Gambling in Adelaide

BREAKING NEWS: I love Michael Owen. I love Michael Owen. Yes, this is a pathetic attempt to psych myself into loving him. I love Michael Owen.

My housemates finished their exams last Thursday while I done with mine 4 days before them.


As a mark of our new-found freedom, we decided to hit Skycity Adelaide Casino that night. Three of us agreed that it's a good way to let our accumulated stresses of studying for the last few months out. :3

Yes, this is very stressful indeed.


The casino is located just behind our apartment, which more or less 1000 footsteps away (yes, I did count). Inside the casino, there are a bunch of games. There are three-card poker here, baccarat there, caribbean stud somewhere in here, and plenty more games which I do not understand how to play at all. @.@

Initially I planned to play Big & Small (not that there are many games I can play). After all, I did won big playing it back in Macau.


But they did not open it that day. The casino hates me. :(

So I played Big Wheel instead that night.


Big Wheel is a very simple game. The banker/spinner will spin a wheel which has numerous sections and all I have to do is to predict which section the wheel will stop at. If I guess correctly, I will receive payout depending on the odds of the specific section.

So simple even a child knows how to play. Not that a child can enter the casino though. :D

The first few rounds I played were fairly inconsistent. I kept losing and winning that I did not have any profit or loss. Even the spinner was tired of giving and taking my chips over and over again. Feeling frustrated, I bet on the section which pays 47-1 but has only 1 out of 104 to happen.

And I won. O___O


47 to 1 payout! AUD2.50! That’s AUD117.50 I earned in one single round! Woohoo! I’m rich! It's my lucky day!

*10 minutes later*

It's not my day. I lost AUD70 from my winning pot after a few rounds. -___-

I actually wanted to continue playing so I can win back the amount I actually won. In fact, already switched on my kiasu mood in preparation to go kamikaze for the upcoming rounds. But before I could put down my chips, my housemates dragged me away. >3


"NO NO NO I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE!"

"Let me plays another round! One last round! I promise it’s my last round! I surely can win back the money I lost! Gimme! Gimme! Gimme more! I’m God of Gambler! Let your dirty hands off me! I will sue! I will scream! Eeeeeeee!!! Look! There’s one hot chick wearing nothing across the street! OMG BIG BOUNCIN' BOOBS! LOOK! LOOK! Let go off me! I will....!"

*BONG*


My housemates are so evil. They do not want me to become rich. :(

I'm Sorry

Dear Blogspot,

I'm sorry for dumping you. Will you forgive me?


Pretty please? :(

374th

This would be the final post of this blog.


Goodbye. Life's been good with you.

The Royal Cheese Seize: Behind the Scenes

BREAKING NEWS: It's been a tough week for me as The Girlfriend was sick and had all the swine flu symptoms. Thank God she is recovering now. :)

About two weeks ago, I completed my final 2D animation project entitled 'The Royal Cheese Seize'.

Credits to Konrad
It was about a mouse which stole a rare cheese from a king. It was loosely influenced by Tom & Jerry and MouseHunt (a game I played in Facebook) but the biggest influence was the background music - 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' by Edvard Grieg. Ever since I heard this song when I was a child, I always wanted to do an animation based on it.

A dream came true you could say. :D

I started to prepare the script and storyboard three months prior I began the production.


My lecturer was impressed by it and gave me 73% for it, just 2% short from getting a Distinction. :3

Initially, I planned to end the animation with a cliffhanger where the mouse is trapped with nowhere to go before the scene is immediately faded to black. It sounded pretty suspenseful and cool to me with the final fate of the mouse is unknown, but the lecturer demanded an ending to it. -____-

So oh well, I scrapped the idea and made the mouse to be alive in the end. I'm not that cruel. >D

With the approval of the lecturer, I began to do the animation by starting to draw the mouse.


I don't know about you, but it was really difficult to draw a mouse. -____-||

I'm not sure how many times I drew it, but I know I drew mouse (mice?) so much that I was even drawing them in my dreams. In the end it took me almost a week just to come out with the mouse I wanted. Made me realizes that there's a grain of truth in 'walking the talk'. @.@

Draft vs Final
Once I finished drawing all the necessary poses of the mouse, I began to draw the background scenes and coordinate its actions. As the main focus of the animation was the mouse, I figured that the king and the guards could wait. :D

The most difficult scene I did was Scene 10, which was the scene where the king was awakened by the mouse.


