FF8, Aladdin, Frozen 2

It is Valentine's Day today but nope, I am not going to write about Valentine's Day. I am actually very tired since I have been sleeping late and waking up early for the past 2 days. However I am suddenly energised to write this random post about the things that make me happy in life. Lol.

Firstly my favourite childhood game,  Final Fantasy 8, is 20 years old this year. FF8 was released on 11 February 1999 in Japan. Since I played the English version, technically the game is not 20 years old for me yet since the English version was out on 9 September 1999. The nostalgia made me revisit some FF8 videos and wow regardless how underrated the game is, no doubt that the graphics for the CGI scenes still looks amazing even by 2019 standard. The music that accompanies some of the CGI scenes (my favourites are the ending, the dancing scene, and the opening) is another testimony how well made the game is, at least cinematically. 

When a favourite childhood game reaches 20 years old, it is time to bid farewell to my childhood as well. Sob sob.. It is highly unlikely that FF8 will get a remaster or a remake but one good thing about that will be: FF8 will always be part of my childhood nostalgia. 20 years later and I still have not found my Quistis. Haha.. Although one thing that surprised me when I watched these videos was now I find Rinoa to be cuter than Quistis.

Let's jump to Disney now. Disney is on steroids for 2019 with so many anticipated movies be it the live action version of their classics, animated cartoons, and Marvel movies. Frozen 2 is coming out this fall and I just saw the trailer which is wow.. AMAZING. The trailer gives me a vibe that this is a superhero movie instead of a princess movie. The music accompanying the trailer is also bad ass. And yes, Elsa can beat Moana any day. Haha.. That is the first thing that came to my mind when watching the opening scene.

This trailer is an epitome of a great movie trailer. It looks so exciting and tantalising without giving away too much on the plot and without any single word being spoken. I really hope that the final movie will be as exciting, if not even more exciting, than this though I doubt there will be a song that can beat Let It Go.

Frozen 2 trailer brought me to a new trailer for Aladdin live action which was actually released even earlier than Frozen 2 trailer. There is so much negativity towards Aladdin live action and the only exciting thing from the first trailer is the music. As biased as I want to be since Aladdin is my favourite Disney's animation from the 90s, I just have to give up hope and accept that this live action is gonna suck. Just like the first trailer, the only amazing thing from the second trailer is the music. The rest is huge disappointment. Jafar and Aladdin really fail to show the personalities of their animation counter parts. There is nothing scary, evil, or cynical with this live action Jafar while Aladdin looks so expressionless throughout. Come on, who rubs Magic Lamp in such a boring manner? Will Smith's Genie receives the most flak even before this trailer but honestly after seeing this trailer, I find Genie to be the best so far. And yes he is blue! Not to mention the atrocity of the CGI for Abu, the Cave of Wonder scene, and when Genie comes out from the lamp. Lucky that Magic Carpet and Rajah look pretty good.

I am sad for Aladdin. The original animation is considered quite underrated since it features a guy, instead of a princess, as main character and the live action could have been a hope to make Aladdin relevant. I guess that is not happening.

Welcome to the year of Earth Boar/Pig

"Pig" sounds rather crude so I am not sure if the proper English translation is year of the pig or year the boar. Not that it really matter. I noticed that for at least for the past 3 years, I did not really post anything for CNY. That is an obvious reminder on how shit my life had been. Hopefully things will start turn for the better starting this year.

My godma is not in Singapore as she is accompanying my aunt at Pontianak. This is the first CNY that my aunt is alone for CNY since my grandma passed away. With that, I did not have CNY eve dinner to attend to. A colleague asked me if I wanted to join her dinner with her Malaysian friends who did not go back for this CNY. I was quite reluctant since I am lazy to meet strangers but I decided to be less antisocial so I went. We had steamboat at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao at Holland Village. I am not a fan of steamboat but that is the reunion dinner tradition here so I just follow.

Don Don Donki is opening 24 hours as usual for CNY so I was contemplating if I wanted to go out yesterday. Thanks to the steamboat, my stomach was not feeling good yesterday. Haha.. that is exactly why I do not enjoy steamboat. So I spent the whole day at home yesterday and went to Donki this morning instead. It is the second day of CNY and I was surprised that most shops were still closed. Compared to last year, I think there were more shops closed for this year.  Maybe because it can be considered a long weekend with Monday being the eve and traditionally a half day for working people. I won't complain since it is quite relaxing to have quieter atmosphere here for a change. My plan to get drunk for CNY also failed since the mead that I bought needs uncorking instead of just using a normal bottle cap T_T I don't usually drink but since mead is fermented honey, it is something unique and I bought it just for the sake of trying.

