2013 closure

Here is the last post in 2013 and I am just writing for the sake of writing one final post to close 2013. Haha.. There are still things left over from 2013 for me to do as I have been procrastinating in calculating the amount of money I spent for anime related items in December. Bleah..

Anyway over the weekend I went for a short trip to Pontianak to see my grandma. I flew there with Garuda Indonesia and seriously, once you take a domestic flight with Garuda, you would not even want to use other airlines. Don't even bother about low cost carriers. Garuda specially reserves Terminal 2F which is as good as international terminal: fully air-conditioned and no cigarrette smoke. Soekarno-Hatta airport is way too overcrowded now that almost all flight will have delays. I took 830am flight so the delay was not too bad. The boarding was on time but we had to spent about 10 minutes queueing at the runway to take off.

I always dislike my trip to Pontianak so I really had nothing much to write. The only thing I was looking forward was to check on Gramedia bookstore to find old mangas that I missed. Sadly, I returned empty handed. Bleah!

On the way back, I took Sriwijaya which is a low-cost carrier. My flight was supposed to be at 1210pm but the incoming plane only landed at 1210pm. Lol.. Definitely there was a delay. I could not complain as the delay would even be longer if I took Garuda. Before landing back to Soekarno-Hatta, we had a 15 minutes detour while waiting for our turn to land. Crazy shit: traffic jam both on the land and on the air -_-" 15 minutes is 1/4 of the actual journey from Pontianak to Jakarta. No wonder the air tickets for domestic flights are getting crazy day by day.

I am very tired now and I still have like 30 more comic books to read.. Faints.. That's it for 2013 and I need to get back to do my money calculation before 2014 comes. I shall do 2013 reflection and the typical new year resolution for 2014 tomorrow.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014 :)

May 2014 be better than 2013 ^o^

Merry Christmas 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2013

For Christmas post this year, I shamelessly am showing off my Christmas present this year which is a gift from myself for myself. To make it more shameless, it is actually a personalised mini size figurine sculpted from my photo. Hoho..

I had always dreamt of getting this figurine since many years back when I saw the pull cart outside Disc Tarra. I was a student so money was an issue at that time. Not to mention that it took several weeks for the completion and I did not want to order if I could not be around when the item was ready. When I returned subsequently for holiday, the whole area at MKG 2 level 3 was renovated and the pull cart was gone. About 1-2 year ago I knew the pull cart relocated to La Piazza but due to the time taken, I was not interested. However, this year, I saw a stand at Funan IT Mall which made it very convenient and revived my intention to get one. 

I decided to get it done in Singapore. It cost me $118 ($148 and 20% off) and it took about 2 weeks to complete. There are more than 400+ designs and since Christmas was nearing, I chose a Christmas design. The one in Jakarta has less designs but there are more interesting ones based on movie characters like Spiderman, Superman, Green Lantern, Star Wars, etc. The pricing is similar but it will take 5 weeks to complete! Bleah.. No idea why it is taking so long. I actually went to Funan 3x because I was quite embarassed to submit my own photo and make my own figurine! Lol.. The first time I went there, it was a young man manning the booth so I was shy. The second time, it was a young girl. Lol.. I was looking for the auntie who I asked for more information the week before and lucky I caught her the 3rd time.

I was so eager to make one that I did not really do a research on the quality. I did not even ask whether I can touch and look at the samples more carefully. I was excited to read that the figurine is made of resin which means that it will be quite durable. Resin durability was my excuse to justify the price I am paying. Therefore, I am extremely disappointed to realise after getting the item that only the BODY is made of resin. The head is sculpted from clay which was then baked. So it is something like Play-Doh! It can get dirty, quite fragile, and I am worried about the possibility of melting due to hot ambient temperature. In fact, I got a part of hair damaged when I reached home. Shucks!

Other than functioning as a figurine, it can be used as a photo holder too. Unfortunately, the metal holder cannot stay in place with the hole at the base. Not that I am intending to use it as a photo holder but I was thinking of attaching the original photo to compare the face.

