Tikiwa's Own

     Just for kicks, I went to youtube and searched for the late, great Michael Jackson vids, in High Definition no less. Upon each video playing, I was immediately awashed with nostalgia. Indeed, I grew up on Michael's music.

     It's funny. Micheal's songs were just catchy beats to me when they were popular. Now, after hearing them again, I began to have a profound respect for the man. Listening to his songs. Listening to his voice singing. Listening to the the passion that resonates from them. We all know how umm...androgynous his spoken voice is. It's been mocked by almost everyone. But where is that 'soft' voice in his songs? The only song I can recall that comes close to his spoken voice is 'You are not alone'. Yet somewhere along in the song, Michael lets out a lung-bursting cry. What about Dirty Diana? Full of angst and passion. Testament to his utter passion can be found in 'Do you remmeber the time'. Somewhere during the music solo, in which, in the video clip, Michael and a number of the courts slaves were doing a dance sequence, the chorus when something like "Do you..do you...rememeber....drrrap dap dap dap, drrrap dapa dap!" Listen to the intensity of the 'drrap dap dap..' part, a tone only achievable if one is totaly immersed in the music.

     His video clips are an eye pleasure. Almost always elaborate and during and after his 'Dangerous' album, are sure to feature various celebrities making their cameos. Indeed, Soomth Criminal still blows me over till today.

     After weighing in all the factors above do I realise the genius that is Michael Jackson. Yes, we all know about his paedophilic charges, but then, he was never been really proven to be guilty of such charges. Whatever the case, I will remmeber him as a musical genius with no equal.

 

 

     As a tribute, listed here are Michael's songs that are my favourites, be it for its music, its video clip or both.

     During my reservist, I was reminded once again abt the value of leadership. These days, good leaders are a dying breed. U can be a manager or a team lead or supervisor but that does not necessarily make u a leader, or u can be someone of junior position but u can still have leadership qualities. I'm sure there a tons of definition of good leadership out there, but I live by a simple question taught to me by Mr Koh Eng Teh, from Epdot Pte. Ltd., a trainer during my security supervisor course, who has vast para-military experience.

     "How to be a good leader? Ask urself, if u are a leader, would u die for ur men and more importantly, would ur men die for u." This question is of coz not meant to be taken literally, but its implications to the current world is still very much valid. Sad to say, only a scarce are the number of managers/supervisors in the corporate world that seem to live by this question, most of them opting(consciously or otherwise) to measure themselves against set results and targets. Good managers/leaders are loved by the corporate world, while good leaders are loved by their men. Those who can strike a balance between the two are indeed, champions.

     Don't get me wrong. I'm not instigating a workers vs management agenda. On the contrary, what I'm trying to instill is a better relationship between the two, with managers/supervisors being the medium. Managers/supervisors do have the power to change systems that are flawed and one-sided. Sadly, most prefer not to exerecise that power for fear of being 'marked' or 'blacklisted' or 'condemned' by their superiors, and turn a blind eye towards the injustice. The result? Workers  who'd do tasks half-heartedly. Who'd feel no sense of belonging towards the company and jump ship at the first chance. Some managers/supervisors keep their workers at bay by constantly reminding the workers of their responsibility towards the company, often referring to the signed contract/agreement and using it as one would on a big stick to a dog.

