1st Post in 2011, and...

Argh! Spent the day editing and perfecting a music video for my blog music playlist, but YouTube disabled embedding due to some stupid copyright thingy! Oh well, gotta settle with second best.

The song is Black Sheep sung by Brie Larson, the actress for Envy Adams in Scott Pilgrim vs The World. It such a totally awesome song! Anyway here's the link to the video I uploaded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kwhsJ-y_kI

You can't view it on my blog but it still rocks! \_/

Or you could listen to the mp3 on my playlist.

Scott Pilgrim is just so friggin awesome. It leaves up to its title:

An Epic of Epic Epicness.

Stats:
+8 Humour
+10 Randomness
+9 Action
+7 Romance
+7 Character & Story
+8 Rockin' Music
+10 Epicness

Final Score: 8/10

YOU MUST WATCH IT. The script is superb! The jokes are genuinely hilarious! +5 for Wallace gayness! At the right moment with the right words, laughter hits you hard in the gut! Not like those other lame comedies that have to depend on pain and misfortune to incite laughter (bam, the main char takes a blow on his crotch -_-").

Funny Scene!

Even in every fight scene, randomness and comedy is prevalent.

It's totally random. It's like the real world blended into a video game, with battling bands and love thrown into a wonderful and well-designed chaos. For awhile I've been wanting a bass guitar. This movie adds another reason.

Awesome Bass Battle

But... it's not showing in Singapore =(
I had to get the movie from Bryan.

Anyway...
it feels like... 2010. (o.0)

I don't quite have that new year feel yet. Perhaps a smashing celebration is missing - like a 3 day chalet. It could be the fact that I'm outta school for quite awhile. Or beer is lacking. Whatever it is, its time to put the past behind and move on. Manasseh and Ephraim: Forgetting past failures, moving towards to Fruitfulness.

Thanks everyone for what you've done for me in 2010! Thanks for all the cards, chocolates, sweets and gifts, Yufen, Fiona, Wanyi, Joanne, Caspia and whoever else involved! Thanks Leroy for the Humble Bundle! (Revenge of the Titans is cool, Cortex Command is unplayable) Appreciate it! Have an awesome 2011 ahead!

September - New Season

Finally Out Of Sungei Gedong!
Feels like ORD! Actually, being there was pretty slack, and the food is not so bad. People are (generally) friendly. My only issue is the *&%$^ travel distance!

Long travel distance = wake up very early = less sleep = sianz!

Neways, it's Nee Soon Camp for me on the 1st of September, which is TMR! Well I ain't that excited really... today's my last off day (Z.Z)

---

Went to Hexing's house yesterday.
Had a great time worshipping + praying + fellowship! Plus lotsa singing after that!

The awkward part was starting praise & worship. Usually there'll be Weiren or someone to kick start it. It was rather spontaneous and informal (I ain't got my chordbook) but we got it started with a "Through you I can do anything..."

We didn't plan the songs or anything beforehand but we just wanted more of God. Thank God for His presence! All glory to Him!

---

Recently, I have been thinking
"Why am I anointed?"
There are times when I hardly feel the presence of God when ministering, or I feel like I didn't play very well. But people would come up to me in say "Israel, when you play the guitar, the presence of God was very strong!" I would answer with a surprised "Really?" (Which also shows that talent does not equal to anointing)

Looking back at all these years, I don't think I had this anointing when I first became a CG guitarist. So how did it come about?

One reason (there are others) I realized is because of the prayers of W406! Every week you would pray for the CG worship in your sync prayers! I sincerely appreciate every single prayer! Thanks guys! Wanna thank Weiren especially for always praying for the anointing upon me all these years!

Most of all, I thank God, for every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights. I don't exactly know how it happens and I know I can't do it on my own. It must be God.

---

September - New Season
Not sure what's in store, but things are gonna change.
I'm changing camp.
The News will be out.
I'll be exactly 1 year in army (and 1 year from ORD).
And I believe that my spiritual life + maturity will grow.

There might be persecutions, there might be victories.
There might be an exodus, there might be a revival.
There might be tears, there might be laughter.
But no matter what, my source of strength, my source of hope is Christ alone.

The Knight Reigns

Behold, the glorious transformation of this blog!

Marvel and tremble, mortals!!! Muahahahaha! XD

I've shifted a great deal of my sidebars to the 2 new pages,

The Knight and Memorial.

Do check 'em out!

