Marina’s Bloggariffic

<rant>

At the risk of sounding juvenile, I’m quite affected with this week’s edition of digital life.

I’ve been involved with secondlife, an online 3D community, for since october 2004 and was extremely puzzled to see that there were no features about it.

Thus, I offered to write an article about Secondlife to the editors at digital life, a weekly newspaper edition featuring technology in Singapore. I was very polite and enthusiastic. I gave a quick introduction from here and here (in fact, I’ve done two quick videos here and here) and asked for guidelines for the submission of articles. This was in early may.

It would be fine if they said no but I never did got a reply back.

Recently, a reporter, Chua Hian Hao wrote an article about Secondlife not being popular in Singapore. But with all due respect, how long has he been in Secondlife anyway to give a review about it?

He interviewed a university professor whom did a survey with 700 gamers. But that survey by itself was already biased. Its comparing apples and oranges. Because Secondlife isnt a game, its a community. The professor herself has confessed that she is a veteran on Worldcraft online. We cannot categorize secondlife as a game. These gamers that were interviewed would not be familliar with secondlife.

And can the people being interviewed be of a wider range? Surely there are more people than just university students and professors to represent gaming and the internet world.

This professor continues saying that, “If you played Secondlife and told an interesting Secondlife an occurence who didnt played it, it would be just a story about a game he doesnt play. But if you shared a Maplestory with a fellow Maplestory player, he would get it, making your experience richer”

I dont dispute that.

I dont play maplestory. I did try it once but I didnt feel compelled to play it long term. I understand that a particular gamer would understand that gamer better. But that doesnt mean that people wouldnt try to understand each other. Just like the real world, its a matter of understanding diversity.

These people interviewed insisted that Secondlife isnt popular.

Mr Simonsen, a gaming programmer, stated in the article, that Secondlife demand more out of the players and will not consider the steep learning curve to get the fun.

There is an undergraduate, Sim Yuze who says that he doesnt have time to play Secondlife and thinks that its not profitable. He illustrates this by saying that “if he quits worldcraft, and diablo, he will be able to sell his character off. You cant do that if the game isnt popular and there are no buyers for your character”

Secondlife is a community that thrives on currency exchange. You could easily design clothes, or build items which can be sold to be made into real money. Even me, I whom is motivationally challenged is able to sell some apparels for some sum of money.

Mr Simonsen and Sim Yuze would have to realise that should they both be businessmen, they both are losing business if they choose not to see the potential economic viables that secondlife bring.

In fact, there are many companies whom invested in secondlife - IBM, invested 10 million in Secondlife, Reuters has opened an agency in Secondlife, just to name a few companies.

Besides, Secondlife has been gaining popularity. With personal experience, in 2004, I only met one Singaporean online, the number has now increased dramatically with an active Singaporean group in Secondlife.

I wish the reporter interviewed any Singaporean Secondlife players to counter what has been written for a more balanced side of the story. For example,Kevin, a vocal and active player or Preetamrai whom has been enlightened by the advantages of learning via 3D community. Both of whom have a large following on the internet. I dont believe its that hard to find Singaporeans who play secondlife. It could have advertised on the newspapers or he could even advertise on Tomorrow.sg. Most youths dont regularly read newspapers anymore anyways since internet is their main medium now.

I hope for more neutrality in the article.

</rant>

Edited for tone, clarity and to add : Whoops! Sorry! There *was* an article whom interviewed a secondlife player. But it was nondescript that I completely missed it out.

I spent some weeks of scouring on the internet for suitable and affordable accomodation, emailing them to see if there were rooms available, asking friends for recommendation and the actual viewing of rooms.

There were some rooms which were dark and totally creepy - stained carpets, broken bathtubs. There were some which had no windows at all, and was so small that made it seem jail-like and claustraphobic.

Cuclainne recommended 1bnbsingapore, a bed and breakfast where her family in laws stayed. After checking the website out, I decided to take a look at the place after work.

The nearest train station was the Outram Mrt station. All train stations had a locality map at the exit, but since I couldnt find the place, I decided to take a taxi instead.

Spottiswoode park. That sounds very high class doesnt it? Like a condominium. Thats why I was surprised when the cabby said that we’ve reached the place. It was nondescript, and looked like a regular high rise building. With the exception that there was a guard sitting at the stone bench at the lobby and a lcd screen in front of the elevator with a security camera pointing to me.

I went up to the 25th floor and met one of the managers, Debra, who showed me one of the rooms. It was roomy - I saw a writing table, cable tv, a playstation set, cupboard and a clean bed. And the view from the top was gorgeous. I could see the Tanjong Pagar railway and the city from there. So it would be easy to get around the city and other areas because of its central location.

