Caesar 3 - Lutetia

This is quite a challenging scenario due to its requirement for 10,000 population and with just enough farming capabilities.

Here are the tips that will ease the challenges:

1. You can only build about 82 farms (plus minus) and there are three types of food (Wheat, Vege and Meat(pig)). Don't bother to build wheat farm for food because wheat is eaten up fairly fast by the people. Build only vege and meat with the latter as the priority. Build the ratio of 60:40. It takes the population to eat up the meat slowly, so that gradually the supply of meat will be slightly over supply for a population of 10,000. If you have a combination of wheat, vege and meat, 82 farming capabilities will not enough for these population. --> This is the most important factor of winning this scenario (food and population)
   
2. Build the houses near to the farm so that food stock reaching the granary at each housing area will be faster and marketeers will have more time to look for other items. Of course, same old rules apply. Check out the pottery marketing problem.
   
   
3. Don't build large entertainment first, build Hippodrome only when you have a population of over 15% unemployment (which more than 17% for a long time will land you on trouble).
   
4. Same old rules apply, build at least one warehouse at each housing area to store pottery, furniture, oil and wine for the houses in that area. Build a commercial center with many warehouses to facilitate trades, so that traders will not purchase pottery and furniture from the housing area's warehouses.
   
   
5. You need to build around 10 blocks of 9x9 housing area to cater for 10,000 population. I actually build 11 blocks and the food is still enough with about 50:50 of vege and meat farms.
   
6. Randomly take out certain industry such as clay pit, timber yard or workshops whenever employment rates shoot over the population.
   
7. Enemy attack will only come in two different directions. The barbarians are great fighter, do not fight them without the help of wall and towers. Build thick walls to exhaust them of energy while tearing it down, then you can win almost any attack and will achieve 100% peace. Sometimes the enemy may even give up half-way tearing down the walls. But build army early. Build around 3 legions and 3 javelins. You do not have to build them all at once start with at least 1 legion and 2 javalins first.
   
   
8. Caesar will request for Army help two times. Send 1 legion and 2 javelins each time.
   
9. Remember to build the forts in the outskirts, don't build them close to the housing area because you need to reserve land to build houses near to the farms. You can even build the forts on the islands. But remember to build road to connect the island to the main road, otherwise the army will not be able to reach the fort and it will remain empty.
   
   
10. You also need to play this scenario rather quickly because after certain period, ceasar will not request for any help and it will be hard to maintain your favor's rating.

Malta Quench

Malta Quench is a new sports drink fortified with malt goodness that's high in vitamin B1. This innovative product helps you keep up with today's active lifestyle.

Vitamin B1 helps keep you active and refreshed. So whenever you are feeling lethagic, tired or in need of a little lift, drink Malta Quench to refresh your moments... anything, anywhere.

It is good for drinking after sports. The competitor to 100 Plus.

My personal opinion ?? It tastes good actually.

Caesar 3 - Pottery Problem

Caesar 3 computer game.

Have you encountered the situation when market just won't go and get pottery so that residents can buy ? As a result, the housing cannot evolve into bigger ones.



This is due to two reasons:

1. Marketeers don't have enough food in the market. So before they can start to look for pottery, they need to look for food first. This is actually due the fact that people are eating faster than the market can provide. Before marketeers can start looking for pottery, food stock has ran out. The sub problems are:
   • Not enough market for people within the area. Ideally, 1 market can service 9 rows of houses, thus if you have 9 x 9 housing area, you should have at least 2 markets
   • You have built too many houses at the start of the development of new housing area. You have to go phase by phase, it is possible to have a housing area of 9 x 18 but make sure you start with 9 x 9 first, otherwise, marketeers will have no time to collect pottery from the warehouses.
   
   
2. There is no pottery available.

Start by building some houses and give the market enough time to collect food and then pottery first before adding more houses.

Check out other tips on other scenarios.

Bush is not worried, it is not his problem

USA president George Bush is not worried anything about the financial crisis, it is not his problem, which was started from the private corporate side.

He is the savior.

Singapore Trip (Oct 2008)

Parliment

Parliment

Raffles' Place

Singapore River

The Eye

Esplanade

Esplanade 2

Merlion

One Fullerton

Singapore is peaceful.

Generally, I feel that Singaporean have a lot of mutual respect for each other, but it is lacking curiosity.

I learned that each shopping mall has its own personality. For instance, Rowena Square is the sports center, lucky plaza is where all the Indonesian hang-out during Sunday.


In Singapore, if you take out your shoe and throw out, you will hit 96 chinese, 2 mat sallehs and 1 Malay and 1 others.

The food ? Not bad too. The vegetarian food is nice and usually comes in a larger package than those in Malaysia.

In Singapore, the girls are very self-assured. They don't actually look at you.

Oh ya, I noticed that there are more Ferrari(s) in Singapore than in Malaysia.

The End of Financial Boom

Just like the dot-com bust which sent many budding technopreneurs into nowhere I foresee similar fate for those in the financial industry.

The financial industry is simply using money to make money. The skill sets required are financial, accounting, economic and business alike. Well, I can say that for the past 10 years, those with such skill sets are really well fed and the their time is up now.

But I don't think that the situation would immediately sent such talents into jobless mode, affected ones would be those involving in high-growth potential, such as sales, marketing, consultancy and optimization.

This is also the start of the end for those dealing with credit card sales and I suspect that many people would be terminating multiple credit cards because the banks will not be blessing too much tolerance towards unpaid dues. In short, consumers have to cut short on spending future money.

I think that in the near future and probably the next 5 to 10 years, we need more 'financial police' whose job will be a little boring compared to the ancestors as such that the core function is to 'audit' things out; to right wrongs. These people would require to have skill sets of accounting, financial, business, economics and at least some portions of legal.

In other words, the financial industry needs to get back to fundamental now and not high-risk and high-growth. The ICT industry has been surviving on low-risk low-growth mode for the past 10 years.

This Doesn't Look Good

Well, this certainly doesn't look too good.



There are reasons to think harder...

The Jam Was Yesterday

So my trip down to Ipoh last weekends and back to KL and then Seremban was blessed with unexpected ease.