Those displayed at the shop resemble the original pictures very closely so I am also a bit peeved that mine does not really look like the picture I submitted. I will say about 50-60% resemblance only nia... Nope I am not going to show the photo which I submitted for comparison. Haha.. I don't want people to know who I am who writes this blog.

Well, more pictures to show off this thing. Hehe..

The packaging box

Foam packaging to protect the figurine

Look at the stupid stick as the neck! Not seen here but there is a "crack" at the point where the head is stuck to the neck. This is the result of not inspecting those samples :'(

 The details of the resin body

 Close up on the face

Imperfect attempt to stick back the broken hair

Ultimately, the main turn-off for me is durability issue with clay. If the head is also made of resin, I will not hesitate to make more figurines of myself!! At the end of the day, for someone as narcissistic as me, it is another tick on my wishlist. I have a sketch of my face, a poster-size framed photo of myself, and now comes a figurine sculpted to my likeness. What's next? Haha...

A holiday like no other

I always have a good time when I have a trip home. After living alone and doing everything on my own like a slave, I want to wind down and live like a prince -with maid preparing my food whenever I want, washing my clothes, cleaning the house. Unfortunately, this time I have no maid which ironically makes my life even more pathetic with me having to HANDWASH my own clothes, preparing my own food and washing the dishes, throwing away rubbish, and so on. Sigh.. Housework really sucks :(

My room is also in a terrible condition. When I see the amount of things which I have, I know that I have got to stop buying toys for my collections :( I am really running out of space to store my things and I am unable to keep track of what I have. In addition, all the things make my room very messy that I no longer "enjoy" my collections. Haiz.. As much as I feel like this, whenever I step away from home to the little red dot, I will immediately lose control when I see pretty toys.

Whenever I am feeling down, the ungrateful side of me will surface and I will forever be complaining. What's the point of working so hard if I don't enjoy my hard earned money and just to keep them in the bank?? In addition, if I don't buy things, I will keep thinking about getting them. But when I buy them, I will be stressed over storage space. Ultimately, what I want is my own home.. my own space.. something unattainable with what I have right now. Bleah.. Christmas is coming so I should be in a thanksgiving and joyful mood but I am feeling meh -_-"

Another "must-do" when I am at home is to read my comic books. In 2012, I thought my comic collection is nearing an end because Indonesian manga translators were releasing so few good titles and the releases were to slow. Come 2013, it was crazy. I have 8 months worth of comic books to read and the number is 67 books o_0 That is not counting the 8 I just bought today and another few which I am still hunting. Wow!! Seriously did not expect that the industry will be moving at such a lightning speed again! Not to mention that there are so many new titles which are currently the latest in things from Japan like Magi, Saint Seiya Lost Canvas, Saint Seiya Episode G, Attack on Titan, Kuroko no Basuke, and many more. I gotta read at least 7 books a day if I were going to finish them all before I fly off again. But ultimately, the big questions is WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO STORE THEM!!!

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude is a German word which means taking delight in other's misfortune. Nope, I am not in the midst of learning a new foreign language. Haha.. I came across the word from a Facebook post about foreign words which have no direct translation to English.

No matter how I try "act" and "put on a show" for my external appearance and action, when things go wrong and I am not in a good mood, my true bad self always arises. Take for an example, my poor landlady has a health 'problem'. Under inverted comma because it is still pending for further assessment from neurologist. I am not delighted that she is sick but I can't help but feeling happy that because of her 'problem', her grandson is no longer coming to the house. I enjoy my quiet time so I hate small kids who throw tantrum, cry, and make noise during my precious resting and sleeping times.

Why do I suddenly have this feeling? I have one huge rainbow-coloured umbrella as a door gift for one of the event earlier this year. As it is a large umbrella, I put it on the umbrella stand outside the house. There are so many other large umbrella so why on earth she has to use my new umbrella!! Zz.. It is MY umbrella and the least that she can do is to ask permission.. or perhaps to inform me that she used my umbrella. Sigh.. I could tolerate it so far but today was the last straw when I saw that a few of umbrella's spines had broken! Wow.. Fuck you seriously.. Using without permission is one thing and now you break my thing without saying anything.. I am not even expecting an apology since an apology won't replace that umbrella. It sounds petty but the umbrella is not the real issue here. It is human nature to be selfish and to protect own property or territory.

