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 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!
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.
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. 
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. :) 
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
