My 2006 New Year Day's Celebrations

30th December 2006 (Sat) Celebration Part I with The Directionless Girl:

This year's 2006 New Year Day's celebrations seem to be a simple occasion with a couple of my very close friends, whom I like to term them as "VIP friends". The first part of the celebrations is a simple Pizza Hut dinner with one of my VIP friends from my university days. In this blog, and to protect her identity, I shall refer her "The Directionless Girl" because she herself said that her new year resolutions are zero because she did not have anything in mind at all. I suppose that is because she said she will have a lot of work on hand in the first few months of the new year.

Anyway, we ordered a couple's meal worth of Hawaiian Supreme Pizza, soups, drinks, sweet n spicy drumlets and honey roasted wings. The Directionless Girl was really funny because she was trying to calculate how much the meal would cost in different order combinations and I had a good laugh over that as I personally just wanted a nice dinner, paying far less attention to the price combinations.

A filling dinner followed, interspaced with our chatting about new year and catching up with each other's happenings in the past couple of months. She looked a little tired but I appreciated her trying to keep her cheeriness since both of us only get to meet up once in every few months due to our hectic schedules.

After a long dinner of about one and a half hours, we window-shopped around Jurong Point and I accompanied her to the NTUC FairPrice so that she could top up her supplies for her office pantry. A really simple but pleasurable outing which I enjoyed on a nice cool Saturday evening.

31th December 2006 (Sun) Celebration Part II with The Changed Man:

The Changed Man, another of my VIP friends, was late for nearly 45 minutes because when I reached City Hall MRT station, he had only just woken up and was making his way drowsily to the MRT station. I ended up browsing the basement of Raffles City whilst waiting for him to come and I found a nice shop with keychains in the designs of wooden animals. They look really cute and I think they will make great gifts for the coming new year.

When the Changed Man arrived, we bought tickets for Death Note 2 at Marina Square and ate lunch at one of the Hongkong Tim Sum restaurants there. I ordered a baked rice with fish fillet but it did not taste as good as NYDC's mushroom ham baked rice. Both of us then proceeded to shop around as we needed new clothes for another common friend's wedding dinner in February. I got myself a nice set of coat and pants worth $209 (original price $418) and the Changed Man bought another set of coat and pants, as well as some long sleeved shorts totalling $300+. I was quite pleased with my purchase because I finally got myself a useful reward for working hard in 2006. The clothes will come in handy for the wedding and any other formal occasions I may attend in 2007.

Death Note 2 was a really interesting movie [Be warned: Movie Spoiler in this paragraph!!!] because Kira managed to use even more complicated means to attempt to outwit L and prevent the capture of both himself and Misa. Many innocent lives were lost in the battle between L, Kira, Misa and Tamaoka (spelling?) and even two of the Gods of Death perished. Kira was finally killed but at a devastating sacrifice of L's life. I found it a little upsetting because at the end of the movie, Kira was mentioned more often but I felt that L deserved even more credit because he died willingly in order to lure Kira to make the final mistake in front of Kira's father. I don't know any real-life cloak-and-dagger detective stories, but it may not be hard to believe that for every criminal captured or killed, many detectives had indeed lost their precious lives in the pursuit of an imperfect justice system...

Celebrations for New Year's Eve come to an end because both of us are pretty appalled by the sheer number of people crowding into the Esplanade and Marina area, presumably for the fireworks during midnight. I am going to rest early tonight and probably miss the entire fireworks display and all the midnight celebrations altogether because I had suggested another more unique (or traditional) form of celebration for the New Year to the Changed Man and I will need all the sleep I can before that can happen smoothly.

01st January 2007 (Sun) Celebration Part III with The Changed Man:

The third part of the celebrations has not happened yet at the time that I am typing this post. I have arranged to watch the very first sunrise of 2007 on one of the eastern coasts of Singapore because I wanted something different from the fireworks, the crowd and the noise. I remembered clearly doing the very same thing during one of my camping trips a number of years back and it was a very memorable experience. Friends and strangers merely gathered on the coast and quiety watched the sunrise - not a single word uttered as each individual made their New Year resolutions silently in their heads facing the first rays of sunshine in the new year. Praying for a good weather and a clear morning sky, I hope to experience this special form of new year celebration, this time not with an entire camp, but with the Changed Man.

Before I turn in for the night, I wish every reader of my blog a Happy New Year and may peace, happiness and wisdom guides your path every day of the year!

