Haiyan/Yolanda

Have you heard about a super typhoon that wreaked havoc in the Philippines? Typhoons and hurricanes are not rare for the Philippines so I thought this was just like any other typhoons. Apparently, it was not a case this time. The level of destruction seems to be even worse than the tsunami which hit Aceh in 2004.

Why am I suddenly bothered by this? About 2 days ago, my colleague informed me that there was a maid crying and requesting for diazepam. The woman was crying so perhaps my colleague did not really understand what she wanted. When I heard the word "maid", I thought this would be another difficult case of perhaps a maid getting abused by the employer and forced to get diazepam now. Still, I think it is quite rude and racist to label any Filipino as "maid".

I brought her to somewhere quiet and trying to find out what was going on. She was literally in tears telling me that her relatives were in Tacloban, a city worst hit by the typhoon. She just got a phone call from her sister there. She wanted diazepam for her niece who had difficulty sleeping due to all the shock and trauma. One of her relatives would be coming over from Australia via Singapore and back to the Philippines so if she could get the medicine, she would pass it over to her relatives. She told me how bad the condition was: no vehicle, no electricity, the hospitals were literally paralysed, etc. She even showed me a large bag of candles that she bought to send over.

Unfortunately, there was nothing that I could do to help her because diazepam requires a prescription. I told her as much as I wanted to help her, I would be going to jail if I were to give the medicine without a prescription. It never came across my mind that she would have any ill intentions with the medicine as she was not even sure whether her sister wanted 5mg tablet or 5ml injection. When I told her I only had tablets, she said she would even appreciate 2 (yes, TWO) tablets. She was okay with registering as a patient (that would cost her at least $40) if that would be a way to get the diazepam for her niece. I told her that I would try to check with a doctor to see if there was anything we could do.

As expected, it was simply impossible. Not even for a doctor to prescribe a diazepam without seeing the actual patient. I braced myself and expected more tears as I broke the news. Surprisingly, the lady had calmed down. She understood that the law is very strict here and she would not make life difficult for me and the doctor. She knew it was impossible to get but she was desperate and tried to ask to "try her luck". What ultimately touched me was that she was so thankful that I was actually bothered to give her time to listen to her story and to help her asked around to further try her luck. That was quite shocking and left me dumbfounded. I don't know how but I hope everything will be okay for her and her family, as well for all the people affected.

After this, I asked my Filipino colleagues whether they were involved in some fund raising or donation drive activities. I am glad they are as I want to donate my old clothes, my unused white jackets, my old shoes, my old school uniforms, etc. Come to think of it, I feel quite bad in donating these things. I have been wanting to throw these but reluctant because they are still wearable. Yes, I even dream that perhaps some day I will have the chance to wear my old school uniform again. Haha.. But still,  I regard them as "rubbish" and by donating them, it feels as if I am giving rubbish. I know that the things are still wear-able, functional, and I am sure will be useful for the people there but from my point of view, I think my intention is hardly noble at all :(

I went to Lucky Plaza to send over my donation and I am quite impressed that the Filipino community here are so united in helping their fellow countrymen. The donation drive is actually organised by one of the Filipino shipping company. It has a 3-letter name (not DHL) but I can't recall. Kinda amazed with the amount of donations that they had received. My Filipino colleague brought me around to the Filipino eateries that he usually patronises. I think their food is still similar to my taste buds. Haha.. Their desserts are huge and look very sugary. Looking at the Filipinos who work with me, I am amazed how they can be so slim when their food looks so unhealthy. Haha.. It is meant to be a compliment, okay? Nice food are usually the unhealthy ones.

I am usually very particular when it comes to spending my money for phone apps. LINE released "Pray for the Philippines" sticker pack for 50 coins. With all proceeds going for relief effort, it is quite a brainless choice not to purchase. I am disappointed that it only costs 50 coins though :( I mean I will even buy it for their normal 100 coins per sticker pack and that would help the relief effort more.

PayPal sucks

This post in an update with regards to my broken Aladdin and this will turn to quite a bit of PayPal bashing. PayPal did not read my email or see my pictures and just gave automated answer: please return the item to get a full refund. Thank goodness now PayPal has a hotline manned by humans (wow.. can't believe that there is something positive about PayPal). 

