Starlightbirdie

The reasons I hardly blog

2009-03-30T00:30:00.000-07:00

1) Too busy. Many stuffs to do

2)Too lazy. Idle away my free time playing flash games

3) Too bored. When i am typing out stuff on blogger, the site is very boring. Too many white spaces

4) Too sleepy. I feel sleepy when i want to blog somehow.

5) Too much DotA. Used to play DotA daily.

6) Too not creative. Everytime I feel like blogging, nothing comes out of my head. (Blog block)

7) Too messy. My mind is full of stuff. Dont know what to write

8) Too many assignments. College is all about assignments sometimes

9) Too many excuses. I make excuses everything I want to blog

Cannot think of anything to blog anymore. Time to sleep. xD

My six pages long essay on DotA(First Draft)

2009-03-17T00:58:00.000-07:00

If you ever ask me what I do every day, I will reply you that I eat, sleep, and play DotA. DotA? What is DotA?
Defense of the Ancients (DotA) is the most popular spinoff of Warcraft III : Frozen Throne multiplayer game. Note that Warcraft III: Frozen Throne is needed to run DotA as DotA is a spinoff of Warcraft III : Frozen Throne multiplayer game. DotA is originally created around December of 2002 by a scenario developer known as Eul based on the “Aeon of Strife” map from Warcraft III : Frozen Throne predecessor: Starcraft. However, Eul did not update his creation. The incredible growth of DotA occurs when a scenario developer Steve Feak (under the alias Guinsoo) begin developing the original DotA. According to Feak, he had no idea how popular the game would eventually become when he first developed Dota.[1] As for now, a group of scenario developers by the name of IceFrog took over development of the scenario. With successive versions, IceFrog updates DotA’s features. To put simple, DotA is a game where two teams each consist of maximum five players: Sentinel and Scoruge fight against each other. Every player is given a choice of 93 characters (the number of characters increase from time to time) to choose from. The main goal of the game is to destroy the opponent’s main building (known as the “Ancient”)
DotA is one of the most popular game around worldwide. Even in Garena (a multifunction platform that allows gamers to chat, challenge opponents challenge opponents, and play their favorite games online with millions of gamers world-wide) itself, there is an average of 120,000 people worldwide playing Dota at any time of the day. This is only a miniscule part of the whole Dota community. First, the 120,000 people do not include those not playing Dota at that particular time. Second, the number does not include those who are playing Dota on other platforms such as Blueserver and Battlenet, and Local Area Network(LAN), and their own computers with bots. From here, one can easily imagine the how large the number of DotA players in the world can be. The interesting question here is why DotA is so popular for such a long time. It has been around for more than six years and more and more people are playing it; it seems like it will be a never ending trend.
The evident source of the popularity of DotA is the rapid advancement of technology. Technology makes playing DotA more convenient. First, you need a desktop or a laptop to play the game. As technology advance, desktops and laptops get cheaper to the extent that the price drops a few hundred dollars in just less than half a year; present desktops and laptops become obsolete in a mere half a year as more advance desktops and laptops go into the market. When DotA first came out in 2003(Note that the version create on December 2002 is the beta version), only high end laptops and desktops can run the game Warcraft III : Frozen Throne. However, these high end desktops become cheaper and affordable to the larger population in a matter of time. This makes DotA available to the larger population. Second, days where people need to meet up in cyber cafes to play DotA with human players through local network (LAN) is coming to an end. One only needs a simple computer or laptop which is capable of running Warcraft III: Frozen Throne and a decent internet service to play with DotA players around the world through platforms like Garena, Battlenet, and Blueserver. Besides, all these platforms are free. This platforms really make playing DotA extremely convenient. People do not even need to get of their house to play DotA as compare to sports like football and swimming. Other than that, those who want to play a full-fledge five versus five DotA match can easily find players around the world as compare to other games like football, basketball, and soccer. For instance, there are two person, one who wants to play a full-fledge DotA match and the other wants to play a full-fledge basketball match. Both games need five players on each side and a total of 10 players both sides. The person who wants to play DotA can easily find players from around the world who want to play DotA at that particular time through previously mentioned platforms whereas the pitiful basketball player needs to make an effort to call his friends or join other players in the basketball court which end up with more or less than ten players most of the time.
In addition, DotA is promoted either explicitly or implicitly by gaming websites and forums that are clustering in the internet. Being promoted explicitly here means that this websites post DotA advertisements on their homepage. For instance, the official site of DotA, http://www.dota-allstars.com/index.php, advertise DotA events to attract the interest of people. However, most of the time DotA is advertised implicitly. Implicit here means that gaming websites do not purposely post advertisement to attract people to play DotA but promote DotA through their forums and links. For instance, in a online gaming forum, forum.esnation.com, it implicitly promotes DotA by showing the number of posts in DotA discussion sites and links to it. When someone who is surfing the website for information of other games, they will come across the information on DotA. As humans are naturally curious, they will access the links to find out more about DotA. The more they find out about DotA, the more these curious people are eager to try out of DotA. Once these curious people try out DotA, they will end up getting addicted to it and join the DotA community.
