All About Chemistry

I was saying how Kuninaka_Ryoko(top pic) resembles a MediaCorp Artiste (or vice-versa) and yup, i feels she does look like Fiona Xie. Granted the pose in the 2 pictures aren't exactly identical but i think the resemblance is fairly obvious (Fiona has a longer horsey-ier face though, and i don't really like her). Anyone disagree? Sorry Matt, i wasn't thinking of Yvonne Lim, and before i went to Google her i didn't even who she was also. Yes i suck for not knowing our local actresses.
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Made a bad mistake walking with D.Law down to the cookhouse today. Had to endure his whining about how much work he's been given since he came back. Obviously he's just looking for sympathy. Well he won't find it from me. Empathy? Maybe. Sympathy for the devil? Sorry, i'm all out. Try the Rolling Stones. And it does sound like he's boasting when he said he has a cough flu and fever and he STILL came to work! Wow-Wee! All that and he gets paid (humanely) as well!

Of course to top it off, he mentioned that he might have to call all on us back on Saturday ('fever' talk i guess) to move the department down to SBMC, and as such told me to keep my Saturdays free (as in no going overseas) to help. Now i believe i'm a fairly reasonable guy, but 1 month before my ORD and he's asking me to do give him my Saturdays is going too far. His exact words when i said this was, "what to do? bo bian right?". Bo bian my ass! His way of thinking is truly other-wordly to me. Anyway i think Bernard has more common sense NOT to arrange moving on weekends so i'll leave it to him to run the show. BEST case scenario: Move gets delayed till after June 8th. (And of all the nerves, 'he' had the cheek to ask me to come back after i ORD to help if this happens)
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Finally passed Bullet Witch on Hard Mode last night! Probably one of the more worthwhile games to play in terms of Achievement Pts/Time Spent. And thank goodness i ignored the reviews because the game was really fun to play. I think that those who rate games solely on their graphics (i'm often guilty of that *shame*) will often miss out on unpolished gems like this. And definitely i will not solely trust game reviews (Saints Row got a better review than this? HA!) before buying games. If the title interest (ie has a sexy VG girl on the cover etc) i will most likely try it out myself. And did i mention that while i was playing midway yesterday they released Alicia's Schoolgirl costume for download on Xbox Live? Man if i needed some added incentive to replay the game this is it!
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Just booked tickets for Spiderman 3! Watching it with my family on opening day May 1st @ West Mall. 2 good things about watching with my family: 1) No one talks during the movie 2) Movie is free! (Paid for by Dad). Looks like i'll be watching it twice in the first week, since we have a Ninja movie outing on 4th May as well to go see it.

Time Goes By..

Did my 2nd last duty yesterday! 1 more last Sunday duty before i lose another chunk of my NS obligations (my medical knowledge/ skills were the first to go). Was fussing over what to pack for duty (in terms of entertainment) and in the end didn't bring anything extra. Dennis introduced me to this fun flash game site GameGecko and that's how i blew my afternoon away.

Ended up watching Miss Singapore Universe 2007, a program that i would never normally watch while at home. But it turned out to be quite entertaining. Some of the contestants were downright...'unpleasant'. Call me biased against local girls (i don't think i am but the beautiful ones are few and far between) but hey, i call it as i see it. I was looking forward to the question and answer round because i thought there would be some funny stuff but suprisingly the girls were quite well prepared. Ok, some of the answers were crappy (and so were majority of the questions) but at least there was nothing cringe-worthy.

In the end it was down to Joey Feng (Kang Wei's pick) and Jessica Tan and the latter won. Personally i though Joey looked sweeter but as Fidelis expertly pointed out, the girl with the bigger boobs always win. And with half the contestants having smaller cup size than Kang Wei (or Dennis), it was not that hard to guess the winner based on his theory.

Well since it's over and done with i'm gonna refrain from further badmouthing our Miss Universe 2007 representative but i sincerely hope she does something about her hairstyle because it looked awful. Good luck (you'll need it) carrying the Singapore flag to Miss Universe 2007!

