Trauma.. Jakarta flood 2013..

People say that it is a once-every-5-year thingy. I experienced it in 2002 and again in 2007. I thought God was good that nothing of the previous scale occurred in 2012 and we were safe until 2017. NOT! Karma hits back like a bitch and here is Jakarta flooded again in 2013.

My house was still unrenovated in 2002. The flood (which from now on will be referred to as "shit-water" as the colour looks like that) entered my house up to the first step of the stair case. I still had 2 rooms (one on each level) and I was downstairs. My father and I were watching the water at late night before we decided that the water would enter the house and we had to evacuate things to level 2. I remembered having to wake up my maid and my sisters (who unbelievable could sleep!) to help us. It was a torture for my 15-year-old body at that time. It crushed my heart to see my wooden cupboard un-save-able. I could not remember how many days it lasted. But I remembered seeing weird things like snakes and fish inside the house, how I had to avoid shitting as upon flushing the water rose instead of flushed down, how my parents actually waded through the shit water to buy food, and having to ration water as our underground water tank was contaminated with the shit water. Sigh..

My house was renovated cum 2007 and it was elevated. I was confident that water would not enter so I was grumbling when my dad wanted me to help to evacuate. Although I was a stronger 20-year-old boy at this time, the things in my house have also grown bulkier and heavier. My dad was wise, the water did enter even though it was hardly as bad as 2007. The mood was much light-hearted with me and my dad would take turns at night to look at the dark sky and at the murky water hoping for miracles. At daylight, I actually read my mangas upstairs haha.. My elder sister was not in the house at that time. I remembered that my mum almost broke down when she lost contact with my sister. The last thing my mum heard from my sister was that she was riding a makeshift wooden carriage in her attempt to leave her rental room to come home. The time was like 8pm. With no electricity, it was disastrous. Everybody was worried but seeing how my mum broke down, the rest of us had to console her with words "Can you please don't think of bad things like rape or kidnap??!". In the end it became sort like a joke. My sister actually had to switch off the phone because it was too dark and she did not want to lose grip and forever lose the phone.

Ironically, I am feeling the WORST right now! I am not in the middle of the disaster but the worry is killing me. I have to admit that 2002 and 2007 did leave some traumatic scars.. In fact, I was worried that there would be flood at New Year and I would be unable to go to airport for my flight. Anyway, according to my younger sister, everything seemed normal this morning. She and my parents left for work. She sms-ed me at about 10am to say that she was trapped at office (meaning cannot go home) because the flood finally reached her. Sms-ed my mum and dad to hear that my mum actually decided to go home and now was trapped in traffic due to flood. Seriously, I don't know what is worse: trapped at office or in traffic. After that, I heard nothing from everyone, not via whatsapp, not via sms..

Reading the news scared me even more! Even the CBD areas and the presidential palace were not spared! That was an ominous sign. Usually the government will, at all cost, prevent the flood from reaching these vital places. If they are flooded, it can only mean two things. One: the other areas are already too badly submerged and people will be angry when they know that they are the "sacrificial lambs" to prevent CBD areas from being flooded or two: the flooding is so bad that if they do not open the sluice gate, the water will simply break through and damage the whole system. Well, the two things actually mean the same thing: the flood is EXTREMELY bad! I tried to call home to check whether my house was affected. I could not get through. That gave me the answer I wished not to hear: the electricity had been shut down (i.e the flood was bad).

Latest update is that the water is thigh-deep outside my house but it has not entered. My mum and my sister waded through the shit water to reach home. Thank God.. I just can't imagine having to wade through that.. Seriously, man!! Imagine the things which would contaminate your private parts o_0 I guess survival instinct is at play here... Dirty is one thing but wading through the shit water is something dangerous or even deadly: you don't know whether you would step into a hole, a ditch, a river, or step onto cockroaches, rats, snakes, etc. The part of me wants to feel that adventure but another part of me feels like puking just from imagining that.

I know worrying is not gonna help anything but I can't help but not to worry.. Sigh.. It is worse to observe all of these from afar wondering whether everyone is okay. I still hear no news about my dad.. God, my only wish is that the water does not enter my house and please keep my dad safe.. :(

Yes, even Bundaran HI is at this state.. Picture credit of The Jakarta Globe

Goody-Japan (Review)

[Update on 31/12/2015: This post was initially done in 2013 and I realised that this will appear on top of google list when you search for 'goody japan review'. To be fair, Goody-Japan made some changes which I wrote here and here. I am still using their service until now and I don't think there is any latest update after the last time I wrote about them last year.]

