Final battle time!

At last, Shaoran and the group have met Fei Wong Reed face-to-face. Oh, I'm so excited. Please don't screw up the ending, CLAMP!

I can't do this...

At least not 5 times in a row. Sora is seriously giving me a headache from lack of oxygen.

Well, I'm not giving up. I know I can sing this if I work hard enough. I might not enter the competition with this after all, but I at least want to be able to sing it.

Alright, let's do this one more time before bed!

Sora - Hearts Grow (Birdy the Mighty Decode)

I've recently taken an interest in this song. If this appears on Ichibanzai 2009's karaoke list, this is gonna be my opening.

-----

itsu ka miorosu koto ni tsukareta sora wa aoi iro o nakusu darou ka
tobikau musuu no kanjou no ue aoi sora wa hitotsu dake

doko ka de kikoeru arasoi mo sugu soba ni aru waraigoe mo
itsu datte subete wa kikoenai Story wa hitotsu dakara

hirogaru sekai no chigau basho ni onaji shunkan ochita
kanashimi egao mo douji ni miru no wa kono sora dake

itsu ka miorosu koto ni tsukareta sora wa aoi iro o nakusu darou ka
kazoekirenai DORAMA o nagame, naze kawarazu ni irareru no?
nani mo shirazu ni hitobito wa yuku kyou mo sorezore no Story e
tobikau musuu no kanjou no ue
aoi sora wa hitotsu dake

dare ka to kuraberarete bakari
sonna hibi no naka kakureteru
ikiru imi ni kanjirareru you na Story o mitsuketai

hirogaru sekai no naka ni afureru hodo hito ga ite mo
sorezore no kawari nante dare ni mo dekinai kara

itsu ka miageta sora wa nani mo shirazu ni chiisana sekai tsukuru bokura
taikutsu sou ni nagametetanda demo hito wa onaji ja nai yo
fumidasu hohaba, taisetsu na hito, ibasho, sorezore no kanjou wa
fureatte mo kasanari wa shinai
sugosu toki wa hitotsu dake

chijou no yoru ga hanayagu hodo ni fushigi to setsunaku narunda
kyou surechigai, kayotta kokoro, toorisugita hito
sunao na kimochi o mamoritsudzukereba
douji ni tsutawanai omoi mo umarete shimau ne

hitori miageta yozora hatenai yami ni hakanai yume ga kagayaku yo
miwataseba hora kocchi o mite to tsugitsugi ni sakebu hoshi tachi
makezu ni hikaru machi no NEON wa yozora e to muketa Message
chiisana hoshi de sore demo bokura ikiteru kara

itsu ka miorosu koto ni tsukareta sora wa aoi iro o nakusu darou ka
kazoekirenai DORAMA o nagame, naze kawarazu ni irareru no?
nani mo shirazu ni hitobito wa yuku kyou mo sorezore no Story e
tobikau musuu ni kanjou no ue
aoi sora wa hitotsu dake

kotoba mo naku dare yori mo nagai toki o kizande

-----

It might take some time to learn though, since it's faster than most other Japanese songs I know how to sing without reading the lyrics.

Oh, I just tried, and I realised memorising the lyrics ain't gonna be my only problem. To sound nice, I have to heighten my tone. That wouldn't be too hard IF ONLY almost every sentence wasn't so long and consisted of so many syllables!

P.S. Happy Chinese New Year. Hopefully, a cow will finally jump over the moon this year.

My line's goin' topsy turvy again!

Just when I thought my line was picking up, the trouble comes back. For the past couple of days, I've had above average line. That is, I don't disconnect every 5 minutes or so. In fact, the fastest I would disconnect is every 30 minutes.

I was so happy. I thought my line would be happy too since I wouldn't have to call some guy with tools to rip it (modem and cables) open. But, what do you know? I'm at level 50 now and am desperately trying to get to level 51, but what does my blasted line give me? Disconnect every 3 minutes!

