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The earphone wires for my Walkman broke. The wires were strangely stiff and thus easy to twist and break, and I can't just use any earphones if I want to enjoy the excellent noise-cancelling feature of the mp3 player. However, even though I never bothered to register the warranty for the Walkman, Sony was nice enough to give me a free replacement (with a better set of earphones) as the Walkman was a less-than-year-old model.
In other news, boss wants to issue me with a Blackberry. The better to get me on weekends, I suppose.
In the meantime, I'm planning my next trip to Japan for the Tokyo Game Show, and perhaps pick up a copy of Tales of Vesperia for the PS3.Current Mood:  drained |
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Downloaded the PS3 demo from Japan PSN. Unlike the Xbox360 demo set in Ehmead Hill, this is set in Keiv Moc. However, the demo replaced Raven with Patty as a playable character, though it's quite obvious from the character interactions that she wouldn't be in the party for the actual game in that dungeon. Anyway, she's cute and seem much less annoying than Karol. I like how Yuri dumped her on the ground after catching her from a fall. Yeah Yuri, you're such a ladies' man...not.
I want this game! Hopefully localised!Current Mood:  excited |
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The morning radio has been inundating the airwaves with...you guessed it, Michael Jackson songs. For the love of all that is good, the guy is dead. There is no need to kill the rest of us with his awful wailings. If his fans want to hold a memorial by listening to his songs on a loop, let them enjoy it in the comfort of their own music player, and give the rest of humanity a break. I certainly do not fancy waking up to his music.Current Mood:  annoyed |
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I'm presently in San Francisco for work-related reasons. Just got a call from home that parents are on home quarantime orders. They just returned from Paris and there was apparently a germy passenger seated a few rows away from them. Hopefully, parents will be ok. My brother, who's not on quarantine orders, is taking care of them.Current Mood: annoyed |
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Sakurai finally gets to voice a Tales lead, and it's a game on the fricking Wii. Yes, Sakurai Takahiro is voicing Asbel Rant from Tales of Graces.
If this game ever gets localised, I can only hope the English voices don't sound anywhere as awful as the job on Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of a New World. I certainly don't hold out hope for a dual-voice release on Wii.
If this game never gets localised....*sobs* Guess it'll be time to hack that Wii.Current Mood: bitchy |
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The long-awaited Trico game, The Last Guardian, finally makes its first appearance in public. Really gorgeous art in motion. Think Studio Ghibli meets Guillermo del Toro.
Also, Final Fantasy XIV Online coming to Playstation 3 and PC in 2010 worldwide. The trailer is up on Japan PSN. Pretty! I might try this game if the subscription isn't too ridiculously priced.
Meanwhile, the classic Final Fantasy VII is also available at US$9.99 on US PSN, which is still cheaper than the price gouge of S$21.99 (it's should have been a S$15.99 game at most) on the Singapore PSN for the Japanese International version. In addition, trailers, PS3 wallpapers and PSP theme for Final Fantasy:Dissidia are also up on US PSN. I'm none too excited about the English voices - all the guys seem to sound about the same.
The Uncharted 2 trailer looks like a fun popcorn action movie that I'd love to watch, but which I know I'll suck at playing.Current Mood: excited |
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Just got home from the Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy concert, with long-time music director for FF, Arnie Roth, conducting, and composer Nobuo Uematsu in the audience.
The concert was fantastic with a good appreciative crowd. I liked how they screened videos from the respective games for each music. In one of the more interesting segments, a pre-battle scene from FFVIII was allowed to play out in silence, and then the orchestra hit the battle music just as the scene went into battle gameplay. It was really neat, and the audience loved it. The blockiness in the in-game graphics of even the more recent games like FFVIII brought some nostalgic chortles from the audience. It was really amusing.
The only blight was the slight off-tune in the guest guitarist for the FFIX flamenco piece. Uematsu-sensei graced the audience with simple Chinese phrases, basically "How do you do?" and "I ate chicken rice. It tastes good." He even joined the choir for the One-Winged Angel encore.
I managed to get a CD autographed by both Roth and Uematsu. *squee* Would have liked them to sign another copy which I had bought for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) kiyoshi_chan but was only allowed one item per person in queue. Well, there's always, hopefully, a next time.Current Mood: cheerful |
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I'm home, and I'm sweaty. It's too humid!Current Mood: tired |
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I'm coming home!Current Mood: tired |
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Itai!
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May. 17th, 2009 @ 09:05 pm
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My legs are protesting against my abuse. Circled 2 rounds of Akiba in a partially successful attempt to get all my games and CDs. In the end, I had to go back to Bic Camera at Ikebukuro to get some other stuff since Akiba seems to not have them. Wasn't much of a price drop on some of the games either. In fact, Bic Camera had some great deals, like a massive price drop to under 3,000yen for White Knight Chronicles, which I was partially tempted, except that I know it's being localised.
On the other hand, I had the best ramen ever at Mutekiya. It was a good half-hour queue in the cold night air, but it was worth it. Regardless if you choose the regular or upsize, the bowl of noodles costs the same. Best thing is that the outlet is not part of a chain. It can only be found at the junction right across from Junkudo Bookstore at Ikebukuro.