It seems that the jam was yesterday, everybody seems to be coming back on Sunday itself. Wow, the city folks took more than one week off for holidays.

Living in KL working on a fast-lane job career whatever..

I was last in Ipoh and also Seremban for two different weddings... it was great.

For some reason I really hated the kind of life that I have now where I can't actually for a second or more doing one thing such as surfing the Internet or looking at the Stars....

I am always have to be on the go and meet deadlines.

I need to go dinner now.

Ciao

Trip to Ipoh

I was down to Ipoh to attend friend's wedding.

It was nice trip went, there was no traffic congestion at all. I drove up the North-South highway at ease, immersed within the peaceful drive captivated by simple yet beautiful country sides.

It wasn't long until I reached Simpang Pulai, got out of the highway. Boom!!! Ipoh.

The first place I got into was Kek Lok Tong, a place of buddhist cum taoist temple cum recreational park.



















Ipoh people are more laid back and talk more about humanity. They have time for love and fun.

One thing about Ipoh folk, they love karaoke as much as they are curious about life. I guess you can say that life is a bit more monotonous in Ipoh.

It is good to go back there every once in a while.

No Money No Talk - Tricky

It is apparent that The Bush administration has been under attacked for some period.

But USA has always been leader in everything not until the recent Olympic games. That doesn't matter anyway.

The point is that USA has got everything.. they got strong public sector, private sector and individuals.

The recent financial market turmoil shouldn't be a public sector fault, the fact that these financial institutions are global and private.

Current US goverment (The Bush administration) sees this as an opportunity to save the day, by suggesting to use federal funds to bail-out those troubles institutions lead by private business commandos. It isn't hard to propose this because it wasn't the government's fault, now they have an opportunity to be recognized otherwise.

But it seems that things are not getting easier.

The question now is what matter most... Do you want to save the economy, business or people ?

Looks like they need another miracle.

Caesar 3 - Tingis

This scenario is rather easy. Perhaps I have mastered a few key skills. Here they are:

War - Built walls and towers. You will never win any war without these. Legion will always be the front-man while javelin with shoot from behind. Javelin is most effective to attack elephants. Once elephants are dead, attackers will lose motivations. The key point is that you got to have walls and towers.

Religion - You have to built oracles, so that God will never get piss off even if you do not perform events for long. Built oracles on remote areas to keep people happy and this will cut crime rates too.

Food - Built granary near to each housing area. Do not built granaries at a single location.

The thing which i learned from Tingis scenario is:

You need to built a warehouse near to each housing area too where it will store essential items for housing growth such as pottery, furniture, wine and oil. If you keep warehouses in a single location, marketeers will have hard time to get pottery. This could also partly due to the fact that marketeers have no time to walk to far to get those potteries should food supplies is just enough.

Built one warehouse very near to each housing area

For Tingis, even though you get to built a lot of farms but is it just enough for 8,000 people and it is a challenge to reach 8,000 where you will usually get stuck in between 7,000 to 8,000.

USA Government also Helps the Bank

Even the US government is going to help the financial institutions.

Experts say that it is necessary.

Not just in Malaysia.

Religion Debatas

One look at the press release, no further reading is required. It is obviously a religion debate.

A Nation Still in Shocked

Aiya, apa dah terjadi ?

(What is happening).

In Malaysia, the Chinese are mostly trilingual, sometimes it is good to write in other languages. Everybody can speak Bahasa Malaysia.

Sebagai warga negara Malaysia, amat jelas sekali Malaysia masih terkurung dalam shok ataupun gemparan pilihan raya yang kebelakangan ini, di mana Barisan Nasional tewas dua per tiga majoriti.

Yang lagi merunsingkan kepala adalah reaksi masyarat terhadap perubahan yang boleh dikatakan tidak ada batasan selagi lagi nya.

Cuba saudara lihat apa yang terjadi sekarang.

Round of Applause for Bad Transportation

I should applause this.

Shouldn't you too ?

Here is the snapshot..

Building Foundation is Important

Image via Wikipedia Many people recognize that building foundation is important after Lee Chong Wei lost to Lin Dan in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Badminton Men's Single Final at 17th Aug 2008. Also check out here.

Watching the whole match through RTM 1 (million thanks to RTM 1 for those who don't subscribe to Astro), I must salute Lin Dan that he is a truly world champion, there is just no doubt about that. His Bruce Lee playing style, his charisma, his physical ability and his passion for excellency.

Like I mentioned early what makes a world champion ? Lin Dan is truly a risk taker.

Congratulation to Choon Wei for putting Malaysia's hope floats at such critical time and for the silver medal.

“Although he (Chong Wei) did not win, I am happy that Chong Wei has made it to such a level. We will try again in London Olympics in four years' time but the important thing is we have to start planning now. We have to bring in our juniors into the national set-up,” Badminton Association of Malaysia president Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Salleh.

Roger Federer Won Tennis Double!

Wow! Federer finally won a gold medal for himself in the Olympic; the men's double. Check out here and here.

And Russia swept all three medals for Women's tennis. Check out here.

As a Malaysia, my heart goes all out for Mr. Lee Chong Wei who will be competing with Lin Dan (China) for badminton's single match.

Malaysia Boleh!

Roger Federer Lost in Olympic Again (2008)

Image via Wikipedia Roger Federer lost again, yeah he did in Olympic 2004 (as top seed).

Quite unlikely he is going to have a gold medal for Olympic anymore.

But having a gold medal for Olympic doesn't make you world champion these days, it merely makes your country proud. Or rather to say, it is just for the fun of it.

This is especially true for people like Roger Federer (multi-millionaire in USD) as well as James Blake; both are professional tennis players.

I managed to catch the match about 1/4 through the match and 3/4 in the first set. By mere observation, I knew that Federer is not playing at his best.

Why ? I don't know. Maybe it is part of the strategy for anticipation of US open which is around the corner. Or simply, it just wasn't his day.

First of all, he just couldn't serve well. So this adds a point to what makes a world champion, you got to serve well.

