ミサミサちゃんは僕たちの新しいペーと～

Quite a number of new things to update, but I'm a little lazy to talk, so don't blame me if this post seems rushed. :) Last weekend, when we were shopping around the Serangoon area, we decided to take a look at the minature fish tanks and decided to get some fish and a tank to make our place look more lively. Well, we went home with Guinea Pig. Yup, a guinea pig.

Some how we wandered into a pet shop, and Mabel was pointing out at how cute some of the dwarf hamsters were, till I pointed out the guinea pigs were quite smart and would make good pets. We spent a good half an hour picking up and examining the different breeds of guinea pigs there, and finally selected this one (left picture). Mabel originally wanted one of the curly haired varieties, but my heart was with this one after it looked into my eyes as if saying "Bring me home!" It's eyes were one of the biggest ones there, and its fur coat was really smooth and shiny. Her name, until today is still in debate. She wants to name her Xiao Bai (小白), after the popular dog in 蜡笔小新. I disagreed, firstly because I wanted a more feminine name, and that one of our hamsters (now in hamster heaven) had that name once. I call our new pet Misa Misa (ミサミサ), after the character from Death Note. So, till now, she has 2 names which we use. I've set up a poll on the right, so vote and let us know how you feel!

Some of our friends came over on Friday evening to cook up a fabulous meal of Fried Udon (Japanese noodles). Amazingly enough, 3 out of 4 of the girls wore the same colour. Guess it must be in season. The girls who were in charge of dinner were: Mabel, Huiming, Jojo & Nicole. The guys, me, William and Nicholas did what husbands ought to do. Watch TV. Nah.......... but seriously the kitchen was the girls' territory. We just didn't want to invade.

I'm sure it was hard work, but the fruits of their labour were evident as the husbands dug in to a delicious meal of fried udon and spicy chicken wings. The girls, after dinner, started work on making dessert. Oreo Cheese Cake! I'm not too big a fan of cheese, but still gave my support. On the whole it was a night of good food along with good company. We ended the night around 3am after the screening of a few movies. I'd take this chance to thank the guys and gals for a great time, and hope to have you guys over again soon.

Collected my set of 30 Sentai Red Warriors. My first set of sentai figures, and I just wanted to have a set of history, since this sets includes all the Red Rangers since 31 years ago. Check out this clip of the first 25 Red Heroes, taken from the 25th Anniversary movie:New Transformer trailers have hit local theaters, and it looks smoooookin hot. Can't wait for the movie to be released. I'm not going to expect too much, since I still can't really accept the look of Bumble Bee. I love how Prime looks, and it's great that Peter Cullen is still voicing him after 20 years. Transformers are a big part of childhood for anyone born in the eighties.

I've not been shocked by any episode in anime for a long long time, perhaps since the series Elfen Lied. This new series I'm watching called Claymore, did just that. It's a rockin' new series, and I've gotten my friends at work talking about it as well. It's a great series, and even Mabel's watching it. Do try and watch it if you can. 5 stars from me. Here's an outline of the plot from wiki:

"A nameless and highly secretive organization has created an order of superhuman warriors to protect humans from the Yoma. These warriors have come to be popularly known as Claymores, after the immense claymores they wield. Villages being attacked by Yoma hire Claymores to kill the Yoma for a large fee. This organization creates the Claymores by implanting Yoma flesh and blood into humans, creating hybrids that are more powerful than the original Yoma, in addition to their weapons training and possibly greater intelligence.

A Claymore's standard abilities include overall enhanced physical prowess (most noticeably, strength), faster healing, limited shape modification and the ability to detect other demons and hybrids. They all wear the same armor and use large claymore swords that normal humans lack the strength to wield, and are characterized by their silver eyes and hair. However, the Yoma powers of each Claymore will increase over time until the Claymore loses all humanity and becomes a powerful, highly intelligent, and incredibly bloodthirsty Yoma called an Awakened. They also constantly run the risk of speeding up their transformations into Yomas if they overuse their powers. A good Claymore will ask a friend (usually a fellow Claymore) to kill them if they sense they are "Awakening" so they would not become a Yoma."

