For 4 years, I’ve been waiting for this moment, and now, it’s finally here.

Look at it, look at it. It’s so preeetty…

And now that I’ve finally gotten my mitts around a copy of the game, I’m going to gush even more about it like some excited little girl. But importantly, I can now try it out for myself and neglect my work. 800 real-world cars (!!!), including the Nissan GT-R, the Ferrari F2007, and the Le Man Prototype Audi R8 race car, and around 40-something tracks. Yes, I know, most of the tracks don’t really exist in the real world, and you don’t see what all the fuss is about because you’re boring, but still, 800 cars… That’s pretty awesome. And with so many cars and tracks, it seems like a game I’ll be playing for a really, really long time to come. My CAP score screams in horror as I spend hours playing the game everyday, but I love Gran Turismo. Until I get my results…

And that’s not the only drawback with this game. It may have a “Challenge” mode, where you learn more about driving on a track through series of challenges, but there’s no career mode… which is fine actually. Also, I can race with a maximum of 3 other cars at the same time. Yes, not 1, not 2, but 3 opponents. That’s even more than the number of girls I’ve dated.

So exciting…

But then again, the silliness of a 4-car race is justified by, and probably caused by, the frame rate of 60 frames/sec(which is almost unheard of for a driving game on the PSP), and the mostly immaculate modelling of the cars. No grainy, vague looking shapes here. The shape of each car model faithfully conforms to the appearance of its real world counterpart. You can really tell which car you’re looking at just by looking at the shape of it, because here, unlike in NASCAR, a Ford Mustang really looks like a Ford Mustang, which is brilliant. And it’s not just the shapes of the cars that are accurate. You can really discern the different handling characteristics of each car as it pitches and rolls through the corners as well. And if you’re driving a Ferrari Enzo or a McLaren SLR or something that’s supposed to have spoilers that extend at higher speeds, the spoilers actually do that in the game! The first time I drove up behind the SLR in the game and watched the spoiler come up on the SLR, I was so impressed, I drove into its rear end.

It’s this attention to detail that makes Gran Turismo stand out from the rest of the games out there, especially on the PSP, because it’s first and foremost a simulator. If you’re a fan of arcade-style racers, you probably won’t be very fond of this, because this is something that actually requires you to brake 200m ahead of a hairpin turn. It requires you to drive sensibly, and driving sensibly is good. All drivers should learn how to drive sensibly. That way, we’d have fewer women driving on the roads…

One thing that did bother me though, was that you can only purchase cars from 4 manufacturers at any one time. The manufacturers randomly rotate after every other race or event that you enter, so theoretically, you should eventually see all the cars from all the manufacturers after a few lifetimes, when they’ve all become obsolete. I wouldn’t mind this too much, but my PSP seems to be incredibly fond of Nissan, Toyota and Mazda, which is annoying, because I don’t want to buy Nissans, Toyotas or Mazdas anymore. But that’s pretty much the only thing I don’t like about this game. Otherwise, it’s a simulator, and simulators rock. Especially good ones.

After all, who needs 3 girlfriends when you can race 3 other cars around the Nordshleife?

Shine Jesus Shine FAIL

FOC2009’s gone, and so is rally, and bidding, which means the summer break is about to follow suit as well. And so far, the whole summer has been strangely unsatisfying. There’s no reason for this, but I’ve spent the entire summer with dread, this sense of impending doom. What kind of doom, I have absolutely no clue.

I thought the “doom” would go away after FOC, but it didn’t, because we jumped straight into the Rally project. So I thought it would go away after the Rally, which was MM’s last major project, and it didn’t. There was no “Thank God it’s finally over,” not immediately after the rally, not 3 days after, not a week… not ever. It just felt like any other day.

It’s like as if the fact that I can finally put my feet up and chill never really sank in. I’ve still got this overwhelming sense of dread, like as if Facebook is going to be revamped with a Hello Kitty theme, but I don’t use Facebook, so that wouldn’t be so bad… Or like as if BMW’s going to pull out of Formula 1, which is actually going to happen. They’re leaving Formula 1 at year’s end and leave the Sauber Team to die an even more horrible death than they already are this season. It would make my BMW Sauber cap a really cool cap to have though, because the team wouldn’t exist anymore, or at least exist under a different name…

And then there was the CSS AGM, which didn’t help to reassert any sense of normalcy either. Not that it was an extremely important personal thing for me or anything, but I’m just glad we didn’t have more freshmen present, or who knows what they might start thinking of us. I shan’t delve into anymore details. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t entirely bad. It was just… extremely weird, as I’m sure most people would agree.

