of what we been doing in our free time at Singapore…

Woo~! Exams are over (they were done on saturday) and I promptly cried tears of joy : ) I think I even did a dance as I left the exam room of my last exam. I’m pretty confident about the exams I had on saturday (even though I didn’t finish one completely and didn’t read the reading necessary for my essay question in my other exam) – I suppose I did them a lot better than the one I had on wednesday, which was horrible. I’m still kinda hoping I pass that one lol. I need it–!!! 

In other news!! Three eagerly awaited figurines arrived this past week and I’m so glad >w<! In order of arrival, My Kasumi P2 costume 1/6 scale <Dead or Alive>, Shiki ~Der Soldat~ ver. <Togainu no Chi> and Kagamine Len figma! I didn’t have much time to take photos as they arrived, since I was still in exam mode but now I’m not, I went wild last night!

Kinoko, my wooden mannequin and Len having their own little thing going on~

Len likes shoulder rides :3

Shiki is my financial manager, so it's only normal for Len to ask for allowance from him.

Kasumi and her delectable fanservice~

Kasumi was a lot bigger than I expected xDD

And the Soldier himself : ) Shiki was made my official financial manager xD

He's also earned the title "Smirky Bastard" because he smirks (not like he can stop...)

Lol, and here's some omake for you : D

Lulu: Yukeeee–! Kaworuuu–!

Kaworu: Where…?

Hee hee~ I want more male figmas : D 

Right! All that’s left is to pack my crap up and then ship myself to Thailand where I am going to be spending my wonderful summer holidays. Only problem is, there’s a lot of crap to tidy up xD 

Better get to it then! Lolita Awaaaaaayyy–!! : D

なんか、あと少しタイに戻るはーー！趙ワクワク（＞w＜）／／また親友と会うは！彼女のことを見るのは久しぶりだから、本当に会いたかった（；w；）そしてタイにいると、また海に行くことができる！ニュージーランドには、海があるけど、なんとなく．．．ここの天気は大変だ。いつも変わってるから、行くのがちょっと．．．でもタイには、晴れてるなら、全一日晴れてるってことね。もう〜〜〜タイに戻るのはお楽しみ！また両親と会うことができるうう〜〜会いたかったは！両親！（笑）

It has come Demon, the day of your demise.

You have no power over me child, you can not defeat me.

It is not my power that will return you to your prison, but the Light of a thousand souls.

You have no power and no means to gather such power.

I will not need to, only channel it.  You have spent many millennia in you prison, concentrating so much on your escape, so much on the bad that have happened in this world, but not on the good.  Not on the good that has come from the bad.  You yourself have forgotten the words from the book of Deredru, foretelling your return and you demise.

You talk of the Light.  The Light has left this world.

There you are wrong.  A gathering of the Light of a thousand souls, in sorrow for the loss of ones that gave their lives.  You paid heed only to the great wars that scarred this planet, that ended family lines, but not to the days that followed.  Days where the losses were remembered, days called Remembrance Day, Veterans Day, Armistice Day, National Day and The Day of Peace in the Flanders Fields.  This day is that day, the day of Light where not a thousand, but millions gather in sorrow to remember the ones who have been lost.

This can not be.  Your gods have turned their backs on you, you can not do this.

They have not turned their backs on us, only given us more freedom to choose our paths.  Some will turn down the wrong one, but more of us everyday day make the right choice and it is those that will keep us safe from you.

I can not believe.

 That is why you have failed.

     I awoke scared, surrounded by Nurses and a Doctor trying to comfort me.  I was confused, not knowing what was going on.  My heart ached with the feeling that Spooky was gone.  What had I done, Spooky was one of my closest friends and I had killed her.

     Just then, Spooky and Yumi came walking into the room, I could feel a tear roll down my cheek when I saw them.  They both smiled and Yumi asked me how I was doing, I replied that I was feeling good, but didn’t know what was going on.  Spooky told me they had not heard from me for some time and with my parents being away, they couldn’t ask them where I was.  They had both come over to my place and found me lying on the floor of my bedroom where they then called an ambulance.

     It turns out; the demon had tried to trick me to believe I had killed Spooky, her twisted thoughts painting a picture of Spooky lying dead in her own blood.  The demons hold on me had not taken over me fully like she wanted me to believe; she was only set free on Halloween, but had not regained her powers.  She needed me to give up and thought by showing me Spooky dead that the loss of a friend would weaken me, but it only made me stronger.  My will to fight back grew with the thought that she could take more of my friend away from me.  The demon has been returned and nobody knows about it, or they no longer know about it.  I have trouble remembering the details of what has happened, past days drawing a blank in my memory.  I don’t know if I am loosing what has happened or if it was even real, but for some reason I seem to remember something about a book.  Maybe I should take a trip to the library and check something out to read.

