21st Birthday

Had a fairly interesting day today. Started off with the pest control coming to spray the house. So since it smells, decided to go out! Wanted to drop by TAF, but it was too early, so I followed housemates to Midvalley. Just walked around a bit, then headed off to Taylor's.

Hmmm....the event is a small-scaled event, with a number of competitions. When I arrived, I think they just finished the cosplay competition. Found my friend waiting for finalist list. Then just walked around looking at the goods and games going on. Nothing much really, but there was a singing competition. Met a few friends there...all of them asked me how come I didn't cosplay lol. Now, if only I have the time and money... Didn't buy anything since nothing caught my eye. Wished I brought a camera though...mine's lousy and broken -_-;; (Oh, my friend won 2nd place in the cosplay comp btw...)

Anyway, hung around until it was time to go to church...before that, I ate at this place called The Street Cafe. I was surprised to see it's Korean! Ordered deokbokki, but it was too spicy and hot so couldn't finish T_T. It tasted good though, and not expensive. Students get 20% discount! And even after I told them I'm not from around there! Must visit again..maybe bring friends next time. Haha, they were playing MVs from Big Bang, Suju and 2NE1. I was singing 'Fire' while eating that spicy deokbokki...how ironic.

Service with Ps Joakim was amazing! He barely preached, instead, he shared many personal stories and testimonies of the young people of Sweden, and how they brought revival to their schools and unis. I was so touched and inspired by their stories. During altar call, the presence of God was surely strong and moving the hearts of the congregation! I pray too that the person in my mind is able to be saved soon.

After service, went to Sushi Zanmai for dinner. Whee~~ XD For a Jap foodie like me, there's no better choice for dinner! 18 of us went! The staff at Zanmai couldn't find enough places for us lol! Food was great, of course. But nothing beats being in the company of friends to celebrate your 21st, yeah? Oh, and it was advance for Samuel. I was just surprised so many went! Even saw some college friends who came for service. Had a nice chat with them too.

Anyway, I had a blast! And coming home to check my FB, I had another surprise of seeing many birthday wishes. Felt really loved and blessed. Thank you Lord for the people around me. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go put up the Jae wallie Jas just made. XD

After the Raya

Hooo dear....

I'm feeling the workload. What with having several meetings in a week, on top of a crazy amount of reading needed. But at least I got to spend a good weekend with my family. They came up for the Raya holidays...which translates to spending time out with them, which equals to less time for assignments, but yeah.

Didn't do anything special...but we went to my uncle's place. And there was a PS2 there!!! I was so happy T_T Just spend the whole day glued to the machine...playing ToA and Star Ocean...finally! The feel of having a controller in your hand and the sight of Fayt going in to bash the enemies with those very familiar skills....sure missed the feel of it. I saw Albel-sama too~~ *dies a happy fangirl*

But now it's back to work....with multiple things to do and loads of stuff to read. Hopefully, by the time the year is out, I'm still alive and well lol.

Gamers, go watch Gamer

SERIOUSLY.

**SPOILER ALERT**
In the future, gaming has revolutionized into a form of virtual reality in reality. Developed by a man named Ken Castle, it started off with a life-simulation game called Society. It pretty much mirrors Second Life and the Sims. Here, a player can control another human being, much like how we control Sims, using them to interact and do whatever in Society...and I really do mean whatever. There are also people who 'work' in Society, people who get paid for being controlled.

A new game, featuring this same model of control, called 'Slayers' was then developed. In Slayers, players control real-life convicts, all who have a death sentence on their heads. I haven't played any war games before, but Slayers is your typical shoot-and-survive game. Convicts are given the chance to go free...if they can survive 30 sessions. And in Slayers, the man closest to being the first to reach that is Kable (real name Tillman). A big part of the movie shows him running around, blowing the brains out of other players in the game, but there's a hint of conspiracy and rebellion through it. On top of it, he's got a wife who is a controlled character in Society and a daughter adopted by someone else. Tillman escapes the system and exacts revenge....or justice, however you wanna see it.

**SPOILER ALERT END**

At first glance, Gamer might look like your run-of-the-mill action movie, complete with fast-paced gun action and pretty gross carnage. It looks brainless, but there is an underlined issue of gaming violence and what it does to people. If you're a psych student like me, you know desensitization and dehumanization.

You can watch it for the bloody galore of it all, but you can also think of the implications the movie has about media violence. Gamer gives us a look at how it's like for the person playing the convict and the convict playing the game. For Tillman, the pain, deaths and violence are very, very real. He carries a psychological burden of having to go into the battlefield...not knowing how many people he would have to kill, not knowing when he would be killed. Yet, his player (a 17-year-old rich brat, Simon) treated the game exactly as it was...a game.

The truth is, no one cared who dies in the game. Blood, gore, violence....the adrenaline rush, that's what drives the population wild every time they watch a live session of Slayers. And to them, Kable is like a shipped hero of that game. So real people died on the other side of the screen...so what, they were criminals waiting to die anyway. That's what's being portrayed in the movie...and it reminds me how human beings remain the cruellest creatures on earth.

Gamer is not a movie for you if you can't stand seeing body parts flying off, or blood spattered all over the place. It's also not for you if you have issues with sexual scenes, since a few players of Society look like their sole purpose in the game is to order their avvies (for the lack of better words) to get laid and watch. Granted, they never did get there, but personally, I found the controller of Tillman's wife really gross.

That aside, it makes for a pretty thoughtful watch...for an action movie anyway.

Pleasant surprise??

I is shocked...but not unpleasantly. XD Nuff said.

Start of new sem

It's just the starting of the sem, but I can see the work piling ahead already. And I decided to be crazy and took 5 subs on top of it. Don't know whether I'm nuts or what, but there's no choice but to do it! Ganbaru! ><

And Karyn's leg isn't getting better...a bit worried about that too. Poor girl's getting depressed just from being so cooped up...but I can sympthasize....since I hate being cooped up with nothing to do either. On another note, Ai Rene's persuasion has finally paid off...and I got back on LJ.

As an aside, just came off PAL today. Met an absolutely interesting tutee....the dude said studying is pointless proudly. But looking at the way he conducted himself...and the way he talked, it looks like he has an interesting character. Talked to him a bit...wondered if I got through... Oh well, he's not exactly under me, but I'm interested in checking out his development. I hope his tutor can handle him...he's a bit tricky to read. And I walked 2 Law freshies back to Main block today, LOL. It's been a good day.