31 December, 2006
OMG this is too funny. :D
Edit: D00d, do you think posting so much is a sign of not-having-a-life? Well, I'm pretty content sitting in front of the computer and rotting my brain away, but it feels like everyone else is out having fun. :O However I have a huge amount of inertia and tend not to move when I'm at rest. Newton's First Law applies to me almost all the time. It's true for the object-in-motion case as well -- when I'm out, I don't feel like coming home and would like to stay out as late as possible. Haha. I'm weird like that.
Gah, I'm beginning to refresh my RP boards nonstop again. Ferris' post hasn't been replied to, but I understand about how the Alphas are probably busy and stuff. It's just that I'm itching to RP him. Right now I've replied to all of Flann's threads except for one, which I'm hoping to decide on a conclusion with the other player before I continue. I'm wary about joining any more threads however, because I'm afraid everyone will reply to my threads all at once, which always seems to happen, and then I'm swamped and I'll feel stressed, and that takes the fun away from RPing. :( And we don't want that to happen, do we? Besides, I always have a tendency of rescuing lonely threads, which somehow persist to be slowly replied to even after I have tried to resuscitate them.
I love RPing because it brings back the fluency in my writing. A few months ago, I was having trouble composing blog posts, because 1) I had nothing much to say, and 2) I never did find a good way to say them. I'm particular about what I write, in that I simply cannot post up something that I deem is not good enough. I must like, or find reasonably passable, what I write before I make them "official". So yeah, this might also be one of the reasons why I'm blogging more often now.
Edit: D00d, do you think posting so much is a sign of not-having-a-life? Well, I'm pretty content sitting in front of the computer and rotting my brain away, but it feels like everyone else is out having fun. :O However I have a huge amount of inertia and tend not to move when I'm at rest. Newton's First Law applies to me almost all the time. It's true for the object-in-motion case as well -- when I'm out, I don't feel like coming home and would like to stay out as late as possible. Haha. I'm weird like that.
Gah, I'm beginning to refresh my RP boards nonstop again. Ferris' post hasn't been replied to, but I understand about how the Alphas are probably busy and stuff. It's just that I'm itching to RP him. Right now I've replied to all of Flann's threads except for one, which I'm hoping to decide on a conclusion with the other player before I continue. I'm wary about joining any more threads however, because I'm afraid everyone will reply to my threads all at once, which always seems to happen, and then I'm swamped and I'll feel stressed, and that takes the fun away from RPing. :( And we don't want that to happen, do we? Besides, I always have a tendency of rescuing lonely threads, which somehow persist to be slowly replied to even after I have tried to resuscitate them.
I love RPing because it brings back the fluency in my writing. A few months ago, I was having trouble composing blog posts, because 1) I had nothing much to say, and 2) I never did find a good way to say them. I'm particular about what I write, in that I simply cannot post up something that I deem is not good enough. I must like, or find reasonably passable, what I write before I make them "official". So yeah, this might also be one of the reasons why I'm blogging more often now.
10:38 / 1 comment(s) 
30 December, 2006
Yep, we finally met up for our Christmas exchange at Yingwan's house. We played pool. Well, sort of. I played a bit, before losing interest and playing QuadraPop on Kathy's handphone. :P Pool doesn't agree with me. Anyway, here are our gifts! Well, with the exception of Yingwan's, because she didn't bring it downstairs. =.=;
Yay. The animals look so happy. :) Haha. I gave everyone a CD with album art that I designed:
Kathy gave us all the cute animal note holder things and I got the racoon. Weiqi gave us handphone accessories with our surnames on it. Mine is the weirdest, because it is a bee, and my surname appears in place of the bee's eyes. "Zhang zhang" seemed to amuse Yingwan a lot. :D I got a keychain from Dawn, which you can see in the picture. It's on the far right. It's a wooden keychain with a really big head and stick-like limbs. Heehee. Yingwan got me a really cute cat handphone accessory made of wood. Weiqi got us Hanuta wafer chocolates. Mmm. Kathy gave out Ferrero Roches and I gave out mini Ritter Sports. So much chocolate!
Went for dinner at Sakae Sushi with Yingwan and Kathy, then I headed back to Yingwan's house to continue our oft-interrupted Long Vacation marathon. LONG VACATION! It's the BEST Japanese drama out there. Both of us haven't watched Long Vacation in a long time, and re-watching it again is the best experience. :D Takuya Kimura is tehHOT, even though he was so young and godawfully thin at that time. And not to mention Yutaka Takenouchi, badboy extraordinaire. His beard makes him look dangerous, and of course, appealing to women everywhere. Ahhh, seeing him makes me soooo want to watch Beach Boys again, with ultra cool Takashi Sorimachi. <3<3<3 Sigh, the good ol' days of Jap drama obsession...
Yay. The animals look so happy. :) Haha. I gave everyone a CD with album art that I designed:
Kathy gave us all the cute animal note holder things and I got the racoon. Weiqi gave us handphone accessories with our surnames on it. Mine is the weirdest, because it is a bee, and my surname appears in place of the bee's eyes. "Zhang zhang" seemed to amuse Yingwan a lot. :D I got a keychain from Dawn, which you can see in the picture. It's on the far right. It's a wooden keychain with a really big head and stick-like limbs. Heehee. Yingwan got me a really cute cat handphone accessory made of wood. Weiqi got us Hanuta wafer chocolates. Mmm. Kathy gave out Ferrero Roches and I gave out mini Ritter Sports. So much chocolate!
Went for dinner at Sakae Sushi with Yingwan and Kathy, then I headed back to Yingwan's house to continue our oft-interrupted Long Vacation marathon. LONG VACATION! It's the BEST Japanese drama out there. Both of us haven't watched Long Vacation in a long time, and re-watching it again is the best experience. :D Takuya Kimura is tehHOT, even though he was so young and godawfully thin at that time. And not to mention Yutaka Takenouchi, badboy extraordinaire. His beard makes him look dangerous, and of course, appealing to women everywhere. Ahhh, seeing him makes me soooo want to watch Beach Boys again, with ultra cool Takashi Sorimachi. <3<3<3 Sigh, the good ol' days of Jap drama obsession...