My condition is slightly getting better but I still feel sickly. Sigh.. perhaps I really should consider taking the flu vaccine :( With so many episodes of flu in a year, I have to admit that I am THAT weak :( Sigh.. My only concern is only I will fall sick immediately after the vaccination leh! Haiz.. Damn flu (and rain) that I have not started my holiday shopping or packing my luggage for my year-end trip home. Gosh!! It is already a Thursday tomorrow!! Yaiks..

I bought iPhone 5S today!! Yay!! Haha.. As an Apple big big hater, it is quite a surprise that I will ever buy an iPhone.. Wait.. it is actually not for me but for my uncle. Lol.. He let me open and try to see whether everything is okay. However, without a SIM card, I cannot even 'activate' the bloody phone.. I only need to check the camera okay!! iPhone sucks big time la!! Haiz.. My SIM card is still the big one while iPhone wants the micro or nano one.. Si beh ma fan..

KO-ed

I was so dead tired last week that I did not even have the energy to post on special days like 11.12.13 or 13.12.13 (Friday the 13th!). I was tired not only because of working opening shift but also because I went home over this weekend. I never like the idea to go home for a short holiday but this time I really could not help it as I really needed to bring home some of my things to prepare for my moving in a few months time.

It was a huge mistake to go home over a weekend. Jakarta is just getting worse day by day. With overcrowded Soekarno-Hatta airport and rain, my flight on Friday was slightly delayed. I survived a flight on Friday the 13th was indeed something :p I finished everything at 2230 and I reached home only at 1230am! Crazy!! I slept perhaps at 2am and woke up early the following day. My sister wanted to eat Japanese food so we had that for lunch and I could not find a good phone number to keep. I managed to get a new plastic container to keep the toys that I brought back on Friday too.

I was so tired that I was knocked out last night. I did not know what time I woke up to switch off my light and resumed my sleep. This morning I could not sleep long because my father wanted to use Tony Roma voucher. I already had quite a bad throat which got even worse. I was feeling sick on the plane. I thought I was feverish but I think it was just headache. Bleah.. I am a weakling. Knocked out just from a weekend trip home so I can forget my impossible dream of commuting JKT-SGP daily for work with my private jet :( Haha..

Anyway I shall end this post with crazy things that people are willing to pay for toys. In the past 2 weeks, there were a lot of Final Fantasy limited edition stuff that I wanted. I only got 1 (which is Butz from Final Fantasy Chrome) and I thought that was already overpriced. Sigh.. Seriously, I can't imagine why people are so mad!

Let's start with Final Fantasy Chrome series. Oh, the prices are in Japanese Yen.

With box

Butz 8250

Lenna 5250

Cloud 15001

Aerith 9260

Sephiroth 25000

Squall 11511

Rinoa 10150

Zidane 10010

Garnet 11500

Boko 11250

Ultros 41500

Tonberry 8751

Cactuar 26000

Koyo Koyo 10150

Kappa 10900

Toad 8815

Without box

Cecil 14000

Rosa 9250

Mog 6000

Magic Pot 12010

Terra (I missed out her final price).

Locke 37833

It is the same Locke that I mentioned previously. I guess the seller made loss eh? Haha.. Anyway the week before the seller sold this, he tried to sell them as a set for like 600000.

I am only willing to pay 5000-6000 for each leh :( I don't think I will ever be able to complete this. I bit the bullet and bought Butz because I already had Lenna (here is the story on how I got hold of Lenna) so I got an FF V couple. Hehe.. And anyway, Butz has always been a special character for me because I was a noob when I played FF V and I changed his name to mine!! Haha.. I thought there was no official name for him because Butz sounds weird.

Moving on to another item: Final Fantasy VIII Moomba Mug. It is limited to 500 pieces and had Tetsuya Nomura's sketches of Rinoa and Squall as well as his signature. It was sold for 22500. I thought people were mad to pay such an amount for a mug!! Gosh :( As I googled the picture of the mug, I came across a blog and that person bought it a year ago for USD 700! OMGWTFBBQ!