I admit that I am a complain king and I will not hesitate to bash shitty service like what I did with Shopping Mall Japan/SMJ (www.shoppingmalljapan.com) previously here and here. However, I am a very reasonable person and as such, I will give credit where it is due. This time it will be for Goody-Japan (http://goody-japan.com/index.html). It is another middleman service for shopping from Japanese shops which only ship to Japan. And because I only have experience with SMJ and Goody-Japan, my feedback will be largely based on the comparison between the two.

Don't judge a book by its cover! Yup, I regretted choosing SMJ over Goody-Japan for a simple reason that Goody-Japan's webpage is less user friendly. However, the webpage is actually idiot-proof, you can find every information that you need to use its service without any need to contact the customer service. When you clicked on "e-mail", there is an option to tick whether the question is urgent and they will try to reply within 5 hours. Now this seems to be a LONG period and one may wonder how long it will take for a reply if one does not tick the urgent. Based on my personal experience for a few times, the customer service is MUCH MUCH better than the shitty SMJ which replies only once a day. Goody-Japan will reply as soon as the officer is online. And if you happen to quickly reply after getting a reply from them, it is highly likely that the person will reply back immediately!

Another reason for a better customer service is that when you want more information about the item you are interested in, Goody-Japan will contact the merchant and then get back to you. Yup, the reply thus may take longer time but you can be assured that the reply comes from the merchant who is selling the item. Compare this to SMJ which can't be bothered to contact the seller and will just write or describe whatever the merchant writes in the item description. Oh yeah.. how helpful is that? Any idiot still want to ask a question if the answer is there?

Moving on to the deposit system, I can't say which is better as I think both have their pros and cons. For Goody-Japan, you simply send them the amount you wish to use for bidding via PayPal before you bid the item. If you lose the item, you can request the deposit to be refunded. It can be trouble some to keep playing ping pong with deposit.. But when it is urgent, it is more convenient than SMJ's maximum authorised amount. Bleah.. their processing time to increase the authorised amount is quite laggy and best is that you won't even get notification whether your request has been processed. But I will favour Goody-Japan simply because they receive deposit in Yen or USD. Thus only Paypal rate applies instead of SMJ's bullshit rate of 5 yen less than whatever prevailing exchange rate if I am not wrong. Boo..

Bidding-wise, this is where Goody-Japan is not so good as you cannot control your bid real-time like with SMJ. It seems that there is no sniper service too but if you request, Goody-Japan can also snipe for you. Yup.. Perhaps the other thing that SMJ is better than Goody-Japan is for translation of the item descriptions.

In addition, invoice management is another field where Goody-Japan is lacking. We do not actually have an account which we can log in to monitor our purchases so we will end up with a flooded email inbox o_0

So am I biased? Haha.. No.. You can only know how good a service is after you encounter some problems with your items. I had an item which arrived damaged with Goody-Japan. I mentioned it in this post but I did not mention the middleman service at that post because at that time, I was still not sure whether Goody-Japan will be good or will be as crappy as SMJ. Anyway, that Squall & Bahamut cost me about 30000 Yen. Goody-Japan actually took the initiative to inspect the item and informed the about the damage (including the picture) when they notified me that item arrived at their office. Isn't that fantastic? I arranged for a return and a refund because no way I would be paying 30000+ Yen for a damaged item and Goody-Japan helped me to settle the return and refund without much nonsense and excuses like SMJ. Best part is, I received my 30000 yen back in full!! WOW!! I was expecting that I would have to pay for the shipping, return shipping, wiring fee, and etc. But no, I paid NONE for that damaged item.

When another Squall & Bahamut appeared near the year end, I definitely used Goody-Japan again. And perhaps it was God's blessing that the 30000 yen one was damaged and refunded. I won the latter one for 17000+ Yen only!! Woohoo.. This time, thank God it arrived safely at Goody-Japan office and it arrived safely to me. Hehe.. And this is where I would give another thumbs up to Goody-Japan for their packaging. Knowing that Squall is at high risk being damaged when Bahamut is resting on top of it, they packed Squall separately on another small box so there was no way that it could be crushed under Bahamut.

