The Infamous Topic

So, it’s been awhile after my last post. Well, I am busy. Working from Monday to Friday is one thing. I also have my weekends occupied with my Masters classes at Malacca. That sounds fun, isn’t it? Haha, some of you might have seen me playing games during the night but that’s it. It’s more like stress-release thing to do and it’s not like I am playing until late night. Anyway, let’s move on.

Hmm, infamous topic, aye? Like what I said before, maybe politics? If it’s about politics, what’s the infamous conflict now? Sure, Israel-Palestine war. But it seems that the conflict kinda slow down a little bit as Israeli forces have already retreated back to Israel and Palestinians currently cleaning up the rubbles and debris all over the country. Different people have different opinions regarding this matter. Some people sided with Israel where the Israeli government accussing Hamas for launching the unguided rockets into Israel’s civilian territories. While the others believe it as an excuse for Israel to launch their attacks on Gaza.

The conflict has a very long story with each side accussing each others for barbaric and terrorism. Being a Malaysian and also a Muslim, I’ve always reading news and even during Friday sermons regarding Jews and Arabs. The beginning of this modern conflict is pointed to the establishment of Israel in 1948. The Zionists acquired the land through British mandate. British and American government approved the returning of Jews to the Land of Israel. Historically, Muslims have conquered Jerusalem and its neighboring areas during 7th century from Romans and again in 12th-13th century from Christians. Soon after, the regions were under the rule of Ottoman Turks. The fall of the Ottoman Empire was related to their involvement with the Germans in WW1. So, in the early 20th century, it was the British who actually administered the areas until the Zionists came in. Apart from that, we could see many Arab kingdoms grown like Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria, to name a few. But there’s a controversial matter that few people know about it (at least Malaysian). The involvement of Muslims and Adolf Hitler. SS Handschar was a division of Waffen SS that actually a non-Aryan/German unit. This is one of the reason that strengthen the Zionists claims over the land. The establishment of Israel was not welcomed by the neighboring Arabs countries. Which eventually led to the Six-Day War in 1967.

People already knew that the Arabs lost the war in 1967. This is not a matter of the Western backing up Israel while the Soviet Russia backing up the Arabs. The various kingdoms and nations are a valid proof of Arabs disintegration. There are about 300 millions of Arabs around the world yet there are already 22 nations within the Arab League. Why the Arabs disunified? The Arab League itself hasn’t doing anything particular in recent years (other than various meetings along with good food and acoomodations). Going back into history, Arabs were known for backstabbing each other. If there’s a single ruler who unified the Arab world, it won’t last long. Treachery is common. If you go through the list of sultans here in Ayyubid Dynasty which was established by Salahuddin Al-Ayyubi, the Sultans were mostly assassinated by the next ruler. Just take this Sultan of Damascus for example. Same thing applies to the Mamluks and Ottoman Turks. So, it’s not weird to see Hamas and Fatah quarreling with each others.

For him are angels ranged before him and behind him, who guard him by Allah’s command. Lo! Allah changeth not the condition of a folk until they (first) change that which is in their hearts; and if Allah willeth misfortune for a folk there is none that can repel it, nor have they a defender beside Him. (Ar-Ra’d:11)

It has been written in the Quran. It is not Allah who will change the people’s condition It’s the people themselves who shaped their lives. Arabs must change their attitudes before they can change on what has happened in the bloody Holy Land. Jewish people are smart people. Once a man said that Jews were granted with a little bit of God’s knowledge which is why the Jews always putting themselves higher than other races. This is also why some Muslims consider them as no difference with the acts of Nazi Germany. Why I am saying them as smart people? For modern timeline, just watch the 1967 Six-Day War videos at YouTube (you have to be registered tho to watch it and it has several parts). The ingenius leadership of Israeli force had taken early steps to fight off the Arabs just in a matter of time. Another important thing is where the establishment of Hamas. Hamas loves to quarrel with Fatah, the prominent group in PLO. The Zionists took advantage of their conflicts and always trying to crush the integration between Arabs especially the PLO. Hamas is the only for them the destroy the bond of Arabs. Hamas has always rejected the idea of coexisting for all religions in the Holy Land. This is actually just a political matter between Arabs (which has already been there since millenia ago). As Hamas gained more popularity among the Palestinians, they took a drastic measure by eliminating some Fatah leaders. This made Gaza getting into a civil war bloodbath. The opportunists from the Land of Israel took their best moment by launching attacks over Gaza in the recent clash because Arabs have already been weaken by internal clashes.

