say bye

Think you have pretty good eye-sight? Think again.
Spot me if you're able to. Free hugs for those who are able to. Rephrase, free hugs over my dead body.

Never knew my exasperated face actually looks like this.

Approximately 3 weeks left till foundation ends. Can't  be any happier. Would you say I'm a pessimistic person or more of an optimistic person, judging from that statement itself? I'm not sure myself. 

VGL happening for the first time in Malaysia!

Presentations and assignments are finally all done for this final semester so for the time being, zest is in the air! 

One of the reasons why I'm so happy and driven now is because VGL will be happening for the first time in Malaysia! (and all the while I thought of how I'll just die without witnessing the greatness of video games' music live because after all, this is Malaysia) It's certainly shocking that they've decided to include Malaysia in their tour. About time! I know there are many enthusiasts out there, those radical ones especially!

If you're still scratching your head and don't even have a single inkling about VGL, you're really uncool. Scratch that, I know how "many" gamers actually visit my blog or gamer friends. Was just kidding. Just because you do not play video games, it doesn't mean you should miss out this opportunity to attend this amazing concert! 

Who the hell's performing? It's difficult to answer, there are many involved, from the choir to the electronic percussionists, solo performers, etc. Picture the ambience when you witness an orchestra live, then combine it with something electronic, jazzy or rock-ish once in a while. A perfect blend of various genres, making the music come alive right before your eyes. The synchronization coupled together with beautiful visuals such as the lights and video games clips are utterly engaging, to gamers or non-gamers. Anyone who enjoys symphonic tracks or put simply, soundtracks or instrumental stuff will definitely find this a worthwhile + enjoyable experience. If these reasons are still not convincing enough, I'm hoping the price of the tickets will--- from RM 83 to RM 253! That's way fucking cheaper than your Super Junior concert which I think is totally crap. Sorry, my fingers tend to  move on their own sometimes.

I know people will still be hesitant (that is if my dear readers are actually bothered to read all these in the first place). Here are several videos that I got from YT, to exemplify the magnificence of VGL! Bear in mind all these are user-recorded; thus, the quality but they still rock.

One Winged Angel performed in Paris.

FF Medley on Piano performed in Taipei - the word beautiful explains it all.

How often do you get such cool people touring Malaysia anyway? This is totally incredulous. Someone slap me please, HARD. All these envisioning is making me more excited by each second. This is almost like a dream come true for me. Music that will be performed obviously includes those from well-known titles or classical ones. Good examples are Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, Mega Man, Warcraft, Super Mario, Kingdom Hearts, Zelda, Dongkey Kong, Castlevania, just to name a few that I know of. 

If anyone's interested in joining, here are some important details of the concert.

Date : 17th April 2010

Time : First session at 2.30 PM , Second session at 8.30 PM

Venue : KL Convention Centre, Plenary Hall

For more information, here's the official website -- Video Games Live. Ticket pricing is available there, as well as ordering of course. 

saving Lightning

After about 1 week of waiting plus the everyday mailbox checking, the long awaited gem has finally arrived!

BEHOLD!

Is it me or the cover appears to be 'glossy'? This boxart is definitely better than the one with only the game title written on it. Yes I know they have some pretty artwork behind FF but Lightning's trademark pose is unbeatable!

The booklet/manual. Let's take a look the first 2 pages because they feature clear shots of Lightning. Yes I have conditional love for those characters but who gives a damn?

That smoking hot BAMF pose again! HAH! Okay okay, I'll try being fair this time and post a shot of the main cast.

Had the chance to play the game for one hour before dinner and damn, the game's such a fine piece of artwork. The graphics will definitely make you go like "holy shit!".

