Monday, December 31, 2012

2012: The Year in Review (Or a collection of Facebook quotes)

Credit: Carina (Xiaowoo)
There's no better way to start a new year than by dumping out an easy to churn 'year in review' post. Though I don't celebrate New Year (amongst many other typical celebrations), I suppose a little ceremony now and then couldn't hurt- an annual summary to bury the previous year would be just nice. Without further ado...

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

The Hobbit: A mostly coherent account

I just noticed that I'm using the cover for the OST instead of a movie poster. But who pays attention, really?
This being one of the most anticipated movies of the year, at this point, what's there to say about "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" that hasn't already been said? With this in mind, I won't force you to go through yet another movie review- what you'll get instead is a fan of the book's random babbling as I extrapolate- postulate- discombobulate- confound it for the life of me I can't recall the right word, but you get the picture.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Sydney 2012, Part 3: Fish, Wax, Sex

Day 3 in Sydney. We left the tired ones to rot in the hostel, and walked to the somewhat near-by Sydney Fish Market- a 'must visit' site according to travel websites. It's said to be the largest in the world, next to Tsukiji in Japan (Did I just make that up? I'm not sure). In any case, it was large, alright... if you count several buildings surrounding a big parking space as large, though all the buildings are dedicated solely to the sale of slimy things from the depths of the ocean. Oh, and french fries.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Japanese Film Festival 2012: Identity Switch, Loss and Expiration

Guess it's about time for me to get to work on this piece, before 2013 comes along and I'll have another film festival to cover. This piece is now three months late! Hoorah for procrastination. Crud, if I ever apply for a job as a writer and Human Resources finds this blog, the first thing they'll come up with is that I'm a slow, lazy ass when it comes to 'work'- assuming composing this piece counts as work- though truth be told, I'm still on schedule, since my self-imposed deadline for posts with '2012' in the title is basically anytime before 2013.

Now, back to business. 2012 marks the- what, eight (?) Japanese Film Festival in Malaysia, and I've been fortunate to have been able to attend every single one so far. I even have a little collection of brochures- something the European Union Film Festival should pick up. Out of a total of 12 films, I caught two, the first being...

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Life of Pi... and a Tiger called Richard Dreyfus. Branson. Gere. Oh screw it.

Here's a review of the new film (relatively) currently topping the charts, Life of Pi. I'll keep it brief, thanks to my usual lethargy and lack of analytical thoughts on it- no thanks to my conveniently summarising the entire film in one para, which wouldn't make for much of a review- which is why I'll keep it till the end, so you'll have to read a brief synopsis and hear me ramble on about mildly interesting inconsequentials.

What's an inconsequential, you ask? Here's an example: Pi is the first time I've opted for couples seating, which is essentially  a double seat, non-foldable, without an armrest in the middle. I went with a lady friend (she'd probably laugh at being described as a lady- that's another inconsequential for you). The seat was fairly comfortable, but mainly it enabled me to make silly jokes like "well, I'm sorry I stole your first couples seat experience" (since she had no prior warning, as some ladies seem to need- and take such seating very seriously), et cetera. Well then. Now that you have a firm grasp of the word...

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Steins;Gate: A lab coat isn't the same as a Tulip Mask, but it'll do

Steins;Gate is probably one of the best anime I've watched in recent years, and fully deserving of the label 'epic', simply for the scale of the plot. This is high praise, coming for me, especially despite the lack of anything on the scale of an intergalactic war or mass extinction; not to mention the subject matter: time travel, a plot engine whose use often makes or breaks a show.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Sydney 2012, Part 2: Nature Spirits


A freezing morning, and we found ourselves camping outside a supermarket (Woolsworth, probably), opposite what, if my memory is as good as I like to pretend it is, is Sydney's charming town hall. We were waiting for our tour bus for our day trip to the Blue Mountains- at one point we actually took shelter from the cold by going into Woolsworth- chilly inside, but still comparatively warmer... especially for me, clad only in a pair of jeans and a light summer shirt.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Wheel of Fortune / 運命の輪