The person who spoke to me apologised and mentioned that my email was completely ignored during the case review. After reviewing the case on the spot, I was informed that I should get a police report. I was like WTF?? Item was damaged on transit and I don't think the bastard seller was trying to scam me. There was nothing criminal here so why should the police be informed. I called them back to argue and the girl told me "Oh previously someone brought in police report as evidence so I expect you to do the same". What the shit man seriously! The girl finally relented and said I could give any 3rd party documentation to verify the damage (read: I am not lying and trying to scam). I tried the post office which obviously could not be bothered about uninsured goods. A letter from comgateway was the best thing I could muster (well, it will be another story at another time about comgateway).

After providing the 3rd party documentation etc, I received an email on Sunday stating that the case was closed in favour of the seller. I emailed PayPal yesterday which was ignored and today I decided to call them again. Thank goodness their hotline operates until 10pm on weekdays. It seemed that the case was closed 10 days after their automated reply to return the item. Since no tracking number provided, it was taken as if I did nothing and case was closed. F.U.C.K Y.O.U!

I restrained myself from screaming at the poor guy who received my phone call. Well, it was not his fault so I tried to just sound distressed but not angry at him. I told him that now I ended up worse that what I started. Initially seller offered me USD 70 partial refund. Of course why should I paid USD 30 for broken pieces of porcelain or for return shipping for that bastard's poor packaging and idiocy not to insure a fragile item? That was why I seek PayPal's help. And now PayPal is telling me that I pay USD 100 for broken porcelain! What help was there?

The guy checked the case and it seemed that he had an "Oh shit" moment when he saw that I did provide something (which was obviously ignored by the dispute department). He said he would need to review and call me back in an hour. In the end he did not call me back but emailed me that out of courtesy, PayPal refunded USD 70.

Yeah.. so that is how helpful PayPal is. Wasted my 2 weeks and all my effort and in the end I am back to square 1: paid USD 30 for broken porcelain. Seriously, they should bloody review disputes on a case-by-case basis! I know there are a lot of buyers who scam etc but that is not my predicament so I am going to put that aside. I am writing from a perspective of a buyer at a losing end. Suppose a seller genuinely makes a mistake by sending a wrong item, why should the buyer have to pay return shipping to get it exchanged with a correct one? Suppose a seller packs an item poorly, does not insure it, and item arrives damaged, why should the buyer have to pay return shipping for seller's mistakes? Suppose a seller is a bastard who is deliberately sending a damaged item, did PayPal even try to get seller's proof that they did not send a damaged item right from the beginning? All the trouble will be at the buyer's side: pay return ship, or make police report, or bla bla bla.. So much for Buyer Protection pui!

Honestly, we desperately need a PayPal alternative. Now if there is an option to make a payment directly with my card, I will choose that over stupid PayPal. Not gonna feed them with my money anymore whenever possible!!

One last interesting thing which I think is worth sharing, the guy told me that I could have kept the return shipping receipts and asked for PayPal to reimburse... Hmm.. Hmm.. I told him this was not communicated to me! If this was communicated from the start, of course I will return the broken shit back immediately! Let's see whether this would work although I hope I will not have a similar experience anymore.

After the error, everything that can go wrong in my life seems to be going wrong too. I am so moody and furious at work because people are not being effective. I have no time to do work and have to burn midnight oil to complete. I was in a perpetually black face and just my bad luck that mystery shopper audit also happened on the same week. Frankly, I did not remember serving any "suspicious" character or answering "suspicious" phone call. Thus, if I was being audited, my guess is the auditor observing me and that is not good. I can imagine the audit report comes as: the male staff was noted to be constantly agitated and perpetually having black face which got blacker as he called subsequent numbers. Sigh.. From black face I will have no face if the audit failed because of me! After telling people not to make error, I myself made an error. After telling people to smile etc, I myself caused the branch to fail audit.

My biggest nightmare becomes a reality. In a few months time, I have to move house again. Oh God :'( I had a bad feeling when my friend told me that my current landlord is actually renting the house I am currently staying in. The owner is going to sell the house so my landlord will return to his own flat. The good news is they still have a room to rent out so at least I don't need to think about find new place. The bad news is there is no way an HDB room will be able to accomodate all my items. For the past 2 years, I have bought so many toys that I will end up sleeping on my boxes if I have to return to an HDB.