It took me almost two days just to figure out how to do a first-person view and put it into practice. It was so difficult that I even had to act it out myself by lying on my bed and opened my eyes slowly to get the "feeling" of waking-up-and-found-out-a-mouse-stealing-my-precious-cheese. Quite silly when I think back. X3

Next was the guards.


Simple as pie. :)

As I completed the mouse, guards and backgrounds, I began to draw the king, which proved to be a huge stumbling block.


I never actually picture how I want the king to look like. -____-

I tried to draw a bearded man, a Chinese emperor, lord of the ring, catman, Hitler and many more but all of them did not came out the way I felt it should be. Maybe it was my lousy drawing skill. Without a valid idea on how the king should look like, I decided a shrouded figure would be an act of genius.


Though it ended up like Terminator meets Lizardman at first. -____-

It was only after I tweaked here and there and made a drastic change that it looked much better. Not exactly good, but definitely better than the previous designs.

My favorite scene :3
Isn't he cute? ^.^

While it all went well, I do have a few disappointments with it. Firstly, it was the movements of the mouse and guards. I felt that I could improve it a lot. Secondly, it was the inconsistency of the design of the mouse. Sometimes it looked like a mouse, sometimes a rat, and sometimes a car. -___-

But my biggest disappointment of all regarding the animation is that I failed to include a cat in the animation. :(

Credits to Kok Seng
I mean, what's a mouse without a cat? Initially, I planned to have a cat to sleep in the king's room and surprise the mouse along with the king. Then, it would chase after the mouse along with the guards and ended up stuck in the hole which the mouse escaped into. But in the end it was not implemented due to it being more difficult to draw than the mouse. X(

So to those who have watched the animation, you have just got to know how it all happen. And to those who haven't watch it, watch it NOW.



After that, pretend that it's interesting and I deserved a standing ovation for it.

Keep Rollin'

BREAKING NEWS: This is seriously a monkey business.

Australian English was really unique compared to the English I used to listen to (US and Britain).


It was really tough when I first came here as they were basically speaking in Gibberish to me. I still remember I had a tough time communicating with my ISP during my third week at here. I didn't understand a thing he said and he didn't understand a thing I said. @.@

But after more than 4 months in Adelaide, I finally learn the Australian English. Now I have better understanding and grasp of the Australian accent and slang. >D

Guernsey? That's sports jersey to you.


Footy? Australian Rules Football.

Tall poppy? A successful person.

Maccas [pronounced as 'mackers']? McDonald's.

Whacker? Idiot.


Scab? That means 'beg for money/cigarettes/etc'.

Whinge? Means 'complain'.

Yakka? Work.

Dob? Backstab.


Now isn't Australian English fascinating? :D

And as evident with Maccas, Australians have the tendency to shorten the words of things, which is good for lazy people like me as pronouncing one less syllable saves a few milliliter of my saliva. XD

Examples of those shortened words are brekkie (breakfast), bikkies (biscuits), and barbie (barbeque). Of course, that's a whole lot more to the list of shortened words, but I have just mastered the 'B' section so far. XD

Another shortened which I would like to point it out today is 'bikie'.


Awwww~ how innocent and cute the word is. Reminds me of my first bicycle which I fondly called it bikie.

"Hey there, bikie, how are you today? Wanna go for a ride down the park today? Oh gosh, there's dirt on you. Must be because I wasn't gentle enough yesterday. I'm so sorry, bikie. Let me wash it off of you with water and soap and love, alright? Then I shall polish every inch of your perfect body frame. I love you, bikie."

That's what I thought about the word. It means bicycle. But never in a thousand years I would know it actually means biker. -___-

And not just any biker.


It's the notorious-bikers-gangs-who-are-feared-by-the-Australians-and-even-by-the-Australian-government-who-have-amended-a-special-law-just-for-them-to-control-them' biker. O_O

............

Suddenly an adoring word to my heart becomes a word I fear and tremble at the mention of its name. @.@


Once again, isn't Australian English terrifying fascinating? X3

Blackbeard

This is what you get after working inside your room for one whole week.


;)

Ducktanic

BREAKING NEWS: Tomorrow will be my first time presenting in UniSA. Furthermore, it's in French. I am so going to die. X3

I was in Mawson Lakes last week and I saw this.

I am Batman Manduck
Let alone what the duck is actually trying to do, I'm still figuring what the duck is doing on the tree.