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Showing posts from October, 2019

Underlords after Big Update

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Turns out that it was true I didn't play any more matches, ranked or casual, after the last update . The Big Upate lived up to its name: it really shook the game in several major ways. The bad: Terrible UI. The most glaring one is the removal of mirror imaging when you view opponent's position in between battles. Why take out such a useful feature? Terrible visual. A single white dot enoting CD? Is this really an improvement over the previously clear progressing white line? Also, the heroes' model look childish now. Previously, they looked polished. The lack of time to shop after end of battle, wasting time in terms of economy and delay in potential upgrades. Can't carry forward the free reroll. Why? The good: Variety of composition. Introduction of several more Alliances, and possibly due to certain tweaks, make this possible. The 'Jail' feature results in different meta everyday and so it's less boring. Here's my first win after the Big U

Hailam beef noodle

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There are two dishes in Singapore that I cannot find in Malaysia. One is Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle and the other is this: I tried this the first year I studied in Singapore and I love it ever since. It wasn't rare but not common either. I know that the food court at Pavilion in KL served Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodle, which was just moderately similar to that in Singapore but at least it was quite delicious. I have yet to come across this beef noodle though. Anyone knows?

Nest @ The Curve

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Nest is a restaurant of 5 restaurants. It's like a combination of a food court with the traditional restaurant. Its menu is like 5 separate menus amalgamated into one book. So one day, after yoga class, I tried the following from Pizzazone: The banana smoothie had good texture but was surprisingly a little sour. The prawn curry pizza took ages to arrive. I can't remember waiting that long for a pizza before. Although the bread texture was good, thin and quite crispy, it was a little saltier than expected. There wasn't any curry taste. Even if it was supposed to have a subtle curry taste, it was overpowered by the saltiness. The prawn was meaty and springy. It was a tad disappointing but I would go to Nest again to try the poke bowl from Tail & Fin.

Underlords before Big Update

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So there's going to be a huge update very soon which will introduce new Alliances, new heroes, changes to existing heroes' alliance and new feature. I've been swinging between Boss 3 and 4 recently and was wondering when I would string a set of wins to get to Boss 5. Here are some videos (as an update from previous post ), probably last batch before the significant patch: After quite a while I tried this composition again. I love builds that include Mages :) Another Scrappy + Mage composition. A little frustrated not 3-starring Timbersaw and Tinkerer since Scrappies are uncontested. Still, happy with 3rd place. 24th win! Hit Boss 4 for the third time @@ Hit Boss 4 for the 4th time :) I hope to march onward to Boss 5 soon. Quite proud at how I managed to whittle the winner's lead from 68-18 to 22-2. I faltered at the end because I wasn't quick enough to reposition. It's the weakest part of my gaming skill. 25th win! I think th

Intelligence <> Wisdom

Highly intelligent but also overweight and this friend knows these.  He's been on his self-styled diet plan for at least the past decade.  There's either no change or he has gained weight during this lost period.  In fact, ironically, he gaine weight after getting teeth bracers 😲.  On top of that, he has high cholesterol and sleep apnea. Hence, it's important for him to lose weight. Whenever we talk about his diet, Ban sometimes says, "His diet plan is eat-whatever-I-want plan."  I half believed it...until recently: Me: Are you really on a diet? Friend: ? Me: 3 days ago, you had teh ais. 2 days ago, you had a large fried chicken drumstick Friend: What's wrong with friend chicken? Me: *Eyes widened in disbelief* Is it healthy? Friend: ......... it's only one piece Me: But you had unhealthy food and drinks for 3 consecutive days. Yesterday, you had curry chicken and your rice was drowned in curry sauce. Friend: What's wrong with rice with cur