So in summary,

Goody-Japan pros:

-Great communication, relatively quick reply and multiple replies a day is possible

-Will help you to contact the original seller for more details of the items

-Automatic email confirmation for your deposit and your bidding

-Able to help with return of damaged item

-Great packaging

-Great initiative to notify buyer about damaged item on arrival

-Idiot-proof and informative webpage

-Fair exchange rate

Goody-Japan cons:

-Less control over bidding

-Deposit system (I personally don't favour their deposit system. Not bad but not my liking)

-No "account" in the webpage

-No "search function", no "translation function"

-Webpage is not really user friendly

Compare to SMJ pros:

-"Account" in the webpage to monitor your purchases

-"Search function" (although I don't use it.. I am an idiot because whatever I key in, it always yielded me no results.. Haha) to browse through item from several online shops concurrently

-"Translation function" with multiple translator alternative

-Greater control over bidding activity

But SMJ cons:

-Poor communication, once a day reply

-Instead of asking sellers, SMJ will simply mention item descriptions or say the obvious things from the pictures i.e did not even bother to contact seller

-No notification on your requests eg. registering credit card, changing transaction limit, etc

-Ridiculous exchange rate

-Irresponsible when item arrived damaged, could not be bothered with how they handled the item

-Caused my item to be damaged, did not even contact Japan Post for insurance, refused to refund, rude and even called me fraudulent bla bla bla when enough evidence was given that item was damaged, caused me to incur loss close to USD 800

Okay I shall stop before the cons are getting too personal... Haha..

Anyway, Goody-Japan did not pay me anything to write this. This is a purely honest customer feedback from a happy customer of Goody-Japan :) And apologies if I sound too biased against SMJ. You will understand how I feel when you "lost" USD 800 for an item which arrived damage and the middleman refused to extend any help at all but calling you names instead.

Wreck it!

Yay! I managed to catch Wreck-it Ralph in the cinema today. It premiered on 20/12/2012 when I was at home so I thought it would be gone by the time I came back here. Thank goodness it is not the case. The reviews have been positive for the show and it is not simply because of the huge numbers of well-known game characters which appear as cameos.

The beginning reminded me of Toy Story as the game characters come to "live" after the arcade is closed for the day. However, I must say that it is a genius idea that the game characters are able to leave their own game and visit the other games via electrical cable. The central power point/supply (in which the various arcade machines are plugged in) serve as the game central for cross-game movements. If any character gets into trouble and die in another game, they are gone for good. If they die in their own game, they can regenerate.

It is also good to "visualise" these games characters as if they are "working to play in the drama". When it is time for the arcade to open, everyone has to return to their stations i.e their respective arcade games. And when someone is playing the game, they have to "work" i.e appear in the game. Once the game is over, they have to tidy up everything back to normal (perhaps loading screen in real life?) to prepare for the next game from the beginning again. The glass of the arcade machines serves as 2-way window. Just like how the players "view" the game characters, these game characters are also able to look out to the players. They can even look out to another arcade machines!

The creativity does not end there. Not gonna spoil the story but in summary, the plot is quite cliche: A bad guy is bored of being bad and wants to be good; But he ends up making things go haywire and in the end, he realises the "good" in him by helping to tidy up the mess he has created. Despite the cliche, the story turns out to be quite simple to follow and very engaging with all the humours (Diet coke lava with mentos stalactite anyone?). The last part is quite touching and I admit that I tried hard not to shed tears. Lol. Oh ya, even the ending credits are interesting and pleasurable to watch. And not to forget that the movie began with Mickey in Steamboat Willie (that's the very first Mickey Mouse movie in case you don't know) humming to a weird tune and a short animation clip titled Paperman.

The only negative thing I can think about is that some cameos are really cameos -_-" Just in the background and just passing by.. Haiz.. Chun li should have more screen time!! Haha. So yah, who said that cartoons are only for kids? I think Wreck-it Ralph! and Rise of the Guardians show that cartoons are not only for kids but also for people who have good memories of their childhood. I think teenagers will be able to relate to these "childhood" characters.. or even the 1980s people to recognise the cameos in Wreck-it Ralph!

Anyway, I thought my day was kinda wrecked too T_T Firstly, I read the fortune forecast for the coming Year of the Snake. I will have bad luck throughout the year: poor health, poor wealth, poor energy, poor social relationship, and perhaps poor luck. Of course I can't surely say that these kind of Chinese zodiac thingy is true or not la.. But still can't help but feel emo.. 