Great! What a smart thing to do, my Internet line. You just earned yourself a free trip to the surgeon's office without anesthetic! I hope to hear you scream your soundless screams and yell with your inaudible voice! Haahahahaha! Oh great, I'm sounding like Laharl. (DO you know how much we've missed you?! No one to do the cleaning, the cooking and the laundry!)

Oh well, I guess I can get like 0.5% every time i log in. I'm only a little ways to level 51, then I can kiss Monster Carnival goodbye, and say hello to mass poaching!

Reunion Dinner Tonight

But don't expect any pics since none of you are part of my family! And we have no intention of adopting another living organism into our family.

Otaku anxiety!

1. Tsubasa Chronicles manga production has come to a complete halt for nearly a month now! I know they stated at the end of chapter 171 that they were gonna take a break, but the waiting is driving me nuts!

2. Clannad ~After Story~ has once again proven to be one of the greatest anime I've ever watched. Why does it feel so appealing to me? I dunno. It kinda gives me this weird feeling that heaven can exist on earth. One of Clannad ~After Story~'s best qualities is that it makes full use of completely cliched characters. The characters are no rare sight in anime history, yet they've managed to present us with a cast of lovable and memorable characters. And damn do I love their jokes. Too bad I'm gonna have to wait another week more before the next episode is released.

3. It's hard to pick which anime to discard. Now that I have so much storage space in my computer, I can take about 6-8 series in one go, but I really really feel bad about wasting so much space. Besides, the anime this season seems to be lousy yet they hold some potential to be interesting... Sigh... What am I supposed to do? To delete or not to delete?

4. I still can't find a pair of identical guns as a base to make my haseo cosplay! Heck, I haven't found a tailor that can make my outfit either! And the convention is only 5 months away!

5. I want my Lucky Star disc back, Youngblood! Although I do have a second copy of the anime, I still feel better if I had the discs I bought with my own money.

I beat Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4!

At last, I've completed P4, WITH the true ending too! Whoever that missed the main character summoning Izanagi-no-Okami should cry. It's the coolest Persona-summoning since the Evokers from P3. And how MC unleashed Myriad Truth and blasted Izanami-no-Okami was just plain badass.

Of course, the final battle was insanely tough. If it weren't for Yosuke's insanely high attacking power (both physical and magic) and my arsenal of Null Element Personas, I doubt I could've won, especially since that...thing had two forms and the first form is already strong enough to deplete all my party members' SP, not to mention being invincible for the last 2 turns.

Then, there's the final form and it's even madder skills that can instant kill your whole party if it connects, and its whole arsenal of Almighty element attacks. Finally, the battle will end once it starts using that sure-kill attack. It killed everyone in my party, including MC. Good thing it's actually supposed to be like there, or there goes 2 hours down the drain.

CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA!!!

I passed by driving test AND got the A-Level results I was hoping for! Now, I'm gonna flick on Advance Wars and start dealing epic pain to all the COs! Later, I'll deal another helping of pain to Izanami in P4!

Oh yeah! I'm in high spirits today! Now, if only Maple would work without disconnecting every 10 minutes.

Recruitment time #2

I've been meaning to do this post in a while but I always forget.

-----
Looking for a Miyuki fan!! As in someone who can say, "I wanna marry her!"

We already have a fan each of the other three girls of Lucky Star, so now, we just wanna look for a 4th one to complete the set.

The current fans and their girls are:
Yours truly - Konata
Winger - Kagami
Youngblood - Tsukasa (close enough)

Someone, please fill in the final spot! So, we can move on to find fans of the supporting cast next. And if there are any, we'd like an Akira fan and a Minoru fan too!

Phew... housecleaning mission complete

Finally finished polishing EVERY wooden and leather furniture in the house, except my sis's study table. She keeps sleeping and refuses to move the stuff off her table. Well, it's not my business if her table dries up and cracks.

