4 resolutions for the year 2011:

1. Save $400 a month till early Oct 2011 – up from previous goal of $300 a month.
2. Donate 10% of active income to a charity.
3. Train Active Listening skill – achieve Patience and Recall goals.
4. Reduce BMI to 22 – 65.8kg

Goal 1 – Save $400 monthly

With the year’s budget collated in this week, I see that my $300 dollar savings goal is mostly achievable (except for that period in Nov 2010). This year I am going to up the ante – $400 out of my $1000 stipend is to go into savings. I aim to achieve the $100 difference by introducing the following changes in my life:

• Eliminate all consumption of flavored drinks except when paid for with Daily$ (my credit card’s reward programme).
• Bring lunch to school at least once a week.
• Reduce utility consumption by switching off the computer by 10.30pm, i.e. I should sleep earlier now.
• Reduce cable consumption by claiming channels with points.

Yes, life is going to be awfully boring for the next few months. The increase of $100 though is meant for…

Goal 2 – Donate 10% ($100) to A charity

I “earn” $1000 a month through my student bond with WDA. 10% of that = $100. If Rockefeller can donate 10% of his salary to charity, so can I. The only question left is which charity to donate to, and how to donate it. I favor children charities, although charities dealing with the environment or rehabilitation of convicts are favorable in my books as well; If anyone has a charity to suggest, you know who to call….

Goal 3 – Train Active Listening – Patience & Recall

I spent part of the past week soliciting feedback from a few people. The result is largely anecdotal rather than statistically conclusive, but the result is that I tend to come off as largely overbearing and confrontational in my dealings.

For those wondering, yes, it hurts to be critiqued. But I can do a lot worse than honest feedback.

To prove that this leopard can indeed change his shorts, I worked out some personal guidelines to follow in the year.

• When listening, tilt head at approx 3-5 degrees. (Trigger point)
• When a query comes into my head, note down on pad rather than blurting. (Recall)
• Mentally count 2 seconds after a speaker finishes. (Patience)
• Rephrase conversation in mind as list of bullet-ed points, refresh and confirm with speaker at appropriate times. (Recall)
• At end of conversation, confirm actionable items with speaker. (Recall)

For those wondering, yes I dislike vague/generalized resolutions. The steps above are a series of “ritualized” actions, a reminder to myself if you will, to perform certain actions, much like how I trained my eyes to open/close individually.

(That reflex, by the way, is still imperfect, so no live demonstrations.)

Goal 4 – Reduce BMI to 22

My present body weight is 68.5kg, height 1.73m, rounded off to nearest “nice” value. That gives me a BMI of 22.9 kg/m2. After verifying via the Heath Promotion Board’s circular (vaguely recalled the changes in BMI ranges from a newspaper article a few years back), I am barely within the safe limit.

The new goal is another “nice” value: 22 kg/m2. That gives me a target weight of 65.8kg. Well either that or I better start growing taller.

Things to change:

• No using of escalators/lifts for heights less than 4 floors.
• Walk home from Kovan rather than take the shuttle from Serangoon.
• Review efforts in April 2011.

References

StudyGS article on active listening: Click here.

Buzzle.com Effective Listening: Click here.

Health Promotion Board on BMI ranges: Click here.

It offers free books.
It offers free magazines from lifestyle to scientific online through its eResources service.
It has Bloomberg terminals for those who want to be stockbrokers.
It has movie/animation/drama DVDs for loan. (2 per user for 2 weeks, unless you are a Premium member, than it’s 4 per user)
Most importantly, it also offers PC games.

By PC games I do not mean just casual titles like Diner Dash or edutainment software for kids. I mean the good stuff. Far Cry 2, Universalis Europa III, Worms Domination for the old-school. Disclaimer: the library’s collection of games is pretty random. I see copies of Nancy Drew beside Killing Floor and a Barney adventure game.

I nailed a copy of Settlers VII and Puzzle Quest together with a few novels.

