Watching My Own Videos...

You know how actors may be asked in an interview what they thought of their movie? And then they respond with "Oh, I haven't seen it. I hate watching myself." Yeah, I'm like that too.

Sure, I may not have a big movie to be shown on the big screen, but I actually really really really really don't like watching my own videos on YouTube. I can record, edit and then watch it in full before I upload to YouTube and feel okay about it, yet, it irks me to watch the video on YouTube! I have no idea what it is that's so different...maybe because I know that other people are watching it and judging it and judging me and I don't want to add to that...somehow. I'm really not sure. It's just one of those mind-boggling things that no one will be able to give me an answer for.

I just don't like watching myself.

But on that note, I'll leave you with my latest upload...the first in 6 months! I got henna (for the first time) so I thought I'd share it with you guys. It was quite beautifully done by Faheema Patel at Junoon Designs.

The Kon - Day Two

Described in one word: epic. I'm posting this a bit late because I've been so exhausted from the epicness of the weekend that it took time to recover.

The events held on Sunday were certainly more interesting than those of Saturday! I noticed that a few people complained about this on Saturday when they saw the events list for Sunday. I thought it was a strategic move to get people to come out on Sunday. For some reason, the culture here in Barbados is to stay home, kick back and relax on Sundays. And, while that's all nice and well, it shouldn't be the thing that keeps you home from a really cool event. Regardless, due to this fact of Barbadian life, Sunday's numbers, good as they were, didn't seem to be as large as Saturday's. Regardless, Sunday was indeed an excellent day!

There were fewer movies shown and more panel discussions/workshops held with featured speakers like Marshall Candland, a technical director at Industrial Light & Magic who worked on movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers, Iron Man and Aliens and Cowboys, as well as some guys from DC Comics! Marshall showed a short presentation of how they created the effects in movies like Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean. I missed out on the panel discussions/workshops with DC unfortunately but I heard they showed some previews of upcoming works. Very cool stuff.

The Kosplay Kompetition was a hit this year! Last year it didn't come off for whatever reason and I was sorely disappointed but this year it happened! I kinda wish I had entered the competition now...but anyway! The winner was a guy cosplaying Cloud, second place went to Lara Croft and third went to Tifa. The only big problem I had with AnimeKon this year was the judging for the cosplay competition! There was a girl who portrayed L from Death Note extremely well and did not get into the top three. As they were using crowd cheers to judge the top 3 and then again for the placement of the top 3, L received louder cheers than Tifa did...by far! Maybe if the competition is to be judged by crowd reaction and cheers, a decibel reader should be used...it's the most fair and accurate way to judge, don't you think?

Then the night ended with a BANG! with an outstanding performance by Standing Penance, a local band who blew the roof off that night! It was a massively high-energy performance that completely blew me away. Loved it. It was what AnimeKon needed to end the entire event...with an EPIC performance.

Huge Thank You's to Melissa and Omar at AnimeKon! You guys really outdid yourselves this year with an impressive comeback from last year's disappointments. All the hard work throughout the past year was certainly not in vain. Of course, there's always room for improvement and so I look forward to next year being bigger and better than this! (No pressure!) But don't worry, after this year, there'll be lots of buzz and hype when next year rolls around.

I've had some amazing times this year but this was, by far, the best weekend of 2011!

The Kon - Day One

Described in one word: impressive. And I use the word impressive because I'm impressed with the degree of improvements I saw this year!

• larger floor space with adequate room between booths. Last year, all the booths were packed into one room. This year, they've expanded the area and nice placed people apart, with artists in one section and gamers and anime lovers in another section.
• more anime and even some manga!
• AnimeSpot was there showcasing some manga, 
• The theatre showed all anime films like Spirited Away, Appleseed and Akira
•  Anime music video displays by local editors like the amazing soulvws and JMRE09
• I even got to watch a random episode of Bleach. Lovely! I'm not sure if other random episodes from other series showed since I moved around a lot. 
• more events spanning 2 days. Yay! I've seen a lot more fun stuff this year compared to last year.
• amazing green screen room to live out your wildest anime fantasies. Except, it didn't seem like a lot of people utilized it unfortunately. It looks like such an amazing concept...I haven't done it myself lol but I might on Day Two!