First impressions :

1. Lightning is hot.
2. The cast reminds me of FFX's Al-Bheds, is that how you spell that anyway?
3. Gorgeous setting, looks like there's a lot to be explored.
4. Once again, it feels very much like FFX, feels like home to be. FFX was the first FF game I played on the PS2 and this is the first FF for the PS3.
5. Enjoyable battle system. I really dislike the one that FFXII uses, it doesn't feel like FF to me. ATB turn based battles are back with deadlier moves! I can only control one character? I'm hoping it'll let me control the party later on.
6. Easy to listen to music, the battle theme is kinda stuck in my head already. Hopefully the rest of the soundtrack won't be as annoying or mundane as X-2's or XII.
7. Incredibly cool interface when the menu is brought up, you can see the characters' picture clearly unlike previous FF games.

See, now I'm even more demotivated to go to Leadership Camp which is happening tomorrow. Tch. Speaking of which, I haven't even packed! Alright alright, it's only 3 days long then I'll be able to spend most of my time playing this. *sighs* after all, FFXIII is my raison d'etre for purchasing the Playstation 3.

Take note that yours faithfully will be blogging more often about FFXIII from today onwards. :)

Till then I'll be so called camping in Gopeng, Perak.
And I'm starting to think that phones which are too smart is quite a challenge to use.

geek post

Last weekend was just gone like that. Felt as if it wasn't that laborious but in actual fact it was quite laborious considering how I already got the 5% participation marks for Stats and how I've already finished doing my part for Business research paper. There's only Psychology left for now, I'm pretty confident that I can finish it by tonight, not so sure about the slides though. Then there's the presentation this Thursday and Quiz 2 for Business as well. As if that's not enough to occupy me, there's so called leadership camp on friday till sunday. Very short indeed but there, have you noticed that another weekend has been taken away from me? Tch, I just can't help thinking how much better it would be if the camp was held during semester breaks. Every student can just go there have fun without worries.

Mom is finally back and someone's starting to act weird again. I wonder why, very much perplexed.

During Psychology class today, Ms. Selena was talking about Sigmund Freud and his theories, the structural theory especially. Images of Evangelion kept popping into my mind. Freud, Evangelion, Freud, Evangelion, yes, that anime Evangelion. Clearly Evangelion was created with a lot of Freudian theories in mind, which makes me wanna rewatch the whole series again just to comprehend more about ego, super-ego and id. See how watching animes can be so beneficial at times? It's a matter of picking the right anime and not some shitty one. Shitty ones are just a waste of time. While I was searching for Eva stuff the other day, I came across a Freudian Eva icon, the artist must have been reading Psychology materials.

 This is actually pretty cool.

.Freud
Photo from BBC 

Eva
Photo from tvtropes.org 

Freud. Again.

Eva. Again.
Photo from Retsgip's Anime Blog 

Anyways, my point is, just little things like this can brighten up my day. Little things as in seeing how my interests pertain to serious issues or how they're interrelated. I don't sound like I make sense. Never mind, after all, I can be such a geek at times.

the evangelion impact

 Photo from blog.rage.com.my

I am utterly ecstatic after watching Evangelion 2.0 at Cathay earlier this evening! Due to transportation problems, I had to go there about 1 hour before the movie starts so you can picture how mundane it was for me. Fortunately the particular hall was opened early. Early by 10 minutes if I'm not wrong. Surprisingly I wasn't the earliest one. A few hardcore EVA fans were already inside, sitting in the dark. There were only stationary ads with annoying radio tunes being played. Soon, the crowd came. Mostly teenage guys. There were very few girls. There were also mid age guys. To my surprise, there was this family with a few kids. Very young kids, most probably around 5. Poor kids, I hope they grasped the movie and were able to tolerate the violence. For the record, I sat between 2 late 20s/early 30s guys. Both came alone and of course I went alone as well. Speak of the Eva spirit!

The vexatious ads and previews were distressing. Impatience was obvious and you can't blame us. It has been how many months since the release of Evangelion 2.0 and it took dog years for it to reach our shores but I'm not gonna complain. Honestly, I feel so blessed that this whole thing is actually taking place. To watch Evangelion 2.0 on such a huge screen with brilliant sound effects! 

