It's that time of the year again; Where we have to move out from out comfortable old apartment to a new one. Hauling ass and stuffs to the new apartment was tiresome.
But it's not over yet. I'm currently without a home since I'm only allowed to move in on the 20th. Till then I'm a homeless guy living in a friends' house. The process of moving into the new house is gonna be the same tiring stuff all over again.
Luckily I don't have that much things to move. Since I keep my shopping for new clothes to the minimum I only have 1 luggage of them. All the others are electronics, games, computer parts.
Hopefully this new apartment has better beds than the last one. For more than a year I had to endure sleeping on a bed that was broken right in the middle. My back can't take it any more. So does hers'..haha
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
Mayhem Festival 09!!!
Another great day to update this dusty blog. This is gonna be a looong one. So many things to write, and share. So bear with me.
As you may(or may not care to) know, Mayhem Festival is here again. It's one of the things I look forward to during this boring summer break. I went to last year's mayhem with Slipknot and Disturbed headlining them. It was a blast, but child's play compared to this years'.
First and foremost, there's a lot more of my favorite bands. That includes Trivium, Bullet for My Valentine, Killswitch Engage, God Forbid and All That Remains. One time or another, their songs were featured in my blog post. If you're interested, (who am I kidding) you can use the little search bar up there to find their respective post.
Anyway, the concert/festival was held on sunny Sunday at Tinley Park near Chicago. Since the others are fainthearted with these kind of concert, I traveled alone to the concert to join my metalheads brethren. I drove in a fast and fun Mazda 3, only stopping once to fuel the car an my stomach. I had a Double Whopper w/ cheese and that was the only meal for my whole trip.
I arrived quite early at 1.00pm. After standing in line for half and hour just to get pass the gate item check, I was free to roam around. The first thing in my list was to buy a tshirt. However, I bought two: a Trivium and a Killswitch Engage shirt. There were 3 stages; two small ones and the main stage like every other year. Last year I wasn't interested in the small stage acts since they mainly new and upcoming metal bands. But this year was different, all 3 stages are filled with respectable experienced bands.
While wandering around collecting free items, I saw that there is gonna be a signing session with Trivium. My heart jumped. I was so excited more than the time when I saw my first porn. I can't be more obvious; circling the tent waiting for a sign of queue line to form even though there was 1 more hour before the session starts. Fast forward 1 hour, I was about to get their autographs. I was thinking of what to say to them. I ask Paolo why he'd shave his awesome hair. He said he was sick of long hair. When it was time to meet Matt Heafy, the vocalist and guitarist of the band, I was lost for words.
Here was the scene:
Matt: How you doin'? (shake hands)
Me: Err, good, good. I love your songs. Can I maybe take a picture with you?
Matt: Sure. Let that guy hold the camera. (take this awesome pic).
Matt: So, what ethnicity are you from?
Me: I'm Malay.
Matt: Great to see another Asian Metalheads! I'm Japanese.
Me: I know dude. Thanks.
It was one of those memorable moments that I won't soon forget. Right after taking Trivium's autographs, God Forbid performance was almost over. While the stages is set up for the next performance, which was All That Remains, I managed to snake my way into the middle of the crowd.
As soon as the band started to play, the crowd went wild. I was thrown around in the sea of people. I was so tightly squeezed that I was sure that if I jump, I'm gonna pop on top of the crowd. While watching the band I was also busy protecting my stuff. I had a bag filled with tshirts, free stuff and autographed posters. Too busy was I that I wasn't aware that a mosh pit has formed around me. A mosh pit is a circle where people slam each other just for the adrenaline rush. Google it if that doesn't make sense. I did managed to get out with my limbs still intact.
Once All That Remains performance was over, there was a 30 minute break for the roadie to set up for the next act. It was gonna be none other than TRIVIUM! This time I got even closer to the stage. I was literally within 3meters of the stage. This time I was not gonna budge. Two guys beside were holding tall beer cans in their hand. I had a feeling they were not gonna finish them in time for the performance and I was right. When Trivium entered the stage, everyone was jumping and pumping their fist in the air. Before anything else, I was wet with beer.
But I was not gonna let that stop me from enjoying my self. Matt Heafy was awesome. His singing is even better live. They're guitar works were not lacking from the recorded version. That's a good thing since I hate bands that cannot perform as well as their recorded act.
Trivium played 5-6 songs. I remember them playing Down From the Sky, When All Light Dies, Pull Harder on the String of the Martyr, and finally Throes of Perdition. Once they're finished, I was soaking wet with my own sweat, other people sweat and beer. I went to the bathroom to clean myself. It's now 6:30pm and the performance on the Main Stage is about to start.
