In case some of you don't know, Halo 3 is the Explosive Conclusion to the world's greatest Science-Fiction XBox game EVER!
25th September 2007 -was the date the game was released. It broke the record that Spider-man 3 took for the "Biggest Media Release" in terms of sales
If you want, i'll elaborate why i'm so obsessed and the background story next time. Hopefully...
-CPL JACKIE ~PRAISE AND WORHSIP BAND LEAD POSITION ~SPARTAN T93/280708/293
Drifting, Lesson 1
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Here we go, I'm back again. This time, i'm gonna talk about drifting. Yep,
Drifting, What is it? Most people consider it a form of driving Others, A form of ART. The Truth? Its Both.
You require both dexterity and the ability to multi-task to execute a good drift. Real life drifting is nothing like what the video games offer, and i'm not talking about graphics and the "feel" Its nothing like the real thing as in; The ways the video games let you execute drifts are all so unreal, or novice. They don't let start drifts the way the real world to.
In the world of drifting. There are 3 components when going for official races that allow drifts First. The first kind of category of competition is "Drift competition". The objective of this? Its to drift the best you can. These are usually the judging criteria: - Amount of tire smoke. - Point of initiating the drift and keeping it (especially for early initiations- they will give you lots of points) - Loudness of Audience applause. These competitions are for the "Show" and "Entertainment" factors
Second. Would be speed. Objective? Keeping your speed, pretty much just racing - and including drifts in it. This category of drifting is to show the judges on how you manage your speed when you enter and how you maintain that speed when you exit the drift.
Lastly It would be... I'm not sure what you call it, but its something to do with... Ah, its called synchronised drifting. *I think?* Objective is to... Keep your racing line with the lead driver and overtake him when: - He slows down - You see an opening You lose when: - You get too far away from him. - You got out of synch and that will lose points for you. Acceptable overtakes only occurs when you Overtake an opponent at a turn and not forcing or manipulate your opponent to give way for you to overtake.
Why I say that video games, even the simulation ones, are unreal compared to the real one? Its because they lack the clutch. (I hear many people wondering what a clutch is) A clutch is a pedal for a Manual Driven car, used when a driver needs to shift gears. When you press the clutch pedal, the gears are released from the wheel, therefore, you don't accelerate, no matter how hard you hit your accelerator.
But, the thing people don't know, is that the clutch can be very useful in initiating drifts. See, one of the ways professionals use to initiate drifts would be to - Hit the clutch to release the grip on the accelerator. - Keep your accelerator pedal pressed down. (When the clutch is released from the gears and the accelerator keeps going, the engine RPM goes up) - Depress the brake gently to slow the car and turn slowly. - Release the clutch. (What the tires will do now when they're hooked up to a high RPM engine is that they will suddenly accelerate to speed beyond your current driving speed) - This induce a grip loss and the car is able to swing out better.
The above technique is called the "clutch kick" That's only one of the methods of starting a Drift. Maintaining the drift is another lesson you'll have to learn. Pulling out from a drift is also another lesson you'll have to learn. But for now, that's all i'm going to write. I'll talk about drivetrains in my next lesson.
-CPL Jackie ~Spartan T93/280708/293 ~BB 26thCoy Praise and Worship Band leader - Lead position
Power can be a downfall
Monday, September 15, 2008
Hi guys
People sometimes say, that if we were gifted with too much power, we may soon turn to abusing it.
It is inevitable to almost anyone.
It will happen. Because that once we recieve that power, we will slowly grow to crave it. Although we would feel awkward with so much responsibility at first, situations that arises will force you to use that authority of yours to settle them down. Situations such as when:
Friends with other positions similar and lower to yours might pressurize you to use the power to help them solve a problem. Such as keeping your juniors quiet and for them to behave during a camp.
I've almost fallen into that trap before.
What happened was the juniors were all pretty much noisy, and a fellow friend told me to use my power to keep them under my control.
I won't shout at my juniors, not unless neccessary.
Have you ever read the Aesop Fable about the Sun and the Cloud? Both of them were debating on who was stronger. The Cloud saw a traveller and chellenged the Sun that the first "person" to get the man to take his cloak off, would be the stronger one. The Cloud started first, it blew hard at the traveller What is was trying to do was to blow the cloak off the guy. But as the Clouds gathered more wind and gale to blow the Cloak off, The traveller held on to his cloak more tightly than ever. Soon, the Cloud gave up and told the Sun it was his turn. The Sun went over and shone with all his might, The man was surprised and relieved at the sudden change in weather and continued walking. After a while, he began to get hot and took off his cloak to in the hot weather.
