Thai camps, English Camps, AND MORE CAMPS!! Plus CF!

I've been pretty busy for the past few weeks. With more thai students coming for camps, english camps in our college and also I'm told that there will be some Japanese kids coming for an english camp. Hurray!!

So our college had this Viva La Georgetown thing, check our site.

Annnnyway. The thing I'm most excited about in the entire week ...is FINALLY HERE!!


DEKITA!!

COMIC FIESTA 2010!

It's gonna be my first time at the Comic Fiesta in Malaysia...and 2010 sounds like a nice number for my first hehehehe. Gonna go as Shiraishi Minoru from Lucky Stars and my sister will be goin as Akira-sama~

Oh Joyous day~!

Nendoroid Black Rock Shooter and Yuki short Review

Ah just got the time to review my two new Nendoroids from GoodSmile Company. I have had BRS for sometime but she sits in my cupboard awaiting a day like this. Finally I gotten Yuki Nagato from the Disappearance of Haruhi Movie version, and decided this is the time.

Once I opened up the box, as you expect from GSC(Good Smile Company, not Golden Screen Cinema) the package is nice and collector friendly. It displays what you get and what poses you can do to the Nendoroid. Yay I can't wait.


I posted some pictures on my facebook. Here are some pics of my Nagato and BRS Nendoroids.

Anyway, both came with some nice accessories, especially BRS, I'll give a low down on the scores. There will be a 5 star system, with 5 being the best out of the pack and 1 star being really bad.


Package : BRS and Yuki *****

Like I mentioned above, both had really solid boxes and you can display them in it without worry. Everything is nicely packed and they use the usual transparent plastic shells to hold them. Yay no tape, no twisty ties!

Sculpt : BRS **** , Yuki *****
What can I say? Both have awesome sculpts by GSC and showcased their character through the Nendoroid's Chibi mode. However, the BRS had some issues. There was a 'Duh' faced version of BRS and when you swap the hair piece, you will notice the gaps between the different pieces. At some angles you can't see it, but from a high vantage point, it's pretty ugly. Yuki on the other hand, doesn't have this problem. Her winter jacket and scarf fits it wonderfully! Other than that small complaint, BRS was wonderful. The sculpt of the Big Ass Gun (I'm calling it that from now on) was fantastic, as well as the blue flames and her scars. Yuki had nice facial expressions and a cute slip of paper...hmm kouhaku?

Paint : BRS ***** , Yuki *****

A bad paint job can spoil even the best of Sculpts. Fortunately, both figures had aced this department. I find no any defect or paint blobs on my figures. The paint on BRS was glossy and gave out that fresh and sharp feeling when you hold her. Yuki had fantastic paint on her jacket, scarf and hair, and what I like about Yuki, was that she came with two bodies. But that falls under accessories which I will cover later. In the end I am very satisfied with these two figure's paint.

Accessories : BRS *****, Yuki ****

I am a big fan of accessories. Both came with a truck load. Seriously, BRS came with her Big Ass Gun, a nice checkered base instead of the usual clear base for the Nendoroid. series. Also it came with 2 clear stands, one for the figure itself and one for the BAG~ You can see it in  the photo gallery.

BRS came with some extra arms, hands/palms/fists, 2 other faces, 1 hair piece, 1 frontal hair piece, a sword, lower body with a sitting down pose, 1 lifted leg, checkered display base, 2 stands, gun barrel etc.

Yuki comes with a  scarf, an extra school uniform body, lower body, 3 faces, 1 pair of specs, 1 pair of specs in  the hair piece, a slip of paper, extra arms and hands to hold the paper. She falls short on the accessory part, I wish they would give her like, a chair or something.

Articulation : BRS *****, Yuki ***

Nendoroids aren't famous for their articulation, but BRS really made my day as she had also sorts of different accessories and stands for her to be displayed. I had lots of fun with that.

Yuki on the other hand, well all I can do with her is....stare and be amazed by her cuteness.

Guess we'll wait for the Movable ver. Saber.