Alright, so this post didn't end up as short as I thought. But well, expect more updates within the week! Until the next post, take care and remember to recycle. I'd end off with my favourite Sentai roll call (the extremely flashy and time wasting "action more than badminton" moves, which the enemy will patiently wait during the process). This clip goes back to 1993 in that year's sentai series: Gosei Sentai Dairanger (五星戦隊ダイレンジャー). They have the best roll call moves of all 30 years in my opinion, which are based from Chinese Martial arts. Enjoy, and see ya soon~

仮面ライダ電王をきっと買いました～！

Just came home after another Ultraman Lah gathering, this time to celebrate Big D and Derek's birthday. Too bad Derek had something on and couldn't make it, but we got to celebrate for Dennis whose birthday falls on today. Once again, happy birthday! Pics will be added in a later post as I forgot to bring my camera along this time. as usual, the food was great, especially the home cooked laksa from Dennis's wife. The company was fantastic, and I also got to collect my stuff from Sze Huat.

I got all the 4 forms of Kamen Rider Den O, namely Sword, Rod, Axe and Gun. Also received the 3 Soul of Sofubi figures, Knight, Stronger and Tackle. Last but definately not least, the final form of Ultraman Mebius, Phoniex Brave.Like I mentioned previously, I'm not a big fan of sentai, but I decided to get this set of 30 Sentai Red rangers. Perhaps it's due to the few sentai movies I've seen lately for the 25th and 30th anniversaries. Might be due to the Jyuken Sentai Gekiranger series I've been following too. Either way, I thought that it would be cool to own a piece of sentai history. Each ranger is the leader in their own show, which started all the way 31 years ago in 1976. Forget the Americanised Power Ranger series which is crap. Sentai is the way to go.

Less than a week since Tsuji Nozomi announced her pregnancy & wedding, and Tsunku has decided on a replacement for her in Gyaruru (a new 3 member group from H!P). The newest member of Gyaruru is none other than Abe Asami! Yes, Abe Natsumi's little sister will be joining the 3-member group, and will appear alongside fellow members Gal Sone & Tokito Ami at a newly-announced handshake event & mini-concert on May 30th at Shibuya's C.C. Lemon Hall. Being the younger sister of 1st Generation favourite Abe Natsumi, Asami wanted to be different and went for the more sexy look when she first made a debut a few years ago. But things didn't go too well with bad publicity being the reason. Hope everything goes well for her this time!

An all new Transformers trailer has been released.... and I must say it looks absolutely kick ass. Check it out in the clip below. This trailer has gotten me really really excited and I do hope it's going to cheer me up after the dissapointing Spider-Man 3. Prime looks good, and they've even added the classic transforming sound from the G1 cartoons! Will be counting down the days to the premiere.

The movie was well, not as good as I expected, but I'm still looking forward to the game. Granted, it will still be disappointed in some aspects, especially the combat and fighting mechanics. However, I loved the way the swinging was done in the previous installment on the Playstation 2. The ability to swing around the city in a free gaming environment made the player feel like Spider-Man. You have to play the game to experience it. Back then, I can spend hours just swing around and not doing anything else. Here's a clip of the game on the next generation consoles.

That's the end of this update. Until the next time, I'll keep thinking of what else I can add here to make it more... interesting. But still, by now you should have figured that it's still my blog and I'll add whatever that interests me here. From my omocha to the H!P members to the anime and Jpop news, I'll add them in along with my banners and of course photos. Till next week, ja!

激気は正義の証！獣拳戦隊ゲキレンジャー！

Had a relatively busy weekend this week, mostly due to the double Mothers' Day celebrations for me and Mabel's mum. We went for a buffet lunch with my mum and grandmother, followed by a hearty dinner with Mabel's family. It was a very fulfilling day for our stomaches, and I'd also like to take this chance to wish all mothers a very happy Mothers' day. Of course, you should treat your mum well everyday, but just take this chance to give her a treat and thank her for everything she's done.