(Dis)Honorary Awards:

Most Forced(fake) Smile: Cadenze Koh (MSU03): think she will have trouble returning to her normal expression after forcing that smile for the entire show
'Auntie' Award: Judy Lee (MSU18): it's a wonder she passed through the age checks prior to the compy (she pulled out of the finals due to work commitments...right..)
Ah Lian Award: Carol Chin (MSU05): she just has the typical Ah Lian look
Best Answer Award: Peggy Chang (MSU04): she had a perfect (ie exactly what i would have said) answer for the 2nd question round
Worst Figure Award: Angelina Tay (MSU15): she has broader shoulder than me! Brr! OR Christabel Campbell (MSU01): she's so tall that it's a little freakish, even Adrian Pang felt intimidated
Sweet Heart Award: Joey Feng (MSU09): Kang Wei has good taste, pity she didn't win

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Drama: Liar Game (Episode 2)

Just as last week, the raw + subs for the latest episode of Liar Game is already out! Episode 2 continues with more of Nao's foolishness and concludes Round 1 of the Liar Game.

Despite winning the first round, Nao gives up her share (50million yen) to Mr Fujisawa (her opponent) to help him with his debt. Shin'chi gives back his share as well, claiming that the deal was for him to get half of Nao's prize money (now 0 yen). Nao starts thinking that he's not such a bad guy after all and wonders why he became a swindler.

Nao invites Shin'ichi to her house to cook for him as a thank you gesture but they find another video tape inviting Nao to the 2nd round of Liar Game. Shin'ichi tells her to just ignore it and to call him if there's any problems. Next day, Nao meets a policeman who offers to accompany her to the meeting place of the 2nd round to formally tell them she wants no further part in the game. She calls Shin'ichi to thank him again and says she doesn't need his help this time.

Turns out she gets tricked again as the policeman is working for the Liar Game people and he only brings her there so that she will participate in Round 2. There's 22 people involved and at the last minute before the door closes, Shin'ichi walks in and declares he will take part as well. The 100 million yen this time is in the form of a diamond attached to the nametag of the players. Since there's 22 players, the maximum amount of money the winner stands to win is 2.1billion yen. The episode ends just as 'Jigsaw' is about to announce the rules of the game (something to do with Minority Voting) and with Nao looking worried (as usual).

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Caught Somewhere in Time

Spent my Saturday getting the Perfect Ending Achievement for The IdolMaster. Took me about 4 hours + to reach the end of my 52 week stint and then the hardest part was the farewell concert at the Dome. Failed 20 over times before i decided to sleep off my frustrations. Resumed when i woke up and passed it on my 2nd try. Hmm, I guess i would attribute the earlier failures to fatigue. That clears 20% of the achievement for the game. I have my eye set on at least 4 more achievements this week for this game.
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Drama: Kekkon Dekinai Otoko (The Man Who Can't Get Married) 1-12 (Finish!)

Wow~! This is definitely the most enjoyable (2006) drama that i watched this year. Abe Hiroshi gives a stellar performance as Kuwano Shinsuke (40), a nit-picking, cynical architect who enjoys being alone and can't understand why anyone would want to be married. His HR skills (or total lack of it), blunt and insensitive remarks and inconsideration makes you wonder why anyone would put up with him. (ans: he's a famous and highly regarded architect). It's not HA-HA funny but the subtle humour and interesting character relations make this a must-watch. Word of warning: If you are looking for a show with many Highs and Lows and twists, this isn't it. Most of the episodes are just re-affirmations that he dislikes social interactions and people in general.

Kuninaka_Ryoko

And did i mention that his neighbour Michiru (Kuninaka Ryoko) is really cute as well? I think she sort of resembles some MediaCorp artiste.
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Drama: Sexy Voice and Robo (Episode 1)

I'm very disappointed with this manga->anime->drama adaptation. Watched it cause Matsuyama Kenichi was in it but the first episode was a big disjointed mess. The first case feels really draggy and its hard to feel for the over-the-top Otaku(there are some funny moments though) played by Kenichi or Ohgo Suzuka as the middle schoolgirl who cares too much for other people. Especially after seeing Kekkon Dekinai Otoko i find it hard to swallow that someone would actually care so much for strangers.

I'll watch a couple more episodes before deciding whether to drop this series. Probably the only draw now is that 14-year old (born Aug '93)Ohgo Suzuka is extremely cute and sweet.