It has started, I will take the ones closest to you and your heart will finally fall allowing me full use of my power.   I won’t let you do this, I can’t let you.  You have no choice child, you have no idea on how to stop me.  That is where you are wrong.  I know… I know now.  You forget, you are a part of me as I am a part of you; I know how to defeat you.  You know nothing!  I control this body; you can do nothing to stop me.  You have no means of gathering the light for your use; no means of orchestrating a thousand souls in giving the light.  Think that if you wish, you will be defeated before you can even have the power to start to wreck havoc.  Foolishness…

Haven’t seen my friends for some time now, haven’t been going out lately either.  They probably think I hate them or something, but I don’t and I hope they know it.  They are the best thing that has happened to me in a long time and I hope they know that too.  I just truly hope they are not mad at me because I haven’t even been phoning them.  It’s just… it’s just I can’t get the energy to go out any more.

 I haven’t been feeling so good lately.  I have been feeling really weak, just getting out of bed seems to be a struggle sometimes, my legs struggling just to stand.  Walking to the washroom, takes all my effort, just trying to keep balance.  When I look in the mirror, I start to get the feeling that it is not me looking back anymore.  It has begun.

I think my mind is playing tricks on me, I started to her voices before, but they come more often now.  My chest feels as though it is on fire, burning its way to the surface, it hurts; it hurts so badly.  I can feel my skin crawling, my body hurting more than ever, a struggle just to breathe.  I have waited for this day, the day of my release.  Slowly I will take your life from you and nothing you do will change that fact.

 My face, oh my god, what is happening, I can feel it taking me over.  Why is this happening, what have I done to deserve this?  Silly child, you struggle to no avail, for you no longer own this body or this life.  The person you once were will be forever lost, never to return.  Go see the Gods who have forsaken you, that left you unprepared for this.

 Somebody help me!!!  You are no longer child, you have failed.  The book of Deredru for told my coming, the pages written in blood of those who imprisoned me.  On Hallow’s Eve I will reclaim that which is mine and rule once more with none to oppose me.  Man’s time has come to an end and my kingdom will once again be cleansed.

 The time of my return has come and the time of the ones you hold so dear, has now come to an end.  Nothing will save this land from the wrath I will bring upon it.  The Light has left this land, all but a few souls who still struggle to hold on to it, the others killing each other for even gazing upon each other the wrong way. They take each others lives with such ease in their minds with no remorse.  The Gods have truly turned their backs on them and I will take their followers from them as while they are turned away.

We arrived! After 14 hours in the air we touched down in Singapore airport.

We were greeted and met by the OMF couple who will be looking atfter us and after 45 mins or so dodging through the morning rush hour traffic we’ll arrived at the YMCA.

I think my first impression of singapore is that it’s all ever so clean and tidy.

view from our hotel window

It’s trees and bushes are lush and green and the sun is much stronger than the UK, this combine with the humidity takes a while to get used to…. It’s very much like HK actually – even down to the type of taxis they have (rectangle box shaped Toyotas) What is different though is the obvious 3 different types of people here – chineses, indians and arabs as well as white westerns… But what’s interesting is that they work alongside each other, so you have all three groups in the same office (immigration), Night Safari etc – perhaps this is what multiculturism is like when it works??

The YMCA is ok, they have a special ‘OMF menu’ with a wide varity of foods to suit western tastes such as burgers, spaggeti bolonise (sorry for bad spelling) as well as some SE Asia dishes like Sweet and sour pork and chicken cashwnuts with boil rice (in case you’re wondering I’m being a little ironic) having said that the food does taste ok though I have a  feeling that after 2 weeks we’re be fed up and be going out to eat instead!

We just got back from the Night Safari – it took us 2 bus trips and as we left at 6.15pm it was ruch hour so people were squeezing onto the buses – for a rule abiding society I was a little suprise to see at least 3 people standing on the stairs of the buses under the sign which stated ‘no standing on the steps when the bus is in motion’.  I’ll post another blog about the night safarai later on…

it’s almost 1 inthe morning so I’m going to try and get some sleep – hopefully it be more than the 2 hours I got last night.

Below are just some pics of the girls

“I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.”

prettyprophet: Dead or Alive, two shots of Kasumi x Hayate, Amazake Hatosyo-ten, Yoshu Ohepe, Brolen, Rabbits.

funny_bunny: Commissioned by…NOT SETEBOS??

prettyprophet: Nah, it’s Setebos again. Fucking Ohepe flood right here.

funny_bunny: DEAD OR ALIVE SUCKS AND KASUMI AND HAYATE ARE JUNK. Pass it along to Eddy and Patty!

