I mentioned in a previous post that I've recently seen the movie 大決戦！超ウルトラ８兄弟. Like the previous movie, I began to work on an English translation in the form of a SRT file, so that non-native Japanese fans will be able to enjoy the movie as well. I'm not that good in Japanese yet, although I sat for my JLPT 2 last year, so I'm sure there are bound to be some mistakes some where. Still, I'm sure most fans will be able to enjoy the movie with the subtitle file. There's my share of complaints for the movie, but at the end of the day, as long as you're an Ultraman fan, you'll be delighted to see your heros again. You can download the SRT file here. I don't ask for anything in return, but please support the movie and purchase the original DVD & Blu-ray versions if possible. If you really want to thank me, leaving a message here or in the forums would be good enough. :)
Happy Lunar New Year everyone! I wish all the best of luck in the upcoming year, and hopefully everyone will be able to tide across this difficult time and financial crisis together without any disruptions in work and family life. 1st up, I've been tagged by Sarah on her blog, and so it seems that I have a set of rules to follow before tagging some other friends. Well, here are the rules:
The rules: 1. Link to the person who tagged you. 2. Post the rules on your blog. 3. Write six random, arbitrary things about yourself. 4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. 5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog. 6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.Ok, so here goes 6 facts which I bet most people don't know about me.
1. I have a black belt in Taekwondo and won in a tournament before. But that's been ages ago and I'd only land up in hospital if I kick anything now. 2. My first job was a cashier at Spotlight, Orchard branch. 3. I don't talk very much, but I think a lot and I'm sure I'll surpass the average number of thoughts per day per person. 4. I keep a journal to record my daily activies and events worth remembering. It's only a few sentences per day though. 5. I have really poor memory, and won't remember dates/times/people unless triggered by some other factors. 6. My view in life is that you only get one shot, and it's up to yourself to make it count so that you won't have any regrets on your deathbed.
Right! That's it. I'm going to tag the following friends so hopefully they'll see it as a good chance to share some information about themselves and to follow up with more tagging. They are: Jojo, Jason, Derek, Esjay, Sam, & Raymond.Morning Musumeis scheduled to release their 38th single on February 18, 2009. This will be their first single of 2009, titled "Naichau Kamo" (泣いちゃうかも). The title is translated to "I Might Cry" and will be released in a limited versions including a DVD. So far I've already heard the single a couple of times and I must say it's much much better than their previous single, Pepper Keibu. It seems that they aren't releasing singles as fast as before, but hopefully it doesn't mean that they're going to stop anytime soon. If anything, the rest of the groups from H!P are giving them a good run for their money. Check out the PV here:Buono!'s latest single "Co-no-Mi-chi" ("This Road") was released on January 21, 2009. So far, all their tracks have been nothing short of outstanding, and I've already done up one video using their singles. I've not really listened to this one yet, but I'm sure it'll make its way to my ipod real soon.Right, now comes the main highlight of the day. Kamen Rider Decade finally made it's debut in it's pilot episode today! Shown at 8am this morning in Japan, Decade is the latest installment of the Kamen Rider series and like the name suggests, it's a 10th anniversary show to mark 10 years of Heisei Riders. Past actors and riders have been slated to appear in the show, for the biggest Rider war ever! The show has really been hyped up by the media so far, and hopefully it delivers. From the already abundant youtube videos of the pilot episode so far, things are looking real bright. Already, Decade took the forms of a few of my favourite Kamen Riders, Kabuto, Faiz and Hibiki in one episode alone. He not only can copy their forms, but he can also use cards to access their abilities and powers as well. The pink design of the suit is also starting to grow on me, but more important I thought the henshin and form change sequences were really well done. There are also promises of new riders who can take on the past secondary riders, so hopefully we can see him soon and also what kind of character cards he will have. Sadly, it also seems that not all actors from the past 9 years will be back to reprieve their roles. The characters will be rebooted with new actors, so hopefully this will freshen up the story and also bring new stories to tell from the different dimensions.It's been a good tokusatsu week, since the DVD/Bluray release of the latest Ultraman movie "Great Decisive Battle! The Super 8 Ultra Brothers" (大決戦！