Puzzle Quest is an addictive game that innovates on Bejeweled’s gameplay. Instead of just matching 3 orbs of the same color together in a line for points, these orbs now serve as mana for you to fling spells at your opponent, with the goal being to reduce your opponent’s life bar to 0. There are 2 ways to reduce their life bar: Match 3 or more skull orbs or use your spells, which require a certain number of color orbs of various colors. Spells also do more than just damage your opponent; some spells allow you to change certain orbs to a different color on the game board, some remove certain orbs from the board, some destroys those orbs for a certain effect (with more orbs destroyed granting extended duration or a more powerful effect).

Narrative-wise, the story is pretty bland, with some funny bits to liven up what is essentially a grind (leveling system). Audio is forgettable, but serviceable. What drives the game is the gameplay itself, with me always just wanting to go “one more challenge”.

The only other notable activity I have been engaging is swimming, for about 2-4 hours each session. Work on the GDD is definitely not up to schedule; still editing the Human Race GDD, which is not a good place to be, considering how much more stuff I have to do still. On the flip side, I have done up some of my other stuff, as well as spent a goodly bit of cash for the Xmas period.

To be exact, I finished tabulating my expenditure for the year 2010 (up to Nov) with the recent arrival of my utility bill for Nov. A summary below with nice colorful graphs:

For those who want to use my template for their own expenditure monitoring, below is the link to a preview/download page.

Expenditure sheet for 2011: Preview (Google Docs)

Note: I have to apologize for the messy layout. This spreadsheet kind of grew organically; I tend to tag on new stuff as I discover I needed them from month to month.

The quick Summary

I want to acknowledge the fact that the money I spent monthly is unrealistically low for most people. Why?

First, I do not have to spend money on rental or mortgage for the roof over my head. That will easily double to triple my monthly expenditure.

Second, a third to half my meals are eaten at home, and I often bring leftover food to work/school for lunch as well. Again, this can easily double to triple my monthly expenditure, especially if you work in the city area where food is alot more expensive.

With that said, I do firmly believe that it is possible to spend less than $1,500 if you plan ahead and commit to being frugal.

“Analysis” of my Year’s expenditure (TL;DR section)

I started monitoring my expenditures in Mar 2010. The number in Feb’s Savings column represents my total “emergency” fund, or monies that I keep on hand to deal with those hiccups that crop up in life.

My work as a contract teacher earned about $2900 a month, which dropped to $2400 once I deduct my CPF contribution. As you can see from the picture above, slightly more than half my paycheck went straight into savings, mainly because I wanted to fatten my fund till it hit $20,000 (my original target).

In June I left the job and went on a trip to visit some family in San Diego, which explains the $940 deficit in the month of Jul.

Starting Aug, I embarked upon the SPUR programme with Digipen, which paid a monthly stipend of $1000. Expenditure from Aug onwards contracted sharply as well.

By the end of Nov I have saved a total of $14,000 in my “emergency” fund.

In conclusion, I have failed to meet my $20,000 savings mark. Mostly this is due to the loss of income from Jun onwards. However, I am happy with my monthly saving rate.

On a side note, average figures at the end of the summary are on the “optimistic” side because there were no figures for Jan/Feb expenditure.

The year ahead – 2011

For this coming year I doubt I can make the $20,000 savings mark again – $400 saved a month for 12 months = $4800 saved + $14,000 original = $18,800.

What I can do is to push my monthly savings to $400 on average. The extra $100 in savings will go towards some long term goal that I will decide by New Year’s Eve.

10am: Went for a short run/walk around the neighborhood and then some bat swinging to round it off.

11am: Youtube surfing (Starcraft II quotes are addictive to listen to) for almost an hour.

7pm: I spent the day clearing my D drive.

8pm: After dinner some last minute xmas shopping at AMK Hub and Serangoon Nex. Expenditure exceeded expectations, but considering my expectations were extremely frugal, it’s still within my limits.