We can draw lessons from the
past, but we cannot live in it.

By:

Lyndon B. Johnson, December 13, 196336th president of US (1908 - 1973) (Image Source: http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/Death+Note:+The+Last+Name/movie/13811/)
(Quote Source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2041.html)

守时的原则 - 五秒钟的生死

For readers who cannot view the following blog post in Chinese, please go to the View Tab, Scroll to Encoding and Select Unicode (UTF-8). Thanks.

守时的原则 - 五秒钟的生死

一向强调守时的我， 今天又面对了不守时的挑战。 一位学生为了把两本书递给我， 足足迟到了四时分中。

他迟到的原因， 我接受了。 他的迟到了，不尽让我想起我在中学时的一个教训...

那时我因为在食堂忙着一些课外活动的事务，而把和课外活动老师开会的事给耽误了， 虽然只迟到了五分钟，而我也频频道歉， 课外活动老师还是把我训了一顿。

她说∶“虽然你已道歉， 但是我还是希望你能明白 - 迟到是对等你的人的一种不敬， 不尊敬他们宝贵的时间。你应该知道， 时间用多少金钱还是买不回的， 更何况是其它人宝贵的时间？还好只是开会，若是救人的话，五秒钟就可能是生死存亡之别了。虽然不是每件事都如生死那般严重， 但我既然委托你重任， 你得树立好榜样， 保持一点守时的原则。”

当时我听了，惭愧不已。开完会回到家后，我把手腕上的手表换成数码手表， 并牢记老师那“五秒钟的生死"的教训。从此之后， 我永远只用数码表，并尽我所能在任何约会时，宁可早到也不迟到。

认识我的人， 有些会埋怨我对守时的原则太苛刻了， 但了解我的朋友， 也只道这是我对时间对等我的人的一种尊敬...

后来过了好几年，我上了急救课程，终于撤底明白老师的话，数秒钟真的能有生死存亡之别， 我可不敢随便耽误那宝贵的几秒...

Night at the Museum, Latest Update from Teresa Tseng, The December Rains

Night at the Museum:

I watched this movie with one of my buddies on Christmas eve because we could not get any decent seats for Death Note 2 that night. Both of us are quite some movie fanatics and we agreed that if there were no proper seats for the movie, we would rather postpone the movie till a later date and we decided to watch "Night at the Museum", starring Ben Stiller, instead.

The movie turned out to be quite entertaining because it was about how a divorced father (Ben Stiller) trying to get a stable income so that his son would not have to keep moving from state to state, school to school with him. He found a job as a graveyard-shift security guard at a local museum, which proved to be one great challenge for him - the artefacts became alive every night after sun-down due to a powerful Egyptian tablet, which became a target for the retrenched museum security guards.

Stiller managed to unify the various fighting artefacts and coordinated the artefacts to prevent the theft of the precious tablet as it would mean the end of the artefacts' resurrection every night. The movie was funny at parts when Stiller tried to get the cooperation of the artefacts, which were pretty stubborn and war-mongering amongst themselves, and touching enough when Stiller finally earned the respect of his son when he managed to keep his job at the museum and done a great deed for the artefacts of the museum.


Latest Update from Teresa Tseng:

The following is Teresa's latest message at Teresa Fan Club (TFC) on 22 December 2006 and I am putting it up here for those who are reading my post but have no access or little idea of the young but accomplished Campus Superstar Overall Female Champion.

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Hi all,It has been a very very long time since I last left a message here. How is everybody doing?^^ I would like to wish each and everybody a Merry Christmas and a Wonderful New Year!

Well, I had been extremely extremely busy during this school holiday... I am so sorry that I could not leave any messages here for the past two months. My sincere apologies....

following are some events which u might be able to see or hear me.

23rd Dec 06 - 933 interview at 12 noon till abt 1pm. There will be a question and answer for call in, correct answer will be given a small little gift from ME, and maybe Geraldine.

9th Jan 07 - 933 interview for the new drama promotion. Time TBA.13th Jan 07 - Road Show for drama promotion. Time n Venue TBA.

3rd and 4th Feb 07 - Road Show for drama. Time and Venue TBA.

2nd Jan 07 - School Reopens....... HURRAY!!!!!!

^^Filming was a first, educational and enriching experience for me. I will try to elaborate more the next time. There are fun and laughter, hard work, tears and pain as well.

Finally, I had completed my filming, and also the song recording as well. I now hoping for the best, wishing that all will turn out to be fine.