Secondly, I saw Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary Memorial Ultimania being sold at $76.20 each at Kinokuniya!! Jeez!! If I were to buy it during the 20% member sale, the 3 books will cost me about $180 only. I spent almost double of the amount buying the 3 books from cdjapan.com!! I am still angry, sore, and devastated about it. Based on the information I obtained last year, I thought it would be only be available via SquareEnix Japan online shop and hence I thought no chance it would be available via Kinokuniya!! As I did not want to miss it like the fucked up The Sky again, I immediately bought it online. Sigh.. They were tempting that there would be exclusive bonus for buying the 3 together and the bonus was kept secret until the release of the book. 

The bonus turned out to be a slip case to house the 3 books. Fuck!! So yea, $150 just for the bloody slip case.. Cdjapan.com is also disappointing as fuck. They already charged 2000 Yen service fee to "specially purchase these items from Square Enix online shop" and they still had the face to overcharge the shipping too! The 3 books weigh about 5 kg and according to EMS Japan website, the rate should be about 5600 yen for shipping. Cdjapan.com charged me 8100 yen! 2500 yen for crappy service and packaging (oversized box almost double the size of the content, one layer of bubble wrap, additional layer on top of the bubble wrap, and rough paper to fill in the remaining half of the box). Fair enough that they published their "overcharged" in their website for information but still, I think I need to warn others so that they do not fall to the same trap as me. I am perfectly fine for them to charge service fee for ordering from a third party and to pack the item for me. But seriously, another 2500 yen on top of the 2000 yen service fee? Isn't that ridiculous!!

No more cdjapan.com from me. To hell with their point system yada yada.. I still have 500 yen discount from them but I don't think I will ever use it. If anyone want to order something from this fucked up company and want to get 500 yen discount, don't hesitate to contact me to see whether I can help.

Emo emo emo :( $150 gone.. could have bought an ipod nano with that T_T

It has been a week and surprisingly the adjustment back to working life mode was less painful than expected. So far I had no issue with waking up early or reaching office on time. Thank God for that. However, I face temptations every morning with the thoughts "Should I go to work or should I fake MC today?". Since it is a new year, my stock of sick leave is back to full supply :p so the temptation to start utilising it is there (and is big!). It is not much of a problem to fake MC. However, my concern is if that soon becomes a habit T_T

Now, habit is really a scary thing. Before my holiday, I was sort of addicted to whatever potato chips available in the market. The craving stopped at home because I think Indonesian potato chips are not worth me getting fat. Now that I am back here, I am completely weaned of the potato chips! Isn't it amazing? There are occasions when I am tempting myself to go to the chips section in supermarket but I keep telling myself "Once you start, you will never stop. Just like last year!". Not sure how long I can tahan but I must persevere. My tummy starts to bulge and it is getting difficult to fit into my jeans. I think my clothes shrink when I was away for 3 weeks. Lol.

I am not sure whether I had shared this previously but as I was packing my stuff before my holiday, I found my rosary ring from Lourdes. In the middle of last year, I could not find it and I thought it went missing although I was sure that it should be with me. As a friend was going to Lourdes, I asked her to get me a replacement rosary ring. Interestingly, the one that my friend bought had 11 instead of 10 protrusions so I actually never used that. Anyway, back to the missing rosary, I actually found it together with my other religion-related materials. I found it as I took out my rosary prayer book to bring it to home and interestingly the whole stack of materials just "crumbled" revealing this rosary ring. I really think it was a sign of God. It was just unbelievable. I rummaged through the same stack of materials countless times when I was looking for it a few months ago and I could not find it. As I resigned to fate that it was lost, it came back miraculously.

The missing-but-now-found rosary ring (left) and the mysterious rosary ring with 11 protrusions (right)

I always carry the rosary ring with me to work everyday. It helps me to count Hail Mary's when I am on the go. Of course ideally I want to be able to set aside time to quietly pray the full rosary at one go. But I always fail and end up falling asleep. I guess doing a decade by decade when I am on the go is still better than doing it half asleep.. And it is still better than keep losing track of the Hail Mary's when I used mental calculation. There is saying that each time someone prays a full rosary, it will be like presenting a 'rosary' of rose to Mother Mary in Heaven. I think I sent her a lot of "screwed up" rosaries with wrong numbers of roses leh!! Haha..

I wonder when I will start my night jogging again. And I hope once I start, it will become a habit too, just like the rosary and the no potato chips thingy..

Repeat dreams??