そうかな。こんな大事なこと、肝心な時に現せ。って、占いなんか信じてないじゃん。まあ。人間らしいと言っても良いかな。結果の良い占いしか信用しない(笑)。常識離れの行為と言えば、何度もデースのカードを出そうとしたが…やっぱり根性だけじゃ出て来ないな。どんな前向きな方向を見せてくれるだろう。

気になる気になる気になるなあ…

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Sydney 2012, Part 1:Heart in the Sky, Fish on a Plate

Well I suppose I have to start somewhere. I've put off writing this for way too long, now- about a month has passed since my trip to Sydney. Too many other things have popped up- idiotic statements against which I just had to rant on, contests, movies, and maintaining a healthy level of pessimism; all of which can really be compressed in one word: procrastination, which is odd, really, since by composing rather long posts recently I've actually been pretty productive, which is a word you'll rarely see me applying to myself.

Sydney, Australia, was chosen for our trip this August, for no particular reason worth remembering. Melbourne was in the running, but lost out- which might infuriate Melbournians given their alleged rivalry with Sydney-siders for the title of most popular city in Australia. That being said I can safely say that most of us actually preferred laid-back Perth- I guess if I'm going to anger one camp I might as well anger the other side as well, to be fair.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

First shot at Real Grade Gunpla: Freedom and Justice, the Yaoi Duo

I had an urge to build something, and sadly that naturally equated to me having to spend my cash. This random need resulted in the above- my first attempt at the Real Grade (RG) line of gunpla kits. I originally planned to just get the RG Justice (the red one), but Mr. OCD decided to drop by and say hello, so I got the RG Freedom as well. The two pilots are in a permanent bromance anyway, it would have been a shame to get one and not the other.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Prometheus: Why all the hate?

I finally got around to watching Prometheus, and to be honest I'm not sure why everyone's hating on it- though to be honest when I first heard of the movie I thought it was to be about the fire-bringer Prometheus, the Titan who ended up being chained to a rock by Zeus to have his intestines ripped out every day at noon by a hungry raptor, if I have my mythology straight. So I was somewhat put out when I found out that it was instead a spiritual successor to the Alien movies, but that wasn't reason enough for me to complain about it to whoever would listen. Only one way to find out- watch it and see if I'd sign up for the rage club.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Who's up for a game of "Where's Wally?"

A selection of important lessons learnt, and random observations made during a brief journey to *name of location redacted*:

Friday, September 21, 2012

The only cure for stupidity might be death, after all

Out of context translation: "Stupid. Really, just stupid."
You're right, you robotic blue kitty. I'm not thinking about your idiotic charge, but we're definitely on the same page right now. The world's just filled with idiots- it's getting so irritating as to almost justify a totalitarian dystopia. I'm not seething over the news that the jurors in the Apple v Samsung trial threw the judge's guide in the trash (metaphorically speaking) and directly disobeyed the judge's order that the judgment should not be intended to punish- no, nothing as petty as that. Heel, you brand slaves.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Gyakuten Saiban (Ace Attorney) Should be Compulsory Viewing for all Law Students

Anything I watch this year will have a hard time topping this movie, which I can safely say is the best video game to movie adaptation I have ever seen- though to be honest I haven't seen that many video game adaptations to have a right to whine.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Turkiye 2012, Part 6: Cold, Mistakes, and Closure

 Our final day in Turkey- for me, at least. We took a bus to Bursa, a former Ottoman capital- though why they would place their capital city in such an inaccessible (formerly) place is beyond me. The town itself is rather high up, and surprisingly, right next to Mt. Uludag, the one reason for our being there.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Breaking News: Malaysian Politician Invents New Sexual Orientation

Above: The controversial AKB48 Candy CM  (Photo pinched from the internet without asking for permission)
Something so mindbogglingly amusing showed up in my Facebook feed today that managed to break through my usually impermeable Armour of Sloth (though obviously it did nothing to get rid of my fondness for labeling dull things in geekishly awesome ways).