Price : BRS ****, Yuki ***

Okay, BRS cost me about Rm148, and it came with a truck load of accessories and a DVD!! What more can you ask? Yuki's price was the average Nendo price but I got a 10% discount for it, so it was affordable, if you can get it cheaper, I suggest you get her.

Fun Factor : BRS *****, Yuki ****

I had loads of fun with these two, but more with BRS of course. Yuki would be placed in front of my diorama of snow filled wonderland. As for BRS, just put her in a kick ass pose and she fits in anywhere.

Bottom Line :

Well if you're fans of both series or just a fan of Nendoroids, you should really get em. Nendoroids are famous for being cute, I really love these two figures. I'm a figma fan myself, but these girls are just too fun and cute for me to resist. Yeah I got poisoned.

Yuki is just too moe~ and BRS is too cute~More pics

Enjoy!

Those Ultra days...

After getting my LX5, I've been taking pics of various things. Food, Toys, Events...and it was fun. However, I was reminded about the one thing that symbolizes my childhood days...Ultraman.

I was a fan of the Ultraman series back when I was 6-7 years old...though I slowed down on my fandom since the new Ultraman's design wasn't 'Ultraman' to me, the recent movies they made brought me back to my childhood.

If you don't know who Ultraman is, then you have no Childhood. Seriously, you have no Childhood at all. You just gotta Google it. Its up there with Kamen Rider and the Sentai series. They are that iconic! The show's been on for more than 40 years and still going strong as the scripts gets better and the effects are improved(duh)

Well, I just wanted to give this short update coz I've been busy with work and stuff...here's what's been going on...

3 weddings, new figure, new speaker, new soundcard, new movies to download and watch. Yay~

Double Wedding. When East Meets East!

Last Friday was really interesting for me. I rushed back to Sungai Petani....after purchasing my brand new Lumix LX5 and a FH3 for my sister at Click and Snap. Thanks to the recommendation by 大哥 Tony, Raymon and Johnsern, I finally got the LX5! It cost me a painful Rm1580 but it was well worth every cent.

I'll get into the review of the LX5 on a later date. I'll be giving my thoughts on the past weekend.


The reason I rushed back to SP was because of the wedding by one of my cousin brothers...that and also a wedding of my colleague's sister. It was a new experience all together as I arrived at the wedding hall at Pillar Wedding Hall in Sp. It's the first official Maliani Indian Wedding scene that I've ever been to.


I'll let the pictures say for themselves.
Oh yeah these pics are taken using my LX5. They're all experimental pics using the Intelligent Auto function as I have no time to really research on it.

This pic up here is edited by my colleague, and big bro Tony.

============

Next is the usual Chinese wedding.

Anyway, the weddings were a huge success. For the one at my cousin's, I was able to get some Cod Fish..and it was mighty tasty..that didn't even had the time to take a picture of it hahaha.

Deepavali Zombies!

As we all know, Deepavali was celebrated all over Penang. I was invited to some dinners at the weekends and one particular dinner will also be remembered as one of the most interesting. Our family was invited by a doctor/ and fellow Lions Club member to his house for a Diwali dinner, and I was quite excited as we'll be dining at the reclaimed land behind Island Plaza. The place where most expats and rich folks retire to.

It was really an interesting locale, as we traveled over 1km behind Island Plaza. Once we arrived, I marveled at the deco, they really had that aristocratic backyard feel. With stone eggs, animal sculptures, deers and fountains. It was magnificent, maybe I'll show case my own stuff in the future hehehe.

The food was delicious...veganlicious. Typical Northern Indian cuisine, with ice Kacang for kids and anyone who wants to cool down because of the humid and warm weather. Anyway, the most interesting thing that happened is that there are various international children over here. From the mixed Eurasion, to the pure bred westerners. Well Koreans, Indians, Americans, British and Australians I guess....I saw them running around playing tag or something, so I was really enjoying the nostalgic feeling.

