Happy Lunar New Year! 祝大家牛年行大运！

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 Musume is 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！