But I’m not dreading any of that nonsense. I’ve spent the entire summer like this. I can’t even take a proper break and take my mind off everything, ’cos I don’t even know what my mind is on. Is it the impending semester and all its work? Irrational paranoia that I may lose some good people this semester? Money problems? IPPT? That I’ve lost my mind because I don’t know what it’s on??

I’m dreading something, but I don’t know what.

Many thought it would be nothing but vaporware, relegated to the depths of the eternal trash can of development hell. But my faith in Kazunouri Yamauchi and Polyphony Digital has finally paid off – the reason that I really got my PSP is finally here!

Well, at least it’s going to be here. First announced with the original PSP, and with its latest announcement on the same day as the new PSP Go, it’s been christened Gran Turismo Mobile, and is set for release on the 1st of October this year, which means I’ve gotta wait 5 more months to get my hands on it. Unless it gets delayed again, in which case, I’ll probably have to wait for a PSP Come before I get any wind of it again… But my faith in Kazunouri Yamauchi and Polyphony Digital shall prevail, and I trust they will deliver on October the 1st.

And the new Gran Turismo 5 makes me wanna get a PS3, because it just looks absolutely stunning:

I feel so infatuated now…

Final Exams FAIL

The final exams are finally over, which means the semester has concluded, which doesn’t quite equate to me getting a bit of a break. The summer break is shaping up to be a rather busy one, for the first few weeks at least. Meetings, outings, lots of tasks to do. I just opened the drawer in my nightstand a few days ago, and realised that I’ve yet to count my ang pow money. And it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to count it anytime soon, so if you’re in my house and you’re short of money, DON’T TOUCH MY NIGHTSTAND…

Yeah, like as if you’ll actually obey that…

I’m back to my my post-exam tradition of falling sick within the 2 weeks after the last paper as well. I’m supposed to be playing squash right now, but I’m not feeling 100% yet. So instead, I’m sitting here updating my blog so you folks will know that I’m still alive.

Yes, yes, I hear your groan of despair. I’m still here to terrorize you folks with mindless banter and swine flu. So that’s just too bad for you.

Photo: CNETAsia

On a brighter note though (for me), I’ve finally gotten my hands on my new phone. The Nokia N85. It’s got everything I need on a phone, everything I want on a phone, and everything else I never knew I wanted on a phone. There’s GPS, WiFi, a 5MP camera, a music player, a PDF and Office document reader, and it’s all quite complicated, just because there are so many features. But it’s a good phone. Nice camera, good size, feels solid, and it’s pretty responsive too, for the most part. I’m pretty happy about it. But it cost me a good $548, which means I’m gonna eat grass for the next 2 months and disappear.

Yay, no more mindless banter and swine flu… Aren’t you glad?

Please mind your head.

Or it may explode…

Actually, no, it’s not a giant key. It’s the brand new 3rd generation iPod Shuffle (I meant the one on the left. The one on the right is a giant key…), and I never understood why they call this the Shuffle, and the larger one, the Nano. I mean, look at the thing - it’s puny! Which means you won’t know it’s there, which means you’ll leave it in the pants you threw into the washing machine, or in that gap between the seats in the bus. Just imagine going to the lost and found at the bus interchange…

Idiot: “Hey, have you seen my MP3 player?”

Customer Service Officer: “What does it look like?”

Idiot: “It has no buttons…”

CSO: “Oh, it was here somewhere. I must have lost it…”

And yup, it doesn’t even have buttons anymore. It just has a switch on top to select between off, shuffle, and play in order. The rest of the controls are on a small bar along the earbud wire, which allows the player itself to be just about as tiny as my ability to chat girls up.

