人生の道は一人じゃない。そして、希望がある！

Today's the actual birthday of Mabel! Let's put our hands together and wish her a "Happy **th Birthday!" (text censored out to protect the life of a certain individual blogger). We spent the day together, after taking leave and off from work and were looking for a good break. We headed to town and met up with Leslie and her boyfriend Kenny. They owned a shop in Far East Plaza, and it was the first time we were there. I agreed on helping them with their online website, so hopefully that will be up soon. がんばってね～

Although it's Mabel's birthday I also managed to get something for myself. The 3rd rider in the Kamen Rider Kabuto series, Kamen Rider Drake, in both rider and masked form, was available at Takashimaya. Not going to miss this chance to grab them, I swiped them off the shelves in no time. I'm also contemplating on getting the new SIC figures of KR: Next, but it costs $70 and with the upcoming releases of the 12 inch Garo, I really need to plan out my expenses. 欲しい物がたくさんのに、僕は今あとても便簿です。。

With the addition of Drake, I've got all the current riders in the show. A few more riders have been named in addition to the upcoming riders such as Sasword and Gattack. They are the new movie riders for the Kabuto movie. Their names are: Caucasus, Hercus, and Cetarus. They all look similar to Kabuto, but with additional add on such as armour. My theory is that it's a scheme to easily make more toys from the Kabuto mould.

Also got this KR Ultimate Solid series from Adrian. It's a cool set, and although it's not complete (lacks Hibiki in Kurenai mode), it's still a gem and definately for keeps. The Ultimate Solid series are really making huge waves in the market, and I'll be looking forward to more releases in this series. （さあ。。。困ったな）

Here is a picture of my current desktop, on my laptop. Yes, it's the girls from Morning Musume. またモムスね！I change my wallpaper frequently, but only those worthy of being in my wallpaper collection are used. You will also noticed that I use a dekstop planner and calender known as Rainlendar. It's a very innovative program, and allows you to view the calender right on your desktop, with markers to mark out important dates and even a To-Do list. Do check it out.

平素より皆様には大変お世話になっております。弊社所属アーティスト『モーニング娘。』も１９９８年のメジャーデビューより結成９年目を迎えました。その間、２９枚のシングル全てをベスト１０入りさせ、更なる飛躍に向け常に前進しております。これもひとえに皆様方の御支援のたまものと感謝致しております。さて、その『モーニング娘。』の５期メンバーも、２００１年加入以来約５年間の活動を経て成長し、本日ここに「紺野あさ美」「小川麻琴」の卒業を発表させて頂きます。「紺野あさ美」は本年７月２３日に行われる、国立代々木競技場第一体育館での「ハロー！プロジェクトコンサート」で卒業、その後大学進学に向け、８月に行われる高卒認定試験を受けます。「小川麻琴」は本年８月いっぱいで卒業、海外に語学留学をし、その後の活動に備える事となりました。この５期メンバー２人の卒業後も、『モーニング娘。』は進化し続けます。今後とも何卒御支援の程、宜しく御願い致します。

I've finally finished watching the last few episodes of season 2 of LOST! It turned out that the disc my friend lend me didn't have the last 4 episodes, due to the fact that the season finale was only telecasted in the US last week! I had to search for them and download them myself. But it was worth every minute of the wait, as the finale was awesome and now I can't wait for season 3. At least I can laugh at the pepople who are still watching the season on Channel 5... hahaha!

友達と一緒にセントーさへ遊びに行きました！

Mabel's birthday falls on the 31st of May. Since it's going to be a weekday (which I have already reserved hor), some of our friends got together and decided to celebrate it in advance. We met up around early evening and headed towards the tiny little island south of Singapore: Sentosa. (If you have noticed I have deliberately left out Mabel's age in this post due security and confidentiality issues.... but sharp eyed readers will be able to spot something....)