Though I couldnt get the largest room which had bathroom in it, and have to share with another 2 rooms, the bathroom is so much bigger than any of the hotels that I’ve viewed so far.

I was definitely interested.

Best part is that it was one of the most affordable one I’ve seen. There is vacancy for the dates when cart would be here. Hooray! I was ready to book a room and make a deposit on the spot there and then. Its that great!

I finally found a place that is suitable for cart! Air conditioned, large bathroom and it wasnt expensive. Awesomeness!

Thanks cuclainne! If you didnt recommended me that, I still would be searching for rooms! :)

And thanks everyone for the suggestions, I really do appreciate them. I’ve learnt so much :)

Tanjong Pagar community center conducted a vocal training class today and I thought I’d just dropped by.

I took the train to the Tanjang Pagar train station. It felt a little strange sitting in the train again after being on the scooter for some while. The familiar sights of people rushing to enter and grab for seats. And me falling fast asleep in the middle of the journey. In time I reached the station and it didn’t take me long to reach the community center on foot for the rest of the journey.

The tanjong pagar community center was a little different from the taman jurong community center which was nearer to my home. It seemed that the people here were more well heeled. Many of the women seemed to be rather nicely dressed for Sunday morning. I stared admiringly at a pair of pink pumps.

We were introduced to Shin Ikesue - a vocal trainer and founder of the Tokyo Mass choir. I must say that it was quite an experience, hearing such a powerful voice live.

He taught us breathing exercises and emphasis on the mouth and projection. But to be honest, it wasn’t anything new that I’ve learnt in choir before.For example the keynotes do mi re fa so fa re do, to be sung an octave higher or lower each time to train the muscles as well as the A E I O U mouthing exercises, which are pretty standard singing techniques.Nevertheless, it was still a good way to spend the weekend. :)

Lets make a Complaint Choir Singapore Version ;)

Today must be an auspicious date for the Indians, I see many weddings going on. I even got invited by two friends.

I was supposed to meet Narima and go together with her on my scooter. It was more convenient for me as it would be easier for me to survey hotels later on my scooter.

But because of yesterday’s incident with the IU, I decided to bring it to the mechanic for a quick check. It couldnt have been damaged from the accident on tuesday. The wires must have been accidentally dismantled.

But after a check with the mechanic, the IU is actually damaged. And since the LTA offices doesnt open on saturday, I can only get a replacement on monday. I’d might as well leave the scooter in the workshop so that they can fix the dent on the side of the scooter at the same time.

Narima and I went to Junaidah’s wedding at Masjid Bencoolen. Junaidah was an ex colleague from West Spring and I saw many of my ex colleagues.

This was the first time I attended an indian-muslim style wedding. There was a dais where the couples would sit and pose while there were seats where the guests could sit to watch while the ceremony proceeded.

After the well wishes, Narima and I parted ways, and I really felt the pangs of missing my scooter. It would have taken me only 5 minutes to ride to the nearest train station, instead, I took 20 minutes to walk.

The MRT! All the memories flooding over as I stood precariously by the grip pole as humans came rushing in the cabin. How can I stand this for the next two weeks?

I brought mum and my sis to go to Hema’s wedding, which was held at night. Hers was a traditional Hindu wedding. With a priest chanting in sanskrit to bless the couple.

Mum seemed extremely keen on watching the ceremony. She went all the way in front of the stage and stood there for the entire hour or so. As she watched Hema going around the fire, exchanging garlands with her husband, and washing her parents feet.

The best of wishes to both of the happy couple :) Hema and Chan, Junaidah and Anwar Ali :)

Juli accompanied me hotel hunting after work today, and we went to different areas to survey for suitable accomodations. She said that it was not advisable to trust from the pictures from the brochures alone. Its best to see it in person.

First off, we went to the Santa Grand Hotel in West Coast and though the location was far from the heartlands, it looked private and cosy. From the pictures, the rooms looked good. But unfortunately for us, there were no rooms available for viewing nor were there rooms in late december.

We then went to another hotel which was nearby. We asked for a viewing, and got to see one of their rooms. To me, the rooms were livable but Juli didnt liked it. I could see her point that it could be a little creepy with the bare walls and the room was rather dark.

We then went off to go to the northen side of Singapore. As I dont frequent areas outside of West and Central Singapore so much, I wasnt sure how to get to Serangoon on my scooter without the streetdirectory. We went around riding till my rear was sore and after the longest time, we found ourselves in the city area.

