レナ：僕の戦隊と仮面ライダー仲間～

Wow, this must be the longest break I've ever taken in my blogging history since 2006. I must apologise for the lack of updates here, although I've still been quite active on Facebook and Twitter. The pace of work coupled with my part time studies have really taken a toil on my personal space and free time, so much so that I've not even had the chance to play some of the new PS3 games. Additionally, September's been really nasty to me. I'll explain more. Work's been hectic in September, with multiple tasks to be accomplished and I'd even have to go on a shift system which totally destroyed my biological clock. And school work wasn't that kind as well, I was over ambitious and took too many modules for this Semester. Although I've cleared everything so far, it was taxing during the overlapping weeks between term 1 and 2. I'm just glad I got everything submitted on time.

I've also been really down on luck the entire month. Small incidents aside, in this particular month my phone got water damaged and I had to get it replaced, my PS3 got the red light of death and I've yet to get a new one, my Adidas jacket which I've bought in Tokyo got lost some where, and all 3 of us in the family took turns to get fever. Rena had gastric flu and we spent several hours in the hospital to get her attended to by the doctor. She vomitted quite a bit, even in the hospital itself. It was really saddening watching her like that since she was obviously scared and we had to try our best to distract her. Thankfully, she got better since taking the medication and was soon on the road to recovery. After that, it was Mabel's turn to fall sick though. At least all 3 of us are well now, and hopefully October's a healthy month!

I've went for the AHM a few weeks ago, and it was my 10th consecutive run for me! At such, I wanted to go even though I was actually still recovering from flu and didn't feel very well. I ran amidst coughs and thankfully reached the end line, although I didn't beat my timing last year. I was slower by around 5 minutes, but I tell myself it's because of the flu. Yeah that's right. Anyways, I have 3 more runs in October: The Mizuno Wave Run, The New Balance Real Run, and the Nike City Run. Collected my race kit for the Mizuno run via my neighbour Ryan, as you can see above. I like their bags. For the amount we've paid, it wasn't too bad getting the running tee and the bag year after year. Here you can see even Rena's trying to make away with the bag, which she subsequently tried to fit all her toys inside.

Some of you might already know that my wife's now doing her online cookie making site full time. I helped her with the logo design and the website, which was done in one sitting and I ought to find some time to have it improved. In the mean time, do feel free to check out http://www.cookielittle.blogspot.com/. For friends from Facebook and Twitter, I promise to make her give you a discount and I can personally do a delivery for you as well. Basically, she gives a service to provide gifts for all occasions, such as birthdays, anniversaries, and all other celebrations. Here are some pictures we took:

Although the cookies look like they've been covered and coated in sugar, they are not sweet at all. Through feedback from customers, she was made it taste less sweet, so that it's actually healthier as well. There are multiple designs to choose from as well.

 So for those we have an upcoming event and is thinking about getting door gifts for your guests, this might be a perfect way for you to give a customised present, either to children or grown ups alike. You can choose from many designs, even thouse not shown (for various copyright issues), and change the text on the cookies. Feel free to ask me for more details as well!  

Since Kamen Rider W ended, I've been looking forward to Kamen Ride OOO (Ozu). So far 4 episodes have been released, and I must say that the current plot and premise is very promising! The story is certainly a very unique one, and the bonds between the lead characters are very interesting as well. Rena's been watching it too, though she's been scared by the kaijin on more than one occasion. Still, she likes the main characters as well as the very melodic henshin sequences. Check out one of the clips here:

Right, before ending off, it's been a while since I recommended any songs. Although I've been listening to a lot of Kpop recently such as SNSD, 4minute and KARA, I'll wait till the next update before giving them a full feature. So for now, just one very lively song from Mano Erina (真野恵里菜), called 元気者で行こう！which translates to "Let's go cheerfully!". Until the next update, ja!

Rena & The Goseigers Part 2

More pictures of Rena and her Goseiger stuff at home! Ever since she began to watch the show I've got for her a few items, namely the 5 Goseiger figures, Gosei Knight, and also the Tensouder. Well, I would have gotten the figures for myself since I collect them, but the Tensouder is definitely for Rena! :)

十年から今まで。。。

We recently just celebrated our 10th year anniversary. No we didn't get married that young, the 10 years refers to the number of years since we've met each other. It's a long story, and I don't really intent to tell the story here, but it's amazing how fast time flies and we've already a daughter whom we love and care for. Looking back, it seems just days ago when we were still young and in our prime, not caring about adult responsibilities and having long nights and short days. Those days aren't complete lost, but we've just progressed with life itself and have past a few chapters since then. Moving ahead, there's so much to do and accomplish with the new member of the family. It's not easy teaching all that we know, but I fully understand that the 2 most precious gifts that we can give to the next generation are roots, and wings. Roots to anchor core values, and the wings to let her fly and reach her fullest potential.

