"Are You Ready For The Real World?"

Haha, this phrase reminded me of the fact that for some people, the Real World is a truly scary, scary place.

Firdaus got a taste of it recently. Well, hope he is able to find a decent part-time job soon.. what's with the economy now anyway? Look like things have not improved and finding a good job is not an easy task. If things improve within the next 2-3 years that would be good XD

Oh, I had a good day yesterday (My off-day what :D) I met Lacus for breakfast at McDonalds (Actually she was late so I bought the Big Breakfast for her first), and then we went to the arcade to try out the games there. Ha! I think I suck at Pop'n Music!! Lacus quite good at that game, plus the Para Para Paradise and KOF game. (I think I am kinda shocked at the part about KOF.. :P)

We later went bowling at Pasir Ris bowl (I suck at bowling XD) and ate some calamari there. It feels kinda soft so the crunchy feeling is not there yah. The park nearby is very quiet and nice, and we spent the time walking from one end to another. We talked about a lot of things, mainly about cosplay and the idea I had bubbling in my head XD Okay it needs a lot of work because she commented that the storyline felt typical. I must work harder then :D



I ended the day by watching Star Wars Episode III. Subtitled the Revenge of The Sith, it brings an end to the prequel trilogy by transforming the powerful Anakin Skywalker into the ominous Darth Vader (cue hissing sound). It also shows how the Jedi are cut down one by one, save for Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. Even the younglings, the children of the Jedi, are not spared.

Thank goodness that scene involving the children was removed.

The show on the whole is an improvement over the first two movie, even though the fight with Darth Maul is rather tasty so to speak ;) Despite the less than perfect acting from the cast, one person that stands out of all this is the Emperor. Yes, the very same guy who acted in Episode 5 & 6 has acted in 1, 2 and now 3. He speaks in a casual, persuasive ways, using the power of words to influence Anakin to slowly accept that the Dark Side of the Force is the only way to save Padme. He even made Mace Windu drop his guard by displaying his vulnerable side... before letting loose with his dark powers.

Technically, he is Star Wars' version of Niccolo Machiavelli. An excellent performance from him. Speaking of him, does any FFX fans feel a sense of deja vu when Anakin was talking to Palpatine during a performance of a .. ball of water? I thought they have Blitzball at Coruscant!! XD

The action sequences in the movie are quite good, although some part feels pretty fake, CG-ish. I was a bit disappointed at General Grevious, shouldn't he put up a better fight? Maybe throw in a few Matrix bullet-time sequences during the lightsaber fight. He died too quickly IMO.. :P The best fight is reserved for the last, when Yoda takes on Palpatine at the Senate and Obi-Wan fought Anakin on the volcanic planet. Looks like Lucas leaves the best for last... maybe I want to watch it again..

8/10! :)

Busy Week!

Wah lau. As I am writing this, I am having a terrible splitting headache. Urgh, I slept late yesterday and is paying the price for it :P

Well anyway, it is another long weekend for everyone. The good news is that I finally can relax a bit and do some gaming. What about my assignment, some might ask? Ah, the funny thing is that it is not released to me and my classmates yet *sweat* Wah, deadline is coming soon... how am I supposed to work on it with such a short time-frame?!! No choice I guess.... so make full use of the weekend XD

I watched Kingdom of Heaven with Boon Ping last Saturday. It is pretty so-so, and I would give it a 6/10. Why would that be? It is because the show is overtly being so politically correct, that the most basic component of film-making just went by the wayside; I call it "captivating the audience". Ridley Scott focused a lot on the battle scene (which turns out average anyway in comparison to shows such as The Return of The King) and on Orlando Bloom himself, trying to portray his character as truly upright... bah. Even the love story seems cliche.

The only good thing about the show is that it is short, unlike long shows like Alexander, and the portrayal of Saladin, played by a respected Syrian actor. I am not sure the direction of which the film is heading, especially towards the end...



Luckily the ticket is only $7... Raja Princess Rocks!

Sunday With Lacus

I accompanied Lacus to her cosplay photoshoot session with her friend Hysoka somewhere around Liang Court. There were supposed to be more people (they all can't make it) and Shiro was supposed to come but he was exhausted after the Big Walk? Haha, I used to go every year but looks like I missed this year yeah..

