The following is an email I received lately:

 

Life is Beautiful...


After 21 years of marriage, my wife wanted me to take another woman out
to dinner and a movie. She said I love you but I know this other woman
loves you and would love to spend some time with you.

The other woman that my wife wanted me to visit was my MOTHER, who has
been a widow for 19 years, but the demands of my work and my three
children had made it possible to visit her only occasionally.

That night I called to invite her to go out for dinner and a movie.

"What's wrong, are you well," she asked?

My mother is the type of woman who suspects that a late night call or a
surprise invitation is a sign of bad news.

"I thought that it would be pleasant to be with you," I responded.

"Just the two of us."

She thought about it for a moment, and then said, "I would like that
very much."

That Friday after work, as I drove over to pick her up.

I was a bit nervous.

When I arrived at her house, I noticed that she, too, seemed to be
nervous about our date.

She waited in the door with her coat on.

She had curled her hair and was wearing the dress that she had worn to
celebrate her last wedding anniversary.

She smiled from a face that was as radiant as an angel's.

"I told my friends that I was going to go out with my son, and they were
impressed, "she said, as she got into the car.

"They can't wait to hear about our meeting".

We went to a restaurant that, although not elegant, was very nice and
cosy.

My mother took my arm as if she were the First Lady.

After we sat down, I had to read the menu.

Large print.

Half way through the entries, I lifted my eyes and saw Mom sitting there
staring at me.

A nostalgic smile was on her lips.

"It was I who used to have to read the menu when you were small," she
said.

"Then it's time that you relax and let me return the favour," I
responded.

During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation - nothing
extraordinary, but catching up on recent events of each other's life.

We talked so much that we missed the movie.

As we arrived at her house later, she said, "I'll go out with you again,
but only if you let me invite you." I agreed.

"How was your dinner date?" asked my wife when I got home.

"Very nice. Much more so than I could have imagined," I answered.

A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack.

It happened so suddenly that I did to do anything for her.

Some time later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant
receipt from the same place mother and I had dined.

An attached note said: "I paid this bill in advance. I wasn't sure that
I could be there; but nevertheless, I paid for two plates - one for you
and the other for your wife. You will never know what that night meant
for me. I love you, son."

At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: "I LOVE
YOU!" and to give our loved ones the time that they deserve.

Nothing in life is more important than God and your family.

Give them the time they deserve, because these things cannot be put off
till "some other time."

Pass this along to everyone with an aging parent, to a child, to an
adult, to anyone with a parent. Here's hoping today is better than
yesterday and tomorrow.

Take care & GOD Bless...

Life is Beautiful...

Just me,
aLi
"Probably, the most travelled Malay Individual in the world..."


Who is aLi?

The Backpacker, The Explorer, The Traveller , The Rugged, The Dream
Chaser, The Globe Trotter, The Mountain Climber, The Nature LoVer, , The
Travel LoVer, The BMW LoVer ...

The following text contains high amount of geeky stuff. Proceed with caution, you have been warned!

 

 

This is what's going on with the mobile game engine I'm working on. Yes, not that much yet. Image processing routines for weather effects, dialog box popper and nooblike rain effect (somebody please show me a proper way to do this). The current rain effect uses wind velocity constant of 10 pixels per frame (PPF), gravitational velocity of 25 PPF (yes, it's too costly to implement gravitational acceleration) and raindrop intensity of 70. The initial horizontal coordinates is random with offset compensation for RHS screen leftovers, and random offset for initial vertical coordinates to produce more random raindrops. The intensity of rain rises from 1 (randomly) to the maximum over time. The overall effect is not as good as what I've seen in Pokemon .

 

As you can see, the dialog box supports pictures and word wrapping. Not shown here is the cool popping effect  Well, it's weekend and I didn't go out... So I have nothing to talk about except these geeky stuff.

 

Ah, just remembered. 'A' asked me about Apache and MySQL today. Seems like he's working on a courseware, said to be 'improving parent-student-college relationship'. Student performance is keyed into the system by lecturers and parents should be able to access them. Another feature is the ability to email parents, giving reports on the overall progress of students. Sounds strangely simmilar with the EDMS used in Catholic High back then. Let's see how it goes.

 

 Planned to slack off from homework today to work on the mobile MMORPG engine I am working on. But to tell the truth, I have no idea where to start. I've always been wondering what makes the top RPGs so successful. It might be the graphics, but to tell the truth, even 2D games can be more immersive than 3D ones. How about the storyline, the gameplay or the amount of detail of the game world?

 

After buying 3 consoles and played a couple of games, I can only summarize what I felt about the games I've tried. As I'm only focusing on the RPG arena, I don't want to think about other genres.

 

First of all, considered to be the king of RPGs - the Final Fantasy series. Final Fantasy I and II do not look appealing to me. The storyline is okay but it lacks the depth I want. Final Fantasy III remake for the Nintendo DS offered something more interesting - character personality. It's rather interesting to watch how characters with different personality interact with each other, dialogues with the same tone is obviously boring. Character artwork for FFIII is another plus. Next, Final Fantasy VII, VIII and IX. The reason I group them together is because they have almost the same characteristics - Awesome storyline, great characters, great artwork, great music. I like the storyline to include plot twists, a bit of romance, lots of action and a touch of comedy. A good variety of character personality further immerses the player into the world. Each non-player character should also have their own background story and stuff, just like real people.

 

Another aspect of RPG that I like comes from the Pokemon series - environment detail. Example of environment detail is of course realtime weather and sun rise/set. Rain, snow, day and night adds realism to the game world. Another one is object interactivity, TV shows latest news happening around the game world, radio plays tunes, piano can be played etc. If this feature is combined with NPC-to-player interactivity to form the NPC-player-world connection, things like an NPC reporter interviewing players and TV showing the results of the interview based on the feedback collected from players can be done. The use of transportations like bike, train, cable car in game worlds is also quite interesting. With all the aspects of environment detail combined coupled with a properly crafted game world, like in Pokemon Gold/Silver and Diamond/Jade, you can really imagine yourself existing in the world till the fact that you can almost smell the air inside the game world.