     So what makes a good leader u ask? The is no one answer to that questions. It's a combination of certain factors. First and foremost is the need to understand one's position and responsibilities. Managers/supervisors tend to forget that they have as much responsibity towards the company and client(if it's applicable) as well as towards thier own men. To quote Mr Robert Weiner, CEO of Prosec Security Services, "There are two clients that we must take care of. Our customers. And our workers. Take care of our customers, and u'll end up having to take care for both the customer and ur men. Take care of ur men, and the men will take care of the customers for u." Wise words indeed. Challenging a certain rule or protocol does not necessarily mean going against the company. Managers/supervisors need to understand that they challenge the rule to better it, for the benefit of their men, which will in turn benefit the company. Of coz, that does not mean all rules/protocol are meant to be challenged.
     Yes, I'll admit, that being in the upper management involves a tonne of unnoticed/unappreciated work in the background, that ur men, more often than not are not aware of, and acknowledge little. To this, I say - this is why u were selected to lead in the first place. It is part and parcel of u being a leader. Most leaders would use this reason as proof that they do care for the men. Come on guys, ur men are not immature kids or IQ challenged. It doesn't hurt to share what ur jobscope covers with them. Assuming otherwise displays plain naiveness on ur part and would be an insult to ur men's capabilities/intelligence.

      I have been both worker and supervisor, and at such, I guess I can understand both sides of the story. While I may not have been the best of supervisors during my reign, I did put in effort to change and better the working conditions of my men. I must have done pretty well, seeing how the men are still keeping in contact with me after more than 3 years. Even one of the senior manager from my previous workplace have been asking about me.

     Being a good leader is not easy. Striking the right balance between ur men and the management is a meticuous task, for either side can be very brittle, at such, u genuinely have to in effort so as not to tilt the favor to either side too much. Coupled with ur own workload and responsibilities, it will be very taxing. But then, that's what makes u stand out from the rest.

     Having said all that, I would like to take my hats of to the following people, who are great leaders in my book. They people that I have worked directly with, past and present, and are not necessarily key positions holders. I often refer to them for daily inspirations.

 

1) Mr Jonathan Xxxx. I forgot his surname(it's been a looong while after all.) Back then Dept manager and union president at John Little's. 

2) Mr Christopher Long.

3) Mr See Joo How.

4) LTA Ronnie Koh.

5) 2SG Kee J S

6) 3SG Zul Idham

7) CPL Abdul Razak

8) Mr Neo Say Beng

 

 

     I would gladly 'die' for the above men even though they may not do the same for me. For them, they understood their porsitions and are constantly challenging the rule/protocol to improve the working conditions without going overboard. They are people who champion the welfare of their men intelligently. One potential addition to the list is Johnathan Pun, my current direct superior. He's one with tremendous potential and is capable of being a leader, but in my opinion, he's not quite there yet. He is still hesitant and a little reluctant to pull his weight for the benefit of his men at times, but for what it's worth, I am grateful that he is my direct superior. He is at the stage that would define which category he belongs to - a stage where it's a make or break a leader. But signs so far have been very positive. Here's hoping he makes the list soon, for, in the project that I belonged to, save for Mr Neo and less than a handful of other managers/supervisors, there is a disticnt lack of good leaders.

 

 

"There are no bad crews, only bad leaders." - Navy S.E.A.L. Command Master Chief John James Urgayle. 1997. 

 

 

Later, yo.

 

 

     Yep! At the time I'm logging this, I have just returned from my 6th In Camp Training (ICT) for the 6th year, and 4th high-key. It's been the toughest one so far as we are prepping for next year's ATEC evalutaion.

     I'm attached to 694 SIR, and our Division role is of a defense one. Last high-key saw us digging fire trenches - was one hellova labour work! This year, the strategy has changed.  Instead of digging in, we are bulding up. Thus we have to build up PROWs. I can't go into exact technicalities as they are classified info, but suffice to know that it is very similar to a fire trench with stacked, foced-compacted sand bags for walls. PROWs are slightly better than fire tremches in terms of personnel maneuveribility and does offer more improvision options than fire trenches. Those stacked sandbags, forced-compacted, forms a surprisingly strong and resilient wall. I forgot the actual sandbags requirement for each model of the PROW (they differ depending on the weapons personnel), but we needed around 60k sandbags for the whole batalion. Yep! U read it right. 60k! 60 000 sandbags! To be divided between 3 companies. So we had to fill sandbags overnight, resulting in a total of 2 hrs rest for the first 48hrs of outfield. Oddly, I didn't feel as mentally tired as I did when we did fire trenches, and mind u, fire trenches only require abt 200 - 250 sandbags. I dunno, perhaps it's becoz I was mentally prepared this time round. Physically, it is still tougher than the previous high-key, but the tax is somewhat cushioned by my platoon mates, who are a lively bunch of people and the commanders for ever willing to share the load. Still, after all that's said and done, I was aching and itching all over - a typical subsequence of outfield training.

