Slight Hiatus

I truly apologize for this slight hiatus from posting. Alot of things are on my mind now on the preparations for my wedding this coming weekend. Last minute thoughts and such. No time to even watch football.

SideNote : Yay Man Utd Lost :P Yay!! JW don't be heartbroken.

'Steady stream' of young game addicts seek help

Experts are worried that parents and teenagers cannot cope with issue well.
By Oo Gin Lee and Alfred Siew
Help for gaming addicts is mainly focused on changing their habits, through 'cyberwellness' instead of getting them to go cold turkey. -- REUTERS
THE thrill of killing powerful monsters and seeking glory online has turned a small but growing number of youths here into cyber addicts, who need help to maintain sanity in ther real lives.

Some 150 of them have approached a new centre set up in August last year to help computer gaming addicts manage their obsession.

Mr Poh Yeang Cherng, manager of the Planet Crush cyber wellness centre, said he has seen a 'steady stream' of cybergamers asking for help. About 60 of the 150 cases have to go for counselling sessions.

'There are many reasons why gamers play games. Some to escape from real life, some to achieve what they can't get in real life and others to simply meet their social needs,' said Mr Poh.

Almost all of them who approached the centre were students and youths, with just a handful of adults.

'There was also one girl who called to seek help for her father,' said Mr Poh.

The centre is part of non-profit Touch Community Services' youth outreach programme. Since 2001, Touch Community has reached out to more than 200 schools and 250,000 students, parents and teachers with its cyberwellness programmes.

The problem with gaming addiction was highlighted in Parliament on Monday by Ms Ellen Lee, MP of Sembawang GRC, who said her nephew was a cyber addict. She asked three ministries what was being done to help such youths.

Experts say most gamers can manage their lives and do not end up as addicts. Help is mainly focused on changing their habits, through 'cyberwellness' instead of getting them to go cold turkey.

Mr Thomas Chong, director of education initiatives at Infocomm Asia Holdings, a leading game publisher here, said: 'Gaming is like fire. It can be a good master or a bad slave. You just need to manage it properly.'

He allows his eldest child, 12-year-old Daniel, play computer games. Initially, he worked out a schedule with him but over time he drilled the values of balance and prioritisation into his child.

'Now, he paces himself without our help and automatically stops completely when the PSLE was near. But we still monitor him in the background to make sure he does not step out of line,' added the father of three, who also lectures educational psychology part-time to National Institute of Education trainee teachers.

But some cyber addicts can play non-stop for more than 12 hours a day. Mostly male youths, they may also skip school, or rush to a cyber cafe while on holiday overseas, to log on to a game they cannot live without.

Dr Munidasa Winslow, director of the Community Addictions Management Program at the Institute of Mental Health, said he has seen patients who even fought with their parents when told to quit playing.

Though he has only handled a handful of gaming addiction cases this year, he noted that more parents are starting to get worried about the issue. They are concerned that what started as a hobby may turn into an obsession.

Student Bryan Toh, 16, for example, failed several subjects in Secondary 3 last year because he spent all his time playing the MapleStory online game.

He would play for 12 hours straight, even pretending to be ill so he could stay at home to log on.

He recounted: 'When I started playing, I thought I could stop when the holidays ended.' He did not - until the the O levels beckoned this year and he was forced to kick his habit to prepare for the exams.

Academic and avid gamer Angeline Khoo, 54, suggested that parents should try to understand why games matter so much to the young ones - by playing the games themselves.

'There's a lack of understanding as well, and what we need is a bit of balance,' she said.

Read Confessions of a not-quite-reformed gaming addict.

Taken from http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest+News/Tech+%2526+Science/STIStory_176448.html?vgnmr=1

Hahaha i think i'm one of them addicts, but i'm not young anymore.

Song hunting for Wedding

Heheh, any of you torrent? I'm hunting for songs which both me and my wife like for our wedding.

I have got the cards liao, this weekend gonna write them all up and next week's passing them out time. Yay, 2 weeks and 2 days to go. Suddenly, i'm feeling a bit more excited than the past few weeks.

Registered for more than a year, and now only doing the chinese tradition stuff. Somehow the anxiety to get everything right is there, very anxious to see how everything turn out on that day. Hopefully all will be fine.

