久しぶりぶり～～

It's really been quite a while since the last update! I've been tied down by work commitments lately, till the point where I had to take work home at times. This of course goes against my philosophy of striking a balance between work and family. Though the working hours have also been extended lately, at least we can still spend our weekends in peace at home with Rena, and perhaps going out for our short trips :)

Not a lot of purchases lately, but still managed to pick up my Den-O SICs which I have already ordered and paid for a while back. They are part of a line which I've been getting consistantly for the Den-O series, but I think I'll stop ordering in advance as they've gotten more expensive and the series never seems to end. Still looking for my Shinkenger figures, but they're no where in sight, meaning I'll have to order straight from Japan again.....

With the bonus which came in recently, I decided to spend a little bit on technology to make life better. Now instead of using my handphone's built in GPS, I've bought a Garmin Nuvi 205w so that I can see the maps much easier. I used to squint at the little handphone screen using Nokia maps, but that's tedious and moreover the license was ending soon. Now, with a dedicated machine, I can update my own maps at ease and gain access to information such as the nearest ATM, AXS machines, petrol kiosks, etc. Convenience at my fingertips, really.

Another little gadget I bought was the official Sony PS3 Bluetooth headset, for use with the PS3 and also any BT enabled mobile phone. I've been wanting to get one since I started playing Metal Gear Online, but never did go around buying it until I started playing the co-op modes in Resident Evil 5 with a few friends. It was really hard sometimes not being able to speak to a team mate, and having a headset really makes the game all the more fun. On the subject of Resident Evil 5, I've already completed the game on all modes except Professional, and have almost all the trophies. Almost got all characters in Merc mode too, and will try to clear the hardest mode with my online friends soon. The downloadable content's selling on the PSN with around $8, but I'm not sure if I'll get it considering the new mode's just a modification of the existing Merc mode.

From Wiki because I'm lazy to write: The Wonder Girls (원더걸스) are a South Korean girl group. They are produced by singer-songwriter Park Jin-Young and are signed to his talent agency, JYP Entertainment. Each of the five original members were selected through auditions. Debuting in early 2007, they became popular in the fall of that year with the song "Tell Me."Since then they have scored 3 consecutive #1 hit singles with "Tell Me", "So Hot", and "Nobody" and in 2008, won two Daesangs ("Artist of the Year" Awards).

I've been listening to their songs lately and they're awesome! Finally, another girl band not from Japan which have captured my heart. They songs are really catchy, and their dances in the PVs are really nice. The song "Tell me", have also cause a dance sensation in Korea, similar to how the Haruhi song in Japan caught on among the otaku crowd. Just do a search in youtube and you'll see how many people know the dance (which is damn hard to learn). Attached here is the "Nobody" PV, which I absolutely love. Take note that the song "Honey" at the beginning of the song is sung by their producer JYP :)

I managed to watch Detroit Metal City recently, and unexpectly, I loved the show! It was a really well done movie, and although I didn't read the manga or watched the anime, I'm pretty sure the movie managed to capture the feel and essence of the original work. Plot from wiki: Soichi Negishi is a shy and gentle young man who dreams of a career as a pop musician. Dreams don't pay the bills, so he's ended up as the lead singer of a death metal band called “Detroit Metal City.” In stage costume he is Johannes Krauser II, rumored to be a demon, to have killed and raped his parents, to wield his giant death penis with abandon, etc. etc. Negishi despises DMC and all that it stands for, but so help him, he's a terrific performer and can't walk away from that. As DMC's star rises Negishi tries to satisfy both worlds, but can he? End quote. Unlike other manga adaptations that fail (I'm looking at you Dragonball Evolution), this movie was a joy to watch and gave the audience a feel-good feeling. Lotsa funny moments too, and I'll be glad to get the DVD upon its arrival.

The movie Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen will soon be released world wide in a matter of around 2 months. The teaser's been out for a while, and finally we have a new clip to tide us over until the official trailer is out. Here is the new clip, consisting of dialogue between Sam and Bumble Bee, followed by a montage showing off the robots which we will see in the film:

In February 2009, Toei announced that they would begin rebroadcasting Dragon Ball Z as part of the series' 20th anniversary celebrations. The series premiered on April 5, 2009, under the name Dragon Ball Kai, with the episodes remastered for HDTV, featuring updated opening and ending sequences, and a rerecording of the vocal tracks by most of the original cast. They were also re-edited to more closely follow the manga, resulting in a faster moving story, and damaged frames removed. As such, it is a "new" series created from the original Dragon Ball Z footage. I was being naive after watching the awesome opening sequence and thought that perhaps they re-drawn the entire series. I couldn't even finish watching the episode after that, but I'll look forward to the Freeza and Cell sagas.

