OMG??? I want to tell you all about this game called Undertale. It's selling on Steam for S$8 now because of the CNY sale but I'm really sad that I shouldn't really buy it because I've researched so much on this game since watching Pewdiepie's playthrough that I know it too well to have a good experience playing it firsthand you know what I mean?!?!?!?

Instead, I will fangirl and tell you all about it to appease my heart LOLOLOL

OK LET ME BREAK IT DOWN FOR U:

First, it starts off like a classic RPG game; the graphics are really old school, and even the dialogue and action buttons remind you of those games you used to play when you were a kid.

The story goes as follows:
Once upon a time monsters and humans used to co-exist but a war broke out and the humans sealed the monsters underground with a barrier preventing them from going back up to the surface. The character you're playing is a human child who has fallen through a hole in the ground many years later.

So anyway at the beginning of the game you're introduced to Flowey the Flower, a pretty harmless looking cutie:

until you REALISE THAT HE'S JUST SOME DEMONIC FUCKER OUT TO DESTROY YOU IN THE WORST WAY POSSIBLE????

You're rescued by a nice goat lady called Toriel who's really nice and is sort of like your extremely loving game mother. She's probably the LAST character a person who has never played the game before would ever want to kill. She takes care of you in her house but you decide to leave because you want to return home. Because the world outside is dangerous, She tries to protect you by blocking your way and fighting you.

It's too complicated to describe but a first time player will always accidentally kill her in the fight. Then, the player will load a saved file just to do it differently so that she won't die.

... And then after that happens, the player encounters this.

Holy shit. that's so fucking freaky. If I were playing it first hand, I would have cried. This damn flowah always breaking the fourth wall.

Ok so apparently the ability to load and save files is considered a type of power here.

What's awesome about this game is that it seems to follow the typical conventions of an RPG game so well at first that any first-time player would progress through the game defeating most of the monsters they come across like how it's normal to do so in such games.

But in this game, there is a consequence if you keep defeating everything. Because unlike games like pokemon where the monster simply faints, the monsters in this game actually DIE. You don't see them again ever. And people treat you differently the more you kill. (Which I will talk about!!)

That's why this game has 3 endings:
1. Neutral Run - Player has killed some monsters but not all. Ends with Flowey restarting the entire game and asking you to go through everything without killing anyone
2. Genocide Run - Player has killed every single monster encountered (including other main characters introduced in the game) Ends with you being murdered by another character called Chara.
3. Pacifist Run - Player has spared every single monster + made friends with other main characters. Ends with the happy ending where everyone escapes the barrier.

Two other important characters you'll meet:


The skeleton brothers Papyrus (left) and Sans (right)!
Papyrus is mainly comic relief; he's really dumb and obnoxious but you still kinda love him because of it. Sans loves his brother (omg if you kill Papyrus on a neutral run he will call you a 'dirty brother killer' which is rly sad) and says a lot of bad skeleton puns but he's still a pretty mysterious character because he knows of your 'power' to save and load files and resetting timelines.

--


This game is rly so meta. There are some scenes where the game crashes on purpose because Flowey is messing with you. Then if you reset and play the game a lot of times, Sans' dialogue will change aounrd the 3rd or 4th run because he KNOWS what is going on and that you have the power to free everyone and make everyone happy but you keep RESETTING and putting everyone back underground again. Rly made me change my perspective on games.

Here's a video of his fight (known to be THE hardest fight and also a fight you can only get on Genocide Run because you killed everyone and he's there for revenge)

A COOL FACT ABOUT THE GAME SOUNDTRACK....
Everytime you fight a new characters, their theme song plays. In the soundtrack list, there is a song called "The Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans" BUT... This is NOT the song playing in the fight at all! IT's actually a song called Megalovania (a play on Megalomania). But wait.... that doesn't suit Sans' character at all! In fact.... it sort of suits....
...your character when you play the Genocide Run.

Your theme song plays when you fight Sans because you're not fighting Sans.

He is fighting you.


!!!!!!!

Rly cool game 11/10 recommend I have left out a ton of other cool stuff because there's too much but !!!! v excited heheeh

Hello ba!