I need a dream intepreter. This morning I had a deja vu in my dream. After some time, I realised that it was not a deja vu. I remembered that I had similar dream previously although I cannot remember how many times it happened.

I cannot recognise the place of the dream but what happened in the dream is always the same. Basically I am going to buy food. I don't know where I come from but the dream usually begins with me crossing a road to get to the food places. None of the buildings is remarkable. They are just ordinary shophouses. Anyway, the place from which I would like to buy food from is not open. Soon, dark clouds are coming and it is starting to drizzle. Then come an "Oh shit!" moment as I carry no umbrella. Okay, I better quickly run a few blocks away to a shopping centre to quickly get some food and then cross the road again from the overhead bridge near the shopping centre to return to where I come from. 

Here comes the freaky part: I have to run or else I will be drenched in the rain. But everytime I start running, I am unable to control my body. I cannot run in a direction which my mind wants and end up either running on the spot or run off-track and hit something. I never attempt to walk as I will already be awakened at this freaky part.

Anyway, I cannot register any object in the dream like what buildings there are or whether there are other people or whether there are even cars as I am crossing the road. I think the dream is also monochromatic! Bleah, I wonder whether there is a meaning behind this sia.. Why good dreams never repeat or continue but bad dreams are happening again and again.

Such a pointless post but I can't help it. This is bugging myself for the whole day!

Less miserable..

Fiuh.. finally weekend is here! It is time to hibernate and to regain back energy from all the plane-lag. Have been quite moody for the past few days due to insufficient time to sleep.

 

I watched Les Miserables on Thursday night. Okay, I am a sucker for spoilers la! I watched it without reading anything about it first so I was lost for most of the movie. I could not even get the names (French names!) of the characters. The only one I heard correctly was Marius. The other two which I could heard were "Fountain" and "Corsette". I did not catch the rest. Lol. I also did not expect that it was a full musical and I did not catch many parts of the singing. Haha.. My command of English remains poor when it comes to song lyrics!

Anyway, I am not too satisfied with the movie. I did not know that the story is that miserable. Anna Hathaway's character did not even last for half of the movie and my main reason for watching was to hear her sing! I don't really enjoy the singing of Hugh Jackman and Russel Crowe (the 2 main leads!) and I thought the songs of the students for the revolution are nicer than the songs sung by the main characters (except for I dreamed a dream, of course! Anna Hathaway deserves an Oscar, not for her singing, but rather for her acting and conveyed emotion while performing this). Bleah.. I also find the story to be rather messy and several disjointed plots. It started with slavery and then jumped to reformation of Jean which was somehow linked to Fantine's story of prostitution to support her illegitimate child. Jean then helped Fantine's child (Cosette) and then came the revolution and Cosette fell in love with Marius.

I actually enjoy Phantom of the Opera (2004) more than this. Phantom's story is simpler but the sub-plots and how the characters are intertwined with one another form a better story altogether. The songs are nicer and certainly it is more enjoyable to hear more females singing! Critics were not too impressed with Gerard Butler's singing but I thought he performed better than Hugh Jackman or Russel Crowe in Les Miserables. Yup I actually bought the DVD and the casette for Phantom but not interested for Les Miserables. Oh well, who cares about my opinion right? Haha.. The pro music critics think more highly for Les Miserables.. But still, Les Miserables is still worth watching! My favourites are One Day More and Do You Hear The People Sing.

My Christmas books loots are here! I only got the time to open and browse through them. No time to really scrutinise and make comments. Perhaps next time after I am done reading them. One thing for sure: I have really RUN OUT of storage space!! So yeah, even if I have the money, I can no longer buy things anymore.. Sad sad..

The Art of Rise of the Guardians

Final Fantasy 25th Memorial Ultimania set

The 3 volumes of Final Fantasy 25th Memorial Ultimania

Avengers vs X-men

Hello 2013

It's a new year so I shall try to be positive even though deep inside I am in a rather mellow mood. Haha.. 2013 started in a rather unexpected manner. I thought airport would be crazy yesterday as everyone would be flying back for work today. Surprisingly, the airport was quite deserted for a holiday season. More surprisingly, even Changi Airport was rather quiet even though my plane landed at about 8pm! No idea what happened for this new year because I am very very sure that a year ago, the airports were buzzing with people.