It was virtually 2 hours long but it felt like nothing. The battle scenes especially were engaging. There were changes in the storyline as compared to the original series. So far I think it's okay. It was very intriguing to see how they replaced Suzuhara with Asuka during the scene where Shinji was compelled to terminate Unit 03. I prefer the original scene more though because it was more emotional, I can still recall how much I cringed on the night when I watched that episode. Amazing like hell. Ayanami Rei has more emotions. Heck, there's even an obvious love triangle between Asuka, Shinji and Rei which I find to be pretty odd. It seemed as if it's too fast for that considering the facts that Asuka actually loathes Shinji and Rei is too robotic and too in love with Shinji's father instead of Shinji himself. Sick.

Since it's a Rebuild, the CG effects are much better. Even though the art style seems a bit outdated for today's anime, their hairstyle especially, I still think it was beautifully done/retouched. Plentiful additional scenes make it easier for Eva fans to understand the enigma of Evangelion but if someone were to just walk in watch it, there's  ahuge possibility that they'll start getting bored, worse, deride the anime. The soundtrack is truly superb. Love the classic songs and incongruous battle themes. The instrumental version of Thanatos really enhanced the impacts of the fights. Not to exaggerate but I had goosebumps all over during a few scenes, heh, "the evangelion impact".

When the movie ended, most viewers left except for me, 2 guys and another group of teenage boys behind me. I guess we're the hardcore ones. Waited for the credits to finish rolling. I'm not gonna lament about the credits because that is the part where Beautiful World by the goddessUtada Hikaru plays. I love both the original and the acoustic rendition of this song. I have no inkling whether they stayed for the ending song or for the preview of Evangelion 3.0 but I reckon it's the latter. The staff must be exasperated, they switched on the lights and our asses were still glued to the chairs waiting for the preview. Haha!

My notion is that the whole Rebuild of Evangelion thing is mostly fanservice but it's okay since Eva geeks are incredibly loyal and fucking enthusiastic so for sure lots of profits will be generated in Japan. As for little countries like Malaysia, it's a blessing that we have the opportunity to watch this. Once again, millions of thank you, hugs and kisses to the fans who petitioned so hard for this to happen. 

I'm so extremely delighted today because of this. :D

And I'm also glad I didn't download the CAM version of this, else it would've spoiled the fun and excitement.

ramenbox's little self indulgence

Friday has been the happiest day of 2010. 2 amazing events took place and these moments are really going into my "Best Moments of 2010" list. Let's start off with the minor one. Behold, the movie, Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0 : You Can (Not) Advance is finally being screened in Malaysia! At last! I remember I came across news on how Facebook Evangelion fans petitioned for this. Great job to those ardent fans out there. Too bad I'm an inactive FB-er, else I could have contributed a bit. I missed the first one which was back in 2008 but I'm definitely missing this! Exclusively shown in Cathay or TGV Sunway. The ads in the newspapers are  mere black and white, pretty pathetic, but who gives a damn? I've already bought my ticket in advance and they actually claimed how you can not advance. The irony. Heh. Can't wait for tomorrow evening to come.

The next big but not so big thing, the time I spent drooling over a PS3 has come to an end because yours truly  has finally purchased one for herself. Once again, I'd like to stress how money makes the world goes round. Surveyed the prices in OneU but in the end decided to buy it from Sony Style, The Curve. I'm gratified with my final decision because it came with freebies, not to mention the free Milo and warm service from one of thoseguys there. It was a bit difficult to ask about the availability of certain games though because the guy isn't a gamer. Perhaps they should start assigning staff to appropriate sales sections. Nevertheless he was being as helpful as possible.

 Days of frequent visits to the Sony shop just to caress the PS3 are over.

Freebies - A not-so-stylish oversized windbreaker. I wanted a black but apparently there's no black. And a Sony multi-reader.

 

My first ever original video games. Not new releases but hey, quality matters and no one gets bored of Solid Snake.

Personally I feel that it was a good bargain. At least the freebies are both practical things. In fact, the windbreaker is currently with my mom who has just left for Australia. Hopefully a free windbreaker will be enough for the mild weather. Wanted to get GTAIV instead of MGS4 but in the end went ahead and bought MGS4 because it's a PS3-must-get. Elder Scrolls was also reasonable because it includes the expansion pack together with the initial one. How lovely. can things get? It was difficult to choose my first few games but I settled with these both because 1. Dragon Age is still quite expensive for the time being. 2. Final Fantasy XIII Eng Version isn't out yet so these will be more than enough to keep me busy until mid March.

