New Second Gen of MSI Wind

According to Gadget Lab's new article, MSI has just released a new generation of the hugely successful MSI Wind for this year. A test unit was sent to Gadget Lab for review and it's still early to tell if the performance of the new Wind will be better than the previous generation, which I'm using currently.

From the pictures provided below, it is clear that the design has been redrawn to look more professional than before. However, the article contains very little information on the new Wind so hopefully I can find other better tech sites that does a better review than this.






Nonetheless, I am still very happy using my own Wind and I don't mind using Win XP for my OS, unlike the writer of the article who called it crap. Bah! Win XP is way better than Vista. At the very lest, it doesn't gobble up lots of resources just to maintain operations.

Yep, so off to my Wind!

New Japanese Trailer for Half Blood Prince

According to HPANA, a new Japanese trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince has just been made available online via Youtube. I have attached the video below for easy referencing:





Daniel looks good in this trailer and I can't wait for the new movie to be released as soon as possible. July seems so far even though I know time can fly by in a flash. Warner Bros is making the fans wait and wait even though it has no reason to. *sighs*

Wow! It's the Year of the Cow

Time passes by so quickly and before I know it, it's time to usher in the Year of the Ox and send away the Year of the Rat in the Chinese lunar horoscope.

The Rat year has not been very good and it's all the same usual stuffs like the Sichuan earthquake, Mumbai bombings, Myanmar tsunamis, global economic crisis, tainted milk crisis and many more. It seems to be more happening than any other years.

Be it the English year or the lunar year, it's all the same. Disasters one after another, never stopping to give us a breather in life.

Will the new year usher in a change of fortune? For the Singapore Flyer, it seems to be the case. News reported that the Singapore Flyer, which had been closed for a month due to technical fault, has been reopened today, just in time for the lunar new year.

As for me, so far nothing significant has happened and it's quite a disappointment. This year I decided not to take the initiative to approach Moonie and Queenie to go out on the first day of the lunar new year, as was the case in previous years. I want to see if they would approach me instead. Yet I was disappointed when they truly did not bother to contact me. Guess our friendship is nothing more than just words. *sighs*

So I went to pay house visits to my mum's relatives, though I was hoping that I could stay at home for the whole day. I have no mood to go anywhere this year. My mum can be quite a kancheong queen sometimes. Most of my relatives don't pop in for visits very early, except for one of my coousins.

My mum wanted to catch this cousin in order to see her daughter, so she woke me up rather early. Me being me, naturally I dragged and lazed about in my bed to avoid getting up. Still, sometimes mothers' powers can be hard to block out. *grins*

In any case, we didn't manage to see that cousin in time. The travelling alone took up quite some time as I lived in the east and my relatives live in the north.

Frankly speaking, my holidays are usually quite boring and I don't have many exciting stuffs happening. But today I almost came face to face with a guy that I never want to see in my life again.

My mum forced me to do house visit to this particular aunt and her son had once did something very bad to me. Hence I had never wanted to see him again. The past few times that I went to her house, he wasn't around as he had been either put away in a boys' home or in jail.

However, today he's no longer in jail and didn't even went out with his stupid girlfriend. Instead he stayed at home and slept. Well I wished that he could go on sleeping without waking up but my mum's super loud voice had woken him up.

It was a good thing that I felt bored and had tuned in to my iPod to watch one of the InuYasha's movie. So my hair had hidden my face and thus, I won't have to see that guy, even if he's standing close. It was an unbearable time, waiting for my mum to finish whatever chitchat she had and that we could quickly head home. It certainly felt like hours to me.

During the whole time, I never turned my head in his direction and never llifted up my head even though my shoulders were aching. When my mum finally decided to leave, it was such a huge relief and I quickly stepped out of the house to get my shoes and leave.

Phew. I am glad that I didn't get to see his face so that I won't get nightmares. Hmmm, probably it wouldn't hurt to see how he looks like after all those years in jail. I heard from my mum that he was once caned 14 times for drug trafficking offences. Oh whatever. This guy gives me the chills.

