what I got. LOL! )


Argentina were my favorites before they got kicked out. They put in the best team performance in the World Cup - a 6-0 win over Serbia & Montenegro which got the whole world drooling over that performance. In that game, they displayed the slow passing game that they are famous for. Pass and pass until the opponent tires or make a mistake... then bam! The second goal in that game involved 24 passes!! Absolutely brilliant. A few pundits said that the team "peaked too early", and they were right. Their performances stuttered in the later rounds, and got kicked out on penalties by Germany.

Germany. What can I say? I hate them. They were applauded for abandoning their traditional efficient style and grinding out 1-0 wins for attacking flair, and rightly so. But being bias that I am, I would say that they could do that because the teams they played were inferior teams. They were under pressure against Argentina, and lost out to Italy. But when it came to the crunch of penalty kicks, the Germans did what they historically have done best. Win a penalty shoot-out. Before World Cup 2006, Argentina and Germany had the best records in penalty shoot-outs. 5 wins, 0 losses. Now Germany is undisputed with 6 wins.

England played their traditional long-ball crap. They had good players, we all know that. Not the best players, but all very good. But again, year on year, we believe the hype the British media churn out about their team being the best, and every tournament the fans get disappointed, not just with the results but the performances.

Keeper was distracted by the moving goalpost

(to be continued - Highlights of the World Cup)