23:38 / 0 comment(s)
Argh, I succumbed to the temptation and created a new character. >.<; I've been wanting to play a puppy for the longest time, and so here he is. :) Named after my recent (as well as long-lasting) name obsession, Ferris, he is a selective mute and doesn't talk. At all. This will prove quite a challenge actually, because that means I'll be writing lots of description and thoughts instead. Not to mention that it makes him so different from Flann, who will never let awkward silence creep into a conversation.
Tentatively, what happened to him was that his family were victims of an avalanche and got buried under the snow and were most probably killed. Being the odd one that he was, Ferris wasn't with his family at that time. In fact he was contemplating the stars a little ways from his den when it happened. He heard the rumbling noise and he went to investigate, and he saw his family being crushed. His pack alpha, who had come to investigate, saw him and snatched him away, leaving him at the borders of some other pack, because they didn't want to take care of an orphan. Not during this period of time when times were particularly hard and there wasn't enough food to go around.
So yeah, the poor lil' pup is traumatised, etc. and won't talk.
11:55 / 0 comment(s)
29 December, 2006
I like both posters and I couldn't decide which one I liked better, so I put up both. :D
Watched 伤城 on the opening day. Tony Leung! Takeshi Kaneshiro! What's there not to like? Some people don't like the plot and how it's revealed at the beginning that Tony Leung's the bad guy and murderer, and it's true that at some parts I thought that it would have been more exciting if I didn't know, but truth be told, it works. I enjoyed the movie more than I thought it would. I went in expecting it to be similar to Infernal Affairs (which I liked, but I didn't want to watch a clone), but other than it having to do with law enforcement officials (I mean, police), I thought it was an extremely original piece of work. Then again, that is my own opinion, and it's not like I've watched many movies.
What I enjoyed about the movie was the excellent cinematography and the top-notch acting. I liked the pacing of the plot, and how you're not given all the answers until the end, because even though you know who did it, you don't know why, and that's the lingering question that hung above me throughout the movie.
This movie is tragic. It is sad. Watching it is depressing. But it's good all the same. I definitely recommend this, but you probably wouldn't like it if you were into action-flicks or romance. This is a movie that examines motives, revenge, and morality.
This review sums up what I like about the movie:
One teardrop.
(...)
It was a simple scene: The movie’s two protagonists, as played by the brilliant Tony Leung and the charming Takeshi Kaneshiro, are sitting outside the hospital in the middle of the night. A circling tracking camera sees the two men exchange dialogue amidst a seemingly calm atmosphere. Leung is then put in focus when a single tear rolls down his nose bridge.
And that was it. No emotional screams; no shrill cries; no out-of-control outbreaks. With one single teardrop, we have witnessed one of the quietest, but feelingly heartbreaking and painful scenes on the big screen this year.- from moviexclusive.com
22:41 / 2 comment(s)
Today the sky was blue for maybe the first time this week. Thank god. Now I'm spared the awkward fumbling with my umbrella when I go out. :D
Tomorrow 5TORM is probably going to meet up for our overdue annual Christmas present exchange. Yay.
Oh, I've been starting to burn the anime that I have accumulated on my poor little harddisk drive. I have a nagging feeling my CD-ROM drive is not able to burn DVDs. I tried once with DVD+Rs and it didn't work, so I simply assumed DVD-Rs would work. I haven't dared to buy any though, but now that I look closely at my drive, it says only says "CD-RW" on it, so I think... I can't burn DVDs. ARGHARGHARGH. And do you know how many CDs a 45-episode anime takes up? I used 18 discs. EIGHTEEEEEN. T_T
12:17 / 0 comment(s)
27 December, 2006
I've been wanting to blog all day, but due to the quake in Taiwan, I had some problems with my Internet connection and I couldn't visit some sites, blogger.com being one of them. *dies* I could visit my Livejournal though, and since I had one, I posted something up there:
Anyway, this morning I was working on putting back some of my entries from the Greyprism archives. I'm slowly but surely working my way through them all :/ You can check my progress by just looking at the Archive list on the sidebar and see how many months are listed. That'd be how far long I am. ^^
There's been a quake in Taiwan, and some Internet services have been disrupted. I know this is probably heartless of me, but ARGH, I am only feeling annoyed that I can't access both WWS, Blogger and anidb. :( Not going to WWS hurts me the most because OMG I'm checking the boards almost the entire time I'm online. Sigh.
Well, I hope the people in Taiwan are okay. So far there are 2 killed and at least 42 wounded by the quake (as well as innumerable undersea data cables T_T). I hope they can recover from it soon.
So now I'm amusing myself by pinging various websites:
Click for a bigger version.
Apparently the connection to hosted-forum.com is so bad that the ping request couldn't even find it. :( I want to roleplay! T_T Well, this situation has forced me to find my entertainment somewhere else. Well! I guess I'll finally get down to watching my anime. Heh. Heh.
23:17 / 0 comment(s)
Have you wondered about who I was? Well, wonder no further! I finally put up the about me page. W00t. Isn't that superb? So if you're bored and curious, why not click. It's quite a read though, I warn you. :P Actually, it's simply a (majorly) revised version of the one I had up at Greyprism. I mean hello? Re-write the entire damn thing? That would take too much effort. :D
00:00 / 0 comment(s)
26 December, 2006
It's been raining a lot lately. When I look up at the sky I can't see where the cloud ends.