Lastly, I would like to thank you all for all the support that had been showered upon me for the past year. I would like to wish everyone a better year for 2007!

With Love
Teresa Tseng^^
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From her message, it looks like she will have a series of publicity activities for the Idol Drama, scheduled to be televised in mid-January 2007. I am looking forward to the series because I am keen to see how the girl will adapt to acting, which requires quite a different set of skills from singing. Nevertheless, I hope Teresa will do well for the drama because it will be another good exposure to the public and hence doing her good in the future in the aspect of Superstardom.

The December Rains:

I have finally found a way to blog in Chinese and I want to thank Chengsong of TFC for his guidance in the Microsoft Language Bar. I want to express the December Rains in Chinese because some of the parts are better understood using the Chinese language rather than the English Language. For readers of my blog who have trouble with the encoding to read Chinese characters (Go to the View tab, Scroll to Encoding, Select Unicode (UTF-8) and you should be able to read the below section). Hope my Chinese standard has not deteroriated due to lack of use...

连绵细雨真的让人很想睡觉－有些人觉得很舒服，　有些人则觉得很反感。

因为新加坡没有四季，　所以我把十二月的雨季当成在下雪。

虽然“下雪”会带来不便，　但毕竟也给了我机会在温暖的被窝里补充睡眠。

近日疲于工作，　一直都没睡饱，　所以我蛮感激十二月的雨季的到来。

二零零六年又要结束了，　今年好像过的很快，　还来不及回顾，　就得准备迎接新的一年的挑战了。

也许时间永远过得比我们想像中的快吧，　若没有十二月的雨季，　雨滴的提醒，　我们恐怕早就忙昏了头，忘了时间的变迁了吧。

雨－是大自然的仙露？　灵魂的醒神水？　还是天地的泪？

因心境而异吧．．．

(Image Source: http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/Night+At+The+Museum/movie/13658/)

Personal Review of The Curse of The Golden Flower

A couple of weeks ago, I was pondering over what I should do for my parents for this Christmas and the answer came in the form of a simple movie treat to The Curse of The Golden Flower, which features their favourite actor Chow Yun-Fatt as the Tang Emperor. I was happy to see them glued to their seats, soaking in all the splendour and fine acting by some of the greatest actors alive today.

The movie was good. With Chow Yun-Fatt and Gong Li leading a formidable cast of actors in an epic portray of imperial court politics during the height of the Tang Dynasty in China. Both of them are indeed some of the finest actors because their expressions are flawless in depicting all the irony and suffering behind the glorious surfaces of the Imperial Family. Jay Chou was also quite suitable in his role as a fillial prince who could not bear to watch his mother suffered the slow poisoning by his father and led an ill-fated rebellion against his father within the imperial palace. Although his portrayal of emotions are still a little rigid but he makes it up with a princely charisma during the rebellion as well as his final scene where he makes a choice between serving his mother the continued two-hourly poison or be punished with his body split into five by warhorses.

The fight scenes were quite brutal but most of the blood in the large-scale rebellion in the imperial palace was glossed over by computer-generated images. However, what struck me the most was the depth and development of the characters in the movie: the Emperor (with his deathly-cold rationale to maintain the order of the empire, the Empress (with her cunning determination to end her personal death sentence with a rebellion), the Crown Prince (with his loyalty tested against secret affairs with both the Empress and the Imperial Physician's daughter), the Second Prince (Jay Chou, with his intense fillial piety even at the face of certain defeat and death) and the Third Prince (with a shocking display of ambition and violence towards his very own family). Another noteworthy character was the First Empress (birth mother of the Crown Prince) who had impressive scenes showing her deep hatred and vengeance against the Emperor who had betrayed and framed her in order to ascend to the throne many years ago.

In The Curse of The Golden Flower, it doesn't really take massive, gory battles or lots of tear-wrenching scenes to make it a good movie. It was those scenes of characters holding back the tears through clenched teeth and the deceptive smiles behind the scheming minds that made it such an experience to witness excellent acting and of course, a great story told.

(Image Source: http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/The+Curse+Of+The+Golden+Flower/movie/13796/)

Deep Disappointment at PSS 2 Judges' Scoring Reliability

Deep Disappointment at PSS 2 Judges' Scoring Reliability:

I just finished watching the Revival Round for the male contestants of PSS 2 and I was deeply disappointed by how the judges were liberally giving out unbelievably high scores to mediocre performances and marginalizing impressive performances with jaw-dropping low scores.