In other news, P4 just threw me a whole new twist in the story. It turns out that the mastermind behind the serial murder is just another player in an even bigger scheme. Somebody has been watching the party, the villains and even the king of the fog, Ameno-sagiri.

Now, who the hell could possibly use a monster as a mere pawn?

Why, a god, of course. If memory serves, the first Persona you got in P4 was Izanagi. Adachi has the same Persona. Any idea who the true conductor is now? Well duh. Anyone who has even a simple knowledge of Japanese mythology (or if you've ever played Okami) should know that it's Izanami, ruler of the underworld.

As to what her intentions are, I intend to find out as I beat the final dungeon.

Haha... P4 sure keeps throwing us twists. However, you only encounter Izanami as a secret boss. That is, if you intend to get the true ending instead of the normal ending. Oh, and uh... you've met Izanami many times in the game. The first you met her was when she shook your hand. Recall. Who was the first person to shake your hand besides Dectective Dojima and Nanako.

Crap! More chores! Gotta fold the laundry.

And one more thing, Ar Tornelico 2 will be released tomorrow. I may have missed the first game, but I sure as hell ain't gonna miss the 2nd one.

SPOILERS FOR P4!!!!

Cubix, if you still have the time to read this blog, then do it! If you had gotten the bad ending, then you probably don't know the truth behind the whole event.

From the start of the game, you've been going on a wild goose chase. P4 is similar in many ways to P3. In fact, both had plot twists based off similar elements. First, the bad guys aren't really that bad. Second, the good guys aren't really that good either.

For the bad guys part, each of the "other selves" were just suppressed emotions gone berserk. When the original self faces that self, the "other selves" turn into Personas. In other words, the other self is only trying to reveal itself or risk being suppressed forever.

In P3, the 13 giant Shadows turned humans into mindless zombies. However, it was later discovered that the people would recover. In fact, they were only doing it to delay Death from descending and sending all life on Earth to oblivion. Destroying these Shadows caused Death to finally be reborn and to descend upon the planet.

And here comes the whole spoilers for P4, Namatame is also another example of 'bad guy not bad'. The truth is, you spent the entire game chasing after two culprits who weren't even culprits. In fact, there were only two actual murders and one actual attempt.

Now, for Namatame's case. He knew about the Midnight Channel. He saw the silhouettes that appeared and easily figured out who they were. Using his identity as a deliveryman, he rang the doorbell, kidnapped the people and threw them into the TV. The people who entered the TV soon encounter their 'other selves' and are nearly killed. Finally, he was cornered by Dojima, so he took Nanako and jumped into the TV, got it memorised?

From the way that was said, he sounded like the killer, doesn't he? Wrong! Here's the first bit, Namatame's first 'victim' was Yukiko, NOT Mayumi Yamano. Second, he didn't know anything about Shadows or what kind of world the TV world actually was.

Here are the events that transpired, Namatame discovered the Midnight Channel. He also gained the power to go through TVs. He saw the silhouette of Mayumi Yamano. She died the next day. He saw the silhouette of Saki Konishi. He went to warn her. She did not listen. She died. Namatame came to a conclusion that the silhouettes actually showed who would be the next to die. Namatame saw Yukiko's silhouette. He decided that the safest place was inside the TV. He kidnapped her and threw her in. You went in and saved her. Namatame thought it was because the murder attempt had been thwarted, so he repeated the process for everyone else.

Understand now, Cubix? Haha... both of us were SO convinced that it was Namatame that we never even thought that somebody else was pulling the strings! So, who was it? Who killed Yamano and Saki-senpai? Well, he was the one who sent you those warning letters. Remember the line, 'Somebody you care for WILL BE PUT IN and killed.' 'WILL BE', not 'I WILL'. That indicated that Namatame wasn't the only killer. Of course, you had to hear his story to figure out that he was NOT the killer at all.

If a deliveryman wasn't the killer, who else could keep track of you and the victims, and send you those warning letters without raising suspicion? Think hard, who else is the only person that stood out in the whole town? Who can go to Dojima's house, drop a letter without anyone even lifting a brow?