My sister was dragged by this little cute girl named Moira, and it turns out that she's my sister's students in one of her day care center. Well how adorable, she's running around carrying her little stuffed dog who she had 1239842 names of it, now its named Flounder...heh. Guess someone just watched Little Mermaid eh.

Anyway, when I asked what game they were playing, the kids looked at me...and it really creeped me out...and yelled "We're ZOMBIES~!!

Me "..........."

Moira said , "Yeah! If we bite you, you'll turn into one of us!"

Holy crap. The girl's only 5-6 years old...and when I was at that age, I have no clue what the heck are zombies. I know indians, cowboys and police/thief....but ZOMBIES??

I'd run the hell away from little hyper zombie kids.

Heck I'd rather take my chances with Freddy, Jason and Jig Saw than a bunch of toddlers huddling around you, pulling your shirt/pants and biting you/clawing you/hitting and even scratching you. Scary shit....Halloween just passed but I guess it runs late here.

Anyway, I felt younger..or older after the day as I had a flashback of my childhood. When I look back, I smiled as those kids will have a wonderful life ahead of them.

Trick or Treat??

October 31st 2010 will be one of the most memorable Halloween ever... Why? Because it was one very anticipated moment since September's Prom Night. I was originally planning to have a Halloween bash in college with haunted houses(Or in this case classrooms) and the walk of courage. Sadly because of certain circumstances from my college, I was unable to do so. That and the lack of time to prepare anything.

So I figured I'll just attend some of the events held in Gurney Plaza or Queensbay mall. I'm not a fan of being a gory or scary cosplayer, so I was thinking something different....like Ghost Busters or something, sadly time was not on my side....So...Indiana Jones it is.

I managed to coax my youngest sister to join me, surprisingly she was very enthusiastic with it and wanted to go as a nekomimi meido~ Which is a maid with cat ears...We did some last minute purchase of the ears and the tail was a recycled usage of an old furry belt. Yup, and the product was very satisfactory.

As for my costume, I can't seem to find my vest for my Dracula outfit(Maybe because I'm too lazy to look for it...because I know I can't wear it anymore....put on some extra pounds ya see) so I stick with Indiana Jones.

Sunday was also the day I'm supposed to meet my friend Alfred who's returning from the UK...and goin back today 3rd of Oct. So my friend Stanley and I decided to have a get together and sing some Karaoke that night along with my other sister who knew him as well.

I invited a couple of friends, my junior and we agreed to meet up....but then I got a message from my Lions Club that they'll be having a Charity Walk ...ON SUNDAY. Oh well...I have to attend it...coz hey, they take attendances...

My sister wanted to come with me to the walk, so at least I have some company. We had to wake up at 6am and arrived there at a quarter to 7...yeah...I'm still vvveeerryyy slleeepppyy. The charity walk was interesting I guess...They invited those patients from the NGOs...such as Cerebral Palsy patients, people from the old folks home , house for the mentally retarded...etc.

We were there to guide them and help them along the walk. After that, I'm supposed to help out at the food queue and parking.

------

After a quick shower and a change of outfits, I picked up my friends from my dad's clinic and headed out to Traders Hotel...where we're supposed to attend this Charity Fair from Sakura, a Japanese Association in Malaysia that hosted this kimono wearing and tea ceremony. Unfortunately according to a friend who was there, she said that there isn't that much food being served there, so we went to Prangin Mall for lunch instead. Did I mention we were very hungry? Yeah, walking at 8am in the morning with only a pork bun will do that to you.

We met our friend in Prangin after lunch and headed to our destination. Oh and a detour to LG Midland Plaza to check out some figurines.

--In Gurney Plaza--

We goofed around the arcade and wandered around the place some more, till we decided to have a quick bite before the event....UNTIL we found out that I messed up the date of the event. It was supposed to be the 30th instead of the 31st. Which is whacked up I tell you. 31st IS HALLOWEEN! Not 30th, not 1st of November. Stupid event organizers...>.>

Needless to say my sister was pissed off....and I had to buy back her alliance with some seafood offering. Even Poseidon wasn't this moody. Anyway, we finally decided to catch a movie instead of a K-session because of the costs and time factor. What movie you ask? Well I always wanted to check out Burried...but sadly its on at 5pm and it's already 6...so we'll just have to watch something closer to out time.