True to say, if DotA can get popular through advancement of technology and promotion by gaming websites and forum, any computers games will also get popular. Then why aren’t other computers games gaining as much popularity as DotA? The reason behind is DotA is more than a computer game. It provides the means to fulfill the basic and inherent human social needs: the need of belonging and esteem. In fact, the ability of DotA to provide means to fulfill human social needs provides the foundation for the expansion of DotA through technology advancement and promotions by gaming websites and forums. Let put it this way. Platforms that connect DotA players around the world will not be introduced in the first place if DotA is not widespread enough. Gaming websites and forums will not even post anything about DotA if nobody cares about it. It is the desire to fulfill society needs that makes DotA widespread enough for the introduction of platforms that connects DotA players and discussion and promotion of DotA in gaming websites and forums.
When you ask someone the reason he started playing DotA, he will probably tell you that his friends persuaded him to play. You further ask him the reason he did not ignored his friends. He will probably tell you that he will be left out by his friends. From here, we can see a strong sense of peer pressure that contributes to people ended up playing DotA. Peer pressure arises from the human need of self-belonging. Most people play DotA so that they want a sense of self-belonging among their social group. They do not want to be left out by a social group. To a more extreme extent, DotA become a culture to a society. For instance, DotA has become the culture of my home country Malaysia. Almost everyone knows about DotA. Even if they do not play DotA, they have general idea about the game. As DotA is part of Malaysian culture, those who does not have any knowledge about DotA will be stigmatized as non-Malaysians. Here, we can see a powerful social force that drives many Malaysians to play or at least have minimum knowledge about DotA because they want a sense of belonging to their society.
When you read the previous part of my essay, you will probably ask the reason DotA is such big thing in other parts of the world to the extent that it fulfills human social needs while nobody knows about it in United States. This is because Americans still stigmatize those who sit in front of their computers gaming as nerds; nobody wants to be call nerds. Hence, DotA is ineffective to provide means to fulfill social needs because the social norm of United States is working against it. Consequently, DotA is not so popular in United States.
When humans gain the sense belonging, they yearn for esteem: the need of self-esteem, confidence, achievements and respect from others. DotA provides the means to meet humans’ end of esteem. Everyone begins playing DotA as noobs (a term use in DotA for those who play badly). These pitiful noobs will be scolded, and sometimes cursed by other players. All these cursing and scolding trigger the self-esteem of noobs to play better; they ended up playing more DotA and discuss DotA on gaming websites and forums to gain more skills and experience. This leads to the clustering of tones of information on DotA in gaming websites and forums. As these noobs reach the amateur level, they will start to gain more confidence in DotA. This confidence which came from pawning( a term use in DotA for “thrashing”) opponents drives the amateurs who were once noobs to play more; it is only natural for human keep doing something they are confident with. Some amateurs who want more achievements such as qualifying and winning tournaments ended up playing and discussing more DotA in online forums to enhance their skills. By qualifying and winning international level tournaments such as World Cyber Games, these amateurs will gained the title as professionals and respect from others. From here, we can see that DotA is played by many because it provides the means to achieve esteem; a lot of DotA matches need to be played before someone finally achieve the desired esteem.
Why then DotA is not played throughout the ages of the population from babies to old but only teenagers and young adults since it can fulfills human social needs? This is because DotA is too complex for babies while too childish for adults.
Well, if Dota is so popular because of advancement of technology, promotion throughout the internet, and its ability to fulfill human basic and inherent social need, why aren’t other computer games become popular through the sources that make DotA popular? The ultimate source of the popularity of DotA is that DotA is a fun and interesting game to begin with; it has a high variation of characters and items and the characters and items are added for every new version of DotA. First, DotA matches last for an optimum time of around one hour which is neither too long nor too short. Second, players can try different combination of the number of players in a team, characters, and item build each time they play. Hence, each DotA match will be different from the others. Furthermore, the number of heroes and items increase every time a new version of DotA; it only takes about the maximum of three months for a new version of DotA to be out. All these contribute to large varieties of strategies and game play in DotA which make DotA is always fresh with unending surprises and combinations.
If not for the fact that DotA is fun and interesting game, other sources that make DotA popular will be meaningless. Technology advancement may help increase the DotA community by making DotA more convenient and available to the larger population, but DotA itself need to be fun and interesting to begin with so that people will keep playing it. Other than that, the ability of DotA as the means to fulfill human basic and inherent social needs may push the popularity even further but again, Dota needs to be fun and interesting. It needs to be fun and interesting enough for people to get addicted to it and introduce friends before it is able to become the means to fulfill human social needs. For example, I came across a obsolete game name “Real War”. It is so boring that I do not want to play the game myself let alone introducing the game to a friend. In contrast, when I play DotA, I feel the thrill and fun of the game that I persuade my friends to play it. The point I want to make from this example is that DotA need to be fun and interesting so that it get spreaded across some extent of the society before it becomes the means to fulfill human social needs that make DotA become even more popular.
At the end of the day, it is no use reading my essay on the sources that make DotA popular. You need to play and experience the fun and excitement of DotA to really understand the points that I made. So, grab a copy of Warcraft III: Frozen Throne and download DotA today to experience the fun and excitement of DotA.