Yes, it's not the hot version with Lightning's super sexy face on it. I guess it's okay but truth be told, I still dream of that limited edition. *sigh* be grateful with what you have, Crystal. :)

For my mom who must be checking in now, wishing her a safe and wonderful journey. Will be missing her for one week. Who wants to cook for me this week?

to brush or not to?

Hunting wallpapers can be addictive. This addiction kicks in one month once or so. It can be quite fatal. Certain wallpapers are such eyecandies that they cause me to hyperventilate. especially those widescreen ones. See how deadly pretty looking things can be. As I'm doing this, my stomach's craving for Chilli Pan Mee that I had for dinner last night. They're this good. Photo doesn't show chilli because I haven't put them in yet but the egg really brings out the taste of this simple dish. I swear it's the best pan mee I ever had in my whole life. If any guy is reading this, please tell me how true is this sentece-- guys don't really eat pan mee, it's a female thing. The statement does sound stupid but no, it wasn't me who made that claim. It's from an elderly man. Once again, I'm just being curious.

Will be visiting the mad dentist tomorrow. To be fair, I haven't met her before but I heard she's quite gentle. Hopefully she really is, had a terrible experience with a female dentist during pre-spm week. She was using brute force on my teeth! I don't know the qualification system works. Geez. Another curious question, do you brush your teeth before visiting the dentist? Or perhaps make sure your teeth is clean?

so my felicity

Productive would be the best word to describe last week. Though it was a "mid-terms week", it seemed like I had more time for myself and others because it was a "no classes week" as usual. How I wish they implemented something like that back in Secondary. It actually kind of helps to reduce cramming. At least students get sufficient time SLEEP and EAT.

Went back to Ipoh for 2 days 1 night. Met up with Ken-Ann and Foong Vai for a movie. From Paris With Love is quite a marvelous movie but the story can be a little controversial, no? It was fun but I still wanna watch Book of Eli! Didn't have the chance to meet up with Leong though and it's mainly her fault. Btw, could someone explain to me why sex is brought up whenever we sit down and converse? Not like I'm complaining but I'm just curious!

So I've received the letter of so called invitation to attend the Leadership Camp on the 19th of March. Screw it! How insanely mundane! Why? Because I have no interest in camps, especially LEADERSHIP CAMPS. Heck, a musical camp would be so much better. It never gets better because guess what, it'll be held in Gopeng, Perak. Of all places, they'll be sending me back to Perak. Why not the Malacca one!? In fact, the Malacca one is considered a "luxurious camp" whereas the Perak one is known as the "adventurous camp". Whole load of bull. Yes, I know I'm being negative about a small little issue but this camp will actually take away my precious weekend. Geez. Someone please give me the motivation to attend the bloody camp. I'm tempted to act stupid and just run away on Friday even though it's a compulsory.  Somehow I'm not really convinced that they will snatch my Foundation cert away from me at the end of this semester if I were absent during the camp. It's really mean to force people to attend something that they wouldn't enjoy. Scums...

On a brighter note, the hottest chick in FF's history, Final Fantasy XIII English version will be hitting the stores in approximately 10 days from today. A more exact date, March 9th! I'm so TRULY FUCKING STOKED. I've pre-ordered it and I hope it won't be long for them to send my copy and let's pray that it'll arrive safely. I'm having doubts as it's my first time purchasing a video game online. Let's be frank, I've never purchased anything online before.

Yes, I'm so fucking bias, Lightning all the way, baby! I don't really give a damn about the other characters. That's just for the time being. The bond shall be formed when I get my hands on this game! And I just noticed how Lightning can be pretty androgynous from certain angles. Nevertheless, that's quite at turn on. Could someone remind me she's made of pixels?

Photos from Gamespot