Friday, August 31, 2012

Question: What shoots, but can't kill? [Contest]

Stolen from engadget.com (I don't think they'll mind, will they?)
Fact: I like writing. I find that I express myself better in text rather than speech, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows me, for my contribution to conversations usually consist of sharp verbal jabs instead of flowery exposition.

When I write, I tend to get long-winded. Readers (or stalkers?) will know this, though it's really not the case with my travelogues, which tend to end up as photo dumps. In any case- time to stop rambling. This post is for a contest. I'm not going to lie about that- you'll find out eventually.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Turkiye 2012, Part 5: Is it just me, or is Moria rather cramped?

Today, the day I started writing this post, the 7th of July, just happens to be Tanabata, otherwise known as the star festival in Japan (albeit originating from a Chinese version which I am unfamiliar with). Now the only reason I'm mentioning this is because I can't help but wonder when I'll finish this post- the only thing I can say for sure is that it won't be done today. Or tomorrow. Or the week after, really. After all, it's already been, what, almost five months since my trip to Turkey? Jolly good pace, no?

Friday, August 10, 2012

Penang 2012: The Sick, The Hungry, and The Noisy

A short while ago I organized a trip to Penang island for no other reason than because it was there for the doing and it could be done. Heavens no, I sound like a spokesman for Nike. Scratch that, the real reason (plural, really) is rather long, tiresome, and localized so much that you probably wouldn't be interested in it anyway, which is why I'm letting you read it after the page break.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control (Hold That Thought)

C: Official Site
C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is one of those rare titles that manages to keep you wide-eyed and wanting to watch the next episode no matter what, despite all it's flaws. There aren't that many flaws to speak of, but enough to notice and be irritated, or at least troubled by, and yet it still works.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

AnoHana a.k.a the Real Cause of Rising Sea Levels

Yes, yes. I know this show came out ages ago- early 2011, to be precise. It's not all that long in the grand scale of creation, but it's long enough for a lot of things to have been said of, argued over, and well, judging from reviews, even die from dehydration due to excessive crying- over this eleven episode show with a name so long that most people abbreviate it to AnoHana, which means "That Flower"- which gives away absolutely nothing in relation to the full title.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Turkiye 2012, Part 4: Living the Hobbit Life, with Higher Ceilings


Oh what an eye-catching photo this is. -rolls eyes-
I finally got myself to start working on the fourth part of my Turkish travelogue, and realized that due to a policy of mine of inserting photos loyal to chronological order as they more or less took place, I have no choice but to start this post with a photo of a bowl of cereal and milk. Let's just assume that the cereal was manufactured in Turkey, using Turkish raw materials, by a Turkish company, with a Turkish owner. who has a Californian spouse. Is there any point in imagining that, you ask? None, really... but you've probably forgotten about the photo by now.

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Genocide, Gaga, and an accidental target for my irritation

If I wanted to read crap I'd have bought MAD, not a newspaper.
The news, it has been said, is a most effective depressant. If you have no idea what I'm getting at, get your friendly neighborhood drug dealer to sell you a stash of LSD, and have it three times a day, after meals. Reading the news will have the opposite effect of that, whether or not you take it before or after meals.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Petition to the Masses: A free chance to increase your karma points

I suppose I should launch myself into an intense psychological analysis of the words in the picture above, but unfortunately (fortunately?) you won't be able to enjoy peeking inside my head this time. This post is here to satisfy a simpler need- craving, really. I'm in the running- crawling, more like, to win a Sony Vaio laptop.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Turkiye 2012, Part 3: Of Horny Cats and Dead Fish

Run, lassie, run
Day, ah, 3 in Istanbul. The first item on the agenda was a cruise along the Bosphorus strait- the locals seem to pronounce it as Bos-pour-hus. We got out tickets and hopped on a pretty standard looking double-decked ferry after a short wait, enjoying the breeze and getting ourselves tanned by the oddly warm winter sun.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Out, Out! You Demons of Stupidity!

