isaiah's
overly romanticised version of life

images by onionhead, RebzxJonasxMoseley

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Your School My School

Hi.

Watched an episode of HanaKimi (Hua Yang Shao Nan Shao Nu) just now.

Hmm...

I still can't get used to watching Taiwanese idol shows... not really sure why.

Maybe it's because I've been watching Jap dramas all these while. And to me no one can really do school drama like the Japanese. Hmm...

Then again, to quote Natsumi (from Keroro Gunsou), everybody "have been working hard in their own ways". So maybe I can't really compare this way.

Hmm.

Talk about the Japs...

Some of the new figurines I've acquired include:

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Rei in this very pleasant-looking civilian outfit (yeah at first I also thought it was some school uniform).

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Winry Rockbell (from Fullmetal Alchemist) repairing an automail arm. I'ts one of my greatest findings, as it's really hard to find individually-sold FMA figurines these days.

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Keroro in this "businessman" attire (reminds me of the Best Denki salesman). The squid does look a bit gross but, erm... well this series does have other quite appealing figurines like Tamama doing his close combat training in his trademark long pants.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Bloody GIF

Good afternoon.

Decided to do an animation of some guy being shot with an arrow (i was doing practice presentation slides about my job scope) and ended up with this.

ARROWED!

Goodness... it seemed that I then went on a blood frenzy!

Jumping off a cliff

Selfdestruct

Monday, February 26, 2007

CNY Photo Album 2007!

Now it's time for some photos!

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Heh the whole of my Keroro Platoon in my office had to put on pig noses for CNY as it's the year of the Pig!

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Yichuan and his "family"! Yichuan and girlfriend Lavinia at the centre, with "son" Jonathan and "daughter" Carrie (Lav's colleague). Taken during the Steamboat at Max's place.

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Jon's butt got stuck on the chair while playing Munchkin!

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Weebie Card Game Prototype. Conceptualized by Max and a few other colleagues. I did some of the art!

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Jon, the winner of the first Weebie game played on Earth!

Chinese New Year 2007

This Chinese New Year has been an eventful one (a bit cliched, yes), and a long one too, because the first day of CNY fell on Sunday, so we had a make-up holiday on Tuesday!



On day 1 I did tell my Dad about it... and got expected results lah. Nevertheless it's better to me than having to lie about it all the time. I'm sick of that. Of course, now it means that hs has a good reason to scold me now when something goes wrong, for instance, totally no-link stuff like going home late...

Never mind. I'm not against anyone, and I will bear no grudge. Only then I can call myself a Christian.

Anyway, we went to various relatives' houses on Day 1, my paternal uncles and aunts.

I realised that some of my love for Bah Kua has been lost. I don't eat it so, erm... so enthusiastically these days. Or maybe some, like Mom, would say that you can't really call half-a-box-of-Bah-Kua-per-house "unenthusiastic".



On Day 2 I went to Max's house for steamboat and card games. Watched Hot Chick on Ch. 5 and found it a nice show.

The steamboat was great! Even though we used simple ingredients like Yong Tao Hu stuff and some raw meat, it turned out good, and it's a true saying that the soup left from a long enough steamboat session really rocks!

They played Munchkin while Max and I did some art on the card game he was developing, called Weebies. Basically it's about attacking other people's assets, which are acquired during the game (duh!).

Jonathan was the proud winner of the first ever round of Weebies ever played on Earth!

We then watched Windstruck, the Korean movie about the love story of a young policewoman, which had some oh-so-bloody-typical tear-jerking scenes (well at least they tried). The only part of the film that gladdened me was that Max and guys actualy found the sad scenes funny.

Har Har Har. The Koreans failed to make 5 people cry on 20/02/2007! Har Har!

We stayed overnight there and on the next day I went to Mdm Chew's house, where we played, erm, Blackjack. Mdm Chew ordered a super generous serving of KFC, and what's more, my upperstudy was there!

Only regret for that day was that my stomach didnt have space for more KFC after only 3 pieces. I wonder why.



Movies I watched in that period included Austin Powers 1, HP and the Chamber of Secrets and Hot Chick.

Austin Powers was... OK I enjoy comedies in general, but there's this part of the movie which I find good. When Austin and Van were atacking Dr Evil's base, everytime they kill the henchman his name tag will be shown, followed by his family or friends recieving the news of his death. One of them was actually marrying soon (Ouch!).

