Last one

This will be my last entry in Indonesia, last entry in February and perhaps will be the last entry for the few coming months. I will be back to Singapore tomorrow to collect A level results which are out on Friday 230 pm. I am no longer staying in a hostel, nor am I going to school anymore. So if there is no internet café around, I really don’t know how I am going to blog or even check my e-mail (this is more crucial one).

As usual, the last few days of holidays are sure busy times. I finished watching Full Metal Panic Fumoffu. It is a very entertaining show. All the characters are crazy/weird/idiosyncratic but that what makes the anime very funny. Though I have watched it before, I could not help it but to laugh at the hilarious anime (great expressions from the character, the lameness of the storyline and the seiyuus are very good). Hohoho… Too bad that the quality of the pirated dvd sucks. The final episode (which is the best) is stuck here and there. There are another 2 episodes which are not complete (only half of each episode). Dumb!!!

I bought Tidus figurine yesterday. Wheeew….the plastic material is very tough/strong. It is even tougher that Squall’s figurine. I took so much time change the palm of his right hand so that he can grip his sword. In the end, I needed the help of a pair of pliers. Worse, it was so difficult to slide in the sword into his grip. I forced it through the thinnest section of the sword and tadaaaa…. I broke the sword!!!!! Got some decoration at the tail of the sword and the linkage was so soft… I wanted to cry upon realising this… Oh my… It’s Rp 390000!!! So ex one… I used power glue to attach it back and now it looks a bit awkward (I make him to hold the sword horizontal and the decoration, which is only a small red cloth, is horizontal too. It should point downward according to law of gravitation what??? Haiz… I think the cloth was glued too so that I can’t change the position. Nonetheless, I hope the decoration won’t drop. Ugrh…bad day bad day.

Well, the tragedy might happen because I did that at 1 am in the morning. I forced myself to pack my luggage and clear up my room last night so that tonight I have much free time to have an early, good night sleep. With the change of luggage, I find that it is so small L My clothes have already taken half of the space. I tried to save up space by not bringing my mp3 and mp4 boxes but the chargers inside my handphone box. But still….

Hmm…I shall end this by giving thanks to my friends who have helped me throughout this great holiday: Monic and Phya (thanks for helping me to get a place to stay), Lynette (thanks for troubles to help me book a hotel and maybe she can help me win some money hohoho), Emma (thanks for your editing….what is yadayada???…haha…and perhaps she will be the one getting me a job), and other friends whom I can’t mention one by one for their smses as well as company when we went out together. Haha… Good luck for your A level results and please pray the same thing for me… Finally, thanks be to God for helping me to get everything I need (through my friends) and my last wish will be 4As, 2 S paper distinctions, and B3 for GP… Please…..

Jakarta Big Flood 2007

The heavy rain 2 nights ago reminded me with the recent flood (I think now I understand what being traumatised is all about). So I will let you to imagine and see how gross it was. The picture was taken because I had nothing to do for that 1 week except looking at the dumb stagnant water. I only put it now because my new phone allows me to transfer data with no fuss. And there is no picture from day 1 because on that day, I was still hoping that the flood would stop, the water would not get higher and enter the house, and the electricity supply would not be cut. Unfortunately, the opposite occured! Well, Chinese believe that water means luck. More water more luck thus I hope I will be flooded with good luck and happiness this year (and the same wish goes to those who suffered at that time because of the flood.

Day 2

The worst day ever.... The electricity was cut off and it continued until the 6th night.

Day3

Day 4 (night)

I did not take the pictures in the morning because the water level hardly changed. It was still as high as the previous day :(

Day 5

Day 6 (morning)

Day 6 (afternoon)

The aftermath!!! Sigh..finally it's over!

2nd of the day

Okay, this has never happened to me but I run out of idea of what else to do. Thus I am writing the second blog entry for today.

