本田ジャズを買いました、八月中来ます！好かった！

Well as you can most probably see from the pictures and the title, we've settled on a decision and got for ourselves a yellow Honda Jazz. Yes, I've stated in the previous post that I would prefer the Toyota Vios if possible, but after visiting both the show rooms and making side by side comparisions (as well as the wide-eyed pleas from Mabel), I've decided that..... in terms of value for money, the Jazz goes a long way, for it's size of course.

I was particularly impressed by the interior design of the Jazz. For a small hatchback, the interior was surprisingly spacious, and there was a function to lower the back seats so that we can put more stuff inside. The dashboard as well as the head unit looks good too, which played a major factor in us deciding to get one. And moreover, we both wanted to get something sporty an in a yellow colour. Even if I were to get a Vios, I would really be tempted to go get it painted in bright yellow.

Although I've already made reservations for the Jazz, the results of the next COE bid will only be known on the 5th of July. Thereafter, the car will only be reaching local shores from Japan near end July or early August. After all this waiting, I would still need to settle all the procudures such as registration, insurance, etc. So, according to the sales executive at KAH motors, I would expect to drive off in my new car latest by mid August. All sounds fine and dandy, but August seems so far away right now..... :(

I went for a family photo shooting session today, as my younger sister graduated from NUS not too long ago and wanted to take a few pictures, along with our family members. It's been quite some time since we had a family portrait, and it was a good time to take one as well. Will definately be getting a copy of the pictures for our new home, in addition to our own photo shoot which will be due in August. Lots of exciting stuff are coming our way in the next 2 months. 1st, our Tokyo trip, then getting our Jazz, then getting our flat in Buangkok and overseeing the renovations work, and of course our wedding shoot. It's going to be a tiring time ahead but definately an enjoyable period for me and Mabel. Expect more pictures coming your way soon!

It's never about the destination

And it's always about the process. The journey. Every little step that you take. Every breath that takes you where you want to go. It's the friends you make and the memories you take away that makes life interesting. It's such a waste having to spend many years of one's life not knowing what do to. Having a clear goal will definately help a long way. Know what you want. Find out how to do it. Get your goal. Live your life. Life's too short to waste any day.

I've been thinking a lot about life these days. I've almost finished reading Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Effective People". I've learnt a great deal from this book. Things which I've always thought I knew, but learning is never complete without doing. And I've only realised how unstructured my goals and objectives in life are. Time for me to go re-evaluate my personal vision and mission statement, and to apply what I've learnt to good use. Remember, all our days are numbered. Well, it's true in a way mah.

Me and Mabel will be going for our test drive this coming Sunday. As mentioned in a previous entry, we'll be looking at a few cars, but the Mazda 3 has been dropped due to money limitations. What's left: Toyota Vios and Honda Jazz. Personally I'm more geared towards the Vios due to it's design and easy customisation capabilities. Mabel's more drawn to the hatchback Jazz due to it's sporty appearance and interior. Well, hopefully we'll be able to get our car real soon, as the COE has dipped again this month. More importantly, it's been a really tiring and frustrating period for me due to the lack of transportation. Let's hope our car will be ready soon....

The recent episodes of “Musume Dokyu” are showing the practice of the new H!P Kickball team, apparently called the H!P Metro Rabbits. The first episode show the Musumes on the team and their initial practice. The Kickball team is made up of the members of Morning Musume, Viyuden, and W who aren’t a part of Gatas, the futsal team. So Gatas has Yossi, Mikitty, Konno, Rika, and Tsuji. The Rabbits thus have Takitty, Makoto, Risa, Eri, Sayumi, Reina, Koharu, Erika, Yui, and… um…Well. Whether or not Kago will still be on the team if / when her suspension is lifted, I have no idea. However, the line-up does sorta explain why she was named Captain: she’d have seniority in terms of being in H!P the longest, if not in actual age.

The next update would probably be on Sunday after our little test drive session. Hopefully you will be able to hear some good news from me first hand! Frankly speaking, this car will be with us for a few years, so hopefully it'll be one where both me and Mabel would enjoy driving around. Of course some compromise would need to be present, but anything's better than walking to work everyday. Until the next update in 48 hours, do leave a comment, or leave a message in my tag box! Bye bye!

