So I was helping my friend/colleague for his Qualifying English Test(?) for his admission to NTU today. He had to write an essay of 250 – 300 words for it. We suggested that he practice on essay writing today (at work XD) so that we could check it for him. A friend of ours provided us with the subject title, and when he got to work, I decided “Why not?” and wrote my own version for it. Which turns out to be the monster below XD

Anyways the title is    To Make Progress, Humans Have to Pay a Price.

Anyone interested in posting a version of their own is free to do so ^^ I welcome any and all constructive comments/criticism.

Disclaimer : This essay is mine =) I accept responsibilities for any offending statements proclaimed in it. However any flames that comes flying my way for it, be prepared. I fight fire with fire XD

–The Price of Progress is Deep–

Summary : Wot is Summary? ._.

Disclaimer : Katze is MINE, mine mine mine mine mineminemine…. mine?

WARN : Boy’s Love/Shounen-Ai (DON’T flame me and say I didn’t warn you. I’ll Barbeque you.)

–Katze – Prologue– 

Yes! Today is the end of the RoboCup2009 in Graz. The final results are below :

Humanoid Kidsize :

Final Match :

Darmstadt Dribblers (Germany)          v.s.     FUmaniods (Germany)     =     11     :      1     (Technical K.O. XD)

(For Third and Fourth place)

CIT Brains (a.k.a. Hajime) (Japan)     v.s.     NimbRo (Germany)           =      6      :      4      (Won by2 penalty kicks)

So the placement for kidsize is :

1st      :     Darmstadt Dribblers (Germany)

2nd     :     FUmanoids (Germany)

3rd      :     CIT Brains (a.k.a. Hajime) (Japan)

4th     :     NimbRo (Germany)

For the Teensize, the placement is :

1st      :     NimbRo (Germany)

2nd     :     CIT Brains (a.k.a. Hajime) (Japan)

3rd      :    TsingHua Hephaestus (China)

4th     :     HWM (Forgot the country XD)

So now that everything is over and all, we are now packing our stuff up and getting ready for the closing ceremony.

Our flight back to Singapore is in the afternoon tomorrow so I gotta go shopping for chocolates real quick come tomorrow morning XD

By the way, I’m not very sure about when and where we should meet up when I arrive back in Singapore, since the team intends to return to SP to unpack the robots. I probably will call home the moment we touch down on Singapore. Maybe we can confirm the arrangements then?

Yes, You heard me right. Graz/RoboCup did not screw my mind over and leave it to dry under the summer drizzle. This decision has been made some time ago, just not announced yet. I’m leaving the two chapters I have of Katze up there until I get the Redux (O.o that sounds professional lol) ones done to post.

I’ve been wondering about changing Drae’s full name for a while. Draenaria Ryukaina looks…. I dunno. I feel like changing it whenever I see it. I’ll get to changing it if any idea of a new name comes to mind. But ‘Drae’ and ‘Cae’ are definitely staying, so are the Psychics. The other Ryukainas (Vondaemia and Grakimia) might get their names changed if I feel up to it. We’ll see.

*EDIT @ 17/08/2009*

In addition, I am going to make some plot and background changes to Katze. Don’t get me wrong. The First Triad War is still going to happen. It’s just the events prior to the Triad War that are up for debate.

Whether the Organizaton Hades will appear in the story itself is up for debate too. I know that Phobos (from Hades) has been decided as one of the important characters for plot development, that’s why I’m still deliberating with the Hades Appear-or-No? Issue.

One last confirmed change is the Structure of Dragon Clan. I’ve confirmed that I want 3 HQs spread out over the continent Czerik. They being Tewen, Sorole and Yecinthe. The ‘species’ of special members in each HQ are decided (though I don’t think I want to spoil by disclosing them here).

Oh yes. Nobody’s getting a name change because I’m too lazy to think up new names to replace the old, strange looking/sounding ones >.< Beside I’ve used them so much that the names look kinda odd without em o.o’

That sums it all up, I guess =D Tata~! *flounces off*

So I ate ice cream today. Two actually. One was Stracietella flavoured and the other was Apfel-zimt. And I got them for 1 Euro each XD

So Apfel-zimt is basically something like Apple Jam (see Apfel == apple Xd) that tastes a little yoghurt-y (It wasn’t so nice =X). But I don’t know what Stracietella is XD I thought it was Cookies and Cream when i ate it (sure looked and tasted like one) but then I looked over the flavours again, and saw Cookies and Cream on the list beside it. So I went “What did I just eat?” XD

The trams and shops in here appears to allow us to bring food in, but not ice cream.  They actually have a square sign with a crossed over ice cream on it XD So when our tram arrived and we saw the cute little yellow sign with the X-ed out ice cream on it, I tossed my (not-so delicious) Apfel-zimt ice cream into the nearest dustbin.

So uh, here goes the results of our competition. (It gets reaallll ugly here. Don’t kill me when I get back) :

Wednesday :

Us     v.s.     NimbRo (Germany)                         =     0     :     10     (Technical K.O.)

Thursday :

Us     v.s.     PUMAS (Mexico)                           =     0     :       0     ( Won by coin toss)

Us     v.s.     UoFM (Canada)                              =     0     :       0

Us     v.s.     Darmstadt Dribblers (Germany)    =     0     :     10     (Technical K.O.)

