"I am 17 turning on 18... ..."

Whew...Today was a long and GREAT day... ...

Today...or rather yesterday...was my birthday...Even though it is my birthday, I didnt wan to create a big fuss and jus wanted to go through my Bday wif no cakes, no song, no presents and definitely no fuss...Maybe jus an Ang Bao or two... ...

So it definitely shocked me when Hong Chao "Screamed" my name through MSN at around 11 in the morning yesterday and "Shouted" ,"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!"... ...It certainly was a pleasant surprise... ...I didnt think anyone would remember...lol...I personally find dates hard to remember (Maybe thats y I always fail at History and Social Studies...)...I doubt I can even recall 5 birthday dates...lol... ...HC certainly made my day... ...

I went through the rest of the sch day quite quietly as I did not inform any of my classmates it was my birthday...I didnt wan to become those type of ppl who go around announcing their birthdays or watever to create hype and attract attention... ...I hate those kind of ppl... ...

Sch ended at 1 PM today...YESTERDAY so I decided to do some shopping at Sunshine Plaza... ...I have been saving for quite some time and my dad gave me some "Spending Money"(To lighten my solemn mood on such a happy day he sayz... ...) so I decided to indulge myself... ...

I rushed to Sunshine to get a figurine I hav been eying for VERY long, 1 week long sia... ...

Ahhh...Rider...The greatest class of the Fate series... ...

A close up of her excellent features...heh heh... ...

As I had some extra cash from my dad's "Spending Money" I decided to buy some more figurines... ...

I struggled between a Fate/stay night 7 figurines set or a set of two figurines with children versions of Rei and Asuka... ...When I was struggling Jia Wei sms to wished me happy birthday too...lol...Another surprise... ...

In the end I decided to get the Fate/stay night set and a One Piece Nami figurine...Only after I purchased the Fate/stay night set did the guy from La Tendo told me that the two children figurines were 50% off...By that time I dun even have enough money to buy that even wif the discount... ...

Only Nami and Zoro were left...But its not like I planned to buy the others anywayz...HA!...ONLY NAMI MATTERS!!!!!

As u can see...some boxes are missing as I bought an incomplete set...There are 5 missing boxes... ...

However...I checked all the figurines I have (Not yet assembled)...I have Saber, Archer, Rider (Variant), Rin, Sakura, Ilya and even the Saber secret ver. figurine...I have search the net for wat I am missing and it seems I am only missing the normal Rider figurine... ...So... ...Wat does the other 4 boxes contain?...Not repeats I hope... ...Anywayz...I am gonna hunt down that normal Rider figurine to complete the set... ...

Headed for home soon after exhausting all my funds... ...

Today I hav new found phobia for public transport... ...All the way I have to be on high alert to keep my babies safe from harm...Especially Rider as she is quite a big figurine... ...I even went to the extent of climbing the stairs and waiting for the slow lifts jus to avoid the cram escalators... ...Anything for my babies... ...

So anywayz... ...After arriving home...I considered my day done and proceeded to bed... ...Little did I know that I was to be in for a surprise... ...

My maid handed me the phone and Jon was on the line... ...we were like... ...:

Jon: "Oi...Ni jing wan mei you chuu qu hor?" ("U not going out tonight right?" in chinese)

Me: "Mei you... ..." ("Nope... ..." in chinese)

Jon: "Wo men wan shang jou qu..." (We later at night go over..." in chinese)

Me: "Zhou se muah?" (For wat? in chinese)

Jon: "Ur birthday lah...Today ur birthday right?"

Me: "... ..." (Long Pause) "U all remembered?"

Jon: "OF COURSE LAH!...Y? Touched right!?"

Me: "Chey...Whose touched sia..."

Jon: "Touched lah"

Me: "Ya lah Ya lah"

(Hang up)

That was SO not expected... ...Haha... ...

During that time my sis (Rachel) gave me her present... ...

Chocolate Pastilles... ...My favorite flavors...White, Milk and and fav...Dark... ...

She gave me these saying she didnt know wat to get so she jus got me my favorite snacks... ...

At around 9 PM... Jon, Khin, Junyang and Hong Chao came bearing cake... ...Lol... I didnt know wat to say when I saw them...Then those bastards took the opportunity to irritate me by repeatedly saying "Dun cry lah... ..."

Jon and Hong Chao lighted the candles...Jon apparently doesnt know how to light candles... ...They spared me the birthday song on my behalf and we got straight to eating the cake... ...