Secondly, it is interesting to note that even not playing at his best, Federer did demonstrate a lot of uncanny behaviours which make him world champion. I noticed that Federer is a risk taker, comparing to Blake. Federer would risk taking wicked shots and just that this time, it didn't work most of the time. Blake on the other hand, conquered most of the important points and he won. Federer is definitely more charismatic than Blake. We would want Federer to win and he disappointed all.

The third thing that I noticed is that Federer is a practically patience man. He could just keep going under pressure. I predicted that if the game were to go on for another set, Federer may turn it around and win it in 5 sets. This also suggests that if the professional tours were to switch to 3-sets decider, Federer may not be the world champion.

And to guess why must he lose again ? I don't know, maybe it is boring. The is no passion to win.

Conclusion : What makes a world champion ?

• Critical Success factor - Serve
• Risk taker and charismatic
• Patience

Heart, Determination and Immensity

Image via Wikipedia The success of Yao Ming.

Critical success factors:

His heart, determination and immensity.

Rumours will always hold some weights

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeJohn Edwards admited to extramarital affairs.

"In the course of several campaigns, I started to believe that I was special and became increasingly egocentric and narcissistic."

This behavior is common.

Simple Rules for Healthy Life

Image via WikipediaAccording to Dr. Mehmet Oz,

• Don't overeat, smoke or drink too much.
• Exercise and diet
• Daydream
• Meditation
• Men should exercise and eat well, to have better sex

Just go back to basic.

Prevention is better than cure.

Check out inside the human body.

KL Sing Song

KL Sing Song, Malaysia's first and best-loved annual singer songwriter showcase, is back for its fourth year, with all the things you love about it intact and more!

Presenting three generations of Malaysian independent singer songwriters in concert, this year's KL Sing Song is a unabashed celebration of the growing popularity and pool of talents in the local singer songwriters scene.

Come and hear twenty one of Malaysia's best singer songwriters perform some of their best original compositions in KL Sing Song 2008, held over three nights at one of KL's premier performing arts venues, the KL Performing Arts Centre (KLPac). The performances will be acoustic, with just the performers and their instruments in an intimate setting, so the audiences can experience the music in its purest and most immediate form. Each day of KL Sing Song will feature a different line-up of singer songwriters, performing in different genres and languages, displaying the growing diversity of local talent.

People Never Change

First of all, kudos to the Sultan of Selangor.

And this is an example where majority of people simply never change; live the life which is intended for.

And would Pakatan ever work ??? Hope so.

Even though I will not be going (for the event) for the next 10 years, but it is not my business and why should I care? Sometimes we have to learn to mind own business.

Last Minute Only

The biggest thing about this Petrol price rise in Malaysia is that people are just not ready.

Due to the fact that Malaysia has been living under the "Bolehland" culture where even many don't believe that we are superior, but in certain ways, Malaysian feel that we are lucky in many ways.

Nobody, even Lim Kit Siang, would have expected that oppositions would take five states in the recent general election. Barisan National is still recovering from shock.


And same goes to the inflation problem, people are just caught off-guard.

Some examples quoted in the newspaper.

1. Depend on God
   
2. Working Extra Jobs (still not enough)

I have spoken to some people with high rise incomes and they think that the petrol price of RM 2.70 is justifiable. Of course, these people can afford to pay for it.

But not the majority who are unprepared.

The government is looking into a system for which people can buy in bulk. This is not a bad suggestion actually.

Personally, I feel that if the inflation problem is left unchecked, Malaysian would be forced to undergo unprecedented social evolution which marks the beginning of complex social-economy ecosystem.

When the sole-breadwinner is not able to make ends meet, options would have to be opened up.

Unless, someone can manage to invent in time a superfood and this will kill the food industries along the way.

Do U Believe in Bad Luck ?

I do.

Let me try to illustrate it to you.

I was at Starbucks (Amcorp Mall) at around 4pm. I wasn't feeling hyper today due to slight fever.

So, as human nature, when the body is weaken, the mind starts to purify itself.

I found a place and sat there comfortably, trying to do many things on the Internet.

It wasn't low time, the place (Starbucks) was filled with people.

Suddenly, came walking in a stranger dressed in black T-Shirt. He was trying to market something or maybe donation. He approached people starting from the door and since I am in the purifying process, I feel that I would definitely entertain this poor fella.

One by one, he was rejected by the people he approached. I waited anxiously until he reached my place and I didn't try to look into his eyes.

You know what ?????

He skipped me.

He left.

Damn, is he bad luck or me ?

Ego Dented

The most most important thing about government is pride and power.

It is a pride thing.

But government is not your father, you can't expect much.

“From those to whom much is given, much is expected.” - Bill Gates

“From those to whom much is given, much is expected.” - Bill Gates

From the moment you dreams are realized, you have been loved.

And at that same moment, there are 6 billion souls being left in the dark.

Therefore, if you feel lucky, your next journey is not about you anymore.

And this next line has to be left blank because it is where it defines the unspeakable (nobody never ever able to guess what you are really up to next). Period.

Photography and Portrait

I know this guy from the BNI networks who specializes in photography and potrait.


So according to Jen Siow, a portrait is an art and it lasted for generation whereas photograph really is just a photograph. Jen admitted that he had recently just acquired this new skill of turning photographs into potraits.



Check out Jen Studio.

Mixed Culture : Malaysia Boleh (2)

Towards a better culture tolerance! Malaysia Boleh !

1. Malaysia Boleh (1)

Two Reasons To Be Vegetarian Today

1. Myanmar disaster took 216,000.
   
2. China Chengdu's disaster took 12,000 life and still counting.

Story Starts Before Birth

Two examples...

1. Steve Jobs - Apple Inc. CEO
2. Eva Vertes - Microbiology Prodigy

Towards a more liberal world - Malaysia Boleh !

Syariah court lets muslim convert renounce Islam and go back Buddhism.

This is freedom, this is love, this is God.

Malaysia Boleh!

Survival of The Sickest - Must Read

I think I have read a good book. Must read.



The Survival of the Sickest.

Some of the key points noted...