Arthas is my favourite video game character, so I put him up there on the title splash. As for the blog title, I chose "The Knight Reigns" as I believe that through the cross of Christ, I will have victory in every circumstance, and I will rule and reign with Christ.

A special thanks go out to Glenn for helping me with the title splash.

All glory to God!

New Development and Design Blog

Hey all!

I started a new Blog here:
http://noxdude.simiansoftwerks.com

It is totally dedicated for games development, web design and stuff like that :)

I'll still be using this blog as my personal blog.

Wooty shmooty.

2010 New Year Herald

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW CREATION; the old has gone, the new has come!"

(2 Cor 5:17)

Praise the Lord! Happy New Year all!

2009 was an awesome year, but 2010 is gonna be greater!

I believe God spoke to me that the areas of my life that I wanted to change in 2009 will change in 2010! This means all the bad habits and disappointments in 2009 are past, and I will have victories in 2010!

2 Areas I believe I will breakthrough:

1) Passion for God: the same or greater passion that I had when I was a young believer.

2) Faithfulness: Being faithful to God, faithful in the little things(like punctuality :X).

I guess that if I have these 2, the rest will follow - financial blessings, joy, ministry promotion, etc. Thank You Jesus!

Let's take a look back at some of the cool stuff in 2009:

Awesoments of 2009:

• "Boomz" and "Shingz" added to the Singaporean dictionary
• Left 4 Dead - Awesome Multiplayer shooter
• Fireflies - Best Song (In my biased opinion)
• Dark Knight - Best Movie (Again, in my biased opinion)
• Windows 7 - Best Windows OS (Now that ain't biased)
• Jay Chou - Best Chinese Celebrity alive! (This ain't biased either!)
• Most Retarded YouTube video:

MUST WATCH!

Achievements of 2009:

• 1st time being a cheerleading flyer!
• Read finished Harry Potter series!
• 3 Polar Bears in my room!
• Learnt cheng yao dance
• Learnt Sorry Sorry dance
• Attempted to cut Show Luo's hairstyle
• Listened to the radio (hey, that's a big achievement for a guy like me :P)
• Completed Call of Duty 4
• Drank about a bottle of Heineken
• Drank beer with Sprite
• Ate 5 meals a day for about 2 weeks
• 75 posts
• Kept a Blog alive for more than 3 weeks

Good and bad happened in 2009, but I'd rather let go off the bad and thank God for the good :)

So here's some things to thank God for...

1) Graduation! (12th March)

Wow! Time does not just fly - it soars with jet packs on! Thank God that my last year in NYP was a most fruitful one, as I worked with Bryan Yeo and Robin Chia, the Top and Second of the entire Digital Entertainment Technology cohort!

Graduation!

These 2 buddies are not only awesome in their work, but also fun, helpful, and great people to work with! We made the best Final Year Project evar! =3

So yeah, I ended up with exactly 3.5 GPA! Thank God its not 3.49 wahaha.

2) 20th Birthday! (10th April)

2009 marked the end of my teenage years(sadded). Anyway, the 10th of April was incidentally Good Friday, and our church had our Easter Celebration during my birthday! I had lots of fun celebrating my birthday together with W406! I remember we had lunch at some Chicken Rice stall near Raffles City (imagine that!).

Thanks, W406, for the new jacket!

After which, we went to Esplanade and did all sorts of random stuff. Took plenty of photos and did some cheerleading stunts wahaha.

But most of all, want to thank God for saving Sheryl, Melody and Zining! That was the best birthday present evar! Thank God that they brought Jolin later and she too got saved! XD

3) Faith Camp (June 2009)

My 1st ever Church camp! It was loads of fun, and the sessions of seeking God were awesome!

Indeed we are the next generation of leaders, to take the baton from pioneers! Thank God for this privilege!

4) Game Programmer Job (5th July)

This job was really God-given. My elder bro told me to pray for a job specifically, so I did.

I prayed for:

- Work as a Game Programmer

- Salary of 1.6k-1.8k

- Nice boss

- Get the job in 2 weeks

My workplace in Johor.

That's right, its my boss' house.

I sent out like 2 or 3 applications, 1 of which went to my previous lecturer at NYP, who had his own game company. Bryan Yeo, Robin Chia and I made the best game project for the module which my lecturer was teaching, so he was willing to hire me!!! Praise the Lord!