I am very very emo. I am trying to sell the toys I no longer want to no avail. Gone are the days where I can beautifully display and enjoy my toys. I have to start thinking about how to bring some of these home.. And perhaps to bring them back when I own my personal home here. Looks like I may have to go home frequently on the weekend to transfer my toys :'( But then, I still have quite a lot of things being pre-ordered with November-January delivery. God help me!!

Kinda sad when your things control your life isn't it? But seriously, what's the point of having money, buying things, going overseas, etc when you don't even have a roof above your head and a place you can call home?

I know it is impossible but currently my prayer is for the owner to cancel the selling house plan :( At least continue to rent it for another 5 years leh T_T

Anime Festival Asia 2013 (AFA13)

Before writing this, I read my old posts on previous AFA that I attended in 2010 and 2011 and I am amused with myself. It seems that I always have bad things to write about AFA but every year, I am always excited to go. Lol. This anticipation for this year was even bigger because I missed AFA 12 as I was too lazy to travel to Expo.

I was lucky that today was also my off day so this was my first time going to AFA on a Saturday. Unfortunately, it was also my first time going alone and I can tell you, it sucked :( I will tell you why later. Ironically, I took more pictures then I did for the previous ones. Haha..

If my memory does not fail me, it seems that more people are attending AFA. I honestly did not expect that it would be THAT crowded on a Saturday late morning-afternoon. I can't imagine what will happen tomorrow. 

Hmm.. why did they ditch the usual red-coloured theme to suit the mascot sia??? I hate yellow!

Valvrave 01 which welcomed me as I entered the hall. And damn it, this picture is blur!

I started with Bandai booth which is no longer dominated by One Piece. There are still a lot of One Piece things but it is no longer dominating considering the whole Bandai area. Thank goodness I am not a fan of One Piece. I never like the characters but I can't help but find the ship miniatures rather cool. Not cool enough to make a non-fan to purchase, though. Haha..

Saint Seiya Cloth Myth series is celebrating its 10th anniversary although unfortunately, their display was not even as cool as what they had a few years back. The first thing that caught my attention was this huge door pasted with the history of the series. Considering the prices, I am quite amazed that so many hundreds of millions have been sold!! And I am impressed that as the time goes, they improve on the pose-ability of the figures instead of just reproducing the old ones and making new characters.

10th Anniversary edition, including the cool display stand too!

I am pretty sure only these 10 were present!

The salesgirl gave me Saint Seiya brochure after seeing me taking this picture

I love the brochure! Made of thick paper, full of colour, and full of information. While it is impossible for me to collect the figure, I will definitely keep and treasure this brochure!

More interesting things from Bandai..

Damn! This looks much better and bigger than the S.H Figuarts series that I am collecting :'(

Tempted to cancel my pre-order as Megahouse produced much better pose of Kuroko. But after seeing the expressions and the cool bases, I am tempted to also get Aomine and Midorima too!

The area occupied by aspiring artists who sell their fanarts sketches is getting bigger and surprisingly, people were also flocking them! I gotta admit that some of them really did a fantastic job with their fanarts. Wanted to buy one with Chun Li but then I guess I had no where to keep it and I let it go. Haha..

At the center of the hall is where all the human traffic jam was. With shops from Latendo, Muse, Attack on Titan activity area, Sega, Good Smile Company there, it seems that 70% of the people in the hall were here and that was why the Microsoft area was rather unpopular. Haha..

A few pictures from Good Smile Company.

Miku going R-rated soon

So difficult to get this picture without people walking at the other side!

Although Shingeki no Kyojin is currently the hottest anime, none of its figures are ready yet. Lol.

Microsoft's not-so-cute mascot girl. Honestly, even Miku looks cuter.Failed marketing ploy!

SD version of the mascot.

In summary, it was all about Free!, Kuroko no Basuke, and Shingeki no Kyojin for this AFA. Surprisingly, I actually already finished watching the first 2. Haha.. Shingeki no Kyojin is still ongoing and there is not many figurines yet so my interest was still low. Haha..

