Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Go Johnny Go

Woke up early for the first time this semester. Managed to get to uni in time, though a stalled car right infront of the Sunway Monash Condo caused a bad back log which extended to the Sunway Medical Centre. Didn't really meet alot of people earlier on, but started bumping into them after I met up with Kat for the morning.

Didn't really do much today except continue writing my following article for the papers. Black is no easy game to write about....I'm just so torn in describing the experience...

Watched Walk the Line later in the evening with Kat at Pyramid. Was a good show albeit a sad one. So many issues that contradict my beliefs. The characters themselves are certainly no angels in my eyes.

Sigh. Going to have to continue writing on the article again. My 4th article on We Love Katamari is out today.

Monday, February 27, 2006

The begining of the END

It's the first day of the last sem. There are going to be plenty of "last times" in the coming months. Sigh. I'm coming to feel the coming sadness as I am going to leave my student life behind me and progress on to the next stage of life.

For the first day of actual uni, I didn't bother getting up early to head to uni early and grab my favourite parking spot. Nope, instead I went to uni at about 11 only be turned down at the gate. This certainly has not happened to me on the first day of the sem. So I guess its kinda different for a change. Walked all the way from Elephant Walk to uni.

Its a weird feeling when you enter a familiar place but feel somewhat displaced....I guess the multitude of new faces has only reaffirm my feelings that Monash is begining to be unlike the uni I knew it to be. My batch has left uni already, all of us loose enders are tying up whatever business we have. It's kinda hard to come across another loose ender too. You gotta look harder than you used to.

Oh well, the first day is pretty much uneventful. Just seeing people change left and right. Boring lectures are still here. The assignments are going to be due. Sigh....a familiar sights and sounds, yet different from before.

Change is happening. I'm getting older.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Oh, VHS. Where art thou?

I'm pretty sure all of us know what VHS was. Commonly known as cassete tapes, it was the medium of entertainment until its slow demise at the hands of CDs and DVDs in the late 90s. With the rise in demand for DVD players (VCD players have been wiped off the market too) it was no wonder that VHS was given a swipt kick in the butt off store shelves. But it didn't die without a fight; it has been to date,the longest running form of entertainment medium.

The reason I've taken interest in this rather boring and uninteresthing topic is because my dad has been going around looking for a new DVD player that can play Divx shows (all of us know where we get our .avi files from).

So there I was, walking through Carrefour looking for a DVD player. I suddenly came across two VHS players. What struck me as odd, was that the players cost as much as a regular DVD player. Even more expensive than the China-brand (horrible things) stuff. Now who would want to buy a VHS player? Servicing them is even harder.

A VHS player STILL in the stores! Things gotten so bad for it, that it is more expensive than DVD players.

Depending on whether you are an FFVII fan/ videogamer; you may this next pic some what irrelevant to your life. Yes, what I am about to show you is a mystical artifact from Otaku land. This is a testamony that anything you see in an anime can, and will be made into a product (which will be guaranteed to be bought by some hardcore Anime/Videogame fan).

Well, the product in quesiton, is infact a replica of Cloud's Advent Children costume. I found it somewhat odd and a lil weird looking at it. Advent Children is a cool movie and all. So it is understandable that people are trying to make an extra buck out of it. But this, is simply too far. Really.

The Costume @ Animetech, Megamall

A frontal view of the costume

Sidenote: I DO recommend that anyone should watch FFVII: Advent Children cause it really rocks. Even if you DIDN'T play the game and don't understand a hell of whats going on, just enjoy it for the superb looking computer graphics.

Friday, February 24, 2006

Holidays are ending...

Man, its the last Friday of the Hols and technically the last day of the hols. Its been a very long hold. My last big hol of my life at the moment. Sigh...To mark things off on the last day I went to uni to pay the tuition fees and hang out with Kat.

Reached uni at 11am plus. I was painfully reminded that parking around uni after 10am is plain crazy. Thankfully, there was an empty spot for me near Medan. Was looking around for Kat and her gang when I finally stumbled across them at the "acquarium" (don't ask me why its called the acquarium). Anyways, saw some people from MBC creating works of art. There's the leaning-bookshelf-of-MBC, an old handmade book cabinet.

Everyone's busy with something in the fishtank...I mean acquarium

I present to you the all new Times New Chick Roman font, courtesy of Katherine Chick

Had to run errands for the MBC people too. Went to the commercial area around Pyramid to buy paint for them (they were painting their own MBC T-shirts), buy lunch for them and additional shirts f0r them to paint on.

The art shop outside Sunway Pyramid where the paint was sold

When we got back, we were being observed by the newbies. I'm begining to understand why the place is called the "Acquarium".

Spent more time bumming around uni until 4.50. Went over to One U (again) to walk around. Had dinner at a place called 1920's. They serve nice pasta's but have yet to try a good pizza from them. Still it was a good meal for an ok price.