Actually I am in the midst of writing my personal statement. It’s not easy >.<

Sagara Sousuke

I am so bored that I have watched another anime (auh…I betray my own intentions): Full Metal Panic Fumoffu!!! It’s short (only 13 episodes) and the stories are not continuous. So there is no desire to hurry up watch the whole series before I depart for Singapore. More importantly, the stories are funny and it will be a good thing to help me relax. It’s not the real Full Metal Panic but it’s the humorous version (if I am not mistaken, it takes place after the real Full Metal Panic ended or something). Haha…watching this make me remember that I was looking for Sousuke’s picture for my friendster photo about 3 years or 2 years ago. I think he looks like Heero and both are freak soldiers. Since I don’t watch Full Metal Panic, I don’t know Sousuke’s personality yet, thus I can’t use him as my anime alter-ego yet. Anyway, I am not war/arm-freak! In contrast, I hate war and army!!

Don't you think they look alike?

Hmm…I already have a plan tomorrow. Exercise in the morning, then I have to wipe/clean my toys display cupboard. Before I leave for Singapore, I want it to be covered so that my toys won’t get dusty and I don’t need to wipe the cupboard again when I return. About an hour is needed to clean… Haiz…quite troublesome but the cupboard (and the contents) has given me so much joy so a little sacrifice would be okay.

O Happy Day :)

Yesterday was a very great day!!! I almost got everything I wanted to do and look for that day. In the morning, I went to KTC. Although I could not find Lynette’s bag (the shop assistant said the shop did not sell GUESS bags), I managed to exhange my dvd. I managed to exchange Dear Boys and hopefully this one will be fine. No FF XII anymore so I could not exchange that. While the other Shulato dvds I found were just unconvincing as mine. I don’t know how about that. I only bought Samurai Deeper Kyo. Hopefully the dvds will be okay and the story itself will be good because it seems to be different from the manga. There was Prince of Tennis The National Championship but I am not sure whether it is in the 178 episodes anime series or it is a new anime series. Anyway, the dvd only has 3 episodes so I thought it was not worth it to buy.

My sister finally found X no 1 and 2 at Bandung. Hurray!!! My collection will not have any missing volume.

Then I manage to buy a new phone. It’s sony ericsson K800i. A very good handphone though I still haven’t seen and messed with all the features. I will surely take a good care of this phone. My mom always teased my old Nokia 3350 as a brick and haha… this new phone is just as thick as Nokia 3550 but is wider. Thus, it is a bigger ‘brick’. Haha… It has a tennis game inside which is quite difficult to play but the ringtones inside are not nice. I must download a few midis from the net. I think I will look for Dance of the Balamb Fish for phone ringtone and Final Fantasy winning theme as the sms tone.

I bought Squall Leonheart figurine!!! Yeah!!! I think last time I saw the price wrongly. I scrutinized every pack yesterday and actually the price for every character differs! Since only 1 Squall left, without much thinking anymore, I just grab it. Rp 410000 but it is still cheaper than at other places. I change my mind and won’t be buying Rinoa because it is the most expensive at about Rp 500000 but yet, she has the least accessories and the most normal looking clothes (aka. the least exciting and interesting). The next one that I will buy is Tidus J I guess there won’t be any Quistis because from the back side of the packaging, I learnt that from each series, there are only 3 characters. Thus Selphie has taken my Quistis place L. I love the figurine (it’s heavy) because it looks alive and it is big (it is even taller than my 1/100 gundam robots). Hohoho… I must move a few furniture in my room so that I am able to use my new camera phone to take picture of my toys display cupboard. Hohoho…

My food list has become shorter! After Pizza Hut craving was fulfilled on Friday, yesterday was Hoka Hoka Bento and the new Golden Century La Mien stall. The la mien was a disappointment. It did not meet my expectation. Perhaps my expectation was too high (well, I thought it would be like CRYSTAL JADE’s hahaha…. Hallo…the price of Crystal Jade’s noodles is 2X lor).

Haiz…I am running short of time. Only one week left here and it seems that I have so many things to do. Haha.. I guess I will keep my animes for the next holiday and no more reading comics. I MUST start on my personal statement and I really HOPE it won’t be a waste of time (which means I can get 4As, 2 S papers Distinctions, at least B3 for GP, and can get into medicine).