Being a Muslim, Islam is my way but that doesn’t mean I need to reject people with their own belief, as long as they don’t intervene with mine. I may sound like an Islamic Liberal but I am not. It’s just that I’d rather be with my belief but in the same time I don’t mind what the others do as long as they didn’t disturb my belief and they’re fine to do with what they want. Islamic Liberals are more onto acceptance of other people’s rights.  Their belief in coexistance is sometimes too much with intervention of others with Islam and theirs with others plus denying some Islamic laws just for the sake of coexistance. That’s why most Islamic conservativists rejected Islamic Liberals (read Sabili magazine from Indonesia for more information). But the main problem with Islamic Liberal is secularism. Which is why I am not really agree with it.

What’s the future of Palestine? I don’t know. Some Muslims believe that this is a neverending conflict with Jews which will lasted until the end of the world. But how about with the Muslims who lived during 14-15th century? There’s no such thing as conflicts with Jews much. People back then were talking more about Mongols, Christians and also Sunni-Syiah conflicts. Only during the establishment of Israel state that made more stories about the badness of Israel upon Muslims and also the renewing of more evil stories of Islam to the Western world. Just like today’s conflict where the West willingly accepted the idea of ‘Hamas who started the attack on Israel’ as well as ‘Israel is the badass people’ for Muslims especially in Malaysia. Simply the Zionists seemed taking their best time to gain advantages especially when George Bush stepping down from power and Obama has yet to be installed as President of the United States of America and not forgetting the weakened state of Palestine due to civil war.

Remember, people of Malaysia, especially Malays. With arguments over trivial matters and some idiots with only SPM qualifications on the higher ups who failed to make people contented will make things getting worse. It’s just a matter of time before a civil war erupted. Please, take Arabs as examples (plural as there are already a number of cases can be applied) who sometimes can be seen as simply using Islam as making their cause as Godly.

Insight: PC Games of 2009

It’s been awhile I haven’t put up any kind of post about games. In fact, I’ve been struggling to find a writing theme for my site which eventually ended up as personal blog rather than what I planned before (it was still something personal stuffs but with more varieties.. oh well). For example, there’s one unrelated post in this blog that seemed out of the league (*points at MiG news*). Nevertheless, let me write something about upcoming PC Games of 2009 that make me feel amusing just by thinking about it.

oliolioooo

oliolioooo

2009 is the year of sequels. Many existing games are currently having their continuitions under development and some of them gonna be released this year. Of course there are also brand new games that look promising such as Rage, Dragon Age, Alan Wake, Tom Clancy’s End War, Men of War and some others. Anyway, I will only give a slight preview over my personal favorites for upcoming games (without any preference order).

Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor

Yeah, the best World War 2 real time strategy out there. I am not playing with the “best” word here. From the first original title to its first expansion, Relic have delivered us with awesome and realistic games involving WW2 theme. Fallschirmjagers, Calliope, King Tiger, Priest and many more cool units. The next expansion will have no new faction. Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor gives players new campaigns, units, multiplayer modes, and maps. Having three new campaigns with new units are excellent enough to add up unto this excellent game.

Tigers!

Tigers!

Tank crews in action

Tank crews in action

As much as I hope they include more factions into the game, perhaps balance issues might plague the game once more if being added just like when Opposing Fronts were released some time ago. Nevertheless, this is a must buy game for me. No exact date of release yet. Perhaps March or April?