Well, to me this sort of gives the message that every life matters. Quite a contrast to those shows where armies of henchmen can die at the hands of a single hero... OK I know they're bad guys but... it's just a reminder that every life matters lah huh? Seeing hundreds of dead bodies on the battlefield sometimes lead us to forget to think whether they have families or not. Something like what Stalin said, "One death is a tragedy; 6 million deaths is statistics", which is a harsh reality.

Harry Potter and the CoS will remain as my favourite movie episode of the HP series.



We had celebrations in our office too! First was the decorations competition, which our branch won, typically (in the very sense of the word). Thanks to Wee and CB for their supervision, especially the pig origami.

New year lunch at Tiong Bahru was really as what Max called it, "bouncing". We even got Hongbao with Toto tickets inside!

And more Hongbao in the later days! Groups of us went round the office to exchange mandarin oranges with our married colleagues and got lots of Hongbao! And Mdm Chew brought stuff like pineapple tarts for our section. One of the types of P-tarts were really nice!

Had Yusheng with my cell-group and other churchmates on Day 7. Supposed to have stamboat with them, but I was going o watch "Protege" with my colleagues, so had to say goodbye. Hmm wait till next year lor.

P.S. This was the first CNY in so many years, where I've been so hyped-up about buying new clothes. Thinking of bringing about a revolution in Narnia. If you get the drift.

Invasion of GIFs

Some random pictures I've done...

Afro Gunsou


Dororo in his trademark "Trauma Mode", because of his, erm... not-so-happy experiences with his comrades in the past


Meet Eruru, Keron's answer to L (pronounced "Eru" in Japanese)

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Swirl

Recent events got me in a bit of a weird state of mind.

Today as I woke up at home at about 12:30 p.m., I was alone and didn't really know what to do, except that if I stayed longer in that lonely place I'd probably go crazy.

And my house computer was, as usual, in that crazy state as well.

There was just some stuff in my mind I had to put down in words, so I reckoned the best way would be to come to the library which is a cycling distance from my house anyway.



Chinese New Year will start tomorrow. My favourite aspects would of course be the food. Today my family will be having the usual steamboat reunion dinner with my uncle's family at their house. And I can smell the bah kua from tomorrow already!

But this day of the lunar year I can smell something else coming as well.

Every year Dad will bring the family to this Buddhist temple in my district. For the past few years I've been compromising, and I entered and even helped hold the joss sticks. This year I decided that that would change. Why should I have any part in idol worship?

So I'll tell Dad tomorrow.

Hmm.

...

I just hope Mom will keep this between Dad and I and not step in. Her involvement will probably make things worse.



Recently I got to see Kelvin play the keyboard, and of course he was of a considerable standard as a band keyboardist.

Intended to learn some tips from him, and he sort of told me that I have to listen not only to Chinese pop music as their arrangments are not as rich as music from other regions and so it will limit what I learn and how I play.

Hmm got to consider what he said lor, but getting a bit confused now.

Don't know why, but just... hmm... maybe because I do not have such negative feelings against Mandopop. Maybe it's bacause I find it easy to listen to? Maybe it's nicer to sing?

Hmm... just confused.

Why? It's the question in me, asking whether I would be playing what I like, or just playing something I can play well.

It's just like the reason why I didn't watch Project Superstar this year. All the impression I got from the show was "Don't choose the song you like. Choose the song you can sing well".

Or maybe for me, in a few years time I'll see some difference in what I play and what I sing. which may be perfectly all right.

*

That's it!

Come to think of it, what I'm playing on Electone now isn't exactly Mandopop either. It's what I learnt and then enjoyed playing!

That's the answer!

Sunday, February 11, 2007

10080 Minutes Too Late

This post is one week late.

The past week had been a busy one for me, so I had no time to complete my posts; I managed to do only drafts of them. I finally found time to put in those missing little pieces.

Army PRIDE Camp

On the 1st and 2nd of February the members of our unit's WITS team (including me) went for the Army PRIDE Camp co-organized by FOCUS training centre, a group that does adventure games at Sentosa.

Hence, that's where our camp took place.

Of course, for a training camp on team dynamics there's bound to be teams formed, and try as the personnel of the same unit might to stay together, they split us up somehow, but I ended up in the same group as Chor Bin and Reuben.