Shidou Nakamura makes an appearance in the first episode as well. Haven't seen this 2 in a show since Yamato.
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Bowl Of A Time

Finally after many unsuccessful attempts to go bowling, somehow we managed to the whole department (+1, Ian) together for bowling at West Coast Recreation Centre (21 games for $2/game before 6pm). Rates are really reasonable and the lanes are much newer than i remembered them. Probably renovated the place but it's kinda sad to see such a big place so empty. All the better for us bowling noobs to practice (minus Ian who is actually a above average bowler)

But the only thing that was really memorable to me was how Herbert kept falling down everytime he threw the ball. Reminded me of Otohime Mutsumi from Love Hina so i went to track down the manga panel. Keitaro's thought "And i still don't know why she falls" echoes my sentiments exactly.

Tag team bowling was more fun (and the scores closer) than regular bowling and thanks to a Ming Wei gutter ball on the 10th me and Ee Wei managed to win. Yay! Fanfare and three cheers for the inaugural no-prize-tag-bowling champs! Ok, it was not really a competition but if i didn't view it as such i probably would not be able to find any motivation to play.

Or gluttonise my food for that matter. Challenged Wee Kim to a KFC Buddy Meal speed-eating contest and also 'won' that. As usual, no prizes for the 'winner'. Just that i need a little bit of competition to be my driving force to do whatsoever, however insignificant (the more insignificant the better).

Guilty by Association

Finished watching 2 seasons (9+11eps) of Hana Yori Dango today! In case the title sounds vaguely familiar, it's the Japanese version of Taiwan series Meteor Garden (starring F4), which was in turn based off the manga series. Liked the comic when i read i back in poly but never watched Meteor Garden because i hated F4 back then. Was very undecided about picking up this series but the clincher was knowing that Erika Toda appears in the last 2 episodes of Season 2. So, loyal fool that i am, i started watching the whole drama from the beginning and suddenly i couldn't stop. Back that up with a cast of up and coming teen stars (Inoue Mao as Makino Tsukushi, Matsumoto Jun as Doumyouji Tsukasa, Oguri Shun as Hanazawa Rui, Matsuda Shota as Nishikado Soujiroh, Abe Tsuyoshi as Mimasaka Akira) and this is one of the better romance comedies i've seen this year.
Rich Kid/Poor Girl.
And of course one big advantage about watching HYD first is that i got used to Matsuda Shota's face, so i didn't have prejudices when i watched the first episode of Liar Game, which was much better than i dared hope for Erika's first lead role. She plays Kanzaki Nao, a much too honest and gullible girl (she went to the police to return a 100yen coin that she found on the ground; she fell for the same prank 42 times ..). Somehow or rather she get tangles up with the Liar Game(hosted by none other than Jigsaw(SAW) himself) and ends up getting swindled of 100million yen. Desperate, she enlists the help of swindler Akiyama Shinichi who is just released from prison and agrees to help her for half the share of the prize money (50million yen). Eagerly looking forward to Ep 2 airing next Saturday.
Toda Erika
Matsuda Shota
A very flustered Nao.
How did Jigsaw escape into this show?

Man with a Plan

Completely forgot that it was Brandon's birthday on Friday (13th). Only realised it when i saw him eating a strawberry cake (the whole cake by himself..) yesterday. Anyway he still owes me money and a chocolate bar so i don't feel so bad about this. Not that he cares anyway.

Went out window-shopping yesterday and bought Marvel's Civil War TPB. Great story and artwork. And while reading it i kept thinking of Gun n Roses 'Civil War'. Will buy Avengers Disassembled and House of M the next time i go back to Kinokuniya.

While walking to the counter to pay i saw Erika Toda on the cover of a female magazine, Seventeen. I had to keep circling the female magazine section till there was no one around before i quickly grabbed it and went to pay. But the magazine was worth it ($11.50), it had a insert booklet all about Erika (which i scanned here). The rest of the magazine i wouldn't even flip through cause it's all about female fashion. But for what it's worth, it came with a small cosmetic bag as well (black w/ pink polka dots..)

