Dungeons and Dragons!

Know what's better than my dream job of working as a computer games developer? A computer games developer developing games for Dungeons & Dragons!!!

After reading about the continued development on D&D Online, I wish I could be a part of that team. Such a lucky bunch of people. I really do believe that being really really busy at something you really really love (and getting paid for it) is a wonderful thing. The best one can ask for in a career.

In case you've been in some isolated camp away from urban civilised areas for the last couple of decades and have not heard of Dungeons & Dragons, I'll give a quick intro. But then, if you didn't, you probably wouldn't be reading this would you now? DnD is a role-playing game (it's the role-playing game (RPG). It's the father of RPG. RPGs are where you create a character and begin role-playing him or her in adventures designed and narrated by the Dungeon Master (a
fellow human who's in charge of how the game progresses). It's hard to explain in a paragraph., especially when I'm doing this during work :P I meant to type this several days ago too.

Check out the DnD quick links I have on the sidebar. It'll all open in a new window.

One more thing: D&D Miniatures.

I think it's better than Magic The Gathering, which is getting becoming too commercialised with all must-have rare and very rare cards out there. I'm seiously considering get some start packs, even if it's just to collect the miniatures. They simply look so good compared to other miniature games. I wonder if there's any active player group in Subang... Maybe I'll find the time to play... sigh. Guess not.

Conspiracy theories

1. Road builders and public works (water and electricity)
Ever noticed how those who lay the pipes or wires always comes after those who tar the roads? It's like they must wait (purposefully) until the road has been very recently and nicely tarred and resurfaced before proceeding to dig along the length of the whole road to put whatever it is they're supposed to put under the road. The worse thing is that resurfacing of the road after such works is simply horrible, and usually right along the side of the road, where your tyres roll on when you try to keep to the lane. Theory: "The public works/utilities people only dig up a road if and only if it has been recently resurfaced, to give a more constant and continuous source of income for those who resurface the roads."

2. Road builders and car suspension makers
Ever noticed how all new roads seem to less flat compared to the aged and cracked older roads? This is evident in new highways like the NPE and supposedly upgraded Old Klang Road. These "new" roads are bouncy to say the least, and one cannot even get a smooth ride for even 5 seconds while driving on these roads. Is there something wrong with our road builders? How come they can't build a stretch a flat road? Or at least something close to flat, not some tarred road that's attempting to mimick dirt roads. Theory: "This is simply to wear down a car's suspension faster so that car suspension makers get more business."

3. Highway concessionaires
Ever noticed that these days, all so-called major road upgrades always results in tolled roads? The NPE, Penchala Link (probably the world's first highway to actually do advertisements and promotions), Kajang Ring Road (soon-to-have toll booths rite?), etc. Weird isn't it? When it's supposed to be the government's responsibility to provide the country's citizens with better and more convenient roads. Also, notice that all new highways usually result in the road that it was meant to replace getting an upgrade as well. But that so-called upgrade usually has a side-effect, which is to make it more congested. NPE? Federal Highway has more cars than before. The NPE has much more traffic lights than before. It used to 1 or 2 lanes needing to wait to make a turn. Now the whole stretch has to stop, which simply creates more congestion. Same things with Penchala Link and LDP. And don't forget the traffic lights next to the toll plaza heading to Section 16 PJ from Section 17. Theory: "These guys don't build roads for convenience, they build roads purely for profit; and they try to get as many cars as they can on their new roads by making the old roads less favourable to travel on."

Handphone harrassing

I wonder if most have heard stories about people getting harrassing or prank calls from complete strangers. Well, it's been a few weeks since a friend of mine got a prankster coming from 012-9326934. It's not that I feel I'm helping to get revenge on that childish fella but attempts to actually contact that person was not successful; not that I expected otherwise.

I had even thought about writing about this and sending his number to our newspapers for publication. But I wonder if the newspaper would be allowed to publish the number without the owner's consent. So I'm placing it here. Hoping, just hoping, that if anyone knows the person holding the number, they'd be kind enough to let the fella know that I'm wondering about possible legal action. Yes, that friend, is a really close friend.

Gonna write to the network providers involved asking about this. Again, I repeat, 012-9326934, just so that search engines may find it easier, in case anyone searches for that number. Why someone would be so childish as to keep up prank calls and arrogant SMS is beyond me. I have reason to believe that the idiotic person behind this is a Malay guy. Why? Well, if I'm not mistaken, the '9' indicates Pahang. And the fact that the fella actually sent SMS in Malay asking why my friend did not pick up his call. Weird isn't it? Picking it up would merely result in some background noise. I once heard a girl giggling in the background from which sounded like a mamak stall. Some people have so much money they don't mind calling inter-state every once in a while.

Getting worked up for nothing? Well, when you start getting prank calls in the middle of the night as late as 2-3 am or as early as 5 am, then you'll see what I mean about getting harrassed. And it's not like it's letting up. Plus, I believe the number I posted is not the only one. There were at least 2 different numbers, both starting with '9'. The one I posted was just the most frequent. Sigh. Some people really have nothing better to do. To all who were kind enough to read this entry to the end: Feel free to make use of the posted number for any form of registration that would result in a lot of advertising SMS.