I attended the Summer Festival event held at Changi Japanese school last Saturday, it’s a yearly event organised by the Japanese Association of Singapore. Managed to make my way there myself after the weather started clearing up in the evening (pretty bad weather, it was raining on and off that day) and finally met up with the rest of the sgGamers gang that was already at the venue. It was my first time to such an event, and it was thanks to Val that I had the chance to attend the event, since he’s got the advance tickets for it. Of course it’s not free, I paid 10 bucks for the tickets but I say it was pretty reasonable, since it came with coupons for a main dish as well as some for you to buy side-dishes, drinks and even for playing mini-games at the stalls there. Anyway in summary, it was a pretty nice experience for me, and I also got to catch up with my friends like Syahmi, haven’t seen him in awhile ever since he got enlisted into NS. And then of course there was also the pretty controversial topic among us guys on who’s the girl that’s with Val throughout the evening at the event. But at the end of the day, it seems like fate was just playing a game on us, cause I found out that Debbie was actually just living a few blks away from me, yes both of us are extreme-easterns. (haha what a term)

So after the event, we decided to head down to Orchard for some supper, then chatted about lotsa random stuffs (Brendam told us some hideous and ugly stories about him again, but I’m not surprised at all) until about 1am, before we all finally decided to end the night, and headed home via nightbus service. So on the bus ride home, me Val and Debbie discussed about various random topics and issues again, exchanging some opinions here and there, and then some. After Val and Sky alighted, me and Debbie caught up with each other’s personal lives abit, and it was only then we got to know each other better. It was really nice knowing her, she’s actually pretty friendly and jovial, not those very cold ‘dao‘ type that I first thought to be. Well first impressions can be pretty misleading, so I’m not totally bothered at all. After we alighted at her stop, had a slow scroll with her together while walking her home and before we parted decided to exchange contacts with each other, after that it was finally home sweet home for me, in the early wee hours of the morning. (^ ^)’

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Just a re-cap of the events that took place last week. Finally caught Apple Seed at Shaw Tower with Jimmy and gang last Sat morning. Having already watched this anime twice at the comfort of my home and PC (the internet has everything go figure) of course I did not watch it for the story or whatever, since I already knew it all. It was all for the visuals and sound effects, in the immersion of the cinema theatre, at the cost of $9.40. (No biggie issue, ticket prices are rising in May) Unfortunately, all I can say Shaw Prince’s cinema totally sucks, even though Jimmy told me that their cinema sort of got upgraded sometime back. Personally I don’t watch movies there since most of the time my movie venue selections would either be at Orchard Cathay, Shaw Lido or any GVs. The theatre for this particular screening has a super deformed screen with the left and right edges more towards the front and the center slanting towards the back, hope you get the picture. Sound was pretty ok and decent though during the beginning it seems I heard some glitches in the sound. (though I think it has something to do with the film itself and not the sound system) Ok honestly maybe I’m bitching too much, but hey, waking up early on a Sat morning and paying almost 10 bucks for a movie tix, I definitely should deserve a better movie experience right? Heh enough of the rants. Anyway I was quite surprised most of the people who turned up for the screening didn’t watched it before, except for Ben, Jeremy and myself. So after the screening I asked for some opinions from those who haven’t watched it before, and most said it was fantastic. Am glad I didn’t introduce a lackluster piece of anime to them, if not I would surely slap myself for going for something I have watched before, and yet my friends didn’t get to enjoy the show themselves either. (^_^)V

So after the show, JL and some of the guys went to Tanaka Ramen for lunch, while Jimmy and e rest of us decided to go Suntec to chill for the afternoon first, since most of us are not hungry yet. (We had BK for breakfast earlier on, and I had 2 servings hehe) So under a hot and humid Sat afternoon off we went from Shaw Tower to Suntec, a mere short walk away. Decided to chill at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf instead since I needed some coffee, was feeling quite sleepy due to lack of sleep the previous night. Then we had some DS fun and picto-chatting among ourselves, with a great-looking babe next to our table too. (ahh my eyes, free ice-cream for a hot weather) Soon we headed over to Gamescore at Funan since I was gonna get my copy of Nintendogs, both Jimmy and Ben got their copy earlier on in the week, and judging from the game impressions I saw from the game it was pretty cool and not to mention cute too, can I say Tamagotchi for the 21st Century? Where else can you find a pet doggie game for e current-gen handhelds? This is also another reason why I bought the Nintendo DS in the first place. And my hands-on impression of the game? Kinda interesting, much better than I expected. Initially sometime back before the game was released, I was thinking the whole game concept was rather gimmicky, but now the game is finally here, all I can say is the DS has indeed proven to be a good platform for this kind of games, and Shigeru Miyamoto (of Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong fame) also has a part in this game. Though I’m not really a hardcore fan nor supporter of Nintendo games franchise, since frankly speaking the DS was my first Nintendo handheld, but having played and experienced something that was developed and created by one of the best game creators from this world, it’s really quite a marvel to be reckon with.

Soon came evening, and Val finally came. Was actually waiting for him to go for dinner, since he was actually flying off to Perth earlier on today. So we all had a simple send-off dinner for him somewhere nearby Boat Quay, then it was finally home sweet home for all of us. Totally crashed after a long sweet bath. I didn’t go to church the next day either and slept in as I was too exhausted from e long and tiring day previously.

Hmm, so it’s Monday again. Feeling kinda sian, guess it’s back to mugging again. And I reckon I need alot of self-discipline and determination for my studying, the internet especially IRC/MSN/ICQ is VERY distracting, as well as my gaming handhelds in my room. Then again I might find a private school (edit: decided to study myself) soon for my O’s since I definitely could use some guidance too, the current syllabus in the textbooks has changed so much ever since the last time I studied back then, heh what irony. May the force be with me. Signing out, more updates soon.

Thanks to Ben, I had the chance to attend the AnimaXtion Symposium event that was held at Cathay Cineleisure, Cineplex earlier on Tuesday, organised by MDA Singapore in conjunction with the Asia Media Festival 2004 that is going on right now. It was quite an eye-opener for me as we got to hear some of the famous people in the animation industry giving their speeches as well as talking about their very own latest works. Normally this kind of anime convention talk is considered kind of a rare event here locally, considering usually only countries like Japan, Korea and US will host convention talks like this one. We got to meet some of the famous anime producers like Mr Akitaro Daichi from Japan, showcasing his latest work, Makasete Iruka! (known as Grrl Power in US) as well as our very own Singaporean talent Mr Nickson Fong, CEO of Egg Story Creative Productions, his own company. He’s responsible for some of the highly-acclaimed animations in Hollywood productions like Shrek, and movies like the Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as scenes from The Matrix Reloaded. He also showcased one of his latest work during the event which is a TVCM for the Singapore Navy, it’s about a transmariner transforming into a robot with very cool special effects. You should be able to spot or have already seen this TVCM on local SMRT buses and MRTs by now. Anyway I kinda enjoyed the event, hopefully next time in future MDA Singapore will organise more of such convention talks like this again.

Ok I shall stop here, it’s getting late and I’m gonna rush off for the BBQ event, so I guess I shall see ya folks sometime next week again? Till then enjoy and take care of yourselves everyone. *waves*