A nightshot of Uni. Long time since I last took pics in uni.
Let the final sem begin.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Banana Republic

Bananas.....no, not the fruit....but the people. Who are they? They live and breathe among us. They share the same lousy public transport system. They even flush the toilet the same way we do. "Bananas" are commonly refered to as Chinese people, who do not speak Chinese at all. It is common place to find a few of us in the local unis and foreign unis. Infact, this whole topic came about because of an article that talked about English speaking Chinese people, how we are sort of a minority.

First off, I detest to being refered by this term cause I know at least a bit of Hakka (which seems to be very unpopular among people). I really $#%^ing hate it when people freely use this term because my own dialect is rarely spoken. Hence, some people think they have the right to label me under this bleeding term.

Ok, got that out of the way. Yes. I hate the term Banana and ABC (American Born Chinese), because they so inaccurately discriminate people who do not speak a language that they are expected to speak. No, its sad to see that we are labeled as a bloody disgrace to the Chinese race for not being able to speak our own mother tounge. Seriously, I wanna say screw it to the people who came up with the term.

Anyways, enough of that. Today helped give a lift to Tim Nam to uni. Later met Kat and took her to One U, to watch Casanova with her friends. In some strange twist of fate, I saw Yong Ting at GSC heading to watch the same movie in the same hall, with her mom.
Odd indeed.

The Oval @ One U. Gearing up for F1 season with a mini F1 expo.

The girls are taking their time shopping for skin products from Skin Food.

Bought Black at One U today. Going to try it out soon for my next review!! Let the bullets fly!
Oh 3rd review on Shadow of Colossus came out today too!

Ironically, I started out with a topic on Bananas and I'm ending with a pic of a Banana.

This is a bunch of bananas that my Mandarin tuition teacher got from her garden. Its HUGE and its got a Siamese twin like fruit.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Catch up

Ok, its been a whole week since my last post. I've been basically lazy since the previous week, so yes....the blog gets neglected. Though, I'm sure not many people read this blog, I feel inclined to actually update it before I forget more stuff.

Hmm...where to begin and where do I end.....

Guess there are too many things to recount. Lets see, I went to my cousin's place on Sunday to get some screenshots for my next review. Here are some shots of the game, We Love Katamari. It's a fun addictive game with a surprisingly simple concept, roll up everything you see. Truly this is one of the most refreshing original concepts in a game for quite a while.

Speaking of which, my next review is out for Thursday the 23rd of Feb 2006.

Too lazy to type out more. Let my pics do the talking now.

Shots on 21st Feb 2006

A whole line of thingies in Ikea. They are actually covers of glass jars.

Ikea is going to get lots of hate mail from animal activists everywhere. (No actual rats were harmed in this pic)

Another shot in Ikea. Loved the colours in this pic.


Shots on 22nd Feb

A pic of Pusat Bandar Damansara


A random shot of a car in the street

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

My rainy little Valentine

Ok. It is the 15th not the 14th of Feb. One day after Valentines (that over publisized and commercialized day). Yes, I believe we can all breathe a sigh of relief (couples and non-couples alike). No longer do we have to be overly tense over the coming of the dreaded V-day. Personally, Vday really puts the stakes up pretty high, with our expectations pretty much up there.

Yesterday, of all days had to rain really really hard just as I was on my way down to KL to pick Kat up. Gosh....if only God pick another day to rain down on K.L. I would appreciate it if He did. But what is done is done. Anyways, the general formula for such a situation would be:

Rain + K.L. = Jam + Stress + Major migraine

Yes, being stuck in downtown rush hour traffic was not the perfect way to spend Valentines, but I got through it nonetheless. Big surprise that Sungai Besi was flooded with cars, not to mention that the Kampung Pandan round-about was flooded under the bridge (3 lanes reduced to one).

Took me a whole hour to reach Kat's place. Was still raining so her dad had to shelter her under an umbrella. Used an alternate route to KLCC. Proved to be alot faster and smoother. Was a real relief that I didn't have to hit another jam.

Had a small lite dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. Sadly, I think I was far from picking the best dishes for the night. Will have to do more research on the food next time round so as to make better decisions.

Managed to get to the Philharmonic in time. Were actually wondering what to do cause we were really early. Didn't realise the Philharmonic is just directly above that big lobby in the middle of KLCC. The hall was smaller than I expected it to be really. But the facilities around looked presentable and not a tad shady.

The performance for the evening was entitled, The English Concert featuring pieces that would have been played in a typical 18th century English setting. Didn't recognise many pieces (close to none), but was impressed by the sound quality and over all performance. The lead violinist was pretty passionate with his playing. He was twisting his head left and right so much I thought that it may come right off mid way through the performance. Fancy that.

The muscians played on for over 45 minutes before the intermission (can see that alot of people were "holding back"). The playing resumed until 10.30pm. The second part of the performance didn't have the same impact of the first half mainly because alot of the pieces sounded alike (I'm no music critic so don't shoot me!).

There goes my Valentine of 2006, certainly could have been better but I'm glad the way it turned out in the end.

Oh, my second review was out in the papers today. Hopefully the publishings would be more frequent now. Now, I must get back on my next review.