Went back to VivoCity and i have to say it's huge! But i walked through all the VCD/DVD, toys and game shops and didn't find anything of interest. (The open air park on the 3rd floor is a great idea though) There is a $2 Japanese shop on the top floor which is pretty interesting and i'll probably end up visiting it again to get some decorations for my room.

My aim was actually to look around for furniture but after yesterday i'm forced to resign that i'll probably be going to get most of the stuff from Ikea. Not because of budget constraints (and i do know Ikea's quality sucks) but because all the other places have such boring designs. Kevin bought some design magazines from Tokyo and there are some really nice concepts in it. Going to try to adapt some of the ideas for my own room.

2 days of Firsts

Things that i've done for the FIRST time these past 2 days:
- Ate at Waraku on Thursday, thanks to Ah Chew for the treat
- First time to VivoCity! But no time to explore what i wanted to see. That's the problem with going with a big group. Gonna go back there someday to have a better look-see.
- Ate at Carl's Jr today, ate something that looked like an oversized BK Turkey Bacon Double, and tasted as such. Nothing special. Not worth it.
- Ate at Ben & Jerrys, can't believe i paid $8.90 for a chocolate milkshake. Taste like a sweetened version of Macs milkshake. Not worth it.

Went to Vivo for a mini Ninja Coy gathering. Suprisingly i managed to remember all the names of the people who came, considering i forgot one of the name of a girl in my class after a 1-month semester break. I really detest travelling with such a big group because simple decisions take so long to make. But it was fun for a while. And we agreed to arrange a bigger gathering to watch Spiderman 3 on Friday, May 4th. Gonna have to book very early for the tixs i guess. Well, such gatherings are fun once in a while (i guess..).

And back home (thankfully it ended at 9+), it was back to things that actually interest me. Started new picture folders for Miyazaki Aoi and Ishihara Satomi but i doubt that it will surpass my Toda Erika collection.

I'm on leave till Tuesday. Gonna enjoy a long slow weekend of slacking and most importantly, slacking without having to feel guilty. Thankfully guilt doesn't take away what i feel is now divine rights due to soon-to-ORD personnel to slack and sleep in camp while others are working. But i'll probably feel guilty if i Ah Chew goes ahead and nominates me for the Gold Practitioner Award, in which case i now pledge that i will use that $100 award to treat the branch.

And just because i feel a post feels bland without pics i'll just post 3 random pics i found today:

Miyazaki Aoi, here, there and everywhere

Just found that Miyazaki Aoi had another romance movie released just a month ago, Umidenohanashi. Couldn't find any English description of what it's about. The trailer also doesn't really show what the story is (the song is very very familiar in the trailer but i can't place the title..). I'll definitely keep an eye on whether there's any DVD release coming out in a few months time.

Re-armed myself with 50 new DVD-Rs today! Now i can continue moving all my drama and animes to disc. Also bought another movie on impulse, The Host (small review here). Just thought i would watch a Korean movie for a change, furthermore it's the best selling film of 2006 in Korea (13,019,740 in Korea watched it, compared to 6,847,777 for the 2nd top film). I seriously don't know what to expect, but since it's a creature-feature film my first thought is that it will be pretty cheesy.

Looks like a B-grade movie but its record speaks for itself.

Surpisingly All About Dogs (Inu No Eiga) was very enjoyable. As you might have guessed i bought the movie only because Miyazaki Aoi was in it. Nearly jumped out of my chair in shock when i thought the movie had ended and she had not appeared yet. Thankfully her cute face popped up for the last short story, albeit for too short a while. Oh and like i was saying, the movie was good. Funny short stories, adorable dogs and pretty good pacing (movie length = 96mins).

Why did Aoi have such a small part??

And because i'm still not quite over Tada Kimi wo Aishiteru yet, i found this interview video on YouTube. Tamaki Hiroshi ('Makoto') looks much cooler in real life. Not quite the idiot that the movie (and also drama 'Remote') makes him out to be. And as always, Miyazaki Aoi has both her eyes firmly glued to the floor while answering questions. Don't understand why she's so camera shy in public but it's cute. No subtitles for what they're talking about but it's on the lines of 'i'm very happy to be acting with so-and-so' and 'i like the character so-and-so very much' etc. Ai Otsuka (singer, ED song, 'Renai Shashin') also says a few things in the video.