 

 

Later, yo.

    

     Gravity added a most intriguing MMO unto their line-up - Requiem: Bloodymare. Given the plaethora of Free-to-Play(F2P) MMOs that's available these days, Gravity harnessed an interesting concept to attract MMO gamers - gore. I would never thought I'd ever associate gore with Gravity, given their current releases of Ragnorak Online(RO) and Rush On Seven Planets Online(ROSE Online). What's interesting here is that, while the gameplay seems pretty standard with all MMORPG, the graphics and effects is definitely something new.

     Well, Requiem's website boasts about being a "terrifying new horror MMORPG". While I wouldn't exactly say it's spot on, it is not far off either. Gravity set the game in a somewhat alternate timeline, where the world is populated with horribly disfigured mutants and genetically modified humanoids. Even the characters that u create, are able to display some form of disfigurement or mutation if u choose so.  Where Ragnarok Online(RO) and Rush On Seven Episodes(ROSE) were good clean fun, with cute cartoonish avatars that's candy for the eyes, Requiem is the stark opposite. Indeed, if RO/ROSE are Care Bears, then Requiem would fittingly be Saw.

 

     Impressive. One of the towns especially - Nova Lux. Commendable effort to make the world all gloom, dark and forebording. Coupled with haunting background music, it captures the essence of horror well. Mobs are surprisingly well-detailed, subjected to ur grpahics capability of coz. What wins it for me is the way the mobs and avatars display injuries at low health. And 95% of the time, u can be assured of the mob being blown to bits, with body parts flying far and wide. Am not sure abt the minumum hardware requirements, but I'm guessing some form of dedicated graphics memory is necessary. Considering this is a F2P game, I have to hand it to them for a job well done. Architectural graphics are astounding, rivaling those from Granado Espada(award winning F2P MMO), while the unique blood and gore makes and dynamic physical condition effect makes it arguably, the best graphical F2P MMO in the market.

 

     As with ROSE Evolution(not sure with RO), buttons are irritatingly small and strangely, a lil unresponsive. There seem to be a lack of control over customization for the windows, which I find it inconvienient. Whenever I play a healer, I like to keep my group window close to my spell bar so I don't have to mouse over from one end of the screen to the other to cast spells. The only customizable window is the chat window, and that is limited to just resizing. So, yea, I would have to say Requiem suck on this area.

 

     Pretty smooth thus far. Classes comes pretty standard with all MMORPGs. There's tank, dps (dmg per sec), ranged dps and offensive spell casters, with slight diversions for each class of coz. Contratry to what I believe earlier, this game does allow u to customise ur class, to some extend, based on the skills/spells u choose to master. Technically it's possible to master all, but that wouldn't really be beneficial I guess. So picking the right skills and focusing on them is important.

     Unlike RO and ROSE, u do not gain stat points upon lvling. Stats are purely based on equipment. U can however, raise them thru some skills/spells or more commonly thru weapon/armor upgrades.

     The weapon and armor upgrades is quite extensive - something I'm quite indifferent to - I always buy my weapons/armor, but it does accommodate some simple yet effective upgrades.