Screenshot of the game I worked on

So I got a job as a Game Programmer, had a monthly salary of 1.6k, a friendly boss whom was my lecturer - all these within 2 weeks. God indeed answers specific prayers! Thank you Jesus!

5) Revelation of the Word of God (August)

I was in one of my most down periods around this time, but thank God that Weiren shared about the Word of God! He said that if we live by the Word and believe it, nothing can shake our lives. Not trials, not testings, not temptations. Our lives will ALWAYS be fruitful, NEVER having a dry season.

¹ Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
Nor stands in the path of sinners,
Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.
³ He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper.

6) Callings: Armorbearer & Leadership (August)

During this season God began to reveal to me 2 great callings in my life:

a) Be Weiren's armorbearer.

This means to serve him faithfully, anticipate his needs, refresh his soul, protect him from enemies(critics or whatever), stand by him during tough times, honor him, and to help him fulfill his destiny.

At least that's what the Armorbearer book said.

b) Grow the connect group to 200. (O.O)"

Wow okay, I'm glad I posted this - it reminded me of my callings. God only gave me the vision to grow my connect group after the calling to serve Weiren. The saying that God will only give you your destiny after you help someone fulfill his destiny is true.

Looking at this 2 callings, there's only 1 thing I can say: I can't do it.

No wonder Pastor Kong says that the dreams God give you are so big that you cannot accomplish it without God.

7) God's grace in NS (September-December)

I just can't believe the amazing grace that God has given me during the whole course of my army! God answered my prayer for 9-5 vocation, so that I can serve him! Throughout these 3 months, I have been under good and lenient supervisors! (Or at least much better than I imagined NS supervisors to be)

8) Risk game with Weiren! (30th December)

Played Risk for the first time in years on the 2nd night of the Chalet! I never really liked Risk cause:
- it seemed like more of a luck game than strategy

- the game lasts for hours

Weiren revolutionarized that! He taught us how the play Risk properly with various strategies and tactics. After a trial game, all of us became very "jian"(cunningly sinister)!

It was a pretty exciting game, which enemies became allies and allies became enemies, which the weak overcame the strong, which lasted for 3.5 hours. XD

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Wowzer that was some long post! Thank God for an eventful 2009! However we've entered into a new decade, a new era of breakthrough!

4 Hours In Heaven

Thanksgiving on Sunday was the BEST service in the whole of 2009!

Yes, I stole this picture from Felicia's Blog :P

So glad and honoured to be there!!! XD

Initially, I didn't feel very excited about the service cause, Weiren told us its gonna be a 5-hour service (it was 4 hours, but if you count the buffet dinner it'll be 5 hours plus) and I wasn't doing spiritually well.

Thank God I didn't miss it. In my opinion, its even better than 20th anniversary service!
Why? Because of Sun!

Sun Ho
International Pop Singer

Indeed, behind every great man is a great woman.

I once thought that Sun was a great woman of God. Now I realize she's incredibly, amazingly, awesome woman of God.

She's such a caring and loving person, always sacrificing for God and others. She remained obedient to God's call even in the face of depression, criticism, stress and tiredness. Even with all these internal struggles and the need to take care of Dayan, she still loved and counselled people who were going through tough times, breaking marriages, etc. She stood strong in her faith in God, always praying, worshiping and reading God's Word. She kept reaching out to the lost, kept loving the broken, kept helping the needy.

There's still a lot more that she ought to be praised for, but I guess some things should be kept within our church family. One thing is for sure though: she inspired me to lay down my life for Jesus and to love people more.

Brothers!

Sisters

We also had an phenomenal time of praise and worship. Without tight time restrictions, we sang 5 praise songs and spent lots of time worshipping God. It was through this worship that I was ministered to. Praise God!

What could be up there...
wait a min, this place is underground!

The meeting started out with a "dance lesson" and the whole church was dancing to "I Got A Feeling" by Black Eye Peas. Woots!

There was a prize-giving ceremony the great cell leaders, zone leaders and the Heroes of City Harvest. Hearing their testimonies were heart-warming, often bringing tears to our eyes.

Weiren got tweet-ed

The meeting ended with all us singing Hero and some chinese fellowship song(I dunno the name), with our arms over each other :D

United!

Lots of "Thank You"s were exchanged, bosoms embraced and pictures taken. I like to imagine heaven being like this when we get there. Thank you, God, for giving me this privilege to be in this meeting together with my family!

Chinglish, Shopping and Caped Crusaders

Wassup guys!

