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Singapore
Mel. You know me you know me. If you don't. Then try. Cheers. All pics on blog before 2014 are taken on an iPhone. Now using this blog to upload my Olympus EM10 photos.

Monday, 14 May 2012

Zombie dream post

They say dreams are in tangent to our reality. Well, if you treat fantasy and imagination occurring during my 'realtime" then yes. They normally do reflect to a certain degree.

In this case it's about zombies. I have a long history of remembering my dreams vividly after I wake. Sometimes long into the day, however like most people should I not note it down or put it into images I tend to forget about it once it hits lunch time. Therefore I shall attempt to write about it this morning.

The setting is local. Which happens to be Singapore for readers unaware of my background. And it involves several casts and themes that have been going around in my daily life as of late. Namely zombies (duh...), a speeding ferrari, hospitals, construction sites and the maid. Before I dive into the story part of things let me set some context straight as so to be able to make some sort of sense to my ramblings ahead.

Zombies - I have recently watched "La Horde" a french indie zombie flick that I've been dying to catch for awhile and I recently found it through a blog post (a blog about post-apocalyptic zombie wargaming) that the full movie was available to view on youtube. And about the blogs that featured content heavy about post-apocalyptic zombie wargaming, now that's another new found interest that is quickly taking away my imagination and money as well. I have been collecting miniature war-games for more than 15 years and has always been within the Games Workshop (GW) "bubble". I did not bother to look at other games systems nor miniatures as I was duly convinced that GW could and would provide me with the complete hobby experience. Although my roots run deep with GW ( I was even working for and part of the company for 2 years) I must say it has deteriorated as the years go by. Ridiculous price rises and totally disrespectful policies put out by the company constantly insult and alienate the existing customer base. And the final nail in the coffin was when GW announced in May 2011 that European online retailers could only serve customers within Europe. Why does this affect me? GW has in place very incomprehensible pricing structures worldwide. It seems like only in the Europe and USA (which incidentally holds their largest customer base) that they hold prices that have any sort of parity between them. All other countries, in particularly Australia & New Zealand has prices doubled the of the above mentioned two big countries. And with the ban (an almost rude word to use here) that means that people outside of the EU/USA cannot purchase GW miniatures at a "reasonable" price anymore. Not that their prices has been reasonable to begin with. That only amplifies the pricing disparity no end. Not willing to pay higher prices above the already exorbitant and absurd premium GW charges most collectors (myself included) have started turning to alternatives as we have literally been kicked out of the GW hobby by none other than the company themselves. Therefore amidst my alternative gaming and miniature search I stumbled upon people gaming about a world where survivors fend off hordes of undead. I am really kicking myself for not realizing this any sooner! But at least I have now and it's a good thing. This kind of setting is really a no brainer (pun intended haha) for me. I love collecting and painting miniatures. I love anything Zombie related. Fusing these together would create the ultimate hobby experience for me!

As for the speeding Ferrari, recently local headlines have been rocked by an accident involving an pout of control Ferrari slamming into a Taxi as it beat the traffic lights which resulted in the driver dying on the spot. And taking the lives of the Taxi driver as well as the female passenger in the cab. 

Hospitals is because in this past week my son had a 2 day stay there, as well as my wife who had to visit a 24hr emergency private hospital as she could not bear the pain in her stomach at 3am in the morning.

There are lots of construction going on around the places I frequent  and the maid has been attributed as the source of my young son's illness and many other complications throughout the week.

Enough of my rambling now on to the story!

The story had several characters, prominently myself, my wife, my son and my maid. My son in reality is only 6 months old, but in the dream he was already walking and probably about 2-3 years of age. We were in the midst of a zombie outbreak and was running away with random group of survivors. We had to cross a road into a construction site which was supposedly safe and was cut off to the main group by a speeding ferrari on the road. So my son and maid with some other survivors were stuck on the other end of the road. While me and my wife entered the construction site first. As usual the site was creepy with many dark corners and before we knew it the safe house was teeming with zombies and we had to abandon the notion of seeking refuge there. 

Upon exiting the site I saw that the maid and my son had already crossed the road but to my dismay I found that my son had been attacked and bitten on the stomach by a zombie. The maid had failed to protect him (this is very in line with real world events as the maid had passed her flu to my son which had caused endless drama and problems for me). I was horrified by the idea of having to shoot my own son as I knew that he would become a zombie soon. But as with all zombie movies & stories I held on to him as a human for as long as I could before having no choice but to kill him (which fortunately did not happen during the length of this short dream hah!). SO we ran along the walking path and was being chased by zombies. I had a machine gun and it took me a long time to shoot down one zombie. Not because my aim was bad, but because the bastard just wouldn't stay down! 

