This year, my twentieth year of existence on this small quaint planet *well if you want to count the time in my mom’s tummy then… whatever* has passed. And now I’m 20. I’m not officially no longer in the teen years and time has passed and I now am expected to be; mature, taste like bitter almonds, to be responsible for the repopulation of the rhino population and possess the body of Penelope Cruz. I semi joke for one of those descriptions. Anyway! Enough rumination, Let’s get to the good stuff.

The party was held at the always amazing Peperoni’s; the subject of a comparison with another Italian eatery here and basically, I invited those people whom I thought affected me most in my time back in Singapore. Some people had other commitments, and some people just didn’t show. All of which is perfectly understandable because after all is said, there were several parties that night *mine was probably like the last one to be planned and executed* and Friday nights are well… Friday nights. I was just happy that thosewho DID show up, brought with each and everyone of them something special to the table.

I speak of these people here because they brought me so much joy on this wondrous day. This, my 20th birthday. But that is not to say I don’t appreciate those of you out there who make my life so much better for even knowing I exist. For I learn and I breathe through all of you, all of you pizza loving, let’s-go-out-for-prata-@-3-ing, random plurking/twittering, blogging, tech-loving, singing, dancing, kissing, hugging, all of you have my these two years of my life in Singapore more than I could have bargained for; more than I could ask for, and more then just friends, you’ve become my family. My family that comprises, family by blood, family by school, by internet, by interest, by blog/fb/twitter/plurk, family that draws me in precisely because of your varied quirks and points of interest. Because without y’all, I’d just be a lonely bugger sitting on my sofa, typing a blog post!

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20th, Aaron Tan, Amin, birthday, Daniel Tsou, Elina, Faiz, Friends, Fun, Hisham, Jane Neoh, Jeremy Chua, Joel Kang, Justin Jap, Lim Jong Xiang, Lim Yihn Shin, Love, Marina AKA Rinaz, Nicole Oh, Peperoni's, Phoebe, Singapore, Victoria Lim, Weixian, Wong Ren Hao, Yuen Wan Jin, Yushaa

First things first, and even though the news IS already out but we WERE the first to hear this GLOBALLY so boo to Joystiq.com. BUT here’s the news Lucasarts’ new game, Force Unleashed will land September 16th in the United States, September 17th in Southeast Asia and Australia, and September 19th in Europe. YES. This game’ll be amazing and the videos we saw, but couldn’t take pictures of were ultimately incredible. The physics were out of this world and you really could see the power of the force completely unrestrained and unleashed. Amazing SICK stuff…

However, that was just one specific thing in an event that really did blow it out of the water for me. Interesting finger foods (though I have to ask, who serves chicken wings at an event without any cutlery/crockery at all…), great conversation, free flowing beverages, a TORRENT of things to do, see, interact with, talk about and finally a great looking location that was only slightly marred by its PHYSICAL location, a bit of a find if you ask me, but no matter. The people from Microsoft seemed genuinely interested in what we bloggers thought, and were actually reaching out to us and to try and get us psyched about the various Xbox games and so on, and I must say that the strategy worked!

One of the games that I want to talk about personally which really SPIKED my interest was this game Mirror’s Edge by EA. *Full Disclosure: Mom works there* This is a game based on the idea that in a world poisoned by an overbearing government, information has to get out, and this can only be done through Parkour-utilising, chop-socky Runners. I have not seen gameplay but from a video shown it involves lots of running round roof tops and fighting without ever picking up a GUN! Love the idea, hope the execution will be flawless and the record of DICE’s previous accomplishments (Battlefield series) inspires such confidence in me.

Let me round off by commending Microsoft for pursuing the blogosphere, and trying to reach out to the more unconventional sources of news and information. The microsofties have shown a LOT of love in general to us players in Singapore, with the sheer variety of games available, great product support in general and plenty of events to keep us interested. I had a PS2 and PS1 and I liked them, but its the Xbox 360 that I truly do love. So keep up the loving MSFT.

I’ve posted my pictures here. Please help me tag the photos properly!

Friends, girls