As we were eating at a hawker center at Chinatown, I stumbled upon this interesting menu:


Whoa! ONE TON of noodles for $2???! Awesome.
Apparently they've got the best roast pork in Cow Car Water. Man I wish I knew where that place is. It has such a funky name >:3

Yesterday I went to eat Ichiban Boshi with my mum and Isaiah! Woots! I downed lots of sushi and rice together with a bucket's worth of Green Tea and soup. Not a good idea; my stomach nearly burst.

The set meal was awesome, especially the Grilled Cod Fish. Isaiah says that Cod Fish has the highest protein concentration among all fish. Woot. Tastes good too. Of course no Japanese meal is complete without sashimi! :D

After which, we went shopping!

Went to Matsu（まつ ）!

Yay! Mum bought me a new shirt and jeans! XD

Isaiah had to rush off for choir practice, so my mum and I went down to Orchard to check out some Turkey for Christmas. Went to various places and hotels like Tangs, Cold Storage, Royal Plaza, Hyatt Hotel, Marriot Hotel and Meritus Mandarin!

Took some photos at Meritus Mandarin:

Mum and I

Mum with Christmas Tree :D

They have nice toilets

Their lobby happens to be at level 5 now. Kool. The guy at their restaurant said that their turkey is not prepared beforehand and the chef would start making it near the day of delivery. That's great but it costs $250 =.="

I think we might be settling for the one at Royal Plaza. Or Cold Storage (keeping fingers crossed) :X

Reached home like at 10.30pm, only to find my brothers Isaac, Jed and Jo watching The Dark Knight. I couldn't resist the pull so I watched with them until like 12.30am? Its such an AWESOME movie! 4.5 Stars!!!

Yea, but I shouldn't have watched, cos I caught it at the theatres already. Sort of wasted time but oh wells. Love that movie.

That's all I got, peeps. (What?! No picture of Polar?!)
Seeya!

Of Food and Fasting

Yea I love Chinatown!!!
I love my workplace!!!

Never thought I'd like such a chinese-style place. But it's teeming with good food! And the MRT station is so near! Woots =D
The hawker food is pretty good and the price is rather reasonable :)

Anyways, I finished my 3 days fast yesterday woohoo! This is the first time I fasted for this long, and I just gotta say it ain't easy! Seriously, how does Pastor Kong do it??? Just 3 days for me and its like trials and tribulations. Pastor's record is 40 days. O.O"

On the last night of the fast at around 3am, just 3 hours from breakfast, I was attacked by a ninja mosquito. The bugger (no pun intended :3) made a swift and deadly attack and disappeared for the rest of the night.

And oh my gosh, those kisses were the worst I've experienced in a long time!!!
Couldn't sleep cos of the itch so I took photos of the bites:

My left forearm x1

My right forearm x1

My right upper arm (near the armpit :X)

I was shocked at the size of those bites! x.x
Alright moving along...

The thing I was most concerned about (as Isaiah is) during the fast was LOSING WEIGHT! No!!! My precious body mass!!! I doubt I'll be fasting for long periods until like 3 or 6 months later. Still be fasting at least once a week though :)

My long term goal is to gain 10kg (i.e. total mass of 65kg) by Sept 14, 2011!

What's so significant about that date? Its the day I'll scream "ORD LOH!"
Oh yeah, for those who don't know, ORD marks the end of national service :)

Candlelight and Christmas is coming! This week is the Live Connection! May all our friends whom we wish to invite be saved this month!

Production House!

Woohooo! As of yesterday, I have been officially posted to a website design company in Chinatown! Finally, I'm out of Sungei Gedong! And my working hours now is 9.30am-5.30pm! XD XD

Thank God for answering my prayers! Before I enlisted, I asked God for a 9 to 5 vocation so that I can serve Him and help Weiren. And I specifically mentioned that I didn't want to go to Sungei Gedong after the horrors that Yaozhong told me wahahahs. God slowly answered this prayer!

First, I skipped BMT and got posted to straight to Sungei Gedong. I was a little disappointed that I got posted there but I trusted God that He has plans for me there. But I could book out everyday! So that's great, although I have to report at 7-7.30am

Next I was told that I'll be a NDP Clerk! Yay I can use what I learnt in Poly to do something useful in NS! Thank God for all the friends I made during my time at 23 Signal Battalion :)

Now, I'm the design company together with Bryan, working 9.30am-5.30pm. The boss of the company is a passionate man, dreaming big and going for the best.