I'm finally going to post something on this blog even though my life has been terribly boring and there's not really anything interesting worth talking about lol ;_; I've been wanting to watch some shows and animu but every time I start on a show I feel really guilty like I'm supposed to be doing something else instead. I also stopped watching Orange is the New Black because somehow it was starting to get boring (though I will pick it up again one day because I really want to see Ruby Rose).

I've been doing a lot of stupid and meaningless things like going to school and spending the whole day in the clubroom playing Mortal Kombat and talking shit with whoever in the room. I also re-downloaded Tinder despite the gross ass traumatising incident I told you about. Do not worry!!! Wei Si, Lay Siew, Alex, XW, and I were just using it for fun and judging people and mainly finding ang mos for WS. I personally have been collecting friends - I have Steve, Andrea, and Keng Li on my match list already. Apparently I have been super-liked by a lot of malays but I swipe left to all of them because Ba is the one for me :-) I will delete it after these funny ass sessions with that group of friends end and everybody is sick of the app. I love ba and only BA

I'm taking super fucking long to read this stupid book, even though the writing style is much easier and more pleasant to read than Charlotte Bronte's. I guess I've been dumbed down so much so that I can only properly take in information via visuals like film and comics.

I'm going to meet KJ tomorrow for lunch at Utown. Maybe we'll be eating at Butter My Buns (informally known as the Lesbian Cafe) or the Cafe Bistro thing. Looking forward to it even though I asked KJ 3 times to help me get things from the UK and she failed to get back to me. But it's ok, I didn't buy a present back from Japan. Should I have? I think I'll give her a keychain.

My blogging has been influenced by the stream of consciousness style of Pamela - maybe you'll see me using 18th century linguistics soon.

Time to call ba in 10 minutes! Spoiler alert: I will tell you that you're very cute. Hehehe.

Hello ba! The week has flown by and I can't believe how many days have passed since I last updated this blog.

There has just been so much to talk about, most of which I have already told you through Skype, but here are some pictures to add that extra illustration to what I've been up to.


As the sign has it, some food trucks offer a free drink with purchase of a main course. I chose Sunkist Orange Juice for this particular order. To my dismay, it was also gassy. Well, at least I didn't have to pay for that.


Aaaaaand this is Chicken Over Rice, my personal favourite dish, Usually, there are no queues for the food truck. This particular one was highly recommended by Michael's roomie, though, and there was a long line outside the truck. For good reason, too - this was the best Chicken Over Rice I've ever tasted.

It's basically chicken with Middle Eastern spices pan fried before being dumped over bryani rice. The cook will then douse it with "white sauce" (mayonnaise) and "hot sauce" (chilli sauce).

In this case, the cook also chopped up a naan and fried it in with the chicken. DELICIOUS.



We learned to use the FS100 video camera yesterday. We'll be using this to shoot 20 films as a group - each of us will direct, write and edit 5 short films.

The first 4 will be in black-and-white with no sound, while the final one may be shot in colour with sound. The first 3 will be a maximum of 3 minutes in length, while the final 2 will be a maximum of 5 minutes long.

Michael and I decided not to be in the same group, so I got in a group with 3 other guys. They are all sophomores (year 2) and have already done a Sight & Sound module before.

There are 3 Sight & Sound modules in total - for filmmaking, documentary and studio. There are also intermediate and advanced production modules, in which there will be experimental, narrative and other genres.


I finally had Popeyes from across the street yesterday! It came with lemonade and a side of mac-and-cheese. I wish Singapore had sides like that.

The biscuit was slightly better than in Singapore but nothing compared to Texas Chicken. The chicken tasted average - I still prefer KFC.

However, the oily food meant I finally emptied my bowels properly for the first time since arriving here. Before today, I'd been suffering from a bit of constipation, mostly because of the dry climate.


FINALLY, I GOT TO VISIT A CHIPOTLE. YIK YIK YIK!

The place resembled an upper-class McDonald's, with tungsten lighting illuminating rows of bar-style tables and chairs.

