Addicted....

Some of you might not believe how a person can be addicted to a video game. But its true. Its fucking insane. I have to say this "Metal Gear Solid 3" is one piece of killer software. Hideo Kojima is a genius. No wonder some people worship the ground he walks on - he's probably like a god to them.

Then again, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was THE reason I bought my Playstation 2 in the first place. Now's there's another game to add to my collection of games. It's my new favourite in the series, which I'm ranking as MGS3, followed by MGS1 and finally MGS2 (which was a letdown cause of more movie cutscenes and less gameplay)

The genius himself, Hideo Kojima

What the hell is Metal Gear? This masterpiece is a video-game/movie hybrid. Beautiful graphics, excellent music themes. It's like a playable movie, in simpler terms. This game is an achievement, unlike other games - not just a run and shoot game. The game is defined as a "tactical espionage game". It's got hi-tech gear, lots of guns which equals action. You've got to think to complete the mission-objectives. You have to hide from the enemy, use force only if necessary (or if you're feeling sadistic). It's realistic (to a certain degree). Hideo Kojima once said he wanted to be a film director. I can see where the inspiration comes from now.

It excerises more than the finger muscles, the brain gets a work out too :D And then, there are the Japanese chick posters and the sexy female characters to ogle at as well. That's always a bonus.

I'm turning into some kind of nerd/geek now. Basically, this game is taking up alot of my free time which I don't use for sleep now. I'm just waiting for the original to reach the shop. But don't take my word for it read more about Metal Gear Solid 3 - here .

Can't get enough of Metal Gear Solid? How about clicking here ? And while you're at it, check out the official Metal Gear Solid 3 website.

Can someone buy me this limited edition figure? It's only RM 600 or so I heard. Only 5ooo pieces made.

Come to think of it, I haven't updated my wishlist for a very, very long time. So many things, so little money. The XBOX was acting up, giving problems. It wasn't loading some discs. And now the PS2 is acting up! It took me one-bloody hour to load MGS3 last night. I guess I won't be having problems like that if I have the original copy.

I was feeling nostalgic, I bought a copy of the Sega Megadrive Emulator. I was ecstatic when I saw Streets Of Rage @ Bare Knuckles (for the Japanese market) on the cover. This game had excellent music. One of my favourite games back in the early 90s.

Streets Of Rage @ Bare Knuckles Intro Screen

This disc has got hundreds of SEGA games, the kind of video games I used to play in the arcades on on my Sega Megadrive when I was much younger. The memories. Maybe one day, I'll do a blog on my obsession with video games. Any requests?

Today, Y told me that she's gone for an interview and she might be resigning soon. Another one leaving. She's probably going to read this, so I'll remind her that "You owe me a big makan! TGIF's or American Chilli's!". All the best to her of course.

AMO S told me the night before to take the day off yesterday cause I had to work this coming Saturday, reason being "alot of people have resigned and there's not enough people to cover the shift". And today, its Thanksgiving in the USA so more free time for me.

I think its time to carry on with my "Snake Eater" mission. Over and out.....

Lady luck shines on me.....

Once again, time passes by so quickly. It's hard to imagine its been one month since I last updated this blog. Things at work have slowed down abit. It got abit out of control at one point, but everything seems tolerable for now. It seems another 5 people have handed in their resignation letters. Rumours that Mr. Automate himself (another one of the AMO's) have tendered in his resignation. Come to think of it, the AMO's had no idea they'd be taking up a Call Centre job when they applied for it.

Everyone's got an issue with management. We seem to have incompetent people managing us. All of our annual and core leaves have been frozen just because "there have been low service levels and we need all the manpower that we have". I don't think freezing everyone's leave is going to help the service levels, we're already de-motivated as it is and then taking our leaves away is supposed to help? Seems to me the VP doesn't know jack-shit about managing people. It's no wonder more people are leaving for higher pays PLUS regular working hours.

I hear the "banding" has been approved. If all goes well, that means we'll be getting our raise early 2005 *Fingers crossed* There hasn't been any confirmations just yet. Early talks and meetings with the MO revealed that it could be anywhere between a 10 - 20% pay rise, although that was just his guess. Of course the higher the better but we'll just have to wait to see what those figures would be. Hopefully the shift-allowance would be taken into consideration as well.

The past weekend wasn't too good. Had some sort of sudden insomnia. Lack of sleep. Too much excitement going on lately. Our shift from 1am - 10am has been switched again(!!!!!) starting this week. For the next couple of weeks, we're back on the 9pm - 6am shift. It's a good shift - its just the sudden changes that's taking its toll.

The only good thing (other than a monthly salary that pays my bills) to come out of this job is I've won a competition. I don't remember ever winning any prizes so far. Nothing of value anyway. I signed up for a HSBC credit card when I started work and a couple of months back - I got a call. Now I normally curse and swear when I get calls in the day while I'm sleeping. But on this day, it was a call from HSBC and I was one of the "pre-selected", lucky ones who was short-listed for a competition. I had to answer a couple of questions and I'm surprised I managed being in a half-asleep state.

Fast forward a few weeks after that, I get a call from HSBC again (in the morning when I'm sleeping as usual) telling me that I've won a handphone. All I needed to do was to fax in the receipt of credit card purchases of RM 120 or more. The problem was - I didn't really use the credit cards of mine. Spoke to some people who asked be to call HSBC to verify that it was a legit contest. When that was done, I went shopping. I actually spent more than I needed to. Damage: close to RM 300 on 3 work shirts. Ouch.

So the conclusion - I received a letter in the mail the other day for me to claim my prize. It was from the Samsung Distributor.



Not too shabby. A Samsung SGH-X600A. Retail price - RM 950! Sisters were hinting that I should try to get a different model, pay abit of money to top-up the difference. Too bad, can't do that. I know what they wanted - or at least what one fo them wanted.

http://www.samsung.com/my/products/gsm/gsm/images/sgh_e700a_m.jpg">

Well, I wouldn't mind this phone too if I could, still going for about RM 1500 now. But oh well, still a pretty good prize for someone who hasn't won anything before!