Digital Fugue - Random Thots

Old KL Map

While cleaning up an old cabinet, I came across a street map of the towns in Malaysia including Singapore. The copyright on the map indicates that it was printed in 1960 and published for Mobiloil.

©Rand McNally & Company 1960

Today, the same area look like this.

Email me if you want a better scan. Other towns include Georgetown, Ipoh and Singapore.

My Belle

My latest crush...
I'm in love...

War of the ring

Digital Fugue have been relatively quiet lately. The reason behind it: I am keeping myself busy with three games; two real time strategy and a Flight Sim!

For this post, Im just going to cover the first game which is War of the Ring by Sierra. With the excitement of the final instalment of Lord of the Rings, the game jived in quite well with the ambiance.

As far as game play is concerned, it was easy. The learning curve is short and simple and it had the look and feel of Warcraft III. But of course, with better storyline and graphics.
In terms of playability, you can play the good campaign or the evil campaign. Both have their own strength, although the good campaign was a bit easier than the evil campaign.

You also take control of various heroes in Lord of the Rings, Gandalf, Aragorn and others in the good campaign and Grisnakh and the Lord of the Nazghul in the evil campaign. Again, each heroes have the own special powers. Very similar to Warcraft III.

Besides heroes, there is also this special fate points awarded to you each time you go into battle. You can then use these fate points to redeem special abilities such as summoning Ents or Balrog. Preety cool.

The game also have Multiplayer option that would give hours of fun with your friends after you're done with the campaigns.

Personally, I think the lord of the ring game should be a CRPG, like Dungeon Siege rather than Real time strategy ala Warcraft III. Nevertheless, the game occupied my time quite well and i'm happily entertained.

I give it a strong 8/10. What are you waiting for? Go get it!

Jazz Bar

Thinking of chilling out on a Saturday night? Checkout Jazz Bar's First Anniversary Celebration entitled "Music for Life". The celebration is on tonight at The Jazz Bar, No. 1 Jalan Kia Peng, Kuala Lumpur. The line-up includes Amir Yusoff, Julian Mokhtar and The Tokyo Jazz and Blues Combo.

If you like jazz, this celebration is not to be missed!

5th Cigar Meet

It all started humbly with just three cigar enthusiasts (Aizuddin, KaZ and Fahro). How time flies. Without knowing it we already had five cigar meets. The most successful cigar meet to date, the fifth cigar meet recorded the biggest attendence so far. 21 people packed the deep end of 18th-20th century on december 5th to attend the 5th cigar meet.
We met a lot of new faces and hopefully a lot more to come.

The event also mark the inaugural My Cigar Store membership. For the month of december, regular members each got their Cohiba Siglo II and H Upmann Petit Upmann, while Premium members each recieved their Cohiba Robusto and Partagas shorts.

Cigars were not only the highlight of the night. Afterall a good cigar is not complete without a good meal. The food at 18th-20th Century offers a brilliant companion for a good cigar. The set dinner we had at RM 65 was more than enough to tease our taste buds before we all indulge ourselves with our cigars. From appetizers right through desserts and coffee, everthing just melts in your mouth.

It was a marvellous night. we chatted as we smoke our premiums. Too bad the night have to come to an end. As the restaurant draws its curtains, we all went home with huge smiles on our faces as we anticipate next month's meet.

Email via Celcom GSM Short Message Service.

Your message:

wont be blogging for a few days. I am on my way to sabah for vacation. Will be back thursday. Cheers!

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Cigar Rolling Demo

The Cigar rolling demonstration by master roller Jaime Paredes at Havana Club Concorde Hotel last thursday saw quite an impressive turnout form our little cigar community. Some of us took home a few sticks of freshly rolled cigars, to be aged in humidors for the next few months or even years.

Chill out in december

It seems that the rain did not stop in November. It went on through December.

Rainy december nights. A few friends in a living room. Endless conversation. A couple of joints making rounds. Emporio Armani Cafe 1 in the background.

Absolute bliss...

Unforgiven

Raya Thots II

Eidul Fitri is about forgiving and rekindling relationships. However, sometimes it is easier said than done. Humans by nature are ugly creatures. They commit dispickable, wicked crimes toward each other.

Some acts are never meant to be forgiven. How could one look into the eyes, shook the hand and forgive a "friend", who took the opportunity to stab you the moment you turned the other way?

Like I said... its easier said than done.

"Hey Joe, where are you going with that gun in your hand?" Hey Joe, Jimi Hendrix

Remembering the dead

Raya Thots I

Amidst the festive raya mood, some muslims would take the initiative to visit cemetaries where their loved ones were laid to rest, to read a few surahs and duas.

The act is not compulsory in Islam. In fact some Muslim scholars even claimed that the act is actually bid'ah or a form of diversion. But it so happen that time is abundance while celebrating Eid, visiting relatives and friends whilst maintaining silatulrahim (extending ties of kinship) is a norm during Eid and it is only convenient and logical to "remember" the dead on that day.

Islam tought us that we cannot run away from death and there is life after death. We were also reminded to prepare ourselves for the journey there on, thus we should be thinking about death constantly.

Most of us lived our lives too comfortable as if we are going to live forever. When someone close to us die, we are often sad, taken a back and shaken towards the loss. Sometimes we need that to get our feet back on the ground. We must remember that life is short, death is absolute and we should balance our deeds for this world and hereafter. Which reminds me of a saying (or was it a hadith) that goes something like: "Work hard as if you are going to live for the next one thousand years and pray as if you are going to die tomorrow"

More on remembering the dead:
The Remembrance of Death and the Afterlife by Al-Ghazali
Life after Death in Islam

Life after Death in other cultures:
Mexican: Dia de los muertos
Japanese: Obon festival
Chinese: Hungry Ghost Festival