 

Well, I still need to figure out the setting, gameplay and plot of the game I'm working on. Feel free to comment.

It's been a while. Now I'm having a sudden urge to keep a log of everything going on in my life. Reason? No idea - probably because time is flowing too fast and it's hard to keep up with it. To make things interesting, I will bring you into the world you never once knew; a world in a different perspective; a world perceived by me ('us').

 

This is my story.

 

First and foremost, I live in a place with 90% Koreans, which people gave a nickname "Korean Village" or "Mini Korea". More than 10 Korean restaurants (mostly 'Korean BBQ', I wonder why), 3 Korean mini markets, 1 Korean hypermarket, Korean club house, Korean saloon, Korean cybercafe... If you throw a stone out of the window, it will most likely hit a Korean.

 

I'm a student of KBU International College pursuing my foundation certificate in engineering, science and technology (FEST). The particular class I'm in is FEST5. It's an all-boys class. Yes, no female. None. Nada. The club I joined - KBU Seishinkai Aikido Club is also 100% guys. Gruelling? Yes. But Aikido is a lot of fun though, especially with japanese swords.

 

Every morning, I cramp inside the Kelana Jaya Line (a.k.a. PUTRA LRT) from Ampang Park to Asia Jaya (8:00), or Kelana Jaya (8:25) if I'm late. 7:40AM is rush hour, you're lucky even if there's a place to stand. It's been so for the past 5 years, which I take from Ampang Park to Taman Jaya. I've been so used to this fully computer controlled light rail transit to the extent that I can predict the time for it to go from one place to another, the time for the door to close, the time for it to start after closing the door and even the day for it to fail. And yes, I noticed people here like 'Jaya' alot.

 

After that is getting on the KBU shuttle bus (MASIH SOLO or WAWASAN 2020). In the bus, the usual people there are: Jimmy (FEST5 #1 Smarty Pants), a guy from art class usually seen listening to his PSP, JK (the freshman of FEST5), a girl who likes pink, her friend, a girl which Jimmy thinks is pretty (rarely seen), a guy with specs and dyed spiky hair, and some other random people. Except the ones from FEST5, haven't really talk to them before. The only conversations are probably taxi-pooling related suggestions.

 

In FEST5, we have 23 students. Notable ones are (not ordered in any way):

LS - Big guy with a flat voice and an odd chinese accent. He has a picture of him kissing with his girlfriend in hidden his wallet. With his presence, I can't hear my NDS or PSP.

A - Electric guitarist with rock hairstyle. But the personality is opposite of rock.

MK - A guy who enjoys stealing others chair during lab sessions.

G - #3 Smarty Pants. Ex-head prefect. Likes sweet food. Paranoid-level higenic. Touches hair when nervous. Uses his sister as an excuse not to join Aikido. Part of the usual hangout gang.

W - AKA 'The Pollutant'. Possibility of polluting clean minds. Asst. class rep. Trustworthy. Lost his PSP. Uses his results as excuse not to join Aikido. Part of the usual hangout gang.

Jimmy - Classmate for 2.58 consecutive years. Inhuman memory capacity. The only reason to keep doing my homework (will he ever stop doing homework?!). Anime freak. Part of the usual hangout gang.

S - Don't ever let him do something crucial in your group project.

(I have not much comments on the other people yet)

 

And now, the lecturers:

A - One-stop solution to all kinds of problems. Has funny whiteboard erasing action (complies with Newton's 3rd Law). Our only hope of learning interesting stuff in FEST.

K - She clearly needs to prepare more before class. Look at her mistakes. "Please vibrate your phone."

P - "Olloscope". Having a hard time understanding what he is trying to say. Talking-talking-talking-zzz.

N - Promised to show us the secret behind the materials of Katana. Looks like 'Liang Po-po'.

C - One of our best lecturers. Unfortunately, she left. Super-tough end test.

L(F) - AKA "gunpowder", but much better now. She needs to check her notes/handouts/lab-sheet for errors more often. Interesting teaching method.

L(M) - "OK?" Has an irritating teaching method/attitude. HD-DVD fanboy. At least we watched robots in class.

S - She needs to get her (and her notes') facts right. The only lecturer using LCD projector.

D - Funny gestures.

 

During lunch break, I usually join the hangout gang for lunch in cafeteria or 1U. W drives. It is fun to toy with the sloppily programmed narrating auto-pay machine in 1U. "Please pay... ticket pulang.. ticket pulang.. thank... terima ka.. terima.. terima kasih"

 

End of class, wait for MASIH SOLO (or his brother). 20% chance of not coming, in that case, taxi-pool with the remaining students.

 

That pretty much covers the situation I'm in... I think. If you are reading this (that means YOU), leave a comment if I missed anything.

After hours working on trying to decompile this game to make it run on non-Nokia MIDP2.0 phones, I've found a big problem - a.class is seriously obfuscated, full of missing blocks when decompiled.

 

Anyway, in Penang - I have no idea what striked me but I've found out how to port this game without all the hassle. As the game's main problem is the utilization of Nokia's FullCanvas, why not I just code a wrapper for MIDP2 GameCanvas, disguising as Nokia's FullCanvas? Brilliant eh?

 

It worked, although not without some flaws (at least on my phone). I have the need to patch the control system to let it detect the joystick on my phone (touch screen phones have no numeric buttons). Now, it works flawlessly.

 

Next - My J2ME MMORPG.