I cosplayed as Osaki Nana from NANA this year...my first real attempt at cosplay. Turns out that I did pretty well...it seemed to have been a hit with people. I got a lot of stares and lots of requests for pictures either of or with me. I was feeling quite like a celebrity! I even had a little photoshoot and all (compliments soulvws). Apparently I looked epic. Many people suggested I do it again for day two...I wasn't planning to but I started reconsidering and after telling my mom about my outfit's success, she insisted in a repeat for day 2. And so it will be (because now I have no choice haha).

I met a lot of people (thanks to my eye-catching look) and I got to be very social and friendly. Not something I'm used to...like the mass attention I got. But it was nice being different. I'm not used to getting anyone's attention but it's grown on me and, admittedly, I started to like it. I saw a few others dressed up, though not as impressively if I do say so myself. I was also told that I'm one of the few who looks awesome (talk about ego booster). Ah, my self esteem shot up like a rocket. Oh! I saw a girl cosplay Chun Li. It was nice and it made me decide that I should probably l go for that if I cosplay again. :) We'll see how that goes because I'm not so sure I'll be able to make it to AnimeKon next year and definitely not the year after...or maybe. Medical school is gonna get tougher and I'll be working 7-days a week but who knows!

AK 2011 Excitement!

The AnimeKon 2011 weekend is just four days away! I'm excited! Last year, I tried not to go with high expectations and I guess it was a good thing because I wasn't entirely pleased. The organisers managed to score some hit points with me after responding to my critical blog post about my disappointments and, as this is the second year coming, I've raised the bars of my expectations.

The organisers of AnimeKon have been so kind to seriously take on my few opinions over the past year as they vigorously planned for this year's 2-day events. I know they've done their best to improve things a whole lot so I'll be looking forward to those.

I have all intentions of getting my Canon VIXIA back out of its bag and kick up the old vlogging. It must've been building up some dust over the past 6 months! I've been meaning to do one or two over the past months but never really get to it, for some reason. I've actually somehow reached 101 subscribers! I know it's not much compared to other popular YouTube folks, but it's a big deal to me. =] I'm quite happy to have your subscription and will certainly make greater efforts to create new videos for those who are interested.

So, who's going to AnimeKon 2011 this year? Are you as excited as I am? I'll be there both days this weekend so if you stop by, do say hi!

Olympic Day 2011

Today was Olympic Day 2011 with the theme "Move. Learn. Discover." It's an event in which the sports clubs/federations in Barbados come together and showcase themselves to the general public and encourage participation in the sports of their choosing.

As a past member of the World Taekwondo Federation and the Barbados Fencing Club, I get the lovely choice of who I want to join...not that it really matters. For some reason, the fencing club doesn't have as many members as it deserves because fencing is a pretty great sport...I guess it's just not popular enough here so we tend to represent them at Olympic Day to help build their numbers.

Once upon a time, I used to be involved in various sporting activities like swimming, badminton, taekwondo and fencing. At one point, I was even doing the former three at the same time! That was a time when I was lovely and young and, as you can imagine, fit. I've certainly lost all my fitness and the youthful finesse that comes with it. Of course, being 21, I'm as youthful as an adult can be ;). But this loss came along with my starting of medical school...I gave up each sport one by one...first badminton (because I played for the secondary school I went to moreso than with a club), then taekwondo, swimming and, lastly, fencing. I love all those sports though! As I lack the aggression, fencing and taekwondo weren't exactly my forte but I had good form and got great workouts from them both. I was perfectly average in all these sports...not particularly amazing at any...probably because I lack speed. Hmm...I wonder how much more awesome I could've been if I had the speed to go with my form?

