Ambitions
Monday, July 6th, 2009
It has been a long while since I last posted here. That goes to show how little time I have for some retrospective and reflection.
I’m a very passionate gamer. If I were to be given a choice between reading a book (or watching TV series) and playing a game, I would most probably pick gaming most of the time as I see the others as wasting time. Don’t get me wrong, I do love reading books, a lot. I have a bookshelf full of books that I’ve collected over the years. Almost all of them are of the fantasy genre and the others, a few fictions from the likes of Ann Rice and Tom Clancy.
Recently however, I started reflecting back on my relatively short life on this planet. Just yesterday at JB Hifi (an Australian retail chain selling games, movies, musics and electronics) I saw a few kids begging their parents to buy them games. I overheard a few teenagers contemplating which DVD to buy and calculating how many hours they’ve to work to get it. A few girls standing in front of the Nintendo DS display eyeing it with desire.
It wasn’t long ago that I was in their shoes, thinking the same things, having to rely on meagre allowance from parents or part time work pay to afford these goods. I remembered having to save for a year plus to buy a PlayStation 3, eight months each for a PlayStation Portable and a Nintendo DS. Further back into Year 12, I saved a year for an Apple iPod (the monochrome non-colour old school version which sadly lasted a year before it died).
I’ve been working for almost a year now. My income levels have vastly increased when compared to my high school and university years. I can easily afford these with my monthly salary although that would mean I have to forgo saving my disposable income for investments. I really do like the feeling of being able to afford things that I used to covet and still do.
Ever since my little brother was born, I stopped getting a lot of things from my parents. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was the first and last console I’ve ever gotten from my parents. The PlayStation and PlayStation 2 was for my brother (although I tend to hog it most of the time =p).
I had to score excellent results before I was given my very first hand phone, the Nokia 8310 whilst my brother got his just because he asked for it. Asking or begging may work for my brother but it never works for me. I never beg. It is disgraceful. It was then I learned the habit of saving and buying things for myself. Parents won’t get me that Gundam Model then fine, I save and bought it myself. Wont upgrade my computer for me? Fine, I saved and upgraded it myself.
After moving to Australia and getting used to the life here, I immediately sought work. Ever since then, I’ve been earning extra income to fuel my purchasing impulses and needs. While my friends may complain that they do not have enough cash to buy anything, I can because I worked for it. I don’t sit on my lazy arse hoping that it will drop from the sky. They always say I have everything I wanted and most of the time yes that is because I worked for it.
For the past year that I was looking for a house to purchase, I felt like a kid again. Many of the houses that I like were out of reach. Whats left were very old two bedroom houses or apartments which are depressing to live in. The ones that I’ve seen and really liked were all at least $800,000 and above.
Recently I saw a $1.7 million house which has every thing I wanted. Smart home living style, split level housing design with chic designer decor, home theater room, high tech electronics, glass staircase railings… Le Sigh. The people that came for the auction (houses are sold mostly via auctions here in Australia) came in Porsche, Ferrari, Mercedes and BMWs. Mind you, not all of them are old.
I felt like crap. Its just like raiding. For every hair tearing boss you down, another pubic hair ripping boss will come along and wtfbbqpwnzor you. Just as in real life, for every social class you climbed, someone will always outgun you.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “Ambition has its disappointments to sour us, but never the good fortune to satisfy us. Its appetite grows keener by indulgence and all we can gratify it with at present serves but
the more to inflame its insatiable desires.”
It is a never ending climb and I think I may be beginning to fall into the trap of having never enough. I fear this will be my downfall someday. Such is the human rat race.
In my desire to increase my income levels, I’ve started a course on Financial Planning to get my CFP designation. It is a very interesting course to take as I get to learn the various way to fine tune my own investment strategy and how to consolidate it. It is quite hard however and between the time spent doing my assignments and studying, there is hardly any free time left for my other endeavor.
My other free time is now being dominated by Lord of the Rings Online. Having read the Lord of the Rings book many times ever since I was twelve, I am a big fan of Tolkien’s work. Being able to live and breathe (albeit virtually) in Middle-earth is one of the greatest fan service I can ever get.