Thank God for answering all my prayers :) I'll do my best for NDP and to serve Him!

Re-Vampirism

Yea! Finally a new outlook! Took lots of annoying hours to get this done. The blogskin couldn't be simply copied and paste, so I had to scrutinize Blogger's code and search the web like crazy to get all the stuff in. Most frustrating was the lag that frequently occur, due to my lousy connection :/

It turned out well of course, though I couldn't change my YouTube player to MixPod like Zoe's blog T.T
Of course I added my own touch *winks and points to the picture at the top right

Now for the serious stuff.

I hereby officially rename
"Knight's Quest" to "Vampire Knight".

*Applause
*Standing ovation
*Accolade
*Mad screaming and shouting
*Cat-calls

Let's pop champagne and celebrate!

So why Vampire Knight? Maybe 'cause New Moon is coming out? I dunno. Vampires are kinda cool. And so are Knights. So viola, Vampire Knight.

Do comment on my new tagboard :D

Knight's Quest Revamp

Hi all! I decided it's time for a new look, so I'll be changing this blogskin pretty soon :) I'm already working on it! Get ready, cos its gonna look great! XD

My Harry Potter Rant

The following post will be ramblings and rants about Harry Potter, stuff that I have to get off my chest once and for all ^^

HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
I'm a real fan of the Harry Potter series, but I didn't have the chance to read the 6th and the 7th books until recently. The Half-Blood Prince captivated me, as with all Harry Potter books. I took an approximate of 13 hours over 3 days to complete it, staying up as late as 6a.m. to read it.

However, most of the story has already been spoilt by others, so it wasn't that enjoyable as I hope it to be. I already knew who the Half-Blood Prince was, and that Dumbledore was gonna die, and who was to kill him. Although it had a well-written story, it left me wondering, "What's the big deal with Half-Blood Prince?"

That question would be answered in the 7th book, but the Half-Blood Prince and his textbook should have taken a more significant role in this story. Its still a pretty good book though.

But that was the book. The movie is entirely different.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,
The Movie

Against my better judgement, I watched the Half-Blood Prince movie with my brothers. As expected, the movie was bad, had poor cast and acting, with much of the story cut short and distorted.

I really hated the way they portrayed Dumbledore. Dumbledore is supposed to be kind, gentle, extremely wise (almost all-knowing), without a hint of pride or worry. Only once did I remember him fearful, battling Voldemort in the 5th book. Dumbledore wasn't afraid of Voldemort one bit, but he feared for Harry's life, who was in mortal danger.

In the movie, however, Dumbledore made a proud statement when Harry told him that he thought no one can Apparate or Disapparate in Hogwarts grounds. His reply was "being me has its privileges", which is complete rubbish. Firstly, Dumbledore would never make a proud statement, even though he is the most powerful wizard of his time. Secondly, no one, not even Dumbledore, can Apparate or Disapparate in Hogwarts, save for the House-Elves.

In the movie series, Dumbledore seems to enjoy talking about the love lives of Harry and his friends, making him look sort of gossipy. Dumbledore isn't like that at all in the books. I only remember him asking Harry once whether he was in a relationship with Hermione.

Once in the movies, Dumbledore grabbed Harry and start shaking him, being very worried for him, which is in a complete contrast to his calm and gentle personality described in the books.

I imagined Horace Slughorn as fat and chubby teacher, as the book described him. However, the guy who played his role wasn't convincingly fat, not to mention his poor acting.

Many of the scenes were horribly wrong. The first scene at the subway where Harry met Dumbledore, did not exist at all. There was no train, no poster about magic, no girl to date Harry, nothing. Dumbledore did come to fetch Harry, but the scene was the Dursley's House, and Harry already knew that Dumbledore was coming.

At the final scene at Hogwarts, there was supposed to be an escalated battle between Death Eaters vs Ron, Hermione, some of Dumbledore's Army and The Order Of The Phoenix. However in the movie, the Death Eaters arrived and exited Hogwarts without any resistance, save for Harry. Snape was supposed to be in a deranged fury when Harry tried to use "Sectumsempra" on him, but he was rather calm as he dueled Harry.

I rate this movie 2/5. The book is so much better.
The only thing worth watching, as many would agree, would be the stunning Emma Watson.

Emma Watson

DEATHLY HALLOWS
I had doubts about how good would the 7th and final installment of the Harry Potter series would be. My friend Leroy said that he didn't like the ending. However, as I began to read the book just a few days back, I fell into the mesmerizing trance which had engaged me the day I set my eyes on the 1st book.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
That's the Slytherin locket, a Horcrux.