Anyway, went out of the house today (OMG! I actually stopped pretending to be a hermit) and saw that the new bus service, 185, has started running. It's a straight bus from my house to Buona Vista MRT via Corporation Road, Jurong East Ave 1, Clementi MRT, Holland Dr. Hmm, sounds like quite a long journey. I wager it will take at least one hour, so if I'm going to Buona Vista I might as well take the MRT. Except that it'll be cheaper by bus. -.-;
Oh, I gave in to reading a walkthrough for Riviera. >.< Turned out that I was stuck at the Chapter 2 boss, Isher. I had no idea what the significance of Practice battles were and needless to say, my characters were way too weak and I simply couldn't beat him. Argh. So I restarted the game to train up my characters properly and try not to get a grade lower than "B" for my battles. I'm striving to get an "S" in everything, but it's kind of hard to finish with a Level 3 Overskill every single time. :(
One thing I find annoying is how you can only have 15 items in your inventory at one time. I understand how it takes extra strategy to decide what to keep and what to discard, but I'm so indecisive and I'll be like, "Should I keep the Healing Herb, or discard it in favour of the Black Earrings? The earrings can add so much to my stats... but I don't think I'll ever use them because I only like to use attack items..." and stare at the screen for a really long time before I decide. :S
Edit: Oooh, I just beat Isher and finished the second chapter! Yay! Here are my scores:
I have no idea what "Pleased" actually is so... don't ask. :S
Oh and there was a scene in the early part of the game which I loved, so I made it into my MSN display pic. ^^ I had to edit some bits of the picture though, because the display pic is 100x100, while the actual screenshot was much wider. So I did a little bit of photoshopping so that it looks authentic. I like the way I did the text. ^^ I changed the name of the cat familiar to "Rothe", which is what it is in the original version. In the North American version which I'm playing, she's named "Rose", but I thought the Jap one was cooler. O.o;
Original Version
Edited Version
Anyway, went out of the house today (OMG! I actually stopped pretending to be a hermit) and saw that the new bus service, 185, has started running. It's a straight bus from my house to Buona Vista MRT via Corporation Road, Jurong East Ave 1, Clementi MRT, Holland Dr. Hmm, sounds like quite a long journey. I wager it will take at least one hour, so if I'm going to Buona Vista I might as well take the MRT. Except that it'll be cheaper by bus. -.-;
Oh, I gave in to reading a walkthrough for Riviera. >.< Turned out that I was stuck at the Chapter 2 boss, Isher. I had no idea what the significance of Practice battles were and needless to say, my characters were way too weak and I simply couldn't beat him. Argh. So I restarted the game to train up my characters properly and try not to get a grade lower than "B" for my battles. I'm striving to get an "S" in everything, but it's kind of hard to finish with a Level 3 Overskill every single time. :(
One thing I find annoying is how you can only have 15 items in your inventory at one time. I understand how it takes extra strategy to decide what to keep and what to discard, but I'm so indecisive and I'll be like, "Should I keep the Healing Herb, or discard it in favour of the Black Earrings? The earrings can add so much to my stats... but I don't think I'll ever use them because I only like to use attack items..." and stare at the screen for a really long time before I decide. :S
Edit: Oooh, I just beat Isher and finished the second chapter! Yay! Here are my scores:
I have no idea what "Pleased" actually is so... don't ask. :S
Oh and there was a scene in the early part of the game which I loved, so I made it into my MSN display pic. ^^ I had to edit some bits of the picture though, because the display pic is 100x100, while the actual screenshot was much wider. So I did a little bit of photoshopping so that it looks authentic. I like the way I did the text. ^^ I changed the name of the cat familiar to "Rothe", which is what it is in the original version. In the North American version which I'm playing, she's named "Rose", but I thought the Jap one was cooler. O.o;
Original Version
Edited Version
18:59 / 0 comment(s)
It's been raining a lot lately. When I look up at the sky I can't see where the cloud ends.
Anyway, went out of the house today (OMG! I actually stopped pretending to be a hermit) and saw that the new bus service, 185, has started running. It's a straight bus from my house to Buona Vista MRT via Corporation Road, Jurong East Ave 1, Clementi MRT, Holland Dr. Hmm, sounds like quite a long journey. I wager it will take at least one hour, so if I'm going to Buona Vista I might as well take the MRT. Except that it'll be cheaper by bus. -.-;
Oh, I gave in to reading a walkthrough for Riviera. >.< style="font-style: italic;">way too weak and I simply couldn't beat him. Argh. So I restarted the game all over again, training my characters properly and trying not to get a grade lower than "B" for my battles. I'm striving to get an "S" in everything, but it's kind of hard to finish with a Level 3 Overskill every single tim. :(
One thing I find annoying is how you can only have 15 items in your inventory at one time. I understand how it takes extra strategy to decide what to keep and what to discard, but I'm so indecisive and I'll be like, "Should I keep the Healing Herb, or discard it in favour of the Black Earrings? The earrings can add so much to my stats... but I don't think I'll ever use them because I only like to use attack items..." and stare at the screen for a really long time before I decide. :S
Anyway, went out of the house today (OMG! I actually stopped pretending to be a hermit) and saw that the new bus service, 185, has started running. It's a straight bus from my house to Buona Vista MRT via Corporation Road, Jurong East Ave 1, Clementi MRT, Holland Dr. Hmm, sounds like quite a long journey. I wager it will take at least one hour, so if I'm going to Buona Vista I might as well take the MRT. Except that it'll be cheaper by bus. -.-;
Oh, I gave in to reading a walkthrough for Riviera. >.< style="font-style: italic;">way too weak and I simply couldn't beat him. Argh. So I restarted the game all over again, training my characters properly and trying not to get a grade lower than "B" for my battles. I'm striving to get an "S" in everything, but it's kind of hard to finish with a Level 3 Overskill every single tim. :(
One thing I find annoying is how you can only have 15 items in your inventory at one time. I understand how it takes extra strategy to decide what to keep and what to discard, but I'm so indecisive and I'll be like, "Should I keep the Healing Herb, or discard it in favour of the Black Earrings? The earrings can add so much to my stats... but I don't think I'll ever use them because I only like to use attack items..." and stare at the screen for a really long time before I decide. :S
18:59 / 0 comment(s)
25 December, 2006
It's Christmas today.