超ウルトラ８兄弟) The show had grossed over ¥800,000,000 (US $8,000,000) at the box office, becoming the most commercially successful movie in the history of the Ultraman franchise. I was finally able to watch the movie from the comfort of my living room this week. While the movie re-introduces to us the 3 main Heisei Ultraman (Tiga, Dyna and Gaia), the main characters were in a new and different reality, apart from their former roles in their respective series. There were some really nice fight scenes, but on the whole I thought the movie was rather disappointing. The CGI was bad, but the thing which I was most disappointed about was the plot. I know it's a kid's show, but I'm sure Japanese kids these days know a flat plot when they see one. To top it off, all the characters even fly off together on a giant ship, as if to live happily ever after on another planet. I think I'm beginning to understand why there hasn't been another Ultraman series since Mebius, while the Kamen Rider series on the other hand seems to be thriving.While I anxiously await for the subbed and HD version of Decade to be released, we'll also be making our rounds visiting relatives and friends during this festive period. Once again, I sincerely wish you all the best, and may all your dreams come true this upcoming new year. 恭喜发财，万事如意！
It's been a rough week at work and at home. On Wednesday, I was playing in a game of Captain's ball, but was nudged during the middle of a jump and landed awkardly, tilting slightly to the back. As a result, I sprained my back (again). Well, the bright side is that it was a lot better than the one 2 years back, where I couldn't even stand and Mabel had to drive me home. It was that serious. All the doctor gave were painkillers. This time, I'm getting better within 2 days, and can most likely run by the weekend. At home, it's been tiring for both Mabel and me, but hopefully we'll be able to get some quality rest as time goes by.
STOMP called me up recently for a phone interview, for winning the DIY video compettition for the month of December. To be honest I was more interested in getting the details for the prize collection, haha. The person asked a lot more than what was published on the 16th Jan edition of "My Paper" (我报), which you can see on the left. Mabel went for a hunt on the hardcopy, and luckily we managed to get one after several rounds of phonecalls. I'm not too sure whether I'll bring the Camcorder everywhere we go, but Mabel's already planning on video filming trips and telling me what to do for my next video..... We also went for our very first walk with Rena today, at Punggol Park. She enjoyed it a lot, so we're planning to take her out for regular walks from now on.
A few months ago, the game "Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix" was released on the US Playstation Network. The game is a remake of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, featuring the original game and a "remixed" version using high definition graphics drawn and rebalanced gameplay. For months, I was trying to get a hold of the game, but the PSN doesn't accept oveseas payment through credit cards, and I was too busy to get a pre-paid card. A week ago, the game finally appeared on the Asian Playstation network. I was excited and didn't think too much about buying the game online. At $14.99, it was pretty reasonable, I thought.
Now, I'm getting frustrated and need to calm down whenever I play the game in its online multiplayer modes. I've always thought of myself as a pretty good SF player, but most of the time I either face very strong opponents who thrash me, all people who I can barely hold me own against but can still give a decent fight. Sure occasionally I meet the poor bugger who gets thrashed by me, but most of the time I meet the really good ones. Still, I feel nostagia flowing all over when playing this game. Better than upcoming Street Fighter 4? Possibly, but I don't mind finding out. :)
The US version of the trailer for Dragonball: Evolution has finally been released, along with the official movie website. Still nothing much there at the moment, which is pretty scary since we're not too far away from the release date, and that the promotions really need to start soon, along with the airing of the TV spots. More to come soon, and I'm looking forward to them.And as we usher in the new year, the promotions for the new Kamen Rider and Super Sentai shows have also been forthcoming. Just over a week more to go before we see the debut of Kamen Rider Decade, and all the fans are looking forward to watching past heroes fight together in this 10 year anniversary special. I just hope to get my hands on either the raw or the subbed version ASAP.
The story revolves around the nine previous universes of the Heisei Kamen Riders merging into one where Tsukasa Kadoya (門矢 士) transforms into Kamen Rider Decade to protect his own dimension by defeating the other Kamen Riders. I'm hoping that the dimension story stuff don't get too messed up, so that we can see the ex-main actors reprive their roles again. That would really kick ass.