10pm: Still clearing space in my D drive. With luck I should have 50GB of free space by the end of this session. Also started on a bottle of Cienna, a sparkling red desert wine.  I find it a bit too sweet, but it definitely will go well in a cocktail. Ah well…

12am: I have little tolerance for alcohol, or to put it in a positive light, I enjoy the full effects of alcohol at maximum efficiency. I am still sober, but light and heavy headed at the same, which will definitely help in sleeping tonight. Oh yeah, Merry Xmas, here’s a song to commemorate that day.

Morning 0900hr

Woke late, and lethargic. Minor headache from oversleep. Spent the morning sorting through my music and drafting more changes to the Human Race GDD.

Afternoon 1330hr

Lunch: laksa. Reading my readings and surfed Gamasutra. Headache cleared up but aching back due to cool weather.

Anyway, news from Gamasutra is depressing to read, with lawsuits and haggling hogging the headlines. Class action suit against EA for illegally abusing its Madden/football license, more animosity in the ongoing soap opera that is Activision vs Infinity Ward vs Treyarch with Activision adding EA to its list of legal targets (MOAR DRAMA), Viacom defends itself from shareholders in Harmonix looking to sue the pants off someone for their money back.

On the flipside, the features have churned out more interesting stuff. Art director Brian Thompson talks about how art drove the game direction in Drawn (PC casual adventure game), a fascinating perspective on game design.

Eun-Seok Yi from Nexon (Korean studio specializing in MMOs, famous for Maple Story) talks about the future of MMOs.

Lastly, an analysis of the Left 4 Dead franchise with respect to SRK (Skills, Rules, Knowledge) cognitive framework, i.e. designing based on how players approach/understand new information, then introducing variation in an established knowledge/understanding framework.

Evening 1900hr

Runny and sensitive nose. Finished a few stages in Ace Combat 5 but losing momentum in the 2nd playthrough. Forcing players to play exactly as you design or facing an instant Game Over is extremely demotivating.

Night 2230hr

Frequent sneezing, dry and red eyes. Slight fever as well and my back is aching to the point I have to lie down.

Edit: Added readings to post for those interested.

Yes, a bunch of grown men huddled together staring at pieces of paper (character reference sheets) while moving tokens on pieces of paper and talking in turns. It is pretty amazing how Final Fantasy, Dragon’s Age, World of Warcraft and pretty much most RPGs are evolved from this single idea of roleplaying using dice and a table of values. More photos of the guys, this time with a game board:

Started editing the Human Race GDD while munching through the spread. List of amendments (crossed out indicates completed):

• Be pronoun-neutral where possible.
• List advantages of target platform (half done).
• Highlight strengths of Human Race as compared to other existing products in the market analysis section.
• Combine Sample Playthrough together with Design Setting section. Sample Playthrough should be placed after General Overview.
• Remove arbitrary constant in the fulfillment equation.
• Determine the typical number of Myers-Briggs questions as the industrial standard (88) .
• Create a section within GDD to accomodate sample questions for the Myers-Briggs questions. (Verifying questions for inclusion)
• Fully describe the Sample Playthrough, particularly actions taken by player Bill within a stage. Playthrough should fully describe at least a single game “turn”, the smallest iteration of a player’s decision-action sequence.
• Are Xbox or other USB controllers supported out-of-box? If so, list controls and state explicitly if the controls can be modified by user.
• Rework menu/screen flow chart into a proper decision flow chart. Use Visio if necessary. (In process of acquiring Visio for home com)
• Describe elements of HUD in text to supplement mock-up picture.
• Rework Resources section in Excel.

Lunch was light considering how heavy breakfast was, and then I sat down and got in a lot of time with Ace Combat 5.

The “leveling” system to unlock new planes within Ace Combat 5 is fairly interesting, although I definitely prefer the Ace Combat Zero’s method of achievement-related unlocking. Having to buy planes for my wing-mates is annoying because they really do little to support my fights except to pick off tails on my 6. After 1 playthrough of the game over all 27+1 stages, I have 766 kills versus a combined total of 110 kills for my other 3 wing mates. Arcade mode in AC5 is the biggest disappointment; I was expecting something along the lines of a rail shooter a’la Afterburner, not some empty stage with a kill counter and a mission to destroy X number of planes.