Downloaded a fair bit of Toku shows this week, and will be sharing some of the more interesting clips here. First up, a video showing Geki Red (Jan) shouting "Pork Cube Stew!" every time he fires off the Geki Waza: Geki Geki Hou (激激砲). In one epsiode, Jan was too impatient and lost a battle. So, he learnt about being patient through the waiting of a dish known as the Pork Cube Stew. Since then, he'll shout out the dish's name every time he fires it off, much to the displeasure of the other 2 Gekirangers. In the video, he even tries to convince them to shout along with him. Absolutely comical.

In another episode, Geki Yellow (Ran) learns about injecting fun into training and fighting. Thus, she is transformed into this overly cute ranger who's constantly smiling and winking. A little over kill on the kawaii meter, but still pretty funny. Watch this scene where she is given a special henshin sequence, complete with winks and ribbons and what not.

I'll be making and uploading more scenes from the series onto Youtube, so check back often. It's the first sentai series I'm actually watching, but I'm already thinking about getting some of the figures to display. I've already got the mini ones on my fridge (check an earlier post). :)

We went to Adrian and Cheryl's place this weekend, and was surprised that Adrian returned home with a brand new Nintendo Wii. I've never been a Nintendo guy. I've got the Sega Megadrive, followed by the Playstations 1 and 2, after Nintendo's reign was over with the Famicom. But I was pleasantly surprised by the Wii. Nintendo, being the current no. 1 in the video gaming industry, shows that it's leading through sheer innovation and creativity. We played a couple of rounds of Wii sports, including mini games such as tennis, boxing, bowling and golf. And it was a really tiring session, but really fun as well. Mabel had such a great time she was wondering whether to get one for herself. But I'm determined to get the PS 3 though, for titles such as Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy XIII. Expect mine to appear on this blog soon. Yeah!
Quote from "The Standard": With its slogan "Disneyland is too far," Beijing's Shijingshan Amusement Park features a replica of Cinderella's Castle, with staff dressed like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and other Disney characters. None of this is authorized by Disney - but that has not stopped the state-owned park from creating its own counterfeit version of the Magic Kingdom in a brazen example of the sort of open and widespread copyright piracy that has Washington fuming. The United States announced Monday it would file a case at the World Trade Organization over rampant copyright piracy in China, a practice which US companies say deprives them of billions of dollars each year. End quote. Check out this Japanese report, complete with English subs.

I was quite shocked when I first read the report and saw the video. It was pretty funny to see all the copied characters, but on the other hand I was also sad that the Chinese didn't give a damn about copyright laws. Everything was so obviously copied from Disney, even though the Chinese manager claimed that their version of Mickey was infact a big eared cat. I teased Mabel and asked whether she wants to go there for our next overseas trip. I should have recorded her reaction and broadcast it here. Haha! Seriously though, a lawsuit is on the horizon, and this might be the trigger needed to educate the people about copyright issues.

In another H!P related news, something big has happened to another ex-Morning Musume member! Remember Kago Ai, the girl who was sacked recently for smoking (refer to previous entry)? Her other half in of "W", Tsuji Nozomi (辻 希美), has gotten headlines following the announcement of her pregnancy. Yes! It's a shotgun affair! For a 19 year old aspiring singer who was just given a new start after the sacking of her partner recently, this came as quite a shock. Her new unit, "Gyaruru" might now be disbanded although their first single is scheduled to be released next month.

According to multiple Japanese news sources, Tsuji is nine weeks pregnant, and currently engaged to actor Taiyō Sugiura (age 26), lead role of Ultraman Cosmos, whom she had been dating since Summer, 2006, after the two were introduced to each other earlier in April. Their marriage is planned for June 17, 2007 (her twentieth birthday). This was confirmed the next day by several news sources. A press conference was held on May 10, appologizing to fans of both.

An official decision regarding Tsuji's status within Hello! Project has yet to be made, but Tsuji stated at the press conference that she would return to the public eye "when things calm down" after childbirth. That's it for her. Both Tsuji and Ai were not the best people in H!P as idols for fans looking up to them, and I'm glad they're out of H!P. Luckily all these bad publicity happened after they graduated from Morning Musume.