And I'm spending it at home in front of my computer. That sounds... anti-social. Hah. But it's what I enjoy doing. :P Today I started playing a game called Riviera: The Promised Land and I find it quite interesting. Here are a few screenshots:
I'm not very far along yet, but this is a game I plan on finishing. :)
The battle system is interesting, and is different from the usual RPG. It's turn-based, but you have to choose 4 items/weapons before you enter a battle. If I'm not wrong, you can't select which enemy to hit either, so it's dependent on your move/weapon and the attack formation. It's very very slow thow, so I end up hitting the * key to speed up the game abit. Ehehe. Since I'm already cheating, i.e. saving state at every possible point, then I might as well go all the way, right? XD
The plot is kind of cliched, but I think it's not bad. So far, it's about war between the gods and demons. Erm, the gods hid something in Riviera, a town, and entrusted its inhabitants to safeguard it. However now the town is overrun with demons. So the gods created these Grim Angels with black wings, and sent them to defeat the demons. Yeah. I can't exactly remember many details. LOL. Some kind of gamer I am. But anyway the game looks promising. I like the graphics. ^^ There are some bits that can be improved on, but it's overall well done in an anime style. I hope I can get through the game without looking at a walkthrough. Ehh. LOL.
So what happened to me wanting to play Chrono Trigger? Hmm. I'll get to it soon. ^^;
And I'm spending it at home in front of my computer. That sounds... anti-social. Hah. But it's what I enjoy doing. :P Today I started playing a game called Riviera: The Promised Land and I find it quite interesting. Here are a few screenshots:
I'm not very far along yet, but this is a game I plan on finishing. :)
The battle system is interesting, and is different from the usual RPG. It's turn-based, but you have to choose 4 items/weapons before you enter a battle. If I'm not wrong, you can't select which enemy to hit either, so it's dependent on your move/weapon and the attack formation. It's very very slow thow, so I end up hitting the * key to speed up the game abit. Ehehe. Since I'm already cheating, i.e. saving state at every possible point, then I might as well go all the way, right? XD
The plot is kind of cliched, but I think it's not bad. So far, it's about war between the gods and demons. Erm, the gods hid something in Riviera, a town, and entrusted its inhabitants to safeguard it. However now the town is overrun with demons. So the gods created these Grim Angels with black wings, and sent them to defeat the demons. Yeah. I can't exactly remember many details. LOL. Some kind of gamer I am. But anyway the game looks promising. I like the graphics. ^^ There are some bits that can be improved on, but it's overall well done in an anime style. I hope I can get through the game without looking at a walkthrough. Ehh. LOL.
So what happened to me wanting to play Chrono Trigger? Hmm. I'll get to it soon. ^^;
15:11 / 0 comment(s)
24 December, 2006
Went for the Passion concert yesterday at Victoria Concert Hall with Yingwan and it was SO. SO. GOOD. The entire experience was awesome. Magical. Wonderful. Inspiring. Overwhelming. I'm running out of adjectives.
I have decided that Yasunori Mitsuda is one very talented man. And that I will worship the ground that Ayako Ishikawa and Hiroaki Yura walk on, because them + violin = magic.
Here's a list of songs that they played, copied from the programme:
First Half
Digimon Arrangement from Digimon
Is kiRite Burning Up? from kiRite
Victory Fanfare (Final Fantasy XII Version) from Final Fantasy XII
Sakura from Xenosaga II
Dream of the Shore Bordering Another World from Chrono Cross
Pain from Xenosaga
Which, I must add, is an amazingly beautiful piano piece.
Theme from Princess Mononoke
Theme from Laputa, Castle in the Sky
Nocturne from kiRite
Radical Dreamers ~ Without taking the jewel ~ from Chrono Cross
OMG! I absolutely LOOOOOVE this song. The guitar is to-die-for.
Jacob Gade's Tango Jalousie
Theme from Super Mario Brothers
Whole New World from Aladdin
I didn't actually enjoy the Disney classics very much. I felt that they were very out of place with the rest of the repitoire. However they were very well performed.
Second Half
Sailing to the World from an album of the same name
The Azure from kiRite
Mai from .hack//Liminality OST
Free Bird from Haibane Renmei
AHHH. This song is one of the reasons I went for the concert. The music from Haibane Renmei is absolutely gorgeous.
Fohanne Brahms' Hungarian Dance
Sunlight Earth from Shadow of the Colossus
When You Wish Upon A Star from Pinocchio
Another Disney song... 'nuff said.
Camille Saint-Saens' Dance Macabre
The violin. WOW.
Two of Us from Shoot the Violist, an album by Joe Hisaishi, composer of most of Studio Ghibli's songs
Chrono Cross - Time's Scar from Chrono Cross
Crowd favourite. Okay, maybe it's just me. BUT IT'S THE THEME SONG. AND IT'S SO GOOD. Yeah.
A Song of Storm and Fire from Tsubasa Chronicle
For the encore piece, they played a medley that began with something that I couldn't recognise, but included a song from Chrono Trigger (or it could also be Chrono Cross, I can't really tell), which was absolutely amazing.
Listening to all the songs make me want to play the games. I think I shall start playing Chrono Trigger all over again, and FINISH it this time.
Met Timo! I mean yeah, I recommended him to go, but I didn't think he would actually do so. Hope he enjoyed the concert. Also met up with Yingwan's Malaysian friend from Australia who bought the most expensive tickets and got to sit at the circle seats. Heh. Actually I'm quite satisfied with our own seats... we bought the $40 tickets and we were at row R. Not too bad.