Just can't get enough of Shizuru!

And one of the most important piece of news: I'm down to 31 absolute working days in the SAF! That's minusing all the offs and leaves i have left. FREEDOM is in side!

A very NANA-ish moment

From Nana book 1, Komatsu Nana Prologue

I think this 2 frames just about sums up my mentality towards (pretty) girls. Yup, i'm writing this because i saw a really, really (really) pretty girl down at my bus stop earlier. And as i was 'staring' (thank goodness for peripheral vision) and trying to act cool while perched on my bicycle, i suddenly realised how Nana-ish i am. (In the manga, Nana falls in 'love' with every handsome guy she meets, eg the pizza guy, the video store guy, her teacher...) Somehow the song that came to my mind while i was acting like i didn't notice her was Led Zep's "Good Times Bad Times".

And so I just watched her till she left with some of her friends who looked like they lived somewhere on my street. I am SO tempted to sign up for Who Lives Near You or Friendster now, but my inherent laziness will probably transcend any such desires after tonight.

If you're wondering what i'm doing stalker-ing girls at my stop i was waiting for Herbert who was supposed to come to my house. Somehow rather amazingly he ended up at Woodlands Checkpoint. Talk about bad (or would that be zero?) road sense. And to make matters worse he only lives about 10mins away from me and he has trouble navigating this area (Upp Bt Timah).

I wonder who has worst recognition sense? Wee Kim, who has my vote for 'Most likely to forget my face 1 month after i ORD' or Herbert? Anyway good thing is that he managed to take a cab from the Checkpoint to my place. Maybe my Mom' spaghetti was drugged because he looked like he was going to fall asleep while playing my X360. Or maybe my games are just boring.

Expenditure Projection: April

Checked with Funz Centre today and they said Guitar Hero 2 will reach here only near the end of this month. Kind of sucky news but the only thing i'm afraid of is that i'll overspend my meagre allowance before i reach end April. So far my expenditures since yesterday:
- Lonely Planet Japan Guide - $51 from MPH
- The Hidden Blade (DVD) - $12.90 from MJ Multimedia
- Inu no Eiga (All about Dogs) (DVD) starring Miyzaki Aoi! - $10 2nd hand from VideoEzy
- Grand Total - $73.90 (13.1% of $560)

And if i project other things that i'm planning to get this month:
- Guitar Hero 2 (duh!) - $160?
- 25pc DVD-R TDK (Cos i ran out of blank DVDs completely..)- $19
- YesAsia order - $80 (for the time being; ordering on Saturday)
- Pump petrol for my mom - $40
- Grand Total - $309 (55% of $560)

And this isn't counting topping up of EZ-link cards and food/snacks. Bottom line is that i don't think i can save much (again) this month. And yes i have to learn to be more thrifty on small things (no taking cabs unneccesarily! no fast foods!) if i don't want to use up everything.

Boo!

Been watching Ghost Hunt this past few nights. After watching the first episode sometime last year i thought it was pretty weak (for a supposedly horror anime) so i dropped it but i read some good reviews about it after the entire 25 episodes got released. So i got the entire series and decided to give it another go and suprise surpise! i actually enjoy it this time round. Either my tastes have changed or my anime-viewing standards have fallen. Either way, i think this shows i probably shouldn't trust my first impressions. Show is still not downright scary but watching it with headphones in the dark and there are actually some hair-raising moments thanks to the sound effects and music. Each 'case' covers about 3-4 episodes and if it's the info in the show about paranormal activity is genuine then i'm actually learning some interesting (read: useless) facts about the topic as well.

Finally completed GRAW as well! Don't think i'm going to replay it on hard because it's already quite frustrating on normal. Started on Bullet Witch last night and first impressions (there i go again..) is that it's not as bad as the reviews put it. Since i like hack and slash type of games it's actually very fun. Graphics (in-game) is not very good but the CG scenes are gorgeous. Not to mention that Alicia (heroine) is pretty hot as well. And her weapon (called a 'Gunrod') is damn cool! Guess I'm a sucker for pretty VG girls with a gun or sword (e.g Yuna). As expected of an action game, story is so bad that it's actually good in a way, as there's nothing to even think about while i'm blasting bad guys.