I will have to deal with the consequences of my dietary indiscretion during this CNY. In fact my face starts to peel and burn since last evening. Grrr... I decided to let CNY be my cheat days by getting a bag of wasabi ginger potato chips (no way I will spend $6.95 for a bag of potato chips under normal circumstances) and a jumbo seafood Nissin instant noodle. These two had entered my circulation but obviously I bought more than 1 packet of potato chips or instant noodles. Time to return back to diet.

I spent my CNY breaks unproductively by catching up on my Disney Tsum Tsum and Final Fantasy Mobius games. Lol. Initially I thought I could read books since I still have Fantastic Beasts and the Crime of Grindelwald movie book, Harry Potter exhibition book, and FF VII history book but games are more interesting. Haha. My eyes though T_T

Some people are skeptical about the feng shui and horoscope thingy. I usually read for fun instead of depending my life on it. Well at least for the next one year, I can quote the following and enjoy another year of bachelorhood. Lol.

I have read sometime similar from another feng shui master so I think generally it should be true that it may not be a right year to find a girlfriend yet :p

My CNY message this year is: "In honour of the animal of the year, there is no excuse not to eat a lot and sleep a lot this year". In other words, please pig out this year :p Yes, I hope people will eat a lot and get fat. Hehe.. It is easier to hope that other people become fat instead of me gaining weight. Some friends say that I am very funny but I have another friend with an even better CNY message: "I wish you all as happy as it seems on social media". Mwahaha.. that is what I call awesome ^o^

Growing up and moving on

With CNY is around the corner, there is no more excuse but to do spring cleaning. I finally said goodbye to my university lecture notes as by now the information is almost a decade old and outdated. Honestly, the more important reasons are that they are not that relevant anymore for my job now and I have access to more up-to-date references in case I need to check something out.

Although I said spring cleaning, what I did was very minimal. I mainly dusted off my Tsume statues, which was last dusted maybe in September last year o_0, and shifted around my table to give space for the incoming Aiolos statue. Usually cleaning my figurines spark joy in me but it seems that I am growing tired of them :( It is not that I start to dislike my figurines but after owning them for some years, I have to accept that nothing lasts forever and things start to break apart. Haiz.. Not to mention that Tsume does not have that good quality to begin with. No doubt they have great design but the quality sucks is a fact. Shiryu's dragons have parts with paints coming off, Ikki's breastplate cracked (I don't know if it is already there since the first time and I only realise it now) and the part that connect the phoenix wings to his back broke,  and Shaka's cloth is losing its gold and shine. Aiolia is still pretty new and thank God has no issue yet. 

These statues are barely 5 years old and it is extremely disappointing that they do not age well. In comparison, I have Final Fantasy VIII Kotobukiya cold cast figures which are almost 2 decades old now and they are still great. Kinda regret getting them now but I suppose the lesson is really to stop buying already. Another big shock for me is that due to the weight of these statues, my table top starts to 'collapse' T_T Aaaargh.. why are these things making me miserable instead of giving me happiness?

I tried to catch up with Final Fantasy Mobius in the past week as the FF VII Collaboration Event ended on 31 Jan. I did not complete it in the end but I managed to use up the summon tickets that I had been hoarding for more than a year. While my gacha luck sucks as always, I am happy that finally I can get Squall's Balamb Mercenary job. Hehe.. I am quite biased because previously I only posted Zidane previously. I never posted Tidus (which was bought with real money) as well as Cloud and Lightning (which I do not really like as characters). Lol.

Ready for the FF VIII Collaboration Event now

I am getting super cranky over my new year resolution: DIET. I manage to tahan since my last 'failure' 2 weeks ago but without all the internal and mental war every 5 days in the supermarket when I buy my bread for breakfast. The temptation to get potato chips is so huge and with CNY around the corner, the temptation to make the public holidays as cheat days is even more potent. Not to mention that it is demoralising that I still get new pimples despite the abstinence and for no reason I feel so hungry and weak for the past 2 days that I had to order food for dinner instead of relying on my cereal.

In memory of Aloysius Pang, his movie Young and Fabulous is re-released in limited screens this week. I wanted to watch on Friday but I could not reach AMK on time. I thought I would miss it but somehow by luck, I managed to watch it today. I will not support if this is just something to make profit from his passing. However since this whole re-release thing as a tribute is with blessings of his family and the proceeds will go to his family, re-watching it is my way to show my support. My opinion does not change from when I watched it the first time in 2016: a funny movie but lack originality. Nevertheless, his passing makes watching the movie feel very bitter sweet now.

And somehow I am also overcome with the realisation that this coming CNY will be the first CNY without calling my grandma T_T Life and death are unpredictable. It is ironic that we often take people for granted when they are alive and then only subsequently realise their importance to us after they are gone. Oh well =X

I do not consider myself celebrating CNY so usually I am not too bothered with CNY advertisement. This one, however, strikes closer to my heart as it is about children studying overseas. Everything is believable except for the part that the parents help to pack the suitcases. Lol. That never happened to me.