[1] http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3172308&p=1

My daily boring mundane shedule in Umich

2009-03-04T18:14:00.000-08:00

My schedule begins at 12.00 am since it is the beginning of a day

1) 12.00 am-playing dota, watching movies, animes. Only study if I have tests, quizzes or whatsoever
2)3.00 am- about time to sleep....zzzz
3)8.00 am- My multiple alarm rings: Two phones alarm and laptop alarm(if my laptop survive the overheating process of the heater at night). Snooze alarms
4)8.05 am to 8.30 am- Snooze alarms
5) 8.30 am- finally wake up
6) 8.30-9.00am- Daily morning activities(use ur imagination)
7) 9.00 am - First class in the morning. No attendence taken and no pop quizzes. Too lazy. So skip the class.
8) 10.00 am- English class. Two missing attendence= half of the semester drone=cannot skip
9) 11.00 am- Come back home to sleep
10)12.00pm- go class again because got pop quizze
11) 1.00pm-lunch time
12) 2.30pm- Napping time
13) 6.00pm- Finally awake
14) 6.00-9pm-Study time
15) 9pm-10pm- dinner time
16) 10pm-12pm-Homework( My day end here.......)

The semester begins with a hectic start

2009-01-09T08:17:00.000-08:00

Winter Semester 2009 begins on 7th of january. Didnt even taste the pleasure of the holidays. Took 18 credits again this semester, so expected it to be a hectic. My first day of class the lecturers already given me homeowork and it is due in 2 days time. Spoil the spirit of the beginning of the semester. Thats not all. The real source of my hectiness is the p paper on next week. Have to prepare like hell. The test cost a lot. About USD 150. so cant really play with it.

Finding the prometric testing center

2009-01-05T07:06:00.000-08:00

Going to take p exam soon. A bit nervous lolz. To avoid trouble on the exam day, yung terd and i went to check out the prometric testing centre. Took us half and hour to reach there by bus.

This is he place. In the middle of nowhere with almost empty buildings around(holiday) A closer look at the building. It is more like a factory. A rather dull entrance. What to do? It is a test office building. Apparently, the lift is out of service. So have to take the stairs. This is the entrance to the test center.

After this, to make our journey worthwhile, we went shopping!!!

