It's a sunny and peaceful Monday morning, the morning after the Rugby World Cup 2011 finals match. I think the nation sighed a collective sigh of relief last night, which erupted into jubilance and excitement as thousands of people streamed onto the city streets, partying loud and hard into the early hours of the morning - some probably still going as I type. It was amazing.

The day started out kinda poorly for me. I was aiming to get to church but I've been sniffly for the past few days and wasn't feeling great at all. I was quite lethargic throughout the afternoon, but had enough energy to beat the last boss in Final Fantasy X-2 (and no, the story isn't over, it's New Game+ time!). I was about to doze off for a nap before hitting the fanzone when Jono texted, trying to arrange some board games before meeting up. We ended up playing Forbidden Island for a while before donning our black attire and heading into town.

Our original plan was to try and get a table at Mac's Brewery but it seems a lot of other people had the same idea. We eventually settled for Electric Avenue - cheap food, cheap drinks, a table right in front of the TV and direct access to Courtenay Place for the ensuing mayhem - if we win then that's great, if we lose, then we can go looting, said Jono. We killed around three hours there, eating and playing card games. By the time 8.30pm rolled about, the bar was packed and we knew the atmosphere was going to be awesome.

I remember seeing aerial footage of the All Blacks bus arriving at Eden Park, and hundreds of people lining the streets to cheer the All Blacks on. As the team stood in the corridor, waiting to enter the field, everyone began applauding and cheering. Despite being so far from the action, we all knew that our hearts were there with everyone at Eden Park, united in spirit to cheer on the All Blacks. We all joined in with our voices as the national anthem played, and again the emphatic applause and cheering after the haka. Who could have realised what a thrilling game was ahead...

Emotions ran high and low throughout the game. We celebrated our only try. We anguished over Cruden's injury. We gasped in terror as Dusautoir crossed the line. I'm pretty sure I was close to this around 70 minutes:
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
As the clock continued ticking, we held on to hope that we'd be able to defend just that bit longer. A score of 8 - 7 to the All Blacks could have easily become 10 - 8 to France if they got close enough for a dropgoal or if they got a penalty.

At five minutes to go, the crowd at Electric Avenue began chanting, willing the All Blacks to keep their defense strong. Anxiety was slightly relieved as we turned the ball over and began an attack on the French. With ten seconds on the clock to go, I started a countdown, to be joined by everyone around me, everyone holding their breath and waiting for that last play to finish. At the final whistle, a thunderous roar of approval echoed through the room as we celebrated a close win over the French. People jumped and threw their hands up in the air, we screamed and shouted and high-fived. We hugged and fist-pumped. It's been 24 long years and 2011 is the new 1987.

The same enthusiastic applause and cheering continued while the presentation began, with the volume peaking when Richie McCaw, Piri Weepu, Dan Carter and Graham Henry all received their medals. As Richie took center stage, the whole country must have risen to their feet and yelled in approval as he lifted the Webb Ellis Cup in victory.



We took to Courtenay Place shortly after, joining thousands of people arriving from all over the city to sing and dance and shout. Crowds had gathered around drummers and street musicians. People were still proudly waving their black flags and banners of support. I've never seen so many people in Wellington (probably because I don't go out for the Sevens Weekend). What an awesome night. Gallery pictures available here. Congratulations to the All Blacks - you've done the country proud.

Yesterday I completed Final Fantasy X after spending 141 hours on it. I defeated Penance and Nemesis, maxed almost all my stats and got all the Celestial Weapons, Crests and Sigils (I hate you, Chocobo Races). The ending was still as poignant and emotional as it was when I played FFX 10 years ago.

My strategy for Penance:

• I used Yuna, Kimahri and Rikku. Using Yuna was a mistake because Nirvana deals damage based on her MP and Penance's Immolation attack does heavy MP damage. I should have used someone with Counter Attack, like Auron.
• Rikku and Yuna had Dispel and Quick Pockets, Rikku and Kimahri had Use. All three had Quick Hit.
• Everyone had max stats except for Luck, and HP above 50000. Luck was at 89.
• Yuna's armour had Break HP Limit, Auto Haste, Auto Protect and Ribbon. Kimahri and Rikku had Break HP Limit, Auto Haste, Auto Protect and Auto Potion.
• When the battle started, Rikku Mixed Ultra NulAll, which additionally provides the effect of five Cheers, reducing physical damage from Obliteration. The next turn, she used Three Stars to reduce the party's MP cost to zero. All this time, Kimahri and Yuna Quick Hit the arms to prevent them from attacking. During the entire battle, the only time the arms got to attack was once when the Left Arm cast Slowga, which Auto Haste protects against.
• When my HP got low, Rikku's Overdrive (Comrade mode) had already recharged, so I Mixed Trio of 9999, which lets Potions heal for 9999. I Quick Pocket some Mega Potions with Yuna and get Rikku to use a Stamina Tonic to boost the party's HP to 99999.
• While there are no arms, I attacked the main body. After three million HP, Penance loses its tail and gains Haste which I dispelled using a Purifying Salt.
• In its new form, Penance uses Immolation which deals around 7000 damage with Ultra NulAll and Protect, but also causes Full Break and 999MP damage. I got Yuna to cast Dispel on the affected character and continue Quick Hitting the arms or the body as necessary.
• When Rikku and Kimahri dropped below 50000 HP, Auto Potion triggered for 9999 HP recovery, meaning Immolation can never kill them as long as Full Break is dispelled.
• When Yuna drops below 50000 HP, I get her to Quick Pocket some Potions or Mega Potions to heal the whole party. Occasionally I give her a Turbo Ether so she can cause 99999 damage with Quick Hit, but generally you can just keep her hitting the arms.
• Immolation triggers Kimahri's Counter Attack, so I get a free 99999 damage every so often.
• Eventually after a total of 12 million HP damage, you get this:

Anyway, I managed to catch the All Blacks vs France game as well. Fantastic game, though a bit of a nervous start. Congratulations to Richie McCaw on his 100th game for the All Blacks, and hopefully he can lead us to victory.

We better bloody win.

And finally, today I went to see the Lion King in 3D. The 3D was not intrusive or overly noticeable at times, which was great, but more importantly, all the things which makes the Lion King so awesome remained intact. The magnificent score, the songs, the humour, the dialogue... amazing. Brought a tear to my eye :P

So now that FFX is done and dusted... I guess it's time to get my X-2 on. What can I do for you!?

So for the past three or so weeks, I've tried growing my facial hair out, just as an experiment to see if I can grow a decent beard - which everyone knows, is vital to a person's programming ability. It's been received well at work; best compliment was from Dale ("Woah JLai, you look like you're 25 years old"). My parents were a bit shocked to see me unshaven though. I don't know how long I'll keep it. It's getting a bit itchy and long, and I will need to trim it to stop it looking gross.

Work is going well. Still busy. Thanks to this article, I can say I'm on the team working on the "social smartphone game". Whoo.

Portal 2 is going well. I'm in this large underground cavern with water and large broken spherical objects, and a tower with stairs leading to the top. The game is clever and humourous, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

Final Fantasy X is also progressing. I've just finished Bevelle and I'm rolling around the Calm Lands now. Eventually I'll have to do the stupid Chocobo Racing...and those butterflies...and blitzball. Blerg.

Oh yeah. I'm on Google+.

It's hard to believe it's July already. On one hand, we're getting to the coldest part of the year - this week has been absolutely freezing. On the other hand, the days are supposedly lengthening, but we won't actually notice a difference until much, much later. It's still depressing getting up in the dark and coming home in the dark.

Work has been incredibly busy. I'm finding myself having more responsibility, which is great and all, but it means I have to attend more meetings when sometimes all I want to do is just sit and program in silence, har har. Despite being busy though, I'm still enjoying where I am and what I'm doing.

I had Burger King for dinner for the first time in ages, and I'm reminded why I don't eat Burger King often.

It's gross.

Now that I have heaps of time on my hands, I've lined up a healthy set of games to keep me occupied: Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy X-2 (don't hate), Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts and my most recent purchase, Portal 2, thanks to a Steam Summer Sale. That'll keep me going for a few months!

This has to be one of the worst designed games I've ever played, because the difficulty and level ramping of wild monster battles was absolutely atrocious. It's like someone went through the original SNES version and decided to multiply monster stats on everything by two - take the final boss, for example, which has 65,000HP in the SNES version and 150,000HP in the DS version. Despite its unfairness, I liked the story and characters, and would have probably even enjoyed the game on the whole if I had played a non-DS version.