This is just the half way point of the trip. There was alot more happening. I'm just gonna continue at a later time.
As you may(or may not care to) know, Mayhem Festival is here again. It's one of the things I look forward to during this boring summer break. I went to last year's mayhem with Slipknot and Disturbed headlining them. It was a blast, but child's play compared to this years'.
First and foremost, there's a lot more of my favorite bands. That includes Trivium, Bullet for My Valentine, Killswitch Engage, God Forbid and All That Remains. One time or another, their songs were featured in my blog post. If you're interested, (who am I kidding) you can use the little search bar up there to find their respective post.
Anyway, the concert/festival was held on sunny Sunday at Tinley Park near Chicago. Since the others are fainthearted with these kind of concert, I traveled alone to the concert to join my metalheads brethren. I drove in a fast and fun Mazda 3, only stopping once to fuel the car an my stomach. I had a Double Whopper w/ cheese and that was the only meal for my whole trip.
I arrived quite early at 1.00pm. After standing in line for half and hour just to get pass the gate item check, I was free to roam around. The first thing in my list was to buy a tshirt. However, I bought two: a Trivium and a Killswitch Engage shirt. There were 3 stages; two small ones and the main stage like every other year. Last year I wasn't interested in the small stage acts since they mainly new and upcoming metal bands. But this year was different, all 3 stages are filled with respectable experienced bands.
While wandering around collecting free items, I saw that there is gonna be a signing session with Trivium. My heart jumped. I was so excited more than the time when I saw my first porn. I can't be more obvious; circling the tent waiting for a sign of queue line to form even though there was 1 more hour before the session starts. Fast forward 1 hour, I was about to get their autographs. I was thinking of what to say to them. I ask Paolo why he'd shave his awesome hair. He said he was sick of long hair. When it was time to meet Matt Heafy, the vocalist and guitarist of the band, I was lost for words.
Here was the scene:
Matt: How you doin'? (shake hands)
Me: Err, good, good. I love your songs. Can I maybe take a picture with you?
Matt: Sure. Let that guy hold the camera. (take this awesome pic).
Matt: So, what ethnicity are you from?Me: I'm Malay.
Matt: Great to see another Asian Metalheads! I'm Japanese.
Me: I know dude. Thanks.
It was one of those memorable moments that I won't soon forget. Right after taking Trivium's autographs, God Forbid performance was almost over. While the stages is set up for the next performance, which was All That Remains, I managed to snake my way into the middle of the crowd.
As soon as the band started to play, the crowd went wild. I was thrown around in the sea of people. I was so tightly squeezed that I was sure that if I jump, I'm gonna pop on top of the crowd. While watching the band I was also busy protecting my stuff. I had a bag filled with tshirts, free stuff and autographed posters. Too busy was I that I wasn't aware that a mosh pit has formed around me. A mosh pit is a circle where people slam each other just for the adrenaline rush. Google it if that doesn't make sense. I did managed to get out with my limbs still intact.
Once All That Remains performance was over, there was a 30 minute break for the roadie to set up for the next act. It was gonna be none other than TRIVIUM! This time I got even closer to the stage. I was literally within 3meters of the stage. This time I was not gonna budge. Two guys beside were holding tall beer cans in their hand. I had a feeling they were not gonna finish them in time for the performance and I was right. When Trivium entered the stage, everyone was jumping and pumping their fist in the air. Before anything else, I was wet with beer.
But I was not gonna let that stop me from enjoying my self. Matt Heafy was awesome. His singing is even better live. They're guitar works were not lacking from the recorded version. That's a good thing since I hate bands that cannot perform as well as their recorded act.
Trivium played 5-6 songs. I remember them playing Down From the Sky, When All Light Dies, Pull Harder on the String of the Martyr, and finally Throes of Perdition. Once they're finished, I was soaking wet with my own sweat, other people sweat and beer. I went to the bathroom to clean myself. It's now 6:30pm and the performance on the Main Stage is about to start.This is just the half way point of the trip. There was alot more happening. I'm just gonna continue at a later time.
Friday, July 10, 2009
The perfect beauty
Hey kids, it's time again for another episode of "upgrade my pc".
This is my biggest upgrade yet this year. And the most expensive. This time I changed my computer case and power supply. Both are least look upon when buying a new computer, yet play an important role nonetheless.