I think it took me about 18 to 20 hours to read the whole book over 3 days. This book, is the most exciting and action-packed of the series. Even in the early chapters, Harry's and his friends were threatened with mortal danger. Many friends and loved ones died in this book. Harry also faced Voldemort many more times compared to the previous books.

I thought I could predict what was going to happen, but I was wrong. Many more secrets were revealed and the story took twists that I did not expect, much to my delight :D

I totally relished the idea of the Hallows and Horcruxes, and was very much pleasantly surprised by the epic Battle of Hogwarts.

As with all fans, I wish the story could have ended better, but it was still better than I expected it to be. I wished that Harry would possess all the Hallows, becoming the master of death, before the final fight with Voldemort. I also wanted Ron and Hermione to accomplish something more significant like defeating Bellatrix in a duel or something.

Nevertheless, I am sufficiently satisfied at how things turned out, and I must say that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is possibly my favourite book of the series.

I trust that the movie would not be up to the book's standard, which is very sad. One can only hope for the best :D


Man I gotta be more careful about reading books! Reading Harry Potter books totally messed up my bio clock - I'm sleeping at 5am and waking up at 12nn.

Meeting with Mr Robin Tan

Meeting Point
I was supposed to meet Mr Robin at Bugis, 4pm. However, due to my lack of discipline, I was late. As I was on the train, I contemplated on whether to inform him that I would be late. Deciding that it was basic courtesy to inform him of my unpunctuality, I messaged him that I would reach at 4.15pm. Meanwhile, I was thinking what kind of bad impression I would give him. Well, his reply was that he would be late too :/

Arriving at Bugis, I went to Rockmaster to buy bubble tea as he hasn't reached yet. It cost me $1.80 for that cup of Passion Fruit Milk Tea + Pearls, which wasn't worth it. The pearls were rubbery and overall the drink wasn't up to standard. Oh well, live and learn :)

Mr Robin arrived at 4.30pm. He had an urgent meeting earlier, which was probably why he was late. He led me down to this cafe that sold delectable donuts and coffee. I forgot what the name of the cafe was, except that it had the word "Donut" in it.

The place was delightfully cosy and rather hidden from sight. I've never really noticed the interior of the cafe before. The comfy sofas complimented the ambience, which generated an extremely relaxed atmosphere. Under the dimmed lighting, I mentally noted this place as one of the romantic spots I would bring my future beloved to. Alright, I'll stop here haha :D

It was so nice of Mr Robin to treat me to a donut! He even offered to buy me coffee, which was pretty pricey, so I refused. After eating the donut, my fingers were dipped with cream. Mr Robin then took the initiative to get serviettes for me. I was so embarassed by his kind gesture.

Our Conversation
Mr Robin first asked me what kind of programming I like to do, since there is such a wide variety, including Gameplay, Networking, Physics, User Interface, Artificial Intelligence, Graphics, Audio, etc.

I said that I'm opened to any kind programming, although I do more Gameplay and Physics programming. I also told him I can't really do Networking (it ain't easy) and I'm interested in learning A.I. programming. I guess he wanted to know what kind of tasks he should give me if I were to work for him.

We moved on to talking about the projects he was working on, getting funds, and the speed of which his company developed demos and games alike. He asked me if I brought a notebook. Thus, I fished out my heavy laptop from within my bag and lay it before him. He then began showing me the mysteries of the univer- I mean demo reels of some projects they were working on.

The projects they were working on were enthralling - the standard and excellence in their work was much higher than what I am currently able to produce. And at a much shorter time span. I was further wow-ed by the realistic rendering project that he showed me. Real-time ray-tracing + ambient occlusion. Awesome.

In turn, I presented some videos of the work that I've done so far. As we watched the videos, he commented that we (Bryan, Mujun and I) picked up a lot from our 3 year course at Nanyang Polytechnic. He was quite impressed at Leroy Koo's artwork which he did for our game "Spectral Effect". Mr Robin wanted me to introduce Leroy to him :D

Mr Robin also talked about how his company operated. Envisage Reality's office is stationed at Malaysia, where everyone would gather for meetings and updates 2-3 a week. Otherwise everyone would be working from home, OTOT. He prefers people who can think for themselves and not mindless workers who must be told everything. He says he is opened to ideas and suggestions to make the game better, and not just mindlessly doing a job. The company communicated with each other via email and MSN most of the time. This is how an indie game company operates (which Mr Robin prefers) compared to the professional big names.