Touche, Dogbert.
A few days ago there was a harmless little incident in this little country I call home. Several thousand citizens gathered in the erstwhile capital city, Kuala Lumpur (Putrajaya is the new capital, but nobody cares, really), to stage a peaceful demonstration calling for freedom of speech, transparent elections, cheaper bananas, et cetera. The event was called Bersih 3.0 (Clean 3.0)- no doubt that the decimal played a great part in getting the young ones out of the house. In any case, everything started out nicely and peacefully, despite entry and exit points to and from the city being sealed off. Then things happened and it was chaos. Enough has been said about it, which is why I won't.

Friday, April 27, 2012

In which I Pretend to be a Foreign Affairs Adviser (And Fail Miserably)

Image credit to yam-potong
I feel like complaining about something today, so why not complain about the most populous nation on the planet? Cut them some slack, you say. People bitch about China every other day. The US nags them like a stuck-up princeling whingeing for extra cash to pay for yet another sex trip in Colombia- oh dear me, now I've pissed off three countries. Jolly good progress, though I suppose I better get to the point before someone declares World War III against me.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Intermission: Mostly random stuff I put in my mouth

Earth Hour for 9 minutes, not 60. It's better for the atmosphere.
Right. Time for another random post to keep my non-readers entertained (and to delude myself into thinking that I'm actually doing something on this blog) while I nag myself into completing the next part of my Turkey travelogue. If it seems that that's all I seem to be doing these days, you aren't wrong. The thing with big projects is that they tend to overwhelm everything else... even itself.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Day of the Monocorn

Well, look who's in trouble now.Unbelievably thin (possible anorexic?) girl in a red plugsuit, with a big gun pointed to her head. Just what did you do to get yourself into this mess, Asuka? Slap Shinji around too hard? Did the wimpy kid finally snap? ...well, that's enough of the Evangelion references for now, I believe. On to the review (if you can call it that) of the HGUC 1:144 Unicorn Gundam.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Turkiye 2012, Part 2: Sofia to Galata

Shisha stop.
I really need to keep working on this travelogue series before I forget about everything that happened during my trip to Turkey, or I'll be forced to concoct some random, amusing, nonsense to compensate. As it is I feel it slipping away already... so without further ado, here's Part 2 of this series, which covers my second day in Istanbul. (Warning: Image Heavy Post)

Friday, March 30, 2012

What a Bloody Mess: Demon's Den, A Crying Jupiter, and a Lady with a Hat

What a bloody mess
More ridiculous art courtesy of yours truly. Before you go 'ooh' and 'ahh', or swoon in a fit of visually induced ecstasy, be warned that it only looks nice because I got lucky. That's just how it is with my art- either it's a pathetic mess, or it's an "ohmigawdareyoualatterdaymichelangelothatssoawesomeman" moment, with 'man' pronounced Jamaican style 'mahn'.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Celcom and Prada, the Perfect Match

LG Prada
This is as last minute as it gets. Here's my video entry for the "Celcom and Prada, The Perfect Match" contest by Nuffnang, the closing date for which is tomorrow (scratch that, 10 hours to go, to be precise). Disclaimer: I've never touched an LG phone in my life. I don't own any items from Prada either. But what the heck does all that matter- I managed to film my entry in time (with the help of my sister as photographer), and I want to win this contest (who joins just for fun, eh). In any case, I'm off to bed. The video's after the page break- watch and be awed while I snooze away.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Placeholder: Capitalism Lives On; My Bank Account Cries

Faux Ice Cream Cake
Time for a placeholder post while I continue to wrap up (postpone working on, in other words) another long Turkish Travelogue. What you'll get is a hodgepodge of things that I've ate (obvious from the photo above), things I've bought (not so obvious), and what I think about them.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Book Review: The Dune Encyclopedia

A month or so ago I came stumbled upon a veritable gem of a book in a second hand bookstore- 'The Dune Encyclopedia'. For anyone else it would be nothing more than a stuffy pseudo-scholarly book (encyclopedia, after all) with a weird cover, but for Dune lovers like me, it's nothing short of a triviagasm.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Turkiye 2012, Part 1.5: Istanbullian Nights

Last picture before darkness fell.
Reading the title of this post you'd think I was making an Evangelion reference. I'm not, really. It's just that I am an incredibly lazy busy person- oh look, 3 more hours till midnight, when I have to biologically clock out or risk waking up the next day in a zombie-like state-  which is why I've decided to keep this short, especially since it's really the last bit of my previous post in this series of Turkey travelogues. Given the pace I'm going at it'll be quite long, but what the heck.