Lets go back a day. I was initially happy that my house's cable has NHK channel. I thought I would be able to watch Kohaku Uta Gassen. This is a yearly New Year's Eve affair from Japan since the 1950s. It is basically a music show in which best-selling singers throughout the year were invited to perform. The singers are divided into 2 groups: Red (all the females) vs White (all the males). At the end of the show, based on the votes, one team is declared the winner. The red team only won once (last year) since 2005. Anyway, the "competition" is merely for fun. The event itself is more like a fun-filled New Year's Eve celebration. Different artists may even collaborate for some of the items.

Despite its history, my interest only started in 2011 when there were "competition" between the top male and female talent groups to field as many performers as possible for their items. Johnny's Entertainment sent 244 performers as back dancers of NYC. AKB48 sent 210 girls (basically all the xxx48 brands: SKE48, NMB48, HKT48, JKT48, etc) for their item. I gotta say AKB48's performance trashed NYC's. The reason is that despite lesser manpower, AKB48 made full use of the whole stage (including the side stages) and all 210 girls were singing and dancing. On top of that, they formed giant human words at the end of the performance and that made use of the 200+ people. NYC's show basically was just a 3-men show with another 240 boys to stand as decoration. Lol..

Although it would be difficult, I expected AKB48 to do better last year (2012). As expected, it was not as good as 2011 performance. The medley was poorly executed as the 3 songs were poorly joined. It felt as 3 different songs, and not a medley. They brought less people so stage presence was less too. However, I have to applaud them for their tricks in changing clothes. I love that ginghan check banner to cover them when they changed costume. The video is below (before it gets removed) and I have no idea how they changed that fast. They wore all black for the first song with no hint of colours for their next songs. For the top, it was easy to hide. But how about the skirts? The skirts for the second song were more flowery than the black ones. How on earth they hid it? In addition, to make up for less womanpower than last year, they changed formations for the human word at the end and that was a nice "upgrade" too.

Bleah.. unable to find 2011 performance from youtube but you can view it here for a comparison. Better linkage of songs and better showmanship overall.

And how about NYC this year? I am quite bored of Yuuki 100%. I know that it is an inter-generational song as it has been the OST for Ninja Rantarou for 30+ years.. but to sing the same song for 3 years in a row is just uncreative. The back dancers are always in white too! Gosh.. They gotta learn better trick to have on-stage costume swap.. And no idea why they ditched the Red-Blue-Yellow colour which has been their trademarks. One thing I find good about their performance is the use of the LCD to give a "stairway to heaven" kind of effect. If you watch the full show, you will be amazed with Japanese LCD technology. The LCD can display things realistically which is simply unbelievable until you see it with your own eyes. So yup, basically good to utilise the LCD goodness.

Ultimately, the best item is perhaps the Disney's collaboration. Lols. Famous J-Pop artists plus popular Disney's characters? Simply an awesome combo. Although they butchered the songs and they did not include "It's a Small World" which is like a theme song for Disneyland. And it is nice that in the end, they also included other characters like Snow White's 7 dwarfs, the atrocious-looking Lilo and Stitch, Pinocchio and Jimminy which is as tall as Pinocchio (wtf!), and rabbits and bears from cartoons which I am unable to recall.

End of the year... End of holidays..

Sigh.. holidays are always bittersweet.. or perhaps sweetbitter if there is such word. After more than 10 years living away from home, it is always hard to leave home. My family and my treasures are all home and it is very difficult to leave these behind.. Haiz.. I find it a chore to clean my figurines and my manga cupboards but alas, I have to take care of my treasures right? Life is always ironic. If I don't buy these things, I would not need to clean and tidy up the cupboards.. But then if I don't buy these things, I wonder what I will do to make myself happy. Bleah.. I am more or less done with the packing, something which I hate to do! I actually love packing when I am going home. So perhaps it is not the "packing" but it is the leaving home part which makes it hate-able.

Christmas is over and this year I did not actively search for a Christmas present from myself by myself and for myself. Haha.. Had been shopping too much for this year.. But looks like God still gave me a Christmas present. I did not know how but I somehow bumped into Gundam Wing Resin by B-club listed in allaboutgundamwing.com. I actually knew about the existence of this item a few years back when I saw its advertisement in one of the Gundam Wing Japanese books. But at that time, it was not listed in that website yet so I had no idea the name of the item. I found one in Yahoo! Japan. Yay!! Kinda pricey for 3675 Yen (the selller claimed the retail price is 7350 Yen) but it was my childhood (or perhaps teenhood) dream so I am glad to get it.