After the concert there was an autograph session which I took some horrible pictures of. I WANT AN AUTOGRAPH. But the queue was so long and it was getting really late so Yingwan and I decided against getting an autograph, so all I have are furtive shots that I stole when there weren't any people blocking my view.
This is Yasunori Mitsuda himself! But... you can't really see him. Argh.
Yasunori Mitsuda on the right, and the godlike violinist virtuoso, Hiroaki Yura on the left. He is also the founder of Eminence, which is the company that organises these concerts and plays game music and movie soundtracks etc. and is way too cool for words. :D
One more picture of Hiroaki Yura.
The guitarist, Zane Banks. Hey! He smiled for me. ^^
We can see the percussionist, Joshua Hill in the foreground, and the other equally shen2 violinist, Ayako Ishikawa.
So instead of getting an autograph, we queued up to pre-order the CD of the concert and bought a $45 CD, kiRite. OMG so expensive. =.=; But it's WORTH IT.
Click to visit the kiRite website.
I have decided that Yasunori Mitsuda is one very talented man. And that I will worship the ground that Ayako Ishikawa and Hiroaki Yura walk on, because them + violin = magic.
Here's a list of songs that they played, copied from the programme:
First Half
Digimon Arrangement from Digimon
Is kiRite Burning Up? from kiRite
Victory Fanfare (Final Fantasy XII Version) from Final Fantasy XII
Sakura from Xenosaga II
Dream of the Shore Bordering Another World from Chrono Cross
Pain from Xenosaga
Which, I must add, is an amazingly beautiful piano piece.
Theme from Princess Mononoke
Theme from Laputa, Castle in the Sky
Nocturne from kiRite
Radical Dreamers ~ Without taking the jewel ~ from Chrono Cross
OMG! I absolutely LOOOOOVE this song. The guitar is to-die-for.
Jacob Gade's Tango Jalousie
Theme from Super Mario Brothers
Whole New World from Aladdin
I didn't actually enjoy the Disney classics very much. I felt that they were very out of place with the rest of the repitoire. However they were very well performed.
Second Half
Sailing to the World from an album of the same name
The Azure from kiRite
Mai from .hack//Liminality OST
Free Bird from Haibane Renmei
AHHH. This song is one of the reasons I went for the concert. The music from Haibane Renmei is absolutely gorgeous.
Fohanne Brahms' Hungarian Dance
Sunlight Earth from Shadow of the Colossus
When You Wish Upon A Star from Pinocchio
Another Disney song... 'nuff said.
Camille Saint-Saens' Dance Macabre
The violin. WOW.
Two of Us from Shoot the Violist, an album by Joe Hisaishi, composer of most of Studio Ghibli's songs
Chrono Cross - Time's Scar from Chrono Cross
Crowd favourite. Okay, maybe it's just me. BUT IT'S THE THEME SONG. AND IT'S SO GOOD. Yeah.
A Song of Storm and Fire from Tsubasa Chronicle
For the encore piece, they played a medley that began with something that I couldn't recognise, but included a song from Chrono Trigger (or it could also be Chrono Cross, I can't really tell), which was absolutely amazing.
Listening to all the songs make me want to play the games. I think I shall start playing Chrono Trigger all over again, and FINISH it this time.
Met Timo! I mean yeah, I recommended him to go, but I didn't think he would actually do so. Hope he enjoyed the concert. Also met up with Yingwan's Malaysian friend from Australia who bought the most expensive tickets and got to sit at the circle seats. Heh. Actually I'm quite satisfied with our own seats... we bought the $40 tickets and we were at row R. Not too bad.
After the concert there was an autograph session which I took some horrible pictures of. I WANT AN AUTOGRAPH. But the queue was so long and it was getting really late so Yingwan and I decided against getting an autograph, so all I have are furtive shots that I stole when there weren't any people blocking my view.
This is Yasunori Mitsuda himself! But... you can't really see him. Argh.
Yasunori Mitsuda on the right, and the godlike violinist virtuoso, Hiroaki Yura on the left. He is also the founder of Eminence, which is the company that organises these concerts and plays game music and movie soundtracks etc. and is way too cool for words. :D
One more picture of Hiroaki Yura.
The guitarist, Zane Banks. Hey! He smiled for me. ^^
We can see the percussionist, Joshua Hill in the foreground, and the other equally shen2 violinist, Ayako Ishikawa.
So instead of getting an autograph, we queued up to pre-order the CD of the concert and bought a $45 CD, kiRite. OMG so expensive. =.=; But it's WORTH IT.
Click to visit the kiRite website.
12:31 / 0 comment(s)
21 December, 2006
Relient K's new album, Five Score and Seven Years ago, will be released 6 March, 2007. OMG!!! *begins to hyperventilate and everything* I'm listening to their new songs, "Must Have Done Something Right" and "Forgiven" on their myspace and it's good. :D Can't expect anything less from them.
I really want to go to America just to go for one of their concerts. T_T
In other music related news (did you know I just spelled that "nuse"? I need to read a dictionary now...), I downloaded Last.FM, so I added the now playing thing to the sidebar over there. So yeah. Check out what music I'm listening to!
I really want to go to America just to go for one of their concerts. T_T
In other music related news (did you know I just spelled that "nuse"? I need to read a dictionary now...), I downloaded Last.FM, so I added the now playing thing to the sidebar over there. So yeah. Check out what music I'm listening to!
21:31 / 0 comment(s)
19 December, 2006
Went out with Meow and her sister today to watch Eragon. I was cringing throughout the entire movie. It wasn't that bad, but it was... bad. :( I mean um, thanks for trying. That's all I can come up with. And I heard the movie was better than the book. :O Horror of horrors.
Anyway, whenever I see Meow nowadays it's all geektalkRPwolvesetc. Mwah. I'm so proud of ourselves. Anyway I just got myself involved in a shiny new thread! Aren't you happy for me? I was so excited too. That's wolves from 4 different packs AT ONE GO! OMG! MELTING POT! Let's throw away surmounting SC/NM tensions! Can you guys tell I am a little bit hyper? Maybe.