Samurai Sentai Shinkenger (侍戦隊シンケンジャー) is the title of Toei Company's thirty-third entry in its long-running Super Sentai Series of Japanesetokusatsu television series. It is scheduled to premiere on February 15, the week following the finale of Engine Sentai Go-onger. It will join Kamen Rider Decade as a program featured in TV Asahi's Super Hero Time programming block. Here's the tv clip promoting the show:
Hopefully the upcoming week will be better for me and Mabel, not forgetting Rena too. More work is coming, but I've been thinking alot about what I want to achieve in life, and luckily I'm drawing some form of inspiration and motivation along with it. Gotta start everything with a vision, right? :)
Video made from the daily pictures of Rena from day 1 to day 30. Song used is "Gachinko de Ikou!" by Buono!. Hope you'll enjoy it! I recommend clicking on the video to go to the Youtube page and then click on the High quality version there. Makes a huge difference!
Rena gave me a fourth set of winning 4D numbers today. Sadly I'm not much of an avid gambler so I usually give up pretty soon. The first number was her birth date, next was her weight. Then her 1st month weight, which was 3rd prize. Then, today, her NRIC came out 1st prize. Ok, so much for the multiple 4D misses already. I sent my video of Rena to Stomp a while back, and it was my 4th DIY video submission. And guess what, she won! Hopefully I'll be collecting her prize soon. You can of course check out the http://diy.stomp.com.sg, or for a much higher quality version of the video, click on my uploaded videos directly on facebook or on Youtube. :)
We organised a baby shower for Rena's first month, and it was a huge event! I believe we had over 100 guests, and thankfully the food was just enough. The work began weeks ago, and one of the projects Mabel initiated was to take daily pictures of Rena and to compile them onto a single board as shown here.
You would have already seen all 30 pictures from the last blog entry, so nothing much to shout about here. We created the board and pasted the photos, complete with captions and labels. It's now still part of our living room wall, and we can't bear to take it off for the time being.
Another side project was the preparation of door gifts for our guests. We designed and printed our very own thank you cards, featuring Rena as the poster girl. Also included are 2 cookies and a small message expressing our gratitute and thanks for all the gifts and presents.My colleagues turned up earliest (army guys are usually quite punctual). It was great having them for the first time, so Mabel can relate all her renovation tips all over again.
Although still in the lull period of my Japanese class, several of my closer classmates were here too. Hopefully class will start soon and I can also meet up with the rest (finally we've reached the advanced levels!)
Coincidentally, quite a few of our neighbouring friends also gave birth in 2008, and we have at least 3 more "Minnie Mice" khakis in our block alone. That's great for sharing news and information, since Mabel obviously already has some kind of Mummy network established.
We actually tried to take pictures with every single guest. It was ok in the beginning, but by the start of the second session the crowd got so big we didn't manage to get all the guests. I've still got a lot of pictures, but I'm only posting a few here.
The rest of the pictures will most likely be posted on Facebook instead, so you can either go check it out there or email me if you would like to obtain the high res version of the photographs.
Haven't seen many of my OCS friends lately, but thanks to those who showed up! I will try to organise another one, but you guys gotta give support leh.
Many thanks to my old friends from school, of whom turned up although they were tired from a wedding dinner the previous night. Sadly Betty and Kiat were busy, but hopefully we'll get to meet up again soon, perhaps to celebrate the birth of Tiang Ping's daughter :)
Kelly and Wee Lee gave us a lot of advice and tips on parenting, and provided insights on tackling some of the most difficult to handle situations with regards to newborns. :)
Family members and close friends such as Huiming and William were really great help prior and on the actual day. They helped with both the administration of guests, and also with the stores and the preparation of the door gifts and the food. We would like to once again give our sincerest thank yous to all who have helped in the event. Thanks!
I could't resist the temptation and just got myself a copy of LittleBigPlanet for the PS3, after seeing what some of the players could create in the game from various Youtube videos. Some were just fabulous, with parodies, homages, and self made robots part of the formula which goes with the tag line of "Play. Create. Share." I'm impressed with how much room the game gives you, and even allows you to customise your own outfits. It's not really that straightfoward, but you can work around it with tools and create many many amazing outfits for your sackboy. I've seen Venom, Spawn, Captain America, Batman, and even characters from Naruto and Bleach which were really innovatively done up and cool to use. For me, I made my own outfit immediately after learning how through a tutorial. I took out my Go-On Red figurine and made the outfit you see on the left. Took me around 2 hours, which included lots of trial and error. Still, I like it a lot and use it most of the time. I'm pretty sure I'm the only Go-On Sackboy in the whole world right now :)
Here's a picture of Go-On Red, from the cover of their latest OST album. I don't think I'll start doing any of the other ranger costumes, but I'm really tempted to do up a level based on Super Sentai, or maybe just the Go-Ongers. I'll start to work around with all the creative tools and see what I can come up with.
