Abalone - the affordable luxury

Right, last time after writing some comments on Blokus, we did have some fun on blocking others' way in the library. Some of my friends asked me about the Abalone I mentioned, okay, lets get the chess-game on!





I first met this cleverly designed game when I was in high school.

Since the time in form 6, when I started to earn some extras with the parttime job of tutoring, quite a portion of my income would go into the boxoffice every month. One of the frequently-visited cinemas is definitely AMC in Festival Walk. And almost everytime after the film, I would go get a walk in the nearby Log-On, where innovative products are often found (and of course, by innovative I am refering to the prices as well).

In a random day of winter, a huge promotion counter was set up right outside the store, where at least thirty kinds of new-to-me chess and board games were open for trial and purchase. Walking within the shelves, I was caught by this seemingly primitive game - a weird hybrid of Black-White-chess and Marble-chess. And when I looked up the banner, it wrotes: "No.1 Game of the decade - INTERNATIONAL GAME FESTIVAL".

At this very moment, the enthusiatic young handsome salesman approached, explaining the game rules, and challenged me for a quick play.

The rules are simple:
- Each player has 14 marbles arranged as above.
- For each move, a player can move 1,2 or 3 consecutive marbles.
- The move can be either in-line (parallel to the line of marbles) or broadside (not parallel to the line of marbles).
- A player can push their opponent′s marbles, IF the pushing line has MORE marbles than the pushed line (three can push two or one; two can push one).
- Marbles must be pushed into an open space (i.e. not blocked by a marble of either colour), or be ejected into the surrounding groove.
- The goal is simple, if you can eject 6 of your opponent's marbles into the groove, you win!

Gamerule illustrated


The game is fun in its dynamic game mode. As you may have spotted, the moves involve both attack and defense intention, and everytime you are pushing your opponent's marbles to the edge, you in fact on the other hand create a weak point in your territory, which allow a potentially fatal strike back. To go advance, there exist also various starting positions to choose from, so as to create more variability and actions.

Going back to the young salesman, after 15min of play and struggle, I actually won the game.

Trust me, he looked really ashamed, and said to me:
"No, no, no way. That's impossible. Let's play for one more time!"

That is how I got this lovely playable game with me for 6 years!

The Social Network

Oh yes, it is David Fincher again.

I remember well that when I was in form 5, I wrote my first movie review on Fincher's legendary Fight Club for my summer project. I spent quite some weeks studying the plot and reading all the trivias, and was then caught by this amazing director.

Reviewing my VCD shelf at home, most of his collections are on it.
Se7en (1995)
The Game (1997)
Fight Club (1999)
Panic Room (2002)
Zodiac (2007)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Judging from the trend, it is not hard to tell Fincher is switching his choice of genre, from crime and thriller to the recent dramas - which, are always the tough ones to film. Comparing mere dialogues to the guns and blood, it is much more harder to maintain the same degree of eyecatchiness. Asking the audience to sit and listen to people talking, chatting and arguing for 2 hours could be a risky move, but Fincher did it phenomenally well.

In fact, the career story of Zuckerberg is not of a stunning kind when matched with that in Aviator, but it was the scent of reality which makes this film attractive. The ending is known before entering the theatre - we all have felt the power of Facebook. So, seeing how an ordinary university student (err, we are talking about Harvard - it is extraordinary, haha) expands a small idea step and step, and the in between realistic interpersonal betrayal and distrust, we are all curious - how on earth did he finally made it?

The choice of character is also worldclass. Seriously I knew none of the lead roles, but I guess no one would deny - they all played it right to the point, each has his character sharply shaped, and this makes the following interaction tight and fun. In particular I appreciate the line-writers who wrote the brilliant dialogues between Zuckerberg and the lawyers, it is like entering a language gunfield, bullets here and there. Armie Hammer's play for the Winklevoss brothers is as well wonderful - one actor two characters - wow!

Haha, in fact, I am more curious of how the real young Zuckerberg thinks about the way he is portraited in the film, well, it is not entirely positive to be a weird genius who did cheat a bit to have achieved his current status.

But yeh, being smart per se usually does not make one a billionnaire. =]

Burger, brand, burger

For friends who know me and Landico well, they should realise that we are both burger lovers. Unhealthy it may be, it is simply irresistable to get a juicy bite together with sips of coke.

There are few more weeks before my girl is back from the States, and I had a chance to visit Burger King with my dear groupmates. As usual, I ordered a Regular Whopper Meal, but when I was standing at counter waiting for my junk delicacy, this time, something new I observed.

Along the row of serving counters lies trays of meal awaiting to be picked up. When I scanned across them, I started to realise how neat the food was placed - from left to right: coke, fries, burger - on each and every tray, no exception.

Amazed by my new discovery, I was about to pick up my meal. Suddenly a hand from the Branch Manager reached to my tray, quickly touching every item of my set and made a minor turn - so that ALL of them have the Burger King Logo facing me - then, I overheard him talking to the newbie trainee: "This is how we position our food."

As minor as it might be, I can't help to appreciate the detailed thoughtful servive proctotol the shop has made. Not realising in the past, this is probably one of the reasons for why I always find (subconsciously) Burger King a neater and brighter brand than McDonald, KFC or its other counterparts.

This, is brand image construction, we may not notice, but it exists - serving as the unseen advertisement.


P.S.
Talking about brand imaging, in the old days, I once saw a Burger King TV commercial that I love so much. The layout was simple: The camera shot pairs of legs queuing in front of the counter, walked forward and ordered different sets one by one. At barely one second before the ads ends - a pair of legs in yellow trousers and red plastic shoes came - suffice to say - yes, that is Mr Mcdonald.