This is how he hands out tasks:

• He gives you charge over a component of a project - let's say the entire UI or physics component
• He gives you a rough picture of how it would be like, but he is open to any suggestions or ideas
  
• He sets the deadline and askes if you are able to finish it by then. If you don't think you can, you better say something.
• If you finish it by the deadline, good. If not, he will screw you (his exact words)

While speaking, he had a friendly smile on. I've never seen him angry before, so it'll be interesting to see him screw someone (not me though) XD

Seeing that I may have only 3-4 months to work due to NS, he began telling me about the projects that I would probably take on if I were to join his team. I might be doing some gambling game, which I prefer not to, although I'm okay with it. Well, the game would not simply be a casual game of cards or roulette - there's going to be a special feature which is novel and technologically advanced. I'm not at liberty to share what it is but it is going to take a lot of research to get it done. Even right now, I'm excited yet apprehensive at the notion of taking on this task. Woot.

We continued our chat until about 6pm, before we parted our ways. I'm not exactly sure if I should join this company yet. Thus, I decided to go for one of their meetings in Johor to have a feel of what it is like. I'm praying that God will lead me to right path, 'cause

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." (Pro 3:5-6)

Thank God for an open door! If I am willing to jump aboard, it is almost certain that I can get the job :D Just need direction and wisdom now.

New CG Blog + Sheryl's Birthday!

New CG Blog
Hi guys, sorry that I've neglected the blog for awhile - was busy designing the new W406 blog! It now looks awesome! (Self-praise)

Check out the title picture:

w406 Blog!

Actually I prayed for creativity before doing the picture, 'cause I rather give God the credit and do a better job, although I'm narcissistic :X. I'm very happy that God answered my prayers! I didn't have a plan on how to go about doing the picture, but as I started doing, everything just fell into place!

I just had the thought to use a Linear Gradient as a mask for logo with the wings, and it created a nice fade-to-black effect! I felt that the sea was missing something, and the thought of putting Noah's Ark just popped into my head! Normally, I'm not that creative, so all glory be to God - even in something so simple =D


Sheryl's Birthday
Yay, it was Sheryl's 14th Birthday on 3 June!

Birthday Girl!

Isaiah barbecuing

Piano Cake! So cool!

Isaiah and Xing Jie the devourers

Eugene the Chef!

Cadbury Ferris Wheel!
Ok fine this is a random pic.

Me and Shiqian camera faceoff.
Her cam is much better than mine...

Director Qiming decided to do a stupid drama about giving a high-calorie cake to Model Felicia.

Felicia's "good" singing
nearly gave me nightmares XD

Sorry, I don't have the rest of the nicer photos :( They're all at the CG Blog so please visit it!

Graduation Day!

Yay I graduated from Nanyang Polytechnic, School of Interactive Digital Media with a Diploma in Digital Entertainment Technology on the 29 May 2009!

Me and Chen Thong,
with half of Xuan Yu's face

Xuan Yu and Chen Thong

Me with sian face haha.

Performance by NYP students.
Kinda small in the photo...

Kenny came all the way from Canada!
So touched by his gesture!!! Great to see him again, with his new awesome hairdo hahahaha. It was very much a pleasant surprise XD

Me and Joseph!
This joker dyed his hair later. I was shocked to see his whole hair purple after the Song of Solomon Bible Study. Lawls.

Mr Danny Koh and I!

My Certificate!

Song Of Solomon Bible Study
Pastor Kong preached an awesome Bible Study! I felt that the whole Bible Study was talking about me. He talked about believers who have been christians for some time, but became burnout while serving and do not know Jesus intimately. This was all true for me! The only thing not true for me was about bad leaders who lay heavy burdens on the members - Weiren is a great leader!!!

Pastor preached about getting our first love with Jesus again. This is the best message I've heard since 6 years ago, when I was just a few weeks old in CHC. Back then, Pastor Kong preached about the presence of God, the "Shekinah Glory".

When we sang "Draw me, O draw me away...", we all felt the presence of Jesus and began to tear. Indeed, only Jesus can satisfy completely. My greatest desire is to be passionate in love with Jesus, a step deeper each day! I will lay aside all distractions and discouragement!

Thank you Jesus for your love and faithfulness!!!