Moral Of The Story? -The Cloud was the one using brute force to make the man take off his cloak. -The Sun only used his gentle rays to "persuade" the man into taking off his cloak. -Among the two of them, the one who didn't use brute force was the one who WON
Translate it into the above situation: I will not shout or use uneccessary force on my juniors because i believe in not forcing them to do things. I'd rather coax them into doing it.
Which was why, for my SDC camp, I didn't use shouting as a form of control at all.
And I Still Managed To Run The Camp Smoothly... See the difference? See what i was trying to prove?
Which is why what CPL Yan Keng said the other day made a lot of sense. Captain asked him if we should hold a promotion camp. His reply? "No, It is because the Sec 3's are simply lusting after their Sergeants ranks. Which is the reason why they want this camp."
I Half -heartedly agree with him. It is because i still want to remain a corporal, But if i become a Sergeant, I'll have power to MAKE A DIFFERECE.
Power is meant to by used correctly and not abusively. People abuse power in/when:
-They ask you about the situation when they won't even tell you what was happening in another similar situation some time ago. - Arrogance
Its hard to spot arrogance, some of us might not even know about it until it slaps us in the face... When you piss people off, then you'll know that you did something wrong... Or unpopular.
That's all i can write about now. For now, Just follow this guide-lines, Fill your heart with compassion And let God guide you... Bye.
-CPL Jackie ~Spartan T93/280708/293 ~BB26 Coy Praise and Worship Band- Band leader/ Lead position
My Birthday
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Wow, The September holidays, come and gone, fast... ain't it? (Almost no days to do homework...)
Well, 5 days of the camp were already spent on our CQ preperation camp, and another CE camp. I was the CE camp commandant. But overall, i didn't find it that hard. (No insult) My birthday was celebrated during the camp, along with 3 other boys who recently had their birthdays.
It was already a birthday gift to know that we made history on that day. Earlier that day, during lunch, one of the instructors told us of the many funny groundbreaking situations when he was in the Boys Brigade. He mentioned that his squad made history doing something really funny and incredibly dumb. Actually quite worth recording down, if i could just darn remember what it was. He also mentioned that scarcely, later, that although the sun looked bright now, it might be raining later. I said: "Touch wood" With a grin... And he went on to mention that if it did rain, and we were stuck barbequeing out there in the rain, then... HISTORY WILL BE MADE (In our style, I meant)
Well, to us, doing something "Incredibly Dumb and Funny and getting ourselves in Groundbreaking Situations" deemed making history for us. Well. Fact is, We spent the whole early afternoon till late evening preparing the barbeque. Hold on guys, That's not the GROUNDBREAKING thing. The GROUNDBREAKING thing was that we did it in the HEAVY RAIN... So that means: No breaks, No Reservations, No Hard Feelings, Not much dry food, Plenty of Slippery Floors.
In fact, i think i understand how hard it is to be like a waiter now. I was the one carrying the cooked food, sheltering it with my body and other paper plates and bringing it indoors for our juniors to enjoy. While our juniors were watching TV, we were out doing barbeque in the rain. But i don't really blame them. After the "Not-So-Unpleasant-Experiences" we had for the past 2 years. We thought that we would be better off doing it our own, the Sec 3 way. We were pretty much the last ones to start eating
After that, was clean up period. Well, not really clean up. It was the Birthday celebrations first. Then clean-up Well, also not really clean-up. It was more of toasting to each of our birthdays ( YUUUUUUMMMM.....SEEEEENGGG!!!!!)
*Actually it was an excuse to clear the water jug, it was still nearly full, but good excuses. Anyway, who'll refuse a cool free drink (And water parade) and a chance to slack off?*
So there, I got my shirt wet cause I Andrew splashed me with juice. Dang. The other birthday boys were also splashed. After me. But since i'm the camp commandant...
Lucky Number One I Guess
We watched digimon movies on Wei Kang's laptop. Then fell asleep. Then the camp was over.
The next few days. Spent going out to help with church activities. and cooping up at home doing homework and plenty of JAMMING!
K.
Then school starts and we're back to our hectic schedule.
Before i sign off... I'd like to Thanks Josiah from Church from helping me find and tell me the timing of instructors for the CE camp.
And GUYS? WATCH THIS VIDEO:
GOD BLESS! -CPL Jackie ~Spartan T93/280508/293 ~BB 26th Coy Praise and Worship Band Leader
Ciao!
Ps. I'll start posting stories in episodes in my next post onwards. Most likely about Star Wars