C'mon, it didn't take me long.

Just think of everyone you've met throughout the whole game. Who could be the murderer?

To tell you the truth, I threw my first suspicions on Teddie. Being an unknown and all, but I soon knew it couldn't have been him because he had no reason to do so. Besides, he cared way too much for Nanako for it to have been him.

Then, I knew there was only one person left. The only one who acted the strangest in that small, simple town. Since I played P3 and noticed a lot of similarities between the storyline, I decided to take a far-fetched guess. One of the bad guys in P3 had been using the P3 main characters to destroy the 13 huge shadows. He was goofy when he play the good guy role. I decided to use this fact and took my guess.

Well, whaddaya know? I was right. The only occupation to allow contact with all the victims, mainly Saki, besides a deliveryman, was a policeman. The only policeman other than Dojima, of course, was Adachi. Yep, this dimwitted gofer was actually the true mastermind behind all the murders and the whole P4 story. Haha... it was easy to explain everything after that.

He loved Yamano and couldn't accept Namatame. Yamano rejected him and Adachi threw her into the TV. Saki discovered the body. Adachi noticed Saki continuously meeting Namatame and misunderstood. He threw her in too. Namatame informed the police of the Midnight Channel. Adachi picked up the phone and acted like he didn't believe Namatame. Adachi told Namatame to, "Find them shelter and save them yourself." That was all Adachi needed to do to continue the chain of events. Then, Mitsuo came to take the blame. Adachi had to get rid of him or no more murders and attempts would continue. Adachi threw Mitsuo into the TV, secretly, but you saved him. Unfortunately, Naoto wanted the case to continue. She questioned Mitsuo's claims and found so many holes that it was obvious Mitsuo was not the killer. That allowed Adachi's plan to continue until, well, you caught Namatame and get the normal ending.

That was long. People who are interested in mysteries should really go read P4's story. It may have mainly been fantasy, but the overall story is pretty much detective fiction. Kinda like Death Note, but a lot harder to find the cause of death and thus, the method of murder.

Info For Retarded Bunny

Since you asked, I'll tell you at the best of my knowledge. The anime that will be or has been released in January are the following:

- The Tower of DRUAGA: The Sword of Uruk (sequel of The Aegis of Uruk)
- Asu no Yoichi
- Rideback
- Tetsuwan Birdy Decode 2 (Sequel of Tetsuwan Birdy Decode)
- Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th
- Sengoku Basara
- Chrome-Shelled Regios
- Examurai Sengoku
- Kemono no Sou-ja Erin
- Slayers Revolution R (Sigh... another one)
- Sora o Miageru Shōjo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai
- Genji Monogatari Sennenki (This one seemed interesting)
- Maria Holic
- Hetalia - Power Axis
- Fresh Pretty Cure (Why does this sound familiar?)
- Kodomo no Jikan Nigakki

That's about it. At least, that's only what I can remember.

Hachi gonna give yew da pain!

Finally, after playing Advance Wars: Dual Strike for so long, I've collected enough funds to recruit Hachi! And I'm bringing on the hurt with the guy.

Hachi is a former Orange Star CO with similar attributes to Colin. However, Hachi is a more advanced version of Colin. Colin gets 20% cheaper units with a 20% decrease in firepower. Hachi gets 10% cheaper units with NO decrease in firepower.

His CO Power allows him to get units at 20% cheaper rates. And his Super CO causes all cities to be turned into bases, besides making everything half-priced. Imagine that!

Throw him with Sensei and you've got an elephant army team. Throw him with Kanbei or Max and you have a stampede of overpowered tanks.

Haha! I'm gonna have some fun with them Black Hole COs now!

First looks of 2009

Akikan:
Oh great... Another Rosario to Vampire or To Love Ru. Well, that kicks this one of my list. I was hoping for another Shugo Chara, but I guess shows like that won't come by that often.