The coffee (Or was it chocolate) cake... ...

Not very clear as HC's hands arent exactly steady and like he sayz...his phone resolution is not exactly that great... ...(HC holding cam)

I KNEW THEY WERE ACTING STUPID BEHIND MY BACK!!!!!!! (Jon holding cam)

As we were not exactly stuffed by that cake so we decided to order pizza from Pizza Hut... ...I guess we ordered too much as we almost couldnt finish... ...NVR am I going to Stuff Crust two large pizzas again... ...The crust itself is enough to fill our stomachs... ...Apparently...Jun Yang has a voracious appetite so we depended on him to finish it up... ...

While eating the cake and the pizzas...We enjoy brief moments of reminiscences...While HC was telling us how he stole some PSP UMD back at MI (Millennium Institute)...Jon and I got reminded of the time when Jon hid Yih Yu's wallet and I willingly went to attract the rage of Yih Yu by pretending I was the one who stole it... ...Things got so overboard that Jon did not dare to tell Yih Yu it was all a prank that he started... ...We laughed heartily when we toked about the one who united our class...Preeta... ...And when we got so bloated because of the pizza...Jon remembered the time when he and I almost choked to death competing who could finish a bowl of $2 won ton mee first... ...Ah... ...Those were the dayz... ...3E4 and 4E4... ...

Another big topic was exchanging wat we knew of wat happened to the others in the class... ...The memories it brought back... ...ARGGHHH!!! I WANNA BE LIKE PETER PAN!!!!!!!

HC then set up my PS 2 to hav a game of Naruto... ...We had fun while it was obvious we had all deproved considerably...Especially me as I had the most to deproved while the others werent all that good to begin wif...haha... ...

I did not force Jon to stay behind for rematches this time when he won... ...But I MUST say...I was using Sakura at the time so I was at an OBVIOUS disadvantage...And I wasnt exactly playing seriously... ..So... ...Ha...I "Fang sui de loh... ..."("Let out water... ..." in chinese which in turn means "Give chance")

After they all left (Which was around this time)...my Father wanted to wake up the entire family so we could cut cake together... ...Lol...My sisters were already asleep at that time...He then said that he wanted us to celebrate my Bday together and that my sisters were pretty excited... ...Lol...I didnt know all this...So I felt kinda guilty and sad... ...Haiz... ...Gotta find some way to repay their kindness... ...

My mom then came down to give me an Ang Bao as she said that she didnt know wat to buy and was afraid I would not like wat she bought... ...She then commented that it is difficult to buy presents for children our age as they dun know wat we want... ...I couldnt help but nod in agreement... ...Feel guilty from depriving my family of the cake cutting and that I hav already received "Spending Money" from my dad earlier that morning... ...I told her that it was not necessary and that if she insists, jus put it in my bank acc... ...She was like, "Ni bu yao mai tong se ah?" ("Dun u wanna buy something?" in chinese). That was kinda unexpected as my mom rarely encourages me to spend money... ...I insisted that I dun wanna spend that amount of money and asked her to jus transfer it to my bank acc but she insisted I hold on to the money and think about it... ...That was STRANGE... ...I think my parents feel that I am an unhappy child because I look pretty serious nowadayz... ...Haven they considered the fact that I may hav grown up?

I wonder how much is inside... ...

I returned to my room to slp...Thinking that all the excitement is over...Then I saw a small package wrapped in Comics Connection plastic bag... ...

?

Wats this?

A random Eva figurine!

Key chains os Squall's Gunblade and Tidus' Brotherhood!

Woot! I got Katsuragi Misato! I hav been wanting a figurine of her!

I am guessing these are brought by my sis (Celeste)... ...Gotta thank her tml... ...

Ha...That concludes my day... ...Gotta slp... ...I hope our plans to go watch "At Worlds End" on thursday goes through... ...

p/s: Jon they all took some bo liao pics with one of my digital cams... ...After I take a look at them I might wanna post them!

N.H.K ni Youkoso... ...

Just finished the last few episodes of Welcome to the N.H.K...One word..."Wonderful"... ...There is not much I can say about and even if I do elaborate on what the show is like... It most probably won't be able to stress how wonderful an Anime it is... All I can say is that it is not like anything I have ever seen...Yet it is familiar in a way... ...

It started out as a comedy...A great one at that (Not that all would agree) ... ...But slowly but surely it evolved...And before it knew it...It developed into a love story...Again...a great one... ...