The costumes are from Chrno Crusade, and Lacus is Rosette while Hysoka plays a bad guy (Forgot the name). A guy named Garion is the main photographer for the photoshoot, and he brought his powerful camera to do the job ($3k when it was bought???) It was a fun day, and I helped Lacus take photos of herself and Hysoka using her Canon Powershot A80 camera... not bad, only that it uses 4 AA -_-;;

I decided to help her carry her stuff because she does carry a lot of things, would be tough on her because it is already exhausting putting on the costumes and the wig. I think cosplayers are really quite dedicated in their cosplaying, and Lacus is one of the best around.. XD

We later ate at Yoshinoya.. remind me not to go anymore.. it's kinda expensive and doesn't taste that nice.. the jelly drink sucks! :(

PS. Sorry for the night shots, I hope to improve myself the next time okay? XD

Misc Stuff

* I met JapRPG today at Bugis. Congrats to him for getting his job at Tuas! Nowadays I seem to stumble into my friends more often in public XD

* I attended the briefing at my office today for fire safety because I am a fire warden for my office floor... bleh. Not only that, all of us in the office have to conduct tours in the near future... o.O

* What a crappy day. The MRT decides to delay itself at every station, blaring out the same stupid announcement about "track fault". Yeah right, in the end made me late for work.

* I am getting ready to face 'him'. DDS the second time, seems tough and yet seems easy as well. Will I succeed against him??

---- Are You Ready For The Real World? ----

The House of Lacus

Recently, Lacus invited me to her house along with her other friends to chit chat and to play.. yeap, Katamari Damacy. The rolling feeling that I had a few days ago had to do with it I guess *rolling around*

It is a good thing that the PS2 slim is light. Imagine carting around a Xbox to a friend's place.. -_-;; It took me around an hour to reach her place and somehow I ended up at the wrong block :P

Well anyhow, once I reached there I began to set up the console and soon Lacus was engrossed playing Katamari! I think her sense of direction is a little "mis-directed" (haha).. Animus showed up and continued the game, then I ate the curry chicken cooked by her mum. Quite yummy wor, where got lousy? :D

Her house is pretty nice. It is so huge! XD Her manga collection is quite extensive, but then she's a super manga reader bah.. I saw some soft toys lying around.. mainly GSD and Inuyusha? Lolz...

Apart from Animus, I met Lenne and Skye too! Skye is last year's best singer at KHK and a cosplayer to boot! I am not sure who she cosplay but she is really excited about the new anime Trinity Blood :O

Lacus showed me a place called Hougang Green where she usually gets her cosplay stuff made... it turns out that a few other cosplayers are there too, making outfits for Bleach!! I suggested that Animus cosplay as the manager in Yakitate! Japan.. Afro rocks! :D

(On that day, I am proud to say that I have finally beaten the Fly boss in DDS... yes!!!)

Lacus and gang also practiced a few dance moves for .. hmmm I can't remember for which event yeah.. can Lacus remind me? :D I really enjoyed the day although it was tiring and the aircon broke down.. thank you, Lacus-sama XD

Yes, early in the morning, the Katamari Damacy fever has begun...

Lacus is hooked!! XD

Animus looks so happy yeah :P

Her PC is full of GSD stuff!!

That's a whole lot of manga..

This is the place where the costumes are being made. Lacus loves ice cream leh..

This is proof that Katamari Damacy is too addictive.. this is Lacus playing the game.. at night.

Sunday Addition:

Hmmm.... is Trinity Blood really that popular?

I was with Lacus, Skye and Lenne yesterday at Kino.. and found out that nearly anything related to Trinity Blood are gone. Zero. Nothing. Wahaha, that's fast!

Here's another surprise.. I saw Jimmy and Aaron again! At Kino! Although a different branch... I didn't have much chance to talk much because I was looking for the rest of them inside..

But Sunday is a rather quiet affair on the whole. I spent most of the day resting and cleaning up my room..

Room's Status: Still 80% messy -_-

Movies for the month

Boon Ping is asking me whether I want to catch the show with him.. why not? I suggested that we go to Bedok to catch it instead.. cheaper..

As for Star Wars, I think I will confirm with Ming Li first... then see how.

Okay lar.. take care everyone! :)

Rukia-hime!

Ah, yesterday Lacus gave me a surprise... she gave me a Rukia figurine to put in my office. Thank you very much Lacus-sama! XD

( Anyway I paid her back.. phew, lucky she never bought the Bleach plushies otherwise I will be in "financial trouble" lolz! )

In other unrelated news, I met Jimmy and Aaron at Kino as well. Jimmy told me that the launch of the Asian PSP is yesterday, but Ben on MSN later commented that it sucks ( He's working there actually )... so yeah man. Not that I got the money right now :(

There are so many Bleach merchandise! I think the large Rukia figurine looks great! XD



Rukia is admittedly, super kawaii when she does that pose.