Here's a screen shot of my current wallpaper for my laptop desktop. It features 松浦亜弥 (Matsuura Aya) in her role as 麻宮サキ(Asamiya Saki) in the movie Sukeban Deka: Codename = Asamiya Saki (スケバン刑事 コードネーム=麻宮サキ) . It's not that great a movie, but I loved her role as an undercover student. She's one of my fave in H!P, and I've made a few new banners of her this week. :)

That's it for this week. Thanks to those who posted comments in the tag box this week, and also the guys who voted in the poll. Sorry for not putting in more photos lately. Although it's the number 1 of wanted item, we've not been too photogenic lately. Actually we haven't been going out too much.... because Mabel was ill last week and I've been getting the flu bug this week too. Will definately get more pics for the next post! Ja!

僕のデスノート。誰の名前を書きます。。。

Mabel's back from Taiwan, but she didn't take her camera along and so we won't get to see her shopping in action. She also declined to take photos of her magnificent harvest there, so as to avoid any possibilities of people getting too green with envy. All I can say is I'm surprised she didn't bring the whole of Simen Ding back. But she did get some stuff for me this time, most noticebly the Ultra Teddy shown above. I have the exact same thing in my car, just smaller. Now this teddy stands guard beside our bed while we sleep.

She also got this Ultraman phone, so we can finally use the phone in the living room. I've registered for a line a while back, but we've never really used it except for the ADSL line needed for my broadband connection. With this, it can act as a decoration and also we've finally have a reason to use the phone. Too bad I still can't remember my own number.

I also bought some Death Note related stuff last week when I was shopping around alone. I got the prequel novel based on L and Naomi, but was quite disappointed to learn that it wasn't in manga format. I also got a movie box set, which includes the Death Note replica note book, a photo album, and also a pen. The coolest thing about the note book is that it includes all of the rules in the anime and manga, and also includes all the people Light killed in the movie, including Ray, Naomi, Shiori, and the FBI agents. And we all know who is the last name. Here is a video clip I uploaded:

I've thought about what I would do if I really have a Death Note. To be honest, I would use it. Like what Light wanted, I too have a desire to make the world a better place. That was before he got obsessed and got his mind corrupted. But for me, nah, I won't make the same mistakes Light did. I do not want to be the God of the new world, nor do I want people to worship me like Kira. But I'll have a blast of the time with the note book. Nope I'm not sadist or anything, but it would be interesting to have such a power. The world would truly be a better place. Having said that, I hope a Death God (Shinigami) is reading my blog now. :p

Santa Claus is really the last person you'd want to be armed with the Death Note. Imagine all the children who are going to DIE. :(

Oh dear, what have they done..... I'm back home having just walked out of the theater an hour ago. And I'm sad to say this is my least favourite Spidey movie. I'm a big Spidey fan, since back in the days of The Electric Company. I loved the first 2 movies, particularly the sequel. And as excited as I was about this one, I felt that it was missing something. The movie felt rushed, and that many key scenes were not there. Maybe it was the overflux of villians. Maybe it was because I expected too much. I don't know, but I felt disappointed. Spoilers ahead, so skip this if you've not seen the movie yet.

I didn't like the fact that Peter initiated the kiss between him and Gwen. He knows Mary Jane's watching, and it was dumb on his side. I would have really preferred if Gwen was the one who pulled Spidey into the kiss. The CG scenes were good, but everything was moving too fast. There were not enough scenes to show off what Spidey can do. Sure it showed his speed and agility, but I wanted scenes where I can see Spider-Man moving like how he usually does. For example, I loved the train scenes in Spider-Man 2, where he actually crawls around slowly looking for Doc Ock. The way he moved was.... graceful. But none of that in Spider-Man 3. Everytime he's in his suit everything else just becomes blurry.

