Monday, January 30, 2012

Running out of space!


More of my shipment from Japan arrived today! Since my birthday's just around the corner I took the liberty to get my wife to sponsor my self-selected presents. Of course I took the opportunity to get some of the older stuff which I've been aiming at for a while, such as the Ironman Mark IV and War Machine figures from Revoltech. I actually didn't want to order so many items this time, but because of one individual item which I knew was going out of stock really soon I had to act fast. That's the Super Sentai Red Heroes box set, which is actually a continuation of the latest 5 seasons of Super Sentai. I have all the other 30 figures from a previous boxset, and missing out on this would be a shame. The older figures have been around for the past 5 years, and in all, I would have all the figures of the Red rangers. That's 35 years of Super Sentai history!


My original plan was also to get all the S.H.Figuarts for the Gokaiger series, but their high costs made me decide otherwise. The Green and Blue ones were also out of stock sadly. So I decided I'll just keep the Red ones and thus went for Shinken Red. The other 2 figures are just from the normal series from Fourze which I've been keeping for the past few years. Well, more things for me to place in my already packed cabinets, and I'm seriously running out of space. Time to shift soon I hope! In the meantime, more buying of totally worthless stuff FTW. :)

Thursday, January 19, 2012

MW3 SITREP now!


I last updated in a previous blog post about my status in Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer modes, when I pretty much sucked but managed to improve after changing some of my setup. Nothing as magnificent as that 5.0 KD ratio game, but I did manage to improve my overall KD ratio by 1.2! That's quite a significant jump, especially when it gets progressively harder to try and level it. At least I'm getting closer to a positive KD ratio now. Also, I somehow managed to top my previous kill streak and it's 11 now :)


I changed my set up to include 2 primary weapons this time. Type 95 assault rifle is my primary because my style is usually run and gun, but I'm currently using the MSR as my secondary, which is a sniper rifle. In previous games I usually avoid sniping as I'm too impatient, and get too excited when the enemy is within the sight of my scope. But I'm trying to get used to it, since I found many good GTIs (grounds of tactical importance) which affords a good view to a killing area. Add the Marksman Pro as a perk and I can see enemies when they are even further away. So far, I've already gotten over 200 kills. And still counting.... :p


Another reason why I'm still addicted to the game can be shown in the video clip below. Here you see me taking up a corner position within an urban AO and covering the opposite point of entry. Enemy with a riot shield dashes in and is pinned down by a sentry gun. I run behind him and knife him in his back. Yes, I actually ran through the sentry's field of fire but friendly fire is off. It's such moments of satisfaction that keeps players like myself coming back. Of course there are times where the vulgarities spurt out and I nearly send the controllers flying, but that's another story for another day. :)  

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Facebook profile photos 2006 - 2012


I've had Timeline for a while now and I was inspired to make a collage video using all the Facebook profile photos which I've used since 2006. Yes, I actually started using Facebook since Friendster was around, but back then there wasn't as many other users nor were there all the nifty functions it has now. I didn't want to waste too much time, so I used iPhoto to do all the work and merely ported it over to a format suitable for uploading. It's amazing how time just flew past, and how much I've changed through the years. 懐かしいなあ!

Saturday, January 14, 2012

GARO: Makai Senki


A sequel series to the original cult favourite, GARO Makai Senki finally made its return to TV this year, after the original ended its run 6 years ago in 2006. Fans have been asking for more GARO since, and after such a long hiatus, the Golden Knight is finally back.

What's different from other Tokusatsu shows in Japan is that GARO isn't aimed at kids. Not even teenagers. It's shown at the 1am slot in Japan originally, and is for mature audiences. There's gore, and nudity, but nothing ever in extreme and always done in class. What appeals to the fans are that the story and plot, as well as the characters are very well developed.


I'm not going to go through what I think about the series, but I just want to share one particular episode in episode 2 which I found memorable. Most of the early episodes are one shot short stories, and this one is about an elderly couple who lost their only son in the war. He was a front line photographer, but lost his life after deciding to pursue his dreams of showing the world how the war was fought and the sorrows it brought. When the elderly couple collected his body, they found a seed on him and decided to plant it. A tree blossomed from the seed, and through the casted shadow from the tree, they could see projections of their son every night. Although, it seems to be set on repeat and he does the same thing over and over.

But they were happy that their beloved son returned. There was just one catch. The tree was a "horror" that lived on human lives, and needed to be fed. As a result, the elderly couple decided to kill all visitors that were attracted by the shape of the tree, in order to see their son every night. It's a sad story, but also one that tells how deep the love that parents give can be. You can see the entire episode via the youtube link below. For friends who want to see more, feel free to contact me for episodes :)

Rena & Fourze


Rena's following both this year's Tokusatsu series pretty closely (Kamen Rider Fourze and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger), but she seems particularly fond of Fourze. Probably it's due to the light hearted nature of the show, which focuses on the school life of Kisaragi Gentaro and his mission to become buddies with everyone in the school. She's starting to know the characters by name, which is pretty amusing. 


We also got her the henshin belt, and some other figures too. Which are actually part of my collection haha. Mabel went along with the idea of getting a set of Kamen Rider Club t-shirts, which I took from the design shown in the series. So far she's enjoying the show with me on a weekly basis, but I wonder how long more before she grows out of the boy stuff and starts playing with make-up :)

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Blue Lobsters!


And so I was pretty bored during the holiday season and some how bought and set up a mini aquarium at home. The initial intent was to just have a nice little tank, with guppies or some other generic looking cheap costing fish swimming around. I figure it would be nice for Rena to get to feed the fishes and also to learn about caring for animals.

After the death of some of the shrimps and other fishes I decided to get something tougher and more resistant to lack of care from the owners. In came the 2 Blue lobsters. OK OK to be honest they aren't technically lobsters. It's just a trade name. They are actually crayfish. Still, lobster sounds fiercer. So far they're enjoying their time here, at the expense of the other smaller fish at times. I found out they can get pretty big, so I'm hoping to see how long I can make them last.


I actually thought one of them died 2 weeks ago, when I had to remove the half eaten corpse out of the tank. I was pretty sad until I went back to the tank and realised that both of them were still there! I had to rub my eyes to confirm what I saw. I discovered that they molt pretty often, and leave behind a complete shell every time they do it. I'm finding out new things, and so far it's been pretty interesting.