私の神様：夜神月は新世界を造ります！

We celebrated our good friend Kelly's birthday along with Huiming and William last Friday. We decided to go along with a steam boat dinner as there was less preparation needed and we could just buy whatever we liked to cook and eat. As usual, we had a fantastic meal and everyone ate to their heart's content. The food mostly consisted of sea food along with vegetables and other meat types. We also added in lots of udon and tofu to give it a more japanese feel. Thankfully we didn't need to play any games to finish up all the food and nothing is wasted at the end of the day.

Kelly's in her 4th month of pregnancy now, and Wee Lee's doing a fine job taking care of her and their future son. While the girls were taking turns to make cheese cake, the guys were also busy competing against each other on our PSPs. We went head to head in games such as Ridge Racers 2, Virtua Tennis World Tour, Dragonball Budokai 2, and also Pro Evolution Soccer 2007. Seems more and more of our friends have their hands on the PSP now, and it won't be long before we get 8 players together for a round in Ridge Racer. Till that day comes.... I'll need to go train up more. Not that I can be beaten easily, but I won't want to under estimate other players. We need to get our hands on more multiplayer games, and level up the other players so that it's more fair though.

The following day, we went over to Mabel's colleague's place. Vanessa and Shawn played host to us and the other guests, and even prepared fried rice and curry chicken which tasted exceedingly delicious. Since it was a pot luck type of dinner, Mabel brough over her freshly baked cheese cakes which she spent the night before making.

Here you see some of the food brought in by the other guests, including otah and sotong balls. There were also other good stuff not pictured here, such as Constance's deserts and Adeline's sugar coated chocolate cake. Short of handing our survey forms, Mabel promoted her cakes and demanded feed back from all those who gave it a try. For me I'm trying my best to give new suggestions so that I can get other cakes instead of cheese all the time.

We had a great time there and sadly had to leave early because we were going to catch the Transformers movie in town. Thanks to Vanessa and Shawn, and hope to see you guys again soon.

I love the Transformers. It's one of the most memorable catoons series I've watched growing up in the 80s. Like many other kids during that time, Optimus Prime was our hero. It was awesome watching the Autobots battle the Decepticons, including all the transformation sequences, and the battle bases that transform into huge robots, etc. Many things from Transformers have become iconic, such as the Autobot and Decepticon insignias, the 2 leaders of the opposing forces, and also the other chracters such as Bumblee Bee and Starscream. As a Transformer fan since the G1 era who watched the Japanese TF series, here are some of my thoughts on the movie.I thought the movie was brilliant, but I'm still going to nitpick on some issues. Possible spoilers abound so stop here if you've yet to catch the movie.

1. The graphics and CG are the best you'd expect from any Hollywood movie, period. No major complains here, except that some times the action scenes move too quickly to see what's happening on the screen. It's gotta do with the overall design and transformation sequences of the Transformers, but the design issue is altogether another topic and I'm not too keen to touch on the G1 vs Movie designs debate.

2. The plot is not too confusing and gives a good background on why the Transformers are fighting. However, I've got some doubts here and there. Firstly, the US government doesn't seem to keep its top personnel informed about state matters, especially when a war could be triggered anytime. The whole sector 7 crap just doesn't do it for me. And where was the President of the United States? All we saw was a glimpse of him on Air Force One enjoying himself.Second major nitpick is why the Army captain decided to hide the All Spark in the city so that the decepticons would not find it. Yes, for entertainment wise we need to have as much collateral damage as possible, but from a military point of view it's just going to cost more innocent lives to be sacrificed. Small issue I know, but I also found it strange that all the government officials and army personnel just decided to go along and release Bumble Bee when Spike (Sam) said so.

Most of the Transformers were given a very limited amount of screen time, save for Prime and Bumble Bee. Most only say a line or two and don't show up until near the final battle. Though, getting Peter Cullen for the voice of Prime really brings back some nostagic feelings, and die hard fans would remember some of the lines from the original Transformers movie. "Freedom is the right of all sentiant beings." This line was the winner in the "Make Optimus Prime speak" contest held a few months ago, and was also said nearly 20 years ago when Prime faced Megatron in the G1 movie. The other line is "One shall stand, and one shall fall." One of the last few words from the autobot leader before he handed the Matrix over to Ultra Magnus, which eventually at the end of the movie used by Rodimus Prime to defeat Galvatron. For a while I thought that Prime would use the All Spark to defeat Megatron a la the Matrix of Leadership, but I was wrong.

I loved the Starcream in the G1 series, and I was happy to hear him call Megatron "Lord Megatron", and that the reply from Megatron was classic. Good stuff with the voices and script, although I would have preferred Jazz's voice to be more coarse like the original. The movie had a lot of comedy injected in it throughout, and they were genuinely funny. I loved how Spike poked fun at the original Transformers tagline "more than meets the eye", and how Ratchet indicated that Spike's hormone levels indicated he wanted to mate with Megan Fox. I just hated that agent from Sector 7 that's all. And perhaps that irritating voice the little decepticon makes.The movie ends with Prime anticipating more Autobots to arrive on Earth, meaning a direct sequel is being set up although no plans are official yet. Megatron's lifeless body dropped in the middle of the ocean means he might be back in the future. I don't remember seeing Starscream get destroyed, and I didn't observe carefully but did he return to space at the end of the movie?

I've enjoyed this movie, and I'm thinking most fans will too. The pros definately outweights the complaints, and I'll definately get the DVD when it arrives. Go watch this movie if you haven't already, even if you have not watched the G1 series before.

H!P producer Tsuku has produced a new group called "Gyaruru" (ギャルル). This 3 girl group consists of Ami Tokito (時東ぁみ), a idol singer who is known for always wearing glasses, Sone "Gal" Natsuko ("ギャル" 曽根 菜津子), who believe it or not, is a is a female Japanese competitive eater. She's the skinny one in the middle, despite the fact that she is considered the leading Japanese female competitive eater in Japan and won multiple contests. The last girl is Abe Asami (安倍 麻美), sister of Morning Musume gen 1 leader and current H!P solo artist Abe Natsumi (安倍　夏美). Asami was a replacement for Tsuji Nozomi after her sudden pregnancy annoucement. Gyaruru have just released their 1st single called "Boom Boom Meccha Maccho!". The single reminds me a lot of Hinoi Team due to it's para para flavour. Nonetheless, it's on my current playlist due to it's catchy chorus. Check it out:

The B-side of the single is very catchy too. It's called Onna no Ultra, and while the PV looks very cheap as just a photo slideshow, you have to understand that most B sides do not get a PV at all, and that is should be viewed as a bonus. I like these 2 songs, but I'm not too sure if their popularity will rise as only Asami seems to be the hotter girl right now.

With the end of the Death Note anime series, my hero Yagami Light is now officially dead. Until a shinigami notices me and gives me a death note so that I can continue Light's legacy of creating a perfect new world, check back again next week for more useless rantings and Jpop PVs. I'll end off this week with a clip featuring Gyaruru member Natsuko in one of her competitive eating contest. Watch and be impressed. Psyke, out.