Any suggestions of songs?

I looked at the scales this morning after 30 days of changed diet

Hehehe, sorry for the lack of updates, been busy with alot of things, wedding planning, stuff this that or sometimes a bit lazy, play games etc etc.

Today this morning i looked at the scales, it shows that i'm 4.5kg lighter than i was 30 days ago. Heck an achievement for me. I've never lost weight before only gained them. Bwahahahaha.

Damn happy, and i didn't even go on any supplements. One 2 hour badminton session, ehhh, nothing much of an exercise after that unless you consider typing on the keyboard exercise for fingers. :P

What i ate in the 4 weeks

Breakfast
Sausages/Eggs(many styles of cooking)/Ham/Fish Nuggets/Cucumbers/Dim Sum(1 time)/Burger Patties.

Lunch
Mix rice without the rice, heh, 2 meat 1 vege, 1 meat 2 vege, eggs from time to time.
KFC
Mc donalds nuggets and ayam goreng everything a-la-carte, Didn't touch any soft drinks at all. Go for the mineral water :P
Cook own chicken kunyit, kari goreng tenggirri, other stuffs.
Pan Mee (1 time)

Dinner
Nandos
Kenny Rogers roasters
Kfc
McD - burgers without buns, nuggets, fried chicken.
Manhattan fish market - too bad they don't have salads with their fish only rice and fries.
Own Cook food
Steamboat 2 occassions :)
Chinese Restaurants, one fish one soup one taufu most of the time, or replace fish with meat. sweet n sour also can.
Yong Tau Foo

Snacks
Nuggets, Oranges, Pears, Apples, Cheese slices, Peanuts, Cashew nuts, Almond Nuts.
Baskin Robin (1 time only)

Drinks - Lots of plain water, i still drink english tea during tea breaks in office.

Hmm that's all i remember. There has to be more, but i don't quite remember all.
First of all, the first week is hard to bear, but when you get past that feeling of lethargicness (lower sugar level) it's fine. And now not eating rice is a good habit.

Still have a bit of splurges from time to time if you see the food i ate, but no sugared drinks like coke and such is good.

Avoid refined carbs, go for natural food.

Cheers!! If i can do it so can you!! 4.5kg kakaka, i wonder if it will go higher or lower after my wedding.

Nice way to make an announcement

Well, this is a first for me, i was going thru SMART tunnel in the morning as usual, and listening to MIX FM, when suddenly, the radio waves were taken over and an announcement was made by the SMART tunnel people.

They were saying Tun Razak road was jammed up, recommend people to take the Sultan Ismail exit. Then the radio waves cut back to the radio station.

Hehehe, that's really a cool way to make an announcement.

Steamboat @ Home

Sorry about the lack of updates. Alot of things to do for the wedding and plans. :)

Now we've gotta continue thinking of ideas on how to maintain our diet, low carbs low carbs, what to eat what to eat.

So we thought of steamboat.

Took a portable stove from my mom's house with a cannister of gas.

Bought some Ikan Parang Fishball, some Meatballs, loads of 'Fu-Chuk', some vege, and 5 prawns, 1 chicken breast, all from OUG market.

Also bought some ikan bilis and boiled the soup with them earlier.

Very easy to make and simply delicious and enjoyable. Also cheaper than outside steamboat too :P

For 2 ppl the price of the things came up to ehh 15 dollars? ok le, simply delicious with real ikan bilis in the soup and not some MSG stuff.


Delicious!!

How would you balance out development?

Hehehe, this game my wifey sent to me, i've tried for a long time last few weeks ago, then i left it alone, today i tried it again and managed to finish it.

The goal is to have everything at max level.

http://shingakunet.com/special/10054301/0285/index.html

Hehehe, Try it, See how good you are at development steps :P

Overdue

Gahhh, alot of expenses are accumulated up lately, and it's tough clearing them, sometimes i feel like i work for the bank, salary in, salary goes to bank, hahaha then use credit, then salary in, salary goes to bank and repeat.

Anyhow my car's way overdue for it's quarterly service, i'm dragging it to 8k mileage instead of my usual 5k before i send it for service. What to do, lower my expenses a bit lo.


My Last service and notification for next service



My Odometer :( Overdue liao Overdue liao