• Cancer cells require iron to grow, so the body attempts to limit its availability.
• Mother's milk contains lactoferrin - a chelating protein that binds with iron and prevents bacteria from feeding on it.
• Viking men may have offset the negative effects of hemochromatosis because their warrior culture resulted in frequent blood loss.
• Diabetes may have helped European ancestors survive the sudden cold of the Younger Dryas.
• When we are exposed to the right kind of sunlight, our skin converts cholesterol to vitamin D.
• Ultraviolet light detroys folic acid in the body, the darker your skin, the less ultraviolet light you absorb.
• People of African descent have darker skin and are more likely to have a gene that causes them to produce greater amount of cholesterol.
• People of Northern European descents have pales skin and are much more likely to have iron loading and predisposition for Type 1 diabetes.
• People of Asian descent are much more likely to be unable to process alcohol efficiently.
• The current mainstream consensus is that modern humans evolved in Africa around 250,000 years ago.
• In Africa, where the heat was an evolutionary argument against denser body hair, people are prone to sickle-cell anemia, which, as we'll discuss, offers some protection from malaria.
• High blood pressure, or hypertension, is a particularly insidious disease - it's responsible for as much as 25 percent of end stage kidney failure, but it usually has no noticeable symptoms; that's why it's often called the "silent killer."
• Organic plants produce more natural toxic than non-organic plants. Eat your vegetables, your vegetables can kill you.
• Women infected with T.gondii spend more money on clothes and are consistently rated as being more attractive than women without the infection.
• The diarrhea caused by cholera isn't just a symptom - it's a transmission channel. It's how the disease makes it into the water supply and ensures its ability to find new hosts.
• At its most basic, cance is uncontrolled cell growth caused by a mutation in the gene that is supposed to control the growth of the cancerous cells.
• Most scientists don't consider viruses to be "alive", because they can't reproduce or metabolize on their own.
• There are all 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 viruses in the world's oceans. Over the few millions of years, perhaps we've given them the ride of their life and, in return, they've given us the chance to borrow some code from their huge genetic library.
• Researchs have certainly noted that many miscarried fetuses have genetic abnormalities
• Through a combination of epigenetic effects, various genes are turned on and off.
• Pups that were gently licked by their mothers grew into confident rat babies that were relatively relaxed and could handle stressful situations. But rats that were ignored by their mothers grew to be nervous wrecks.
• Children whose parents are overly stressed are more prone to depression and have less self-controlled. Children whose parents are relaxed and available tend to be happier and healthier.
• When cancer cells are successful, it's usually with the help of telomerase. Without telomerase, cancer cells woudl die out after dividing fifty to sixty times, or perhaps a little longer. Many scientists believe cancer prevention is the "reason" cells have evolved with a limit on the number of times they can reprduce.

Conclusion (from a reader):

• Humans (today) are mutant, we mutated by being infected with viruses.
• By default, our body can fight off cancers.
• Genes can be turned on and off due to various factors.
• As a semi vegetarian, I think that vegetarian don't eat vegetables because we like it so much, it is just to survive, thus, don't eat too much. Try to strike a balance.

Caesar 3 : Cartigo

This is a difficult scenario. With frequent attacks. limited farming area and houses keep burning down.

1. Must know how to preserve army, otherwise, you will waste money and funds. Sept 161 BC, army will come from North-East, be sure to get ready army standby at that location because it s very unlikely that you will get to build a lot of walls and towers since that area has high concentration of farming ground. Try to not let any part of the city destroy, especially the farm which otherwise it will throw u into recession. The will be another similar attack on Sept 154 BC (after the attack of local uprising).

2. Build small huts to remote locations where employees are needed, such as location where towers are built. As soon as these places have been attended by employees, remove the these huts (which are unlikely to have full facilities) to avoid it becoming high crime areas. High crime areas are due to resident not having their request met.

3. Try to achieve the population quota by creating new residential area whenever you have enough funds, this is to engage into prolonged wars with enemies which would potentially destroy your city.

4. Without enough food supplier, houses will burn out by itself. Build at least 3 market and prefecture within a 9x9 residential area and import wheat.

Caesar 3 : Mediolanum

This is a very dangerous region, with frequent massive enemy invasions which include which include elephants.

Challenges:

1. Building a city which contains 7,000 people.
2. Fighting frequent enemy attacks.
3. Wolf can be a problem initially, killing off immigrants.

Pros:

1. Plenty of farming spaces.
2. Plenty of iron mines and timber yards. Manufacturing weapons and furnitures would bring you abundance of fortunes. Remember to start importing items from traders before they will start buying from you.
3. Plenty of water all along the region.

Cons:

1. Unable to have clay pit, have to import. Pottery shortage is a common thing.
2. Maximum of 7 forts can be built.

Tips:

1. Build multiple residential areas (9x9) and spread them all over the map, starting from the right most region. This is because enemy would gain pathway only through the left most region.

2. Mobilize barrack to a newer residential area because older areas would have no unemployed people, which would slow down the recruitment and training process. If you want to, build more than one barrack to spend up the training process. However, this can only be done in the early stage, before the first barrack is filled with employee. And even with more than 1 barrack, only one of them will have weapons delivered to it and thus training for legion. Training for Javelin and Mounted-horse don't require weapons.

3. Build walls and towers smartly. If you have walls blocking the main path, enemy would try to squeeze into the city through the edge, usually near rocks and jungles let's called it hot-gates. Thus, this creates a loophole where you can actually build walls and towers parallel with these hot-gates, so that as they are busy breaking through the hot-gates, they are being tricked and army from your towers can start killing them. This works!


3. Use different armies for different enemies. Legion is most effective to deal with hand-to-hand, which include grounded armies and archers. Javelin is suitable with short distance attack, most effective with killing elephants. Mounted horse is the weakest army and is useful as backup and also to kill wolf which runs pretty fast. Legion is not effective with elephants.

Kill all elephant first (using Javelin); distract enemy armies with walls and towers, kill the elephants. This will force them to surrender.

4. Legion moves the slowest but they are the bravest. Do not keep Javelin and Mounted-horse out of the fort for too long; their spirit will start to decrease faster than any the Legion. This means that as enemy start to move nearer to the city, you have to start mobilize Legions first (you have to guess which location to mobilize them to because they move quite slow). As for Javelin and Mounted-horse, mobilize them only as enemy are close to walls and towers which would hold them for a while.