There were 2 sets of auctions of Final Fantasy Cold Cast, 1 at eBay and 1 at Yahoo! Auction Japan. For the one at eBay, FF IV, FF VI, and FF VIII were sold as a set for USD 1800 while FF V was sold for USD 600!! Gosh.. I need the FF IV and FF VIII desperately and the seller initially said he was not breaking the set. I was so angry when I saw him breaking it up. Damn you!

At Yahoo! Auction Japan,

FF IV (damaged) 87505

FF V 26510

FF VI 35500

FF VIII (damaged) 93750

I thought someone was crazy to pay 91500 for a set of FF IV, FF V, and FF VI a few weeks back. After seeing how a crazy guy is willing to pay 87505 for a damaged one, the 91500 for an undamaged set was a good steal!!

I am very sad that I did not get them but at least I learn the typical price ranges for these items.. In case I wanted to buy them in the future..

Oh ya, I almost forgot of another Chrome figures of Terra and Lock which were sold for 21510 and 10500 respectively! They also come with the boxes.

Selfish

There is a saying that parental love is the love most comparable to God's love which humans can experience on this earth before we see God face to face. No matter how noble parents are, ultimately they are still humans and humans are innately selfish. 

My parents are planning to buy the house next to mine with their retirement money. When I know the price of the house, I am quite shocked and I am very angry. They have enough money to purchase a condo for me here now. Moving back a few years, when SGD were not as expensive as today, their purchasing power was even bigger. Why didn't they buy a condo? Why must I waste my money for rental when I can use it to pay mortgage? Why must they blackmail me to become a PR etc? Why must I suffer as a nomad in a foreign land?

I am upset.. I am angry.. I am sick of listening to their complaining that their money is diminishing day by day. I had been telling them to just change their Rupiahs to SGD. With 1 SGD = Rp 7000 to 1 SGD = Rp 9000+ nowadays, imagine how their money would have multiplied if they had done so. After all, I am here staying in Singapore so the money cannot be wasted bla bla bla. I feel cheated. It seems that they are keep lying to me about my future etc. Yes, I am the bastard child who will rob my own parents' money so I should not be trusted with their money. I am very offended.

Seriously I don't know what I am feeling towards them now. For the past 11 years, it is as if I never got any of their money. All the money I got from scholarship was used for my living expenses and they would just top up whatever additional. If I want to be very selfish, it should be the other way around. They should pay for all my living expenses while all the scholarship money should be for my personal use. After all, it is parents' duty to pay for their kids' expenses as a student. They already did not pay for my studies, only topped up my basic living expenses, and did not really give me anything so what is their role as parents sia -_- Anyway, that was in the past. Now I am no longer a student and I can live independently. If I don't want to be selfish, I should not be bothered about their money etc. But again, I am still a human and I am still someone's child. I can't help but feeling selfish and angry at my parents.

Next time I will just ask them to shut their fucking mouth up when they talk about house or my future. Call me rude all you want. I am a bastard kid anyway.. Unloved, dumped, neglected, and sold to a foreign land. This just reinforces my thought that for those elderly neglected by their kids, perhaps they deserve it. If they love their kids, I am sure their kids will take care of them in the future. With all the negative emotion brewing inside, I honestly feel why should I bother about them? They brought me to this fucking world and gave me this fucking life. They took care of me for like perhaps 15 years of my life before throwing me away and selling me off to foreign land. Not sure if they really care about me or they just care about my studies bla bla bla.. Even up to now, I don't know if they really care about me. Have they ever imagined living a nomadic life for the past 11 years?

Bleah.. maybe I am writing crap! My mind is clouded with anger and it is a huge mess!

Frozen

After the demise of 2D animation, I am not really into Disney's cartoon anymore particularly if it involves Disney's Princess franchise. I am quite "ancient" that I prefer 2D animation for the classic feel. I skipped the last 2 Disney's Princesses movies a.k.a Tangled and The Princess and The Frog which means Frozen is my first Disney's Princesses after Enchanted, which technically isn't a full animation movie, or Hercules, although Megara is not regarded as a Princess.