If I were to compared it to another Anime/Manga...I would say it is most like Love Hina...The way the comedy turns in to romance...But again...It would be very wrong to say that Welcome to the N.H.K is like Love Hina... ...One reason is N.H.K's lack in the harem element...But the main and most important is that N.H.K is much more subtle in the love element at the beginning compared to Love Hina...Unlike Love Hina, where on the first few pages/episodes one can tell Keitaro has a thing for Naru, there was close to no clue that Satou was to end up with Misaki-Chan in the end...In fact there were several times I thought Satou was to live happily ever after with his Senpai (Hitomi) ... ...It is because of the subtle factor of N.H.K and its lack of "Crazy-Explode-In-Your-Face-Happiness", like in Love Hina, that makes it triumph over Love Hina, another great love story.

The thing that got me hooked to N.H.K in the first place was its comedy...To me it was not just the conversations and events that were hilarious...The atmosphere that Gonzo creates in N.H.K played a huge part to the overall effectiveness of the comedic factor of N.H.K...The animated background they set up paired up with the background music...Give it a serious yet nonsensical feel to it...The atmosphere coupled together with the hilarious dialogs of the characters gave it this special feel to it...They way seriousness is mixed with hilariousness just sort of multiplied the overall success of the comedic factor... ...

I realized that not everyone appreciates the kind of comedy that is portrayed in N.H.K, some don't even find it funny at all... ...The only possible reason I can think of is that they are not an/a Otaku/Hikkikomori enough to understand what the show is trying to put across... ...It certainly helps to be an/a Otaku/Hikkikomori to understand these Otaku/Hikkikomori caricatures... ...

What moved me most is of course the romance factor of the series... ...The way Misaki-Chan feel towards Satou and how she came to like him (No spoilers here...Go watch yourself!) and there is also the way Satou came to realize his feelings for Misaki-Chan (No spoilers) ... ...

I have decided to give a 9/10. A more accurate score would be 97/100...But I am reluctant to give it 10/10 because of two reasons... ...

1. Giving it 10/10 would mean that it is better than my favorite Anime: Neon Genesis Evangelion... ...However, after much thought...I felt that it was hard to say I can't give N.H.K 10/10 because of Evangelion as they were completely different...It is true that they are both Anime...But they are of different genres and it would be unfair to downgrade N.H.K because of Evangelion.

2. I still decided to give it 9/10 as I hope, though I have my doubts, that one day...there will be another series (in the distant future) that will come along and show me that it can beat N.H.K in its genre... ...I have decided long ago that I will (mostly likely) never ever give an Anime 10/10 as I would only give that score to a perfect Anime... ...To me...There will never be a perfect Anime series, perfection can never be attained and the word "perfect" should never be taken or used lightly... ...Anime is an ever changing and ever improving art form, while it will always strive for perfection, perfection itself does not exist... ...Thus we can expect Anime to improve limitlessly... ...

I contemplated giving N.H.K 99/100...But in the end I felt that 99/100 is still too good to be true...Ha... ...

My only regret is that N.H.K ended so quickly... ...But I suppose it is also because of how short it was that it made such an impact on me... ...Kinda like a fleeting dream... ...

Oh well... ...I am currently collecting the manga series so it won't end yet... ...Ha... ...

N.H.K ni Youkoso!: Comedy, Slice of life, Psychological, Drama and Romance, all rolled into one... ...

Nihon Hitojichi Koukan-kai...BANZAI!!!!!!!

EVA!EVA!EVA!!!REI!REI!REI!!!

Had my first manga lesson today... ...It was pretty boring again... ...Cause it was the basics....But that is not to say that I can even grasp the basic...Lol

But the highlight of the lesson was not the stuff one gets to learn...The highlight was the teacher teaching the lessons...She is a Japanese manga artist by the name of Junko...She is a cute looking Japanese lady...Very cute...The only prob is that she cant speak English well...or at all... ...

I went down to meet my plastic modeling friends immediately after manga class and the first thing they said was, "Was ur teacher chio?"

It seems that word had already gone round that the manga instructor is a cute gal(?) or should I say women? I dun know...She looks too petite to be called a woman...Seems more right to call her a gal... ...

I did not get it when they first ask, "Was ur teacher chio?" As I did not know that they hav heard that my teacher was a Japanese lady as they were not even in the manga department... ...
When Shane(Plastic Modeling Instructor) walked pass I thought he was either gonna ask them to stop saying stuff like that or say nothing at all... ...