Welcome to Silent Hill

I've just watched Silent Hill yesterday, and was overwhelmed by a mixed feeling of nostagia and deja vu. As most people already know, the movie is based on the popular video game franchise created by Japanese game giant Konami. I've played the game around 6 or 7 years ago, back on the Sony Playstation 1. I didn't think the movie would do the game justice, as the game was easily the most frightening and distubing game I've ever played. Boy was I wrong. The movie is extremely faithful to the original Silent Hill, and even pays homages to the video sequels, to the delight of many Silent Hill followers. Do not take this series as a Resident Evil wannabe. They are on totally different scales. Resident Evil's style of horror goes with sudden loud noises and surprises to provide shock and surprise, while Silent Hill induces fear through pychological and tension/suspense.

A lot of elements in the game were used for the movie as well. I've forgotten many of them before the show, but as the movie progressed the memories came flooding back in as well. The sudden change of the enviroment, known as "nightmare" in the game, was very well done in the movie. CGI was impressive, as was the plot which was almost entirely based on the 1st game. Many of the creatures found in the game made appearances as well. From Pyramid Head (left) to the Patient Demon (in a skin straight jacket), and of course who can forget the nurses in those revealing suits with skin wrapped around their heads. Some differences were obvious though, such as the change of the sex of the main character, from Harry looking for his daugher Cheryl in the game, to Rose looking for Sharon in the movie. Cybil from the 1st game surprisingly reprises her role in the movie.

On the whole, I enjoyed this movie a lot, although I must warn that not everybody would enjoy this cup of tea. Expect lots of gore and blood, but underlying the carnage also lies a very simple lesson to be learnt. Never be blinded by faith.

奥さんは有名になりました～

The World Cup finally kicks off tonight! Although it's not a big match, I'll still be watching it to get the World Cup mood going on! Germay Vs Costa rica, happening in a few hours time, woo hoo! Will be supporting 2 countries, England and Japan, though chances of both winning are slim at best. My guess? Brazil are going to be the eventual cup winners, again. Guess we'll find out soon, eh.

Disclaimer: The picture on the right is not a photoshop! I repeat, not a photoshop! (Not that hard to believe since I'm more likely to be working on an Ultraman picture). Mabel and our friend Kelly's going to be poster girls! Sure Mabel's been on magazine covers before, but it's been a while since she's gotten on something big. Last one was on U Channel's magazine around 2 years ago. Anyway, notice the numbers for both of them. 168 and 088. Fancy the organisers to choose such aspicious numbers, haha! And yeah just for the curious ones, Mabel hasn't really ran the 10km...

My good old OCS buddy Sam (yeah the good old days of Alpha Wing), has started his blog recently. Sam's a very talented cartoonist and you can see his work regularly in Lian He Zao Bao (联合早报). I love his work, which has a very local flavour, and his drawings never fail to amaze me and make me laugh. Hopefully he can publish his own work soon enough, and I'm sure with his talent success wouldn't be far away. Check out Sam's blog here. I've been bumping into him every now and then, and hopefully one of these days we'll be able to have a gathering with old friends from Alpha Wing 41/00.

Henohenomoheji (へのへのもへじ) is a face drawn by Japanese schoolchildren using "Hiragana". The word breaks down into the seven hiragana characters he, no, he, no, mo, he, ji. The first two "he" are the eyebrows, the two "no" are the eyes, the "mo" is a nose, and the last "he" is the mouth. The outline of the face is made by the character "ji", with the dakuten forming the ear. Children use henohenomoheji as the faces of scarecrows.

車が欲しい！如何したらいいでしょうか？

I feel like I'm a frog. This feeling started on Monday, where I was attached to a divison exercise to learn more about my upcoming posting. I feel like I've finally began to climb that well that has been between me and the outside world for 3 and a half years. As I make my way out of this well, I begin to smell the fresh air as well as see the light that has eluded me all this while. It wasn't easy climbing up though. I made some falls but the thought of greener pasture pushed me ahead. I've learnt so much new stuff during this exercise I'm on the verge of information overload.

Fear also exists in a form of uncertainty. This well has...erm... treated me well for the past few years, and it has become another home to me, where lots of bonds were made and fun times were shared. But every chapter has to have a an ending, and here I am, right on the very last page of this one. It's been meaningful and I've learnt a lot, but the story must continue, and a new chapter awaits.

It's hard to tell some one how much you need a car, when you work in the SAF which has irregular working hours and camps which are situated on the isolated spots in the country. I've spent quite a period of time trying to convince Mabel that I NEED one, and although it's taken a while, she has finally shown signs of cracking and giving in. Hehe, persistance prevails! Here you see the 3 cars which I've considered. They are: the Mazda 3, Honda Jazz, and the Toyota Vios.