Alica: Good Witch with a big Gun.

Gaming on Four Fronts

PC:
Just got C&C 3:Tiberium Wars this morning and Brandon already started playing it. Runs smoothly on his PC at 1024*768 with Medium/High graphics settings so should be no problem on mine as well (we have similiar PC specs except i have more RAM).

Played the first C&C on Sega Saturn (amazingly i still have the game) but in truth i'm not really a big RTS fan. Especially since i prefer real-world weapons to futuristic stuff, so i guess i won't play much of it. Probably just a couple of skirmishes with Brandon just to see what it's like before i go back to my console games.

PS2:
Still in the midst of God of War 2. So far it's proved much more bloody and gruesome than part 1 but ultimately, it's too much of the same action (and moves) from the first game and that's why i'm not really rushing to finish it.

PSP:
DJ Max Portable 2 is out! But...i'm a little hooked to Marvel Trading Card Game so i haven't started on it yet. Spent an hour today just forming a new deck in the game. Man, i miss my secondary school days when all i played after school were (real)TCGs at World of JJ @ Lot 1. But they became too expensive and too many weirdos started playing so i stopped.

X360:
Achievement points are the greatest invention since sliced bread! At least with AP you can check whether someone is bullshitting you when he says he accomplished this-and-that in a game (no prizes for guessing who i'm referring to). And at least i know the hours i waste on a game has a purpose.

Finished my first playthrough on Idolmaster (check out the limited edition package here) and i'm still yet to earn a single AP in the game. BUT! I'm pretty sure i can rack up at least 200AP for my 2nd playthrough thanks to the culmulative achivements. For the record, i only managed to produce a B-rank idol first time through. Have to manage my 52 weeks better and win over 300,000 more fans the next time for a A-rank and 100 shiny AP. I'm selecting Haruka Amami to produce next.

Been switching back and forth between GRAW 1 and 2 (260AP/2days) whenever i get stuck in a particular mission. The Tom Clancy storyline sucks so bad that i can't distinguish the differences between the 2 games. To summarise the plot: Americans= Good Guys; All other nationalities= Terrorists. At least the games are fun and the weaponry real. Still can't be bothered to play on Xbox Live though.

Upcoming Games to look out for:

Forza Motorsports 2: Supposedly the most realistic driving game.

- Forza Motorsport 2 demo will be released on XBL Marketplace soon. Looking forward to that.
- 8 new characters for Marvel Ultimate Alliance to be released this week for $10USD! Told Bernard about the roster and he claims he's gonna buy a X360 when he gets back..We'll see..
- A week after Guitar Hero 2 has been released in the USA, Funz Centre still doesn't have it yet...Grr! 2 more days to payday; please arrive by Tuesday.
- Gran Turismo: HD demo looks awesome on PS3! In addition, there are some interesting games on the PS3 horizon. Pretty tempting.. But the tilt factor will still be the 3 main games i'm interested in and whether they will be multi-platform-ed: Metal Gear Solid 4, Final Fantasy 13 and Tekken 6.

For the Love of Peace

I just wish my family would leave me alone and let me slack as much as i want over the weekend. If it's not my aunt nagging, it's my irritating dad/brother combo pestering me to go out to see furniture with them. As if my opinions on furniture choice mattered. Worst of all it's furniture for the living room. When i do give my comments my brother will stare at me as if i have the worst taste in the world and when i keep mom my dad will question what's the point of me coming. (Ans: Cause he forced me to come) And speaking of mom, my mom refuses to have anything to do with the moving, for reasons that escape common sense and logic. I guess i'll never understand the female mind.

Anyway today i die die didn't want to go out. So i started to play my X360 when my aunt came and started to nag and nag and nag and nag (etc.) about some issue that is so trivial that i can't even remember what it is now. If i need to justify why a bigger chunk of my hair turned white, i'll definitely cite this instance. So i did the only thing i could do, which is to just lock myself in my room and go to sleep. Somehow it seems that every moment i'm awake at home is an opportunity for someone to irritate me.