As much as I love cartoon, I still watch selectively depending on the review. The Incredibles and Wreck-It-Ralph are as great as what reviews say while I enjoyed Rise of the Guardians greatly despite the less-than-favourable reviews. I was initially not interested in Frozen because I expected this to be a typical Disney's Princess movie for little girls. However, after reading things like "Best Disney's Princess movie in the recent age" and "it feels like a musical", I decided to give in.

Not gonna say anything about the story as it is available widely on the net so I will just say what I think about the movie: I am disappointed! Haha.. It is not bad but I don't think it is worth the big "hoo-hah" people are saying. There are a lot of plot inconsistencies so that debunks the whole "best Disney's Pricess movie" thingy and there are not enough singing to rebut the "feels like a musical thingy".

I think it is first time that a sisterly love is being explored by Disney and it is what making Frozen rather different from typical Disney's Princess movies. And it is different in a good way: sweet and touching way. Unfortunately these sweet and touching moments are mostly only at the beginning and the end of the movie and with the comedy in between, they are not good enough to make up the poor story telling.

The overall plot is rather weak with the absence of a "villain". I can't believe that Hans turns out to be a bad guy so this marks the first Disney's Princess movie with a love song duet being sung with a bad guy. I don't know if Disney intends to have children as the target audience because the political reason for Hans' villainy is not something that children will appreciate, or worse, it teaches children to be bad and manipulative using love. Terrible! Olaf the snowman nails most of the comedic parts although I find them too morbid as a joke involving various parts of his body being dismembered.

The whole story hinges on Elsa's poor control over her icy powers. However, when she escapes to isolation, I don't see anything about poor control when she builds the beautiful ice palace. I don't think she can't control her power with her able to fight off 2 men trying to murder her or for her to build the giant snow monster to protect her castle. Very contradicting with her inability to stop the winter and snowstorm. The end (spoilers here) was even more contradicting that suddenly the snow and winter stopped when she was overcome with grief when Anna is frozen to protect her. The reason is: Elsa discovers that love is the key to control the power -__-" Yes you can argue that at the start she is overcome with fear and worry over her power but that is because she loves and does not want to hurt the people around her with her power. So the love thing was useless.

I love Anna's characterisation -right up to the point of looking for a true love's kiss. Oh my gosh! That just destroys her character as a human and more importantly as a female. To make it worse, after realising that Hans does not love her, she decides that she should get a kiss from Kristoff o_0 Kristoff does like her (although I find it weird to fall in love with someone just after climbing mountain together.. but I suppose that is better than love-at-the-first-sight from the really ancient stories of Cinderella, Snow White, or Sleeping Beauty haha.. ) but for her to decide "I need to get him for his kiss" is awful. Thank goodness that the act of true love which saves her is her own personal sacrifice to save Elsa. It will be terrible -albeit cliche- if she returns to human form after a kiss from a guy.

I commend Disney's attempt to break away from typical Princess movie/characterisation but I sincerely think Disney should keep their success formula intact. Seeing the poster, I was expecting to have 2 couples so I am disappointed that in the end Elsa is still single while Anna-Kristoff relationship is questionable. Why is Hans even featured in the poster if he is one of the bad guy sia -__-"

To end this, I am sharing a clip when Elsa unleashes her power to build her castle. The lyrics are powerful and meaningful. Although she is voiced by a Broadway star, people say that her voice does not suit her face or a Disney's Princess voice which I agree. It is nice so listen+watch the clip at the same time. But if you just listen to the music, you will agree with people's negative comments. However, still a great song sung by a great singer. But I hate the "the cold never bothered me anyway" part.

Oh ya, forgot to mention that the movie opened with a short clip of "ancient" Mickey and friends titled Get A Horse. The story is quite brainless but I think it is a nice tribute to Disney's history from the ancient times up to the modern 3D animation era. To make it even more special, Walt Disney's recordings when he voiced Mickey Mouse were used and spliced together for this short clip. In fact, Walt Disney is credited as Mickey at the end of the clip.

