20.11.2011 20:11

It is surprising that so many were making a big hoo-hah over 11/11/11 thingy 9 days ago but nothing much this time around. I think 20.11.2011 is a nicer pattern. Anyhow, November is always a month with my worst spending. Christmas is just around the corner and I have always found very good reasons to have Christmas presents for myself. This year, it was really really early.

I went to extend my Kinokuniya membership on Tuesday. I think Kino is cool. My membership was expiring on the 19/11/11. I renewed on the 17/11/11 and the new expiry date remains as 3 years after the 19/11/11. Wow! That means it is not trying to cheat when asking members to renew 1 month before expiry. For my 3 year loyalty, I was rewarded with $5 voucher -___- So cheapskate!! Zomg.. Although it is still a nice gesture that there is no expiry in the voucher.

I used the voucher immediately. Haha.. I saw Manga Messenger. Yup this is the last one from the Manga Bible series. It covers the prophets. I find the story "choppy" and confusing (with all the similar-sounding names of the Kings) but I guess really that is the nature of the Old Testament.  However, I gained a new knowledge regarding the prophets. After the fall of Israel (which was divided into north and south), the various prophets were actually kinda "specific" in their site of preaching i.e north or south Israel. I never realised this from reading the bible alone. Haha..

I am not a fan (yet) of Final Fantasy Type-0 but I still bought the postcard book o_0 With the list of characters, it makes sense why the character names are so weird like Ace, Seven, King, and Queen. It is actually following the card deck Ace up to King. Ace is kinda cool, Deuce-Trey-Cater-Cinque-Sice are good attempt to "mask" the numbers 2 to 6, Seven-Eight-Nine are just not creative (imagine calling someone as a number!), and Jack-Queen-King is just normal. Yup so that's it. I will be looking forward to the game early next year (the US version)

As I was paying for these 2 books, the person in front of me was paying for Harry Potter Page to Screen The Complete Film Making Journey Book. It is basically a film-making book which covers all the Harry Potter films. $100+ Wew!! So I decided not to buy. I shall wait until next year when there is 20% storewide discount (additional 10% = $10 is quite significant!). Guess what, 2 days later, Kino is having Early Christmas Special 20% Sale. Aaargh!! My first thinking was SHUCKS! If only I was patient enough, I could save another $5 from the Manga Messenger and Final Fantasy Type-0 postcard book. But in the end, I went back to buy the Harry Potter book. It is awesome! Yes it is pricy but with close to 600 A4-pages, full of never-seen-before pictures, and lots of interesting read, I love it :D I am impressed with how much effort they put into making the props of the film as the directors "die-die" want to avoid CG as much as possible. Two thumbs up for that!!

Google-google-google and I found that last year, a Harry Potter film book was released with title Harry Potter Film Wizardry. Obviously it only covered up to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1. Some reviews mentioned similarity of the content and pictures with the Page to Screen. $62+ for 160pages seems too steep of a price when compared to the gigantic 580pages Page to Screen for $100. The pulling factor was the various bonuses like the Marauder's Map, sample of Quidditch World Cup booklet and ticket, Yule Ball invitation, Hogwarts Acceptance Letter, the Weasley Twins' shop catalogue, and many more. Really amazing what JK Rowling can do with her imagination and her stuff. Since the sale is still on, I decided to take the risk and buy. I briefly look through and the pictures were not repetition leh! Lucky sia!! Hahaha.. The way the filmmaking is described is also rather different. With 160pages, you can expect a much shorter. So it is not a duplication ^^ Yay.. And that is my second Christmas present for 2011.. Hopefully it will be the last too!! Haha..

US version. UK version has blue cover and different faces.

 

So yeah.. Quite bankrupt for this month.. Oh wait.. Not over yet! I bought 2 coins from Singapore Mint!! Rrrrah... Only bought the cheapest coins bearing rabbits (my Chinese sign!) for $42 in total. Almost tempted to buy limited edition EZLink card to commemorate the rabbit year but $28 for a card which will expire in 2015? I give it a pass.

Ring master Rabbit Festive Pack 2011 (back), Rabbit 2011 Coin (front)

A zoom of the Rabbit $2 coin (left). It is made up of cupro-nickel (that's why cheap!).

On the right is the certificate of authenticity.

I lost my macro phototaking skills. I was frustrated after numerous failed attempt to get a close-up of the coin in the Ring Master Rabbit Festive Pack. And yeah, glad to be able to post this right on the 20:11 mark. Lol