RED!

My God I can't believe it, RED .....is gonna be awesome. I had some expectations because of the reviews it got, so I was hyped to watch it. Sadly my sister is underaged...zzzz

After some covert ops and sneaking techniques honed by playing lots of Metal Gear Solid...(This part is 110% bullshit) we managed to sneak my sister in without the attendant's knowledge...or maybe he knew and just closed one eye.

We had a blast at the cinema. The show was awesome. It was hilarious, action packed, romantic, and without any stupid sex scene. There's a car chase that would make even the most hardcore James Bond fan say "GOD DAMN~" fight scenes that rival Expendables, gun fights that would out gun the A-team and over the top action that kicked The Loser's ass! (watch out for Bruce Willis when he came out of the car)

After the movie, it was  time to head back....but God didn't want to end the night without one final trick after his treat...(sigh)

I.Lost.My.Parking.Ticket

Yeah...it was that F-cked up.

I had to pay the RM20 that comes with the lost ticket rule...and was sorta relieved coz I think our stay in Gurney was nearly half that amount..so I guess no biggie. It also helps that my friends chipped in the ticket. Good friends are hard to come around, and you must cherish em as much as possible.

Lessons learned :

Malaysia's Halloween is 1 day before the actual day.
Check out the date of any events before assuming anything.
Karaoke is expensive
RED is awesome
Sneaking in GSC is easy if you have a whole group of people.
Tickets should be given to my sister for safe keeping

That's all I guess, hopefully next year's Halloween wouldn't be that eventful...but hey, it was an unforgettable incident so it wasn't such a big thing to worry about. At least it would be a great pub story. I can see it 20 years from now, me sitting at a pub for reunion telling this tale about how I lost my ticket hehe.

Oh yeah, I walked around Gurney with my Indiana Jones getup...whip and all...heheh but at the final hours of our 'Cinematic Adventure' in Gurney, I managed to see some other people in costumes.. Especially that guy Enzio from Assassin's Creed. He came with his entire outfit with the sword~ Epic-ness...

That's all for this blog....See ya next week on my weekly update(If anything interesting happens that is...)

Muffin Day~

Whoa, I didn't know what has gotten into my dad today, but he's been telling us to make muffins for 3 days straight. Well after buying the ingredients(eggs mostly) we head back for an afternoon nap....once we wake up we started making the batter...

Cracked 4 eggs, pour in some blueberry drops and flour, then some almonds and pecan nuts, raisins(which we bought in Little India just now) and added some vege oil. My sister was the one that worked along side dad to mix the entire thing.

Mom and I was in the kitchen preparing for dinner....which we didn't eat later on. Well ingredients for tomorrow then. After that we placed the muffin batter in the paper cups and put em in the oven.

20mins later....whoa the smell of blueberry filled the air. It was awesome! I mean, the muffins started to expand and grow...and then it went overboard...well 2 of the cups bubbled over like magma. However~ after the 'test' (which consist of poking the muffin with a chopstick to see if it's fully cooked) my sister went 'Dekita~' in her Konata like voice. Finally it was done. Yay.

Dad was dancing to 'Ging Gang Goolie Goolie Whatcha Ging Gang Goo' while he's waiting for the muffins to be done. As we waited for the muffins to cool down, my sister took the fallen over magma and tasted it...and it was GOOD! Whoa.

I was skeptical coz they look....well they don't look like muffins aside from the cups. I ate one...and then I ate two....Coz it was FANTASTIC! The blueberry was really tasty. The muffins weren't that sweet, and the almonds were crunchy, the pecans added more crunchiness and texture, it was awesome. By the way Just look at the pictures. They speak for themselves.

That's the batter.

 The cupcakes/muffin(s) before they go into the oven.

Dad with his muffin~ Cheers!