I say this as I hav the impression that he is a guy that has a lot of respect for others...For example...His caption in the SPLA(Singapore Polytechnic Life Arts) forum says, "Appeciate Anime as a form of Art, not as a means to satisfy your sexual fastasies."(I know...Spelling error...I was not the one who typed it wat...)

Then he asked me, "How tall was she?"

I said around my shoulder height.

And he was like, "That ok wat... ..."

It does not seem much...But it is still "grading" her in a way... ...

Lol...Typical...A cute Japanese "gal" comes to school and all the guys go nuts... ...

Based on the SMS I have exchanged wif both Jia Wei and Derick...It did not seem possible that we can meet up as Derick said that he was only reaching SG at Saturday night...And Jia Wei is not free at Saturday night or Sunday because of Mother's day and all that... ...But later Derick called to say that he has changed plans and will be back on Friday! This way...everything is perfect...I cant wait to watch the Eva movies...But this does mean that I will miss one day of plastic modeling... ...Oh well...Derick doesnt come back often...So...Anything for a friend right?

Screening of Neon Genesis Evangelion

Today Poly ended at 1pm so I decided to take the time to go down to Sunshine Plaza to collect the Genshiken Complete DVD Collection that I ordered... ...

When I went down there I saw that Jerry(The owner of Ani-Play) was not around...Instead it was some lady...So I approached her about the DVDs... ...

The shop was FILLED wif cardboard boxes FILLED with anime goodies as a shipment of anime goods jus arrived from overseas to Ani-Play... ...

The lady was having a hard time finding my Genshiken Collection among the mountain of anime goodies but I remained patient...And quietly waited for my DVDs... ...

The lady when on to make several calls to Jerry...I then took the chance to ask her if Ani-Play imports Evangelion DVDs...As she was busy attending the call...She waved me off (In a polite manner). So I continued waiting... ...

Alas...She told me that she could not find it and asked if I could return another day... ...

Disappointed...I lowered my head in a dejected manner and turned around...preparing to head for home... ...Then...Suddenly she said, "But we do have these... ..."

I turned around and saw her smiling ,waving in her hands the Neon Genesis Evangelion Platinum Complete DVD Collection and "Death and Rebirth" and "The End of Evangelion" Double DVD Special Edition Pack!!! At that moment...I thought I heard angels singing "Hallelujah"... ...I decided to buy the Eva movies and I hav already watched the series and I dun plan to settle for Platinum Complete Collection...I want only the BEST of Eva and that is the individual Platinum Collection... ...

I was overwhelmed by the fact that I hav finally got my hands on The End of Evangelion... ...I wanted to go straight home and watch the whole movie... ...Then I remember an ignorant friend of mine that hav yet to have a taste of the GREATEST ANIME ON THE FACE OF THE GREAT MOTHER PLANET OF EARTH!!!

Ya I know can see me...The box very shiny... ...

The back of the box...Heh... ...

I immediately SMSed Jia Wei to see if I can get him to watch it with me on the weekends... ...

I decided not the watch the movies first as I wanted to share the experience wif Jia Wei...I did not even want to unwrap the packaging to take a look at the extra stuff...Cause...I wanted to share the experience... ...

Jus when I thought thing could not get better... ...Derick SMSed me when I reached home to tell me that HE WILL BE COMING BACK ON SATURDAY!!! WOOT!!! Perfect timing!!! Derick watched the Eva series b4 and he should be able to enjoy the show too...I cant wait... ...

2nd Japanese Lesson... ...

I had my second Japanese class today... ...I did not post about my first class as it was pretty boring and all the stuff that my lecturers taught was basically jus the basics... ...Come to think of it...Only the basics were taught today too... ...But still it was kinda interesting compared to the first lesson... ...

My Japanese lecturer is a cheerful Japanese lady by the name of Mariko... ...I was not assigned this lecturer at first...I was previously assigned a Singaporean lecturer...When I first found out that I was assigned a Singaporean lecturer, I was like, "WTF! No way in HELL am I gonna let that QUACK teach me Jap!" So I went to all the heads of the language dept to cook up some story in order to land myself wif the best Japanese lecturer... ...I figured that Mariko-Sensei is the best Jap lecturer in our sch as I saw that all the advance classes were taught by her... ...So I went to look for her AND the head of the language department...And fed them this story... ...