Killer Ink: You liked DOA.

funny_bunny: “LIKED” is the word. Oh Ayane, you’re so great. THAT’S IT, NO MORE DOA TALK.

prettyprophet: Couldn’t you play her in Ninja Gaiden 2? Eh, don’t matter, I ain’t getting it.

Killer Ink: I still don’t understand how you two have time for games.

prettyprophet: Uh, yeah, because you working all the fucking time is doing wonders for your health.

funny_bunny: Always time for fun! FIGHT FOR FUN!

prettyprophet: Peace out, kids.

funny_bunny: Powered to you by CAPTAINESS N!

Additional links:

On Brolen
On Depositfiles
On Megaupload

PSP:

On Megaupload

Oui, c’est vraiment calme pour nous sur le front de l’airsoft en ce moment. Nous sommes chacun assez pris les week-ends et Rikimaru à pas mal d’occupations, surtout depuis qu’il est papa. Par contre, pour ne pas trop nous ennuyer on va aller au MICROMANIA GAME SHOW 2009 à la fin du mois, à Paris. Nous serons plusieurs dont Rikimaru et Kasumi. Cela va nous faire du bien de nous amuser et de nous exploser les yeux et les tympans avec les tests et nouveautés en jeux vidéo. Cela n’a l’air de rien, mais c’est un salon très physique : beaucoup de bruit et de monde, du matin jusqu’au soir. J’emporterai mon sac à dos d’airsoft avec une bonne provision de Mars et de Dark Dog !

Earlier this month marked Final Fantasy VIII’s tenth anniversary on 9/9/09. Who’d have thought that we were already at the ten year mark for the eighth game in the series? Especially considering that Final Fantasy XIII has yet to be even be released! So I figured I’d take this opportunity to look back on one of the arguably less-loved entries in the series. Personally I’m quite find of FFVIII, but I’m quite aware of the game’s many flaws. Still, it’s a game that I’ve found to be hard to forget, even after ten years. And a quick warning before I continue: Spoilers Ahead

The date was Thursday, September 9th 1999. Final Fantasy VII had come out just two years before, changing the way gamers outside of Japan viewed RPGs from the East. On the tails of FFVII had come a slew of JRPGs that most likely never would have been localized otherwise: Tales of Destiny, Grandia, Breath of Fire 3, Xenogears, SaGa Frontier, and many other niche JRPGs. The media had touted Final Fantasy VII as the game that sold the Playstation. The game itself had pushed Final Fantasy to the top of many American gamers’ minds. Naturally, Final Fantasy VIII had a tough act to follow.

The demo didn’t really help, either. If anything, it probably set a lot of peoples’ expectations too high. FFVIII’s demo featured the Dollet mission from the first two hours of the game’s story. In this mission you control Squall, the taciturn and partially amnesiac protagonist, as he goes on a mission to a distant country as part of his school’s SeeD exam (not that you know what all this means at this point). The demo ends with Squall barely escaping from a giant robotic spider, which eventually gets gunned down by some anonymous person (who’s later replaced with Quistis in the main game) in a spectacular show of the PS1’s ability to show off pre-rendered cutscenes. Exciting, right? I know it got me excited. The game seemed like it would contain even more crazy, action-filled parts than its predecessor.

…And then the actual game came out. Final Fantasy VIII had a much different tone than the rest of the series, which sounds redundant after Final Fantasy VII had already done just that. The whole medieval setup had already been thrown out the window in the two games before in exchange for darker, more modern settings. FFVIII on the other hand featured a world just like our own. There were computers (the kind you’d expect in the late 90’s, anyway) and cars and people wore fancy leather jackets with fur collars. You know. Just like our world. And then they tossed in some crazier stuff like guardian forces and sorceresses and Time Compression (more on that later). The game itself starts at a school, the type of environment you hardly ever saw in other games in the series. You’re not on a mission (yet), you’re not traveling around the world with your chocobo buddy, you aren’t searching for some crystal. You’re… in school.

Final Fantasy VIII also started a trend in the series of focusing on the theme of love. The opening cinema practically beats you on the head with the idea that yes, this game is a love story. Look, the main character and the love interest! Hugging! How romantic… Right. So you know right from the beginning that somewhere in the story that’s going to come up. More on that later as well.