Enough chitter-chatter, time for some pics. Let them explain whats the fuss is about.
The front looks mean, muscular and yet sexy in black
The side also looks muscular, and the HAF label adds class.
The inside of the case as you can see, is very roomy. It can fit full size graphic cards and still have a couple of inches to spare. In my previous case, the cards would hit the harddisk cage.
You can see the Megahalem cpu cooler in push-pull configuration. Meaning there's 2 fans working together to drive the heat away from the heatsink. The top fans is a HUGE 200mm fan.
In the dark, you'll notice the red front case fan. There's also the blue motherboard LED and green Razer sound card. Not really a light show, so they won't disturb me from sleeping.
Next, I hope you notice how clean and organize the components look inside the case. I spent 2 hours hiding unnecessary cables and routing it through the back of the case. Luckily, the case has a great cable management system with holes in perfect spots to slide cables through. Keeping the cables unseen is really an art combined with skills. It's like rearranging the furniture in your house to make it look roomy and easier to navigate.
Finally, I ran 3Dmark benchmark programs to see how the computer performs. There's huge improvement from my previous score. Also, the cpu runs cooler with a drop of 4C in temp just with the change of case. That's a lot since I said in my previous post, every degree counts.
3dMark Vantage score P20675
3dMark06 score 21492
This is my biggest upgrade yet this year. And the most expensive. This time I changed my computer case and power supply. Both are least look upon when buying a new computer, yet play an important role nonetheless.
Enough chitter-chatter, time for some pics. Let them explain whats the fuss is about.
The front looks mean, muscular and yet sexy in black
The side also looks muscular, and the HAF label adds class.
The inside of the case as you can see, is very roomy. It can fit full size graphic cards and still have a couple of inches to spare. In my previous case, the cards would hit the harddisk cage.
These are the two GTX260 in SLI. That's a lot of graphic processing power.
You can see the Megahalem cpu cooler in push-pull configuration. Meaning there's 2 fans working together to drive the heat away from the heatsink. The top fans is a HUGE 200mm fan.
In the dark, you'll notice the red front case fan. There's also the blue motherboard LED and green Razer sound card. Not really a light show, so they won't disturb me from sleeping.Next, I hope you notice how clean and organize the components look inside the case. I spent 2 hours hiding unnecessary cables and routing it through the back of the case. Luckily, the case has a great cable management system with holes in perfect spots to slide cables through. Keeping the cables unseen is really an art combined with skills. It's like rearranging the furniture in your house to make it look roomy and easier to navigate.
Finally, I ran 3Dmark benchmark programs to see how the computer performs. There's huge improvement from my previous score. Also, the cpu runs cooler with a drop of 4C in temp just with the change of case. That's a lot since I said in my previous post, every degree counts.
3dMark Vantage score P20675
3dMark06 score 21492
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Prototype
After 3 weeks of playing on and off, I finally finished Prototype. This is a really great sand-box action game. You take on the character Alex Mercer, who lost his memory but found out he has incredible superpowers. He can manipulate his body into weapons, change his appearance and run up buldings. But that's just a tip of the iceberg for the cool stuffs he can do. The story is so convoluted that I will not even try to explain it. Just watch this awesome trailer to get the basic idea. Owh, and I bet you can guess why this game is rated mature from the trailer.
I took more time to complete the game than intended since the PC version of the game suffers from really bad glitches. From the moment I first started the game, there was already a sound glitch. Then there was the random crashes. I was so frustrated since the reason I bought the original game was for the sake of not to have any problem playing the game. There is still no patch posted by the programmer. However, near the end of the game the glitches lessen which was odd but good nonetheless.
But don't let the glitches deter you from getting the game. It is still a blast to play. There's nothing a small patch can't fix (hopefully). Seriously, fans of open-world action game can't let this get away,
I took more time to complete the game than intended since the PC version of the game suffers from really bad glitches. From the moment I first started the game, there was already a sound glitch. Then there was the random crashes. I was so frustrated since the reason I bought the original game was for the sake of not to have any problem playing the game. There is still no patch posted by the programmer. However, near the end of the game the glitches lessen which was odd but good nonetheless.
But don't let the glitches deter you from getting the game. It is still a blast to play. There's nothing a small patch can't fix (hopefully). Seriously, fans of open-world action game can't let this get away,
Monday, June 22, 2009
Delight and Angers - In Flames
My current favorite song
Everyday takes figuring out how to live,
Sometimes it feels like a mistake,
Sometimes its a winners parade,
Delight and angers,
I guess thats the way its supposed to be...