So I managed to survive my first lunar day without any problems. Time to get back to my InuYasha.

See ya!

And a Happy Chinese New Year.

Superb XO Sliced Fish Bee Hoon at Buona Vista

Today's lunch is simply superb! My colleagues and I went to Buona Vista as my Malay colleague wanted to try out one of the Muslim stalls there. It's a good thing I decided to try out the other stall's specialty dish, seeing so many people placing orders for it. The dish is none other than XO sliced fish bee hoon.

It was quite a long wait for the noodles to arrive but it was worth it. I took a picture of the noodles to share:

XO sliced fish bee hoon. Yum!!!

It has a creamy soup base and the slices of fish meat are plenty and thick. Not to mention it contains more than just a dash of the XO liqueur. The taste of the XO was so strong and so seductive that made me want to slurp up the whole bowl.

It costs S$5 per bowl and it's money well-spent. I don't mind coming back to this stall again for the noodles. Yummy!!!

Anime Watch: Skip Beat! 13 Just Uploaded

Wow! The latest subbed video for Skip Beat! has just been uploaded for online viewing. You can view the video here:



Watch Skip Beat 13 in Anime | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com


I am loving this anime so much and it's all thanks to the manga creator. If not, we would not have been introduced to Kyoko at all.

Episode 13 shows how Kyoko and Kanae overcome a scheming girl in order to pass their first ever commercial audition. It is almost exactly like the manga but with very few scenes cut. Not that it matters though. The main gist of the chapter is still evident.

Yay for Skip Beat!

Manga Read: Skip Beat!

Currently I am following several mangas, one of which is Skip Beat!. It is a long-running manga series that dates back to 2002. Its creator is Yoshiki Nakamura and this manga has been a great success. To date, about 20 volumes have been published

The manga follows a young girl's trials and tribulations of surviving in the showbiz world and it also showcase her intricate lovelife. Kyoko Mogami has always been in love with Sho Fuwa and when he asked her to follow him to Toyko to realise his dream of being a star, she agreed immediately.

However Sho only treats her like a servant and he declares that he has no feelings for her at all, in front of his manager. When Kyoko heard this, she was heartbroken but her rage overpowered her and she swore revenge on Sho through an unusual way, by getting into showbiz and make it to the top so that she can crush him.

To achieve her goal, she joined Sho's rival, Ren Tsuruga's company, LME. Ren's popularity is much higher than Sho's, hence making him a rival to Sho. Sho has vowed to overtake Ren in the popularity stakes and control the entertainment world.

Kyoko displayed her amazing talent during LME's audition, which she had tried very hard to get into. However she failed the audition as she lacked the most important virtue that an artiste needs, love. Due to her constant obsession over Sho, she gradually forgets her own existence and hence when Sho dumped her, she lost the ability to love, or so she thought.

Despite her failure, the president of LME, Rory Takarada, decides to create an entirely new section and Kyoko would be the first member. That section is named 'Love Me', alluding to its mission of cultivating talents who lack the love virtue.

Throughout Kyoko's work in LME, she encountered many setbacks which she met with much gusto. Her strong determination and professional attitude towards her work slowly gains the respect of Ren Tsuruga, whom initially had disliked Kyoko's motivation to join the entertainment industry. In the later volumes, Ren is revealed to be Kyoko's childhood friend, Kuon Hizuri, although she does not recognize him due to the name and appearance change.

Kyoko's first audition for a drinks advertisement met with unexpected results and she was casted alongside with her fellow 'Love Me' member, Kanae Kotonami. Subsequently, she was casted in Sho's new PV due to the advertisement's success. That PV marked the first confrontational meeting with Sho after her entry into the entertainment world. Kyoko was subsequently casted in a TV drama, Dark Moon, and received rave reviews for her performance as Mio.