Turbine also did a fantastic job of bringing Middle-earth to life with an incredible amount of polish. Aside from some lore-bending and even some lore-breaking (Rune Keeper aka Sith Lord I’m looking at you) stuff, it is still very much Middle-earth.
I’ve just finished reading the Hobbit and am now reading the Silmarillion and Children of Hurin and I realised how much Turbine dug into Tolkien’s work to bring Lord of the Rings close to the lore. The burglar class is heavily inspired by Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit (heck, Bilbo was included into Thorin’s Company because they needed a Burglar!).
The amount of back story and history Tolkien included in his work is staggering. Reading and playing the Lord of the Rings Online actually inspired me to resume writing again. I used to write a lot in the past and some of it can be found on this blog. I’ve started resume writing by writing a story from one of my character’s point of view, just to get some practice.
I realised that I lack the skills to describe locations and encounters effectively. I’ve even contemplated doing a short course in fiction writing and am still contemplating in fact. I love writing. I used to write pages of essays during English classes and while the teachers said it was good, they asked me to try and write shorter ones.
When I write, I tend to go on and on and on. But when I re-read what I wrote, it doesn’t flow as well as it is in my head. It wasn’t as engaging as I’d imagine it. I really want to be able to write well, and perhaps I may try that short course after all.
I’ve also been listening to Natasha St-Pier, a Canadian born singer who sings in French. It rekindled my desire to pick up French again and I’ve been trying to relearn it from my notes. I really regretted not taking up French earlier in my degree as an elective. I shouldn’t have tried to double major and instead pick on something that I really enjoy, like arts and languages.
Recently, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite has been released on the PlayStation Portable. I’ve played Monster Hunter Freedom and Monster Hunter Freedom 2 in the past and Unite is the summation of all the best parts of the first to Monster Hunters (I’m excluding all the Japanese release here).
My brother used to hate Monster Hunter because he can never get pass the first wyvern, the Yian Kut-ku (many many other people stopped playing too because of that due to the very steep learning curve). Recently, he gave it another go and managed to kill it. He was addicted for the first time.
My other friend, Nicky also gave it another go and after playing with me (he used to solo and didn’t like it), he was hooked as well. I guess having someone to teach the game will make the learning curve less steep. That and Monster Hunter is made for multiplayer! Which brings me to the clever little app, Ad-hoc Party on the PlayStation 3.
Ad-hoc Party is an upcoming PlayStation Network free game service for the PlayStation Portable handheld console which uses a LAN-connected PlayStation 3. The purpose of this software is to extend the PlayStation Portable’s adhoc game function using the PlayStation Network through the PlayStation 3′s built-in wi-fi.
The PSP to PSP ad hoc connection is replaced by a PSP to PS3 ad hoc connection to allow online gaming on a global scale through the PlayStation Network enabled PlayStation 3. It allows advanced online multiplayer functions on the PlayStation Portable such as voice chat and text chat. It is still currently in beta in Japan but we can still use it to play online and it works fantastically.
I’ve another two friends playing Monster Hunter and both of them have PlayStation 3 as well. What a coincidence. Soon we will be having more frequent gaming sessions that was never before possible. The wonders of technology.
Speaking of technology, I’m currently contemplating getting a new phone. My current phone is the Nokia N95 8GB and it is slow. SMS takes about 7-12s to open, battery life is dying, sluggish web browser and overall slow performance with the applications.
At the moment, I’m having a dilemma between Nokia N97, HTC Touch Pro 2 and the iPhone 3GS 32 GB. Both the N97 and Touch Pro 2 have a QWERTY keyboard whilst the iPhone does not. N97′s browser is still sluggish. iPhone’s browser does not support flash. Touch Pro 2 is running on windows mobile despite the sleek Touch Flo 3D interface.
Decisions decisions. That is enough rant for today. Having the Monday Blues now. Hate working on a Monday. Hate working on any day in fact. If not for the money, I wouldn’t be working. But hey, who would work if not for the money eh?
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