Evening, went to the pool for a swim. Very much out of practice, I could only manage 10 laps. Topped up the tank at the gas station, pumped the tyres, home for dinner.

Finished 3 more readings, more AC5 (completed first playthrough of game at about 1am), sleep at 2am. No nice pictures to share this time, but AC5 really is the most innovative of all the AC games. First you sink 1 submarine carrier that does an AOE that hits all targets below 500 feet.

Some stunt flying next, and typical Ace Combat fare (bombing runs, close air support, air superiority battles). Next you have to shoot down a stratospheric flying fortress that fires a freaking laser beam at anyone under it (and all its launchers/engines are on its underbelly).

After this you discover that the enemy wants to drop a colony, I mean an artificial satellite on your capital city a’la Gundam, so you got to pull off a Stars Wars number and perform a Trench run on an underground facility to take out its control facility because the Army just cannot seem to get vehicles there.

If all that was not enough, you have to shoot down a falling artificial satelite that looks suspiciously like an [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_Three]O’Neill cylinder[/url]:

(Besides, I really need the practice in writing.)

20th Dec 2010, Monday
Woke at noon, ‘coz I partied too hard at Audrey’s & Leow’s place the night before. Brunch, worked out some tasks to complete during the hols, list as follows:

• Revise Human Race GDD as discussed in the meeting: schoolwork that has to be done, and the list of changes covers an entire A4 page.
• Complete the DnD Character sheet for my half orc Warden: better do this by Tue so I can get Leonard to vet for the next chapter in his campaign.
• Tar, Road & Santa v2 board game: I need to read my observations & analysis to get back up to speed on the changes the me of 2 months ago decided.
• Start Push/Pull GDD: The germ of that game idea really needs to be put down on “paper”.
• Finish the present batch of readings: Readings have been piling up on my inbox for the past month, it’s time to make a sizable dent.
• Finish uncompleted games: Incomplete list of games uncompleted: Persona 3 (Last 2 months of the game-year), Ace Combat 5 (loan from Poon), Ace Combat Zero (3rd Ace path and Bronze Wing achievement), Front Mission 4 (Last simulator mission and last story mission), Fate Unlimited Codes (do 1 playthrough and figure out the mechanics), Shatter (2nd world and counting)
• End of Year Budget: Time to tally up my expanses and see how much I saved over the year. I can’t make my 20k saving goal (income 1/3 of projection because I quit my teaching job) but I should still be able to make my saving/spending ratio.

So first up: Ace Combat Zero. Finished the Knight Ace playthrough, but Mission 18 ended in a A rank… no Bronze Wing. Unlocked the 2 super planes though (Falken and Morgan) which look really sweet, especially the 360 panorama view screen in cockpit view. I will push the Bronze Wing back together with getting all the Knight path assault records, need to make a list of names and stages.

Ace Combat 5 next. If there is 1 thing that Ace Combat 5 has, it’s cinematics. A lot of it. Finished up till mission 7 with a mixed bag of ranks. Having to repeat an entire mission if you die at any part can get extremely tiresome.

Dinner started late, at about 6.40pm. Had to rush through dinner because I have to attend this concert down at Singapore Conference Hall.

Still ended up late, missing the first piece on the repertoire. El Camino Real was not bad, the enka medley would have been better with a singer, the choice of Japanese anime theme (Galaxy Train 999, Space Battleship Yamato) is unfortunate because it’s not that well-known in Singapore, even with the “revival” Yamato movie out recently. My favourite would be the Riverdance piece, Rwinds should introduce more energetic pieces in future performances.