I am quite sad with the lack of toy shop this time around. I was looking for risers or display cases and I saw NONE! Two years ago, everyone was selling them T_T Having said that, ironically, I spent quite a bit on the "useless" merchandises. Well, when I go for this kind of event, I will definitely try not to go home empty handed! Lol.

I am quite surprised that Kinokuniya is bringing in Animate products which are not even related to books. Haha.. The small kiosk was mostly filled with Kuroba merchandise. Kuroko plushie was sold out while 2 Kagami plushie remaining when I was there. Not really bothered about plushie of human characters but if there was Kuroko 2 (the dog) plush, I would have snatched one. Lol. I just bought a mini clear folder because they came as a set. 1134 yen for $15.60 does not seem too ridiculous anyway.

Front image

Back image

The other item I bought is Free! Jumbo Carddass by Bandai. They are basically A5-size slightly transparent plastic sheet with pictures. I am not too sure about their purpose. Original price is 200 yen and it was being sold for $4 each. Quite expensive but then, you know, it's Free! Crazy fangirls will fork out money for these hot shirtless swimmers. I own Gundam SeeD Destiny Cell DX Photo Collection which is similar to these Jumbo Carddass but much bigger in size. I did not complete the whole set and am regretting it. To prevent future disappointment, I immediately bought the full set for Free! Haha..

The full set should have 10 pieces but the uncle gave me a plastic bag of 15. I only checked it when I was far from Suntec so I did not return the extra 5. I feel bad about this :( Sigh.. I cheated someone today and surely bad karma will strike me another time :( The ones I had extra are the less nice pictures too! Damn! But at least I got all 10. It would be a nightmare if the uncle did not give me a full set.

AFA 13 loots ^^

It sucked to go alone this year as there were a lot of photo-taking opportunities which I could not do because I was alone. Other than Attack on Titan exhibit, Sega had this huge Sonic the Hedgehog mascot!! I also want to take picture with him leh :( There were a lot of Sword Art Online standees and most importantly, free digital photo taking at Animax booth: choose a background, pose in front of green screen, and a few days later download your photo. Embarassing to camwhore alone mah.

Talking about Sega, they also brought in Sonic figurines by First4Figures. So unfair!! I want Zelda (Link on Epona) statue but no Nintendo :( Sonic figurines were being sold for $159 or $169 which is very cheap considering First4Figures website listed it for USD 199.99. Too bad I am not a Sonic fan.

And lastly, I had fangasm when I saw Shurato action figure!! Gosh!! It is such an old anime and I did not expect that it would be ever be popular enough to get action figure! There is Shurato wearing battle armor as well as the Valuda or the mobile platform. I am crossing my fingers that it will not be like Saint Seiya figurines where it comes with only 1 set and you have to choose either to put it on as a battle armor or display it as the mobile platform. Slim chance but no harm dreaming right? Hehe..

Will be cool to be able to display them both

Shurato is produced by Kidslogic. That's my first time coming across this company. Apparently it is a Hong Kong-based company. Based on the news, they had announced this figurine since 2012. What a long delay. I doubt that they would ever be done with all 8 Hachibushu. Unfortunately I was too shy to ask for the price and to do pre-order. Now kinda regret it.. If it is made by a Hong Kong company, it will be difficult to buy directly as I will never be able to tell whether I am getting the authentic or the bootleg version. For Japan-made figures, usually I avoid those Hong Kong and China-based sellers as bootlegs are likely coming from them. Sigh..

Free!

Recently, there is a surge of anime which has plenty of bishounens to target the girls population. After Kuroko no Basuke, Free! became the latest hot stuff during summer. I guess shirtless bishounens in swimming pool definitely beat bishounens on the basketball court. Lol.. Anyway, I always have a soft spot for school-sport theme so naturally, I don't mind giving Free! a try. On top of that, it is quite unique as I have not watched or read any anime or manga related to swimming. Yes for diving and yes for synchronised swimming but not competitive swimming. With only 12 episodes, it should be quite easy to follow also. So yeah, I just finished watching yesterday.