5. Build plenty of granaries close to each residential areas. You would probably need at least 7 residential areas (to accommodate 7,000 people) with 1 granary each.

6. You need to have some marble to build medium-sized temple. But don't over produce marble, stop the production if necessary so that you don't waste the warehouses' space.

7. When you are finally able to have around 6,500+ people, reaching 7,000 people may not come very quickly because shortage of pottery may drive people away. Thus the number of people may fluctuate in between 6,800 to 6,500. To win the scenario, just have to build another residential area; 7x7 will be enough.

8. Build appropriate gatehouse in between residential areas. This is a smart move to make sure that prefectures and engineers do not travel to far from the areas which they are supposed to cover.

9. Built plenty of oracles around to keep all gods happy (all the time). Oracle requires marbles but does not need to be manned. Thus, it is good for remote areas where human resource is scare. This can also provide a few doses of 'The Spirit of Mars' whenever necessary.



Refer to previous entry on Syracusae.

Caesar 3 : Syracusae

Tips:

The biggest problem is there isn't enough places to build enough farm to feed 4000 people. (Try to salvage as much as possible, even at the edges.)

Since there are only three types of food available (wheat, vegetable and meat), the solution is to build three major residential locations with each having one granary accepting only 1 type of the foods available. Meats have to be imported. Vegetable can grow faster than wheat.

The economy can be prosperous, start trading early, selling weapons and oil will give you plenty of fortunes. However, be sure to be the first mover to import something first before traders will buy something from you.

The biggest challenge is to get enough food in order to attract 4000 people to the city. Build as large a residential area as possible (to make food distribution efficient). Don't try to build more than 2 residential area. Check out this scenario which can only hold up to 3400 people (fall short of 600). Check out the scenario here.

One backup plan is to increase wages as high as possible and decrease tax at the same time. (This will be the last resort when your city has a lot of funds and just waiting for people to come in).

Build enough armies to defend your cities. For this scenario, you only need one fort legion with two forts of Javelins. This will be an effective military tactics. Two teams of Javelins will support the legion as the front-runner in each batter. Always take note that legion is good at confrontation while Javelin is effective to throw Javelin from behind. However, legion is not effective against elephant.

Make your warehouse distribution efficient.

1. Keep one warehouse for each item to be imported near to the dock area.
   
2. Keep one warehouse for each item to be exported or used internally in between docks and factory.
   

Sierra Pharaoh Tips - Dakha

Following the spirit of previous tips...

Now we have tips for Dakha scenario.

This scenario is even more easier than Bahariya Oasis.

Basically there is not military attack, unless you failed to fulfill the requests from Pharaoh and the tribute (annual fees to be paid).

Just take note a few things:

1. Use policemen to deal with Hyenas (which would kill people).
2. Bricks can make faster money than any other things, however remember to stockpile(one full load of storage yard will do and replenish it as required) it once in a while for Pharaoh requests. Other things which can contribute to good income are wood and grain (also need to stockpile it once in a while; one full load of storage yard will do).
3. Initially, without buying anything from others, people won't want to buy from you either. Thus, you have to buy something from the traders (maybe 1 unit of plain stone and etc) and they will reciprocate.

Keep everybody happy and as soon as you fulfill all the requirements. Victory will come.

Sierra Pharaoh Tips - Bahariya Oasis

Following the tips for Giza, On and North Dashur.

Now we have the tips for Bahariya Oasis scenario.

This scenario is pretty easy, since all trading are done one land which is more efficient than with dock(for sea). And the abundance of wood supplies make economy really easy. So, I only have four tips.

1. Must buy something only can sell something.
2. Never clear off tree areas, otherwise you will run out of supply for woods.
3. Build two infantries and one archer. Beware of massive Bedoiun attack during year 2450BC.
4. Optimizing storage yard. Never let a storage yard to be completely filled up with just one item such as wood or sandstone.

This would make the storage yard workers really boring because they have so little things to do. It is best to fill up storage yard with a majority item (such as woods and sandstone) and minor with barley, flax, reeds and etc (so that these raw materials can be delivered to factories immediately since workers are not too pre-occupied with other things.) Never have a storage yard to be filled up with more than four items, otherwise the workers will be overworked.

If you made it through North Dashur, On and Giza, this scenario will be sure win.

Sierra Pharaoh Tips - Giza

Continuing from previous efforts for On, we now look at the winning strategy for scenario Giza.

Giza:

Challenges:

This scenario may looks easy because you are only required to have two ratings (kingdom and monument), however it will be

harder than you think. You still have to pay your tribute even though you are not require to have any prosperity rating.

Otherwise, Pharaoh army will attack as soon as your kingdom drops to zero.

Beer will be available from a new route to Dendera, after you have deployed Army to help with foreign attack.

The key to wining this scenario is to never ran out of debens. You will have to use your personal savings in the initial

stage.

Once you are able to create an economy which is self sustaining, everything will pretty easy.

As you are expected to play for certain amount of time (since you have to build three monuments), thus this scenario is good

for you to build your personal savings.

Tips:

1. Quickly setup exporting activities for gems and luxury goods. Once you are able to generate income, things should be

pretty easy. Just play in moderation, do not over import things especially limestone in the initial stage. Build more docks

to facilitate the export import capabilities. (at least 2 and even 4)
2. Keep storage for gems, luxury goods, game meat as Pharoah will request for them ocassionally. He will reward you with

copper, limestone, linen (just once) and grain (just once).
3. Have to build at least one fort of archers and infantries because you will need to deploy them to other city for backup.

Thus you should build probably another fort of infantries to backup the city.
4. Funds are limited, you have to import huge amount of limestones, certain amount of woods, clays and weapons. The reliefs

are that you don't have to import beer because the houses are not expected to evolve pass the stage of beer and you get to

export gems and jewellers (Pharaoh will be asking for these too). Don't use up the fund so fast and quickly build a family

mansion as well as a town place.
5. Build as much workcamps as possible to speed up the process of pyramid building.