After that my memory of the dream is extremely hazy and I can remember no significant happenings. 

Oh well, strange blog post I guess. 

Thursday, 5 April 2012

Painted Miniatures count for 2012

Almost reaching the 100 models mark! Go go go!

  1. Balthasar Gelt
  2. 20 x T-34 Tanks
  3. 2 x KV-1 Tanks
  4. 39 x Lt Pyl'Cyn's Shraf Platoon
  5. 3 x Russian IL-2 shturmovik
  6. 1 x Forgeworld Furioso Blood Angels Dreadnought
  7. 9 x IS-2 Tanks
  8. 3 x SU-152 Tanks
  9. 5 x ISU-122 Tanks
  10. 5 x ISU-152 Tanks
  11. 5 x SU-100 Tank

Melvin's Total Miniature Count : 93

Sunday, 1 January 2012

2011 Review

It is not often I post text in my blog these days. Heck, it's not even I post anymore here due to me getting my picture posting fix from Instagram. But I still try to make an attempt here. Just as a personal dairy of sorts, and for those that are actually still really checking it.


2011 had been a lot of changes for me. And these are the highlights.

1) Working towards my degree (which will end in 5 months time)
2) Getting and shifting into my own HDB flat.
3) Getting married to the person of my life.
4) Having my first child, my son.

Studying has never been an easy task for me, I am not a fast learner, and definitely not the scholarly type. School has been extremely tough for me. But I always try my best, and the results are more than satisfactory. The HDB flat had its own set of challenges that I had to face, from the transfer to the payment, it had taken a lot of my time and effort to make it into a home I am truly proud of. Getting married to my wife who has always been super supportive is one of the greatest achievements a man can have. And of course with my wife bearing me a beautiful son life can only get more complete and meaningful.

These 4 combined into a year is something that is one hell of a roller coaster ride. And I'm glad I actually pulled through. This is not without the help and support of family and friends.

Which in turn leads me to one of the most disappointing events this year. The lost of a good friend, and some other along with it. This incident has really opened my eyes on how f***** up people can get. And how one weak, useless, hen-pecked idiot in our group of friends can get manipulated by his girlfriend just because she does not like the way I speak, dress, act and behave.

It's also so disappointing that this group of persons which I relied so much upon for support (and which I wholeheartedly provided whatever I could in return) can actually decide that I was more of a 'liability' to the group rather than an 'asset'. And collectively decided to kick me out of this friendship. A friendship build upon years of experiences, blood, sweat and tears.

I guess I am not as much of a 'purist' as they idealistically would like to think of themselves. And I am simply too different to fit in. Thats the issue, I've never tried to fit in. I've always been the loud and obnoxious one, the different one. And sadly also too bold for their liking.

As idealistic as they might have hoped I would have become (and I know they had good intentions at the beginning) tragically it turned into a negative data collection that they used to justify deserting a friend at the time when I needed them most. That was really one of the most devastating moments I had felt in a long time.

But this incident also brought about new friends and people who were there for me no matter what. No matter how I behaved or how much our philosophy differed. These are people I know I can trust and depend on.

If you are reading this, you know who you are, if you can do this to me, any of you can do this again to any of you. And for all the negativity and naysaying that you have bestowed upon me. All I have to say is a big fat **** you.

Look at me now. Look at what I have achieved. What I strongly believed in (which sadly I thought were shared sentiments) has finally payed off. I took the brunt of this battle alone. Fought this war as you guys deserted me right as the enemy's doorstep. Although it has left me scared and hurt. I survived. And I have achieved more than all of you combined could have ever dreamed of. Because all you can do it worry about this and worry about that, trying to perfect this and perfect that. That nothing can really be achieved by the time the shit hits the fan.

If in case you read this and laugh it off and wonder why Melvin is still harping on this issue. That's because I genuinely loved you guys with all my heart. And I am as genuine a person as it can get. If you feel otherwise than shame on me for putting so much into our friendship. I won't say I'm better off without you guys because that not what I truly feel. But apparently that's what some of you do.

I am not claiming I am better than any of you, I am just me. And that's what you guys (or in particular one bitch) just can't stomach.

As I am writing this it is already the herald of a new year. And I shall live it the way I believe it should be. And work hard and provide the best I can for my family nucleus which I so painstakingly established. Things will only get better. Because we are the masters of the universe and we make things happen.

Thanks all for taking time to read this long post, which has been predominantly negative. However that's how I feel about what has happened in 2011.