Well, regardless, today I got pretty active. I joined the fencing team for an Orienteering race of some sort. Apparently, that's a sport. Did you know that? It's something like a treasure hunt. It involved a whole lot of walking and running around that tired me out! Sports enough for me. Haha. I also got to play a little badminton again! Oh, how I missed it. It's been 5 years since I last played...I think.

All in all, I had a pretty great day with my friends. Honestly, I meant to get my phone out and film for a vlog but...you know...for some reason...that didn't quite happen. Sigh. I need to make a far greater effort at making a vlog this coming weekend because...it's a full weekend of AnimeKon 2011!

Phlebotomist in the making

Well...I'm not really a phlebotomist (person who takes blood) in the making. Today in Barbados, we had HIV Regional Testing Day at various locations around the island to encourage the population to know their HIV status as it is a disease that has relatively high prevalence in our country.

This is something that happens every year and the organisers at the Ministry of Health usually request the help of the medical students for blood taking. This is what I spent my entire day doing.

I probably took blood from about 50 people or so...maybe a little more. At the location I was stationed, we had about 165 people participate. I very willingly volunteered to be phlebotomist because I really wanted the practice of taking blood...it's something that will be required of me in the years to come and I wanna be able to be agile about it...quick and smooth...in and out...and hopefully with as little pain and as few sticks as possible. I certainly haven't mastered it yet but I'm definitely a whole lot better and somewhat more confident about doing it. Yay!

On another note, I watched the Life In A Day documentary that I was talking about before. To someone without much interest in it, I guess it would be pretty boring because I watched it with my Mom and she fell asleep 20 minutes in. I thought it was a pretty interesting film. It was definitely a really nice thing to see how people spend their days around the world...a very culturally diverse film, for sure. It astounded me that a Korean man was determined to travel around the world by bicycle and has not even been the slightest bit deterred from it because of the 5 accidents and 4 surgeries he's had. All he said was "there are a lot of careless drivers"...he visited 190 countries! He's gotta be fit. Haha. If you're interested in that kind of thing, you should give it a watch...it's an hour and 34 minutes, I believe.

And now...my weekend!

Life In A Day

Almost a year ago, I created a video to participate in the Life In A Day YouTube collaboration movie, a documentary of what July 24 2010 was like all around the world, directed by Kevin Macdonald.

I received an email later in the year to inform me that my video was in the top 100 videos chosen for the movie. Unfortunately, my Mom wasn't too keen on me being a part of it and so I never signed the release forms =( I wasn't too pleased about it but I've moved on. But, to think, there could've been a little piece of me in this movie! Aw well.

I think this'll be a fun watch. I haven't seen it yet but when I do (hopefully sometime this week if I find the time), I'll let you guys know what I think of it. I hope you'll watch it too and let me know what you think as well!

Farewell, Smallville

Ah boy, it's been a long run.

10 seasons. 10 years. 2001-2011. Until I Googled it, I hadn't realised that I started watching Smallville when I was just 11 years old. I could've sworn it's only been 5 years. Haha. Smallville was a series I used to absolutely love! It was so appealing because, at the time, I loved watching "The New Adventures of Lois & Clark' and the idea of a story of the background life of Clark Kent was interesting. I don't remember seasons (and clearly not even years) but when things started changing up more than I expected, I felt a bit iffy about the show...I came to accept things and the direction of the plot but then things started changing a bit too much. As a result, I stopped watching it.

Years later, Smallville came to its series finale, tonight. I started the show, of course, I had to see it to its finish. And so I did. The 2 hour finale felt a bit slow and drawn out to me, I have to admit. After 10 years, it's great to see that the flight and suit came in just 10-15 minutes before the conclusion of the show. Like they just, ya know, slipped it in there at the end.

I haven't been watching Smallville for a couple of years. If it happened to cross my mind or if I had time or if I was utterly bored, I would turn to the CW on a Friday night and watch a random episode of Smallville...not sure about what's happening or why it's happening but just to see what's going on. It's a good thing I did that because the finale left me feeling very confused when it came to a lot of things...nothing at all would've made sense to me had I not seen those random episodes. So, here are a few things that confused me: (Spoiler alert!)