Free! is based on a light novel titled High Speed written by Koji Oji. It tells a story of 4 boys -Haruka, Makoto, Nagisa, and Rin- who won a competition as a relay team before they left elementary school. Rin is moving to Australia to embark on his journey to be an Olympic swimmer. Fast forward a few years, Haruka, Makoto and Nagisa are in the same high school (Iwatobi). By the way, Nagisa is 1 year younger than the rest. So when he sees his childhood swim team mates, he gets the brilliant idea to start a swim club at his school. As typical Japanese-school setting, you need a certain number of people to officially open a club. So here comes the fifth person, Rei.

Rin apparently returns to Japan and is in a different school. There seems to be a rivalry between Rin and Haruka and bla bla bla. Ultimately both are competing in the tournament and Rin beats Haruka. Despite all 4 failure's in their individual events, Iwatobi swim club's relay team won. Watching the relay race, Rin ultimately realises that what he desires is not beating Haruka but rather he wants to swim together with his childhood friends again.

Story-wise, I think Free! is more suited for school-life rather than sports genre. There is much more emphasis on the friendship rather than the competitive swimming part and hence I conclude that it is a shoujo genre. Haha.. Many things do not make sense from male perspective. Lol.. Where got guys are so open and honest in sharing their secrets and feelings sia? Rin and Rei who don't even know each other would actually meet before the regional competition for some heart-to-heart talk? Rei, who is a newbie in swimming, ultimately becomes a butterfly swimmer. According to wikipedia, butterfly is the most difficult style leh! Lol.. The ending is also rather crazy. During the regional tournament, Rei forfeits his place and let Rin swim on his behalf. Ultimately, the message is for them to re-live their childhood relay memories and friendship rather than winning the competition. Anyway it made me shed tears so that wins some brownie points from me. Haha.. 

Character-wise, I find Haruka to be boring. He is a typical "act cool" main character but I am glad that he opens up and becomes more like-able towards the end. Makoto is a big brother type who I find rather boring and flat as character. Nagisa is the typical genki type in the gang. Naturally, he is my favorite as he reminds me of Kikumaru Eiji from Prince of Tennis. I am quite surprised that Rei and Rin are the ones having more interesting personality. On the surface, Rei is the bookworm type but he is actually the butt of the jokes many times. And he shows some angst with the others keep talking about Rin as he has no idea who this Rin person is. Rin seems to be the typical arch-rival type which usually I hate. Unexpectedly, near the end, when all "secrets" are revealed, his characterisation becomes more believable: what he ultimately wants is to swim with his childhood friends rather than competing with them. Not your typical "used to be a cheerful kid but an emo teen now". Hmm.. being a shoujo genre does not necessarily mean a bad thing eh? I don't think this kind of thing will happen in shounen manga. Haha.. Basically Rei and Rin seem to be more interesting and believable with their display of emotions from happy, sad, anger, etc.

From left to right: Makoto, Haruka, Rin, Nagisa, Rei

Apparently the anime will have a sequel in summer 2014. I wonder how they will continue with the story as I thought the current ending is already just nice and happy. And in case you are wondering why the anime is called Free!, it is actually referring to freestyle. Our main character only swims free(style) as what he always mentions throughout the show.

With all the fangirls are crazy about the bishounens, it is almost impossible to find the pictures with all the supporting characters. Hmm.. I can only find this one.

Book spree

Work is getting more like a burden with the error. I am personally getting scared. It was really close one. I can't imagine what will happen to me if the 84 year old lady really took more than 3x prescribed of the prescribed dose of metformin. Maybe I will be in jail right now.

My Paypal claim is also still giving me headache. I managed to give them a call to ask them to use common sense whether I really have to send back the broken porcelain. They wanted me to lodge a police report -_- There was no crime in the first place how on earth I can report to police.. Basically they want a 3rd party documentation as a proof that the item is really broken and cannot be shipped. The problem is: the item is still in America. I am crossing my finger for the last resort whether comgateway is able to help me for the police report or USPS report. I emailed USPS but not sure if I will get a reply.

