Understanding online dating | Lunch Actually – Channel NewsAsia

via Channel NewsAsia

Stumbled upon this interesting Channel NewsAsia article about Lunch Actually, an online dating service here in Singapore. It’s a very long, but insightful read into the dating scene, why people choose online dating, and how stupid people can be when making important relationship decisions.

Somewhere under the “Dates as a commodity and marrying for the wrong reasons” subheading, the interviewee reveals some of the strange choices her clients make:

Lim: So from what I’ve observed with my friends or people that I know, the first one is sometimes people just get married for the wrong reasons.

I know of someone who told me that out of 10, her comfort level with a particular guy was maybe six or seven, but she said that she would go ahead and marry him because he ticked all the boxes in terms of the five Cs, etc. She also said, “I’ve already invested two years of my life in this guy and I don’t think I can start over again.”

Bharati: But her comfort level with him was only a six!

Lim: Yeah. So if you hear her putting it this way, it sounds logical for a business deal, but for your lifelong happiness like a marriage, it doesn’t really make sense.

Bharati: Did it last?

Lim: No, it didn’t.

Bharati: How long were they together?

Lim: A couple of years. Someone else shared with me that she was having second thoughts, but she went ahead with it because she just really wanted to move out of her parents’ house.  Sometimes it’s like, “Really? These kinds of things happen?”

Further down, under the “Looking beyond the superficial” subheading:

Bharati: Do you still have people coming to you with height requirements and other such things?

Lim: Yes, all the time. People will be like “Okay, I’m looking for someone who is this tall.” If you ask them why, they don’t even know. They might tell you something like, “Oh, because I like to wear high heels.”

But the truth of the matter is that they just feel that height signals that this person is stronger and this person can protect me. But if you ask them, “Protect you from what? We’re not living in caveman days. There’s no lion or whatever hunting you, right?” – they have nothing to say.

It’s just something that’s sort of programmed in them. For guys, if you ask them, “Why do you like girls with long hair? What’s wrong with girls with short hair?” They really just don’t know why.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in life is that human beings will make irrational, illogical decisions when it comes to romance. When it comes to choosing the right partner, someone whom you are supposed to spend your life with, logic is sometimes thrown out of the window. The most nonsensical stigma I’ve encountered is that the female partner must not be taller than the male (??).

Another strange criteria I’ve come across is that “my boyfriend must spend all of his free time with me.” If you cannot give your partner some personal space, if you insist on being clingy, then you are probably not ready for marriage.

No wonder we have rising divorce rates in Singapore. People don’t know what they want, and do things for the sake of doing so without pondering the ramifications. Sounds familiar?

The state of TNA Impact Wrestling: The Final Deletion (5 July 2016) shows us why we love this sport

I am two months behind in my TNA viewing, so forgive me if posting this in September 2016 seems outdated and slow. At one point back in 2013, I was as slow as seven months behind on my TNA viewing. But I strongly believe in the patience and persistence of watching every weekly episode of Raw, Smackdown, TNA Impact, NJPW, etc.

And finally, all those years of persistence has paid off.

Something weird and magical has happened to TNA in 2016. I have blogged, and blogged, and blogged in the past about TNA’s lousy years of crap booking and poor storylines. Many times, I seriously considered quitting TNA because it was just simply unrewarding and super frustrating to watch. But since the start of the year, things have slowly changed. I find myself laughing and smiling at each Impact episode.

I laugh at Decay. Their gimmick is a much better version of Bray Wyatt’s stable. A group of dark, macabre outcasts who resort to the powers of darkness, facepaint, and Marilyn Manson to help them win matches. I laugh every time Abyss proclaims, “I AM BEAUTIFUL!!”

I used to laugh at The Dollhouse, and it’s a shame that they had to be broken up because of Taryn Terrell’s retirement. I thought that the idea behind Taryn’s stable worked and it just needed a bit more time to give all of the members their chance to shine.

I laugh at Eli Drake. Someone who is so supremely confident and charismatic on the microphone, that every time he opens his mouth, you pay attention and wait for his speech to end.