The game did have its share of action-packed segments similar to that featured in the demo, of course. The first two discs were full of them: the assault against the Galbadian President’s train outside of Timber, the assassination attempt on the Sorceress Edea at the end of disc 1, the escape from the D-District prison and subsequent assault on the Galbadian missile base, the mission to reclaim Balamb Garden, and lastly the battle between Balamb and Galbadia Gardens. All of these parts served to move the game’s story along in a fun, yet somewhat chaotic manner. I personally started to wonder where the game was going, especially with that really confusing reveal in disc 2. That part of the story is one of the game’s weakest links in terms of storytelling. But the story managed to chug along interestingly even after that and I forgave it.

…And then disc 3 began. Remember that whole thing about the game being a love story? Congratulations, you’ve just hit it! Like a brick wall. Or so it may have seemed to some people who reached that point. The game actually provides some decent development between Squall and the main heroine Rinoa beforehand. All the player had to do was pay attention to the dialogue and… choose all the right choices in certain scenes. Unfortunately, Squaresoft dropped the ball somewhat here. I fondly recall finishing the second disc after all of the excitement from the epic battle between the Balamb and Galbadia Gardens only to find myself bewildered at Squall’s sudden change of heart at the beginning of disc 3. In retrospect (and two playthroughs later), his change in attitude isn’t all that surprising. You know what they say, you never realize how important something (or someone) is to you until you lose them. And so Squall finally loses his cool and distant demeanor when Rinoa falls under a mysterious coma. What a way to kick off a love story.

The story only gets stranger throughout disc 3, culminating in the clumsy introduction of the real villain towards the end of the disc. Even after the whole love story thing gets resolved and the main character finally sorts out his feelings (for the most part), that’s not the end! Oh no, there’s more! Now you have to go to the future (or something) to fight some evil sorceress! From the future! How do you get there, you ask? Why, through Time KCompression! Perfectly logical given everything you’ve done in the last three discs, right? RIGHT? And it gets even better than that. There’s crazy time loops and paradoxes involved to make things even more epic…ly confusing.

In retrospect, Final Fantasy VIII was a game that I always enjoyed intensely at the beginning, but disliked at the end. Most games that I’ve played that seek to tell stories start off rather slow, gradually build up speed through various plot developments, and end excitingly. Final Fantasy VIII, on the other hand, is a game that begins on a rather high note, stays interesting through most of the first two discs, and promptly drops off towards the end of the third disc. By the time I’ve gotten to the fourth disc, I find myself desiring nothing more than to just get the game over with. Whereas many other Final Fantasy games have me excited to take onthe last boss and wrap up the story… Final Fantasy VIII has me being fed up and tired as I fondly reminisce about the earlier parts of the game. As much as I love Final Fantasy VIII, I cannot deny that the game’s story falls apart towards the end.

So how does Final Fantasy VIII hold up against the rest of the series? It’s hard to say, really. Everyone has their favorite Final Fantasy. I will say that FFVIII serves as one of the more memorable entries in the series, though. Whether you loved the story or hated it, it’s the kind of story that I found stuck in my mind rather easily. It was also the first Final Fantasy game to make a love story such a central part of the plot, which carried on somewhat in the two games after it. The Junction system, while cumbersome to many, was a huge departure from the rest of the series and sets FFVIII apart on its own. Final Fantasy VIII was also the first game in the series to feature an easily accessible mini-game, which would also be continued in the two games after it. Yet another important contribution was the change in the battle menu design that had been present since Final Fantasy II. Instead of a static menu constantly occupying the bottom of the screen, FFVIII featured smaller menus that appeared as each characters’ turn came up with a smaller menu displaying hit point totals.

Perhaps the middle game in each generation is just doomed to be the less-loved oddball? I mean, look at Final Fantasies II, V, and XI. Whether you loved it or hated it, though, Final Fantasy VIII was yet another important entry in the series that served to advance the series and make it what it is today. As for what the Final Fantasy series is today… that’s a whole other rant.

I just bought myself a Dead or Alive Extra Figure: Kasumi Special feat. Yamashita Shunya figure by Sega. This was originally a UFO catcher/claw machine prize, but I bought it in a local toy shop last weekend.

While this figure features Kasumi in one of her alternate costumes, another version of the figure, featuring Kasumi in her signature blue and white costume, was also produced. You can view the figure’s official product page here.

I’m not a fan of Dead or Alive at all; I actually hate the games, but I still think the girls are pretty. This figure is really nice for a “prize” figure, so I just went ahead and bought it.

Most of the other prize figures I’ve seen usually have poorly-made faces, but as you can see above, this figure’s face is quite pretty. Her having a nice face was part of the reason why I wanted to buy her in the first place.

