I guess Mib’s got his Christmas present of producing an error when he tries to change his blog template. Mib, I advise you to make a switch to WordPress! I was particularly busy on the 22nd, after attending a meeting that my complicate my 2 years ahead with added responsibilities, then the 2 days that follows, including today, is about slacking, and doing nothing. For once, I felt that playing computer games was more productive than what I was doing (basically lazing around, changing TV channels, and trying to cook up some lame stories to blog about, though I eventually couldn’t think of any).
Hence, I dug up my dusty old ‘Age of Empires II: Age of Kings’ CD from the old cupboard where I store my encyclopedias and installed it into my old computer (almost as old as Windows XP, in fact, slightly younger). When I started gaming, there was apparently no stopping. I played for 4-5 hours straight and was tackling 7 hard enemies (the maximum number with a stage less than the maximum difficulty). Of course, I was being Kiasu by setting a giant map and including plenty of resources on the map. I know I am getting pretty bad at the game, and reasonably so because the last time I played the same game was some time 2 years back, when Mib was still back in Singapore, and I was still quite mad about Computer Games.
That was the first ‘real’ computer game I ever played (yes, I mean Solitaire and Hearts are not real games). Somehow, it doesn’t seem to get outdated to me – partly because the Age of Empires III didn’t come out until some time at the beginning of this year. But it didn’t really matter because within the 5 hours of game play, I was forced to use a few cheats to produce more resources, and a few ‘Cobras’ (that is if you know what it is in the game) to strengthen my military. I knew I was getting lousier and thus, after that session, I have to admit defeat (not in the gaming sense but the mental sense). It is this incident that I understand the reason to admire Mib, for his incredible persistence in slacking and gaming.
My Christmas Wishlist (if I really had one), would probably be filled with books, ranging from novels to social science papers, in contrast to Mib’s series of ‘Games-to-buy’ for the festive season (if you consider it one). Let’s hope Bok receives at least a new pillow, in addition to the heaps and heaps of chocolate, chicken wings, drumsticks, strawberry cream rolls and Mathematics Ten-Year-Series(es) for the occasion.