I laugh at Mike Bennett and his wife Maria Kanellis. The way Maria preaches her husband as some sort of divine saviour, followed by Bennett’s rock-choir theme song always leaves me in stitches.

I laugh at Broken Matt Hardy. His warped accent (“BROTHER NEEEEEEERO!”), his choice of eccentric vocabulary, and the way he screams “delete, delete, delete!!”

I also laugh at all the tiny little details here and there, week in and week out. The accumulation of little things like Ethan Carter III’s ridiculously catchy entrance theme; Grado and Mahabali Shera’s unusual partnership; James Storm riding out to the ring on his “boozer cruiser”.

I laugh at every episode of TNA because I am having fun. Remember when pro wrestling used to be fun back in the 1980s and early 1990s? You had wacky faces like Macho Man, Hulk Hogan, and Ultimate Warrior in one corner, and then on the other side you had equally crazy villains like The IRS Man, The Million Dollar Man, Razor Ramon, Doink the Clown, and many more.

All of the silliness and fun finally reached its climax on the 5 July 2016 episode of TNA Impact Wrestling, when Jeff Hardy faced his brother Matt Hardy in their “Final Deletion” showdown. It’s not just the match itself, but the entire build-up and skits leading up to the battle are just as bonkers:

This is why I love pro wrestling. I love to be entertained, and I love to see the effort, passion, and skills exhibited by pro wrestlers for the sake of entertaining us, the fans. Matt Hardy deserves an Academy Honorary Award for Most Nonsensically Entertaining Villain of the Year.

Acting and skits aside, at the end of the day, it is the _wrestling_ that matters and TNA has put up some decent matches for title changes and pay-per-views so far in 2016. I was not expecting Bobby Lashley to beat Drew Galloway for the title at Slammiversary. And I was not expecting Jeff Hardy to perform a Swanton Bomb off a tree.

Congratulations, TNA. When you can consistently put out above-average matches with hard-to-predict outcomes, it means you have FINALLY learned your lesson. The question now is whether it’s too late. I’ve read that Slammiversary 2016 almost did not happen because TNA almost went bankrupt. Years of crap booking and burnt bridges have come back to haunt the company. You reap what you sow.

But at the very least, for one night on 5 July 2016, I am reminded yet again why I love this sport. I will continue watching TNA to the very end. It’s a far cry from the glory years of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christopher Daniels, Kurt Angle, and Bobby Roode (who have ALL left the company already). But I still love pro wrestling.

What makes a good zombie movie? | Train to Busan

This short post contains _some_ spoilers for Train to Busan and 28 Days Later. If you haven’t watched Train to Busan, I strongly recommend that you stop reading if you want to enjoy the movie experience blind.

Vegetables, sleep, and exercise

Back in September 2015 I blogged about the agony of falling sick to flu and taking an unusually long time to recover. Today, about a year later, I am happy to have reached the milestone of not falling sick once in over a year. Finally, cutting out meat (except dairy and seafood), not eating crap fast food, and trying to exercise regularly is paying off. I also find myself sleeping quite early these days around 8pm-9pm and waking up at 5am-6am the next day.

Everyone around me is falling ill and with Zika spreading its taint in Singapore, staying healthy is of the highest importance. I don’t know whether it’s my pescatarian diet, early shuteye, or exercise that is playing a factor. But it’s satisfying to know that I am doing something right.

I bought a pair of 2kg weights from Qoo10 last week. This is the first time I have ever:

1) Bought anything from Qoo10
2) Bought any kind of exercise equipment (that is not from Daiso)

No, I am not training to become a pro wrestler. I have found that resistance training (i.e. using weights) is one of the most effective forms of exercise. My upper body strength has outgrown the cheapo 1kg dumbells I bought from Daiso, so I am switching to some heavier weights.

I was very surprised at Qoo10’s website and service. It’s basically the Singapore version of Amazon reselling. All of the goods sold there are from third-party shops, retailers, and users (kind of like eBay). It’s up to you, the buyer, to carefully appraise each item and make sure you’re buying from the right person (kind of like eBay).