Me:"I cant go on Wednesdays cause I have CCA on that day and it clashes wif the language class...It overlaps by HALF AN HOUR!!! U NOE?! Plus I paid for both courses liao leh... ..." (Most of it is true...Expect for the fact that the classes dun overlap AT ALL...I jus said that to make me seem more pitiful... ...)

Them: "Then cant u go to the other days as Friday is quite full... ...How about Tuesday?"

Me: "I cant go on Tuesdays as my timetable for that day is VERY full...so I wont be able to make it in time for Japanese class... ..." (Total BS...Tuesday I only got 2-3 hrs of class...My classes end at 1 PM on Tuesdays PLUS, ALL classes end at 5 PM, ALL Jap lessons start at 5:30 PM so it is IMPOSSIBLE for ANYONE to be late... ...I told them that my classes end on 6 PM on Tuesdays and they jus ate it up... ...)

... ...

I then come up wif a reason for every other day till we arrive on Friday...Which is the day that only Mariko-Sensei is teaching... ...I then fed them second servings of BS till they became tired and let me transfer... ...Heh...Leonard is one to get wat he wants... ...

Anywayz...Today was pretty (Still) boring as she was teaching numbers in Jap... ...Which is something u can pick up by urself by watching anime regularly... ...But the way she teaches was pretty commendable ...She shows these slides wif the hiragana of the number, the romanji , the english version and then a picture to help ppl to remember the word. The pic were pretty funny, for example, ni (2) is represented by a pic of a knee, san (3) is represented by a sun and ichi (1) is represented by a pic of a foof wif a bug crawling on it wif the caption "ITCHY!" lol... When she was teaching bigger numbers she would go ,"Ni x Juu + Ni=Nijuuni (2x10+2=22)" Then she would ask us to multiply the knee wif the juice followed by added another knee...And she actually when to the trouble of creating slides that show a knee multiplied by a packet of juice and adding another knee...She is the the most committed lecturer I hav met since I started schooling at SP... ...They werent kidding when they say they dun care about their students... ...I mean...U even hav to pay for ur notes... ...Haiz... ...But Miss Mok is still the most committed teacher I hav EVER met of course... ...

Every Friday I will have a 2 hr 30 min break before Jap class starts so I went to the library today to watch Mobile Suit Gundam SEED... ...I was watching another Kira Yamato emo scene when I noticed that Derick PMed me on MSN... ...I of course stopped watching to chat... ...One of the stuff I asked was the accident he was supposed to be involved in... ...Apparently...His dad's car suffered a case of hydro-watever-u-call-it which is when water enters the tires of the car, how that can ever happen eludes even me...I mean...tires are supposed to be AIR TIGHT to retain air in the tires right? So how does liquid enter the tires? Derick then blamed it on the rain and asked me to ask BMW... ...(Singapore also got rain...Singapore also got BMW... ...Nvr heard of water soaked tires... ...)

Anywayz...Apparently...The car skidded out of control...Spun around...Hit the metal curb thingy and all sorts of stuff like the license plate and bumper came FLYING off... ...How the hell he got out of such an accident unscathed is beyond me... ...But I'm glad his fine... ...Because of this accident he obviously couldnt come over to Singapore to collect their stuff...So he said he will be back on a later date... ...

Also, it seems that he has officially enter a Uni wif all the stuff like lodging settled... ...Lol 17 year-old Uni student...He says that he goes back house every weekend so I was asking him how long it takes to travel from the hostel to his house...I was expecting something like 4 hrs as M'sia is a pretty big place but turns out it only takes 1 hr... ...I was thinking, "Wtf... ...I hav to handle 1 hr trips TWICE a day leh fuck...On PUBLIC transport some more... ..." Haiz... ...Uni liao sia he...So fast...Graduate liao find job here want?

This is about all that we talked about though...As he came online at 5:15 PM which is 15 min before Jap lesson starts...Wished we had more time to chat... ...

Sianz...Tml still have to reach sch by 9 for club activities... Fuck sia...Hav to wake up at 7 AM during ALL Saturdays... ...Oh well...I will be slping the day away anywayz... ...Might as well be working on my Gundam... ...(But still...Waking up at 7 AM on a weekend is a bit extreme... ...)

p/s: YES! I got a sms from Ani-Play that the Genshiken Complete DVD set I ordered hav finally arrived!!! Will most probably be collecting on Sunday... ...