Actually i wanted to write a little about night cycling yesterday with Ee Wei, Wee Kim and Cheng Wei but i'm not really in the mood to do so now. Only 2 things really stand out last night and they are 1) Ee Wei crashing into the wall down Mt Faber and 2) Ee Wei getting multiple cramps on the way back. Ya that's about it. Full photo album is here.

Not my idea of a romantic night up Mt Faber.

Liar Liar pants on fire

If my life were to be measured by how many X360 achievement points/day i earned, these past 2 days would be considered seriously inefficient by any standards. The problem is that i have too many new games to play and not enough patience to sit down and complete one at a time. So i've been jumping every hour or so to another game after game. What a vicious cycle. On top of that i keep getting disturbed by my family who want me to make MY room comfortable for THEM to come in to play games. (....) I don't really see why i should bother to entertain them. I think out of spite i'm going to make my room so ergonomically uncomfortable that none of them will ever step in.

On the bright side i caught up with some updates for Miyazaki Aoi's upcoming new movie, Virgin Snow; Toda Erika new drama, Liar Game and in addition both Aya Ueto (here) and Ishihara Satomi (here) also have starring roles in new dramas this Spring season.

LEE plays Min, a Korean university student who is transferred to Japan when his father, a professor, gets posted to Kyoto in an exchange position at a university. There, Min meets Nanae (MIYAZAKI), a high school girl, and promptly falls in love with her. Initially indifferent to him, Nanae soon warms up, and their relationship grows, surmounting the linguistic and cultural divide, until one day Nanae mysteriously disappears.

As per normal, i always have high expectations when it comes to a Miyazaki Aoi movie. Mainly because she usually accepts quality scripts (that's why you don't see her in many dramas). The last line of the sypnosis has a feeling of deja vu because i've just seen Tada, kimi wo Aishiteru but i'll reserve my comments till i've seen the show. I'm not so keen on the actor Lee Jun Ki (even though he's supposed to quite popular) because well, i don't like his slitty eyes but that's just me. Hope this makes it to Singapore cinemas. Release date is May 12th in Japan.

Based on the manga series of the same name, Toda Erika plays an honest college student, Kanzaki Nao, who receives a million dollars one day, along with a card saying she has been chosen to take part in the "Liar Game". The aim of the game is to trick the other players out of their one million dollars. At the end, the winner gets one million dollars and the loser is one million dollars in debt. Horrified, Nao tries to contact the game organizers to give them their money back. Her old high school teacher offers to help, but it turns out he actually is her opponent in the game, and easily tricks her out of her million dollars. Coincedentally, Nao notices a newspaper article one day regarding an ex-swindler named Akiyama Shinichi. Desperate, she contacts him for help.

To be honest this series will be worth watching to see Erika alone, but it's based on a manga so i'm expecting it to have a good storyline as well. I'm not expecting a fantastic performance from Erika since this is her first lead role, but i just pray that the story doesn't do a Kurosagi (ie swindling stories). Not to sound repetitive, but the male lead's face kinda irritates me as well. He's the brother of Ryuhei Matsuda (Ren in 'Nana'), another actor i can't stand. To be aired starting 14th April in Japan.

Of course Spiderman 3 is also going to be released in a month so i'd say that there's plenty of quality shows that's on the way. Here's to an entertaining 2 months before ORD!

The Looking Glass

Feel really bad today because i kinda pangseh'ed Herbert, who was supposed to come to my house to play games cause my family wanted to go see the new house and take measurements for furniture. Was supposed to go at 12noon at first, then it got changed to 6pm, and then to 3pm. So in the end i decided that 3pm was too in the 'middle' of the day so i called gaming off with Herbert.

Basically these are my room measurements and i have to say i have never had such a big room before in my life! The area of 2 of my brothers room combined is actually smaller. And a big big bonus is that i have my own toilet. After looking at the house we went to Courts and Castilla at Bt Timah to have a look-see at furniture. I actually just went along for the ride cause i didn't think that they would have Japanese-themed furniture but i found a nice low Japanese-styled bed frame for $599. Quite interested in it but I called Cedric Sootho and he told me to have a look see at Takashimaya and Esplanade first if i'm looking for Japanese stuff so i'm gonna find one day to go there and plan my room. Only thing that's bugging me is how will a traditional decor go with all my electronic stuff? A big mismatch...?