The guys (me, William and Adrian) started the day off with a beach soccer session with 3 other strangers on the beach. Not surprisingly, the 3 of us were outrun by the other guys which were at least 6 years younger than us. However, we did manage to outplay them and scored 2 goals first, before we got really tired and started lazy tactics such as long balls and a one man defence strategy. In the end the game ended in a draw, and we were celebrating the last goal too as my aching body was telling me I'm getting too old for this.

The girls on the other hand were also working their best and putting their sincerest efforts in trying to laze around in the sun. They were quite good in that area and were also having a good time with photo taking challenges in between snacks and conversations (usually office politics or other taboo talking points). Some of us also went on this short but expensive ride in Sentosa, which includes a slow ride up the slope and a fast decend using a sort of "skateboards with steering wheels".

Dinner at Sakae sushi was great, and we ordered a huge amount of food, with enough variety to wet anybody's appettite. I've been having lots of Sushi lately, especially last week when we had a wing cohesion makan outing at another Sushi outlet....we whacked over 200 plates that day. Nothing to lose, since it was a free for all buffet. The dinner ended with an ice cream cake from Swensons. After the obligatory photo shooting session, we headed to another spot on Sentosa for a round of drinks before we finally headed home.

This week I finally got my hands on my Zero figure! Thanks to David (King Kaiju) who reserved a piece for me in his shop. Zero is the other Makai Knight from the series Garo. He first appeared as Kouga's enemy, but in the end they joined forces to defeat the dark Makai Knight Kiba. I've managed to convert some friends into Garo fans, and even burnt a few copies in DVD to pass to my friends, such as Simon. It's a great series, and I can't wait for season 2. According to Tv Nihon, a TV special is also in the works. Starting to save money for the next volume of the figure, which will feature Garo + Gouten.

Haven't posted about Hello! Project in quite some time now, so here is an update!

紺野あさ美と小川麻琴がモー娘卒業

「モーニング娘。」の紺野あさ美（１８）と小川麻琴（１８）が、同グループを卒業する。所属事務所が２８日、発表した。紺野は７月２３日のコンサート、小川は８月末が最後になる。紺野は大学進学を目指し、８月に高校卒業認定試験に挑戦。小川は語学留学をするという。つんく♂は「彼女たちの未来を応援します」とコメントした。

On April 28, 2006, it was announced by Tsunku from his official website that 5th Generation members Asami Konno and Makoto Ogawa are going to graduate. Asami will graduate on July 23, 2006 to go to University, and Makoto will graduate on a yet to be announced date in August to study a language abroad. Asami will be leaving both Morning Musume and the Hello! Project. Makoto will graduate from Morning Musume but still remain in the Hello! Project. Another 2 long serving members gone. Well, people are already looking forward to the next MM audition.

Viyuden's (美勇伝) new single is also out. This is their first single following the release of their debut album a few months ago. The title is 一切合切　あなたにあ・げ・る♪(Issai Gassai Anata ni A GE RU). The B track is called キョウモマッテマス (Kyou mo mattemasu).

A new Morning Musume (モーニング娘) single is also about to be released soon. Titled "Ambitious! Yashinteki de Ii Jan" (Ａｍｂｉｔｉｏｕｓ！野心的でいいじゃん), it will be their 28th single, and will be the last single with Konno Asami and Ogawa Makoto.

Too many familiar faces are disappearing in less than 2 years, Rika, Mari, Iida, and now Asami and Makoto. Not too sure how many more years MM can go before other groups in H!P overtake them as the icon for the company.

ウルトラシヨーン ｖｓ メーバル怪獣！

I was using the original picture as an avatar for my MSN, when one of my friends from the Lah forums told me that my avatar reminded him of a certain picture. Curious, I asked him for the picture and there you see it! The resemblance is uncanny, and gave me a good chuckle. Decided to take out my rusty morphing programme and made this animation. 困ったな。。。奥さんは怪獣だ！　私はウルトラマンになりたい！