The menu had calories on it as well as prices, so you'd know that adding sour cream and cheese would add another 150-180kcal and 115-130kcal respectively. Adding guacamole or add-ons like chips would also cost a little extra.


Fast food chains getting sophisticated, yo.

 


Do not underestimate this little thing. The only time I'd felt fuller was after eating a Carl's Jr meal, chilli cheese beef fries and all. It was chock full with stuff!

I ordered the chicken burrito with brown rice, black beans, sour cream, cheese and guacamole (I rejected the tomatoes though). OMG NOW I KNOW WHAT THE FUSS IS ALL ABOUT.

This meal cost me US$11.50 but it felt like I'd eaten 2 meals, so it was definitely worth it. I also needed cheering up after I developed a callus while deadlifting. With the lack of skincare, it was only a matter of time before the bar got the better of my dry hands.

Here is the workout:

Squat - 112.5x2x7, 1x8
Bench - 60x3x10
Deadlift - 120x9x2, 1x1 (decided not to pull my last rep to prevent the callus from actually ripping.

That's all for today, ba. I'm going to watch the original Batman (Jack Nicholson plays The Joker) before sleeping. I activated my 1 month free subscription to Netflix lol. We can share an account if you would like to continue your subscription!

I miss you :-(

My mood has been improving steadily after classes have started. At last I can put my mind to something.

Heiba! I'm glad we finally managed to talk today. I hope you enjoyed Gone Girl as much as I did. Get enough sleep, okay? There are gains to be made!

So, although I'd set my alarm for 7am, I was awake long before then. I think it must've have been the excitement of finally having structure return to my life again that contributed to a fitful sleep; or maybe it was the time difference again. Whatever the case, here I was, listening to the Tim Ferriss Show and trying to drift back off to sleep.

Nope, no such luck. The alarm went off and I turned it off.

I think the next part was pretty much self-explanatory: I washed up, changed and was at the campus at 8.30am. From my research, I knew the NYU ID department would be open at 8am, so I wanted to cross something noteworthy off my bucket list first thing in the morning. Nothing like a straightforward success to start the day right...right?

To my dismay, the square-jawed man with close-cropped hair and all-round military feel pronounced that I was not in the system. Could it have been because I hadn't paid my fees yet? Maybe it was because I was an exchange student?

He directed me to the registrar instead, so I did a quick google search and found that it was in the same officer as the Bursar, at which I was supposed to pay my school fees. Convenient - maybe I would be able to get something done after all!

Unfortunately the Bursar would only be open at 9am, so I decided to Skype you first. Then my phone couldn't take the cold and the batteries froze up. I had no choice but to head back to the registrar's office and wait for it to open.

Thankfully, it was open early. I went in, got my confirmation documents to certify that I had indeed registered with NYU - no, ba, they did not troll me - and approached the teller at the bursar's booth to make my payment.

"Cash or cheque only."

Dammit.

Luckily, there was a Citibank nearby, so I hurried there. Unfortunately, the maximum withdrawal I could make per day is US$2,000, so that was all I could withdraw.

Normally, Citibank would be able to issue a personal cheque on the spot and I wouldn't have to hold US$7,958 in cash. However, as my account was Singapore-based, they could not access any-fucking-thing from here.

I could set up a US-based account, of course, but that would take 24-48 hours. I could not deposit any money into my bank at all because - yeah, you guessed it - they couldn't access my account, even though they are Citibank, one and the same.

I was now stuck with the possibility of having to hold onto a large sum of money on my body. I did not relish that prospect at all. the only way was to check if the Bursar accepted payment in instalments.

At about this time, class had started, so I decided that nothing would take away from me being punctual to my class.

As it turned out, arriving at the venue at 9.25am turned out to be my first accomplishment of the day. Not bad, two straight failures to start off the day!

The class was Dramatic and Visual Writing and I enjoyed every single bit of it. We were asked to apply Aristotle's principles to analysing popular films - The Godfather, Pulp Fiction and A New Hope. The professor got the title of the last one wrong, by the way. She said The New Hope and I almost lost all hope in humanity. But then I was excited to talk about Star Wars, so I quickly overlooked that.

