Sword down the throat

For the past month or so, i've been stuck with this persistent cough/sore throat/phelgm combination that just can't seem to go away. It feels like there's 'something' clogging my windpipe. I've been trying everything to the extent of near-self-induced-vomitting to try and force it out. Maybe it's time to put something long down my throat and yank it out.... Not a sword of course, maybe a long spoon?

$0.00

One of the more amusing moments of my year:

Yes, i was dead broke.

Crazy, but that's how it goes..

Things that i would love to do/experience once in my lifetime:

1. Find a 4-leaf clover
2. Fall into a coma (and not die from it)
3. Faint
4. Walk till both my legs cannot walk anymore
5. Feed a wild Great White Shark

And "Green Grass and High Tides" by the Outlaws is the new "Freebird" in Rock Band, in case you haven't heard:

Damn, how much longer do I have to wait to play Rock Band?? I so want to sing this song...

Looking to the sky to save me

Just like the west and the chinese have their astrology and horoscopes, the Japanese have their own system of predicting a person's personality, temperament, and compatibility with others through their blood type.

Japanese Blood Type Personality Chart

• Type A
  Best Traits:
  Earnest, creative, sensible.
  Worst Traits:
  Fastidious, overearnest.
  
• Type B
  Best Traits:
  Wild, a doer, cheerful.
  Worst Traits:
  Selfish, irresponsible.
  
• Type AB
  Best Traits:
  Cool, controlled, rational.
  Worst Traits:
  Critical, indecisive.
  
• Type O
  Best Traits:
  Agreeable, sociable, an optimist.
  Worst Traits:
  Vain, careless.

Its application are quite evident in the anime and gaming circle as blood types are often tied down to a particular character's stereotype. Well I've never believed in any of this tripe and especially not now when Type O is listed as being 'sociable'. Pfft!

Won't die if you don't try

For that wickedly explosive taste, try some Afghanistan Pomen-grenades! Only 49cents/100grams!

Just walking through the supermarket today made me realise how many fruits and vegetables i have never tasted before. Off the top of my head, i have never tried eggplants, zucchini, persimmons, those bombs pictured above etc before. Makes me realise how swakoo i am.

But am i really missing alot in terms of taste? Even if eggplants became extinct(?), I'm sure i won't look back and think, "Man, i should have tried them when i had the chance!"

Guitar Hero 3 Hands On @ Tokyo Game Show 2007

I don't think this post would fit in to my other blog despite it being in Japan, but here is my hands-on opinion on Guitar Hero 3 (which i tried on the PS3 cos Microsoft did not bring it to TGS):

Songs Played:

- Welcome to The Jungle - GnR (Hard)
Nothing tricky on Hard, nothing special as well. This would be a cinch on controller for me.

- School's Out - Alice Cooper (Expert)
Looks to be an early tier song in the mould of (a lesser) Monkey Wrench. Lots of repetitive chords. I like it.

- Lay Down - Priestess (Hard)
Catchy metal song. I had a pro-face off with a member of Activision GH3 production team but lost.. In my defense, he obviously knew the song better and the 2nd verse and beyond i hardly missed a note. In fact, i perfected the solo. Not hard on Hard.

- Cult of Personality - Living Color (Expert)
Verse is fairly simple. Caught the riff quite easily but always messed up on the 3-note chords. Solo on the other hand..wow, looks like an easy fail for me without SP! It's not a Jordan, much more organised but its fast and you got to do a lot of finger-climbing on the keys to hit it.

Songs i saw people playing:

- Various songs on Medium:
Just want to say that Medium seems to be bumped up a little bit. It's still not hard but there's a lot more tricky bits in the way so a 100% won't be as easy.

- Knights of Cydonia - Muse (Hard)
This looks a little harder. Some fast passages a la Misirlou that will surely break my streak.

Some other tidbits i got from the Activision guy; game is coming out end-October; he was really quite proud of the improved strum bar which is less clickety-clack and more cushioned at the end, frankly i used the clicks to count my beats so i'm not as enthusiastic as he was; asked about TFaF and he said it was not on this demo, but Knights of Cydonia and Cult of Personality on Expert are as close as he can describe it; wireless guitar+Sony Full-HD TV = major synching lag!; he says there are 70 songs in the game; maybe it was a new guitar but the keys felt really firm.

I can't wait for this to come out. Will be a really good present when i arrive back in Singapore!

Be Still my Beating Heart...

When i was younger, i used to be terrified of the dark. Then i outgrew that fear. Then i used to get homesick very often. I cried after spending 1 month in Australia cause i was homesick. I felt lousy during my entire BMT (my favourite song was '1 more day to BOOK OUT DAY!..")because i was homesick.

And tomorrow i'm going to embark on the longest trip overseas (solo or family) i have ever undertaken and now, the night before, thank goodness i seem to have lost that 'warm' fuzzy feeling of homesickness. That might change during the trip but i'm determined, barring disabilities, fatalities etc, to complete my trip (up till Nov 14th) before returning.

As expected, i'm much too excited to sleep the night before i fly off. So i got to updating both my blogs. I still havent decided whether to update this blog while i'm in Japan, so don't be suprised if this remains as my last post till sometime November.

Anyway, for those not in the know, PLEASE BOOKMARK:

http://japancyclingtrip.blogspot.com/
(MY CYCLING TRIP BLOG)
and
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gabrielchin/
(WHERE I'LL UPLOAD ALL MY PHOTOS)
(register as a FLICKR member (free) and add me 'shdw_mss[at]hotmail.com' to be added as a friend)

Again, if you're not in the know, i'm flying off to Japan to cycle tomorrow! For 3 months! From the South to North! Please visit my alt. blog and feel free to comment (i'll really appreciate if you do)! Tell your friends all about me if you can! I'll do my upmost best to try to update daily with photos or whenever possible when i'm in Japan.

In closing, i just want to add there's still one fear that i don't think i will ever conquer. And that's the fear of having a close relative pass away and me not being around to say goodbye. One of the biggest regret i will ever carry with me was not spending the last few moments of my grandfather's life beside his bed. (I was sleeping) A lot can change in 3 months. I just pray that God will bless and keep my family safe and healthy while i'm out enjoying my holiday.

Sayounara! Till next time we meet!

Good Riddance ODEX! Farewell Anime!

As some of you might know the main reason i got interested in all-things Japanese is because i was introduced to anime during my poly-days. Since then my taste has evolved to J-music, J-idols, J-movies and now most recently J-dramas. Now i think the think the time has come for me to give up on my first love (anime).

And i blame this on the entire ODEX and AVPAS crackdown on anime downloading that has been going on since the beginning of the year. I always try to place myself on both sides of any argument to try and understand where each party is coming from, so a brief summary on the 2 sides of this matter:

ODEX: Downloading anime is illegal. We own the licenses to officially release anime in Singapore have authorisation to take legal action (meaning: Fine $$) against anyone who had and are still downloading anime in Singapore. We blame our poor VCD/DVD (VCD..haha!) sales on these 'pirates' and won't hesitate to sue the pants off anyone (they actually sued a 9 year old-boy)

The 'other' side: You are just using the excuse of piracy to account for your poor sales when the real problem is that you don't understand what anime fans want. Your releases suck in video quality, subtitles and dubs etc... Using lawsuits and threats to recover your losses is really the lowest.

All this has been going on for quite a while now and my intention was to let all the hoo-hah die down before going back into anime but just recently i've been reading again about all that ODEX has done to persecute (some call it a 'witch-hunt') anime lovers (pirates) and i ask myself, is it all worth it to take this risk? I love anime, but i certainly won't die without watching it.

And just reading how unreasonable and unfair the law suits are. Basically, they CAN persecute you in a court for $10,000/episode but they will settle for an out-of-court settlement of $3,000 to $5,000, and from what i read you have to sign an agreement that basically allows them to sue you AGAIN for the same thing if they so please). And as someone questioned in a HWZ post, "Pay $3,000 and they still don't give you the anime huh?"

Furthermore, instead of first issuing a warning letter, the lawsuit will just land 'Boom' in your mailbox straightaway. It's like stealing candy from a mama shop and instead of the shopowner shouting, "Oei!" first and giving chase, he just whips out a shotgun and guns you down.

To be fair, i acknowledge that Yes, downloading anime is illegal and wrong. As soon as i read that there would be a crackdown i completely stopped downloading. However, i read that ODEX has the power to persecute anyone who downloaded within the LAST 7 months*!

Now disregarding that they don't send out warning letters before a lawsuit, if they were to suddenly send a letter saying, "Hey, we're going to sue you for what you dl'ed XX months ago. Despite you stopping your downloading when we made public that it was illegal, we still see a need to sue you to earn back our $$." Now they CAN do this. That's just totally unfair and unethical, IMO, moreso than 'stealing' a video.

It seems that they just out to make a quick buck from lawsuits rather than improve their releases and pandering to the anime niche market.

Lastly, just saw this articles today about ODEX director gloating about suing people. If i didn't hate him (or rather his company) before i certainly hate him now. Anyway you can follow this saga through this links:

- Hardware Zone forumers expose Odex director?
- how do i gotten pwnt
- Excuse me, is that Stephen? The Stephen Sing?
- Stephen Sing: Odex Director (Hardware zone Forum thread, their CSI team investigating the 'gloating' matter)
- ODEX Wiki

Anyway after all that is said and done, yes, i will try to wean myself off anime. I DON'T need to 'pirate' to keep myself entertained. I have always imported DVDs and CDs of shows/music i like. I have no financial issues about buying original. I LIKE buying Original.

ODEX, you will never have my support on any of their products unless you stop this lawsuit bullshit and reimburse all the people you sued. I certainly don't need any of your shitty releases. You will need consumers like ME more than i will ever need anything from you. Good riddance.
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Oh ya, after feeling a bit pissed today reading all this ODEX crap, i called the police on the neighbour living across from me. That dumb *insert expletive here* was burning some things and all his ashes flew into our front porch. Talking to him didn't seem to do any good (retard..) so i just called the police hotline to confirm whether i could file a complaint on this matter and the police said yes. So i did.

I feel justified in my decision because i didn't use the power of the law for monetary gains or greed! I'm within my rights and just protecting my property and teaching some idiots a good lesson in return. They should thank me.