The Raven

by Edgar Allan Poe

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore–
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visiter,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door–
Only this and nothing more.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;–vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow–sorrow for the lost Lenore–
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore–
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me–filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating
“‘Tis some visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door–
Some late visiter entreating entrance at my chamber door;
This it is and nothing more.”

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,
“Sir,” said I, “or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;
But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,
And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,
That I scarce was sure I heard you”–here I opened wide the door–
Darkness there and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token,
And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, “Lenore?”
This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, “Lenore!”–
Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my sour within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping something louder than before.
“Surely,” said I, “surely that is something at my window lattice;
Let me see, then, what thereat is and this mystery explore–
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;–
‘Tis the wind and nothing more.

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he,
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door–
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door–
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then the ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore–
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,
Though its answer little meaning–little relevancy bore;
For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being
Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door–
Bird or beast upon the sculptured bust above his chamber door,
With such name as “Nevermore.”

But the Raven, sitting lonely on that placid bust, spoke only
That one word, as if its soul in that one word he did outpour
Nothing farther then he uttered; not a feather then he fluttered–
Till I scarcely more than muttered: “Other friends have flown before–
On the morrow he will leave me, as my Hopes have flown before.”
Then the bird said “Nevermore.”

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,
“Doubtless,” said I, “what it utters is its only stock and store,
Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful Disaster
Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore–
Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore
Of ‘Never–nevermore.’”

But the Raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,
Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;
Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking
Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore–
What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore
Meant in croaking “Nevermore.”

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom’s core;
This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining
On the cushion’s velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o’er,
But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o’er
She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
“Wretch,” I cried, “thy God hath lent thee–by these angels he hath sent thee
Respite–respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!
Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe and forget this lost Lenore!”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!–prophet still, if bird or devil!–
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted–
On this home by Horror haunted–tell me truly, I implore–
Is there–is there balm in Gilead?–tell me–tell me, I implore!”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!–prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us–by that God we both adore–
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore–
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

“Be that our sign of parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting–
“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul has spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!–quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadows on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted–nevermore!
Resources:

Further Reading (Wikipedia):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raven

Full Text of Poem taken from Every Poet:

http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Edgar_Allen_Poe/edgar_allen_poe_the_raven.htm

Queen’s Blade Main Theme 1

Queen’s Blade is an ecchi series of “visual combat” books, which are essentially books that lets the reader choose the protagonist’s path by turning to the relevant page.

The Queen’s Blade books enjoyed cult success, and in 2009 was made into an anime, enjoying 2 season runs of 12 episodes each. Personally, the anime’s plot was terrible, a stereotypical hero’s journey involving scantily clad women with out of the world proportions. If that does not stretch your disbelief, try a slime shaped in a busty woman that shoots acidic milk out of her mammaries (Melona for those wondering), or fighting that involves more cloth ripping than blood spilled.

What saved the anime from eternal damnation were a few pluses: the pacing is better than most anime and voice-acting is top notch, involving famous names in the field like Rie Tanaka, Yuko Goto and Rie Kugimiya etc. Another major factor is the memorable soundtrack, especially the pieces that play during high tension scenes.

The main theme of Queen’s Blade, simply titled “Queen’s Blade Main Theme” in the OST, is actually 2 songs, part 1 and part 2. The 2 parts differ in the introductory section and the portion prior to the main refrain, mainly because of the situations in which they were used: Part 1 was used in the anime’s introduction while part 2 plays during comebacks from a disadvantageous situation. In both cases, the main theme actually refers to the main refrain, a series of string sections that form a rising crescendo.

Queen’s Blade Main Theme 2

Part 2 starts with a solo flute amid low bass drums simulating a thunderous and threatening sky. Organ chords are played to raise the tension which then leads to the strings playing a variation of the main refrain.

The main refrain itself plays midway through the song at 1:23, and continues relentlessly, a celebratory march as the protagonist marches/rushes to victory, ending in a final soaring crescendo.

Another great piece from the soundtrack is the preparatory theme prior to a battle, called Takai no Theme.

Takai no Theme