Friday, February 10, 2006

Mid Valley and Steamboat on the same day

Woah..its double meet ups for me today. One meet up with Debs and Matt @ Mid Valley and later another meet with Merilyn, James, and Jim for steamboat. Very tiring business this is. Also very taxing on the pocket.

Picked Matt up from his place at around 11 to meet Debs @ MPH. Reached there early, knowing that we all run on "Malaysian timing" even my version of being early ( really late by 10 minutes ) was still acceptable. Had lunch at Dominos. First time eating at their dine-in restaurant. The place is really Shakey's old premise. Frankly Shakey had better deco, but Domino is out to deliver in terms of food and not surroundings.

For starters, Domino's soup tastes a whole lot better than Pizza Hut's any day. PH tastes like watered down Campbell soup. Kudos to Domino's garlic bread, beating Pizza Hut's half hearted attempt (lightly spread garlic on their bread). Sadly, the pizzas could use some improvement as the thin crust pizza was way too thin. Tasted like crackers really.

Looked around at all the V-day stuff. It really wasn't that impressive as compared to CNY deco. Heh. Can't have too many things going on back to back.

A small pole in the centre of a V-day stall in Mid Valley

Same thing again, but from a different agle. Those are apples hanging from the "tree". Don't get whats up with the apples?

Later at 8pm, had to brave rush hour traffic to get to Sunway for the second meet. Reached there close to 8.30pm. Bleh... Seriously Jim, James and Merilyn can sapu a whole lot of food than I can. Hands down victory to them. I'm currently so stuffed that I have difficulty typing out THIS very post.

One steamboat. A whole HELL lot of FOOD.

I don't know why I took this pic. But Meryl was so insistant on taking it. A sushi-like fishball. It soon met a very steamy death in the steamboat along with the rest of its brethren.

The truimphant four-o have defeated the evil steamboat and avoided paying the RM6 fine per every 100g of unfinished food. The battle was long and bloody, but the four-some have persevered through another eating session.

This may be a little late. A week late to be exact, but I was since I was in Johor last week I didn't have the chance to update my blog on the successful publishing of my first game review for the InTech section of the Star.

Here it is folks. My very FIRST review!!! Printed on the 2nd of Feb 2006.

My name in the papers!!

Monday, February 06, 2006

A whole lot catching up

Whee....I got to update up on alot of stuff. Got lots of pic from Johor, not many pics for yesterday's engagement ceremony. All will be revealed in this post.

The reason behind the back log of pics is because I accidentally left my bluetooh device back in JB, hence my inability to share my pictures to the world. Oh woe was I!!

But yes, finally I got a replacement device at Midvalley, while I was out with Kat today. Had a long walk around the place until we ran out of places to go to.

I'm kinda lazy to explain in detail over things. But here are the pics.

Grandpa's place in JB

A view of the notorious Holiday Plaza from my gramp's

Inside Holiday Plaza (HP) is an array of stores. Most have grown to be a sort of extension of Sungei Wang Plaza over the years. The biggest difference between the two is that HP has lots of DVD stalls.

Here's how one typically gets into a DVD store. The front of the store is a small set up. Not many DVDs to be seen. There will ALWAYS be a "hidden" door that leads to the main DVD area, right behind the front door. All the shops there do this to minimize losses during raids.

Behold!! The hidden world of pirated DVDs!! Behind the smucky looking storefront lies a pirates paradise!!

The wall of DVDs!!

This is my cousin's pet dog. There are 2 of them. Apparently, the dog's owners (Singaporeans) couldn't keep them in their apartment. Hence, my cousin got these two fine looking dogs.

This is Danga Bay, a new tourist area in JB. It is set to be something like Gurney Drive, Penang. There are plenty of restaurants to satisfy your hunger and live performances. It even has its own amusement park further down the shore in this pic.

On the way to Tebrau City

Tebrau City, one of JB's newest malls. Mainly built and managed by Jusco. It has many stores that vary from food to entertainment.

Inside Tebrau City

Italiannies has a branch here. Though smaller than One U

Even Red Box has reached JB. Horrors.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Ring the bells!!

Marriage is some what of a mystery to me. I mean, I always see people get married. Sure, aunties and uncles; other times it would be cousins. But never, friends. I've haven't attended a wedding of a friend who I know out of the family before, until today that is.

Today was the engagement ceremony (the actually wedding is to be in Vancouver (mistook it for Torronto earlier) sometime this week) of my friend Yin Ling and soon-to-be husband, Sam Lau.

My heart felt congratulations go out to the happy couple who will be getting on with the next stage of life. The mystical beyond and probably on to being a true 'aunty' (that means you, Yin Ling), good luck with Sam Jr.

Now, whats the big deal about friends actually getting hitch? Think about it, all those weddings we attended in our young days. Some time or most of the time, we are forced to go out of obligation. You know, parents can't stand it if you refuse.

With friends, at least half of the couple will know you. For me, I can tell that I can relate to and have a friendly chat instead of the usual congrats at the door and at the end. This is the main difference between the two.

Hopefully, this marks as a begining to one of many marriages I will have to attend. Heh, this is just one of many.

So to Yin Ling and Sam, all the best and good luck!!