It took me 882 months to win this scenario.

Mortals - what is the best bet ?

According to the movie "Elizabeth the golden age".

"we mortals have many weaknesses, we fear too much, hurt too much, or too soon we die, but we have the chance of love."

Check it out.

Sierra Pharaoh TIps - On

Continuing from previous efforts for North Dashur, we will now take a look at winning strategy for the scenario called "On"

This is how I win the scenario.

On:

Quite a honey moon scenario compared to North Dashur. There will be no army attack (from Pharaoh) as well. There is no need to build any army fortress. This is a fun scenario with many food options (grain, meat and game meat). You need to build three similar medium mastabas which requires a lot of bricks. (Make sure you reserve ample spaces for this purpose).

Challenges:

1. No option to grow barley farm. Has to import either barley or beer.
2. Without buidling a Senet, the culture will never reach 40 (maximum). However, senet should only be built at the end of the game, when you are ready to win which otherwise it will suck in a lot of beers. And since you do not have the capacity to grow barley, it is not good idea to have senets sucking in too much beer.
3. Pharaoh will only ask for two things; limestone and game meat (from hunting)
4. Hipotamus kill people. Build towers on the bank of the river closed to where hipotamus breading ground is to kill of the hipos. This is the most effective way to kill of the hipotamus where two spears from the tower will get one hipo killed.
5. Each island doesn't allow the landscape of housing estate to cater for 4000 people, that would be about 50 units of residences.

Tips:
1. No need to build senet (since it is sucking beer), just need to make sure you build dentist to push up the culture.
2. Import everything as early as possible, which includes clay, pottery, reeds, paprypus, flax, linen, bricks and limestone (generates the most income).
3. No need to over build the temples as at least one each and with more focus on the patron god Ra.
4. Build a personal mansion as early as possible to collect savings. And get rid of crimes minimize the risk of money stolen. You can't get salary when you decided to rule longer after victory!!
5. Straws (Grows from grain farm simultaneously) are required for cattle ranch and also bricks making. Try to have a storage yard of straws.
6. Continuously perform festival to make sure that people don't leave your city. More that 20 months without festival will risk people leaving the city.

It took around 600 months to win the scenario.

More tips to come, stay tuned!

Sierra Pharaoh Tips - North Dashur

I have been playing this game called Pharaoh by Sierra.



It is an old game, but you may buy it from Amazon.

To play this game, you need to have some skills and techniques. And this website offers much insights. But the walkthroughs isn't comprehensive enough.

I was stuck particularly at the stage of old-kingdom: North Dashur, it took me a few months. But I finally victor after going through some trial and errors.

Here are my tips.

North Dashur:

Challenges:

1. 4 gods. One year can only have 3 celebrations 3 months apart.
2. Need to spend a lot of money in the early stage.

Tips:

1. Increase wages to 31 deben (at least)

2. Start trading early. Serambit will buy a lot of beer. Build the storage yard close to each other and make sure it is easily accesible.

3. Build things slowly, do not rush to build all temples together. Ideally you should have two temples for Ptah (patron) and Osiris (agriculture). Build shrines even things out.
No need to have lavish festival, just make sure that to hold common festival non-stop, every three months. (switch between gods)

4. Keep a storage full of grain. (for pharaoh request).

5. Quickly sell barley and beer. No need to sell other things.

6. Do not let the the kingdom rate fallen completely. Otherwise, Pharaoh army will keep attacking you.
The most important thing is to pay yearly attribute. (This is done automatically, make sure your deben is not negative)
Send gift occassionally to keep Pharaoh happy. Build a personal mansion to collect salary so that you have the money to send gift.

7. It is alright to have tax rate of 8%.

8. Email me (brandonteohno1@yahoo.com) for saved games.

9. Setting priorities is important.

1 - Food & distribution- Granary
2 - Infrastructure - Firehouse, transportation,
3 - Health
4 - Religion
5 - Industry & commerce- Pottery, brewery, labor & peasant
6 - Entertainment
7 - Government - tax
8 - Education (No priority)
9 - Military (No priority)

** Priority 1 - 6 mustn't be changed because you will risk people moving away. Setting government as priority is important so that the taxes are collected.
** Whenever foreign army, set the priority to 7.
** Once you have build up a fort of infantry and archer, military can become the last priority, otherwise no one will go and become archer and infantry.

Sometimes you have may to release all priorities if you don't have enough workers. Priority is used at the beginning and ad-hoc (emergency) basis.

The game suggest that the first priority be set to "Food and distribution" while second is "Industry & commerce"

10. Do not over import things. set to minimum import of 200 units.
Once your deben starts to deficit, stop importing especially copper.
The only thing to keep inporting is clay which is very low cost and keep at 200 units.
Import paprypus directly, manufacturing it from reeds is a waste of time and resources.

11. Building a large pyramid doesn't require deben.

The process of building the pyramid.
I. Peasants from work-camp will build the foundation.
II. Once the foundation is done, construction guilds will start to pull stoens (plain stones and lime stones) layer on the foudation.
III. As the first layer of stones are laid, carpenter guilds will need to build wooden staircase to bring construnction guilds to the lext level.
* Only need to have 1 carpenter guild and stonmaster guild.

13. Only need to build one fort of archers and infantries and train them with academy (u also need recruiter and preferrably two units of weapon smith).
Foreign army attacks are of weak nature, except for Pharaoh army which cannot be defeated. Make sure the kingdom rating don't fall to zero.
Pharoah will request for military service. Thus have to build another fort of infantry to fight off one small team of bedouin army attack.

14. How to make sure kingdom rating don't fall to zero ?

I. Make sure you fulfill Pharaoh request on time. Keep a storage yard full of Grains, Straws and Barley at all time. (three main things it will request)
It will also request for 24 blocks of limestone at later stage.
II. Don't let you kingdom rating fall by paying annual attributes. This is done automatically every March should your deben is not zero or negative.
III. Keep Pharaoh happy by sending gifts to Egypt occassionally. (Similar to having festivals). You need to build a personal mansion to have savings to send gifts.
IV. Build enough storage yards to accept gifts from Pharaoh. Everytime you fulfill Pharaoh request on time, you will be rewarded with plain stones and coopers (at later stage).
You probably need 4 storage yards just to reserve for Pharaoh's gifts.