I was amazed with myself that I still could be bothered about All Saints' Day mass yesterday. Anyway in the end I still slept halfway through the homily. I felt like a devil in church. I am angry and cursing God for all my predicaments :( Ya I am someone with poor faith.. I get angry immediately at God when things go wrong. On the bright side, I should be thankful that the error did not cause any harm. But on the other side, I felt that if God were with me, the error should not happen in the first place! And honestly, where is His aid for my money and broken figurine? I did not have any ill intentions to cheat whatsoever so why do all this bad luck befall me? Sian..

Hurray for Kinokuniya 20% discount!! Wanted to buy Dark Reign thanks to the Marvel Puzzle Quest game I am currently playing in Android but I could not find it. In the end, I bought Siege. Have been interested in that because it is in hardcover and the book is thick. The main story only consists of 4 volumes. Surprisingly, I find it very intense, engaging, and not so much of a rush. On the negative side, I am expecting more action from the Asgard warriors which is not the case. A bit disappointed on this account but overall I don't regret buying.

I also bought Takehiko Inoue Illustration book for Slam Dunk. When I first arrived, I saw there were 2 books and I was thinking of coming back on another day to get. Despite all the rave reviews, I am not a fan of Slam Dunk. The art style is just not my type. That is why the illustration book is always on my waiting list. Haha.. But when I returned, 1 was gone! That made up my mind to get it. Haha.. Anyway I kinda enjoyed the illustrations book as there are a lot of drawings which I have not seen before.. Or perhaps it is because I don't quite remember the manga.

Another interesting thing, the cashier was actually a fan of Slam Dunk too and started a conversation about it as I was making the payment. Haha.. Told her I prefer Harlem Beat lol. She asked me if I liked Kuroko no Basuke haha.. I told her no comment about that as I have not read it yet. My friend was jealous and said I was flirting with her. Lol.. She started first lor.. Anyway it was quite fun to have a small chat lol.

With Amazon.com giving free shipping for purchase above USD 125, there is less reason for me to buy Western book in Kinokuniya. Even with the 20% sale, it is still much more expensive. Kino should really consider revising their pricing sia.. Otherwise they would not be able to compete with Amazon. However, I doubt Kino will run out of business as Japanese books are not that easy to get online. And looking at the crazy queue yesterday, I doubt they will run out of business. At most, just losing some sale from me.

I was interested in Street Fighter Classic Volume 1: Hadoken which is basically a comic bundle of Street Fighter manga. It was about $85 in Kinokuniya while Amazon is selling it for USD 37+ only.. -__- Same thing for Zelda Hyrule Historia which is close to $60 in Kinokuniya while it is only USD 20.99 in Amazon. Sigh..

My gamble to get Free! TV animation book did not pay off. Haha.. Could not wait for the sale because when I bought it, I saw only 3 left. Yesterday, there was a huge pile of it. Damn!! $3 gone!! Lol..

Tomorrow I will be back to get the official fanbook. Did not see it yesterday but on Kino website, it is listed as in stock but there is no map location.. Hmm.. Haven't finished the anime so I really cannot comment on it. Haha.. I think it is more for the female but I don't care! Never watch any swimming anime before and it is only 12 episodes anyway haha..

Lousy shit

Sianz.. my bad luck and emo days continue. Just discovered a dispensing error today and as expected, I was somehow involved in it. Sigh.. I knew in late August and early September, I was not in top condition and got the gut feeling that somehow an error will occur. But I have not known the details yet and I don't know if it happened during this time frame!

I am very upset with the checker and dispenser! Why did they not do their job more carefully! Haiz.. But ultimately, I am most upset and angry with myself! How can I let such thing happen :( I always thought that I am already very careful in everything I do. I do more slowly as I tried to check things twice. If that is not enough, what else must I do? Haiz..

I always tell people: "Don't worry. You handle so many prescriptions in a day, a week, a month, etc. Sooner or later there will definitely be an error somewhere. Just make sure to be more careful next time." Bla bla bla.. But I am very hard towards myself :( I don't think it is acceptable. I want a clean sheet in my career. I have no face and reputation already. Not only I am a pharmacist, I am also in charge of medication safety at my branch. And yet I myself caused this. Fuck! Embarassing as shit!

My cough is not getting better even after 2 days MC and Procodin. I thought yesterday Procodin was working great. It knocked me out throughout the day. Today I am still coughing despite having taken it.