Ouran High School Host Club + Movie

Synopsis:

Fujioka Haruhi is a commoner who enrolls to the prestigious Ouran High School by a scholarship. In her attempt to find a quiet room to study, she ended up in the Ouran High School Host Club room and broke an 8,000,000 yen vase. In order to repay her debt, she is forced to join the club as a host.

My opinion:

This is one title which starts slow and rather boring but gets more interesting as the story progresses. In fact, by the end of it, I feel it is quite a waste that each episode only lasts 20+ minutes instead of the usual 45-minute duration for a J-dorama. 

Despite its popularity, I never read the manga or watch the anime prior to watching this. I thought this would be typical reverse-harem+cross-dress story with Haruhi busy helping each of the guys with their personal conflicts/secrets, Haruhi falling in love with one of the guys, internal fighting among the guys as they all like her,  and the ending will be her secret that she is a female being revealed to the whole school. After watching all, I am quite wrong. There isn't much story, there isn't much drama, there isn't much romance, it is mostly comedy and thus there is nothing much that I can comment on.

Kudos to the cast who makes the drama really enjoyable to watch. It is quite amazing to see in real life the lame and corny things/effects that we usually see only in manga or anime. Special mention to Yusuke Yamamoto. He may not be considered "handsome" and seeing how he often plays delinquent roles, it is quite amazing to see him as a super narcist and shameless guy. I think it is very embarrassing and it takes a lot of guts to act like he did here. The twins are also damn good with their yaoi moments. I have to say that the twins are the only ones with believable personalities. Nothing really remarkable with the rest.

My afterthoughts:

Due to the nature of the dorama, it is not really thought-provoking. It is fun to watch and to have a good laugh and that's it. There isn't much story here but I still enjoy it nonetheless. I guess I am a bigger sucker for comedy than for a tear-jerking drama. Haha.. Usually I like those stories that can make me cry.

I don't have a brother and thus always wish for one. Now seeing a pair of twins, perhaps it will be more fun than having a brother eh?? But wait, if the twin has similar personality like me, I think just one of me is enough wor :p Haha..

Let's move on to the movie now..

Synopsis:

Ouran High School is having its annual festival and the Host Club will be joining the competition in order to win the Central Saloon for their new club room. In the midst of the preparation, an exchange student from Singapore arrives and is attracted to Tamaki. What secrets does this girl hide? How will her presence affect Ouran High School and its annual festival?

My opinion:

The movie keeps both the goods and the bads from the TV series. Comedy is still the driving force but comedy alone is not good enough to form a 100-minute movie. An element of romance is introduced but unfortunately ends up as jokes and nothing conclusive about Tamaki-Haruhi relationship. The drama element is quite interesting up to the mid-point where Michelle's plan is revealed. However, the resolution falls flat and is rather anti-climatic. I can't see how "political marriage" and "meals with brother" are connected in anyway. Thus as much as I like the comedy elements, overall, the movie is rather below average with failed drama for the second half.

Mariko Shinoda is one of my favourite AKB48 girls but she is rather unimpressive here as Michelle. It isn't entirely her fault as her personality/story/plot is confusing and weird. She pulls of the "princessy" air well and that's it. Not even her presence can make me think that this movie is worth watching more than once.

Since Michelle and her brother, Lawrence (played by Nichkhun), are based in Singapore, they are depicted to speak English in their conversation. Their conversation sounds weird in English. Both speak very slowly, emotionlessly, and unnaturally. Hey, we don't speak like that in Singapore, okay :p

My afterthoughts:

As a commoner, sometimes I dream of being rich and lead an elite lifestyle. It does not mean that being wealthy does not come with problems too: lack of family time, internal rife over family wealth, keep thinking on how to keep and grow the wealth, as well as "political" marriage are just a few things that the elites face. Honestly, I don't think I can choose which are better: those things I mention or the problems that I face as commoners: how am I going to get money tomorrow, how am I going to afford a house in the future, and so on. The bottom lines are: life is never a bed of roses and the grass is always greener at the other side.