Please heal me, I cant sleep..
Thought I was unbreakable, but this is killing me,
Call me, everything...
Make me feel unbreakable, lie and set me free!
I feel the fear takes hold,
Afraid this hell I create is my own,
Calm my franticness, I cant take it anymore,
This used to be my own world, but now I've lost control..
Please heal me, I cant sleep..
Thought I was unbreakable, but this is killing me,
Call me, everything...
Make me feel unbreakable, lie and set me free!
Chasing leftovers,
Under the fading sun,
Searching for shelter,
I feel my time has come
Please heal me, I cant sleep..
Thought I was unbreakable, but this is killing me,
Call me, everything...
Make me feel unbreakable, lie and set me free!
Everyday takes figuring out how to live,
Sometimes it feels like a mistake,
Sometimes its a winners parade,
Delight and angers,
I guess thats the way its supposed to be...
Please heal me, I cant sleep..
Thought I was unbreakable, but this is killing me,
Call me, everything...
Make me feel unbreakable, lie and set me free!
I feel the fear takes hold,
Afraid this hell I create is my own,
Calm my franticness, I cant take it anymore,
This used to be my own world, but now I've lost control..
Please heal me, I cant sleep..
Thought I was unbreakable, but this is killing me,
Call me, everything...
Make me feel unbreakable, lie and set me free!
Chasing leftovers,
Under the fading sun,
Searching for shelter,
I feel my time has come
Please heal me, I cant sleep..
Thought I was unbreakable, but this is killing me,
Call me, everything...
Make me feel unbreakable, lie and set me free!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Another upgrade
So, I did another upgrade on the already powerful computer. This time it's the cpu cooler. Like the name imply, its job is to cool the most important component: the processor; the thing you paid most for when buying a computer. Cpu coolers are mostly overlooked by people building/buying a computer. It's no surprise since the stock cooler is already sufficient enough to cool the processor. However, for hardcore overclocker like me, every degree of cooling is important to overclock the processor higher.
My last cooler was the Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX. It was a great cooler and had served me well for 2 years. It's keeps the processor cool and quiet at the same time.
My new cooler is the Prolimatech Megahalems aka. the Megatron. I got a great deal and can't let it get away. Currently selling like hot cakes, the Megahalem is sold out in most stores. The retail price is currently $65; and that does not include the fans. The fans will set you back another $15 for a good one. Wondering how much I got them? $45!!! and that includes 2 Scythe fans worth $30 alone.
Up close, the heatsink (aka metal part of the cooler) look a lot like transformer's sign. The fans spin at 1900rpm. Moving lots and lots of air to dissipate heat from the heatsink. FYI, I installed 3 of them in the pc. The noise from the fans is not a problem since I listen to my musics far far louder than that.
Now the result...
I'm finally able to reach 4.1GHz and not break 70C. Previous cooler would have reached 80C especially during the summer. As a conclusion, the upgrade was worth it. I'm still pushing for the limit of this cooler. Congratulation Prolimatech. Megahalem is the best.
ps. my next upgrade would be the case. got my eyes on the Coolermaster HAF 922
My last cooler was the Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX. It was a great cooler and had served me well for 2 years. It's keeps the processor cool and quiet at the same time.
My new cooler is the Prolimatech Megahalems aka. the Megatron. I got a great deal and can't let it get away. Currently selling like hot cakes, the Megahalem is sold out in most stores. The retail price is currently $65; and that does not include the fans. The fans will set you back another $15 for a good one. Wondering how much I got them? $45!!! and that includes 2 Scythe fans worth $30 alone.
Up close, the heatsink (aka metal part of the cooler) look a lot like transformer's sign. The fans spin at 1900rpm. Moving lots and lots of air to dissipate heat from the heatsink. FYI, I installed 3 of them in the pc. The noise from the fans is not a problem since I listen to my musics far far louder than that.
Now the result...I'm finally able to reach 4.1GHz and not break 70C. Previous cooler would have reached 80C especially during the summer. As a conclusion, the upgrade was worth it. I'm still pushing for the limit of this cooler. Congratulation Prolimatech. Megahalem is the best.
ps. my next upgrade would be the case. got my eyes on the Coolermaster HAF 922
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Things to look forward to
Can't wait for 2 new albums coming this summer. One is from Killswitch Engage and the other is from Devildriver. Killswitch Engage new self-titled album is going to be released on 6/30 while Devildriver's Pray for Villains on 7/14. Please enjoy the singles from both albums:
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