Chrome-Shelled Regios:
The first episode looks cool. But it doesn't seem to provide much insight to the whole story. Well, I'll keep a lookout for the next few episodes.

Asu no Yoichi:
The boy sure can wave a wooden sword around like a pro. Too bad this is probably gonna be some ecchi anime again. But it has pique my interest since his skills with a wooden sword easily equals Kenshin and his sakabatou.

White Album:
Not my type of show, so I didn't watch.

Maria Holic:
Can't find a subbed one ready for download.

Rideback:
Didn't seem any bit interesting, so I'll leave it alone.

Humour yourself

Since I've got nothing to post, I might as well post up some jokes to humour my fellow readers.

----------
The rules in various Chinese countries in Asia:

Hong Kong: Everything is allowed, except those banned by law
Singapore: Everything is banned, except those allowed by law
Taiwan: Everything is allowed, including those banned by law
China: Everything is banned, including those allowed by law

----------
One day, Sherlock Holmes and Watson went camping. That night, Holmes woke up and saw a vast amount of stars above him. He then asked, "Watson, what is your opinion regarding these stars above us?"
Watson replied, "I think that if there are so many stars out there, one of them might support life and that we humans are not alone in the universe after all."
"Watson, you fool!" Holmes exclaimed, "Our tent has been stolen!"

----------
What happens when yellow peas are thrown up?

It turns into green peas when going up. It turns into red peas when it lands on the ground. (Cold, huh?)

----------
How do you seperate the red peas from the green peas in a bowl of mixed peas?

Use your hands. There're only two peas in the bowl. One red, one green.

----------

That's all for today.

I went to Port Island!

I can't believe it! I actually got to see Port Island again! Gekkoukan High, Paulownia Mall, Shirakawa Boulevard (Ok, I'd rather not remember that place) etc. I never thought I'd get to relive the wondrous world of Persona 3! It's just too bad I wasn't allowed to run around and the whole trip was cutscenes-only.

Chihiro and that principal who sounds like he should've retired decades ago were there, and they even had several references to events in P3. The power outage in 2009 due to a Shadow attack, former student council president (and SEES member) Mitsuru Kirijo. And there was Mr. Edogawa too. I remember him as one of the best teachers there was because he taught me how to read tarot cards! Ah... his lessons about the Qabbalah.

Sigh... too bad the main protagonist of P3 died after defeating the shadows. If only he were still alive, it'd be cool to see him again. And it's too bad we don't get to see any SEES members. It's only a 2-year gap between the two games, but all SEES members have either graduated or died (2 died in P3 and they were only third-year high schoolers.) by then.

I would've so liked to see the SEES members' faces if they knew that Persona users still exist. And I'd like to see P4 characters' faces if they knew that Persona users have existed before them.

Ah... that was an interesting experience. Well, time to Maple. But I think my line's gonna suck tonight.

I loath my line

Stupid internet line loves to make fun of me. For no apparent reason, it will decide to disconnect just when I turn on Maple or Firefox. For an equally absent reason, it also might decide to keep working for hours without problems. The catch is that it usually does that at 12am, when my mom wants me upstairs.

It's a miracle that I'm now level 48. Yeah well, that's what you get for an internet line that disconnects every 10 minutes. In other words, I don't even have enough time for a whole MC. Damn!

On the bright side, it does allow me to collect MC coins without fear of leveling up too fast. I've already gotten 40. It's not much, but at least I still have a long way to go before I reach my level limit.

After that, I guess I'll be stuck with PQs. Sigh... why don't they make an MC for level 51 and above? I guess they make that up with PQs, although they aren't as efficient as MC. Of course, I'll be dc-ing even more often.

Persona!

P.S. This was posted twice because my line just disconnected. No joke.

Shuuichi is alive!?

OK, that is just cliched! But then again, the way he died was way too vague. We just saw the guy got shot 6 times in the chest and caught in an explosion due to a shot to the car engine...