The manga is currently ongoing and I can't wait for the next volume to be released. The numerous setbacks that Kyoko faced and conquered made it a truly worthy read among the best mangas. Her never-say-die attitude is so strong that even when she has an injury, she still carries out her role to the very end. That's what I like about this series. It teaches valuable lessons about life and its trials.

Kyoko is only a 16 year old girl yet she managed to overcome so many difficult setbacks that even her seniors in the industry are beginning to like and care for her. The most evident person has to be Ren, for he had fallen in love with the gutsy girl despite his reservations about love. Even Sho has come to realise that he,too, has feelings for the girl that he had once tossed aside.

Now this manga has been made into an anime and its currently still running in Japan. In Singapore, it's being aired on OKTO every Friday at 11pm and it's a must for me to catch the show.

Below are some of the cover pictures for Skip Beat!:

Vol. 01 Cover - Kyoko Mogami

Kyoko in her Love Me uniform

Vol. 09 Cover - Ren Tsuruga

From left to right: Sho Fuwa, Ren Tsuruga and Kyoko Mogami

Vol. 17 Cover - Kyoko with Ren (my fave pairing!)

Vol. 05 Cover - Kyoko with Kanae Kotonami

Kyoko with Maria, the granddaughter of the LME president

Kyoko as the evil angel in Sho's PV, Sho by the side

Kyoko as Mio in Dark Moon

Currently there are confirmed talks of filming a Taiwanese idol drama version for the anime series. Jerry Yen will be playing Ren Tsuruga and Ariel Lin will play Kyoko Mogami. However the confirmed start of filming has been delayed due to a change in the Japanese company and it is not known when a date will be confirmed.

For me, I don't like the choice of Jerry and Ariel playing the leads. In fact, I don't want the anime to be adapted into a Taiwanese idol drama. The story will definitely be mangled to pieces in favour of promoting the stars in the show. It's horrible to see the stars making coo-coo eyes all the time, irregardless of the story plot.

But fans have no choice in this matter and we can only wait and see how things go. Kyoko's character is so complex that I doubt Ariel Lin can portray her well. I probably won't be watching the idol drama. The manga and anime are more than enough for me.

Hurray to Skip Beat!

Anime Watch: Rosario + Vampire!

I had just finished watching the two seasons of the anime series, Rosario + Vampire. It's a very funny anime about a 15 year old, Tsukune Aono, a human who got into a youkai academy by mistake. The academy is actually a school for monsters where they learn how to blend into the human world by learning the humans' culture and way of life.

On his first day at school, he ran into the beautiful Moka Akashiya, who turned out to be a super powerful vampire. Her vampire nature is sealed by a rosario cross which she wears across her chest. This is done so that she can live with her mother in the human world.

The moment the rosario is removed, she will transform into a vampire and her transformation is marked by bigger boobs, bigger butt, red eyes and long grey hair. This version of Moka is more powerful, aloof and straightforward than the human Moka. So far, only Tsukune is able to remove the rosario from her chest. No one else, not even Moka herself, could remove that special rosario. Well, I can't decide which version of Moka I like best, just as Tsukune is unable to make a choice between them too.

Like all other animes, story is adapted from the manga of the same name. A cover of the first volume of the manga is posted below:

Rosario + Vampire Manga Cover

Besides Moka, Tsukune also gets to know and make friends with other students too. The group picture below includes all the friends that he has made while studying at the school.

From left to right: Ruby, Kurumu, Moka, Tsukune, Yukari and Mizure

Another group picture

Kurumu is a succubus who had tried to seduce Tsukune initially but now has chosen to fight for his love in a fair way, i.e. without using her succubus powers to entice him. She likes to jump onto Tsukune and press her boobs into his face, often resulting in him suffocating most of the times.

Yukari is a witch who was initially a little terror of the school. She is extremely smart and would often play pranks on other students. Tsukune and Moka saved her from some bad students when they threaten to sort her out. She is in love with both Tsukune and Moka. Greedy eh?