More news of the upcoming 2009 Super Sentai series have been revealed, including the cast members. I can't say I've fully gotten used to the kanji on the helmet, but it looks really original. Hopefully the rest of the show proves to be as innovative. With less than 10 episodes of Go-Onger left, I can safely say that I've fully enjoyed the show and it's charm as a action oriented comedy that's suitable for all ages.
20 years ago, when I was still in Primary School, I was crazy about these cards. It was near the peak of the Dragonball manga, and I remember converting my limited pocket money into 20 cent coins, which were readily deposited into those automated vending machines. Those machines were stocked with random cards, in which the "crown jewels" were hidden in the form of the "shining/dazzling" cards. Obtaining them, during that time, meant more than striking Toto or 4D. Those were the days, when things were much simpler, and happiness meant having a thick stack of rare cards. After 20 years, now Bandai is releasing all these classic cards in the form of collectable sets. My question is, can they refund all the 20 cent coins they sucked me dry back then? It might just pay for a few loan installments.Granted, I'm still a big kid these days with my figures and such, but it's a hobby. The Dragonball cards were a fad that time, like Tamiya cars or fake Ghostbusters slime. Hey, it could be worse. I could have spent that money on Idol cards instead.
歩こう 歩こう 私は元気
歩くの大好き どんどん行こう
Let's walk, let's walk, I feel fine.
I love to walk, let's go quickly.
坂道 トンネル 草っ原
一本橋に でこぼこ砂利道
くもの巣くぐって 下り道
An uphill road, a tunnel, a meadow
At a log bridge, a bumpy gravel path.
Passing under a spiderweb, a downhill path.
歩こう 歩こう 私は元気
歩くの大好き どんどん行こう
Let's walk, let's walk, I feel fine. I love to walk, let's go quickly.
蜜蜂ブンブン 花畑
ひなたにトカゲ 蛇は昼寝
バッタが跳んで 曲がり道
A honeybee buzzes in a field of flowers
A lizard in the sunshine, a snake takes a midday nap
A grasshopper leaps, along the curving path.
歩こう 歩こう 私は元気
歩くの大好き どんどん行こう
Let's walk, let's walk, I feel fine.
I love to walk, let's go quickly.
狐も狸も 出ておいで
探検しよう 林の奥まで
友達たくさん 嬉しいな
友達たくさん 嬉しいな
Foxes and badgers too, come out!
Let's go exploring deep into the woods.
I have lots of friends, I'm so happy.
I have lots of friends, I'm so happy.
I was at a lost when told to sing to Rena, so in the end I chose this song to sing to her. It's one of my favourite children songs, from the opening theme of My Neighbour Totoro. You can hear the song from one of my favourite Jpop singers Matsuura Aya here, whom sings both the opening and ending theme of the movie here. Yes, Rena doesn't understand what I'm saying so it's fine singing a Japanese song to her mah. With that, it's the end of my first post of 2009, and I will all of you the best for 2009! Happy new year!
I mentioned in a previous post that I've recently seen the movie 大決戦！超ウルトラ８兄弟. Like the previous movie, I began to work on an English translation in the form of a SRT file, so that non-native Japanese fans will be able to enjoy the movie as well. I'm not that good in Japanese yet, although I sat for my JLPT 2 last year, so I'm sure there are bound to be some mistakes some where. Still, I'm sure most fans will be able to enjoy the movie with the subtitle file. There's my share of complaints for the movie, but at the end of the day, as long as you're an Ultraman fan, you'll be delighted to see your heros again. You can download the SRT file here. I don't ask for anything in return, but please support the movie and purchase the original DVD & Blu-ray versions if possible. If you really want to thank me, leaving a message here or in the forums would be good enough. :)