Now, with my physical health in harmony after switching to a herbivore diet, the next and most obvious step for me is to learn how to cook vegetarian meals at home so that I don’t have to buy overpriced vegetarian food from crap hawker stalls. Right after I highlight my hair again.

Managing anger

Today, some random online strangers on Facebook pissed me off personally. They provided misleading, inaccurate information from a wrong source. To me, providing false and incorrect facts is the equivalent to lying, which is why I am always very vigilant about correcting and pointing out errors. When I offered a correction (which later proved to be right), I was insulted by one of the replies.

What surprised me next was my reaction. I just ignored it and carried on doing other stuff. Yes, I was still angry somewhere deep inside my heart. But I simply let it go.

Feeling angry is fine. Getting upset over the things you are passionate about is fine. This is what makes us human. But after that, you can just drop it and let it go.

I am still learning how to manage two decades worth of latent anger locked away inside me. Maybe this is a sign of progress.

The joy of cooperative videogames: Warlords of Draenor’s Mythic Dungeons

In anticipation of World of Warcraft: Legion’s release in two weeks, several of my friends (including Joel) have gone back to the game to try and level up some characters for the new expansion. After many days of grinding and gearing up from the pre-patch invasion events, we decided to try some Mythic Dungeons from Warlords of Draenor. Everyone wants the heirloom trinkets that only drop from killing Mythic Dungeon bosses — they scale from level 100-110, and they will be removed as an obtainable drop once Legion launches on 30 August.

I’ve not had so much fun in such a long time. The last time I’ve enjoyed co-op in a videogame was a few years ago for Borderlands 2 and Dungeons & Dragons: Shadows over Mystara. Yes, we wiped a few times at some bosses (everyone hates the giant worm in Shadowmoon Burial Grounds). But we adapted to our mistakes, gave each other some encouragement (“STOP taking so much damage, OMG!!”), and cracked jokes over voice chat to keep our morale up.

Robert Coffey, one of the former editors of the now defunct Computer Gaming World / Games for Windows magazine, once wrote that nothing beats the experience of playing cooperative games online. And he’s absolutely right.

Yes, it’s difficult to find a group of friends to form a full party. The alternative, which is using group finder or matchmaking to find random PUGs to group up with, is a huge roll of the dice. You either get good random teammates, or you get very bad random teammates.

But nothing still beats the experience of playing co-op.

The state of World of Warcraft: Legion’s big changes to the game’s story

Almost a week has passed since World of Warcraft: Legion’s pre-patch event was launched on 9 August 2016. And something huge has happened in the WoW universe.

Spoilers follow. Don’t read if you don’t want to spoil the experience for yourself.

Suicide Squad and Sucker Punch(ed)

Update (18 August 2016): Screen Junkies has posted a video review for Suicide Squad. It is quite spot-on with how I feel about the film.

Original: I watched Suicide Squad on its opening day yesterday with a couple of friends. All of us agreed that the film was a disjointed mess. There were too many unnecessary scenes, too many jumpy cuts, and a lot of characters felt unnecessary and underdeveloped. My friend summed it up best with one simple question: “Can you tell me what was the best scene in the film?”

We couldn’t find an answer, and that’s usually not a good sign. Suicide Squad isn’t flat out terrible like Batman v Superman. But it wasn’t good either.

The only shining, standout positive from the film for me was Karen Fukuhara’s role as Katana. Her character was horribly underdeveloped (expect me to use this description very frequently in film or TV reviews: “underdeveloped”), but she managed to deliver an okay performance with her limited script. Somehow, if there were ever a live-action Kara no Kyoukai movie, I think Fukuhara might be a good casting choice for Ryougi. She’s a legit, Japanese-American actress and her Japanese lines delivered in the film were authentic. Hollywood, why can’t you cast more Asian actresses like Fukuhara instead of whitewashing them with Scarlett Johansson?

So two DC movies were released in the same year, Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad. The first one was horrendous, and the second one was barely passable. The odds seem heavily stacked against the Justice League movie coming out in 2017. Three strikes and you’re out, DC.