Earlier on, I had decided not to watch the PSS 2 competition anymore but I decided to give the PSS 2 judges credit for their experience and knowledge of singing so I forced myself to sit in front of the television one more time. The result - an almost disbelief at how biased Singapore's reputedly top-notch music people are in giving out scores for singing competitions.

Without specifying names of contestants, I watched with utter disbelief at how the PSS 2 judges were penalizing some of the rather-well-performing contestants with crippling low marks and for some contestants, below-the-belt comments on the contestants' physical appearances and even personal motives for participating in the competition. I could scarcely believe my ears because a judge for singing competition should never have humiliate any contestant, out of sheer professional respect and humility. I was horribly wrong and incredibly ashamed that our supposedly best music professionals were actually belting out such lowly comments at the poor contestants.

On the hand, the PSS 2 judges were all smiles for those contestants that they seemed biased towards and were showering groundless praises on those contestants' performances when I personally felt that those performances were merely a little above average. Of course, for people reading this post right now, it is perfectly alright to think of me as another ranting blogger with no proper credentials to be even criticisizing those highly-reputed judges on television. Indeed, I probably still don't understand what they meant by "head voice" or "flats during high notes" but after sixteen years dabbling in music and songs, I came up with the following criteria for a good performance:

Total Entertainment Value =
(Singing capability + Song Delivery + Stage Presentation + Stage Attire)

1.0) Singing Capability (Subtotal: 25 marks)
1.1) Lyrics accuracy (Max. 5 marks) - includes lyrics memorization
1.2) Tempo accuracy (Max. 5 marks) - includes synchronization to the tempo of song
1.3) Breath control (Max. 5 marks) - includes breathing techniques and song pauses
1.4) Voice clarity (Max. 5 marks) - includes pronunciation of lyrics and notes
1.5) Singing techniques (Max. 5 marks) - includes voicing platforms and bass use, rapping, etc

2. 0) Song Delivery (Subtotal: 25 marks)
2.1) Facial expression of performer (Max. 5 marks)
2.2) Body language of performer (Max. 5 marks)
2.3) Emotion management of performer (Max. 5 marks)
2.4) Creativity of song deliverance (Max. 5 marks)
2.5) Special techniques present in particular song (Max. 5 marks)

3.0) Stage Presentation (Subtotal: 25 marks)
3.1) Stage posture (Max. 5 marks)
3.2) Stage movement (Max. 5 marks)
3.3) Audience interaction (Max. 5 marks)
3.4) Camera interaction (Max. 5 marks)
3.5) Mcee interaction (Max. 5 marks)

4.0) Stage Attire (Subtotal: 25 marks)
4.1) Fashion appeal and impression (Max. 5 marks)
4.2) Suitability for song genre (Max. 5 marks)
4.3) Suitability for stage movement (Max. 5 marks)
4.4) Suitability for lighting effects (Max. 5 marks)
4.5) Suitability for image of performer (Max. 5 marks)

Yeah, I know all of the above critieria look so complicated but believe me, all of them are very necessary for a good performance and very few people can actually fulfill all of those criteria in every single performance. Obviously, the PSS 2 contestants are still very far from that but I could really see some of them doing everything they can to improve themselves in a number of the aspects above. Sadly, the PSS 2 judges chosed to silence them with really biased scores and comments, and probably wrecking the hopes of many singer wannabes with such a poor showing of professional grading of competition.

I don't know why I am so upset about that kind of biased judging and scoring because I am not even in the competition nor am I a hardcore supporter of any of the PSS 2 contestants. Maybe I just want to see a nice, healthy and blossoming music & entertainment scene for Singapore. I am not patriotic in that sense but I love to see good music and performances positively influencing as many people as possible and it is only through such Superstars that such an ideal may possibly take root in the increasingly apathetic society around everyone of us. I believe music can heal, if given the chance.

(Image Source: Hendriko, 7 March 2005, Flickr)

The Music Playlist, The Playground and The Engineers on the MRT

The Music Playlist:

For those who have been visiting my blog, they should have noticed that I have included a nice little function - a music playlist to feature all the songs which I personally like and would love to introduce to the people reading my blog. I have not found a way to write in Mandarin so everything in the music playlist has to be in Hanyu Pinyin. My apologies to all those who may have little or no understanding of how Hanyu Pinyin reads as.

