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.

Asian Cup 2007: Australia vs Japan

Looks like i got my wish, though it wasn't a thrashing but in the end it's the results that matters i guess. Quite a big of excitement after 70 minutes when Australia scored through John Aliosi, then Japan equalised through Takahara almost instantly.

Strong, composed finish from Takahara

And a few minutes later, Australia had a man sent off for a flying elbow challenge. I thought Japan would impose their grip on the match after that, but it went all the way to a penalty shoot-out.

Australia had their own selves to blame after their first 2 PK takers (Harry Kewell and Lucas Neill) had their poor penalties saved, but all credit to the Japan goalie. Japan won the shootout 4-3 and will face either Uzbekistan or Saudi Arabia in the semis.

Celebrations after winning the shoot-out!

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Finally completed [eM] -eNCHANT arM- (the NA title is "Enchanted Arms") today. First RPG i've finished on the X360 and it's actually very good. The combat system (sort of like turn-based chess) is unique in that the damage for every move is clearly shown beside the move name, eliminating random damage (or critical hits) so you actually can plan right down to the last HP how much you can hit an enemy in 1 turn.

If you think that makes it sound easy, think again. The final boss(es, all 7 'final' battles) are actually quite challenging and require alot of prior preparation. A little short (26 hours) for the main storyline but that's excluding me entering the bonus dungeon or aggressive levelling (finished at lvl.47).

Next game i want to start on (and hopefully complete) is the IdolM@ster. Looks like only 1 person in Singapore has completed that game so far.

Moonage Daydream

Saw this sign on the way to Funan today to collect my replacment X360. When i saw the the line "Thanks Be to God", the first thought that came into my head about what the developers were trying to say was, "Wow! How did we ever manage to find so many suckers to buy into this property? Thanks Be to God!" But i think that's just me being cynical.

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Matthew and Herbert are officially the first 2 of my friends to visit my room! Played a few songs in GH2 , ordered KFC, watched 2 episodes of Little Britain and then they sat and watched me play Resident Evil 4. Maybe they were being polite (or feeling too sleepy) because no one asked for their turn on the controller, which actually made me feel quite guilty.

Amazingly, Alex just noticed that the girl in my DP (Alex: "so cute!!!!!!!") and the actress in Nana are one and the same (Miyazaki Aoi), which just leads me to conclude he skipped reading every single past post i made on her. He claims i ruined his newfound 'true' love (delusions...) when i told him she's getting married soon.

So he asked me to go spoil her wedding when i'm in Japan and then pass her his love letter. Man, i thought i was stalker-rific/Borat-ish but he really takes the cake.

Asian Cup 2007: China vs Uzbekistan

It's been 5 years since my house's was hooked up to SCV. Now we have 3 sets in our new place and i even got one for my own room. Frankly i don't watch much TV and the only thing that makes the price of cable worth it, in my opinion, are the sports programmes. Gone are the days where i have to invite myself to other people's house to watch soccer or MotoGP!

I was rooting for the South East Asian teams (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam; teams i would normally be booing in the Tiger Cup) but only Vietnam managed to advance to the q-finals.

Caught the China vs Uzbekistan game tonight, and knowing me you know i would be hoping China would lose badly. And probably the best thing to happen to me this week was to watch them get thrashed 3-0.

1-0!

2-0 as the ball takes a slow roll into China's goal.

Too bad i already took my camera down when they scored the 3rd late in injury time.

However, the match took an ugly turn early in injury-time when China's striker no.9 stayed downed on the pitch for a good 5 minutes and was eventually stretchered off, quite motionless.

As much as i enjoyed watching them lose, no one likes to see someone get injured in any sport. Hope he's alright. The match ended with an unheard of 11+minutes of injury time because of this though.

Man, i wouldn't want to be China's coach right now. He will be lucky if he is just fired straight. I expect him to be stoned or to face a firing squad when he arrives back in China.

So the quarter finals line up:

Iraq vs Vietnam
Japan vs Australia
Iran vs Korea Republic
Uzbekistan vs Saudi Arabia

Secretly i'm rooting for Japan to win the cup again. Actually any team besides Australia would be fine. Haven't forgiven them for thrashing us 3-0 in our final Kallang Stadium match. Have to keep this Saturday night free to catch Japan take on Australia, and hopefully thrash them.

The Height of the Matter

Skimmed through today's Strait Times and saw this interesting diagram on average (male) height in certain countries:

I don't really care about the main heading that people in the US are shrinking vertically (and probably expanding laterally), but what really interests me is that the average height of Singaporeans is 1.72m, which means that at 1.74m (technically 173.5m), i am a good ~2cm above average.

Cruel as it may sound, any Singaporean guy below 1.72 should probably consider this operation, else you will most definitely be deemed 'below average' and spurned by society. After all, it's only results that matter here in Sinapore.

If you're below 1.65m (the recommended limb lengthening limit is 7cm), you should probably consider migrating to our friendly neighbours up north. We certainly don't want Malaysia or China overtaking us, do we?
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For all of Activision's Guitar Hero 3 buzz, EA's Rock Band looks and sounds altogether like a superior package to GH3. It's being developed by Harmonix, the original developer of Guitar Hero before they sold it to Activision. And it's also the same team that generously donated $2,000 to fansite Scorehero to keep its servers running.

Saw this live stage demo of Rock Band today on Gamespot today. The Fender Stratocaster peripheral which just looks totally awesome (gone are the color-coded keys that made the guitar look like a toy). It also looks almost the same size as a real life Strat.

And the Harmonix staff claims that playing the drums peripheral will actually help you learn basic drumming patterns which will be applicable to real life as well. Considering i'm a hopeless case when it comes to keeping beat and rhythm, this might actually be the most educational game i ever picked up in my life. (in case you were wondering, being able to play the guitar solo for Jordan in-game still does not neccessarily mean you will be able to play a chord on a real guitar).

So i'm definitely getting this game when it comes out. The only problem is, for which console? X360 or (my future) PS3. Herbert will be getting a PS3 so it make sense to get it with him so we can play together. But that will mean giving up a X360's achievement points... Tough decision to make.
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My X360 officially died (red rings of death or ROD) this morning. Called Microsoft Xbox hotline and a replacement set will be ready next Tuesday. Guess this is actually good news since my warranty is up next month and i'll be getting a further 3 years extension from date of purchase under Microsoft's new warranty policy for all ROD problems.

Well it would be 'good' news, except my PC died yesterday as well. I rushed down to Sim Lim and had to replace my power supply and motherboard ($200+ repair..urgh..) so i got it back up the same day. But i'm officially broke for the whole of this month. Probably will have to decline Alex's invitation to Hanabi next Monday.

Where do i begin?

I've only got one thing to say about my new place: Having my own room is too good to be true! I've got so much freedom that i don't even know what i should be doing or how i should spend my time.

But...I still need a 'Do Not Knock' sign to be placed on my door when i sleep. 2 different people actually knocked and woke me up this morning asking if i was awake.

Please feel free to pop by and visit though if you have nothing to do. I'm ~80% done with unpacking (the last 20% will be put up for long-term procastination, most likely) Morning visitations are strictly out of the question though.
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Sad news:

"Microsoft's coporate VP Peter Moore confirmed that Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will not be coming to Xbox 360, the game remains as a PS3 exclusive title."

Was hoping that i wouldn't have to get a PS3 but now it looks likes it will be a matter of time (release date for MGS4~ early 2008) before i move on, hopefully the price of the PS3 will continue to fall (the 60GB model dropped $100USD because the 80GB(potentially 120GB) model is coming out and Sony's clearing 60GB model stock)