Everything...very nice!

Death Note Korean Limited Edition Set...very nice!

Been a long time since i had a mini movie marathon. Got my Death Note DVD set in the post today and watched both movies back to back with Brandon. Very nice package overall for ~$65SGD.

Also watched Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru (Heavenly Forest) this morning. Excellent movie. And of course no one acts sweet, naive, innocent and cute like Miyazaki Aoi. It's like she was born to play this part. I had high expectations for the show and i'm not in the least disappointed. Glad that Aoi dumped Nana 2 for this wonderful show that made me laugh and also tear. The rest of the cast is wonderful as well. Edited the subtitles and re-burned it and watched it a 2nd time when i got home too. Ending song is by Ai Otsuka, Renai Shashin which i've heard before so it was pretty nice as well.

Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru..also very very nice!

4th and final movie i watched was Heaven's Bookstore, which in all fairness was a pretty decent movie. The only problem was that i watched it straight after the previous movie, which made the show feel too ordinary. Only good thing is that Ee Wei managed to copy down an ogre story for Phar.

Look Alike (NOT!)

My cool celebrity look-alike collage from MyHeritage.com. Get one for yourself.

Thanks to Ee Wei i amused myself tonight by playing around with MyHeritage.com Face recognition program. Registration is quick and easy. As you can see from the picture above, the software is not very accurate because I don't think i look that girlish in that pic! Good for laughs though. And as expected, Brandon got matched with Takeshi Kaneshiro. Ee Wei saved most of the collages of pictures he played with and i'm gonna bring them to work tomorrow so that we can laugh at each other.

Finally got a copy of Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru! Thanks to Cheng Wei for the heads up that it's already out. I'm trying not to let myself be disappointed but actually my expectations for this movie is pretty high, considering that Miyazaki Aoi declined her role as Hachi in 'Nana 2' to star in this show. Already got it on DVD so yup, the plan is to watch it tomorrow morning! And if it's good then i'll rewatch it in the afternoon when Herbert comes back because i believe he enjoy watching Aoi as well.

My Night in a Bag

Corspe in bag.

Went out with Alex yesterday to shop in town. Bought a sleeping bag and case ($36) for my Ja-plan. Slept in it last night and it was pretty cosy. Probably need some padding for my tailbone though if i'm sleeping on hard surfaces.

Bought a new game as well, Bullet Witch ($60) for X360. The reviews aren't very good but i'm just in the mood for some mindless action/adventure game. Heard from the boss at Funz Centre that DDR Universe won't be released for Asian X360s. Anyway i'm not too upset because i'm not that big of a DDR fan anyway. However, good news is that Guitar Hero 2 (X360) will be out (US) on April 3rd and the reviews are fantastic! Looking forward to burning my next allowance on it!

Finished watching Kurosagi on Friday night. I feel that it's too episodic in nature and that most of the swindles aren't really that ingenious to be interesting. And somehow Kurosaki (Yamashita Tomohisa) succeeds too easily so there's not enough tension in the story as well. Most of the drama comes with his relationship with tenant Tsurara (Horikita Maki) who likes him but opposes his swindling because her dream is to be a prosecutor. Ichikawa Yui again appears in a minor role as spoiled rich girl who's also in love with Kurosaki. I have to say she's much more natural acting spoiled then acting sweet in H2.

Much better at acting silly than at acting cool.

Kurosaki's pesky neighbour (L) and pesky neighbour's irritating friend (R).

Started watching Nurse Aoi today, starring the slightly chubby but extremely cute Ishihara Satomi. If you are thinking that i'm watching this series because i want to see Satomi in a nurse uniform, you are exactly 100% correct. After becoming a medic i usually shun hospital shows because 1) i can't stand to see improper medical procedures being acted 2) i don't want to learn incorrect medical stuff from a TV show. From the first episode, doctors in the show's hospital are all just worried about their image and promotion, and there's only 1 'good' doctor and nurse who actually cares about patient wellbeing, so i can conclude that it's quite realistic in that it's more or less like my real life workplace.

Aoi (Satomi) knows better than to let this idiot-face handle the patient.