Nevetheless, the music playlist fulfils its basic objective - getting what I believed to be timeless good songs across to people of all ages. If you have noticed from the list of songs, I have included both relatively new and older songs in the playlist so that there is a variety of songs to choose from (in case some of the songs happened to be "unbearable" to some of you out there - I personally have not acquired the taste for heavy and metallic rock music from the Western cultures).

Obviously, there is no way to convince people that my selection of predominantly Mandarin songs are acceptable to everyone who may be listening to one of them right now, but I hope music lovers can still listen with an open mind and learn to appreciate music, whatever the genre, singer or time in which it was composed. After more than sixteeen years dabbling in music, I truly believe that music is one of the best creations of mankind and we should always be free to allow music to express some of our thoughts and feelings. Long live our love for music!

The Playground:

Two days ago, I was waiting at a playground for one of my lessons to begin because I had came a little early. Watching two of the kids clambering and having their fun on those large, colourful, metallic structures on those modern, carpeted playground set me thinking about the playground I used to play in when I was very young. It was made mostly of cold hard concrete, metal chains and lots and lots of sand and that was like more than ten years ago...

That playground was definitely more primitive than those we see around the neighbourhood these days but the experiences with the older types of playgrounds were educational in their own ways. From young, I learnt, through various incidents, that concrete is harder than my bones (bruises), metal chains are rougher than they look (abrasions) and sand contains quartz which can be as sharp as glass (cuts). My grandmother would be dabbing away at my wounds and I would be frowning and wincing away then. Hahaha...

I have not gotten any chance to play on those new playgrounds, probably due to the fact that it would be strange to do so at my age now but I suppose there are new lessons to be learnt at the playground since the structural content of the new metallic-carpeted playgrounds are so different from the older concrete-sand ones.

One thing is for sure though - no amount of classroom teaching can substitute the hands-on experiences at the playground. If you have been away from a playground for quite some time now, maybe you can just hop into one and re-learn those lessons again at the playground. After all, what could be a better way to learn things through a process of fun and laughter? Go get your dose of playground and get your hands-on fun now.

The Engineers on the MRT:

Yesterday, I was returning from a lesson on a long MRT ride back home and I had that rare opportunity to have four engineers standing beside me rattling off about technological gadgets. I am very sure that they are engineers because they were talking about complex technical issues within those gadgets and I could make very little head or tail of what they were talking because their language was peppered with loads of technical jargon. However, it was still fun to be listening in to what they said about MP3 players, scanners, printers, faxes, video cameras, cellphones, etc and I was admiring how much they knew about the field of work.

For me, I already knew from my primary school years that I would never become an engineer because I was never interested in reading those technical manuals and explaining to others how machinations work. I remembered there was a problem with the sound system at the backstage before an important concert then and a couple of the more technically-inclined team members were rambling about how to fix the problem. I tried very hard to follow their line of discussion but was totally confused. A few weeks of subsequent study into technical know-how yielded only disinterest and lots of dozing. By then, I decided I won't be an engineer when I grow up, much to the chagrin of those around me as they cited good pay and prospects in the careers of engineers.

My work philosophy remains the same after all these years - I want to enjoy what I am doing so I'll never have to work a single day of my life. My answer today: =D

Things won are done; joy's soul lies in the doing.

By: William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2 Greatest English dramatist & poet (1564 - 1616)

(Image source: Goran, 11 Jan 2006, stock.xchng)
(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/3071.html)

Campus Superstars @ MediaCorp Star Awards Post Party

Campus Superstars at MediaCorp Star Awards Post Party

The above video link is the latest performance by Campus Superstars during the MediaCorp Star Awards 2006 Post Party. The video was transferred from a link gratefully provided by alan_is_not_great, a long time member of TFC. The song was titled "Fu Man Ren Jian" and was performed by Teresa, Zhiyang, Geraldine, Renfred, Adriano and Yuyang.

Honestly speaking, it was rather disappointing to see them doing a lip-syn performance because their voices, especially Teresa's, were fully capable of singing live onstage at the event and thus they missed out on a great opportunity to impress upon some of the overseas celebrities who stayed back for the Post Party. Nevertheless, it was good for those who miss them to see them perform and enjoy themselves onstage again.

The New 007, The Memory Pill and The Fallout Tactics Team

The New 007

I recently watched Casino Royale, the latest instalment of the British MI-6 secret agent, James Bond movies and it struck me as I realized that the new 007 is very different from all the previous James Bond movie that I have seen. Yes, I watch every single James Bond movie throughout history not because I love to see Bond frolicking with the women but I love to see how he overcomes his opponents using his cool gadgets.

