Here's My Story

I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny, but we can have lots of good fun that is funny. - Dr Seuss’s ‘The Cat in the Hat’

One of the first two Freelancers I used is Garrison. Its difficulty is classified as "Easy" and I agree with this categorisation. He is the only Frontline who has no means to self-heal and so I hesitant to change the modifiers that give him shield. His main ability is Piston Punch, a Blast, that punches enemies within a small arc. Default modifier gives extra damage to the 1st target. Next ability is Hand Cannon, also a Blast, that damages and slows target, and damages targets in the secondary blast. Medium range. Default modifier increases initial damage by 4 but I chose the modifier that increase its range and and the arc of the secondary blast. This gives him a little more flexibility against enemies who are not near. The 3rd ability is Missile Barrage, a Prep, that launches missiles, after 1 turn delay, at 3 random enemies (within certain range of course). Default modifier gives shield that lasts until the end of next turn. Nice :) 4th ability is Heavy Metal, a Da...

Reinhardt was one of the two heroes (the other was Mercy) that I had planned to play with in anticipation of the Open Beta. I had been watching many videos for tips and tricks. Of all the tanks, I played Reinhardt the most, followed by Winston. I tried only a few times the other tanks but didn't like them. Reinhardt is my favourite tank as he is quite easy to use and great to have in certain situations. During the Open Beta, too many people didn't want to play tank or support and so I switched, from time to time, character to Reinhardt to help the team. Won some, lost some :) Reinhardt uses his huge hammer to smack people around and it does lots of damage at close quarters. He can also Firestrike at quite a long distance but that has cooldown. Another ability with cooldown is his charge: charges and pins enemy to a wall, thereby stunning him for a short time. Then smack him silly :P His most used ability, however, is his 2000-hp shield. It provides protection to allies ...

One night, Ban and I met simonlover for a drink with other friends. Simonlover was having his late dinner then. He also brought a pack of individually wrapped chocolate. Simonlover: Have more chocolate. Me: Oh, enough lor. Had one already. Simonlover: Only one? At home, I can just eat and eat and eat. Me: Wahhhhh. Eh, you ordered their set meal? Simonlover: Yes. Me: You gave away the Ice Lemon Tea that came along with it? Simonlover: No, I didn't want it. Me: Huh? Why not? Simonlover: So much sugar. Don't want to be fat. Me: What??? And you can eat lots of chocolate at one sitting and that's not fattening, is it? *laugh* Simonlover: *laugh* Lol, silly simonlover :)

Of all characters that I regular play with during the Open Beta, Tracer is my favourite but I'm least competent in playing it :) Tracer uses two rapid-fire pulse pistols that are great at short range. Unfortunately, she has low health to continuously engage enemies at that range. Thus her other abilities (with cooldown) help to increase her survivability: Blink and Recall. The former allows her to teleport short distance (can use 3 in succession before it has to go on cooldown) while the later allows her to "rewind" back to where she was 3 seconds ago and thereby possibly gaining back health and ridding of whatever debuffs she has at present. Her ultimate is Pulse Bomb. Stick it on someone or near some people and kaboom! Here are some of highlights:

Overwatch is an FPS game by Blizzard (same developer of Warcraft and Diablo). It is a greatly polished version of Team Fortress 2 i.e. you can change character midgame anytime in the spawn room and there are objectives for the team to complete to win the match. It's a buy-to-play game that gives you access to all 21 characters (and future ones, if I'm not mistaken). This is important because changing character midgame to counter opposing team's certain character(s) is a key feature of the game. Therefore it will ruin the game if there are locked characters. I've been watching Overwatch videos on Youtube since January when it was in Close Beta and was looking forward to play it. However, USD 40 is a hefty price for me (can easily buy me 27 balanced meals!) and also I'm not good at FPS game. Therefore, when they had Open Beta from 5 May to 10 May (was extended by a day), Ban and I tried it. At first, we find it hard going and that we still preferred Atlas...

My current favourite Freelancer is Quark. Ban told me that it is clearly based on Dota's Io, a game I've never played and not even remotely familiar with. His main ability (always the first one on the left and the only one without cooldown) is a Blast which damages and reveals enemy, and also places a theter on him that does the same amount of damage each turn this theter attached. The modifier, by default, gives Quark 5 health each turn this theter is attached. So cool, right? The next ability is a Prep which attaches a theter on an ally and heals him that turn and every turn this theter is attached. The default modifier allows theter placed on ally who is beyond a wall. I, however, changed it to be the same as the main ability above i.e. heals Quark each turn theter is attached to ally. 3rd ability is also a Prep that enhances the thether's damage/heal of the 1st/2nd ability. Instead of the default modifier (movement no longer reduced after executing this ability...

Rift was a game both Ban and I played a few years back. We stopped mainly because the each character have too many similar abilities (how do you decide which ability to use?) and too many abilities to manage, so much so that using macros were essential. About a month ago, Trion, the game developer, invited us to try their new game, Atlas Reactor, during the short period of Open Beta. We tried but alas, it kept crashing mid-game. So we gave up. Last week, they once again had Open Beta just for the weekend and this time no crashes! Yay! Atlas Reactor is a unique game to me: it's a simultaneous turn-based game. Sound contradictory? Let me explain. Each turn, players choose an ability to activate. Free action abilities can be activated without utilising this quota of 1 ability a turn. There are 3 categories of abilities: Prep, Dash, Blast. After that, players choose where to move. Once all players lock in their choice of ability and movement path, the game resolve those choices...

It's been maybe a decade since I last had Fisherman's Friend. Few months back, I bought one just before entering a cinema hall. I was surprised that it now has ziplock! So convenient. I remember that previously, I just folded the open section a few times. Sometimes I used rubber band too. Recently, I bought another one when I was suffering from this prolonged cough. No, of course it wasn't to cure the cough but more to sooth the throat a little. It did help but I noticed something strange: it made me hungry! Maybe it's more acidic now? *shrug* "Store in a cool dry place below 30 degree C, away from scented goods." Such strange instruction lol. How do scented goods affect it? Hmmmm.

My backpack was purchased maybe 5 years ago from Body Glove. If I recall correctly, the price was just over RM40. But alas, a couple of years ago, its inner lining started to peel off. I'm afraid that its outer fabric will give way any time. Now, normally when I receive e-mail from Lazada, I just thrash it. Possibly because of my sister's suggestion ("try shopping online lah"), I recently read one e-mail and decided to check out backpacks. Cheap backpacks below RM30. There were a couple I shortlisted and since I do not know the difference between these two in term of quality, I chose the cheaper one: RM 24.70 after 55% discount. I like it :) If it lasts for at least 5 years, then it's so worth the money spent. Incidentally, the delivery time was supposed to take 6-8 days but I received it in 2 days! Phew, luckily I was at home when the courier service deliveryman arrived. I had trouble sleeping the night before and so was awake few hours before ...