On the first day we did stuff like...

  • Crossing a great distance from one region to another with a help of a rope hung smack in the middle of the 2 regions.
  • Trying to balance on wires held between poles.
  • Getting a huge see-saw balanced with all of us on it.
  • Walking high structures (like wires and plank bridges) on belay

For the see-saw thing you see people trying to do it in funny ways. Our group ended up with all sitting down except for a teammate and I. The 2 of us were marching on the spot (it looked quite funny on the video) and shifting the centre of gravity respectively.

Walking on structures n metres high sure gave me the creeps, man! My feet perspired like mad, and no, it didn't feel good with lots of sticky sweat between your toes after you came down. The feeling of swinging down from the structure, however, was... adrenaline!

People like Chiang Wee and Max never failed to surprise anyone when told they're Army clerks.

Day 2 was the day we got wet! We were to build improvised rafts to row out to the sea, and having a DXO who had been in a dragon-boat team did help! Our rowing was rhythmic and organised, and we, erm, didn't come in last. Heh. There were girls playing volleyball nearby during the event and, well, most of us were guys so... all I could say was some of us did seem a bit intimidating to them and they left the scene (*~*)...

Other games included something about snatching balls, and in that game we did need some reminder that playing is not really about winning. Poison ball sort of gives a different feeling when played on beach.

There was another blindfold game where I tried (read: TRIED) stepping out to lead, but failed, as usual.

Some people just can't be leaders.

Well despite that game being the last item, the whole camp was pretty enjoyable and the Palawan beach was a memorable place, with the ultra fine sand and the dried bones (?!!!!) and all.

Kaicheng's birthday K-box session

Some of the 10/04 people decided to organise some kind of party for Kaicheng, and the closest weekend happened to be last Sunday. We went to K-Box (oh, of course I joined!) and sang for a good 5 hours! And as usual, I managed to get the group tired of Jay Chou songs.

My only complaint: There was no "Tui Hou" in the selection yet! What's K-Box thinking?!

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Estella, Kaicheng & Fiona

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The cake for Kaicheng!

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Cutting the cake!

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Took a shot of them singing again...

Couldn't really find the opportunity to take shot of others who were there, namely Esmond and JY. Maybe because I didn't want to waste everybody's time as my phone camera takes some time to take a picture well. Hmm.

It was fun, of course. Any KTV outing would do so for me.



In the same series as the Misato figure from an earlier post comes Rei Ayanami!

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Sigh... can't really capture the essence of the figurine using VGA... But she's prettier on the box leh... (if not, what's the box for?)

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Giroro-Robo

Been wanting to go into simple Plamo (plastic model) construction sometime, probably inspired by Densha and Keroro.

OK, quite wrong sources of inspiration, huh?

Anyway, my first try will be the Giroro-Robo! I don't think the characters' robots ever appeared in the story, but these robots are just by-products of the franchise. They're cool nonetheless.

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The box

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Here we go!

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Let's see what our garang soldier Giroro is "made of"!

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Giroro on his antigrav scooter, which will be mounted on top of the robot's head.

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The menacing-looking main body.

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Finally, operationally-ready!

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Have a taste of the laser cannon!

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"Forging ahead"

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"Haha the Earth shall be ours to invade! Let's go!"

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G66. It's pronouncation in Japanese will sound like the name "Giroro".

Alright, after all the test-runs and showoffs, let's drop the ultimate counter-blow on the Earth invasion plan!

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Size comparison!

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Misato and the Chip

Purchases of this week include:

A figurine of Misato Katsuragi (sort of a mentor to Shinji) from Evangelion (again...). Yes it's a series of characters where you buy a random box and see who you'll get. Which is how middle-price-range Japanese figurines work generally.

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Misato from the Anime. During some points in the Anime she'll give that kind of look that reminds me of Roy Mustang. If you know who he is.

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A shot of the box. Gives you a rough picture how the Rei and Asuka in-flightsuit figurines will look.

With the coming of the new year (the Chinese one) I find myself buying lots and lots of new clothes. What's pecuilar is that when I'm out there buying clothes I feel that I bought too much already. But when I'm at home looking through my wardrobe I feel like "Oh, so I only bought this little."

Anyway, I bought this print Tee from Girodano which I saw on the MRT but didn't know was from Giordano then.

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Indeed!