This time, however, did not feature much of his technological advantage, but the whole movie revolves around the new James Bond moving the story, defeating his adversaries, and overcoming his personal struggle with love with nothing else but his personality, courage and wit. The movie gave me a very deep impression of Daniel Craig, the lead actor, as he managed to portray a very humanistic secret agent who bleeds quite profusely(all the cuts, bruises and punches he took from his opponents), suffers pain (the horrible chair whip scene), feels love (which ended tragically with betrayal and death) and admits his failings (he knows when he makes a mistake and does whatever he can to correct it).

I really like the new 007 because he is not the kind of death-cool agent that could just walk away from an explosion but one who may wipe his sweat, blood and wince at the pain when he goes about trying to save the world. If you did not manage to catch it at the silver screen, I would recommend getting hold of it as a VCD or DVD. This will be the first James Bond movie I believe to be worthwhile for collection.

The Memory Pill

http://60minutes.yahoo.com/segment/21/memory_drug

A couple of weeks ago, I received the above video of how a scientist manages to use adrenalin to help mice remember things far better and the whole experiment points to a possibility of using chemicals to make "memory pills" enhance our memory power and learn things at a rate never before imagined. Wow...does that mean students can study at a fraction of their time and remember all the things that they have read?

This is definitely a good thing from one angle because most students I know are studying so hard that they barely have enough time to learn more about themselves and their surroundings. With all the talk on being competitive and efficient and trying to make it big through life with all the best possible things, this potential option really sounds attractive to the people who are always hard-pressed for time to acquire facts.

This, however, may be a dangerous thing as well, because it may provide an opportunity for people to try and bend time using chemicals and hence skip out a very important process of changing facts into the knowledge- the maturity of it. Facts needs time to "mature" because what one learns is mere facts but to classify it properly in one's mind and to form a judgement as to when to use the knowledge in appropriately circumstances requires the evolution of facts into knowledge. For example, one may know CPR, but one will still need to know if using the CPR will be the best option given the conditions of the casualty or if by using CPR will endanger oneself if there is clear and present dangers around. So, even if one may imbibe the memory pill and learn CPR in a matter of minutes, one may still be ineffective in using the facts behind CPR because it has not been transformed into knowledge yet and that transformation takes time...

The Fallout Tactics Team

I temporarily stopped playing the Port Royale trading-cum-pirate-hunting game because my in-game wife was returned to me safely by that nasty pirate king, together with a box of 20,000 gold coins. Why? Because my in-game was talking incessantly about hygiene of her captors and managed to convert some of those swashbuckling pirates into demurely behaved men and that pirate king was so astounded with what he believed to be a terrible conversion that he sent her back to me with money to prove his apologies for kidnapping her in the first place.

So with my in-game wife safely chatting away in Havana, one of the main port-cities that I controlled in the game, I went back to playing a tactical combat game called Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel. It's a very engaging game because it tests my ability to organize and manage a small team of commandoes to fulfil a number of missions given by The Brotherhood of Steel against a backdrop of post-apocalyptic environment. The missions are challenging in their own ways, from retrieving fusion batteries, recruiting mechanics, saving hostages, detonating nuclear plants, rescuing comrades, assassinating betrayers to defeating a post-apocalyptic supercomputer.

Using an editor, I managed to achieve unlimited gameplay and this is the 10th time I am playing the game and its missions with a deeply-developed team of commandoes consisting of a commander, a ranger, a sniper, a gunner, a mechanic and a surgeon. I crossed-trained them in many disciplines such as first-aid, doctor, lockpicking, traps & demolitions, repair and science and the members complemented one another very well in the various missions, just like a real-life special forces detachment. The gameplay requires much thought because it does not mean that packing the largest machine gun and rocket launcher will automatically yield victory because there is inventory space and encumbrance factors to work around with and the AI opponents can be hiding in deeply-entrenched positions, shredding the commandoes into bits if the wrong and reckless tactical decision is made. If nothing goes wrong, I should be playing this game from time to time because a good game keeps my mind nimble, my heart excited and my thirst for a well-earned victory quenched.

Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are
seasoned.

By: Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, 1858US author & physician (1809 - 1894)


(Image source: http://sg.movies.yahoo.com/Casino+Royale/movie/13754/)
(Quote source: http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/2062.html)