Diablo 3

The new sequel of Diablo that will be unleashed upon its fans who have already waiting like 7-8 years? Blizzard is currently putting their best efforts to make the game as fun as possible like before. We have already seen several sequels of other games flopped and ended up being some hype. So, Diablo 3 is being carefully made to become the best hack-and-slash RPG ever for this time around. Ever since the popular World of Warcraft already taking the top spot of RPG titles, the Diablo 3 development team tries to differentiate both games by having Diablo 3 concentrated more on PvP more rather than more economical bla bla stuffs like in WoW. Good move as I am not into using skills to combine several liquids or dusts to make a kind of aphrodisiac potion.

Meow

Meow!

This is an early alpha shot btw. The recent screenshot release shows that the game has become darker and horror environment just like its predecessors

This is an early alpha shot btw. The recent screenshot release shows that the game has become darker and horror environment just like its predecessors

Will it be coming out this year? I doubt so but it is something that we should hope to.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II

Another games that will be released from the same maker of Company of Heroes. Apart from graphical enhancement and new game engine, what can we expect from this new sequel? First and foremost, the game will be more on tactical sides. For that matter, there will be less resources gathering matters that need to take care off. More units customizations with different war gears and items especially weapons. The destructible environments will make the more to be more challenging and exciting. With no buildings, will the game be more like DotA that focusing on heroes and tactical squaddie?

For the Emperor!

For the Emperor!

Rocket jumps can crush enemies upon landing

Rocket jumps can crush enemies upon landing

This is one great game that should be collected. When we will be able to get it? Perhaps June or July.

Empire: Total War

Aah, the great Total War series now brings us back to the 18th century era. What can we tell upon that timeline? It is the Age of Sail. Yup, there will be real time naval battles unlike its predecessors. Apart from that, we can see the colonization of India and the New World which is America. We also can recreate the American Independence battles which introduces more rifles and firearms. Currently, Creative Assembly still deciding on what factions they should add into the game as of what we know, there are many nations and factions of the European origin. Some factions have already been confirmed such as Great Britain, France, Sweden, Ottoman, Prussia, Russia, Spain and United Provinces (which is the Dutch).

Box shot for British release. Subject to change, though.

Box shot for British release. Subject to change, though.

pew pew pew pew

pew pew pew pew

The released date has been confirmed on the 3rd of March 2009. A must have for those RTS fans.

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.

The new air combat game from Ubisoft. Set on near future where some private military forces attacking the United States. Well, what you can expect from Tom Clancy anyway, huh? It might be just a good game if not a decent game. But, really, we have less and less simulation/arcade-ish games involving air combat games on PC recently. Especially modern air combat. With F-35 that we can control, how could I ignore this game? Heh, surely this game tries to compete with Ace Combat series that already have dominating the console games for air combat simulations.

High Altitude Warfare - Experimental Squadron

High Altitude Warfare - Experimental Squadron

"Bird down! Bird down!"

"Bird down! Bird down!"

Still no exact date of release. Maybe around March or April. I might be waiting for reviews before buying this although my hands feel itchy to play air combat simulation games for some time.

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty

Again, the mother of all RTSes. Now on the second sequel. By the look of its screenshots, there’s actually nothing that really impress me much. I know, it’s Starcraft. Who doesn’t get the hype of it anyway? Well, Blizzard will surely try to make the games not getting far off from its predecessor and putting new elements to make the games feels brand new. If we really want to compare with other ancient games that still alive until now with sequels, Red Alert 3 is a good comparison. In RA3′, there’s like a large gap between RA2 and RA3. Hardcore fans like to whine everything about … anything. Despite the developers put more effort on gameplay, some fans are biased towards old units and also the storyline. Being a spin off of the original Command & Conquer series, I don’t really care about RA3′s storyline. But things are different for Starcraft II. This is a game that I really want to get just because of it’s story. The Starcraft expansion has already left us with many hangovers and I’d really want to know its continuition.

jeng jeng jeng

jeng jeng jeng

Zerg rush anyone? How nostalgic

Zerg rush anyone? How nostalgic

Just like Diablo 3, there’s no exact date for releases. However, Starcraft II will be coming out before Diablo 3 as the game was announced earlier than the latter. I sense Diablo 3 might be released at the end of the year or maybe next year.