Some random pictures

2008-12-30T17:21:00.000-08:00

At last I get some motivation to take pictures around my campus. It happens that the snow is at minimal level. So can hardly see the snow
This is the US mail truck. Looks cute.xD

This is the maths department. The department I mostly visit as math major

This is the front door of the math department. Cannot go in because holiday.
This is Denisson, the second most visited building as a math major. This building is somehow like a gate into other campuses. This is a random picture of what I see after I go into that gate. This is UGLY-Undergraduate Library. Not as ugly as it seems The American flag in Central Campus... This is the garden in the Central Campus. Now holiday so not many people. I spotted a squirrel while taking photo! This is the Diag. Whoever step on the M will die in the exam unless he run naked on it

This is the street I always use on the way to my apartment

Finally, this is where I stay. I am on the twelve floor.

Money, money and money

2008-09-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

I spend about thousand plus USD in just two weeks. Everything was like so expensive. Even the stuff in factory outlet stores cost a lot. A shopping spree in Birch Run for 8 hours cost me more than 600 dollars( I restrain myself from buying a lot of stuff).Very sad becuase not able to everything I desire. Even groceries cause a few hundred bugs a month. Sumore no transportation. Need to carry heavy groceries(10kg plus) back every friday for minimum 1 kilometre. Haiz... Somemore need to pay electric and phone bill. Very, very expensive. Hopefully I will be able to cut down my expenditure soon enough.

Everyday Busy

2008-09-19T04:46:00.000-07:00

This semester I took 18 credit hours with two mathematics and three histories. So very busy. For mathematics, need to pass up assignment every week(damn sien) and history also must do a lot reading, so I have hardly anytime to update my blog...Well, today onwards, I guess I will update my blog once or twice a week lo

A Tour to my apartment

2008-08-28T14:30:00.000-07:00

Currently staying at a apartment in University Towers at Umich. It is a small apartment with 3 people in including me. There are two bedrooms, one kitchen, one "restroom"(American term for toilet), and one living room in my apartment. Hopefully I will survive in the apartment until I graduate.

This is my bed, the most important part of my life. (A place where life created for most ppl.....)These are cupboards with mirrors shared by me and my roomate. I sealed the mirrors with present paper due to some feng shui rules.This is my roommate side of the room. His bed is frequently messy . Mt ex-roomate back in Inti is much more tidy. It takes a lot of luck to see him dump his stuff on the bed and go out.This is the kitchen. The sink is small but the utensils are large. Well, this kitchen makes the apartment a not so nice place to live. The fire and water element is linear to each other which means destructions to the occupants. Haiz.......

Finally, this is the restroom of my apaertments. Full of mirrors. I wonder why there are so manhy mirrors around. Must becareful not to break any mirrors to avoid 7 years of bad luck(just being superstitious)

A Fresh New Start in Michigan

2008-08-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

i reached Michigan few days ago. Was very busy settling stuff so did no update my blog. Now a bit free already. Havent get photos from my friends yet so for the meantime no photos.

Well, Ann Arbor is a cold place. The sun shine on you but you dont feel hot. Even the summer is like Genting in Malaysia. I wonder how will I survive winter.Think about that later. The building here are very different Malaysia. It is difficult to differentiate between a house, a shop, and a campus. Everything looks almost the same. Anyhow, crossing roads here is much more safer. The vechicles need to stop for the pedestrian.

I have a few advises for my friends in Malaysia who is coming USA
1) Maximize the weight of your bag
2) Bring your whole house come because things here is expensive
3) Purchase electronics stuff in Malaysia except for laptops
4) Prepare lots of cash
5) Learn how to cook
6) Get your haircut
7) Buy winter wear during megasale
8) Dont forget your passport

A glimpse of the place I grow up

2008-08-13T11:23:00.001-07:00

I went back to the place I spend partially of my time growing up(about 71 % of my little boy time). It is a village somewhere but out of nowhere Bagan Hailam lo. The houses are made by wood and some cement (sort of like a chimera). So dont expect the house there to look nice thought the interior maybe fabulous. Can see the sea everyday in the village. If u fall from the houses, you may end up in the water or mud; depends on your luck. Just a simple scenery of the village.

The ship is white and pink(my favourite color)

The road ahead is dangerous. The hole very big. Some people of who scare of height, avoid looking down because it looks scary at the bottom.You will need to bath at least seven times to clean yourself.

This are mangroove trees( the hutan paya bakau Malaysian go through form primary school to secondary tree) For those who never seen it, take a closer look and appreciate the tree you studied. Apparently, in the geography book, this tree is very useful because it can use to make medicine, natural habitat, catch fish and etc.