Falling either one of these might result in Pharaoh's army attack which will comes in two legions.

15. No need to spend too much money building defensives structures, just setup some towers perhaps.
16. Never let the houses run out of food and pottery. This will drive people away. When this happens, the power priority industry will suffer such as goverment and entertainment.
When there is no enough entertainment, more people will leave. Build more grain farms and pottery makers.
17. You need at least 3000 ppl, thus at least 50 blocks of the largest house. Try to accomodate these 50 blocks in a single area, so that you only have to build just one magistrate court, tax collector and health care.
18. When people started to leave the city due to inadequate food, pottery and entertainment. Setting "entertainment" to a higher priority and increasing the wages will bring people back.
19. Build the limestone quarry and storage yards (for storage of limestone) closest to the pyramid building site.

It took me 886 months to victory.

More tips to come.

The Humanity Of Leaders

Contents copied from somewhere

When we recognize someone as a leader, we often place our faith in that person to a degree that exceeds what is humanly possible. In other words, we expect them to be beyond fault and to not make mistakes. This, of course, is neither realistic nor fair. Just like us, these people are living human lives, and part of the deal is learning through experience and working out our individual karmas. There will always be missteps and things they would do differently given a second chance. If we are to be fair, we must grant our leaders the same forgiveness, compassion, and understanding that we grant our closest friends as they navigate the complex challenges of this human life.

Leaders are special people in that they have the ability to guide and represent large groups of people. In this calling, they agree, to some degree, to be responsible for the well-being of others. Because of this, we hold them up to a higher standard of behavior, and in some ways this is fair. However, we will only be disappointed and disillusioned time and time again if we expect them to be perfect. If they were perfect, they would not be here on earth. Perhaps the most we can expect of our leaders is that they make it a practice to acknowledge their shortcomings and learn from their experiences. Beyond this, when our leaders let us down, it is up to us to forgive and move on. Dwelling on disappointment and negativity creates more of the same.

People who choose to lead are often extraordinary individuals blessed with vision, energy, and charisma. It is their path to inspire, guide, and represent us, but it is not possible for them to never let us down. Leaders are on a path of growth just as we are. Perhaps this is something to remember when we have the opportunity to choose somebody in a leadership role, or perhaps you are ready to step into a role of leadership yourself.

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Something interesting.. I like to do this one day

Let's go bowling..



See that :)

Raining may be good sometimes

Yesterday, I planned to go to MPBJ to purchase monthly pass early in the morning so to avoid jam and crowds. As I was leaving the house, the sky suddenly turned on me, it became black.

I thought, wow…. Why you treat me like this. If it were to rain, convenience would be robbed from me because I have to make use of umbrella and etc. So I decided not to proceed and wait till noon.

As soon as I walked into my office, the sun came out roaring. I thought… oh gosh, this is my bad day.

Then came noon, I quickly jumped into my car and went ahead. And the sky turned dark and darker again. I said to myself .. “God is really against me today, I must have done something wrong.”

Then without doubt, it rained.

I went on…. There were some traffic congestions along the highway, but was okay.

As I was reaching the destination, things were totally out of my expectation.

Rains were slowing down and the best part is that due to the rain, there was no crowd and parking was easy.

So, then I thought “wow!, this is good actually.”

So… this experience improves my IQ (which is that rain does scare away the crowd because everybody was thinking about the same thing …) and definitely … Haha. Great!

Real Jesus..

Real Jesus book...

And this very interesting take..

and ...

God the Creator - refers to our minds, the centre of all creation, as we think and believe so shall it be

God the Son - refers to our body Flesh & Blood just as Jesus was the Flesh & Blood. So are we with all the capabilities, to create and enjoy all things

God the Holy Spirit - refers also to our Spirit, the light that dwells within each of us, yet comes from the same source that the light of the Universe came from.

I know it is tough. I am more bitter than you.

Quotes

Try to see beyond prejudice..

"Science must confine its inquiry only to things belonging to the human senses, while spiritualism transcends the senses. If you want to understand the nature of spiritual power you can do so only through the path of spirituality and not science. What science has been able to unravel is merely a fraction of the cosmic phenomena " - Sai Baba

"by understanding the past, we can do a better job of dealing with problems today; and by anticipating what might be on the horizon tomorrow, we can help prepare for a better world" - Waitt Foundation

"I personally think that society is responsible for a very significant percentage of what I've earned. If you stick me down in the middle of Bangladesh or Peru or someplace, you find out how much this talent is going to produce in the wrong kind of soil... I work in a market system that happens to reward what I do very well - disproportionately well. Mike Tyson, too. If you can knock a guy out in 10 seconds and earn $10 million for it, this world will pay a lot for that. If you can bat .360, this world will pay a lot for that. If you're a marvelous teacher, this world won't pay a lot for it. If you are a terrific nurse, this world will not pay a lot for it. Now, am I going to try to come up with some comparable worth system that somehow (re)distributes that? No, I don't think you can do that. But I do think that when you're treated enormously well by this market system, where in effect the market system showers the ability to buy goods and services on you because of some peculiar talent - maybe your adenoids are a certain way, so you can sing and everybody will pay you enormous sums to be on television or whatever -I think society has a big claim on that." - Warren Buffet

It is better not to say anything.. just pray

As I was at the KL Sentral bus stop, I saw people wasting their time. But I can’t blame them because they don’t have many opportunities as I do.

So, my conclusion is that even though I can say to their faces “hey, you are wasting your time and energy….” But at the same time, it is not fair for me to say that because I got nothing to offer. I am not Bill Gates to tell that “hello, why don’t u come to work for me in the R & D department… I give you one year to prove yourself…”

This is like when atheists complain about the significance of religion. But I want to tell atheists this one thing… if you have nothing to offer, then it is not fair to say it. For my case, I believe that true love can cure all sickness, but I can only love one woman. So, I can’t go about curing so many people. And therefore, when other people needed light (out of darkness) and I can’t be there, better let God do the job. If one is an atheist, pray that there is a God so that other people can be loved like you too.