Hanamaru Udon @Midvalley Megamall

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Looks good, right? Unfortunately, the noodle was a little hard and the sauce wasn't sufficiently flavourful. Both Ban and I was quite excited to try it because it's quite hard to get 'dry' udon. We had this just before we watched the locally produced movie 'M for Malaysia'. Good movie, regardless of your political leaning. Coincidentally, that night marked the start of my long period of illness, interrupted by only a few days of full recovery, which I'm still suffering from its lingering effects :(

Next: oncologist

Dr P of Adventist Hospital recommended that we consult oncologist for possible systemic treatment of cancer for the rest of dad's body. So we consulted Dr D of Mount Miriam. Unfortunately, since she was not in possession of previous CT scans' images (done at GH), it was better to get a scan done at GH for comparison. Depending on the comparative results, she recommended: (1) Radiotherapy if there was significant progress of cancer in one area. (2) Chemotherapy if there was significant progress of cancer in a few areas. (3) Monitoring if there was no significant changes. The proximal femur replacement surgery got rid of a significant source of pain and thus improved his quality of life greatly. However, his daily shortness of breath was affecting his walking and talking. Thus, we took Dr P's and D's suggestion to explore treatment options with the GH's oncologist. To do that, we tried getting PCU doctor to refer dad to oncologist once more, which she did

At home alas!

After about 40 days, my dad has recovered sufficiently to be brought home. Yay! He needed help only in two instances: someone to extend lazy chair when he got on it, and then to help to retract it back when he got up. We're looking for a shop that sells better lazy chair (higher so that he can do all these himself) so that he can try it out. Personally, I don't like him using the current once because it is a little out of shape and so it's bad for his posture. Jasper Lodge's physiotherapist listed the following exercise for my dad to practice: (1) With leg extended, move it front and back 15-20 times, and then to the side 15-20 times. Repeat them with the other leg. (2) Walk with walker. (3) Walk without walker. (4) (Half) squat 40 times. (5) On the spot marching, while holding on to something. (6) On the spot marching, unassisted. (7) Walk up and down staircase, two days once. Dr P of Adventist Hospital added the following: (8) Stand assisted. Be

Underlords: hiatus and draught

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I was gone from most of my usual games for a time because I was playing Fell Seal almost exclusively. I still did watch streamers playing Underlords and Overwatch every now and then. Recently, I sort of stop playing Fell Seal because I was hungering for competitive games and so I picked up, among others, Underlords again. The meta is no longer exclusively 3-starred composition. It seems to have veered towards "good stuff" composition i.e. getting the 4 and 5 cost units but unlike the bad old days of legendary meta, you still need Alliance bonus synergy to fit these in to win. So here's a couple of videos as an update the milestones I've achieved: Back to Boss 4 :) 23rd win since two months ago, incluing the hiatus period though.

Cow Brother @Damansara Uptown

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It's so hard to get Seremban Beef Noodle outside Seremban. No beef noodle, Seremban version or not, is as good as that one. This one came close:   It is the best beef noodle outside Seremban. The 'laksa' noodle though was a little hard. Surprisingly, the kuay teow version was much better and that was what I've been having since then. For some reasons, I can't have the soup version, here or in Penang. I get stomachache @@. So it's only dry version for me. Beware that its 'small' portion is actually quite huge. So even for those who normally upsize, I suggest trying the small one first.

Intense physiotherapy

We conveyed to the nursing home's manager Dr P's instruction - also written in a letter - to have my dad go for hip extension exercise . Later, after discussing with my dad, I came up with 3 milestones for him to achieve to be sufficiently independent at home: (1) Able to get on and off the bed without people's assistance. (2) Able to stand without people's assistance.   (3) Sufficient walking speed, at least with a walker. We were initially concerned about the competency of the nursing home's physiotherapist. For a while, she didn't get my dad to do hip extension exercise. Some days, there weren't any sessions. Fortunately, my dad exercised on his own during those times. We shared our concern with the home's manager. Our issue was that we weren't exeprienced in judging whether the therapist's programme was sufficiently vigourous or not. We even started researching other nursing homes but none ticked as many boxes as Jasper Lodge. T