Citadels & Looper

Sunday, October 21, 2012
Secret War Journal[20 October 2012]
It is time to celebrate Qi Xiang's Birthday!


Together with Marcus and Meldon, we had a blast at Mindcafe near Dhouby Ghaut.

We played a match of Settlers of Catan. After that, we went on to play a round of Citadels.

Citadels

Apart from Qi Xiang, I think the rest of us never played this game before. (At least I know I never played before)

At first look, the game may look a bit complicated due to the presence of 4 different sets of cards, excluding the instructional cards. Of course, on hindsight, it certainly looks a lot less complicated than Settlers of Catan but hey, I was not comparing this board game to any game when I first saw the contents.

Basically, in this game, your goal is to accumulate as much points at the end of the game. The game ends at the end of the round when a player constructed 8 districts.

The more expensive your districts are, the more points it would contribute. Players who constructed 8 districts at the end of the game would receive bonus points and the first player to construct 8 district would receive the most bonus points. Some districts have special abilities.

Perhaps, the key element of the game is the character cards. Each round, you get to choose a class/character where no one else knows until it is revealed later phase of the round. Each character has a special ability which you can use in that round. Some abilities include destruction of a district, extra gold, make a player lose a turn.

The remaining 2 sets of cards are bonus decks which you can opt to replace the original cards in the district and character decks. In my opinion, some of the cards from the bonus decks are quite imbalanced and breaks the game but that's just me. :P

The Present
Before we headed off to the cinema, we side-tracked a bit to a nearby games store.

Mind you, this was all planned beforehand.

Qi Xiang had mentioned about this game for quite some time already. Since he does not yet own this game, we decided it would make quite a decent birthday present for him.

Thus, as we entered the store, we started to talk about the latest games available in various consoles. Meanwhile, Marcus went to purchase the game to present it to Qi Xiang.

Qi Xiang looked a bit shocked when he saw the present. He had an expression which said "I can't believe you guys just bought this for me!". Hahas!

Mission accomplished. Time to watch the movie. :P

Looper


In my opinion, it was an insightful movie. Though I won't call it a great movie but it is indeed thought-provoking. Time travel has been a concept that many had imagined. However, many considerations need to be taken when writing a script based on time travel. It is just so easy to create paradox on the fly when you are writing a story with time travel involved.

Looper is one such movie that leads one to feel that the author did not bother to tie up the loose ends in the movie, leaving the paradox unexplained. Of course, it could also be the intention of the author to leave it to the watcher's imagination. Sometimes, explaining the paradox could kill the action in the movie which I would agree in this case since this movie is seriously lacking some thrilling action. Even though I believe it was not meant to be an action movie, but hey, a little more action would not hurt right?

One aspect I really liked about the movie was how the director managed to portray the motivations of various characters in the movie. Despite the lack of screen time for the older Joe, it is not difficult to know the driving force behind his actions. Similarly for Kid Blue, his motivations are also explained in the movie.

Regarding comic relief, I believe one of the best played scene was the anti-climatic scene, much similar to the anti-climatic scene in Iron Man 2. Another well-played act was the conversation between the two Joes in the restaurant.

Comparing to other time travel pieces, I feel that Steins;Gate is still a better option. It could possibly due to the fact that it is not a movie but has many episodes to slowly build up on the time travel concept which gives Steins;Gate ample time to close the loose ends. Steins;Gate allows the audience to get mind-blown as everything makes sense, where everything fits despite the move into the next time line, preventing major paradoxes.


Finally, Looper is a movie that ensures that one would be talking about it after the movie, allowing intellectual discussions on each other's perceptions/understanding of the movie. Each and everyone has different approach to understanding the movie, allowing this movie to be a great topic to converse about in social gatherings. That is where Looper truly shines, I feel.

"I must govern the clock, not be governed by it." - Golda Meir

Big Guts

Sunday, October 14, 2012
Secret War Journal[14 September 2012]
Woah, I hardly could find time to blog nowadays. Funny how that actually sounds. I am now able to go home on Friday nights instead of Saturday morning and I still go back on Sunday nights yet time seems to move ever faster.

I guess I am really growing older. Only old people think time passes faster despite given the same amount of time.

Anyways, this is a short update on my life in army thus far.

I am failing my physical test again. One of a kind, I would say. I am not really sure the reason myself but it happened after I over-exerted my muscles on my first day there.

My strength had went downhill since then. Sometimes, I wonder if I contracted the muscles-destroying virus that one of my former section mates had then. I hope not.

I sure hope I can pass the physical test in one month. That is the time frame given to me by my superiors before I officially fail the entire leadership course. Definitely not a pretty sight. Let's see how sheer determination leads me to, huh?

I hope I can answer to you.

4 times denied
Just yesterday, I had a outing with Jie Sheng, Siew Yan, Bao Lin, and Cynthia. It had been a month since I last saw them. I must really emphasize - Time really flies! 

The original plan was to have some nice dim sum at Ajunied but the plan fell apart mainly due to my fault (and I was the organiser, how great is that?)

Bad things happened to me when I try to reach a place. Most specifically, it started when I want to visit my mum.

First, it all started on Friday morning. The outing was finalised on Thursday. I decided that since the venue was at Ajunied, I could go early myself on Saturday and pay my Mum a visit. I thought of that when I woke up on Friday morning early. Shortly after I decided to do it, I came down with a bad runny nose. I dare say the runny nose ruin my entire day. There were actually moments I thought I would be sick. (Meaning I would have to also cancel the outing altogether, now wouldn't that be sad?)

Second, was the moment I decided to carry out the plan anyways, since I woke up kinda early on Saturday and my nose no longer was acting up. At that moment, my family decided to use the washing machine (when I am the one who normally uses it on Saturdays), causing considerable delay to me since I had to wash my clothes after theirs. (In fact, I was so late I cannot visit my mother before the agreed time to meet the rest)

Third, my nose acted up again. I thought to myself then, it is okay. I can always visit after lunch, since it is near the place anyways. Straight after that, I sneezed and well, my nose acted up again.

Last, Siew Yan decided to change the venue, since I was so late. I guess it is fate. Funny when I sort of give up, my nose recovers. I wonder what is the intended message? I think I do not really want to know.

Why did I suffer so for something that should be my right? Must I be deprived the only few comfort I have in life?

Unseen
Another stupid moment occurred to me on Saturday as well.

I had a short mini heart attack when I left my house and headed for the bus stop. It was the same bus stop that I alighted from last night yet only now did I notice there were 2 bus stops on the same side of the street. I certainly felt quite mind-blown at that moment. Why didn't I see the second bus stop yesterday? I guess I was just too tired huh?

Everything went quite smoothly after this with minimal obstacles given to me. Thus, I reach the destination: Mad Jack in one piece, relatively unharmed (I guess?)

At that point, I realised how long since I last met them. Wow, I just have to say this again, it had been one month.

They had all consumed their lunch, save me. I am so late that I have to eat lunch alone while the rest of them just continued to chat. I have to thank Siew Yan and Bao Lin who ordered some dessert hence avoiding a awkward situation where everyone would stare at me eating. Hahas! I felt kinda bad though, Siew Yan should be saving money but I am indirectly causing her to spend more money. :S
--
After lunch, we proceeded to go shopping! It is time for me to resume my wardrobe renewal once again! At the same, the retail therapy would help. :P

While trying out clothes at some point of time, Siew Yan have to leave. Hmm, I did not get to bid goodbye, how not courteous of me. :O

Anyways, I bought a hoodie and a blue shirt. In the end, I did not get to buy a pair of pants. Dang! Sigh.