She also made some points that really resonated with me. For instance, she bemoaned the lack of a good villain in today's day and age of filmmaking. Ultron wouldn't last a day in the ring with The Joker.

So, a great film has to have a great Villain, like Fagin or The Joker. It also has to show vulnerability in the protagonist/hero, like Bale's Batman. This was my kind of gig.

I also realised that I probably need to watch more movies and read more fiction. I intend to attack that recommended reading list by the end of the week and get my hands on a few scripts so I actually know its correct format.

When class ended, I headed back to the NYU ID office, where I had miraculously decided to show up in the system. My card was made in minutes and I wasn't at all disappointed with my hair or facial hair.

I look like I've aged a million years.

I then went to the bursar's office where they thankfully allowed the payment to be made in instalments. I'll be paying them tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday as well to settle my bills.

After that, I Skyped my bubbity hehehe.

My next class would be the recital part of the same module. We were first asked to introduce ourselves by answering a fixed set of questions. Here's what I said:

"Hi guys, my name is Clement. I'm from Singapore and I'm an exchange student for this semester, so that's why I speak...differently.

"A movie that I hate is Van Helsing. It was a terrible movie with absolutely no plot worth appreciating.

"A favourite movie that comes to mind is Gone Girl. I think Ben Affleck is a fantastic director and script-writer...more so than he is an actor.

"Honestly, I don't know much about filmmaking. My degree is in Communications and New Media, but when the chance came to take a semester of classes at Tisch, I jumped at the chance to follow my passion and experiment with something that I love consuming. My goals from this module are to just learn as much as I can about the technical part of scriptwriting and learn to appreciate storytelling."

That was the most modest goal of the class. My other classmates wanted to write drama, comedy, films and features for TV and the movies.

I guess I could have been a little more thick-skinned.

After that, we were asked to pitch our ideas for our first 8-page script. My classmates had pretty cool ideas, but mine had more of a darker undertone.

"So, there are two students - a guy and a girl - who are staying together in an apartment. The girl has problems with sleepwalking and the guy confronts her about it one day.

"She then confides in him that she had a dream the previous night. She was ripping a man's tongue out and beating his head against the sidewalk until the brains spilled out.

"The guy, who's studying to become a psychologist, tries to comfort her and interprets her dreams. He tells her that it's only a product of the stress of having to take care of their utility bills and work part-time to finance college - nothing more.

"The girl tells him that she's concerned because it seems really vivid for a dream. She's scared that she might finally hurt someone she really cares about - like him.

"After the guy consoles her, he tells her to go to school or risk losing a grade for turning up late. After she's left, he picks up the paper and reads the headline that a body has been found without a tongue two streets away."

The prof gave me some feedback, which I felt was both insightful and practical:

1. The newspaper ending is too cliched. Try something more vague, like him trying to dispose of a shirt stained with blood.

2. I could make him the killer instead!

3. I don't have to give the audience everything. Vagueness is part and parcel of telling the story. But at the same time, I'll want to have clarity. I have to know exactly what is going on as the storyteller, otherwise the audience will know.

I'm going to think about how I want this to progress, but I would want to dedicate some time to actually depicting the guy following the girl out of the front door and then losing sight of her, as well as the girl talking about her dream. I will also need to think about how I can show the audience that the guy is the murderer - perhaps, he could be trying to dispose of his own trousers.

After class, I decided to go across the street to McDonald's, where I bought a pair of Filet o' Fishes. I returned to my familiar seat at the basement of Tisch and worked on this blog until 3.30pm, when I went for The Director's Process.

I thought it was spelled "Fillet" but I guess Macky D's wanna be hipstar too.

In this module, I'll have a series of in-class and take-home assignments. I will also have a final essay of 6-8 pages analysing a director's techniques on a film of my choice (The Dark Knight?).

I went up and introduced myself again as an exchange student from Singapore. My favourite director is Christopher Nolan because of the way he expertly layers his characters and never fails to inject a strong personality into his works, like Beethoven.

My prof's favourite director is Akira Kurosawa. He liked his penchant for using the camera's and actors' movements to tell the story. To him, a good director's movie can still tell the same story even when you shut the sound off.