Went for dinner at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao (god, that's long) with 5TORM, minus Yingwan, plus HH, Meow's sis and Weiqi's bro. Ehh, so many pluses and minuses. I was the only one without a tagalong. HOW COME. So unfair. T_T Dawn, maybe you should lend me your brother next time. The problem is, he doesn't talk to me, nor I to him. So that won't solve things, huh?
Anyway, arranged to meet Yingwan tomorrow to bring around a friend from Summer School. We haven't seen him in three years and I doubt he remembers me or knows I'm coming along. But who cares! I'm really good at being extra. Yay. I shall go there and be extra. Hope it doesn't rain. Again.
Ugh talking about rain. The covered walkways at Orchard Road today was horribly crowded because it was raining. I shall never venture there again when the weather is inclement.
Anyway, whenever I see Meow nowadays it's all geektalkRPwolvesetc. Mwah. I'm so proud of ourselves. Anyway I just got myself involved in a shiny new thread! Aren't you happy for me? I was so excited too. That's wolves from 4 different packs AT ONE GO! OMG! MELTING POT! Let's throw away surmounting SC/NM tensions! Can you guys tell I am a little bit hyper? Maybe.
Went for dinner at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao (god, that's long) with 5TORM, minus Yingwan, plus HH, Meow's sis and Weiqi's bro. Ehh, so many pluses and minuses. I was the only one without a tagalong. HOW COME. So unfair. T_T Dawn, maybe you should lend me your brother next time. The problem is, he doesn't talk to me, nor I to him. So that won't solve things, huh?
Anyway, arranged to meet Yingwan tomorrow to bring around a friend from Summer School. We haven't seen him in three years and I doubt he remembers me or knows I'm coming along. But who cares! I'm really good at being extra. Yay. I shall go there and be extra. Hope it doesn't rain. Again.
Ugh talking about rain. The covered walkways at Orchard Road today was horribly crowded because it was raining. I shall never venture there again when the weather is inclement.
01:08 / 0 comment(s)
18 December, 2006
Yes, the new layout is purple. I find it a very calming colour, on top of being royal. I am, after all, a princess. :D Not of salt, but of the alternate kind.
This layout isn't very complex per se, but I spent a lot of time on it. I don't know why. It took a lot of staring at photoshop to figure out how I should place the elements together, and I tried a few arrangements and embellishments before settling on this one. I drew the rainbow and the clouds, but the bird is a photograph I found on Google and the little bird silhouettes are part of a brush I downloaded from deviantart. Appropriate credits are on the sidebar.
I've also coded up the layouts page which is where you go when you click "more?" under the blog heading in my sidebar. It was a copy and paste job actually, but I had to upload the images one by one into Imageshack, which was a big pain in the ass.
This layout also uses a lot more CSS. Yes, I am no longer dependant on tables! However I don't think my code is neat enough just yet to allow me to incorporate themes. Besides, I don't know how to do that using Blogger. Bleh.
This layout isn't very complex per se, but I spent a lot of time on it. I don't know why. It took a lot of staring at photoshop to figure out how I should place the elements together, and I tried a few arrangements and embellishments before settling on this one. I drew the rainbow and the clouds, but the bird is a photograph I found on Google and the little bird silhouettes are part of a brush I downloaded from deviantart. Appropriate credits are on the sidebar.
I've also coded up the layouts page which is where you go when you click "more?" under the blog heading in my sidebar. It was a copy and paste job actually, but I had to upload the images one by one into Imageshack, which was a big pain in the ass.
This layout also uses a lot more CSS. Yes, I am no longer dependant on tables! However I don't think my code is neat enough just yet to allow me to incorporate themes. Besides, I don't know how to do that using Blogger. Bleh.
Anyway, I have had an altogether crappy day. I want to scream until I can't hear myself, I want to sleep and dream so that I can lose myself, I want to destroy everything I see because it feels like nothing is worth anything anymore. Because I'm not worth anything and I'm useless I'm useless I'm useless.
I don't know where I'm going, I don't know where I am.
I'm not sure if I'm human, I'm not sure if I'll mend.
00:16 / 0 comment(s)
15 December, 2006
Added new music, from an awesome Japanese band SPITZ. I haven't had much opportunity to listen to their songs though, and the first song I heard from them was Kaede, which is featured in the OST of the Japanese drama, Overtime (starring Takashi Sorimachi <3!), and I promptly fell in love with it. I have no idea how long ago that was. It was during the time when I was all Jap drama crazy. I think it was during upper primary or lower secondary. I can't remember. But I had Kaede on repeat for ever so long, and I wrote the lyrics everywhere and can sing to it by heart. ^^
And after watching Honey & Clover and finding the insert songs positively fabulous, I went to search for them and found out that a good number of them was by SPITZ and I nearly hyperventilated. The song I posted, Sakano, is one of my new favourite songs by them, and I highly recommend it, so press the play button for a listen! It won't take you much time.
Been RPing quite a bit lately, though I've come down from the initial obsessive refreshing-of-board-index and who's-online-list-spying I did when I just joined. Heehee. I've hit 20 IC posts with Flann! Yay. 20 seems little when other members have their post count in the hundreds, but it feels good to know that I've written 20 posts for Flann, and am still enthused to RP him. I'd hate to lose interest, especially with a character as interesting as Flann. I'm having a little problem with RPing him though, because I didn't want him to be too much like me. So I make him do and feel things differently from the way I do, and sometimes it's difficult not to slip into what I'm comfortable with.