I found out that my IU didnt work just about I was to enter the gantry at the centra business district area. Previously I didnt insert my cashcard properly into the IU and I got fined. I had to swerve and quickly parked my scooter at a drop off point and wondered if I should just push the scooter back to the main road.

More and more cars arrived. They were all waiting for the time to turn to 7 pm, when the gantry stopped operating for the night. It was so funny to see how these cars queue up one by one and then zoom in just as the gantry stopped operating just to save maybe a dollar or two.

We continued on our journey and about 2 hours later, reached One Florence Close. I met Mr and Mrs Tan and their helper. They were really friendly and answered my questions.

“Can we see your rooms?”

“Aww sorry, we have guests in the room and we dont have any to show you”

“Is your rooms suitable for a family?”

“Yes, you could even have 5 - 8 people in a room sleeping comfortably”

“Whats the oldest person that has stayed here?”

“Hmm .. We had a 70 year old couple from England”

And I saw their adorable, fluffy cats Romeo and Pepper. Gosh I could just eat them both.

The place was very home style, with visitors being able to cook in the kitchen and lounge on the sofa next to it. There is a computer we could use and a deck outside for a little al-fresco. I could see myself staying there as its very homely and inviting. The only one minor issue is that the communal toilet and showers are a tad cramped for me and Juli so I dont think its suitable for Cart.

After we said our goodbyes to the family, we headed to our last stop, which was hotel 81 Bugis. I managed to see a standard room. The beds were clean, I liked that they used a LCD screen for their tv. But the room were so tiny and were no windows so it felt so claustraphobic.

The bathroom! Its tiny! Its the size of two toilet stalls. Arggh!! This is almost demoralising.

I need to do more scouring.

After going with the same look for some while now, I was ready to try something new. I went to search for suitable skins for my secondlife avatar and I stumbled upon Maximillion Grant’s designs. It was love at first sight.

If my avatar looked good before … It looks great now!

Even cartcart decided to get a new skin for himself too. Arent we a good looking couple? :P

Speaking of avatars, there are loads of different looks in secondlife - the zany looking ones, the goddesses, the goths, the furries, to name a few.

Some may choose to design their avatars exactly as how they look like in real life. While there are some who design it to look as how they dream to be.

And there are those which doesnt seem to fit in any category at all.

But the wonderful thing about avatars is that one can customise it however they like and start all over again if they arent happy with it.

To me, avatars (the same goes with 3D houses) are a reflection of a person’s personality. To see that there are so many different types of avatars make me feel heartened to see such a diverse community where people can share ideas, thoughts and emotions.

Its truely facinating.

sl rinaz doesnt seem facinated though :P

I’ve been scouring for a place for Cart to stay during his visit this december.

Cartcart wasnt choosy about his accomodations, the only requirement was that the room needed to be air-conditioned and I prefer that it be affordable. The first thing that came to mind was ‘Hotel 81‘ - one of the best known budget hotels in Singapore.

I’ve already reserved a room, and luckily for us, there were still some available at the time though I was pretty certain that it will be fully booked soon due to the peak season of christmas and the new year.

Peak season! They charged extra on the holidays! On typical days they charged about $50 - $90 for a room for a day. I did my calculations and my heart skipped a beat. $950+

Woah! Thats kind of pricey. Isnt there any alternatives? For that price, I could rent a fully furnished apartment. However, Juli said that the minimum length of time required for rental was a month. Cart would only be staying for 9 days.

Some of the nice people from the forums had some great ideas. One that I liked in particular was the ntuc chalet that costs $70 a day. Unfortunately, some of the dates during the week were already booked. It would be inconvenient to keep changing accomodations during the stay.

So its back to to square one.

I wasnt satisfied.

After a search on google, I discovered a page which recommended ’service apartments’. It said that it was more economical and had a more homelier feel to it. It was like a hotel, but larger and had amenities where you could cook, wash among others.

The more I read and the more I looked, the more attracted I was to the whole deal.

Doesnt these look gorgeous?

Living room at The Lotus at Joo Chiat

Deluxe rooms at Metropolitan Y Apartments

And unfortunately they were all fully booked. I even went to the extent of checking each and every one of the links here to see if there were any available.

In the end, I had a reply from Valuestay which had a room for $100 dollars a night which was reasonable. But it excludes utility rates, no kitchen and you had to pay $500 upfront as deposit

Ouch! Plus I dont even know what the room looks like as there’s no picture of the rooms to be found in the website anywhere.

As now, we’d have to stick to the original plan. Anyway, its near to alot of interesting places like the National Library, and the Esplanade. I do hope there will be some interesting events there in december! :)

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions?