Gripe of the gift

Recently i tried selling a couple of PS3 games i had completed and listed them on a forum. Among them was a game (Killzone 2) that Mabeline had bought for me sometime this year as a gift (i completely forgot it was a gift when i posted). Someone wanted to deal for the game but a day before we were supposed to meet, i happened to mention to Mabs that i was meeting someone who wanted to buy it. Her reaction was along the lines of 'huh? you're selling the game i bought you?' I then decided to cancel the deal and keep the game.

On my birthday, Mom and Brandon also got me a PS3 game (Ghostbusters) which i also completed and posted along with another game in the same forum. Just yesterday someone bought the game from me for $52 and when i saw Brandon today i gave him the cash.

His reaction was 'You sold my present?' I rationalized aloud that i had completed it and selling it was better than letting it collecting dust at home, to which his reply was you wouldn't sell a birthday present like you wouldn't sell a birthday card. I gave him the first answer that came to mind: It's different cause no one would want to buy mine(your) birthday card. But this incident got me thinking.

So it is wrong to sell a present? I never really had a firm stance on this, but i feel that if you give a gift to someone and then think its wrong for that person to give/sell/throw your gift away, can i suggest that in the first place, you have never actually fully given it away? Gifts (like Love) should not have Terms and Conditions attached to it. It's unconditional.

I can't expect everyone to understand or take my position on this, but i guess that will be how i treat any thing i give away from now on. Feel free to sell, throw, burn etc anything i give you. I don't mind. I shouldn't. It's all yours to do whatever you wish with it. Having said that i should also be more mindful and sensitive to dealing with gifts received.

Kobe Bryant Asia Tour 2009

Yesterday morning i went to Wisma Atria early to queue for tickets to Kobe Bryant's Asia Tour next wednesday at the Indoor Stadium. Kobe Bryant is one of my heroes since i started watching the NBA from his rookie year. I reached Wisma at about 9:50am and managed to collect the tickets only at 12:30pm.

This is the view from somewhere in the middle of the line. I was the 457th person in line (someone came and counted).

This aunty (red top in the middle) joined the queue. She then took out a phone and called someone and said something along the lines of 'there's lots of people lining up here!' and that she just joined the line. She obviously didn't know what she was lining up for cause i caught her asking someone beside her after her phone call what the queue was for.

As the saying goes, you can't keep an aunty from a good queue. To her credit she stuck to the queue for over 2 hours to get the tickets.

This is what the tickets look like. The ticket holder is pretty nice and would make a good place to get an autograph, even though there's already a fascimile sig on it.

Dreams are my reality

I told Mabeline last almost a year ago that my (then) latest dream was to marry her. Now that that dream of mine is so near to fulfillment, im starting to think about what should my new dream or goal be and what it means to have
a dream. I am a very goal oriented person (see my incurable obsession with PS3 trophies) and i know having one will help give me some drive in life, something i am sorely missing now.

I told Mabs the other day that i am at a very contented stage of life. My proof? If you tell me i can have anything in the world for free now, i can honestly tell you that i cannot name anything. And call me a pessimist but that to me is a very dangerous stage to be in. It means i am content to just stay where i am. This would be a no issue if i was say, nearing 50 but im halfway short of that.

Speaking of dreams, i realised after just waking from a weird dream this morning that since the early months of my relationship with Mabeline, i have ceased having dreams (the sleeping kind) involving her. (Hence, this post title.)

PS I seriously need to change my theme and layout. Everything on here is so 2-year ago-ish.
Yes Alex the book you gave me did cross my mind as i was writing this.

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.

BPL Opening Night, Counting my Piggy Bank

I hate the acronyms 'BPL' compared to EPL. It sounds like British Petroleum League. That's like WWF changing to WWE. It just leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you say it.

There were a few good matches and goals but the only match that mattered to me was Aston Villa vs Liverpool and Villa lost 2-1 . I'm only a teensy bit upset because them losing to Liverpool is like a foregone conclusion (cos they haven't beaten 'Pool at home in 9 years).

That's the advantage of supporting smaller mid-table clubs. Your expectations aren't as high. A draw against a big club would be a happy result, a win would be a miracle. But i think Liverpool were lucky to get the win. They needed a Laursen OG and a 87 min to get all 3 points. Poor Villa. And except for Reo-Coker, the entire squad looks the same as last season..
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I finally opened my piggy bank and counted the coins inside on Friday.

Grand total : $374.20. Decent for a year's savings (and considering how often i take coins out of it for bus fares etc) but a little short of my $500 target. Anyway i'll be changing the coins into pocket money for Japan.

Look! It's the National Day Parade! AGAIN!!

Before it strikes midnight, i just want to say something on this, our 42nd National Day and NDP: How many hundred times do we have to watch a NDP flash Live or on our TV screens before we realise we've just been watching the same old-rehashed crap every single year??

I'm not trying to be unpatriotic here, but give me a break! I just turned on my TV and became overwhelmed by a feeling of deja vu; Didn't i see this last year? And when i think back of the year before i can remember myself thinking the exact same thing.

If someone can introduce me to a NDP Otaku who can tell me the subtle differences and improvements from this year, last year and the 36-40th editions, please do. I really want to shake his hand. Makes me wonder why we Singaporeans are so hard-up for those tickets. I guess it just reflects our 'everything free must grab' mentality.
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Drama: Ushi ni Negai wo - Love & Farm (Episode 1 - 3)

This will probably one of the last J-dramas i watch before i fly off next week. Basically there are only 2 things you need to know about this drama, 1, the plot; 6 university students from Tokyo go to a farm in Hokkaido for a farming internship program (this drama is supposed to be 'educational') and 2, Toda Erika is starring in it.

Words of wisdom suddenly ring in Kazumi's head: "Don't have a cow, man!

Annoyingly, EVERYONE from the university is either a loser, spoiled or just a plain jerk EXCEPT for Toda Erika's character, Chiba Kazumi. And i'm being totally unbiased (hard as it may be to believe) when i state that. The show's supposed to semi-educational but i don't really want to know (or care) where my milk and meat comes from...

A quick run-down of the cast and characters:

1 : Toda Erika as Chiba Kazumi: Clumsy but hardworking. The friendly cute girl next door amd the only normal person in the group. If this was a harem this will be the girl you should probably choose to end up with.
2 : Koide Keisuke as Mano Tohei: 101% Jerk. His father is some bigshot and he loves to act like the leader of the group and boss people around. Hates it when someone else upstages him.
3 : Nakata Atsuhiko as Wakamatsu Ryuta: The silent weirdo (read:loser). Loves to draw pictures of people when they aren't looking.
4 : Aibu Saki as Fujii Ayaka: Spoiled, irritating city slicker. She gets jealous over another girl flirting with a guy who is not her boyfriend, even though she has a boyfriend.
5 : Karina as Suenaga Mihoko: The spoiled rich kid who does not want to do a single thing around the farm.
6 : Tamayama Tetsuji as Takashimizu Takashi: His family owns the farm and he wants to run away from inheriting it. Wishy washy and weak-willed.
7 : Extras

Ultimately, what's gonna keep me watching this series will definitely be Toda Erika. The show is low-average 6/10 material at best and unless you got a fetish for cows and farming then you'll probably not care what happens to any of the dumb cows. Watching all the crying and arguing over cow-care just made me hungry instead.
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Found this funny Borat video on Youtube. Quite old stuff but great if you couldn't get enough of his brand of humor from the movie:

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I finally decided to cut my hair before flying to Japan. With a good chunk of my hair off, i feel at least 5 years younger and it's much more cooling, especially since it's been very hot this past few days. No prizes for realising my new 'do looks the same as all my previous haircuts.

24.0 Megapixel Camera!

http://reprolabels.com/camera/

Specifically, it's a sticker you can buy to 'convert' your camera into a 24.0 MP model! Now will there be anyone so stupid to fall for this i wonder? As i'm thinking about this i already have a few IT-morons in mind who might actually believe it.

If the 'Bling Bling' caption wasn't amusing visit the main site here and check out their photo model. He reminds me of this Maddox article.

Stop playing Sweet CHILD! (WCG 2007)

FACT: The only song on GH2 that manages to cross all age boundaries in GH2 is 'Sweet Child o' Mine'. EVERY Tom Dick and Harry went up onto the stage and played Sweet Child. I must have heard it repeated 200-300 times in the WCG hall on the 1st day alone.

I was on and off the Guitar Hero 2 mini-stage playing whatever song i thought i could 5 star. Somehow that didn't work out right, though i did manage to win 2 free GV movie tickets.

"Take the tickets and get off the stage!"

Yup, they had to bribe me to get me off the stage so other people could have a turn at the game.

Herbert went down with me on Friday and Saturday. No prizes for guessing which booth we hung around most of the time.

"I can play this with my eyes half-closed."

And he even got to sit on a special chair. Damn, i wanted to sit down and play too.

Unfortunately, i did not bring my camera on Saturday, which i really regretted because there was a cosplay event (CosCon 2007, there are pics of it at SGCafe, the individual contest winner (maid with a machine gun, which i think is based on this game)was pretty cute) and also because me and Herbert got interviewed by a Channel V VJ, who just suddenly jammed a mic in my face and asked me how my friend (Bert) got so good.

I gave a short answer ('we practice together at my place alot') and then those idiots didn't get my hint that i had nothing more to add on. There was like an awkward 10-20 secs space of silence where i didn't know what to say with the cameras still rolling and then finally (thankfully) the VJ started laughing, "Don't leave us hanging man!" and moved on to interview Herbert. Good thing it wasn't a live feed.

Wish i could have gotten some pictures of that. And if they do air this on Channel V i hope i can somehow record it (but i don't even subscribe to it so my best bet is to hope for some webcast)

Anyway throughout the 2 days there were alot of spectators taking pictures of Herbert playing GH2, so if by some chance anyone comes across any of his pics on blogs or whatever please let me know!

Leaving on a Jetplane (soon)

16 more days and i'll be flying off! Besides deciding on my first few destinations this afternoon, MOST importantly, i have secured my 'sponsor' for my trip!

I was hoping to get a fixed sum to work with for my 3 month trip, but my 'sponsor' is going to get me a supplmentary card so technically, i have no restriction on budget. But in order to curb errant spending (which i am so often guilty of), i'm going to stick myself to my original plan of $100SGD/day, and any extras put aside to possibly further my 90 days (pending a visa extension application come November).

So, first 2 stops for me upon arrival will be... Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Just can't pass up the chance to visit the 2 A-Bomb memorial sites (Nagasaki Peace Park and Hiroshima Peace Memorial) especially since both are just to the west and east of Fukuoka where i will be arriving.

Up next: Gearing up my bicycle and getting a new handphone.

Electric Eye

I was going to have an afternoon nap today but upon hearing my CPU fans humming i was suddenly struck with this thought: I leave my PC on for almost 6 out of 7 days a week, so how much electricity costs am i running in a month or a year? And for that matter how much are my other devices draining?

So after some sketchy research into the subject and some rough guesstimation on my part (meaning for example, in the case of my PC i just took 75% of the max. power my power box can supply), this are some figures i came up with (based on Singapore Powers 1st July '07 electricity tariffs per kWh; 20.52cents) :

-My PC running @ ~330W w/o LCD monitor:
$397.26 if left on 24/7 for 1 year, $33.10 a month

- My Grundig LCD TV @ 200W:
$71.13 if used 7 hours a day for 1 year, $5.92 a month

- Xbox 360 @ 160W:
- $58.82 if used 7 hours a day for 1 year, $4.90 a month
(power usage compared to a PS3/PS2 in this article)

- Daikin Air-Con @ 900W:
$91.66 if used 2 hours a day for 1 year, $7.64 a month
(that's $366.64 a year if used 8 hours a day!)

- Tower Fan @ 40W:
$54.72 if left on 24/7 for 1 year, $4.56 a month

Anyway these are the main things that are used in my room daily. The biggest cost i can save is definitely on air-conditioning (and i only turn it on when friends come over). If i use my fan for a whole year i will still pay less than using the air-con for 2 hours a day. And despite what my parents say, me playing games for 7 hours a day is not the main reason for the high electricity bills.

Again i want to stress that all the figures are just guesstimation that take do not take into account electricity loss through plugs or energy saving settings etc. Reading for 15 minutes and spending another 15 minutes doing calculations did not make me a SME.

And how about environmental impact? Everything above is presented in dollars and sense so if you ask me how much does saving $50 a year in electricity slow down global warming, i seriously do not know.

I just suspect doing whatever little bit we can to reduce wastage (especially if you're a hug-a-tree kind of person) will do much more than say, having a 'Live Earth' concert and having millions of people around the world tuning in on their TVs.

There's lots of good reading online if you really want to find ways to cut billing costs or just do your part for the environment.

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The latest song from Guitar Hero 3 that looks set to dwarf 'Jordan' in terms of sheer difficulty is Dragonforce's "Through Fires and Flames".

If you like the song you can go to the Dragonforce official site and download the full mp3 version of the song for free (it's the full 7:20 version that will be used in GH3 compared to the 5:02 of the MTV).

Personally i find the song very epic/fantasy-themed and fun to sing along to. Alex says it sound very 80s ala the Transformers (the fantastic cartoon movie, not the crappy shit that came out last month) soundtrack. Bert says it sound very patriotic and that if you swap National Education lyrics in it will probably be a good national song. Anyway the lyrics are as follows:

On a cold winter morning, in the time before the light
In flames of death's eternal reign we ride towards the fight
And the darkness is falling down and the times are tough all right
The sound of evil laughter falls around the world tonight

Fighting high, fighting on for the steel
Through the wastelands evermore
The scattered souls will feel the hell that is wasted on the shores

On the blackest waves in history
We watch them as they go
Through fire, pain and once again we know

So now we fly ever free
We're free before the thunderstorm
On towards the wilderness our quest carries on

Far beyond the sundown, far beyond the moonlight
Deep inside our hearts and all our souls

[CHORUS]
So far away we wait for the day
For the lights are so wasted and gone
We feel the pain of a lifetime lost in a thousand days
Through the fire and the flames we carry on

As the red day is dawning
And the lightning cracks the sky
They raise their hands to the heavens above
As we send them to their lies

Running back through the mid-morning light
There's a burning in my heart
We're banished from the time in the fallen land
To a light beyond the stars

In the blackest dreams we do believe
Our destiny this time
And endlessly we'll all be free tonight

And on the wings of a dream
So far beyond reality
All alone in desperation
Now the time is gone

Lost inside you'll never find
Lost within my own mind
Day after day this misery must go on

CHORUS [Guitar Solo Duel!!]

Now here we stand with their blood on our hands
We've fought so hard now can we understand?
I'll break the seal of this curse if I possibly can
For freedom of every man

CHORUS

Feel A Fear

Met two very old friends, Sun Jie and Alvin on Thursday night after watching The Simpsons Movie and Alone with Alex. Haven't seen them in at least 8 years, since Secondary School.

Incredibly Sun Jie remembers quite a lot of things from back then, even a stupid lame joke that i supposedly made (Alex vaguely recalls it so i guess i did). It's not like me to want to forget my friends (and they were very close friends) but my memory is really terrible.

Anyway Simpsons was better than i expected, short for a movie but still very funny (though i guess pretty soon the net will be choked with Spider-pig jokes and references). For such a short comedy Alex still said it felt draggy. This is a call for Hollywood to produce movies under an hour so they don't lose movie-goers like him.

Alone was above average. I could smell the plot twist coming from miles off and almost all my hunches were proven right. Scares were a plenty (like one every 5 mins) but the shock factor wasn't really high (though to look at Alex cover his eyes everytime the music turned an ominous note, you would think otherwise). Better to have a horror film with more cheap scares than those where you never even see the ghost till the last 5 minutes of the movie. And at least the plot is very accessible/understandable for a Thai film, no cultural references or whatsnot.

Safety is Contagious

My Toda Erika poster arrived today! I really like the picture and I need to go get a frame from Ikea sometime this week to frame it up. From what i know this poster is quite 'rare' in the sense that it's not available via retail, instead it's given out by the The General Insurance Association of Japan (aka Sonpo, the poster(about fire safety) even comes with a letter from Sonpo about displaying it properly) for display around Japan. Quite lucky to find someone selling one on Yahoo.jp auctions.

Went out to collect my Forza 2 Subaru goodie bag today at Dhoby Ghaut mrt. Quite a nice package for just a few hours of racing. It comes with 1 Subaru shirt, 1 Xbox 360 Winning Eleven X shirt (don't ask me why..), 2 Forza car headrest, 1 universal USB handphone charger, handphone strap, Subaru 2007 catalogue CD-rom and some other misc stuff.

Miyazaki Aoi and Olympus

I'm glad my sixth sense led me to buy Olympus, cause look who's the face for their E-410 and E-510 DSLRs! And I can't help but smile when i see her in the commercial. Simply too irresistibly cute...

CM for the E-410..

..and the E-510.