I've not been watching any animes lately since Macross Frontier ended, and more or less the only shows I'm still chasing is Kamen Rider Decade. I'm still downloading other toku shows such as Tomica Hero Rescue Force, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and also Kamen Rider Ryuki, but none of them interest me that much to watch on a regular basis. Decade, on the other hand, is really awesome and I find myself watching the raw as early as a few hours after the initial broadcast in Japan. The main character's been hopping around the past riders' worlds on an average of 1 world every 2 episodes, and it's cool watching the past riders teaming up with him. Hopefully the movie won't disappoint.

Think I've spent enough time talking, and so I've leave you with another clip featuring the Wonder Girls. Until the next time I find myself with enough inspiration and time to blog, see ya!

Rena - 4 months young

As promised, here is Rena's latest video! Just in time to commemorate her 4th month as well, as indicated by the video title. For those who have been following my videos so far, check out the last section of the video for the conclusion to the previous video! :p

これから、忙しくなって行くそうです。。。

The weekends always seem to fly by so fast. Work's getting more interesting too, but also busier and more frustrating at times. Well, coupled with the fact that I need to ferry both Mabel and Rena around makes the evenings seem even shorter. At least we can visit Rena almost everyday, and watching her slowly grow up is one of the most motivating things that we do these days.

Rena's staying with my in-laws during the weekdays, and comes home during Friday evenings, and back there on Monday mornings. Our time with her is comparably shorter than before, so that's why we have to cherish each and every minute with her. Until both of us settle down in work and become more comfortable with the timings, we'll stick to this routine before planning to take her home and a more frequent basis.

My previous blog entry on the Dragonball Evolution review was submitted to a few popular websites dedicated to the movie. These sites were updated on all the news and were my sources of information before the premiere of the movie. After I linked my blog to one of the entries there, my blog received a spurt of visitors. 357 views in less than 2 hours. Not too bad, and eventually I had over 1500 views in day. Pretty amazing, but I wished that the movie was better so that my review can actually promote it. Well, I'm not too keen on a sequel but a reboot sounds so much better.

My package from Hobbylink finally arrived this week. Not too big a parcel since it only consists of 8 figures. 5 from the latest batch of Legend Rider series and the remaining 3 from the Kiva series which have eluded me for the past few months. It's getting harder to get my stuff since I rarely visit the toy stores these days, and I even have uncollected goods for months.

The Legend Riders also includes the Ganbaride cards which can be used at both the arcade game and as well as the DX Decadriver, which I was tempted to get by in the end aborted due to the price. Still, pretty cool that I can own some of the cards which are seen in the show. More on Kamen Rider Decade below.

One of the few good things which came out of the Dragonball Evolution movie was perhaps the theme song by Hamasaki Ayumi. The track is named Rule, and was used because the Director wanted a Japanese song to represent the movie. He should have gotten more people such as scriptwriters and such. Anyway, I thought the PV was pretty cool, and I was even tempted to get a tatoo after watching. But I might not have a home to return to after that, so it might not be such a good idea after all.

Berryz Kobo (Berryz工房) released their 19th single last week, named "Dakishimete Dakishimete" (抱きしめて 抱きしめて). Like most of their songs, it's a really fast paced song and I fell in love with it almost instantaneously. Great rythm and beat, and the PV isn't too bad either. I'm looking forward to more of the hits than the other Hello! Project acts currently.

I've already completed Resident Evil 5 on the PS3 for a while now, but I'm still playing the game every now and then whenever I can afford the time, because there are still loads of goodies to unlock. I'm trying to get more bonus points to unlock costumes, and also getting myself familiar with the different stages of Mercenaries mode in other to unlock more characters and stages to be used in the said mode. Also, I need lotsa cash to upgrade my weapons to obtain infinity ammo in the main story mode. Well, good replay value for money I suppose.

The 9th episode of Kamen Rider Decade was broadcasted in Japan this morning. 10 episodes in, and we've already seen our protagonist visit a few worlds, namely from Kuuga, Kiva, Ryuki, and Blade. Next up, Faiz World (picture above). Although in an alternate dimension, it's still cool seeing the suits and the newly upgraded henshin sequences (with the same poses too). The final form rides seem a little extreme, more to cash in on the toy line, which is pretty elaborate considering that it's all linked through the barcode cards and arcade games. You can't possibly collect all the cards for use with your belt unless you collect ALL the toys in the different series and lines. Really, collectors and parents in Japan are going to have a hard time getting all these cards. Not cheap, too.

I've already watched the newly released DVD movie, Engine Sentai Go-onger vs. Gekiranger: The Movie (劇場版　炎神戦隊ゴーオンジャー　VS　ゲキレンジャー). Well, mostly the action scenes anyway. It's been a while since we last saw the Gekirangers so it was pretty nostalgic watching them fight along with the Go-ongers. While the movie ended with the current and past 2 season's red rangers, I've not been following Samurai Sentai Shinkenger at all. Hopefully I'll read some good things about them and come back later. That's all for this week. I'm working on a new Rena video, so check back soon to see it. Ja!