 The muffins!

 We ate all of em except 2 for my other sister who's working in Queensbay.

 I was relishing it, then my sister took this pic of me...>.> what a weird smile.

Close up of the MONSTER MAGMA BLUEBERRY MUFFIN!!

We're gonna make more, maybe strawberry next time.

An English camp for 52 Thai Students.

I was able to help conduct a small treasure hunt for over 50 Thai students from Songkla, Thailand in Disted College. It was interesting, as the kids surprised me with their grasp of English. They're very bright and smart as far as Asian countries go and did quite well on the Treasure Hunt questions that Jo designed.

The only gripe I had, is the time. The time I spent with them was too short and the session ended in about 70mins. I miss my first batch of Thai students from Pattani, nobody would ever replace them in a way. Well maybe because I spent 3 days with them...I've formed a bond with those kids. Ah...how I wish I could see them again in the future. I was very touched when they added me on Facebook and told me how much they miss Penang already.

For those of you readers(If there are...) out there who are familiar with the English camp treasure hunt, it's still the same. We give them clues hidden all around Disted and make them solve roadblocks that accompany the clue-list. It's simple, but challenging if you're a first timer. Heck I remember I had a tough time searching for the Ebrary logo.

Oh yeah, a junior from my college came visiting me yesterday. Michael came a calling, visiting Miss Jaya and was surprised when he saw me working there. I also got news that another Junior of mine will be getting married. Whoa time flies, it makes me feel nostalgia and fond memories I had of Disted...hmm man that makes me feel old.

I got a  horoscope reading...Aquarious will be traveling this month...and how true is that? I'll be going down to Singapore tomorrow for my Masters....what a coincidence?

Now I'll have to prepare a Toastsmasters speech for my assignment, and think of ways to get more money so I can get myself a Camera. Well, hope to see more comments coming.

PS : My site was added to the list of Penang Bloggers on the Penang Blogger's Website. In case the link doesn't appear, it's this one.

http://penangbloggers.wordpress.com/

Give them a visit ya?

Taking my first class.

My first tempt class in Disted. Whoa, it's the first time I'll be teaching a group of International Students from various countries. With help from my colleague Jo-Chan~ I was able to successfully conduct an English Enrichment Program Class.

My class consist of a German boy named Ramon, an Indonesian named Steven, An Yuan from Taiwan, a student from Pattani, Thailand nicknamed Maew and a local student from Malaysia named Chia Yean.

We started off  with some simple Q&A and then continued on with a movie viewing of the animated cartoon from Disney, called Ratatouille. They had fun...I guess. But half way through the movie, I had to head out to guide some photographers from Japan. They were led by Jacinta, Jo and myself around our college and towards the library. The main focus of the tour was to show them our English course offered by our college.

After that I gave them some questions regarding the movie, heh of course that was after the photographers left our college. Well I found out more about our students from some of the slide questions, such as their ambitions and the tough times they faced.

Oh yeah, at the near end of class, I threw them an essay. It was about writing an informal letter of gratitude to someone that supported them during their toughest time in life. I hope they did well....

Sadly, I received the news this morning from the lecturer that it wasn't that good...Well with time, I hope they'll improve.

We received another new International student by the name of Tan Ping, from Hong Kong. I wish we get more students and increase our number of international students in our college.

More to come later~

FIRST! AT BLOGFEST.ASIA 2010!

After a year long hiatus, the dying flame of my blogging life got a nice dose of napalm. Thanks BlogFest.Asia for reigniting my flame. After some rummaging, I found out that my old blog posts in friendster is still up.

http://knightsofthesquaretable.blog.friendster.com/

That's the link...

For now, I'll be starting anew. For now I'll just quickly explain what I'll be posting up here. As my site states, Life is like a Giant Cake with different shades of filling and toppings. I'll be blogging about my slice of the cake.

For the most part, it'll be about my travels, my food trail, my collection of miscellaneous  things and the events I've attended.

For now, just enjoy my old blogs. Feed back is welcomed!