• I thought Lionel Luthor died a good few seasons ago. Why was he there and why was he known for his thirst for genetic research?
• What in the world was that white mist from which a dark hideous creature spurred forth and, not only ripped the man's heart from his chest to give to Lex, but said "I'll do it in exchange for your soul." ??
• And what was that about how Lionel had all the perfect parts from all of Lex's clones? Wasn't that lab burnt or set on fire or blown up or something with all those clones to die except for the little boy?
• I thought Jimmy died! Good ole Jimmy! So, how come he was there at the end in all the hustle and bustle being the Jimmy we knew him to be?

I have to say, I always did love the character that was Alexander Luthor...up until he became super corrupted, made Lana walking kryptonite and died anyway. Speaking of which, I was hoping to see Lana make an appearance in tonight's episode. Practically everyone else did. But back to Lex. I'm sorry Tess had to die (though I never had a chance to watch and get to know her) but at least she did a good deed. I'm so glad Lex forgot everything, became the good man he was deep down inside and was able to have his dream fulfilled. Mr. President in his nice all-white suit.

Regardless of it all, I'm happy with the ending of the series and I'm so glad that it's finally concluded! I'm pretty satisfied, though I don't understand why it took 7 years for Lois and Clark to finally have a proper wedding ceremony.

But, let's be honest now. Tom Welling ain't got nothing on Dean Cain when it came to ripping off his shirt to expose his suit underneath. ;)

Gotta Keep Up To Date

I'm hardly aware of what's going on in the anime/manga community these days. I feel like I'm just drifting further and further away from my place of rest and relaxation. For the past few years, I've been a proofreader for a few different scanlation groups...this was my attempt to remain grounded in the manga community as I began medical school and realised that it sort of took over my social life. I tend to spend a lot of time on my computer and I have no other skills to offer so I figured...I'll help proofread and give back to the wonderful manga community! As for anime...I could live without it and if I wanted, I'll do what I can to make provisions to watch the great series people will constantly badger me about.

I'm still a proofreader for manga/manhwa/manhua translations...I almost retired from it but decided I'd stick with it despite the drastic decrease in free time. I'm really continuing for one particular series which I managed to grow particularly fond of and, for some reason, just don't really want to detach myself from. =) I help out with random chapters of other series but, for now, that's what's keeping me rooted to the community. Since I'm doing a poorer job of keeping up to date, I was checking out Wordpress for some cool anime bloggers and found these great reads so far:

• Rail Tracing Anime Blog
• Everyone Has An Anime

Sure, I could always stay up-to-date with AnimeNewsNetwork but I like to read blogs and see what people think of things...see what's popular these days.

For super quick anime/manga news, there's Twitter! I get a lot of good stuff in my Twitter stream since I started following @BreakingAnime.

What about you? Any recommended blogs or websites?

AnimeKon: What are you looking forward to seeing?

If you were there last year, you may have been a tad disappointed with how AnimeKon turned out. I'm sure some people were happy and satisfied but it just wasn't good enough for me. It's easy to have high standards for big events that you aren't planning yourself. If there's anything I've learnt from being on the Medical Students' Association over the past year, it's that. 

So, here's what we've got to look forward to:

~ TWO days of anime, comics, games goodness ~

~ TWO days of movie goodness in the larger, all-anime theatre ~

~ TWO days of competition goodness ~

~ TWO days of cosplay goodness ~

~ TWO days ~

Did I mention that things are happening over a period of two days? This sort of information is very important for busy folks like myself who felt cheated because they arrived in the evening and missed out on all of the day's events last year. It's two days this year. Two days = A whole weekend.

July 2 + 3 Mark those calendars! I've marked all of mine.