Had a swollen eye on Wednesday and had to drag my sorry ass to the doctor's on Thursday. *sigh* But the meds I'm taking seem to make it better. It's still a little swollen but it's not so obvious anymore. And my cold seems to be fading away. However one of the pills cause drowsiness, so I've been in a stupor for two days. LOL. I kind of like the feeling actually, like everything's fuzzy and not very real. I realise that I've acquired a lot of patience in this drowsy-like state, because I had to do a System Restore for mylousy computer because Photoshop seemed to have become corrupted, and I literally sat through the entire restore/restart process without fidgeting. I just stared at the screen and basically just spaced out. Yay.
Going for my first real class tomorrow. Or should I say, classes. I'll be assisting a pregnant teacher in the morning, then take P2 English Creative Writing and a P2 English class. I hope I don't pollute their young minds. >:D
And just a random note about H&C II: the Yamamoto/Nomiya/Mayama/Rika story arc is leaving me positively in tears. T_T Especially episode 5. T_T
And after watching Honey & Clover and finding the insert songs positively fabulous, I went to search for them and found out that a good number of them was by SPITZ and I nearly hyperventilated. The song I posted, Sakano, is one of my new favourite songs by them, and I highly recommend it, so press the play button for a listen! It won't take you much time.
Been RPing quite a bit lately, though I've come down from the initial obsessive refreshing-of-board-index and who's-online-list-spying I did when I just joined. Heehee. I've hit 20 IC posts with Flann! Yay. 20 seems little when other members have their post count in the hundreds, but it feels good to know that I've written 20 posts for Flann, and am still enthused to RP him. I'd hate to lose interest, especially with a character as interesting as Flann. I'm having a little problem with RPing him though, because I didn't want him to be too much like me. So I make him do and feel things differently from the way I do, and sometimes it's difficult not to slip into what I'm comfortable with.
Had a swollen eye on Wednesday and had to drag my sorry ass to the doctor's on Thursday. *sigh* But the meds I'm taking seem to make it better. It's still a little swollen but it's not so obvious anymore. And my cold seems to be fading away. However one of the pills cause drowsiness, so I've been in a stupor for two days. LOL. I kind of like the feeling actually, like everything's fuzzy and not very real. I realise that I've acquired a lot of patience in this drowsy-like state, because I had to do a System Restore for my
Going for my first real class tomorrow. Or should I say, classes. I'll be assisting a pregnant teacher in the morning, then take P2 English Creative Writing and a P2 English class. I hope I don't pollute their young minds. >:D
And just a random note about H&C II: the Yamamoto/Nomiya/Mayama/Rika story arc is leaving me positively in tears. T_T Especially episode 5. T_T
22:33 / 0 comment(s)
11 December, 2006
What happened to "Bad command or file name"? I miss my old DOS error messages. T_T 21:56 / 1 comment(s)
On top of having a toothache (which actually doesn't hurt anymore... maybe my tooth is dead), I'm having a cold. I was having a very mild sore throat two days before, but after intensively drinking water and gargling those anti-bacterial mouthwash things, on top of popping cold medicine religiously every four hours, it seems to have disappeared. I'm left with a runny nose that doesn't run. I mean, I keep on having to sniff every few seconds, but I don't have so much snot as to have to actually get a tissue. Does that sound unhygienic of me? LOL.
EDIT: Dow I've stopped breathing through by dose because I'll sdeeze otherwise. (now i've stopped breathing through my nose because i'll sneeze otherwise)
Anyway, went for my first job today. I'm now working sort of part time at a tuition centre tutoring primary school kids, and today I went to observe a teacher teaching her class. It was interesting. I'll be teaching English and Creative Writing classes I think, but no actual classes for me yet, just small stuff like one or two kids. I'm not earning a lot because it's not an everyday thing, more like an at best, once a week or twice a week thing. But the best thing is that it's SO NEAR MY HOUSE. It's like, 4 bus stops away and I don't even need to go to the interchange. YAY! No longer do I have to endure long travel times. But it doesn't feel shuang enough to get on and off the bus so soon. LOL.
EDIT: Dow I've stopped breathing through by dose because I'll sdeeze otherwise. (now i've stopped breathing through my nose because i'll sneeze otherwise)
Anyway, went for my first job today. I'm now working sort of part time at a tuition centre tutoring primary school kids, and today I went to observe a teacher teaching her class. It was interesting. I'll be teaching English and Creative Writing classes I think, but no actual classes for me yet, just small stuff like one or two kids. I'm not earning a lot because it's not an everyday thing, more like an at best, once a week or twice a week thing. But the best thing is that it's SO NEAR MY HOUSE. It's like, 4 bus stops away and I don't even need to go to the interchange. YAY! No longer do I have to endure long travel times. But it doesn't feel shuang enough to get on and off the bus so soon. LOL.
21:10 / 1 comment(s)
10 December, 2006
ARGH. I have a toothache and it HURTS LIKE HELL. Not really hell, exactly. But it's making my entire left jaw throb with a dull aching pain that doesn't go away. MR DENTIST I WANT TO SEE YOU NOW. I DON'T CARE IF YOU RIP THAT TOOTH OUT OF ME. I JUST WANT THE PAIN TO STOP. T_T
I can't think straight, so I can't RP without sounding inane and incoherent. So I sat in front of my computer this morning and just watched Honey & Clover II (yes, sequel!) mindlessly. And I played the WWS daily trivia thing. I'm trying to work up my standings, but I don't think I'll win anything. I'm not part of the Energy Stones Programme anyway so it doesn't matter to me, but it feels good to have my name on "Yesterday's Top Scores", which I've been on two days in a row. I won't be on it today though, because I scored a 7/10 (raar). I can't help but feel it unfair that they have to ask me questions on American football. Seriously, do I really look like I know anything about the NFL? Noooo.