Rena's been a big fan of the Super Sentai series. Sure I have a big influence on her, but she's been demanding to watch a lot of the shows, particularly Gosei Sentai Goseigers, which is this year's series. It's not really hard to see why, since basically it IS a kid's show. Bright colours, flashy sounds and effects, and catchy songs, are all meant to attract children. It just so happens that Rena has a father who collects Sentai figures that's all :)

Usually the Sentai figures are all that I get, but since Rena is such a big fan, I ordered one of the Transform/Henshin items for her through the internet. Yup, one of those which requires 02 x AAA batteries and a pack of cards so that she can insert the cards in and pretend to morph into one of her favorite bright coloured rangers. She's been having so much fun and making so much noise with it that I've been thinking whether it's such a good thing to be awoken by the device on weekend mornings. She also loves all 3 songs in the series so far, and dances to them whenever I play them in the living room television. I'm planning on another Sentai video for her, but in the meantime just enjoy this clip first.

Of course, I bought a few of my own stuff as well. Figures wise, just 2 more to the collection (actually I still have a bunch of uncollected stuff from a local store but that's another story). They are Ultraman Zero and Gosei Knight. I'm not too keen on the Gosei Knight design because it looks really bulky and I'd very much preferred if they had introduced a 6th ranger instead. As for Ultraman Zero, I really didn't like the design at first too, but since then the design as grown on me and now I kinda like the 2 horns which he can take out and use as a weapon. Both will go to the collection, but perhaps Gosei Knight will enjoy a few hours out every week since Rena likes to go to my collection and demand that I take out a few figures each week to accompany her. Oh yah I got a few books from amazon too. :)

For Kamen Rider W, the series has nearly concluded and as with recent tradition, the next Rider shows up and is ready for the handing and taking over ceremony. The new rider is called Kamen Rider 000 (that's pronounced Ozu). More info extracted from Wikipedia here: Kamen Rider OOO (仮面ライダーＯＯＯ) will be the twelfth series in the Heisei period run of the Kamen Rider Series, and the twenty-first overall. It is scheduled to begin airing on September 5, 2010, the week following the conclusion of Kamen Rider Double, when it will join Tensou Sentai Goseiger in the Super Hero Time lineup. The series' titular Kamen Rider will have a cameo appearance in the film Kamen Rider Double Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate.
 

Unlike several previous Heisei Rider Series, no alternate name has been given yet for the three O's in the title (Ｗ（ダブル）read as "Double" and 555（ファイズ）read as "Φ's/Phi's/Faiz") aside from the name of the main Kamen Rider: Ooz. Both "OOO" and "Ooz" are intended to be read as "O's", referring to the multiple uses of the letter O in the title as well as "multiple kings" (王). The title OOO signifies the three medals that the main Kamen Rider uses to transform. Eiji Hino is a man who has no dreams, no job, and no family. When animal-like monsters called Greed awaken after their 800 year slumber to attack humans and feed off of their desire, a bird-type Greed called Ankh gives Eiji a belt and three Medals to fight the Greed so he can become the predestined Multi King (複数の王): Kamen Rider Ooz (仮面ライダーオーズ). The mysterious Kogami Foundation approaches him and begins assisting him in his fight against the Greed, but their true motives are not clear. When Eiji fights for the first time, he starts to realize what it means "to be alive". End quote. Typical story, blah blah.

One of my Korean twitter friends (@pinkmelodian) introduced me to the iPhone game "Swing Swing Motion". The lite version can be found on itunes. Turns out she was part of the development team, and I was interested to find out how the game played. It's a game which relys a lot of the motion sensors of the phone, and requires the player to balance the phone in accordance to the rhythm and the music being played. It's not a new idea but it's done very well, as expected from Korean game makers. Do try it out if you have the iPhone, and see if you have a good sense of rythm and as well as hand eye coordination. :)

This is pehaps the first blog post in 3 to 4 weeks. Yeah video updates don't really count. But it's been a really busy period for me, since school have already started and the work place isn't really known for its tranquility too. Especially those tutorials and end of course assessments for my programme, they can be murderous. Still, I've got a couple of updates I'd wanna do soon, including the video I mentioned. Will keep all updated through FB and Twitter. Jya~!