I said in my previous post that I'm pretty much volunteering myself to help out however I can in the success of AnimeKon this year. Omar and Melissa are the great people that I've been chatting with over the past months and they highly value the wants and needs of the anime community. They'd love to hear your thoughts about:

• What movies would you like to see in the bigger all-anime theatre? Last year there were 5 movies...this year, there'll be more!
• What are some really good series that you'd suggest be shown on the AnimeKon screens? The really good stuff that you've been watching recently and want people to see...popular or not.
• Who would you like to see be cosplayed? Whether it be a character from Marvel or anime, who would you like to see? And are you going to cosplay too?
• What is it that you would like to see most at AnimeKon? It might not be too late to get in a suggestion! If it is though, I'm sure it'll be saved for the planning of the 3rd AnimeKon Expo!

Comment on this post with your thoughts and opinions about what's in store for AnimeKon 2011! There's a lot of other super awesome, super top secret stuff happening this year that you'll just have to find out about when July comes! ;)

You can also contact the organisers personally here.

Remembering The Anime Fangirl In Me

A few things have been running through my mind lately.

1. I haven't made a video in 2 months! That needs to be remedied.
2. I'm months behind on my favourite ongoing manga series. *cry*
3. AnimeKon is gonna be here in a matter of months...it's practically right around the corner!

I will indeed try to fix this problem with my lack of vlogging...2 months gone already? Wow. It was just Christmas! As a matter of fact, I need to fix this problem with fun. Period. I don't have very much pleasures in life anymore. No more anime, no more manga, no more video editing. Sigh. I think the last thing I watched was...Kanon (2006). That was good.

My last frustrated-about-life-and-school post in which I said little tidbits about my recent lifestyle changes didn't include my fun life. My fun life is almost virtually nil. The hospital is a fun-sucker. Fun. Sucker. Psh. I want back my fun.

Remember this video from June last year?

Oh, yeah. Those were the days. The days of fun. I'm such a critic when I want to be (though I'm usually not).

This year, I'm very very very much looking forward to what the organisers at AnimeKon have in store! Thanks to that very honestly opinionated video I made almost a year ago, those lovely folks contacted me. That's not sarcasm...they're actually very awesome people. And I chose to help them out in whatever way I can...blogging and vlogging (maybe).

So, somewhere around 7 months ago, I made this video...

...to which I got very poor response. =[ Only two people really cared enough to answer one of my questions and they both wanted the same thing: amv contests. What would your answers be? (P.S. Important people at the high end of the AnimeKon hierarchy might just read up on your comments! Your opinions are everything =])

It's now a new year with a great new AnimeKon coming up beyond the horizon. Are you as excited as I am? If you aren't yet, you will be!

Mini-Series? =o

Well, I'm not promising anything here. Don't get your hopes up!

Have you met Tim? Well, here he is. A man who's 1 cm tall and has a curiosity for the (giant) human body. I did this one up a little while ago but it took me awhile before I got all psyched up for the voiceover. It's finally out though!

I had a friend suggest to me that Tim should have a little series of his own. His little adventures into the human body. An internal explorer. An internal biology teacher. Of course, for that to happen, I'll have to bend the realm of reality a little...oh wait...I already did, 1 cm tall stick men named Tim don't exist. =)

The only thing about this suggestion, as lovely as it is, is that creating Tim and scripting his adventures takes time! As a medical student, time is incredibly valuable and I'd like to know beforehand: Do you think Tim should have his own series?

Flipped Out!

Some of you may or may not be aware that I'm in current ownership of a popular Cisco product: the Flip Mino HD (2nd gen).

Two nights ago, it totally flipped out on me and went bonkers (pun intended). Now, it refuses to turn on and I'm upset! The thing that upsets me the most is the fact that this is the second Flip that I've had. The first one I purchased had a very faulty screen and so I had to send it back and got it replaced with this one. It was working quite fine and well until the night before. In fact, I had used it during the day and had transferred all my videos and left it plugged into my laptop to charge before it started going crazy on me.