Enough ranting. I think I'll go take a nap. Problem is, I can't sleep because of the PAINNNN. Panadol didn't seem to work very well, and not long enough. Argh. I want my dose of morphine now. T_T
I can't think straight, so I can't RP without sounding inane and incoherent. So I sat in front of my computer this morning and just watched Honey & Clover II (yes, sequel!) mindlessly. And I played the WWS daily trivia thing. I'm trying to work up my standings, but I don't think I'll win anything. I'm not part of the Energy Stones Programme anyway so it doesn't matter to me, but it feels good to have my name on "Yesterday's Top Scores", which I've been on two days in a row. I won't be on it today though, because I scored a 7/10 (raar). I can't help but feel it unfair that they have to ask me questions on American football. Seriously, do I really look like I know anything about the NFL? Noooo.
Enough ranting. I think I'll go take a nap. Problem is, I can't sleep because of the PAINNNN. Panadol didn't seem to work very well, and not long enough. Argh. I want my dose of morphine now. T_T
13:31 / 0 comment(s)
08 December, 2006
I've been watching Honey & Clover on and off among other anime, and have always been freaked out by their opening credits. LOL. Is it because I have no appreciation for er, art?
But today I've reached episode 13 and they finally changed it! It's much more pleasant now, and I can finally watch the opening credits without cringing. Well, usually I just skip them, but sometimes I don't skip ahead enough and have to watch that traumatising scene. >.<;
But today I've reached episode 13 and they finally changed it! It's much more pleasant now, and I can finally watch the opening credits without cringing. Well, usually I just skip them, but sometimes I don't skip ahead enough and have to watch that traumatising scene. >.<;
Yes, definitely more pleasing to the eye, thank you.
I wasn't very enthusiastic about watching Honey & Clover at first. Other than the eye-pleasing illustrations and good music, I couldn't find myself drawn to any of the characters. And I especially didn't like the fact that 19 year old Hagu-chan looked and behaved like a 10 year old kid.
But around episode 7 or 8, I felt my interest in the series grow. Now I think it's going to become one of my favourites, because everything that happens is just so earnest. Not to mention the jokes are just laugh-out-loud funny. This is one of the few anime where I can watch and suddenly burst out laughing. So yeah, it's an anime I recommend. Definitely lives up to it's hype. ^^
I wasn't very enthusiastic about watching Honey & Clover at first. Other than the eye-pleasing illustrations and good music, I couldn't find myself drawn to any of the characters. And I especially didn't like the fact that 19 year old Hagu-chan looked and behaved like a 10 year old kid.
But around episode 7 or 8, I felt my interest in the series grow. Now I think it's going to become one of my favourites, because everything that happens is just so earnest. Not to mention the jokes are just laugh-out-loud funny. This is one of the few anime where I can watch and suddenly burst out laughing. So yeah, it's an anime I recommend. Definitely lives up to it's hype. ^^
19:57 / 0 comment(s)
06 December, 2006
Flann got accepted. Yay! It's a matter-of-course thing, but I had to wait until my application got processed and my title updated before I could post anything of course, and the Alphas/admins were away until the 5th so I had to wait until then. Just posted my first post and as usual, those kinds of posts are a little boring and dry but hey, what can I do? It's protocol. But it allows me to flex my writing muscles a bit because I haven't written anything in a long long time. It feels great to roleplay again! Except the constant-refreshing-board syndrome, which has made me a little neurotic. Ehh.
Anyway, the thing I hate most is how I'm posting and everything, but no one replies. And when they eventually do, they all reply at the same time and I'll feel stressed about replying. LOL. So now, even though I'm in an RP mood, I've got nothing to reply to. I can start new threads or join some more, but as I said, people will all reply at the same time, and doing so will only mean I will owe more threads in the future.
I must say though, that I find Flann so much more fun to roleplay than Clavius or Rush was for me. I think those two characters were sort of "fillers". They were just characters I played to fill up my roleplay gap. I didn't have much of their personality or history mapped out, so writing them was difficult. But thanks to Kathy, whom has always been awesome at plots and stuff, Flann has a background! Yay! And a personality! Double yay! Which means I can build on what she gave me and have lots and lots of fun. Mwahaha.
Oh, I went to Taka today and reserved this dress:
It's the very last piece in size S. *glee* How exciting!
Anyway, the thing I hate most is how I'm posting and everything, but no one replies. And when they eventually do, they all reply at the same time and I'll feel stressed about replying. LOL. So now, even though I'm in an RP mood, I've got nothing to reply to. I can start new threads or join some more, but as I said, people will all reply at the same time, and doing so will only mean I will owe more threads in the future.
I must say though, that I find Flann so much more fun to roleplay than Clavius or Rush was for me. I think those two characters were sort of "fillers". They were just characters I played to fill up my roleplay gap. I didn't have much of their personality or history mapped out, so writing them was difficult. But thanks to Kathy, whom has always been awesome at plots and stuff, Flann has a background! Yay! And a personality! Double yay! Which means I can build on what she gave me and have lots and lots of fun. Mwahaha.
Oh, I went to Taka today and reserved this dress:
It's the very last piece in size S. *glee* How exciting!01:52 / 0 comment(s)
02 December, 2006
This is probably one of my more successful attempts at digital painting, the one on the left being mine and the one on the right being the original picture. It isn't perfect, and there are things that need correcting, like how his nose bridge isn't defined enough (argh), but I'm quite satisfied with it on the whole. Basically I did a rough trace, then used a really small airbrush and kept on going at it with varying shades that I approximated from the photograph. I erased all the bits that went over the trace and deleted that layer so I wouldn't have outlines in the final product, an effect that I particularly like. I didn't actually spend very long at it, about 3 or 4 hours maybe, and it follows on the heels of my recent bout of artistic inspiration. It feels great to emerge from artist's block. That's kind of like writer's block, but applied to drawing. LOL.
XD Yay! Flann! Someone hug him quick, because he needs lots of love. Ooo, I'm very excited to roleplay him right now. Just submitted his joining application, but I'm not sure if there'll be any complications because the pack I'm joining is theoretically full. Now if they
But it feels great to be back at WWS. I've so many memories there, even though they've faded into the black hole of time. Haha.
23:48 / 2 comment(s)