Mind: Hacked

Well THAT was an interesting book.

I refer to a recent purchase (re: Mind Hacks) which has proven to be a more than illuminating text. I say text because while the book itself is very entertaining, it is by and large an educational one. As the title implies, the book is a collection of 'hacks' designed to shed some light on how the brain works by (more often than not) fooling our perceptions, actions and memories. Every hack is a self contained little snippet of information describing the nature of the hack and how it works based on present neurological understanding. This information is neatly bookended by opening statements and references that will allow the inquisitive reader to travel further along the rabbit hole, as it were, and perform their own research. At the end of it all, the human brain is still a thing of wonder and mystery but at least with books like these ordinary people can catch a glimpse of its inner workings. For example, I didn't know that simply visualing something like exercise can improve a person's coordination and even strength!

Now I do.

I've also picked up a game called Kingsburg yesterday which has proven to be another good purchase. I'm not going to go into the details but the game contains a few interesting mechanisms that allows players lagging behind to catch up while simultaneously rewarding leading players. In my experience, this is a hard balance to achieve for most board games and indeed some of them fall flat exactly because players are made to feel punished for bad rolls, luck, chi, karma, feng shui or what have you. From playing 2 games, I feel that the game itself is inherently balanced enough such that the only reason a person would lose (as I did) was to play with no real strategy. Of course this will require a few playthroughs to see if such trends will average out over time but from where i'm standing things look pretty well managed. The fact that it can be played with a minimum of 2 players is also a big plus. 2 additional 'ghost' players are simulated in order to give the illusion that you're up against bigger odds.

As an aside, i've also added a few picture of me getting my hair amputated (as if you didn't notice!) for charity on Friday the 13th. How auspicious! My hair has grown since then. It is now 0.5 centimeters long.

I am so proud!

A Clash Of Kings

Its been a good month so far.

I've spent my days working and my nights with Naomi whenever it was possible. Come Wednesday I will be finished with a minor project in the office and the process of editing my work will begin. For the past fortnight i've been adapting a knowledgebase for a new machine, cobbling together bits and pieces of information from previous releases along with solutions i've authored to launch the support base when the model hits the market. While i'm sure there will be a lot of changes to be made before the knowledgebase is fit for release, i'm certain that the groundwork is there, and that i'm adaptable enough to modify whatever needs to be changed. Its good work, and i'm proud of my progress.

Having seen the Watchmen twice now, I can safely say that it is a recommended viewing for any who care for the genre, and some who don't. While the movie adaptation loses the complexity and the multi-layered tale that is the graphic novel, director Zach Snyder did for it what Peter Jackson did for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The result is an enjoyable, albeit truncated take on a society living in the shadow of nuclear war. What heroes that exist are broken, scared, apathetic and paranoid yet still they labor to fight for an imperfect system. After all, if they don't then who will?

I attended a WoW minis tournament today, hoping to win a Spectral Tiger or a Battle Bear mount in order to sell over eBay but unfortunately my team was ripped to shreds in 3 out of the 4 matches of the day. Still, the games were good and each defeat was down to a very fine margin. In hindsight perhaps I should have made a different figure choice, but I stuck with the decision I made in the beginning and went with it all the way. There wasn't much I could do but make my foes pay dearly for their victories.

Over this weekend i've also managed to finish Resident Evil 5, a game that set my pulse racing more out of pounding action than fear. Gone are the scares of the previous games, replaced instead with gunning down mobs of infected men and monsters with the business end of sniper rifles, automatic shotguns, and even an orbital laser. They deserved it, and I most certainly enjoyed the ride. A part of me still yearns for a good scare though, and while the game is a blast (pun intended) to play, it was missing the survival horror feeling that Capcom had so deftly served a decade ago.

For all the progress i've made gaming i've unfornately been unable to finish reading through A Clash Of Kings this weekend. Theres about a hundred pages left but if i'm to sleep at a decent hour for work, it looks like I might have to leave it be for now and come back to it tomorrow. Few fantasy novels I have read moved me to care about the characters within, and I still rage at the treachery of the so called nobility. When a crown is involved I suppose all notions of honor and fair play go out the window.

In a game of thrones, you win or you die. Truer words have not yet been written in the series so far.

I close with some troubling thoughts i've been having. About half an hour ago I was roused from my reading by the distressed cries of a woman nearby. Judging by the sound, it was probably from the lobby of the apartment building. By the time I went to investigate everything was back to normal, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. If I went down earlier I could probably have helped against whatever was happening, but I didn't.

Maybe i'm a coward, or maybe its worse.

Maybe I don't care.

Watching the Watchmen

I am tired.

The reason? Gaze ye upon the title arrayed above this post.

Its been quite an interesting week. This past Saturday Naomi brought over her crop of....special stuff. Yep, truly special. We had some and enjoyed a few magical hours listening to music and walking around town.

On Tuesday I got through my first month's performance review and things were pretty rosy.

Also, last night I went to see Watchmen with my sister at midnight. And now, i'm tired.

So bluargh!