Until the next episode of Bleach! :D

PS. Hmmm, I got the feeling of rolling.. and rolling! Katamari fever coming again! @_@

Song of the Minstrel

Wow.. what a wonderful weekend! 3 long days where I can go out, soak up the sun, and partake in other town activities! See movies! Play the arcades! Walk around town while checking out the crowd!!!

.... ah, it didn't happen as I expected. My grandma left for Genting for the weekend, kinda like a last minute decision by my uncle since it is a long weekend and it will a good time to catch up since he is in China most of the time. This meant that I have to stay at home to look after my grandpa as a "standby". Opps, all plans = cancelled. *sweat* Was feeling lousy but I did manage to clean up my house a bit and played some games. I did some reading for my upcoming assignment too.

I wish I could go to Australia. No computer, no high tech stuff.. just days spent idling away!! Yatta!!

I wanted to check out Ben's Nintendog! According to him, the dog is now wearing an affro wig!!! Haha, it will surely look cute! XD Must take photo for this blog.. lolz. Mun Chiew rented a DS from Sammil just for this game!!!! This goes to show that flashy hardware may not have the coolest of games ;)

Affro wigs. Seems I am exposed to it in many different ways. First, Chiba-kun from Beck. Then, it is the manager Ken Matsushiro from Yakitate Japan ( LOL! He's hilarious! ) and now it appears in a game about dogs.. seems like the Japanese have a thing for affro stuff.. ;)

Anime



Yakitate Japan is a simple but funny show about a young boy's desire to make a bread that surpasses all other in Japan. Calling them Japan #1, #2, and so on, Azuma Kazuma has the legendary Solar Hands, which are naturally warm and conducive for bread-making.

At first I didn't have the inclination to watch the show. But I was curious so I watched the first episode, and I was hooked! The Outro songs are very nice, especially the one by Soul'D Out from episode 13 onwards. It is called "To All Tha Dreamers" and I listened to the original version. It has this catchy feel to it and makes you wanna stand up and dance. XD

The characters are really memorable. The sly Kyosuge, the dry-humoured Kageto, the hilarious manager Matsushiro (Wahahahaha!) and the crybaby Azuma.. they made a good impression on me. Wait.. did I leave out Ryo Kuroyanagi?? His reactions after eating the bread is ... wahahaha.. ROFL. You have to watch the series to find out.. :P


Phone

Last week I mentioned about getting the K300i. Now its here and in my hand! Despite having a STN LCD screen (Which looks slightly inferior to TFT), it feels great in my hands. The GUI screen is pretty intuitive and responsive. Pretty happy with it ^^

The only bad thing about the phone is the packaging. Unlike the T310, the manual is small and doesn't cover things in detail. But oh well, this is just a minor gripe.

Personal stuff

- Ashley called me during the weekend. Everything is great according to her, and she will be coming back for a short while, hopefully in June or July. According to her, the colleagues are nice to show her around the place, and her house does have a television and a phone to use.

- Boon Ping is the latest entry to my friendster account. I was pretty surprised that he got an account in the first place! He is going to serve his remaining deferred NS at Mindef, then he is going to Business Times as a full time journalist. I am glad he got what he wanted :)

- I became a "daddy". Anyone wanna know why, please ask me in MSN. Lolz.

- Jimmy is taking part in some Superstar TV program! That's cool! Hope he goes far in the competition like Serena :)

- I spoke to a friend recently and learnt something interesting from him. I didn't really expect it, but yeah it is pretty cool. On other matters though, he's kinda irritating in that he tends to be defensive when I try to be well meaning in my advises to him. Suddenly he will bring up other things, which he never mentions previously. o_O I should be more firm bah.. haha. He's okay most of the time, but sometimes.... arrrggggh!

- Assumption is the root of all evil. Muahahahaha...

- Kingdom of Heaven. Should I catch it at Shaw Towers? The cinemas there are really nice because they reminded me of the past cinemas, really brought a lot of nostalgic memories for me. Huge and crowded and kacang puteh.. heh. Maybe I should consider Eng Wah as well.. :)

- I won the trivia contest hosted by Jaclyn, getting full marks. I got.. a decal. I was too slow and didn't get the FF7 Reunion soundtrack which would make a nice gift. o_O

- The Hidden Blade is not nice according to MC. Okay, that sucks because I was expecting to watch a nice authentic historical film about Japan. :X

- Ex-president Wee has passed away yesterday. I had a glimpse of him before, and had a good impression of the man. May he rest in peace.

- Lastly, to one of my Naruto friends.. thanks! XD