Sian.. I just want to die.. Don't wanna work and face people anymore. Embarassing!! Shameful!

Personal emo day

28 October has always been my personal emo day because 11 years ago, my parents shipped me away from home and sold me away for free education in Singapore. It is especially emo this year because of my broken Aladdin figurine and there is a risk of me losing the money as well. To top it off, I am very very sick.

I have been having this cough for almost 1 week now. There is phlegm which is very difficult to cough out. Not sure if there is really phlegm but the cough is getting "deeper" as if the phlegm is lodged deep within my lungs. The phlegm is minimal and surprisingly the color is still milky white-pale yellow. I am pretty sure this is cause by the same bug which affected my boss before her departure. Haha.. the symptoms are the same!

I took DMP + bromhexine throughout the weekend and there was not much improvement. I even decided to use salbutamol inhaler which I bought for standby due to haze a few months back! Also did not help :( Today I started on Clarithromycin and I bought Fluimucil to replace bromhexine. Initially Clarithromycin suprisingly also provided some symptom relief lol. However now the cough is back :( After all of these medication, perhaps what I really need is an MC to take care of everything.

Now I know that Clarithromycin which I keep is yellow in color and from now on I will advise people to take it with food. I took it on empty stomach and I felt the churning. On the brighter side, it sorts of distracted me from my chest discomfort. I also learn that Fluimucil tablet is rather small and is white in colour. Nothing fantastic about the taste. Haha.. Most importantly, I experienced first hand how to use metered dose inhaler haha.. I have no issue with gas coming out of my mouth. But I can taste the medicine on my tongue! That means the medicine does not reach my lungs :(

Totally unrelated by here is Sexy Zone's 5th single:

Post by Sexy Zone.

Can't find it on Youtube, Youku, Yinyuetai, etc but surprisingly I can embed it from facebook. The title is バィバィDuバィ〜See you again〜 or Bye Bye Dubai ~See you again~. It is a double A side single with A My Girl Friend as the other single which does not really sound gramatically correct. Surprisingly, the single is another no. 1 in the chart. I don't really like the Dubai song and I totally hate the PV. I always dislike PV which is shot against blue screen and then they insert whatever background they want. Unlike Real Sexy PV which is still rather cool and has a story, this Dubai PV is entirely pointless. They even try to fake the flying sand with white fog and digital white sparkles. Jeez.. And the clothes... ew.. nothing related to the Middle East at all.. Well, I will suprised if J-Pop PV actually makes any sense.

Anyway, I like the other single (A My Girl Friend) better and I enjoy Shori, Kento, and Fuma solo songs too. Hmm..

Broken pieces

Call me unlucky.. The last 3 figurines I ordered arrived broken or in imperfect conditions. Haiz.. Perhaps it is a heavenly sign that I should be wasting my money.

Lucky it is not a significant part of the figurine :(

Although the break is clean, after I glued them back together, the end result is still not smooth and it is obvious that there was a damage. Sigh.. To make this more upsetting, it is a super rare piece as it bears the sculptor's signature at the base. I got a full refund on this so at least that alleviates the pain a little bit :(

Paint scratches

I have been eyeing for this figurine for more than a year hoping for the price to drop to no avail. Found this at 25% less than the usual prices I saw so I grabbed it. I gotta be thankful that the item arrived in once piece. However, it looks like the figurine is kept in the box for so long that when I took out the figurine, some of the paint came off and was stuck to the styrofoam. There are some scratch marks on the base too. Seller offered 20% off the price I initially paid so it was not too shabby.

R.I.P Aladdin

And this is the worst. Have been seeing this for USD 199 so I was so happy that I got one for USD 100 inclusive shipping. Unfortunately, it arrived broken beyond my wildest imagination. Considering the fragile nature of the item, I assumed that this would be shipped with insurance. It was NOT! Sigh.. Currently it is still being stuck at comgateway warehouse. I am very upset with them :( They informed me about this 3 days after item arrival. In addition, they only provided me with one bad quality picture. It took me another day to give me this picture. They should be experience in this kind of thing and should know that in case of damage, they should provide the pictures of the broken items as well as external and internal packaging.

