Wednesday, December 19, 2007

The Silly Things You Can Do With Your Mobile To Keep Your Love Growing

What can you do to be on your girlfriend’s mind constantly when you are in camp?

You can write letters or postcards, of course. But seriously, who will resort to such methods now when you know you can get instant response at the click of your fingertips?

Yes, mobile phones are almost indispensable in this era now. Especially in the realm of dating and relationship.

Let’s explore what are some of the interesting and refreshing things we can do with our mobile to keep the sparks flaming between you and your girl!

1. Add cute and special emoticons in your sms. Or even better, create some unique ones. My favourite? ^o^
2. Take some funny faces photos of yourself and send it to your girl via MMS. (I understand that camera phones aren’t allowed in camps. So you might have to do this once you book out!)
3. Build a story of your relationship around the phone. In this way, it is no longer just a phone but one with sentimental value.
4. Replace the usual ringing tone with something special to the both of you. One that will help your girlfriend to remember those loving feelings she shares with you.
5. Pre-record love messages, love songs or anything that goes to make your girlfriend’s heart skip a few beats when she play them during the time when you’re probably somewhere in the jungle and out of action.

How are these 5 tips for a start? As the number of features increase with modern technology, there really is no limit to what you can do with a gadget that was primarily invented to ease communication.

Check out what your friends are doing, and you can start modifying to give her some little surprises. Better still, do some research and ask your gal friends what will bring cheers to them through the mobile phone.

In a nutshell, you just need to make your presence felt, even if you are absent. 

Sunday, December 02, 2007

War Between The Dots, Words and Armies

I know. The guys must be jumping for joy when we got the topic for this week. I received this news with mixed feelings. How so?

Well, when I got the email from Florence, the subject title gave me cause for joy, since I don’t have to fret about what to write this week.

The joy was very short-lived, for after I read the contents, my first thoughts were “Very good. Gaming? I don’t play any! How am I supposed to write?” The knee-jerk reaction was to hit “Reply” key and to let her know I’ll probably be having lots of trouble doing this week’s assignment and ask if I could be exempted.

Then, something stopped me.

“Am I saying no to a challenge? Am I going to just quit this game without even starting it?”

My inner voice has begun to talk to me again.

As quick as I clicked the “Reply” button, I closed the window. Yes. No emails were sent. But learning about gaming and making myself play one became what I had in mind then. I had accepted the challenge.

Let me show you the level of “expertness” I am in gaming for a start so that you could probably remotely experience the “pain” I have to play games online.

I grew up playing ‘’five stones’’ and ‘’zero point’’ – if you know what they are, then you’re probably from my generation. Cyber games were non-existent then.

My first encounter with computer games was playing Solitaire. Moving and clearing columns and columns of poker was the rage then. Then we slowly moved to the TV games Nintendo. But still, compared to the gamers, I wasn’t even qualified to be known as an “amateur gamer”.

Now, the gaming industry had become one of the fastest expanding one. I’ve heard of some horror stories about men heavily addicted to games that their relationships with their partners soured. Breakups caused by virtual third parties, once unheard of, had become reality.

So, is gaming a healthy activity? It all depends, really.

For the purpose of this challenge, I decided to take the plunge and install the game Warbook in Facebook. Yeah, I mean, though I am game enough to start cyber-gaming, but to ask me to spend hundreds of moolah to purchase one? Well, let’s just say I need some time to warm up first.

But before I installed Warbook, a friend had invited me to play two other games on Facebook – Scrabble and Pacman. Pacman! Oh, what a more than familiar name! I used to play that on the PC and TV! Yes, I can handle Pacman, I thought. No problem!

Blame it on my arrogance. Due to the rustiness, I lost my first game.

Scrabble was, among the three games, my top-most favourite. Because I not only get to be entertained, I get to improve my English vocabulary as well. Nothing beats the satisfaction of killing two birds with one stone.

Warbook. My, what a game. You know, from this game, I’ve realized a very important lesson. 

Have you heard of the saying “How you do anything is how you do everything”?

This is so true.

Warbook is well, like the name implies, a war game. So we build our own army, expand our kingdom and basically attack as many people as you can to claim their territories. So we got to watch out for our defense line, form alliances etc.

When I first went in, without a clue on what’s happening (I still am now, in fact ), I was given the whole spectrum of things I could do. Should I form alliance? Should I buy more soldiers, or upgrade them to wizards and knights? Should I attack someone right away? Should I buy more acres of land?

My mind was – to foster strong relationships with my neighbouring kingdoms so that I reduce the chances of being attacked while boosting my own strength and therefore upping my defense line as well.

Well, everything comes at a price. In order to form an alliance, as there weren’t any existing ones for me to join, I need to pay 1,000,000 pieces of gold. Wow, too much money to pay, I thought. So I gave up the idea.

You see, for some people, they may just go ahead without a thought. But for me, because I’m so new to the game, I would like to have the money as a form of security! At least I know I have some to spare when emergencies crop up, like if I’m suddenly being surrounded by enemies!

From here, I can see how my value, which is security, actually comes into play! And the fact that I wanted to first build alliance also means I place importance in people relations.

Well, for the sake of writing this article, I went to attack someone yesterday. Very sadly, I lost.

So did I continue to attack? I didn’t. I stopped playing that day, gave myself some rest so that I could “strategise” and play differently on the next go.

Life is like a game.

There are rules to every game. And if you choose not to obey, you must be prepared to face whatever consequence that comes along the way. Are you?

What is your spirit in playing the games? Is it to learn something new each time? Is it to kill time? Is it to win every time? Or is it to enjoy the process and not necessarily to be the last man standing?

All these show how you live your life. For like I said, life is like a game, and how you play anything is how you play everything.

Your character, personality, beliefs and values will surely be reflected in your games, and affect the results. Have you paid attention to any of these? Do you know yourself better after gaming?

What are the areas you can mark for improvement? Where are your strengths? What are your weaknesses?

Think about it my friends.

Now, maybe I should hire a war strategist to assist me in fighting this online battle…
Well, I have learnt to look for help when I need to do something that isn’t right up my alley. It didn’t come naturally to me. I learnt this the hard way while running my own business. I hope you don’t have to make the same mistakes I did.

What are some lessons you have learnt through gaming, and in your life?