Since Gundam Wing was out more than a decade ago, I did not expect that the website will have any more updates. So it was a good surprise to see updates on the merchandise section. Bleah, I want the Gundam Wing Clothes Change Cell and the Phase DX cells leh :( Dunno how where to find liao.. I knew I had a few of the Gundam SeeD Phase DX cells. I got it from Takashimaya B2 sale many years back. I did not know there were a few more series of these Phase DX cells. Anyway, at that time I had not come across online shopping so I doubt that I would be able to get the rest also.

Still on the topic of Christmas present, my mum wanted to give me a Christmas present. I told her I had nothing on my mind so there was no need to give one. Again, I did not know what prompted us to enter a Catholic shop at Mall Kelapa Gading. To be honest, the shop has been there for years but this was our first time entering. I saw a beautiful rosary made of aquamarine T_T There is an aquamarine bracelet rosary too!! The full rosary costs Rp. 1.275.000,- while the bracelet costs Rp. 275.000,-. The beads for the full rosary is bigger (10 or 12mm) so I was tempted to buy that for the aquamarine beads! However, in terms of usability, the bracelet would be better as it will help me to pray rosary when I am on the move. Furthermore I have no bracelet rosary yet, 

On the rainy Thursday, I set my mind to buy both!! Haha.. But by the time I reached the shop, I changed my mind and in the end I bought none. I have so many rosaries which I don't use (I am still using my very first rosary from a friend in primary school) so I think this aquamarine will also be collecting dust. I did not buy the bracelet because it had 11 beads and a cross. This is the same as rosary ring from my friend which has 11 protrusions. So I don't know whether these are normal rosaries or they are for other prayers. I thought rosaries should have 10 beads and a cross for 10 Hail Marys and Our Father/Glory Be respectively. I gave myself a few days to see whether I could sit down and pray a full rosary at one sit. If I could, I will start that habit again and there is a reason to get the full aquamarine rosary. Anyway, I succeeded for a day. Haha.. Okay that's a sign for me not to buy.

Anyway, I am still happy with the Gundam Wing Resin. I hope it would arrive safely and is still in top condition :D

Yamato Nadeshiko Shinchi Henge

Synopsis:

Blessed with good looks, Takano Kyohei is always suffering from the unreasonable behaviour of customers who want him and the sexual harassment of his store manager. Because of his hot temper, he loses his head on this occasion and is fired from his part time job. Then one day, the glamorous house owner, Ms Nakahara proposes, "I'll give you free board and lodging if you can turn my niece, Sunako, into a lady!". Kyohei, and Toyama Yukinojo, Oda Takenaga, and Morii Ranmaru, the other guys living together in the same boarding house, are enthusiastic, but the person who appears before the four of them is a spooky girl whose hair covers her face and who loves horror and vampires. And so, their tumultuous communal life begins..

My opinion:

On the surface, the story looks "usual" with typical shoujo manga elements such as: an ugly and antisocial girl who stay with 4 uber handsome and popular guys, school/dormitory life, conflicts with family, etc. The personalities of the 4 guys are also typical: the hot-headed one, the "girly" one, the cool and quiet one, and the womaniser. But hey, this is the best dorama of 2010. There have to be plenty of reasons.

First reason is the humour. Being another dorama based on manga, the humour and jokes can be over the top. So it is cool when these over-the-top things can be made realistic, believable, and still hilarious on screen. And this is closely tied-in with the actors who play their roles well. And the actors are the second reason. Well, perhaps the more accurate one is the acting. They can switch modes from being lame, funny, serious, angry, frustrated, sad, touched etc easily. This applies not only to the main 5 people but also to the supporting casts. Basically, that makes the dorama very watchable. The supporting casts are not mere decorations as there are few subplots which centre about them.

Third reason is the plot. The theme of "don't judge book by its cover" is a common thing. But people tend to relate it to someone ugly or stupid. Has anybody thought that good looks can also bring problem? I would say that it is a genius to think that way. While on one side we see Sunako's problems with her peculiarity, on the other side, we are also presented with the problems from the ikemens due to their good looks: stalking, sexual harrassment, just to name a few.

People will expect that in the end, the ugly duckling will change into a beautiful swan. I don't know about the manga but in the dorama, it does not happen. So words like "What matters most is your heart, not your face" or "Be yourself" said by the characters are not empty words. That is another bonus point for me. Having said that, it means that throughout the series, there are very few opportunities to show the pretty side of Oomasa Aya (who plays Sunako). I love her bad-ass side especially during the fights in episode 1 when she is wearing kimono. Yea...