     Combats can be exhilarating. Cos more often than not, u'll end up smashing or blasting the mobs to bits! Kinda like "BAM!! Take that, u scum!! Hell yeah!!!" Having said that, there is a umm...downside. Well, it's not really a downside, it's just prolly how the game is coded. During combat, within melee range, spell commands does not overwrite ur auto melee but are queued. An example is when u attack a mob, u'd engage in auto melee. However, when u cast a spell, it does not necessarily executes, but instead, u will execute ur auto melee attack first before executing the casted spell. This lead me to believe that melee and spell are on their own timings and does not overwrite each other. This could pose a problem, especially for healers. Let me relate to u an incident that happened. I play a healer, and I was duoing with a rogue. We were in an area where aggressive mobs roam. My partner engages one mob, which it turn, draws another mob to him. So he's fighting off 2 mobs. All is fine until I got aggroed by another mob. So, 2 mobs on him and one on me. Now, I was very confident I can kill the mob that is attacking me, and my partner is handling things very welll considering the handicap. So, I proceeded to attack the mob that was attacking me. In midest of my attack, I casted healing spells for my partner. It does not immediately execute, instead, it plays out my melee attack sequence before casting the healing spell. Luckily my friend was quick to notice and used a heal potion to patch his hp before my heal spell lands. At such, I had to stop attacking the monster and perma-target my friend and cast heal spells to him. This works well for role-playing scenarios (healer+melee-er) but not so much if u wish to do things slightly different. However, this does limit the healing classes from being totally independent. Like may be just part of the game mechanics, but the problem is, the spell cast timing listed is not listed with this offset, so a 1.5sec spell is more likely to take 3.0 sec to execute. This will be a bane for hi-end raids. It will take a while but, If u get ur timings right, u might pull it off.

     Class balance is still not sorted out fully from what I can see, especially for the Xeonas - elf-like characters. They're fine if they opt for ranged dps or spell caster but direly lacking if they opt to go melee. Survivability rate for them is pretty low, but then, it was mentioned that they are the physically weakest of all the races.

     Role-playing effectiveness is debatable. There's only one class that can heal others at low lvls- Templars. Unlike other MMOs, there is no one buffer class - which is good. Less buff beggars. Every class gets its own set of skills/spellls. Coupled with potions, this game makes it pretty easy to solo.

     An interesting addition is the spawning of nightmare mobs. They pop at some point during the game's night time and roam the common hunting grounds. They have high HPs and hits stronger than normal mobs. These mobs will most definitely require a party to hunt. I have yet to party and hunt for nightmare mobs so I can't really tell if it's worth the effort in terms of exp and loot.

     Up to a cetain lvl, it becomes ur normal grind - but then, most so does most MMORPGs.

 

     Decent. Not the best, but definitely doable. Aggro range is slightly flawed, but not enuff to irritate u. Some irks is that mobs completely heals itself upon losing aggro from u. Example if u had to flee from a battle after getting a mob down to 30% of its HPs, the mob will recover fully upon losing aggro after chasing u down a bit. And during the period that it takes to travel back to its spawn spot, it is invulnerable - all hits no matter how strong, will not affect it, it does however still build aggro, and the mob will come rushing for u upon reaching it's spawn spot.

     Connectivity can definitely be improved. I'm not sure, there is always a slight delay in executing commands, prolly due to the server being far away from my region. Servers suffer from lag from time to time, even on less populated servers.

     Quests can be downright frustrating, with instructions being non-specific. Areas where you're supposed to find the quest mobs are not to be taken literally from the map. The general directions given may be located near ur area on the map but in actual fact, requires u to circle far and wide out to dangerous arease.

 

     Overall, I must say, this is one of the more engaging F2P MMO in the market so far. The game has the right amount of difficulty for u to have to form parties, but not too much that would prevent u from soloing. But I wouldn't exactly give it a top-notch. It's typical of all Korean MMOs. Full of bursting possibilites, but never quite to fill out its potential. *Sigh*  If I were to rate it, I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10. I so do want to congratulate the devs for a great effort, but seeing one MMO to another being churned out by the Koreans and seeing NO effort to improve, they won't deserve it.

 

 

 

Later, player.