He showed us this clip:


I then knew exactly how much shit I was in. I did not know anything about camera angles or the 3-act traditional film structure, even though the prof assured us that modern cinema is no longer married to them. He used Pulp Fiction as an example of a non-linear narrative structure.

Pulp what? Time to download yet another movie.

The students in this class, unlike D&VW, were sophomores. They had already taken basic and intermediate film modules. They were much more versed in their favourite directors' works than I was.

For me, Sight and Sound Filmmaking will piece all these together and I won't have that until Thursday. But by the sound of it, Sight & Sound will be a very stressful module. Apparently, I would have to create 5 films, each within a 9-hour time span. This would include casting.

Shit just got real.

Nonetheless, it was an exciting prospect. I found myself wondering about the kinds of films I would make!

I left school to unforgiving weather and and quickly made my way home, picking up some Middle Eastern chicken and rice from a pop-up store on the way.

Yeah, it was as spicy as it looked. Okay, maybe a little less spicy irl.

And here I am, uploading this blog before taking a shower. It's been a looooong day, but an exciting one!

So as you know, I took my "meds" last night at around midnight. I called you and then I fell asleep at about 1 in the morning.

I swear, that sleep was the best I'd ever had. I had no dreams and no intermittent wakings. It was also the longest sleep in my life.

When I woke up, I wasn't drowsy at all. I felt the familiar sensation of having slept at midnight and woken at 10am on a typical Sunday morning in Singapore - that is, extremely rested.

In fact, I thought it was 10am here and that I should be able to take my time for the next hour until I was to call you. That is, until I checked the clock...

...and almost jumped in bed with shock. How could it be 1pm?

I guess the medicine's depressant effect helped me finally get a good night's sleep in a foreign land and different time zone. The jet lag must have weighed heavily on me until then.

I'm terribly sorry. I should have been more responsible in setting an alarm to call you. You ended up waiting for me till 2am when you have school tomorrow at 10.

It's not that I didn't care, but it looks that way because I promised to make you my number-one priority. But I didn't - even though I could have controlled this.

I'm very disappointed with myself.

After fervently apologising, I was still guilty one the way to McDonald's to get lunch; still upset as I watched an episode of American Horror Story.

No McDonald's meal would be complete without a nice cup of black coffee.

Love the fries.

Sirloin triple pounder - steakhouse version. Steakhouse apparently is the version without veggies - Ba-approved!

I did notice, however, that the weather had improved markedly. Snow was melting on the sidewalks but a path had already been trodden down to the concrete pavement. I made my way around fairly easily without waddling around like a penguin.

Look at how deeply the ground had been buried under the snow yesterday!

After finishing Episode 8, I checked my NYU email to find that the meet-and-greet at 4pm had been cancelled. However, our contact had sent us personalised timetables and more administrative instructions. I now have to:

1. Make my NYU card, which would grant me access to all the gyms. Yay, gains! I'll do that tomorrow at 8.30am before class.

2. Check in with the school. I will have lessons for all the time slots available, so I just signed up for one of them and emailed the school. I hope they will open up an extra one for me.

3. Pay my school fees. I'll do this after all my lessons tomorrow, as the Bursar's office is located on campus.

I decided to import my timetable onto my phone and create all these little notes with it. You know that scheduling is important to me because my memory is so fucking terrible, so hopefully this should give me a better grip of things.

I'm kind of excited for school to start. I really don't know what the semester will bring, but I'm ready for it!

At 4pm, I decided to go out and get an essential item for living - chalk balls. Yes, you read that correctly.

Basically, chalk balls are balls of chalk (duh). They come in little bags that allow you to contain the chalk. You have to crush the balls before opening and using them, but I think I may just rub the balls against my hand to reduce the mess further (if you know what I mean, hehehehe).

A quick search told me that Modell's Sporting Goods, on 740 Broadway, stocked chalk balls. It's on the 8th St: NYU station - just one stop away from Canal St, where Lafayette Hall is.

Modell's Sporting Goods was located just opposite NYU, so I headed across the street after buying the chalk balls. I decided that it would be a good idea to recce the place before tomorrow so I won't end up getting unexpectedly lost.