Mizure is a snow girl and she was initially missing from school due to some reasons. However she has fallen for Tsukune and thus decided to come back to school in order to win him over. She often quarrelled with Kurumu as they treat each other as rivals.

Ruby is also a witch whom Tsukune and the gang had fought in a hill full of chrysanthemum flowers. She was initially determined to kill Tsukune as she believed that the humans are out to destroy her home, i.e. the hill. However she was won over by Tsukune's kindness and sincerity.

As you can see, Tsukune is a very popular boy and because he's a forbidden human, all the girls would always come to his rescue whenever he runs into trouble. Most of the time, Moka ended up destroying the enemy without any problems. Thus Tsukune is closer to Moka than to the other girls. See below for Moka's illustration:

Moka in her human self with the rosario secured

The vampire side of Moka

Tsukune with Moka, the vampire one.

On top of that, Moka also has a younger sister, Kokoa Shuzen. Their names remind me of those beverages: mocca and cocoa. Hee.... Here's a picture of Kokoa:

Kokoa with Moka, Tsukune at the back

Kokoa prefers the vampire Moka than the human Moka and she is always trying to get her vampire Moka to come out. However it always ends up in disaster.

Overall the anime is very fun and enjoyable to watch, though guys would be the target market rather than girls. Lots of cleavage and panties are being shown in the anime series and it's obvious who will be interested to watch.

Nonetheless, it's still worth a re-watch and I highly recommend this anime too. It's not to be confused with Vampire Knight. Though both have vampire themes, Vampire Knight is much more darker than its counterpart. However both are worth watching and to me, they are part of my ever growing list of favourite animes.

w00t!

Condemn Dell Computers!

From now on, I am condemning all Dell products and services. My one and only experience with Dell customer service left an extreme bitter taste in my mouth. Not only they are extremely unreliable, they are also unrepentent.

I was helping one of my executives to purchase a Dell laptop as a replacement. The supposed estimated time of arrival (ETA) given by Dell was stated as 23 December 2008. However the ETA lapsed and no one from Dell deemed it fit to contact us to say that a delay had occurred. And so, I had to call back the sales person to check on the status of the delivery. The worst part of the thing is that the sales person is extremely hard to contact. Numerous calls went unanswered. Emails were either not replied or were sent late. In short, it's a disaster.

Then Dell gave a second ETA as 5 Jan 2009. The day came and went and there's still no sight of the laptop at all. Yet again, calls went unanswered and emails were replied late. They were supposed to reply back to us on the status of the delivery by yesterday. However the stupid sales guy only sent out the reply today.

Again, the ETA was pushed back. This time round, the new date is 22 Jan 2009. The reason given is that they need to do a firmware update on the laptop and hence delivery will be delayed. It's very frustrating to keep getting news that the laptop is unable to arrive on time. Don't Dell install calendars and clocks at their offices so that they can be punctual to their own customers at the very least?

Dell people are rude in the sense that they never bother to get back to you on the status of the orders made and all the dates they proposed were eventually lapsed. By the time 22 Jan 09 comes, it will be yet another new ETA from Dell. I can bet my moolah on that.

Dell = untrustworthy and unreliable.

Nothing from them is worth the thousand dollars paid for the laptop. So, in future it would be everybody's best interests to avoid purchasing any products from Dell. I have written to Acer to check on their laptop stock instead. Hopefully everything goes well and the new laptop might just be on its way. I'm exhausted from all the chasing and there's no reward for doing all those tasks. It's quite meaningless actually. Even I don't get to use a proper desktop. My office laptop is a permanent loan unit and it sucks.

It only has 512MB RAM and this makes it slow to respond to commands. I try to minimise any heavy usage of the laptop but it will still hang sometimes. Crazy little fellow.

*sighs*

So Tired of Work

To be honest, work is never an enjoyable part of my life. Ever. I have always dreaded going to work everyday and if possible, I would love to avoid working at all.