The Omnipotence Paradox

A Good old friend of mine, whose critical thinking skill is what I have always been jealous of, asked about my view towards an ancient question, when I was talking about God and Logic.

"Can an omnipotent being (or, God) create a stone so heavy that he himself cannot lift?"

Of course for God's (or, an omnipotent being) sake, I know so well that I am not a good candidate in joining the overwhelming discussions which have been made among thousands of respectable philosophers or theologists. But on the other hand, I disagree with some Christians who fired with a pointing finger, proudly accusing the other by quoting the Bible:

"Jesus said to him, again it is in the writings: you may not put the Lord your God to the test". Matthew 4:7

If God has created our mind for logical thinking and He does insist that He is the ultimate truth, providing our question is sincere and humble, why fear and evade? Instead of testing our God, I consider questions of this kind a training for the rational part of our belief. Afterall, religon is never purely by faith.

Lets go back to the everlasting paradox.

To me, I tend to agree what the stone problem has disproved - a completely almighty God (eg. working in logically impossible or self-contradictory way). What remains is, actually I would like to take a step back. I believe in a God who possesses the adequate power or abililty to create and run the world. He may not necessarily be truly almighty to an absolute extent, but to the fleshy me, that's more than enough. It doesn't alter our relation of a creator and a creature.

An interesting point might be, I observed that some Christians tend to feel very offended while somebody challenges their almighty God. When I tried to explain the above views to them, some reacted pretty furiously, considering my opinion as "compromising the perfectness of God"...but in fact, does it really matter if one has $100,000,000,000 or he has an infinite amount? As long as he is the richest among the universe, he-is-the-richest.

Discussing this question would easily made me emotionally withdrawn, going back to the Bible, I love how the poet described and praised his loving God.

"Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy.
For the Lord most high is awesome, the great King over all the earth. " Psalm 47:1-2

Yes indeed, my Lord being most-high and the greatest King is perhaps more meaningful than Him being omnipotent.

Superhero II

What about Spiderman?

Flexibility is the key. There is simply no other who can hop between the skyscrapers and climb walls with bare hands while at the same time not losing the combatability. (Ah, you must be thinking about the rubbery man in Fantastic 4 - stop that, he is by no chance comparable with the spider, especially when we are talking about speed and perhaps more importantly - visual elegance, haha.) I believe all fans of spiderman would agree, his design is simple, but you never get bored.

Still, I have a problem in appreciating his costume. I must say, though that he has a muscular body build, the tight red suit does look a little bit sissy to me. Well, as like I always have much difficulty in understanding the beauty in the latest Milan fashion - I might be too old-schooled to have framed the need of metal in every superhero!

So far so good, it's time for Hulk and the Fantastic 4.

Hulk is more like a beast than a real hero. Yes it is not difficult to feel his power through his bruising punches and tear. But seeing the green big guy jumping here and there in the city, crushing every piece of land along his way, it seems he is doing more harm than good...Together with his Skrek-like skin tone and the bestial personality, err, he reminds me of Godzilla.

Well, sorry for any Fantastic 4 lovers, I am so much tilted away from them. Unlike having the mutant background in X-men, the four scientists in uniform appear way much artificial and random. And frankly, their ability aren't that innovative, are they? As a group of four, I love the Incredibles much much much more. XD

Let me end by showing a short video from Marvel - the amazing allied battle by my favourite Ironman, Spiderman and the greenbeast. Enjoy!

Superhero

Talking with Samson about my love and hate towards different superheroes.

Here is my list of choices (from favourite to the least):

1. Ironman
2. The X-men
3. Spiderman
4. Batman
5. Hulk
6. Superman
7. The Fantastic 4

Let me show you why. Amongst all, I have a crush on Ironman. First is the wonderful metallic outlook - shiny red and golden armour - looks a lot cooler and seemingly-lighter than the dull black bulky shield wore by the dark knight. Still, what truly catches me is the unique character.



Ironman has such a narcissistic makeup that he actually indulged so much in his own power. This is unique among its own kind, where you could see the struggle, self-disbelief and self-questioning in Spiderman, Batman even Wolverine in X-men; but Ironman, he is an arrogant and overweening guy in whom you can almost see the ego exploding. This scent of extraordinary charisma actually turned the labelling of superheroes around: who said one needs to be as humble as Jesus to save the world?

As for the The X-men, it is pretty unfair to put them on the list, as a group, of course the variety broadens. Amongst them, in particular I like the Wolverine - the fusion of pure flesh and metal is primitive yet attractive. Comparing with Ironman, he doesn't even need rockets or bullets - he fights, heals, and fights again.

A real warrior, I would call him.


(To be continued...)

Abortion III

I advocate legal abortion being implemented does not mean I agree with the very act of abortion.

Personally, I choose to consider life begins as a sperm first enters an egg, there might not be a scientic explanation, but you can't deny the symbolic meaning of it - a vivid illustration of how two lifes fuse together. It is not a morality judgement that lead me away from abortion, it is simply a personal uneasiness in making this decision.

Deciding to go for abortion needs just a moment, but I know myself so well, once after the decision is made, the sense of guilt is seeded. It may not grow immediately after the simple procedure, but it would definitely ring a bell from time to time. It may be when I saw another newborn baby, it may be everytime I kiss my wife, it may be when I walk pass the obstetric ward. Guilt just doesn't go away.

Though morally I might not have done anything wrong, well, everything is about cognition - guilt follows not the morally right or wrong but simply how I percieve the event, and I couldn't change it.

So, abortion is not an option for me, but probably, good for the society.