Sure, it sounds horrible, but we're talking about Akai Shuuichi here, the only guy in the FBI who can rival Kudo Shinichi (Conan) and Hattori Heiji.

Well, if Shuuichi really is back, does that mean that the manga is drawing to a close, or are they gonna pull out more cliches by making Shuuichi disappear again?

I'm not criticising Gosho Aoyama for the cliches though. After all, he's not a master storyline writer. He just does well at throwing us puzzles and riddles, which is the whole point of Detective Conan. Of all the cases so far, I've only been able to solve 5-6 without looking at the answer. Most of the remaining, I didn't even make any progress.

Ok, seems like my ride is here. Better get to driving school.

3 gone, 4 to go

So another one has left us. I wish you good luck in both studies and health, Carol. Well, maybe less on the health so you can come see me when you fall sick sick 6-10 years later. That is, when I'm a licensed and qualified doctor.

Yeah, I'm mean.

Of our group of 7, 3 are no longer permanent residents of Penang. The good thing is, the remaining four will remain here for at least another 6 months.

I know some of you are feeling down now that another friend has left, more so since this person will be less likely to come back every year. But look, we're only 18-19 years old (this year), we still have at least 50 years of lifespan left. We will all meet again, just not as often as during our college year.

To Youngblood, Winger and Retarded Bunny (I refuse to use your CBox username): If y'all still still feel down, how 'bout we flick on Maple and do some party ks-ing?

Good luck, Hime-sama!!

Poor, poor hime-sama got drafted into the army. Okay, that's exaggerating. He got selected for PLKN and, apparently, is dying there. From what I've heard, it ain't supposed to be that bad, but Hime-sama can't seem to take it.

Oh well, better him than me. I could probably take it, but I wouldn't want to waste 3 months for something that's like the Scouts but has none of my old buddies in it. Got it memorised?

Okay. Persona!

The holidays have ended!

But it doesn't matter to me. At least not until I realise that I have to retake. I'll be looking for a job starting tomorrow. Maybe one of those Japanese restaurants in Pulau Tikus, or maybe some video game stores or bookstores.

I'd like to give MPH a try since I once intended to send something for publishing there. Never did. I just wasn't satisfied with what I wrote.

My A/C broke down... again. This is the third time. The first time was a clogged pipe, the 2nd time was the condenser, and now it's the whole circuit board! Poor, poor A/C...

Oh well, it hasn't been very hot these few nights, so sleeping without an A/C is still manageable. Good thing it ain't CNY yet.

Okay, that's it. Time for P4. Persona!!

Another addition to the MegaTen series!

For non-gamers, MegaTen is what we RPGers call the Shin Megami Tensei series, a series that always contain elements of devil summoning.

Persona 4 is the final MegaTen game and perhaps the last good game to be released on the PS2, depending on how Ar Tonelico 2 does next year.

P4 started out pretty much similar to P3, although many elements are different and it took me some time to get used to. P4 begins with the classic anime scene of the main character arriving in a new town, and his meeting with Igor in the Velvet Room.

P4 still throws those pain in the brain quizzes that requires at least our Form 4 knowledge. You can't expect a 12-year-old to know what Messopotamia, Egypt, Indus, and Huang He have in common, right?

Stuff I liked about P4:
- The glasses (this is their new special gear, replacing the Evokers of P3)
- Music (although the town music sounds like a Christmas Carol)
- Gameplay (pretty much the same)
- The quizzes
- The new dungeon (It's a world inside the TV.)
- More save points

Stuff I miss from P3:
- Evokers (these were the coolest methods of summoning I've seen)
- Burn My Dread (the opening theme)
- The main character (MC in P4 doesn't look half as cool as MC in P3, even though they're both silent protagonists)

Okay, I have more to say about P4 but I'm lazy and I wanna go play it now, so screw you. If you've got a PS2, just get this game NOW!

And my sister got her new phone, so I finally have the phone all to myself!