BTW, my luck sucks at Gatchapon. Jo, I need you!Current Mood: satisfied |
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Managed to hit into human crush yesterday morning as my parents and I travelled from Ikebukuro to Shinjuku smack in the thick of morning peak hour for our day trip to Hakone.
Weather in Hakone held up well despite being really cold. We took the reverse circuit starting from Moto Hakone Ko and back to Hakone Yumoto Station, which proved to be a good choice since we managed to catch partial views of Mt Fuji both during the Lake Ashi cruise and midway up the ropeway towards Owakudani station from Togendai station. Had some great soba at Shinjuku.
Today, I managed to spend most of it stuck at Asakusa area where the second day of the Sanja Matsuri was underway. Took lots of videos of the various Mikoshi (portable shrines) making their way to the shrine of the three fishermen siblings who were responsible for founding the Sensoji Temple. BTW, many of the male shrine carriers were wearing their yukata really short with nothing but a loincloth beneath. The loincloth, honestly, wasn't functioning more than just a codpiece. I've seen more najed male asses in one place than in a shelf of rated-18 yaoi doujinshi.
Talking about doujinshi, I was at Mandarake later in the evening, but I didn't seem to have the energy to dig through the racks. Instead, I'm happy to pick up my Tales of Destiny and Tales of Rebirth clear posters.
I'm really exhausted from all the walking, but it's Akihabara day tomorrow!Current Mood: exhausted |
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I'm in Tokyo! Yay! Complimentary in-room internet access is so cool. Got a bunch of nice stuff at Animate, including some Yuri x Flynn Tales of Vesperia doujinshi.
Will be hitting Hakone with parents tomorrow.Current Mood: happy |
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A strong vote of no confidence and the fundie ninjas got thrown out of AWARE, which they had previously hijacked via legal yet dubious means. Good riddance to bad rubbish!Current Mood: good |
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OUCH!
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Apr. 25th, 2009 @ 11:15 pm
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I fell off a bus. Thankfully no major damage beyond scraped knee and broken nail on right index finger. Nevertheless...OUCH!
Anyway, thanks to the kind gentleman who helped me up. Was in much pain and didn't even see his face.Current Mood:  indescribable |
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Recently, a group of women appeared out of left field and staged a swift coup of a local NGO dedicated to women's issues AWARE (Association of Women for Action and Research). The new group claimed they want to return AWARE back to its roots from what they see as increasing gay activism in recent years. Unfortunately, the accusation of gay activism against the old executive committee is tenuous at best, and the new EXCO does not seem to have any platform (despite numerous interviews with the press) beyond accusing the old EXCO of having a gay agenda. You can read a good summary of the wankage here.
It doesn't surprise me that the group of women came from that church. Having passed by the area frequently on the train, the church had struck me as creepy for its anti-gay banners. Most other churches tend to hang up banners about how God loves us that he sent his only begotten son etc. etc.
Given the fundie obsession with the anti-homosexuality of Leviticus 18:22, perhaps we in Singapore should have our own version of Letter to Dr. Laura, but addressed to Josie Lau and her new team.
( Here's the original Letter to Dr. Laura reproduced in full. )Current Mood: cynical |
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Urgh!
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Apr. 18th, 2009 @ 11:49 pm
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The weather has taken a drastic turn for the fiery hot and humid. I'm melting at home!
There is a reason why shopping is the Singaporean's No. 2 past-time (No. 1 is food, but their ranking is debatable) - we hang out at air-conditioned shopping malls to escape the heat.Current Mood: aggravated |
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Johnny from Tales of Destiny is the Guitar Hero.Current Mood:  awake |
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Tokyo
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Apr. 18th, 2009 @ 12:26 am
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I'll be making a short trip with my parents next month. Lesson I learnt about booking Japanese hotels directly online: Know your Japanese and you'll get your special discounts. Some of the hotel reservations don't even work when accessing the site in English!
Seeing that I'll be acting as tour guide for my parents, I wonder if I'll even have the time and privacy to pick up doujinshi. I'm really looking forward to some Tales of Vesperia hot Flynn/Yuri action.Current Mood: excited |
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Trine
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Apr. 14th, 2009 @ 11:36 pm
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I'll probably suck at the platforming parts of this game but, damn, that music is absolutely gorgeous! I wish I can just set it on loop and listen to it the whole day.
Current Mood: content |
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I was mucking about the internetz and discovered that Pandora's Heart and 07-Ghost are part of this season's anime line-up too.
I like the Pandora's Heart manga. It's a weird and mysterious, coked-up version of Alice in Wonderland, with sadistic bishounen who have a fetish for eyeballs. While I expect the anime to ultimately deviate badly from the manga, the first episode still crawled slower than a snail. I'll see where it goes from here.
On the other hand, the first episode of 07-Ghost zipped along skillfully, introducing the hero's best friend (with foreshadowings of bad things to come), the evil Ayanami (not a spoiler since he oozed evil from the moment his sexy face appeared on screen with a bevy of equally hot minions - Hyuuga is so cute), Ayanami's part in the hero's traumatic past, a bit of the magic system of 07-Ghost, and even a quick appearance by three of the hot priests at the end of the episode. I liked the manga (though I'm only up to book 3) and I'm definitely keeping tabs on this series.Current Mood: tired |
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