Sanity… is for the Weak

ED from Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (乃木坂春香の秘密)

Seriously though, for an anime to poke fun of the Akiba-Kei and Otaku sub-culture isn’t entirely new (c.f. Densha Otoko, and NHK ni Yōkoso! (N・H・Kにようこそ)), but it does put a twist in changing the stereotype from the guy to the girl.

Black Knights rehearsal for the National Day Parade over Kallang River.

Patapon madness.

It’s annoying, yet strangely hypnotic and endearing at the same time.

Another one of those things that drive you over the edge of sanity…

And so, off we went to Picotin for a quiet meal.

It’s a nice, casual place, with great food in lush greenery of the former turf club. Oh, and very, very alert staff, and the owners who seem to like to play pranks….

We’ll be going back there again, soon.

Audio/Visual Update

Audio:Slave
In the B&O:
+The Sex, the City, the Music: Shanghai
+Monkey Majik: 空はまるで
+Queen: Greatest Hits
+The Rolling Stones: Rolled Gold
+Metal Gear Solid 20th Anniversary

Visual:Slave
In the DVD:
+Heroes Season 2
+My Neighbor Totoro
+Appleseed: Ex Machina
+Band of Brothers

Animania:
+Freedom
+Hayate no Gotoku dropped
+Clannad
+Rental Magica dropped
+Bamboo Blade
+Toshokan Sensou (図書館戦争)
+Birdy the Mighty: Decode

Movies to Catch - ‘08:
+Sweeney Todd
+The Spiderwick Chronicles
+Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone
+Iron Man
+The Dark Knight
+Cloverfield Missed this
+Jumper
+Wall-E
+Hancock
+Get Smart missed this
+Charlie Wilson’s War
+Bangkok Dangerous
+Speed Racer
+The Love Guru
+Wanted
+Indiana Jones and The Temple of the Crystal Skull
+Forbidden Kingdom
+Doomsday
+27 Dresses
+Juno
+The Bucket List
+Hellboy II: The Golden Army
+You Don’t Mess With The Zohan Missed this
+Star Wars: The Clone Wars
+007: Quantum of Solace
+Kung Fu Panda missed this

Movies soooo bad, it’s gotta be gooood
+The Machine Girl
+Oneechanbara
+Zombie Strippers

Current Reads
RAWs
+謎の彼女Ｘ - Chapter 25
+魔法 先生 ネギま! - Chapter 220
+死がふたりを分かつまで Chapter 15
+おばあちゃんはアイドル

Dead Tree
+Freakonomics
+Conquistador
+Why We Want You To Be Rich
+Party of One: The loner’s Manifesto
+Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

Online
+Questionable Content
+Real Life
+The Order of the Stick
+Turn Signals on a Land Raider

The Dark Knight
One word:

Wow.

21% huh? That can’t be bad, right?

What is this 4chan that I speak of? If you have ask, then trust me, you don’t wanna know.

Woke up early yesterday, and guess where we went?

Word of advice: Go early and enjoy the cool morning air, before the crowds swarm the place, and you’ll get to see the wild life and enjoy the peace.

Oh god. Back to Shadow Moses.

And a serious lol moment in this cut-scene.

If you don’t get the reference, this is the same place when you had to change discs for the first Metal Gear Solid game way back on the PS1.

I *heart* my PS3

Doing the Syllabus Form last night at sword class was…. disorienting.

Having missed most of the lessons when we were taught the Form here in Singapore (%$#@! work schedule!), I finally got it down while in Finland, where it was done with emphasis on flow and with a mental picture of application while in execution. But here, it’s more of a cadenced drill, going from posta to posta to the count of numbers from one to 38. Needless to say, it confused the heck out of me, so much so that I actually forgot the steps while being distracted the first time we went through the From with the class.

I’ve tried to visualise the Form as a series of responses to imagined enemies, starting with “Two guys with daggers! Parry the first with the scabbard, cut him and then cut the guy behind him as the first falls! Third guy ~ exchange of thrust with him and plant the sword point in his face! Another two guys! Break thrust with the guy on the right and cut his throat, then break the thrust of the guy on the left before giving him two cuts!” and so on, rather than mentally counting “One! Step back and ready. Two! Draw sword and cut. Three! Cut. Four! Posta di Fenestra. Five! Posta Frontale.” etc etc.

It got better when I tuned out the counting and concentrated on just the form though, but it was still distracting, especially when I need to match speeds with everyone. Highlight was probably when Greg demonstrated the practical applications of the drill with Ken and later myself playing the enemies to show the flow aspect of this Form and I could both see and feel the light bulbs going off in the rest of the class when we did that.

Good times

This sucks.

Looks like I may have to go and buy a new one.

Mr Guy Windsor has graciously uploaded the video of the first round of the mini-tournament from our Fiore seminar.

My bout is at the very end, Daggers against Mikko:

The discussion thread of which can be found at Sword Forum International.