After some debating sessions and financial presentations from the minister of Finance and Home Affairs, the President (me lah.... duh) has decided that it's better to go for an economical car which will not dent our savings, since our flat is coming very very soon. More likely than not, our choice is going to be the Toyota Vios. Colour yet to be decided, but we'll be going for our test drive sooner than you can say "kuruma ga hoshii!"

Although it's nearly the end of the month, I still forked out some money to get the 12 inch Garo figure, as Mike was selling it at a real bargain price of $70 for special Lah members. Not wanting to let this chance escape, I requested for Ryan to help me get this figure, and I promptly returned him the money through NETs. It's not really a small sum of money, but I figured that it was still worth getting because I really loved the series. I've been recommending the series to a lot of friends, and many are converted to fans like me. The upcoming volumes of Equip and Prop will feature Garo and Goten, Berserk Garo, and Dark Knight Kiba. And from the pictures from the Lah forum, Berserk Garo is going to be HUGE! And when I say huge, I mean HUGE! Check back for pics here soon.

Also received from Tony the set of Ultraman 40th Anniversary candy toys. It's supposed to be in a set of 5, but since I don't like Kaiju I decided to tuck the Zetton figure away. These 4 figures look good, but not as great as the recent Ultimate Solid figures, which had more of a rubbery feel rather than a plastic feel. At least there's Zoffy in the figure line up, so it's still worth it. : )

Morning Musume's 30th single "Ａｍｂｉｔｉｏｕｓ！野心的でいいじゃん" has been released! Well, at least the PV's out. Honestly, it was a disappointment. I expected something better than "SEXY BOY～そよ風に寄り添って～", but this PV tries too much to be cute and fails miserably, with the girls posing in awkard stances and fighting poses. Looks disjointed to me and I believe long gone are the days of memorable PVs such as Renai Revolution and Koko ni Iruze. :(

Ultraman Cosmos nearly tripping at Live Show

Took this video with my camera, and this alone was enough to justify for being there at the live show! Way to go Ultraman Cosmos! Haha!

To be honest the show was better than I thought it would be, since I expected a disaster. The music they used were correct, the moves and stances were not too far off as well. Only complaint was Nexus being too fat, kaiju sucked and the announcer was annoying. Still, it wasn't a bad experience and since it's my first time watching Ultraman live, it's a day to be remembered. The whole gang went over to Mac Donald's to chill out after the show, after which we headed over to Liang Court to take a look at the new books in Kinokuniya. I also bought my 12 inch Garo thanks to Ryan. Pics coming in next post.

光の国から、ウルトラマンネクサスがここにいます！

The official site of the new Ultraman movie has finally been updated! New information has been revealed, such as the introduction of Imit Mebius. It's been a long time since the classic 6 Ultraman brothers have united, and it's been about time, especially since this is Ultraman's 40th anniversary. There is alot of hype for this movie, which also brings together the original cast members of the show, which began in 1966! Sure the actors may be old uncles now, but it still brings a feeling of nostalgia when fans see them on the big screen once again.Ultraman Nexus, Ultraman Dyna and Ultraman Cosmos will be making their first appearance here in Singapore since 4 years ago, and it will be the first time the Singapore crowd gets to see Nexus in action. Nexus is a fan favourite Ultra, since its series marks a departure from the usually kiddish series to a more mature series with deaths and gloom galore in every episode. Most of us at the forums were a little suprised by this live show, but nonetheless still thrilled by it and we'll be having a gathering at Jurong Point tomorrow.

To prepare for the gathering, I've volunteered to help print the logo t-shirts for those who have yet to done so, and also printed 1 more for myself and another for Mabel. As the designer for this logo, I feel proud that people will be walking around in something I've help created. I did the printing at a shop in Sunshine Plaza, and while the white t-shirts costs $14, the black/coloured ones costs $20. I could have gotten a better deal, but there were only 11 shirts so it was the best I could do.

I also took this chance to print for myself a Kamen Rider Hibiki t-shirt, using a decal from from our American friend Coop from the forum. He has a great set of decals and I might be printing another one soon with Kamen Rider Todoroki. It's not that expensive printing my own shirts, so I might be doing more of this as I enjoy the designing process, and it feels good to wear something customised. Look out for more of my t-shirt designs soon!

Don't know how much time I will have in the upcoming weeks, due to my attachment to a division level exercise and my upcoming posting. But no matter what, I'll still find time to update this blog, which I've been updating much more so than my Friendster blog. However, I believe fewer people are reading this due to the lack of the email notification feature Friendster had. Well, you win some, you lose some. Post a message in my tag box ok? :)