Which is why I still love my iPod Classic…

It’s recess week, and I’m still afloat! Still alive, and not trying to impale myself with sharp objects. What’s more, I actually got a bit of a break this weekend. After 5 long days of nothing but work, I’ve gotten myself to sit back, and do nothing for 2 whole days. Which end in 10 minutes…

And like most girls, I naturally spent my break going shopping. Except I’m not a girl… Anyway, I went to Ikea yesterday and got myself a rug for underneath the drumset, to keep it from sprouting legs and running away from me while I’m playing. While I was there, I took the opportunity to get myself a rat too. It’s white, machine-washable, and very fat, which makes it really nice to squeeze. I know it’s all very random, but so is the box of lego I bought last week. It’s a model of a mail plane (yes, mail, not male…) that’s quite fat, but not so nice to squeeze.

So in 10 minutes time, the fun ends, and the work continues. 5 tests lined up in the next 10 days, one of which I’d just learnt of this afternoon. Hopefully, it all ends well, but I’m not betting on that.

It’s the end of week 3, and I am quite afraid. I’ve got 1 assignment and 1 tutorial due next week, a project that my team has yet to begin working on which is due in 3 weeks, and another lab session on Monday to hinder me from getting any of that done before the end of the week. I didn’t get much done today either. I spent half the day out of the house, and the other half constantly being distracted by everything around me, which made today another unproductive day.

Yes, another.

I’ve been really unfocused lately, and I’ve never really been able to warm up quickly enough to get on top of my work from the get-go like I have in all my previous semesters. Maybe it’s the lack of a real break since 2 semesters ago, or the riduclous schedule that I have this semester, but whatever it is, it’s leaving me feeling a bit knackered already.

And this is just the beginning…

I’m in love. In love, not with a pretty girl with a svelte figure and a cute face, but with half a dozen sweaty American blokes, including a rather “well-rounded” one.

Fruity eh?

But it’s not as queer as you might think. I’m in love with the Dave Matthews Band! I discovered them a few weeks ago, and I had no idea why I’d never really paid attention to their music before. It’s not just your run-of-the-mill 4 piece band. The Dave Matthews Band is a 5-person affair, involving a singer and guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, a violinist, and a saxophonist. Here’s the band performing “Two Step” and “Lie in Our Graves”.

Yes, that’s a violin he’s playing. Not a banjo, not a tuba, but a violin. 

Everytime I hear the violins enter in “Lie in Our Graves” (it sounds a whole lot better in the studio recording), I get a mental orgasm. I know this sounds even more fruity, but there’s just no other way to describe it – both the feeling and the music. It’s sort of alternative rock, but it’s sounds so much more musical than most of what I’ve listened to. In fact, it’s more like some kind of weird fusion that actually works. It’s a bit of rock, a bit of funk, a bit of jazz, a bit of country, a bit of something else that I can’t quite figure out, and a lot of music. Wonderful to listen to.

And then there’s the drummer, Carter Beauford. That’s the fat dude sitting behind the drums, but you can’t see him very well, because he’s hiding behind that massive drumkit. And what a drumkit that is. It consists of a whole smorgasbord of toms and cymbals. And the best part is that he actually uses every single bit of the drumkit during his performances! It’s insane! It takes a certain kind of drummer to do that, and Carter Beauford is that kind of drummer, and I absolutely love that kind of drummers.

So if you’ve got the time, do check out the Dave Matthews Band, especially their first 3 studio albums, “Under The Table and Dreaming”, “Crash” and “Before These Crowded Streets”. If they don’t blow you away, you’re probably too fat.

The new semester is finally here, not that I’ve been looking forward to it. 6 modules again, but there’s physics this time, plus the MMC looks like it’s becoming a bit more demanding now, so this is going to be another hell of a semester. And I do mean “hell”. I shall finally understand the meaning of the term “Monday Blues” as I fast every other Monday. A full day from 9 to 5. No lunch breaks, no tea breaks, which means my face will turn blue with hunger. Or exhaustion, or both.

If there’s any consolation though, the “Chemistry of the Ocean” module  seems rather interesting. The lecturer keeps pronouncing “salts are” as “salsa” (“The ’salsa’ very concentrated…”), and at one point, he was advising us that “if you’re late, please enter through the backside… door… Enter the LT through the backside door if you know you’re going to be late.”

It looks very promising indeed.