I think my relationship with Cisco's Flip pocket camcorders is just not meant to be. I've begun the search for a totally new camcorder. A proper one, rather than this conveniently portable pocket camcorder. And so, I look to Canon. I've been desiring Canon equipment lately and, as I can't afford to own a lovely DSLR camera, I do believe a camcorder will suffice very well. I've been researching...looking at lists, reviews and videos, I think I've pretty much decided on the VIXIA HF M31 which looks like this:

Doesn't it look yummy? I think it does. It's a very well equipped HD camcorder with a 2.7" touchscreen panel. Delish~. The only complaint I've seen from all the reviews that I've read is the battery life of the battery that comes in the box. So, many people purchase a larger battery pack and a separate charger. Which I believe I'll do...because approximately 1 hour of recording time just isn't cutting it. Otherwise, everything seems well up to par and I'm considering the purchase.

I'm feeling kind of excited about it! Just to note, I really wasn't this excited when I decided on buying the Flip. I guess I really shouldn't have bought it but it's too late now. I'm excited about this, so I'm sure this will work out well for a change. =)

If anyone happens to have any better suggestions for a camcorder, do let me know and I'll look into it!

And on the night of AnimeKon...

...I enjoyed myself...somewhat.

All I can say is that it was nice being out of the house and that I wasn't disappointed. In my recent post about AnimeKon 2010, I mentioned that I wasn't going with much expectation so that I wouldn't be disappointed. Such a smart thing to do. I was excited because I got to dress up but that doesn't mean I expected it to go down great.

In all honesty, if it had been called GamingKon or something, I wouldn't have gone and all the guys and girls who would go to "GamingKon" would have gotten all that they could ever hope for. They could never have been disappointed. Why? Because AnimeKon was really one big video game convention. The only anime-like things that went down (to my knowledge) include: cosplay and the showing of Final Fantasy: Advent Children...oh yes and I guess the fashion show was supposed to be related?

I had the great misfortune of being stuck in a meeting for most of the afternoon. During this meeting, people who cosplayed were around at AnimeKon and I missed a few other, more entertaining events. By the time I had arrived, few people were dressed accordingly and I was told about all the cool characters that were around in my absence. The only goodness I got to see was a pair of girls walking around in their costumes as: Kakashi and an Anbu. I had to sorta figure out the Kakashi character. This was my experience, having gone after 6 PM.

There was a fashion show that I got to see. It was short. It wasn't bad. But then again, I personally am not really one for fashion shows because I don't really get the fashion behind it. Yeah, fashion isn't my thing.

There was some good artwork and graphic designs around so I was pleased with the amount of that floating about.

What made it all worthwhile for me was seeing a bunch of friends that I don't get to see too often. So I was pretty pleased about that at least. Oh and I also got to dress up! I like being able to dress differently from usual.

So, if any of the guys at AnimeKon read this, here are my suggestions for AnimeKon 2011:

• More anime! Otherwise, it's not AnimeKon. I expected to see a whole lot more anime-related things around.
• Anime movies in the "Anime Theatre". Marvel stuff doesn't count because it's American.
• Play some anime-related music: japanese music, theme songs, series soundtracks.

I think that was my biggest problem with AnimeKon. The fact that it had so little to do with anime and so much to do with video games. Anime conventions usually exist to promote anime, promote series that deserve more recognition. I didn't feel like the anime community was properly catered to. But it's something to work on for 2011.

Understandably, this could be difficult to tackle as there aren't really any anime/manga outlets in Barbados, to my knowledge. But using AnimeKon to promote this awareness would be ideal. There are loads of anime fans in Barbados but our source of it is only via the internet and a change from this would be nice, I'm sure. Video games are good, graphic arts are good, Marvel stuff is good but anime is great too! So, you have an entire year to try making AnimeKon 2011 a much more appealing event for anime fans such as myself (because I'm not a big fan of video games).

All in all, I think it turned out to be pretty successful.

AnimeKon 2010!

Barbados' first anime convention! To be held next Saturday, June 26th 2010 from 10 AM - 10 PM. No doubt. I'm going.

I don't have any costumes or anything so there'll be no cosplay for me (I sort of wish I could though) but I'll see what I can muster up from my closet. =) Even if I did want to cosplay, I wouldn't even know who to go as. But I do know I'd wanna be someone with a simple outfit. Complex, exotic articles of clothing do not make me happy...especially if they'll make me hot. I have a friend who may go as Afro Samurai. I think he couldn't have chosen a better character! If you knew him like I do, you'd think so too. =) I wonder how many people will cosplay for the event...