I literally had to just cross the road to reach Tisch.

Well, the campus was deserted, as one would expect after receiving an email that NYU would be closed for the weekend due to the snowstorm. I circled the perimeter, making a mental note of all possible entrances, then headed home.

All in all, I was out for less than 2 hours. I left my room at 4.30pm and came back slightly before 6.

I stopped by 7-11 before returning home to get 2 chicken breast burgers for US$5.50. They were cheap but tasted cheap too, ew.

Note to self: do not ever buy chicken breast burgers ever again.

After returning home, I forced the burgers down with a litre of water and Episode 9 for comfort. I then took a shower at 7 and dumped my laundry into the washing machine. It costs a buck each for the washing machine and dryer, so it should be done by 9.

I'm going to try to sleep early today because I have to be up by 7 to get ready. I've decided to get up at 8am on all other days. Midnight to 8 sleep schedule, just like old times, eh?

I love you ba, and I miss you. I'm sorry. I hope you'll forgive me and that you won't be so tired today. I always hurt the person I love the most :-(

How much of a scruffball am I now? #hipsteralert

Damage for the day

Food
Lunch: US$8.90
Dinner: US$5.50

Necessities
30-day unlimited ride metrocard: US$117.50

Luxury
Chalk balls: US$10.90

Detergent, chalk balls and that unlimited ride Metrocard

I have US$108 and some change left in my wallet. I have a new mission: to survive on that until next Sunday, at least! Let's see how that holds up. At some point, I'm going to start budgeting my expenditure, but it all looks good so far.

Also, in a recent development, I've found out that my meal plan includes US$375 of Dunkin' Donuts credits. NAISE.

P.S. Ba, please pass me a list of stuff to buy for you! I went to the Kylie Jenner website and they said it's still out of stock. Could you also check that these items and the price are correct?

Hello ba! So, after talking to you, I couldn't get to sleep so I watched The Empire Strikes Back for about half an hour. Just as I was getting hungry, my roommates decided to go down the street to McDonald's for some lunch. First meal of the day at noon? Winner - I get to save some money, yay!

"First winter of your life, eh? You're in for something special."

Frankly speaking, it wasn't my first - I've seen snow in Japan and Korea before. However, I already had this sense of foreboding after receiving all kinds of emails that this department and that school were going to be closed due to the blizzard.

William's girlfriend, Christina, is from Russia and he had already received 3 texts from her saying that it was bad. When the Russians say it's bad, it's bad.

So, I jumped into my layers - all of them - and we headed outside.

When the Russians say it's bad...

The first thing that hit me was the snow - literally. The wind was blowing it sideways into our faces so we couldn't look straight ahead. That turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I now had an excuse to look down and take care where I was stepping. The snow was about 4 inches deep and my boots were sinking into the ground. Bless you and ABC Mart and Ikebukuro for convincing me to invest S$80 in a solid pair of boots. My socks were kept warm and, by extension, my feet.

William and Ben (both left) ahead of me.

Strictly speaking, it wasn't that cold. It was just the strong wind that kept us on our toes.

We walked across the side roads, where there were no cars at all, and turned the corner to McDonald's. You can always count on Macky-D's to be open when you need good food, and they even have the all-day breakfast menu here! There's a new God in town and his name is Ronald.

Obligatory scruffy selfie at McDonald's.

I bought a Buttermilk crispy chicken meal for USD 8.60 and changed the drink to a medium black coffee as usual. We then headed back to Lafayette.

As we walked back, I realised that there were still a few cars out on the main road, but they were moving slowly in the slippery snow compared to the hustle and bustle of yesterday. Chinatown was also eerily quiet.

I love this picture. The house would belong in the Potter-verse - concealing spell gone wrong on this one - with a snowcapped roof and flanked by 2 serious, formal office buildings.

Time to finish The Empire Strikes Back hehe.

Edit: so, I finished The Empire Strikes Back AND The Return of the Jedi. And I also created the bare bones of my website at clementyou.wordpress.com. I'm going to start putting up some art soon!