The regular power-cuts are back again. Earlier, I thought it was lack of hydro-electricity combined with increase in demand that caused such power shortage. Once the rainy season started, the power-cuts stopped. Now that the rainy season is over, the power-cuts are back again. I have no idea how power-cut is related to rain, but somehow, I guess the Electricity Department over here feels that they are related. But this ain't as bad as turning off & on the monitor when the system hangs. That's right, a lecturer in department does that.

Anyway, coming back to my day, I spent the most of it in Zion (the local gaming cafe). I usually prefer LAN gaming compared to online play. And I still do, in the general sense. Online can never be as good as LAN. But I found a major problem in LAN gaming today. There was no thirst to win. It was fun, yes. At times, I laughed so hard that I couldn't bare the stomach ache. But, I never felt that strong desire to win. I wasn't pushing myself to the limits. 'If you are not standing on the edge, you are occupying too much space', is the attitude necessary for gaming. Gaming is entertainment when it is played for fun; but it is a sport when it is played with the right spirit. But the LAN environment was more focused on fun. I couldn't deny it, infact, I'll admit, I was enjoying it. But at the end of the day, I couldn't take back anything from it. At the end of a proper game, you would get a desire to play more, to practise more & to prove a point. But when that drive is not there in the game, when we play just for the sake of fun, well, it seems no different from an MMORPG. And I hate MMORPG! Now I think I understand why some people take a long time to improve. They either don't have that urge or they simply don't have the skill. In a cafe, I think the former is the main reason. None of the players have a fighting spirit. Its not the fault of the players in whole, its the problem with the environment. One solution that I could think of is,...

If you hadn't noticed the time in my last blog, it was 4am. Went to sleep at 4 & got up at 10 (thanks to my computer), as we were planning to play a clan match in the morning. But unfortunately, we didn't. And you could say that, the aftermath of that was terrible, since we lost our match against UK in a knockout round in the DotA Cup 3. I'm not gonna venture into the details of the defeat coz, we were able to get something out of it and I wasn't completely disappointed at the end of the day. I finally realized that I want to change my role in the game & others too showed some character today which was quite impressive.

Lets move forward to the story of the day. That's right, I've got something better to say other than our defeat.. I visited 'Blur' today. Its the new gaming division in Sathyam (my favourite cinema hall in Chennai). And just like the theatre, the cafe is a masterpiece. Its not exactly a venue for professional gaming & I'll make it clear now itself. But it is, the Ultimate Gaming Destination. It has everything and when I say everything, I mean everything including the kitchen sink. I've never ever in my life seen such a big cabinet for a computer system. I mean, the place is more than impressive. And the rates too are pretty decent, if you are a regular visitor of cafes. My friends used to say that I would live in Sathyam if I had enough money. But that was when it was just a theatre. So, imagine how I would feel about the place now. So, now you know where to take me for a treat..

At this rate, I think my posts have gradually started to grow in size. I think I'll keep increasing the size now that I've started to get a hang of this. You could expect more quality write-ups about places and situations in life in more general terms rather than the usual personal diary format that I followed before. But in order to do this, I need to devote more time. I'll try to finish my work early & spend more time in writing here. GodSpeed..

Phew! Exhaustive day. Woke up at noon & worked the whole day. First, I was working on some basic cable management in my CM690 cabinet. Got the front audio working & set everything up by evening. And then, I was checking out a friend's canal phone. Finally, something that actually fits my ear. I'll test it for one more day & decide whether its worth going for a canal phone to listen to music on the go.

After that, I worked on creating a PDF file. Since this is the first time I've actually created one, I really was struggling to find the controls. I imagined PDF to be the ultimate tool to integrate pictures & text together. But unfortunately, I found out that it wasn't. Its simply a compiler to combine large amounts of information into a readable book. Come to think of it, that is indeed a powerful tool. But considering the amount of data that I handle, PDF is no different to me from Word. But hopefully, PDF will give a more professional look to my work. Anyway, got a busy day ahead, so, good night..

Today was a rather, uninspiring day. I got up in the morning, had my breakfast, read the paper & was ready for an exciting day. But, I don't remember doing anything worth even mentioning. Infact, I spent the time with such emptiness, that I didn't do anything after that either.

I did see a couple of good movies. 'The American President', an excellent drama about a president who didn't want to get dirty by attacking on character, but who's character was being questioned. 'Hellboy 2', though I'm not exactly a big fan of Hellboy, this one had some heart in it. Instead of being the 'Good Work done by the so-called Bad Hero', it really was something more and it had the scent of darkness in it. I really do hope that the writers can do something with the leads this movie gave, though this movie, by itself, isn't that great.

By the way, I believe NFS Undercover might cost as low as Rs.600 if we buy the online version. Actually, I was quite surprised to check out all the prices. I used to think that any good game (especially new ones) would cost more than Rs.2000 and they really did cost that much an year ago. But I guess things have changed. Almost all of the games by EA are available for around a thousand rupees. And yes, if you pre-order the DVD version, even Undercover will still cost you a thousand rupees. I'm not 100% sure about the online version though. I'll check it out.