It's Barbados and it's the first. I'm not expecting much really but I'm hoping I'll get a pleasant surprise. Too much hope though, will leave me disappointed. So, I can't say I have a lot of hope or expectations but we won't know how this comes off until the day arrives! I've never been to an anime convention before, so I won't have anything to compare it to, at least.

Summer

That's how I usually spend my summer...minus the beach.

This summer will be different. Sure, I want to watch anime. I plan to. And I'll read manga too if I get the chance. And, of course, I'll indulge myself in some Pokemon.

I also plan to read some books. I haven't yet completed the Left Behind series that I started over a year ago. I haven't even read Wuthering Heights yet. I gave Wuthering Heights a start so now I'm at chapter 3. I've got a long way more to go, though. I've set it as the book I'll read at night when I'm ready for bed. Considering the language, I understand it best when I'm relaxed at the end of the day. My treat before I sleep.

But I intend to get into doing more useful things in life. I've mentioned before that I'm starting to learn Mandarin. I haven't learnt as much as I would've liked to over the semester but I have learnt just a little bit. As I may have the opportunity to go to Shanghai for the expo (not confirmed yet), I'll do my best to study the language more rigorously as I have the time.

I'm not sure of what other productive stuff I'll end up doing but it'll be interesting, I'm sure.

As yesterday was Mother's day, I figured I'd show off a little of what I did for my Mum. I made her a card and some origami flowers. I think this one big flower turned out quite lovely. My present was well loved. ^_^.

Alive By Time

"Time waits for no one."

I did so much in the time that I should have been studying. I forgot to mention yesterday that I also watched an anime movie: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo). But I don't mind dedicating an entire post to this one alone anyway.

What's it about? Basically, a girl gains the ability to leap through time and does it to change small little things that'll make her life easier, like getting to school early and getting better grades. She learns however, that even changing small things can have huge consequences.

Over the years, as a big anime fan, I had heard about this movie called The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Many people said it was a good movie so, for years, that had been on my list of things to watch. But I'd forgotten about it until I saw this anime music video on Youtube which, not only reminded me about it, made me really want to watch it. As a result, I watched the movie just a few hours after seeing this video.

It's done by Soul VWS, one of my few subscriptions, who's done (and continues to make) excellent anime music videos. A rather talented with video editor in my opinion! If you're into anime as I am, you'll want to take a look at those videos.

Hello Summer!

It's so nice to meet up with you this year! This will be our first meeting of two. The second being at the end of August. =)

My exam has finally flown by me and I can sit back, relax and enjoy the 6 weeks of vacation I have ahead of me! Turns out, my Neuroscience II course wasn't so bad. I wasn't able to study everything at all! What I didn't study had few questions asked about them so I was so happy! All in all, it turned out so much better than I thought. I hope my grade will reflect this feeling.

It's been about a week since I made an entry, though, it's not like it's the longest my blog has missed my presence. During the past week, I've been trying to set myself on studying and studying alone. But it was quite difficult. Studying the same course for so long became quite monotonous. The closer the exam came, the more I didn't want to study. In the time I didn't study, I discovered and subscribed to three youtube channels, followed two people on Twitter and edited a couple photos of some flowers I took at school.

My favourite edit turned out to be this one:

The quality of images I take with my Nokia N97 mini astounds me every time.

I've decided that I'm starting to like photography a whole lot. It's really quite a fun hobby. Snap a photo of this. Snap a photo of that. I think I'm getting better at this photo-taking stuff. =)

As for the Youtube channels, I randomly discovered JumbaFund when I opened up the homepage which led me to KevJumba's channel. One of his videos further led me to WongFuProductions. And before I knew it, I was following @kevjumba and @wongfupro on Twitter. I watched a couple of Wong Fu Productions' videos and ended up following @thewesleychan. All actions were conducted over a period of two days.