I was tasked with the important duty of ensuring everyone was well fed at Bryce's farewell dinner last night at Majestic Cuisine. With my fellow Asian accomplice, Juliann, we decided on Chilli Blue Cod, Grilled Prawns, Crispy Skin Chicken, Pork and Taro, Black Pepper Beef, Roast Duck, Tofu and Seasonal Vegetables. I was fretting the whole night about whether we had ordered enough food, but it seemed everyone was satisfied and full, so mission accomplished and thank goodness for that. There's nothing worse than leaving hungry from a restaurant...

Anyway, a whole bunch of photos from the past month or so have been uploaded, including pictures from Guy Fawke's, BBQ at Charles', Sidhe farewells, random meals, random weather phenomena and Sunni's birthday.

Alright, so I finally finished that piece of crap game called Final Fantasy III for the DS, and let me tell you, the final dungeon would be infuriating if you had died and had to start ALL over again and beat ALL those bosses. It's utterly ridiculous. And it had the lamest ending ever. It wasn't even a proper FMV. It was just them running around dropping all their friends off around the world. Sigh.

Anyway, there's been two things that have really been pissing me off lately.

First is the Australian forest fires, and the fact that they've been started by arsonists. I mean, for crying out loud, do they KNOW what the hell they've done? Do they comprehend the number of deaths they've caused and the number of lives they've ruined? Do they feel any remorse for what they've done? I don't understand what goes through the minds of these retards when they decide to have a bit of "fun" at the expense of a thousand lives. It's tragic, it really is.

Second is the story about a thirteen year old brat who has become a father. I quote from the newspaper article:

Asked what he would do to support the child financially, Alfie asks in a small, high-pitched voice, "What's financially?"

Does this guy even understand the responsibility of bringing up a child? Will these freaking brats stop breeding like horny rabbits and creating evil spawn that are there to steal our oxygen? Why the hell would you even have SEX with someone who has BARELY gone through puberty? Not only is this morally wrong, it's also incredibly disgusting.

NOTW also says that there may be as many as eight possible fathers, including 14-year-old Tyler Barker, who claims to be terrified at the possibility.

If you're so freaking terrified, why don't you STOP HAVING SEX WITH THESE SLUTS SO THAT YOU DON'T GET THEM PREGNANT? And furthermore, EIGHT possible fathers? What the hell is wrong with this sex-starved girl?

And the fact they're getting so much bloody media attention isn't helping. The guy is completely oblivious to the responsibilities he faces in bringing up this kid, but yet there's suddenly this incentive of tens of thousands of dollars from these moronic tabloids offering him money for an 'exclusive' documentary. Isn't that some kind of INCENTIVE for him to breed more? What is wrong with this world?

UGH.

We watched the failed kayaking races on Friday and Saturday night, much to the surprise of John, Jono and myself as we listened to Dave's enthusiasm for the Kiwis in Beijing. Good effort though, but not quite the result we were hoping for. After that, we decided we would drown our sorrows with some feijoa vodka...so we went to New World and bought some mixing drinks. White Grapetise and feijoa vodka = epic win.

Andrew had cooked a whole pot of rice on Friday night that he didn't use at all, so on Saturday, I decided I would use it in the most Asian fashion possible - fried rice. I will let the pictures do the talking.



Weng-Hao and I also had a 90 minute DotA game where I was Zeus and he was Clockwerk, and we were against Mortred and Spectre. We didn't get sassed, but we just had serious issues trying to break the towers while defending our own. In the end, we broke all three lanes for Mega Creeps and for the win \o/

Went swimming on Sunday again - this time to Freyberg Pools on Oriental Parade. Good exercise, yay, whatever. But more to the point, we went to the Parade Cafe afterwards for a good hot chocolate and some wedges \o/!!! Good food, yay.

Poor Andrew had been stuck in his sleeping bag all afternoon, so when I got home, he was still watching the movies he had rented. I went into my room to do some work on my websites when I heard a crash from the bathroom. I thought it was just the clothes horse that had fallen and made a noise, since I thought Andrew was still lying on the couch...but around 30 seconds later came the call "...Jeremy...". I was rushed out to the bathroom where Andrew stumbled out, saying he'd just passed out, when he started blacking out just as I grabbed him and stopped him from faceflooring. Turns out he was dehydrated and dizzy from sitting in his sleeping bag for so long. Geez.

John came home pretty soon after and started diagnosing all sorts of problems. I offered my advice - clearly it was cancer or AIDS.

Also, FF3 sucks.