More pictures (and comments) below!

This figure’s body is gorgeous, and I mean that in the least perverted sense of the phrase. The DoA girls were never skinny or muscular, but Shunya Yamashita’s touch can easily be seen in this figure’s curves.

The only problems with this figure are the visible seams here and there (along her underarm/sideboob in the photo above), but the overall quality and detailing of the figure balances that out. I’m not one to complain though; a figure like this is really good for a UFO catcher prize, especially if you live in a country where UFO catchers have ugly/cheap-looking stuffed toys as prizes like I do.

—

All pictures taken by El. If you want to ogle more nice prize figures and collectibles by Sega, head on over to http://segaprize.com/.

Glou ! Fume ! On va y aller !

Là maintenant, sitôt que Riki aura fini sa Dark dog (Boisson Officielle) et nos amis leur “clop”, on va se lancer dans un CSG. CSG = Chacun Sa Gueule. Avec 3 vies.

Shark, Geoffrey, Rikimaru, Kasumi

C’est par ces mots “Cessez le tir” que nous avons fait la connaissance de Shark et Geoffrey. En effet, ils sont arrivés et ont entendu un tir de snipe de Rikimaru, suivi quelques instants après de rafales de G36C. En habitués de ces bruits, ils ont tout de suite compris qu’il y avait d’autres airsofteurs sur place. Ils étaient venus pour aménager un peu la zone à la machette. Ils n’avaient pas tout leur équipement habituel, car ils n’avaient pas prévu de jouer. Geoffrey n’avait aucune protection et seul Shark avait son masque. Heureusement, désormais j’emporte toujours un masque de rechange, ne voulant pas me voir privé de jouer au cas ou je démolirai le premier. Donc, j’ai pu le prêter à Geoffrey. Shark avait un pistolet MK1, et Geoffrey une carabine automatique M4 ? Je sais plus…

Spooky has been spending most of her free time at the beach surfing. I hope her studies will not suffer. She came to me the other day saying I should take a break away from my studies and go to the beach and later I saw her and Lan making plans for a beach party.

Friday came around and it was such a beautiful day I thought about
skipping class, but some how I managed to pull myself out of bed and get there. To my surprise I did not see Waff or Spooky in the classroom. Lan whispered to me that morning during before class that they all planned to have the the beach party today after school and told me to pass the information on. She said she had come prepared for the beach, looking around seeing we were alone, she lifted up her skirt showing off her bikini. She then said she planned to ditch her last class and head straight to the beach before all the good sun was gone.

I spoke with Kasumi in the hallway while getting my books out for
biology class, my locker is right next to hers and I started telling her
about my morning, no Waff or Spooky, Lan’s plan to skip PE, the beach party, and about a strange dream I had of her turning into a cat and started to hunt mice, haha, I had a good laugh about that last one. I was telling Kasumi I might ditch PE to leave for the beach early and hinting to her that she should do the same, though she seemed not to hear, in fact she seemed to be in her own dream world ever since I mentioned my dream to her. The bell rang and we ran off to our next class.

The day went on forever and I kept glancing at the clock, when PE finally came around, I changed into my shorts then went out to the field I could not see Lan anywhere. Our instructor told us to jog 3 laps around the track, on my first lap I jogged slowly letting everyone pass me, and then looking both ways I veered off to the right and went through a hole in the fence, and kept on jogging back to the dorm in order to change into my swimming suit. I have a bathing suit in the Locker room at school, but it is not the cute bikini that I wanted to wear for the beach.

When I finally got to the beach, the first person I saw was Lan, she was laying down soaking up the sun rays. I asked her about Spooky and Waff, but she said she had not seen them. I tried calling them on my cell, but got no answer. Lan and I walked along the beach taking in the surroundings, it was a tropical paradise, a place to forget about everything. As we walked I saw a seal out on the ocean, it was moving closer to the shore, I soon realized it was a person surfing, it was Spooky.

Lan and I started to wade out into the water waving to Spooky, then Waff popped his head out of the water, he was wearing snorkeling gear. We all played in the water, I love playing in the water especially with friends, and with the hot sun burning down on us, it felt so refreshing.

Kasumi eventually showed and then Napili. Napili had been the last one to come, she was going to ditch class with Lan, but she had to meet with one of her teachers after class.

We all played at the beach and in the water until the sun went down. It is so pretty when the sun goes down and gets so orange reflecting on the clear blue water. Once the sun set, it got cold real fast. I wrapped my towel around my body and we all hurried back to the dorms joking and laughing all still so excited about the fun we had at the beach.