All I've got to do is dre~~~am

Watching anime and reading comics too much have their bad effects on my mind, my imagination, and my sleep. For the past few days, I have been dreaming about being in the world of the mangas that I read. Last night was about Rurouni Kenshin and the night before last was about Prince of Tennis. Well, although it is pretty lame (and maybe people will think I have some mental problems), I prefer this kind of dream because it is what dream really is! Haha…it should be something imaginative which is not probable in the real life. It is better than living nightmare such as dreaming about going for exam or the coming-soon release of A level results. So let me enjoy my life in the la la land before coming back to earth and reality in the next one or two weeks.

I am reading Kung Fu Boy right now. It is the first title of manga that I ever bought. I remember the very first one I bought was Kung Fu Boy 28 and at that time (1996) the price of the comics was still Rp 3800 each. Now it is already Rp 11000. Roughly I was in P3 or P4 at that time. Thus with the little pocket money that I received, I was completely under my mom’s mercy if I want to buy any comics. As a result, my Kung Fu Boy series is INCOMPLETE. There are so many missing volumes: 9, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 22, 25, 26. I hope Elex will re-print although that means I need to spend Rp 99000 to buy the missing volumes. Worse, I may tempted to re-new the whole series because after 10 years plus, the pages are already yellow. I guess I will suggest that because it will be beneficial for Elex to re-print the old titles. Old titles are nicer (in terms of storyline blah blah blah) than the new ones. They are more educative and ‘magical’ too. No wonder children nowadays are more pathetic than my generation was, we were satisfied with great choice of anime, manga, and children entertainment. Today, there is no such children-oriented stuff. Sad…. Thus I hope there will be re-print re-print!!! Hahaha…

As my date of departure for Singapore is looming closer, my diet is threatened. As usual, when it is the time to leave, I will have cravings for food!!! I can’t get rid my mind from Pizza Hut, KFC (Twister and Oriental Bento are not available in Singapore), Churasco, Platinum, Hoka Hoka Bento, Doner, and the list goes on. Grr…must space out and make good arrangements for the coming week. Hohoho..

Yup, I am going to watch Resonance VIII vcd for another reminiscence.

Ending

I finally finished watching Shulato and survived to endure the discomfort of the voice coming out before the text and the movements of the characters. I observed and concluded that the audio is 3 seconds faster from the actual timing it should appear. To my disappointment, there is an episode missing/ got skipped in the dvd. Haiz…this is the risk of getting an illegal stuff. After the eleventh episode got stuck here and there, episode 32 is non-existent. For an action series, it is so wasted if there is any episodes I don’t watch because it means I am missing the action (the storyline won’t be affected because before the next episode, there is recap from the previous one).

I am disappointed with Shulato’s ending. Among the various anime I have watched till the end, most of them have sucky ending. Shulato’s ending is unclear. Is Gai really dead? Then how about the family of him and Shulato at their real world?? Unclear unclear!!! Rurouni Kenshin’s last episode is not in the dvd series that I have. So ridiculous. No wonder the last episode I watched does not seem like a final episode. After reading from the net, I find out that there is the final episode about the life after the whole story ends. It is a brainless and hence humorous episode!!! So wasted again >.< Virtua Fighter’s ending also has no explanation about the characters after the whole story ends (I guess the story continues to the game). So it seems that the ending that I want is the description of what happen with the characters afterwards. I don’t like hanging endings like in Shulato. Majutsushi Orphen has a good ending (although the resolution of the conflict is a little bit unclear to me = I am confused with it) and Gundam Wing (my best anime) concludes the whole storyline at the movie version “Endless Waltz”. I can’t really recall the ending of the TV series and I haven’t got the pirated dvd of the tv series too. Hahaha… I hope that Shulato will be like Gundam Wing, the final ending of the series in the OAV or the movie (if it has any). Ah I remember another anime with a ‘hanging’ ending: WeiB Kreuz!!! I will re-watch it.