In reality, things don't always go your way. Hence, I am still stuck as being an office worker in a horrible company with horrible colleagues. Here, there are many masks to be worn and beware of the people hiding behind those fake masks. You never know which type of smile will hide a poison knife.

So most of the time I am alone and I try to stay out of trouble. It is never in my best interest to defy any orders given to me for it would means inviting trouble upon myself. In fact, my boss expects me to do more than what my job description states. The more work I do, the better she'll rate me.

Sadly, I never get the credits for the work that I have done. You can say that it's a thankless job. I can also forget about calling me colleague ot friend. They simply just like to leave me out of the loop. Well, not that I mind alot but I don't appreciate being treated like a rag doll. When my colleagues need me to do work, they will come to me. But when there's nothing else, they just chuck me aside.

Also, my dept is biased towards the executives. Executives get all the benefits like birthday celebrations and numerous tea-breaks. However, the admin staffs don't get anything at all. My dept also has to do the stuffs which other depts don't want to do. Hence, my dept is very messy and there is no sense of belonging either.

Working is getting more depressing by the day and nothing perks me up unless if it's time to go home. Pathetic, eh?

Oh well, life in Singapore is like that and no matter which company you work for, it's almost always the same thing. Life certainly sucks.

=(

John Travolta's Son Died

I was just watching Entertainment Tonight on Channel 5 earlier on and its headline for the day was on the death of John Travolta's son, Jett Travolta.

According to TMZ.com, Jett passed away on 3rd January 2009 after he suffered a seizure fit when he fell and hit his head in the bathroom while on vacation. Videos of the young Jett was shown on TV and the little boy looked so cute.

John Travolta with son, Jett.

Travolta was visibly seen trying to contain his sorrow while appearing strong for his family. He had tried to revive his son using CPR but it was too late for the boy. His wife, Kelly Preston, was reported to be crying non-stop after she learnt of his death.

May Jett's soul rest in peace and condolences to both John Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston.

Now it's the Aurora Borealis

Wired Science is quite a good website with lots of gorgeous pictures on the galaxies, space and nature. I am only browsing a small portion of the site and I found quite a couple of awesome pictures that I have never seen before.

One of those pictures is the famed Aurora Borealis. You can click here to see the article. I have also posted the same picture below for illustration purposes.

The Aurora Borealis

It's cool, isn't it? If you head over to wikipedia, there is a general explanation on the phenomena. Wikipedia also has some really cool pictures too. See below:

Aurora Borealis, Bear Lake

Aurora Borealis, Fairbanks, Alaska

Aurora Borealis, Antarctica

Nature can be so intriguing in its own way. All these lights dancing across the night sky is something that is unique to Mother Nature. I hope I can witness this glorious show in the future soon and Alaska is one of the places to offer the unique view.

Good night, Aurora Borealis.

Hi-Definition Images of Milky Way

Now, this is really an old piece of news but I was browsing through Wired Science's website just now and I came across this article. Astronomers had compiled a series of high-definition resolution individual frames (24752x13520) using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to create the mosaic picture below:




There is even a dedicated viewer to get the full experience on the beauty of the Milky Way too. All these images are simply way too cool and I envy the guys' luck in getting assigned to do this job. It could be those once-in-a-lifetime chance ever. I bet these astronomers also get nice, fat salary checks to boot as well.

Right now I am using the viewer to look at the Milky Way and it's simply awesome! It's definitely worth seeing, you know. Billions and billions of stars are in that galaxy and they are so bright.

If you have the time, do pop over to view the awesome Milky Way. I'll be on the lookout for more of such sites too.

=)

Interesting Bite on the Milky Way

According to Wired Science, the Milky Way out there in the space is now supposedly much larger than what was previously thought. To me, I thought the telescope picture of the galaxy is pretty cool though. See below for illustrations.

The Milky Way

I think it's pretty awesome that there are some other beautiful galaxies out there other than our own solar system. The way all these things are formed is simply amazing and that's how nature works for itself.

Everything out there is so mysterious yet glorious enough to captivate humans for centuries. Be it stars or the moon or the planets, everything has enraptured our imaginations so thoroughly for the longest time.