I said all of that to say this: Wong Fu Productions uploaded a new video two days ago. "When Five Fell" directed by Wesley Chan, produced by Ted Fu & Philip Wang. I completely fell in love with it! It's so poetic. A phenomenal short film. A masterpiece. So, I just had to share it:

Wong Fu Productions has a number of other short films that have been so entertaining and soothing to my information-packed mind. Thank you, Ted, Phil and Wes.

I've also been trying to plan out a Shanghai trip that I convinced my Mom that we just had to go to. We'll be going to the Shanghai Expo, of course. Nothing's set in stone yet. We've come pretty far in our plans so it might as well be set in stone. Once I see all the reservations, I'll be one of the happiest people in the world! I'm so blessed. I really am.

SoulSilver

I've had this new game in the palm of my hands since last Monday! Pokemon SoulSilver. Unfortunately, I haven't been playing it as much as I would like to. With classes, exams and assignments filling up about 80% of my days and sleep taking up 15%, there isn't a whole lot left for fun and letting out the inner child.

I get the idea that no matter how old I get, I'm going to just simply love Pokemon. I probably can't say the same about the show itself but as for the games, I can't get enough of it. I'm really excited about SoulSilver, the remake of the Silver/Gold/Crystal series (of which I have, and am still in ownership of, Crystal). It's really awesome so far and I totally love the whole idea of the Pokewalker and how you can catch certain Pokemon in it.

So far, I've started off in Johto and since it's been so many years since I last played in Johto, I've been trying to decide on who I'll keep in my party of six. I haven't gotten very far (on my way to Olivine City) but for now I've got my Quilava (you know Typhlosion will just be a bundle of awesomeness!), Togetic, Quagsire, Dratini, Kangaskhan and Elekid. Well, I'll figure it out eventually, beat the League and move onto Kanto. Imagine that! 16 gyms and 2 Leagues! =D This is surely going to last longer than the usual. =D

I've only recently realised how much there's still left to do in Pokemon Platinum which I got last year. I stopped playing it sometime and never picked it back up until two weeks ago. Interesting. I'll get back to that at some point in time. Right now, my focus is SoulSilver. =]

An Addict?

Anime is my addiction.

When an anime series catches my interest, that's the end of everything else. I want nothing but to complete the series I began. That's all. It's hard to stop watching once I'm enraptured in the plot. There's just no turning back. Absolutely not.

It is for this reason that I cannot watch ongoing series. Some cliffhangers have me mentally jumping of cliffs and I just can't take that...mentally. I refuse to start watching any series that has not been officially completed. I waited quite awhile before I watched Death Note and again before I watched Soul Eater. Now I'm waiting somewhat patiently for this new Full Metal Alchemist that I hear is ever awesome. I would almost be itching to watch it or even take a peek at it but the word ongoing is quite the turn off.

I spent the first weekend of the new semester finishing off Soul Eater, the anime I began watching the week before classes began and somehow never found the time to finish. I had, at the time, watched only 15 episodes of the 51. Saturday afternoon, I thought I'd try to slowly come to an end with it by watching an episode or two a day. So I took a "study break" to watch an episode and, of course, I was only left yearning for more. And so I watched more. And more. And more...

Before I knew it, I had seen 16 episodes by Saturday night and made up my mind to complete the series before the new week began. Mission accomplished. I watched the final 20 episodes on Sunday and finished just in time to watch the Grammys. Amazing.

I certainly don't watch as much as I used to...now that medical school has blown itself up on me. I'm gradually seeing less and less of it...sadly. But I like to try to watch a series or two during the vacations! I've always wanted to watch One Piece...I saw the first two episodes of it when it first came out but now there are so many...not to mention, it's an ongoing series. So...no thanks. Though, by the time it's done, I may not want to even try sparing the time for hundreds of episodes. But I guess we'll see when the time comes.

Or maybe I'll stick with manga. I still much prefer the series I read to be completed but I certainly have a great deal more self control with it.

If you haven't seen Soul Eater: watch it.