My sister has checked the price of FF VIII figurines I want at Bandung. She got Rp 425000 and Rp 525000. They are still way too expensive as compared to Rp 310000. And it seems that only Squall, Rinoa, and Selphie are available. Why is there no Quistis??? -_-!! Quistis is much prettier (and has more fans) than Rinoa or Selphie what??? If this weekend I check at MKG’s animemachi and the Squall is not available, I think I will buy Tidus. Hahaha… Let’s see later but I really hope that I can get Squall. Then it will be nice as a pair with Rinoa which I will get as my birthday present. Haha… If I only own Rinoa (not as a pair), then it is not so good to see lor. I prefer Squall-Rinoa to Tidus-Yuna because Yuna’s dress is more antique. Hahaha…. But it will be better if I can get both pairs. And it will be the best if all FF VIII characters are available and I can get them all (Squall, Quistis, Rinoa, Zell, Irvine, Selphie, Seifer).

Finally, the time is getting closer for the decision for my future. I am starting to get the jitters of waiting my A level results (especially GP). It is less frightening than O level but still, the closer the day, the more anxious I will be. I guess everything is destiny. Fate. God’s will or whatever you call it. No matter how great the pushing from my family to choose medicine, not everything is within my control. Firstly, I can’t predict my A level results (especially GP because usually the minimum GP grade required is B3) and secondly, I don’t know about my hepatitis B e-antigen surface whatever as stated under health requirement. I never had a check on that so I don’t know. If I don’t fulfill the health requirement, it seems that it is heaven’s will that doctor is not my life. Hahaha… This makes me pause the progress of writing the personal statement (though I have started with the points to write yesterday).

I guess my life’s ending will be determined in these few weeks to come.

Final Fantasy!!!!

Haha… I am writing about Final Fantasy because I was just tempted to buy a Final Fantasy magazine this morning. Actually the magazine has been around since a month ago and initially I was not interested at all. But today when I went to TGA, there was one ‘sample’ magazine and after I flipped through the content… aha…!!! So I bought it (the tendency of consumerism may also be due to the fattening of pockets from all the hongpaus…hehe…). There are so many nice pictures inside and the real ‘puller’ is the photos of FF merchandises (aka the figurines). I have not bought the real figurines so now just enjoy the pictures of them first. Lol. But hey…not bad… I got the information that last July there was a Final Fantasy concert in Indo. Wow…. I never knew that.

So this magazine has really re-awakened the fantasy spirit within me. I watched the vcd containing all the FMVs from Final Fantasy VIII and ah….the spirit has been really awakened which makes me writing about this. Hohoho…. I guess I will write about what I think about the Final Fantasy series so far.

FF I and II were released at the last days of Playstation as Final Fantasy Origins. I still have no time to play them because the release was too close with the time I had to go to Singapore. Moreover, I read game magazines that the games are very difficult. That really turned me off. Haha… Lastly, as the games were released initially for Super Nintendo (or even Nintendo???) the graphic is ew…. Sorry but no matter what the treat for the eyes is the most important factor for me before buying or playing any game.

FF III has never been released in Playstation so I really have NO idea about this game at all. Nor its character. In the magazine I bought, I just learnt that the main hero of FF III is called Luneth. A pretty weird and unusual name, I think.

FF IV and FF Anthology (FF V and VI) were released way long before FF Origins so I played them all. Though the graphic is still pathetic, I still played them because I had so much free time then. Since it was about 5 years back, I almost remember nothing about the game (which means the games are not so interesting to me, perhaps it is because of the graphic again). I recall that there is one chest I have not opened in the last dungeon of FF IV because after opening the chest, I have to fight a White Dragon (if I remember correctly) and I was not able to defeat it. For FF V, I named the main character Gary. Gosh…it makes me want to repeat the game again. I named it that way because I don’t know the official name (usually the computer will ask us to rename not to give a name). Now I know his name should be Butz (another weird name). FF VI is quite a long game with so many characters and I remember vanish+x zone combination to annihilate any enemy which comes along. This combi is like a cheat for an easy win. And yup there is Shadow’s subquest which is quite troublesome to play (and unfortunately I can’t remember any single thing about it now).