While having a late supper with my friends after the film, our conversation somehow transitioned into the Sucker Punch movie. We all hated Sucker Punch for the same reason — it is a textbook, time-honoured example of a show that over-promised and under-delivered. We wanted to watch girls kick ass and beat people up (hint: watch Kill la Kill instead). Unfortunately, what we got was a poorly executed film with lousy fight scenes, too much CGI, and wonky themes of escapism.

Suicide Squad didn’t quite deliver a sucker punch to us (thank goodness). But the entire discussion got us thinking: What makes a good superhero movie? What makes a good power fantasy? Why were the first Iron Man and Avengers films so good, and their sequels so disappointing? Interesting questions to ponder with so many sci-fi, fantasy, and comic book movies coming out all at once. It’s like being a kid in the 1990s again watching endless piles of Saturday morning cartoons. Except that for every Dark Knight or Mad Max: Fury Road, there’s a Sucker Punch lurking somewhere to knock you out into oblivion.

The plight of videogame translators | USgamer

via: USgamer

A great, insightful read into how difficult it is to translate videogames from Japanese to English. No one truly understands how difficult localisation is unless:

1) They’ve studied a foreign language.

2) They’ve tried translating something themselves.

There was a great quote in page six of the article where one of the translators said:

It also should be understood that, when you’re reading a translated game or book or whatever, you really should understand that you’re actually reading the work of the translator. You’re getting more in a sense of the translator’s work than you are of the original work, and that’s just unavoidable. When I put something into English, I am composing the English. It’s only based on this skeletal structure, in a way. You want the thing as it is, put it in Google Translate. See how that works out for you.

I was once insulted in WordPress comments by a random stranger for my “inaccurate” translations of Overwatch, when I was trying to convey the more poetic, underlying nuance behind Genji and Hanzo’s quotes.

Translating a language isn’t just about being a good linguist, it’s also about being a good writer and using your creativity. Instead of fighting and arguing over whose translation is better, let’s just be grateful that these translations exist in the first place. Stop complaining about Nintendo of America’s name changes in Fire Emblem Fates, and stop complaining about Capcom’s name changes in the Ace Attorney series. Let’s just learn from each other and enjoy some videogames.

EVO 2016 quick afterthoughts: The legend of GO1

If you have ever played Melty Blood seriously, you would have no doubt heard of GO1. He is widely regarded as one of the strongest, if not _the_ strongest Melty player of all time. He also plays a lot of other fighting games, and seeing him take the Top 4 spot at EVO 2016 in Street Fighter V got me thinking.

During the grand finals between Infiltration and Fuudo, one of the commentators remarked on stream: “You bring your playstyle to the character”. They were referring to Fuudo, who used to play Fei Long in Ultra Street Fighter IV. Fei Long is a methodical character whose playstyle differs from Mika, Fuudo’s main in SFV. And yet Fuudo still managed to take her all the way to the grand finals.

Many anime fighting game players often complain that “Street Fighter is too slow, there’s no air dashing, etc.”. I have always found this to be an extremely poor argument. A solid player will be able to adapt to the game, to the character that he is playing, and find a way to make everything work. That’s what GO1 and Fuudo achieved at this Evo.

I was quite surprised that GO1 picked C-Arcueid during the grand finals of the MBAACC side tournament — but after awhile, it seemed a logical choice for him. He excels at using MB characters that have tools to maintain relentless pressure (see: C-Akiha), and C-Arc is a real pain to fight against in v1.07 with her high pressure blockstrings. GO1 also has excellent combo execution — perhaps the reason why he chose Chun-Li in SFV. Chun-Li requires some level of execution for her advanced tricks.

Ok, I guess what I am trying to say is this: a Melty Blood player made it to Top 4 in Street Fighter. A pro-wrestling fighting game character made it to grand finals (I love pro wrestling).

What does this mean? I don’t know, but just for today, I am a happy Melty Blood fan (even though I still hate the game now), and a very happy pro wrestling fan.