Well, those are games that I am willing to get them this year, hopefully. Hmm, what should I write next? Politics? lol

Steamboat Gath

What did Christmas and New Year’s days bring? Holidays! Despite having days off, I’ve always been late in posting new stuffs about anything at my site XD. After all, there were some nice and also bizarre things happened as days passed by.

Pinky view outside the office
Pinky view outside the office

I received an SMS from Kinokuniya that my Comp Ace order has arrived (around Wednesday’s morning). Since it’s already 2 months I haven’t collect my copies including this one, so I decided to go there on the evening. I asked Shah to go along and as he agreed, he brought along his wife.

It is red light and this driver is so crazy to stop at the front
It is red light and this driver is so crazy to stop at the front

On that day also was the madness of ‘Hirano Aya in Malaysia’ fever. If you haven’t got to know about it, I am lazy to explain about it anyway. Just try to lurk at her blog or other Malaysian bloggers’ sites.

Hirano Aya wearing veil which made some Malaysians went berserk
Hirano Aya wearing veil which made some Malaysians went berserk

As I arrived at Kinokuniya, I collected the tankoubons and eventually stumbled upon several /AS/ members who were actually on the hunt of Hirano Aya. Well, it is true that I do hope that I may able to see her in real life but I never put my priority on such thing and I was there to collect my orders, not more than that (eventually I bought more stuffs instead).

Hirano Aya Search Party Group picture in front of Kinokuniya
Hirano Aya Search Party Group picture taken in front of Kinokuniya (picture taken by luna)

After that, I went to Shah’s house as I was actually thinking of watching fireworks at Putrajaya. But it was already late as we only able to watch them from afar. Soon after, I went back home.

OH YEAH!
OH YEAH!

On the evening of Thursday, I went back to Shah’s house for /AS/ gathering; a steamboat gathering. Yeah, we’re having steamboat feast there. Several guys of /AS/ dropped by (around 9 people including mem Shah, luna and I’m lazy to list them all here lol) and we grabbed some food of the supermarket before start boiling the pot.

Vegetables; main dish for vegetarian guest18
Vegetables; main dish for vegetarian guest18
Fishballs, sausages and more fishballs
Fishballs, sausages and more fishballs
Fishball tries to boil his other self
Fishball tries to boil his other self
This is stormy. Eating lavishly lol
This is stormy. Eating lavishly lol
Burps!
Burps!

After eating, we’re having copy-and-paste session. Meanwhile, Stormy and Oyaji were having fun with Call of Duty: World at War (even though just playing single player).

 

Oyaji; 3rd Person View
Oyaji; 3rd Person View

 

A very serious and focused looking of Oyaji
A very serious and focused looking of Oyaji

 

Oyaji; butt view
Oyaji; butt view

 

Stormy; butt view
Stormy; butt view

This somewhat party ended only around 2 AM. Eventually I was only going to bed around 3:30~4:00 AM after back home and doing some minor chores. For that matter, I was late for work on the Friday (sorry boss, I know you will read my blog somehow).

I shall never having fun all day long until late night on the day before working day. I shall never having fun all day long until late night on the day before working day. I shall never having fun all day long until late night on the day before working day. I shall never having fun all day long until late night on the day before working day. I shall never having fun all day long until late night on the day before working day. I shall never having fun all day long until late night on the day before working day. I shall never having fun all day long until late night on the day before working day. I shall never having fun all day long until late night on the day before working day.