FF VII is my most hated Final Fantasy game!!!! While the graphic is much better than the previous FFs, I find it weird. For example: the arm looks like two buns joined by a thin stick. Ew… It is weird!!! I also find that the text is small so I hate this game. It is so time-wasting too to gain experience of the Materias. To illustrated how gross the process is: to increase a level, a few THOUSAND ability points (AP) are needed; however, from a battle, the amount of AP obtained is about <20.>

FF VIII is the best FF (to me)!!! I don’t know why so many people hate it with so many bullshit reasons of theirs. Hahaha… I love it because the characters are drawn with normal human height (not chibi-SD style) and the characters’ designs are so eye-catching. Quistis is the best and Rinoa looks like a Chinese (what a revolution to find an asian face in a game)!!!! The game does not really need collecting money or gaining level and thus I can understand the storyline better. The extra card game is really fun!!! Until now I still cannot complete all the cards without gameshark. Hahaha… The FMVs are marvelous so the gaming experience is really worthwhile. Thus it becomes my favourite FF and the only one that I am obsessed to get the figurines. It also became the first game with soundtrack (Eyes on Me by Faye Wong) and talking about soundtrack that reminds me to search for my lost Dance of the Balamb Fish song and a very memorable Waltz tune. One thing I hate from this game is the opening FMVs which took about 5 minutes.

FF IX is back to chibi-SD mode. I don’t like it because the characters are UGLY. No no no no…. There are so many things in the game which make me hate the game overall. Firstly, the characters are not eye-catching thus no matter how many FMVs given , it is not so exciting to watch. The only normal humans are Eiko, Garnet, and Zidane. The rest are just plain weird. Steiner’s eyes are like gonna pop out, the others have no visible eyes I can see (maybe I am blind -_-). Secondly, the mini games are so difficult, boring, and pointless (such as collecting figurines which you can’t see, collecting COFFEE beans, mognet) and the card game is so disappointing (only can collect 1 card for each type), difficult to understand the rules and the drawing in the cards (the monsters, swords, airships, etc) does not make you tempted to collect all. Thirdly, I got lost in disc 1 Gimazuluke Grotto to find small black chocobo footsteps in the midst of foggy forest and since it is at the beginning of the game, it already gives a bad feeling towards the game! Lastly, an FMV stuck (mine was when Dagger cut her hair->end of disc 2). The first time it happened, it really shocked me because it meant I could not change the disc and continue the game. I re-tried and when it hang over there I pressed any button I could press on the joystick and luckily it went on. A friend of mine got a stuck FMV at disc 4 (Iifa Tree) and he could not complete the game. If that happened to me, perhaps I would have smashed the Playstation to the floor and break half the CD).

The next FFs are in the next Playstation which I don’t own. So it is so sad that I am unable to play FF X which I think is very similar to FF VIII (my favourite!!) in the character design. Though Tidus is better than Squall, I still prefer Quistis and Rinoa to Yuna and Lulu. But Rikku is cute (she is similar to Quistis) Hehehe…. This is the first FF which have a sequel i.e the bimbotic FF X-2 which does not really attract me because I don’t think I am prepared to play a game in which the main hero is a SHE!!!

FF XI seems to be lost in the midst of obscurity (I never heard of it, I don’t know who are the characters, though I have seen a few screencaps). I don’t know what happens with it.

FF XII is another good FF!!! Hahaha… I just love the characters (and got the bunny girl but the pictures are still rare).

There will be FF XIII in PS3 but until now, the game is still being worked out. I read from the magazine that so far only 20% (or 2%... there are 2 pages of info with differing statistic) of the game is done. Thus, no pictures yet!

Seeing the trend, the character designs are moving away from chibi style. So those who love FF VII and IX so much can go to hell. They hate FF VIII because it has better characters and only follow the crowd. My dislike towards FF VII has been lessened by the film FF VII: Advent Children in which the characters are in human size, not chibi style. Ha! Go eat back your words FF VII lovers. This film is indeed much much…..better than the stupid FF Spirits Within movie…. Though I still prefer a film on FF VIII J and I still want to see a good summon such as Shiva or Ifrit or Ramuh, not the weird Bahamut at the Advent Children. But really…it is a good film!

There is Final Fantasy Tactics which I think is another sucky game. It is a very difficult strategy games and it has no nice FMVs as a trophy of overcoming all the hard battles. And from the ending, it seems that the main hero is Delita while throughout the game, I am controlling Ramza. I am confused.

I guess that is all I know about FF right now. But I think there is a trend that the even-numbered FF series are better than the odd ones. I wonder why..

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