No matter what, ultimately it is my mistake for assuming that seller would insure this. The seller offered me USD 70 partial refund or full refund if I were to ship back. I guess no matter what I would be losing USD 30 and no item. Sigh.. Not sure if I should open a case with eBay and hope that they do not ask me to return this damaged item. What's the point of returning this as if the seller still can make any use from this? Asking me to return is simply like punishing me and asking me to pay.

Sigh.. I thought alcohol would be good to drown away my sorrow and make me forget about all these things.. I am half-drunk but I still feel bad :(

Age of rubbish

Despite the slew of bad reviews, I decided to bite the bullet and bought Age of Ultron. I normally hate time travel and alternate reality stories but Brian Michael Bendis did absolutely fantastic job with House of M and Secret Invasion. I thought I should give it a chance. I wanted to buy it during 20% Kinokuniya Liang Court sale 2 weeks ago but my friend happened to ask me if I wanted something from Amazon to combine for free shipping. I bought it from Amazon and with the free shipping it cost me about $10 than Kinokuniya's after sale price. Yay.

Age of Ultron turns out to be a pile of crap. Ultron has taken over (or destroyed) most of the earth and only a few superheroes remaining. After realising that Ulton is actually using Vision as a conduit at a present time, they decide to go into the future where Ultron is really present. Of course that does not make sense, doesn't it? They can't even beat Ultron minions in the present time with everything they have and now they want to beat the real big guy in the future with only 6 of them? Rubbish!

Wolverine has a better idea: go the past and prevent Ultron from being created in the first place. No idea why Invisible Woman decided to follow him. He killed Henry Pym before he created Ultron and then returned to the present time. Due to his action in the past, the present has been altered and the earth is in another doomsday scenario with it being taken over by Morgana Le Fay. So Wolverine returned to the past again to prevent himself from killing Henry Pym and asked him to prepare a code to disable Ultron, forget about it, and only remember it when the time comes. How on earth is that possible?

I shall stop here because I don't think I am writing coherently about the incoherent stories. In summary, Age of Ultron sucks: the story sucks, the battle sucks, the resolution sucks, and everything sucks. Looks like the announcement of the next Marvel Avengers movie to be titled Age of Ultron is just a marketing gimmick to boost of the sale of this utter rubbish. And for once, I find the side stories/related titles to be more engaging than the main plot. Not even the fact that Storm is one of the surviving superhero makes me like this book.

Let's travel back in time to discuss about the 2 books I bought in May but I never mentioned here. Lol..

I was reluctant to get it because of the ugly cover but Secret Invasion is a pleasure to read. The Skrulls are going to take over the earth. They infiltrate and disguise themselves as many of the superheroes. With no way to detect them (unless you knock them out and they revert to their green form), heroes are turned against heroes. It is fast-paced, action-packed, brilliantly written and executed, and I enjoy the fact that for once the good guys and the bad guys fight side-by-side to thwart the Skrull's thread. After all, "no more earth means no more business" for the baddies. Another masterpiece from Bendis which gave me a false hope for a good Age of Ultron.

Moving on to Fear Itself which I find even worse than Civil War which I hated. The synopsis and the setting are actually good. The Serpent finally broke free of Odin's bonds after thousands of years. To prepare for his return, he summoned 8 mystical hammers from outside Earth and whoever worthy to yield them becomes one of "The Worthy". They create havoc and cause people to fear and stronger the fear, the stronger the Serpent will be. Iron Man created 8 weapons, enchanted with Odin's blessings, so I was expecting that there would be an awesome 8-vs-8 fights.

Erm.. Nowhere near to what I expected. Odin knew that he would have to sacrifice Thor to win against the Serpent. So guess what did he decide? He will raze the earth together with the Serpent. Gosh!! And the other Asgardian gods just blindly follow him and support Thor to go alone to fight for the earth?? WTF??!! For goodness sake.. The gods are afraid of 8 superhumans who wield mystical hammers?? Does not make any sense to me.. There is no awesome 8-vs-8 fights too as Thor alone has managed to KO The Thing to revert him to normal and has kicked Hulk's butt to another planet.

Well, with Age of Ultron taking its place, Fear Itself is now the 2nd worse in my opinion :p