Well, here comes yet another “Quality” production from the same guys who brought you The Machine Girl and Tokyo Gore Police - Robo Geisha!

Geisha Missile! Geisha Dance! Geisha Army! Geisha Chainsaw! Geisha Transform! And of course, Fried Shrimp!

Seriously, WTF Japan, WTF?

:Links:
+Website
+IMDB Listing

This was followed by a road trip up to Muar, in support of preparations for a friend’s wedding and finally to KL for another working trip last week.

July looks pretty heavy too, with another trip up to Muar again this weekend for the wedding proper and followed by a week-long working trip to Surabaya at the end of the month.

I don’t really mind the travelling, as it’s one of the things I like to do. And the great food that goes along with the change in scenery is a plus in my books:

It’s just that with all this travelling, especially over the weekends, simply means less time with the sword. I can feel my stamina falling and joints getting stiff again… not to mention the extra inches the good food has been putting on my waist. The occasional runs I do in what ever time I can steal do not make up for the lack of exercise.

Sigh.

No problem, right? Just hop onto the next flight home; it’s only a couple of hours’ wait right?

Eh? It’s full up? And the next one and the last plane out too?

So, now what? Waiting list? Okay, so when will we know?

Whaddya mean we gotta wait till our names are called?

*Breathe*

Ooookaaaay. No biggie. We’ll just stay an additional night and go back first thing tomorrow.

Eh? You’re fully booked tomorrow until Sunday night?!?

*Panic*

Okay, okay. How about we pay the difference and go onto Business class?

It’s fully booked too?!? WTF?!?

Seriously folks. If the airlines are crying about poor performance, I just don’t see it on the ground.

What freaking recession?!?

See you guys in a few days >_<”

Thank you to all our friends, who kept us in your prayers and thoughts. We’ve waited a long time for this to come, and we’re giddy with excitement.

Three months down, and six more to go!

The Blackbird, Fly or BBF is a twin lens reflex (TLR) film camera like the old Rolleiflex, but using more easily available 35mm film instead of the usual medium format 120’s.

Taking pictures with it, I’ve come to realise a few things:

1. I’m re-learning to compose my shots and to take into account lighting and shadows. Digital photography has spoilt me somewhat with automatic settings and ease-of-use so much that I just snap without really thinking. It’s not really an issue since it’s digital, and I can simply delete rubbish shots, but isn’t it nicer to have just about every shot you take come out perfect?

2. With the view-finder located on the top of the camera, the perspective and composition of the picture immediately changes. Many of us are used to bringing the camera up to head-level to take pictures, simply because the view-finder is located on the back of the camera. Even with the advent of digital photography, the LCD screens, though large these days, are still located on the back, and so necessitates that the user bring it up to eye-level to compose a shot. With the TLR, shots are taken from about waist high, and it reminds me strangely of how a child might see the world.

3. Made mostly out of plastic, the camera feels very much like a toy. But like the Lomo cameras which are similarly made of plastic, it works, and gives funky lo-fi images with high colour saturation and even the occasional light leakage. It’s weird, but I think I’ll call it “artistic” instead.

4. The most common comment I get with the camera is: “Wow! That’s a really old-school style of camera”. Usually followed almost immediately by: “What do you mean it’s not digital?!?”

Going to mess around with it some more. Look out for more shots from the BBF in the flickr set.

:Links:
+flickr set
+SuperHeadz
+Multiple X Choice
+GrannySnaps

Audio:Slave
In the B&O:
+Quincy Jones: Big Band Bossa Nova
+Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix
+Café Tel Aviv - Middle East Chillout

Visual:Slave
In the DVD:
+Mama Mia! The Movie
+Journey to the Center of the Earth
+The Good, The Bad, The Weird
+A History of Violence
+Paprika

Animania:
+イヴの時間
+ToraDora (とらドラ)
+To Aru Majutsu no Index (とある魔術の禁書目録)
+Rideback
+K-On! (けいおん!)
+Eden of the East (東のエデン)
+Strike Witches (ストライクウィッチーズ) DVD

Movies to Catch - ‘09:
+Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea (崖の上のポニョ)
+Slumdog Millionaire
+Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
+Full Battle Rattle
+Reclaiming the Blade
+Watchmen
+Terminator: Salvation
+Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
+2012
+Star Trek
+Up
+Angels and Demons
+Fanboys
+Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
+Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
+Fast and Furious
+G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra

WTF, Hollywood? WTF?
+Astroboy
+Dragonball: The Movie

Movies soooo bad, it’s gotta be gooood
+Zombie Strippers
+Jack Brooks - Monster Slayer

Current Reads
RAWs
+謎の彼女Ｘ - Chapter 33
+魔法 先生 ネギま! - Chapter 249
+会長はメイド様! - Volume 6
+ソード・ワールドRPG 2.0 (SW2.0)

Dead Tree
+Homework for Grown-ups: Everything you learnt at school… and promptly forgot
+Dragon Warriors RPG 2008
+The Book of War

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

Sword World 2.0
Or, ソード・ワールドRPG 2.0 (SW2.0) as it is known in the original Japanese, is one of the pioneer Japanese languange role-playing-game systems. And it happens to be just one of the things I specifically went to Tokyo earlier this year for:

This should take me a while to translate to a point where it’s actually playable, but hey, what’s another hobby?

Interestingly enough, I had quite a bit of a hard time looking for the books, because the first time I saw the book, it was printed in a large filo format, rather than the current handy three-part paperback. I had looked for the large hard-cover all over Akihabara, and was about to give up when Great Cthulhu showed the way, literally. Simply put, I was looking at the RPG section, which contained oddly enough, Japanese language editions of GURPS, D&D and the Call of Cthlhu RPGs to no avail, when suddenly stack of books collapsed and dropped the Call of Cthulhu rulebook onto a small paperback stack. And when I picked up the dropped book what did I see? Sword World 2.0. Ha!

A severly wrenched thumb. Ouch.

Lessons to be learnt:

1) The strength of a single thumb is insignificant when compared to a whole arm wielding a dagger coming forward in a strike. Make sure to reinforce it by taking the blow with the base of your palm, preferably together with the other hand as well, thus forming the afore mentioned closed kinetic chain.

2) Wear gloves!

From the treatise itself:

“I am the fourth Master who plays with this presa. With similar to this my scholars will offend many. And if I turn to the right side and I do not release your arm, I will take your dagger and I will make trouble for you with it.”

Poor Josh. Oh well. A day in the life of a crash test dummy?

And so, we wish him the best in his journeys, and may his life be long and prosperous.

Good bye, and Kiitos - I’ll see you again when the Brown Horde once again invades the Frozen Wastes of the North.

Motivator/De-motivator
I find myself feeling more and more unmotivated towards work as the years go by. The passion that drove me to this profession was, and remains the Sea, and to be told that I’ll be driving a desk for the rest ofmy career is enough to drive a man to despair. It’s not all doom and gloom though; looking back, I realise that I’ve been given opportunities and have been able to make a difference in the world; and the recognition for a job well done was well worth the effort. However, highlights like these tend to be few and far in between.

A Swordsman in Finland once said: “only prostitutes work for money”. And these days, I cannot but help see a glimmer of truth in that statement. Coming home from work these past few weeks, I sometimes feel as if I have been well and truely screwed-over. Perhaps one day I will follow in the footsteps of so many friends and colleagues to tender my papers and leave for greener pastures, but nothing so far has tickled my fancy and ignited my dreams.

For now, I’ll continue, if not for King and Country, then to pay the bills and to use my munificent pay-cheque to indulge in my hobbies of travel, gaming and swordsmanship.