Valentimes and the Case of the Murdered Prostitute

Sometimes, things cross over from the realm of the strange and into that bizarre, psychedelic dimension of the just plain weird. Sometimes, the person you're going out with isn't just an ordinary student. Sometimes, she's a murdered prostitute thrown down a decrepit well. Or a Greek Sea Captain with a penchant for self mutilation.

But fear not, its all for fun and games at the Rocks Ghost Tours. A walking tour based out of The Rocks at Sydney's picturesque Circular Quay, its a great experience for tourists and locals alike to get to know the history of the area, which in turn provides an excellent insight into what the original convict colonies were like. In summary, it can be described as "a wretched hive of scum and villainy". How quaint.

My third time on the trip, I came for a good walk in a pleasant neighborhood and was not disappointed. My sister, her boyfriend Azlan as well as my own stalwart significant other Naomi was also part of the group. Each of us, in typical Ghost Tour fashion, were given a prop to hold as well as a small role to play based on real people and events. The first time I went I was John Joseph Hackett, and was given a capgun to fool around with. The second time around I played a wealthy, flamboyant merchat who was brutally murdered by his French lover and manservant and on my final trip I played as the aforementioned Sea Captain. I think there's no need to elaborate about Naomi's rather racy role in the group hehe.

Go back a few more days and you would find the pair of us getting wet on the deck of a tallship cruising around the harbor for a Valentine's Day dinner. Ah, what fun. The rain kept pouring and did not relent the entire trip. We, being a vastly cleverer pair than most, wisely stayed below deck where we were comfortable, dry, and above all else, close to the food. In fact, we pretty much ate from the same table the excellent spread was laid upon. Convenient!

Curious. Having to work 5 days a week can somehow drain the enjoyment out of a Sunday. Oh well. Things have been progressing decently at the office. The pair of us graduates have been given a monumental task that will probably take months to complete. I take it as a challenge, and will be doing my best to let the higher ups know that they didn't hire a slacker. I can do that from home :P

La Vita Continua

Another day and another one bites the dust. Literally.

After work I had to attend a short meeting given by a department head justifying why a person was retrenched. As i'm still unclear as to whether or not I should be talking about things so i'm going to back up a little bit and talk about my day.

In a word, it was enlightening. A lot of work goes into writing what initially appears to be relatively simply knowledgebases. The language has to be clear, written to a certain standard of writing and clearly laid out. Allow me to give an example.

If I were to write "Select the desired option from the menu", the knowledgebase that sentence resides in could eventually be translated into other languages. As this is done largely by a computer program, it might be loosely translated in say Mandarin as "Choose the option that you love from the menu". In the grand scheme of things this probably wouldn't matter as all translations are validated by a native speaker, but its still additional work that should not have to be done in the first place.

As you can imagine, my first KB took some amount of preparation.

After work I gave myself and little 1-UP a quick workout then proceede to purchase a few Monsterpocalypse boosters. I've been having rotten luck! At least I have a bunch of doubles I can trade. Hopefully i'll be able to have a bit more variety in my playstyle. I'm getting tired of playing Terra Khan and Cthugrosh.

Blech....

eService Associate Publisher

Well that wasn't too hard.

Looks like my streak of good luck continues.

For one thing, I continue to survive (nay, flourish) here in Sydney. Over the past few months i've managed to secure a job at Fuji Xerox Australia, hereafter referred to as FXA as an eService Associate Publisher. I can't be bothered to abbreviate that one but I trust you folks will know what I mean when I say eSAP. Oops, I guess I did. Oh well.

My stint began a week ago, and ever since i've been spending time at the office doing <> to propietary <>. Yup. Really interesting. I'm not sure i'm supposed to be talking about it so for now i'm going to keep a tight lip on it until I find out if my employer is checking blogs and stuff. Scary!

Other than that things have been peachy. I went back to Malaysia briefly before I had to start work and managed to catch up with friends and family which is always a pleasant experience. One of the biggest plans my extended brothers and I had made was a trip to New Zealand at the end of the year. Unfortunately, things are looking shaky right now considering that Ken got laid off rather abruptly this past Friday.

Which brings me to my next point. We are all living in an age of economic uncertainty. People who are good at what they do are all finding themselves out of work for no reason other than companies trying to stay afloat. Granted, some people aren't worth the flesh they're printed on but by and large, good people are getting fired. The funny thing is that in order to get through the slump, people need to spend money. How are they supposed to do that when they aren't earning any!?

Again I highlight the fact that i've been very fortunate. In the midst of this economic shitstorm, I, along with 10 other graduates managed to beat the odds (apparently there were around 600+ applicants to various grad positions in FXA) and are beginning our careers in a time like this. On that note, i've also been emailing the HR people at the office seeing if I can forward Ken's resume to them. Hopefully the value he can provide the company and any others he is currently applying to will not go unnoticed and he'll be employed again soon.

As for everything else that has occured in the past 5 or so months, its been too long and the tale I could write now would likely be a jumbled mess that would be hard to follow. Suffice it to say that i've returned to the realm of blogging and over the next few weeks anything important from the past that continues to vex or amuse me will certainly be brought to light and elaborated on here.

Now to find that little munchkin I call my dear 1-UP.......