Friday, February 24, 2012

In which Calcium trumps Teak and Marble

Why is there a liver in my skull?
I had a pretty interesting experience a few days ago, which afforded me the opportunity to try out some things that I've never had the chance to do- and yes, before you ask, the photo above is related, and it does in fact belong to me. That's the X-Ray of my skull, and no, I didn't get it done at the airport by telling the Customs officers that I had a drunken leprechaun squished between my left and right brain.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Turkiye 2012, Part 1: Several hours Solo

Cruising the Bosphorus
Turkey- one of the three Mediterranean paradises, along with Greece and Italy. Most people would go during their Summer holidays for the bright beaches, glittering cities, scantily clad Pantheon (not the building), et cetera... however, I for one, had leaned my lesson. You'd have to be at best, stupendously forgetful, or at worst- blithering mad to venture into that region during Summer, as I learned years ago on my trip to Rome in August, where my blood painted the streets red- though strangely the nosebleeds stopped in Barcelona. The temperature was somewhere around 38 degrees Celsius- stay home.

Monday, February 6, 2012

The Travails of Cavaliere Ereditario Thumbprint Face (The Honorific is Gratuitous)

Deviantart entry: "I Will Survive"
Well, this picture pretty much sums up my current state of mind. I drew this back when I was still a blissfully tormented student in college. Ah, the joy of limited responsibility. Of being able to play truant or arrive late without the threat of being fired hanging in the air like a guillotine's blade. Not that I did any of that, of course- the thought of not being accountable to anyone probably made me substitute accountability to myself. Now that I'm accountable to someone else (the Company; the omnipresent Society), I feel like ditching at every step. Paradoxical, but that's typical Me.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Perth 2011, Part II: Leaving Berth


It is also a lot better than a day spent in an airport. Getting hit by a tsunami would be more comfortable.

This post is a continuation of Making Berth in Perth 2011, though my saying that probably won't matter since most of you reading this (assuming you are) won't bother clicking on the link to see what that post is about. Luckily that doesn't matter much here, since the events described in that post have little effect on what I'm going to regurgitate from flawed and dated memory (since I'm too lazy to go upstairs to pick up my diary at the moment). On the other hand even if you do read anything from top to bottom odds are you're a lurker, and as such there's not much point in me rambling on and on on this point, so I might as well save myself the trouble and get on with it... one warning: be prepared for a lot of photos.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

The Darkest Hour AKA Speckles of Light Here and There

The Darkest Hour Movie Poster
Shirley Holmes 2 was on the agenda, but sadly the tickets for the film were sold out- that's what you get for not booking in advance. On the other hand, we'd met up to watch a film and that's what we had to do- especially since we had free tickets without much time left on their expiry. As a result we got to watch a movie we normally wouldn't have bothered with: The Darkest Hour.

Monday, January 2, 2012

New Year's Bashing: T-Bowl Toilet Concept Restaurant (Emphasis on the Bashing)

Poop on the wall. It's also what they think about the food they're eating.
What better way to start the new year than with a little bashing. I don't really know what to say, really, since the place was so bad, but here goes. Dinner at 'T-Bowl Toilet Concept Restaurant'. The name itself is long-winded and rather pretentious. I think it was brought over from Taiwan- in any case, their theme is focused around the loo. Chairs (most of them, at any rate) are actual toilet bowls, there's poop (images of) on the walls, and they have ice cream shaped like poop.