Didn't blog last night as I went to sleep only at 4am.. And unbelievably, woke up at 7.30 thanks to my computer-alarm.. :p But unfortunately, I didn't go to college. I saw a few friends online & realized that a lot of em are gonna bunk. In my department, those who attend while others bunk, are the ones who suffer. So, I decided to stay with the crowd. The irony was that, nothing really happened today. So, technically, I didn't bunk at all.. 0_o

Anyway, had an interesting day. It was Spk's birthday. I wanted to gift him something unique. Gladi had a sudden spark of thought & wala, we gifted him a premium account in rapidshare for a month.. Beat that.. Anyways, we tried to play our final match of Stage 1 today in Indian DotA Cup 3, but couldn't play due to lag & what not.. So, it was declared a draw. Besides that, Raja just revealed to me that he has got canal phones with his new W880i. But the selfish tard wants me to wait till the weekend to lend it to me for a day.. Lookin forward to it anyway..

I woke up relatively late, 10.30am.. Maxi came to my place after lunch & we spent the day playing DotA.. And then, we had our tourney match today, but sadly, that was canceled as our opponents couldn't get their players. But still, scrib went to Zion & so did I. I just got some replays today from the ImbaGamer tourney & so, we were watching that replay.

After that, Spk showed us 'Crazy Kart'. By this time, scrib had to leave, but me, Siva & Spk entered the crazy world of 'Crazy Kart' and it was awesome fun in LAN. Ofcourse, anything in LAN is fun, but still, it kind of amazed me. I mean, it doesn't matter how long you spend playing games or staying online, but unless you are connected with your friends, unless you are in an environment where every simple incident is funny, interesting & enjoyable, its just not the same. The reason why I've taken so much time to explain that is because, I read this article in gamasutra.com about what gaming means to the X-Gamers or the people who've left the gaming field and are currently between 25 to 35 years of age. It clearly explained that, the attraction of gaming is not always the game itself, it is but the opportunity to connect with your friends while at the same time, have fun & rise to a challenge (which is to obviously play better). It is definitely something worth a read for any gamer - http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3826/what_gamers_want_missing_gamers.php And so, I go to sleep on a high spirit. Last two days have been really enthusiastic. I only wish that I'm able to retain this enthusiasm..

Another day gone like the wind. First half of the day belonged to the local electricity board as they played with us. Then, my dad decided to buy a mobile for my mom which my mom decided to give to me till I get a new one which my dad & I will buy together in the first week of the coming month. So, basically, I spent the whole night hunting for the best mobile to buy for my needs. By the way, I'm also currently transferring songs to the new W200i. Besides these, the only update is from Ravi who has finally figured out what the problem is in the website & we are moving forward now. So, nothing interesting today for you guys, so, cya..

Yet another day, gone without notice. Thanks to my computer-alarm technique, I woke up in the morning. Spent some time in the forums & then played for a while. Then, our EB played with us. There was no power from 3pm. We had a match at 7pm. Luckily, Zion had power & we managed to get there on time. The match was rather like a walk in the park though Spk-Maxi lane struggled in the beginning. But we did have a lot of fun in Zion. Reached home, played one more game, tried to host a server in Ventrilo and it failed, though I finished port forwarding. After another round of browsing, I'm gonna hit the sack now.

Couldn't blog last night as I wasn't well. Anyway, I'm back now. Woke up only by noon. Maxi came to my place after lunch. After nearly a month, my old rig was made use of for some DotA action. But in the middle of the action, my computer turned off abruptly. The culprit was the extension box. The slot used by my PSU got pwnt. I've changed it to the next slot. Thankfully, it didn't affect my computer.

Then, we decided to go to Zion. fRosT said he'll come to Zion but he never showed up. Maxi has an exam tomorrow & so, he too couldn't come. The rest of us played a clan match against some unknown clan. The match was surprisingly hard probably because, we gave the wrong heroes to our players. We gave warding to Gladi & sent him to lane with Raja while Bharath played Puck. And finally, Spk had Nerub. Not to mention that we didn't pick any agility heroes at all..

Finally, we decided to play our DotA Cup 3 match from home. We are all changing to voice chat now. Today, Bharath, Praveen & Raja were in voice chat with me & Praveen said that my voice was clearest (not to mention that my voice is already bad, thanks to cold). So, I guess the Rs.700 I spent on my headphones has some impact. That raises my hopes for the next one.. :p Ok then, cya tomorrow..

I couldn't blog last night as there was no power. Anyway, today was declared a holiday (I think) due to rain. So, spent the day at home. I got an offer from Ravi last night for writing some game reviews for FXLabs. Took that forward today & will mostly have a chat with FXLabs tomorrow. Other than that, I got a quote from KMD for my headphone. It'll cost a little more than 8k. Posted some pictures of the teams in Garena forums. Played a few games. Nothing special.. Sleepy now.. Cya tomorrow..