I will miss this place. Wont be seeing this place for 2 years++

Getting new stuff !!!

2008-08-13T11:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, i was notified that I can bring 2 bags to the airport 20 kg each. Damn happy. So I went shopping with family. Went to MPH bookstore in Subang Parade to buy textbooks but ended buying three new non-textbook related books. These are the books I purchased.

One classic and two business related books. Wish I am able to finish books before classes start. Then i went Bukit Raja Jusco for second round shopping spree. Didn't really buy anything except for a Rm100 - 0.10 wireless mouse. Out of my expectation. I just told my mum my pink color mouse spoil edi(sad) and i showed her this mouse. She say OK so I buy lo. Suddenly my mum so generouse. Last time one mous RM30 also she say find cheaper alteratives but now change a lot already

It is wireless(need battery) and have nano protection to kill germs. Hopefully it wont kill sperm.At night, my ex-tuition teacher dedicated me a new handphone.A nokia N81. Well, i didn't have the intention to get a new handphone. My N73 still functioning but since it is free so I take onli lo. Thank you very much Mr. Low !!!

Dinner with relatives

2008-08-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

This few days, I visited quite a few restaurants. My relatives took turn to treat me because I am going to leave Malaysia for some time. Yummy!. Get to try different food rather than stuck at home. Yesterday my uncle(mother's youngest brother) treat me at a cozy looking restaurant in Port Klang. Din really concerntrate on the food. Busy taking photos all the while.

This is me and two of my cousins with my grandmother looking at the back

People taking photos of me. I know I am quite popular in my town with my face stuck at posters aroung my town but i din notice I am also popular at home lo. i guess I am destined to be popular.

Bye Bye To INTI Nilai

2008-08-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my last day in INTI Nilai. I guess farewells are unavoidable parts of lives.Sooner or later also I have to leave that place. So nothing to feel sad about lo. Just accept the fact.

This is the corridor of the hostel I used to live in. From now onwards, I will not even have the chance to step my foot on it lo. So appreciate ur hostels lo.

This is my hostel room, A1-03. How nostalgic......

This is the empty closet which was once filled with myriad of stuffs. Now the only thing that is left is emptiness except for a orange color plastic bag.

Stuffs ready packed to be brought home. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Brought back few 'cupboards' few weeks ago.

Took picture with my roomate and parents. Going to miss them when I fly to Michigan.Before i went home, I took the last glance with of my hostel.
Bye bye block A. I guess I wont see you again in my life.

Packing for Michigan

2008-08-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

Yeah! Going to fly on 15 August to University of Michigan Ann Arbor. Very,very anticipated to see a whole new world with a whole new place. I wonder how life is over there. Hopefully it will be fun.

I pack my bags the other day. However, MAS only allow one bag with maximum 23 kg which is rationally insufficient(arr.....). So I have to unpack my bag and repack it lo. Even worse, I already vacuum my stuff in plastic bags edi. Now need to let out air and vacuum again. Waste of electricity and sound pollution.

This is the vacuum bag I need to unpack. The bag very thin like me. Vaccum all de air inside already. So can save space. Take a look at my bed.

Very messy. Need to bring so many stuff. Sumore need to wear clothes inside.Very de sexy 1 the cloth. Stuck to the skin.Make me feel damn hot but i very happy when I put on the shirt. Makes me look very sexy.Suddenly feel so thin even I din exercise.

Too bad the no pink color. If got I sure buy but wear inside, nobody see. At the end of the day, i gave up packing and my mum takeover and pack everything for me. So nice. But need to get some scolding and nagging as the price of packing my bvag. I realize life is better to be lazy and thick face a bit so that ppl can do the job for you but it dont works all de time lo.

Why I blog...

2008-08-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I start posting in my very own blog(quite memorable right?). From a virgin in blogging to a nonvirgin in blogging wor. Virginity is like our precious life,once lost it will never come back again. Hopefully I will still remember this faithful day of August 10, 2008 when wake up next morning.

Five reasons I start blogging:
1) Too free, nothing to do
2) Update my whereabouts just in case someone miss me
3) Appreciating the right of expression given to me to be grateful
4) Feel like blogging
5) Simply because I like blogging

This reasons may look simple but they have change my life from a person who does not blogs to someone who blogs.