The Sandman and Venom back stories were not really developed. Sandman's background consisted of a 5 minute scene with his wife and daughter, and all we know is that he's not bad, but just has bad luck. We didn't even know why he was jailed, how he escaped, what the scientists were doing with the sand experiment, etc. Everything literally was there for the plot to exist. As for the symbiote, not much of any back story at all. All we know is that it came from outer space, amplifies agression, and is hard to remove. And this is the part where I'm really disappointed about. I wanted Spidey to fight more against the symbiote, and I half expected the symbiote to break out of its box and to take over Peter again, causing Peter to realise he was losing himself. Instead we get a new dancing Peter who decided to remove the suit after beating up a bouncer. Peter begins to wear his dark suit everyday, but why did the suit only retaliate when Peter decided to take it off at the church? Doesn't he take it off before he sleep? I would have loved for Peter to realise that the symbiote had a mind of his own, and that it was reluctant to let go of this "bond". But none of that happened.

I almost thought that the movie decided to skip the part about Venom being weak against sound, till the final fight scene. Thank god that it was at least explained. But still, that means that Peter at the church was nothing more than a coincidence. I very much wanted Venom to say "we" instead of "I". Here were the scenes which I thought he was going to say it:1) On top of cab with MJ - "Hey Parker. Remember us?"2) Strangling Spider-Man - "Do you remember what you did to me? Do you remember what you did to.... US?"But none of that happened. The symbiote didn't have the time to develop a personality. The good? Bruce Campbell was great. Stan Lee's line was good. No good memorable Spidey fights this time though. I'm disappointed, but still this is a Spidey movie, and I'll get the DVD when it comes out. On another note, I noticed that some of the scenes in the TV spots were taken out. Extras for the DVD perhaps.

I've just downloaded all 14 episodes of Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱). Normally I wouldn't be interested in such animes with overly cute girls, but this recent series caught my attention because of some youtube videos which featured Akihabara teenagers dancing to the ending song/dance. It's quite amazing how these people can gather on the streets to dance, and some in maid costumes too. I'm giving this series a try, so meanwhile check this out:

The original Ending theme:

On the streets of Akihabara:

It's 2:35am in the morning now, so I gotta go crash soon. Will update more soon during the week. Ja!

もうすぐに空港へ妻を迎えに行きます！

Got some time before going to the airport in an hour's time, was a little bored and so decided to post a bit in a short entry. I've just spent the day watching old Tokusatsu shows on my new harddisk in the living room, and it was a new experience watching some of the older shows on the big screen. Gonna go down to the airport soon, grab some dinner while waiting for Mabel's plane to arrive. After, it's champions league time at home! Woo hoo! And yeah, Jojo and her friends dropped by just now with some exotic but tasty snacks for me just now. I'd just like to say thanks to her and Nicholas for all the nice food theys brought to me these 2 days. It means so much especially when I'm home alone for yet another weekend. :)

Here you see my top 25 songs in my Itunes! My 1st song is from Def Diva, and its one of the songs written for the Rakuten Eagles. Playcount of 201 times, so you can imagine how many times it got onto my present play list. As you can see, most of the songs are Japanese, although mandarin king of pop Jay Chou got quite a couple of tunes in. He's one of the few Chinese singers I listen to. Other worthy mentions are from Berryz Koubou, Matsuura Aya, and one song from Hamazaki Ayumi called "Heaven", which was the theme song used in the film "Shinobi". Great romantic track.

On the left you see a 4 frame comic panel in Mandarin. I've put it up here because there is a reference to Kamen Rider. For the sake of non Chinese viewers, I'll try to translate. It's goes something like this: Birdie on the right "No! I can't bring myself to eat this grasshopper!" Birdie on the left: "It's right in front of you! Are you sick or something?" "There's a reason! It's because he looks to much like the hero I admire..." "You see that? It looks like my hero Kamen Rider!" Obviously, he was referring to the red scarf, which the first few Kamen Riders wore.

Ok, that's it for this post. Will post more stuff once Mabel comes back later. Thankfully I'm on off tomorrow so I can really take a good rest after the Champions League match later. Till then, check back soon. Ja!