Us     v.s.     Team KMUTT (Thailand)           =     0     :       3

Urgh that was painful (And disappointing). And That’s that! Back to Graz!

Since there wasn’t anything for me to do today (our matches being over and all) we went for lunch at the city square once our kidsize Technical Challenge (done by Kuri) was over. We ate at KFC (where the chicken were less oily and thus less tasty) and got us some food that wasn’t available on the Singaporean KFC menu. Me, I ate a Tower Burger, which is basically a Zinger with cheese and a piece of hashbrown on it. (I’ve got a picture of it).

Being out in Graz for the afternoon gave me some new insight about this city. In here, people are generally more relaxed, less stressed and maybe less worrisome than in Singapore. For example, when it rains here, the people here just continue walking as if nothing big’s going on. But in Singapore, the moment it starts drizzling,, bam! out comes the umbrella, or run to the nearest shelter! or something along those lines. It’s quite a large difference. (Or maybe it’s because the rain in here generally does not evolve into an outright storm within the next five minutes. Maybe.)

In shops, people are nice to you because, well they Are nice. Not because they have to be nice, or they are striving for some kind of award. If you were to complain to them they probably would fight back at you, and there’s no “Customer always right” kind of attitude in here. They are generally more laidback too. Sometimes even overtly so. Once we actually left a canteen in Stadthalle (the competition location) when they (being busy serving dishes and all) left us waiting for fifteen minutes for them to come and take our orders (yeah we did go up to their counter to give our orders, but they were like “Sure, okay, why don’t you go back to your table, and our waiter will get to you in a minute.”). That was kind of annoying, but you get the idea.

The main form of transport in here are bicycle, tram, bus and by car. There are even bicycle lanes along the road!

The one hectic thing these days was our preparations for the competition matches. Basically we wake at 5+ – 6 am, have free hotel provided breakfast at 6.30am. At 7+am we take the taxi/tram to Stadthalle where we start work. Then we work and eat and work and work and I mentioned work right? until 11pm. Then we (are forced to) leave (they turned off the lights at 11pm. lol), take a taxi, go back to the hotel, shower and knock out. Repeat 4 Days XD. So I was kinda woozy today (devastating days, Wednesday and Thursday). Along the lines of “Tomorrow’s Saturday? But I thought yesterday was Wednesday?? ” kind of woozy XD. But today is a good day. Relaxed, stress-less. A tourist kind of mindset.

Anyways, I heard the H1N1 cases in Singapore have hit 969 cases. How are things back there?

P.s. I’ve learnt, last night, that Good Morning = Guten Morgen, Guten Tag = Good Day, and Guten Nacht = Good Night. Betcha knew em already eh?

And yeah, I lost my bets, so I owe some people dinner now eh. Damn.

And it’s bright as hell >< (did I mention i have to press shift and # key to get that apostrophe out? ><)

Anyways, the day is really long here in the summer.

I wake up at 5.30am and it’s as bright as 7am in signapore o.o Some of my friends complain that it’s some sort of an auto alarm kinda thing XD It get’s so bright that they have to get up. (My curtains are close 22/7 so I’m ok XD.

So uh, back on the daylight, the day then coninues until 9.30 or so, THEN it starts to darken. Imagine that! You look out the window at 9pm (wanting to sleep and everything) and WHOA it looks like it’s just 7pm. Lol :d .

Mmm I ate Mac yesterday (just the fries, at 11 ö) and the oil seems to taste just as crappy (and addictive) as the ones in Singapore >.o

So. I’m half-past-dead right now because the Kidsize League starts today. And (GUESS WHAT) The first Match is Team Robot Erectus-Jr v.s. NimbRo Kidsize.

Yep. It’s us versus NimbRo (last year’s champion) XDDDDD. There’s a 100% chance we lose but we’re going anyway XD.

I’ve got two ongoing bets now. One with Carlos, the other with Eric. So the one with Carlos says that if we manage to score ONE goal in the game, he treats me dinner the whole of this coming week XD. Then Eric might treat me a meal if our Goalie manages to block ONE ball from NimbRo XDDDDDD So wish us luck! (somehow)

I’m off to breakfast (scrambled eggs, niiice niice sausages and uh yogurts) now. I’ll post when I get some time tonight or tomorrow Ja!

So I’m in Austria. Tis a nice place here 8D the weather is nice and cooling (the air condition in my room seems kinder spoilt) and teh food is nice (but a little expensive, euros and all).

There are many churchs in Austria! I’ve got at least 8 pictures of churchs from Munich and Graz O.o

The Macdonalds here have more Beef dishes than in Singapore as well.

Currently I’m staying in a hotel with no free wireless internet connection (this computer is the one in the lobby that they provide) so bear with me aye.

Anyways I gotta go! Time to take the tram!

P.s. If I typo, forgive me. The keyboard in here is different from in Singapore. I’ll take a picture, then we can scrutinize later.

(Who woulda seen a QWERTZ keyboard o.O)

Disclaimer : Tales of Destiny, Lion/Emilio, Rutee, yada yada, don’t belong to me =( Sue me not.

A/N : So this supposedly was some WIP thingy that I was going to attach a StahnxLion to, but I kind of forgot about it halfway through, so tada Drabble. (Drabbles are wonderful things *swoon* they make your incomplete works complete \(*o*)/  )

Linky here.