Afterthoughts:

My life is not perfect. At times, I hate my job and I hate my life. There are times when I wish that I were born to a rich family.. Or that I were born damn handsome or talented so that I can make a living from being a movie star or something. But hey, the grass is always greener at the other side although in reality the greener side may have more shit as the fertilizer.. After watching this, I don't think it is a perfect life to have strangers stalking you or to have parents forcing you to take over family business and maintain family status. Which is better or which is worse? I don't know.. What's best is to make the best out of what I currently have and who I currently am.

And at my current age, it is kinda horror to challenges in love lives that guys commonly face: scared to commit, worried of being rejected, scared that other people see our weaknesses. And the most horrific thing is to watch Ranmaru's love story. While I am NOT a womaniser, I see some resemblence with him: my friends are mostly females but yet I am still single. Other than the common horros that guys face, I have to admit that I am still selfish and I love myself so much that perhaps I am unable to love another person yet. Gosh.. looks like an arranged marriage or even a matchmaking is fine with me at this stage of life sia =x

Final Fantasy VIII Transcendent Artist's Collection: Rinoa & Siren

This post is very outdated as I actually got hold of the item in late October from a seller in Indonesia for Rp 3,500,000,-. Okay that's the way we write currency in Indonesia using comma instead of full stop. It is about $450 so more or less the same as what I budgeted it for. The figure is still undamaged, except for imperfections on the base. This figure is numbered 1317. Later on, I purchased another damaged figure of Rinoa & Siren because it was being sold with undamaged Squall & Bahamut which was the one that I actually wanted. That turned out to be a big disaster as I wrote here and here. The damaged figure is numbered 445. Actually the damaged Rinoa & Siren is quite common because the way Kotobukiya made the packaging. When the box is put lying down, instead of standing up, the weight of the figure presses on one flock of Siren's hair (wings?) so that flock of hair (wings?) always breaks. So I am glad that I managed to get one which is undamaged.

Okay moving on to the figure itself. The box is 37cm (H) x 29cm (L) x 20cm (W) and white is a bad choice of colour as it ages quite horribly. The statue itself is majestic. I never really like Siren or Rinoa in-game but I can't deny that this figure is simply the best out of the 5 in the series. Siren's massive hair (wings?) gives volume and imposing angel-like presence to the figure. The figure is about 18 inches tall, about the same as Seifer & Odin. The way the hair (wings?) is design is simply breathtaking in the details. The figure is sculpted by Kenji Ando who sculpted the fugly Quistis and Selphie. As expected, Rinoa is fugly too although Siren is surprisingly pretty here. And one thing which makes Rinoa & Siren unique as compared to the other statues is that Rinoa is not detachable from the main statue. Ironically, the statue is better paired with Seifer & Odin than with Squall & Bahamut. Seifer & Odin is as tall as Rinoa & Siren and Odin's horn looks from far like demon's wings, making it a good pair with Siren's angel-like hair (wings?). The only complaint I have with this statue is that Rinoa and Siren are facing different directions that it is difficult to determine the "front" side of the statue for displaying purpose.

Enough of words, it is picture time. As one statue is in Jakarta and the other is in Singapore, I am unable to take them side by side like what I did with Seifer & Odin. However, one noticeable difference is that the undamaged on has more yellowish hue rather than angelic white that the damaged on has. Funny..

Front side of the packing box

Back side of the packaging box

Top side of the packaging box

Serial card

The other side of the card

Unboxing.. The statue consists of 3 parts: Siren & Rinoa and 2 hair (wings?) extensions

The statue and the packaging box

 Some close-ups of the statue below.

Darn!! it's blur!!

Siren facing front

The subject to discussion up to now: What is the thing that Rinoa is holding?

Yes.. Heartilly is spelt as Heatilly here -_-

Next few pictures are taken with the statue at my house in Jakarta. This is taken in the balcony for better lighting from the sun. The figure definitely looks awesome under the sun.

Too much zoom destroys the image quality

 Okay, the sun is playing trick to the eyes here. The figure looks very yellowish here haha..

The base is damn chui!! Thanks to the sun it is easy to see the wooden base!

Update: I managed to sell the damaged one (serial no: 0445) in July 2016 for USD 600. Lucky me, a few weeks later I found an undamaged one for 36600 JPY (including shipping) from Mandarake. I don't think I will be taking photos of it. The serial number is 0935.