It's too bad that I can't afford those highly advanced technological cameras or telescopes that will allow me to take those gorgeous pictures. A good thing that NASA is on hand to take those shots for us.

Say, wouldn't it be a dream to be able to work in NASA and stare at all those little stars in the space as part of the job description? Sure sounds cool to me. However those kind of jobs are only applicable to the elite people. Meaning people who probably possess a Masters or Doctorate in their resume in order to get considered for the job. *sighs*

For now, I can only gaze at the galaxies through the eyes of these pictures and I am going to use the picture as my laptop's wallpaper for now. Till the next gorgeous pictures comes along anyway.

*grinz*

How to use Google Analytics?

By the way, I have been wondering how to use Google's Analytics on my blog. The steps explained in the FAQ has confounded me completely and so I have not been able to use it at all even though I have an account.

Hmmm I wonder if it's really that useful too. Anyway I will figure this out some day. Just, not today though. Hee. My brain is not really working that fantastic tonight. Ah hahaha!

Gotta go to sleep soon! Tada!

Anime Watch: Vampire Knight Guilty Ends!

Finally, the long awaited finale to the hugely popular Japanese anime, Vampire Knight Guilty, has been aired on Japan's TV. Subsequently, fans in other countries are able to watch the finale via online streaming too.

Vampire Knight

I watched all the episodes here and I am so thankful for the person's kindness in sharing the videos. In the end, Yuuki chose Kaname-senpai and went away with him. All Zero could do was to let her drink his blood so that she can sense his feelings for her. Yet they can't be together as they are two worlds apart.

Yuuki is a vampire and Zero is a vampire hunter. The hunter and the prey. It's sort of like a forbidden love story but Yuuki did not fully return Zero's love. Ah well, Kaname isn't that bad himself. After all, he is now the most powerful vampire since Rido Kuran has been successfully killed by Zero.

Still, the episode has its light-hearted moments too. As usual, Kaien Cross provided the comic relief, albeit for a short while. He had totally forgotten about his human students who were still hidden in the school building. The series ended with Kaname and Yuuki leaving the Academy along with some of the other Night Class vampires.

The manga version of the series is still ongoing though. There might be a possibility that the series will return with another sequel. But for now, let's just enjoy the two seasons that have already been produced.

It's such a pleasurable activity to watch the animes as they are so cute and funny. If you are game for some anime fun, do consider watching Vampire Knight. It's worth it.

For now, I do feel a little sad that there is no more new episodes to look forward to anymore. The wait itself is part of the fun too. Till then, goodbye Yuuki, Kaname and most of all, Zero. He's such a pitiful hero, don't you think so? Aww....

Whoa! It's New Year 2009!

Time flies so fast and before I know it, it's now 4 days into the new year of 2009. Honestly, 2008 has not been a very good year with all those depressing news on the financial crisis, terrorist attacks and natural disasters.

As for the countdown, I didn't go out anywhere in order to avoid the crowd and spent my time reading online manga. The current manga that I am chasing right now is Skip Beat! and it's totally awesome. Maybe I shall write about that later.

Right and so, on Friday night I went clubbing with mayi and xin at Zirca, the new club which had replaced the former Ministry of Sound. Frankly speaking, the whole atmosphere at the new club just reeked of boredom. The music was so-so and the dancers are not so fantastic at all. Plus the second level didn't have anything much except for a lounge named "Envy". Envy of the previous club's success, perhaps? After an hour or so, mayi and I went off to another clun while xin went home.

The second club was The Arena and at least the music there were much better than Zirca. There was a live band at the club but the singers are not quite good. The house music was like the Top 40s chart so it was pretty ok. Towards the second part of the night, it was getting pretty boring though and so mayi and I went home.

And so, back to the new year. My hopes for the new year would be that more pleasant things will come back to earth and that life goes on without any troubles or fears.

Happy New Year!!!




Cheers!