So, I feel that sometimes it is better not to say anything (comments) even though you are convinced that you are right. But just pray for people. Pray that they have more opportunities in life.

People believe what is right and wrong according to their own standards (how they are brought up). You can’t tell them what is right and wrong not until you took responsibilities in them. And "responsibility" is a big word.

Invisible hand

I have just read a book.. it is called "I'm not sick, just a bit unwell - Life with Neurofibromatosis" by Yvonne Foong; winner of the 2005 Dream Malaysia Award.

Yvonne Foong was born and raised in Malaysia. She enjoys writting, reading and devoting her time to charity causes and social developments. She has done freelance assignments for newspaper and magazine.

The book is about her story (yes, most people has a story, i know some don't) and her cause.

Interesting quotes from this book...

A Rude Doctor:
- He lacked compassion and the human touch.
- Praise the lord for teaching me so early in life to be grateful for the things that I have.

Rehabilitation:
- It is strange how we have to go through difficult times in order to appreciate the simplier things in life.
- NF has taught me an invaluable lesson, never be ashamed of one's modesty.

The smile on my face:
- Unless she had gone through the same surgery, she could never comprehend my feelings.

When there's a will, there's a way:
- Life may not be a bed of roses all the time, but the human spirit has no boundaries.

Knowing him:
I started to pray...
I told the lord about my life, my dilemmas and my questions about him.
It was as though I was talking to an old friend. As I carried on, the entire room seemed to light up. I was filled with happiness and a poignant feeling came over my heart as though someone had just presented me with a gift.

God must have heard my cries, because soon after, he began revealing my destiny. I hope that my story will inspire million of less fortunate people around the world to continue believing in God and live life to the fullest.

You just have to read it yourself...

Conclusion:

There are three types of people in this world.

1. People who suffer on behalf of others... such as Jesus Christ, Buddha, Yvonne Foong and etc.
2. People who take things for granted.
3. People who bridge the abovementioned two types of people.

I don't suffer from NF... but I was once sicked big time (at least by my standard). I could level with how Yvonne feels about life. I like to consider myself as belonging to type 1, however as it may not seem easy and I think I will settle with type 3; definitely not type 2.

Becoming successful...

To become successful, you gotta be committed to it.

Being committed to something means that you got to live and eat and sleep it.

Other things will be secondary in the interim basis.

But do u have something to fall back to ?

Because when you are totally committed, you gotta dare to fail.

And how to become really daring to fail ?

You need something to fall back to.

My answer is that you gotta look for something abstract as the falling back cushion. Such as being a nice person, being sincere, truthful, caring and etc.

If you are already committed to something such as religion, marriage and etc, you are already successful. The rest are only secondary.

I found a blog entry through a friend who puts it in a different way..

God did NOT create evil - Albert Einstein

This write-up is taken from forwarded email... Don't know how true Albert Einstein was dragged into this but worth a ponder.

Did God create everything that exists? Does evil exist? Did God create evil?

A University professor at a well known institution of higher learning challenged his students with this question. "Did God create everything that exists?"

A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"

"God created everything?" The professor asked.

"Yes sir, he certainly did," the student replied.

The professor answered, "If God created everything; then God created evil. And, since evil exists,and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then we can assume God is evil."

The student became quiet and did not respond to the professor's
hypothetical definition. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted to the students that he had proven once morethat the Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "May I ask you a question,
professor?"

"Of course", replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?"

The other students snickered at the young man's question. The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 F) is the total absence of heat; and all matter becomes inert and incapable
of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."

The student continued, "Professor, does darkness exist?"

The professor responded, "Of course it does."

The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact, we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of
darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present."

Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"

Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course, as I have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily examples of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist, sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat, or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down.

The young man's name -- Albert Einstein

A true story per se.

As usual, if anyone finds this entry sensitive. You are entitled to comment in many ways preferred. Living up to the spirit of blogger responsibilities.

I want to apologize

I like to apologize for being insensitive towards my blog entries.

This blog has sometimes being morbid inquisitive, cock-talking and etc.

Sensitivity is an important issue for blogger.

Why i fell in love with u ?

I fell in love with you because ...

1. there are a lot of shit out there... I don't want any of it, i'm sick of it, I only want u.
2. there are a lot of pyscho out there... I think you are not.
3. there are many people who give me trouble... I think you won't give me trouble.
4. there are many things which are unreal ... I think you are the real deal.

In short, you are what is not out there and I think it is worth the risk. even if you say no, still okay.

I swear to god/buddha/allah/krisnan/sai baba that if I'm being unsincered, I would be burnt in hell.

Let me burnt in hell if I were to lie.

Buddhist Chief Monk Dies

Buddhist Chief Monk K. Sri Dhammananda dies on 31st
August 2006.

The Star story..

I remember seeing him a few times.... There is one
time I asked "is it true that by visualizing or
contemplate the transfer of invisible energy towards
someone, that person can benefit something ?"

The chief monk answered, but I can't remember the
exact wording, roughly what he told me was that
invisible energy such as thoughts is more powerful
than you think. He gave an example but I can't
remember.

Thus, let's remember him by wishing that ..

People around us would quickly come to realization
about the real meaning of life and cultivate enough to
seek enlightenment.

world war and free world

Does this world deserves another world war ?

All I know is that when there is a world war, the gate of hell would open.

Wives and husbands run away to seek better partners, society breaks down, desire runs wild.

There will be no borders, no social status, no race …

There is no difference between rich and poor, perhaps the only difference is rich and poor mind..

Is that the free world we are looking for ? or is that the condemned world ?

Do u believe in end times ?

People are worried that current events in the middle east is a sign towards the end time as prophesized in the bible. [source here]

Well, if you believe in the bible.. . then you have reasons to go nuts...

Otherwise, I attended a talk from a professor specializes in literature... he is a no-christian and he examines current middle-east crisis in a practical manner..

According to him, there will be no war because non of the big powers ever wanted war.. thus, he said current crisis is only a small fight.

Personally, I think that if the world is going into a bad shape, one day it will have to restart the operating system.