I have finally updated the wishlist for games. Timing might be awkward since the new semester is starting but it is not like I am going to buy them in bulk and play all during school term. As per normal, help me keep a lookout for either 1st-hand or 2nd-hand and hopefully it is cheap as well

On the 31st December 2011, I decided to take up on a ‘sai kang’ job that my friend offered me. He told me that i was being paid $80 for that day itself.

My friend told me that he needed to find people who were willing to do the job. The pay being the most rewarding factor for me, I took the job despite the fact that that day was the last day in 2011. Jun Kai, Junyuan and Stanley agreed to also work with me. This was our first time experience in this kind of work.

The job? Simple. Do road closures in the heart of town area in singapore by shifting metal barricades to regulate traffic flow for the new year.

Little did I know that I was soon going to be working with what we normally call bangla workers. We were soon given the typical reflective safety vests to wear that you’d normally see in construction sites.

On the lorry ride to different areas that we had to set up, I was basically trying to know them better. They had the same mindset. To work and earn money. They had families overseas and the money that they earn will be given back to their families.

At around 8pm we were basically walking along marina square to our next location. Few singaporeans noticed that I was a singaporean amongst the rest and they were staring at us as if we’re doing something illegal. Something bad. A couple even gave that confused look like, “That young boy siao one ah. Countdown people all go celebrate this boy go and work, with the bangla people somemore. Didn’t the parents teach him anything useful?”

You know what i mean.

But what were we doing? Ensuring that there is enough space for pedestrians to walk as it’s the new year.
There’s bound to be overcrowding at these areas.

They were basically looking down at these bangla workers and ourselves too. If it isn’t for these workers who are willing to sacrifice the very last day of the year to ensure the safety of the pedestrians and also regulate traffic flow at congested areas,
some of us wouldn’t even be able to see the new year.

Barricades are set so that there would be less people trying to jaywalk over to the other side of the road. Normally on these kind of occasions, we would go and celebrate the year by meeting up with our close friends to enjoy. By drinking and partying. And that’s when you’d get drunk and the thing that might eventually save your life is that metal barricade that prevents you from going over.

Now I know how these foreigners feel.

Yes, I stereotype these people too. I’d normally try to avoid them due to the smell and the list eventually goes on.

But on the very last day of 2011, I’ve achieved something greater than drinking or partying. I learn to accept.

I’ve also learned that you can say that you’re this and that but when it comes to the real thing, you’ll see the true colours.

********
So since 2012 is a brand new year that has started, I would like to ask all of you to do me a small favour:

1)
Stop discriminating these people. From what I’ve experienced they are nice people. You can’t really blame them for taking photos of bikini girls at sentosa or at any other areas similar as such. They work almost 24/7 and when they have their free time, they would like to see the nicer side of singapore. And they are humans too. And they are men. Since when did men ever not get attracted to the opposite gender. So if you’re wearing a bikini at sentosa to show off that fabulous body of yours to get hunks looking at you, go screw yourselves.

If you’re suntanning, I would suggest going to another area where there are lesser foreigners around.

2)
Do not look down on them. These are the people that would go through shit jobs just to ensure that singaporeans would never need to do these kind of jobs.

3)
They did nothing wrong to all of you. So stop disturbing them just because you think it’s a fun/funny thing to do.

********

I took this photo with a few of them whom I worked with.

Laugh all you want.

Yeah, make jokes like “Eh Zahid, you look just like one of them. My goodness”

I do not care.

I AM PROUD TO BE HAVING A PHOTO TAKEN WITH THEM.

P.S. I asked one of them how much they were getting paid for every occasions like these. He replied, “$24″. We were getting $80.
P.S.S. Two teenagers were clapping at us when this photo was taken. They can go screw themselves.
P.S.S.S. I saw a teenager spraying snow spray at a bangla walking past outside Orchard Cineleisure during christmas. He can also do the same with the other two teenagers.

I apologise if this may offend to anyone that is reading this. Certain things might not be accurate and might also be exaggerated and this is only based on my opinion. My main motive of this is to ask singaporeans to do that very small favour.

What’s the problem you asked? This is not jealousy or anything but after thinking back, these people are sly. First is to make a good impression on the person receiving the present, that he/she thought up of this idea to give the person a good present. Second is that they are making use of other people to buy the presents they want for other party. Said presents might be too expensive for them or they just do not want to spend a lot of money on it thus they rope in others to aid them in their quest.

The usual response for the receiver? “Thanks a lot guys ” or “Oh wow, this is nice” etc. It is just formality. You do not see them jumping around excited or squeal in delight since “everyone bought them”. Probably the only one who went to get the present gets the credit since he/she puts in “a little more” effort. It is not only on birthdays but parties as well. Thus, whenever I am requested to get a present, will just buy something without thinking too much about it since I see it as a formality. I cannot even remember what I bought for last year’s Christmas party. The requirement for the party was a $10 gift thus anything below that will do.

This year, I put in a little more effort and after looking around, I bought a 1000 pieces jigsaw puzzle of Chopper from One Piece. I felt it was the best gift since quite a number of people in NUSKK likes One Piece and the girls adore Chopper plus it is within the requirement. After a random gift exchange, the person receiving the present was Kitt. Watching her unwrapping the present carefully, I was wondering how she would react. Maybe it will be like the usual formality since this present did not cost more than $10 and well, others just bought normal stuff like chocolates as their present and the receiver’s reaction was expected. However, what came next was totally unexpected. When Kitt saw the Chopper, she squealed in delight and hugged it, beaming brightly till she outshone the Sun. Alright, I might be exaggerating but when I saw her reaction, I thank Allah that my present was able to make someone happy. I was seriously and secretively overjoyed.

Christmas spoils of war!

That brings back to my view of presents. It should be something that brings joy to someone, not because it is expensive and such, but because it came from you. Sure, pouring money together and getting a gift is cool as well but if it is wholeheartedly from oneself, it will be treasured more. That’s the case for me at least. I will appreciate and take good care of any presents people give me since it is quite uncommon to receive one. For this Christmas, I want to say thanks to 3 people. Thanks to Jasmine for giving me my first Nendroid Petit of one of my favourite characters, Misaka Mikoto. Thanks Jiaying for the photo since it is quite ‘rare’ to have a photo like this, what with social networking sites like facebook. Lastly, thanks Siwei for the peculiar and unique gift, even if it is from a random gift exchange. My first impression when I saw it was like “Wah, can be used as decorations!” so yes, I shall use it as such since I do not drink.

Yes, I know I’m a little late since a day has passed but still, a Happy New Year to all of you. All the best for this year in whatever you do. On a side note, I want to say my thanks to Randy (who is currently in the US) for helping me me with my request and order the Spice and Wolf novels. Such good news at the start of 2012 indeed!

ufufufu! yes please~

Apologies for the lack of updates. There’s so many stuff I want to do but so little time for this short holiday. Anyways, have a Merry Christmas and enjoy your remaining holidays!

Original Title: 灼眼のシャナ
Genre: action, comedy, drama, fantasy, romance, supernatural
Length: 24 episodes (completed)
Synopsis:  He had thought his normal days would last forever, until they were ended abruptly by an encounter with a girl with red hair and eyes. He named her Shana.

Not long after he enters high school, Sakai Yuji’s normal days come to an end. He sees something bizarre on his way home: people are frozen in a strange fire, and a monster that looks like a large doll is attacking them. Just when he’s about to be killed, a girl in a dark cloak wielding a large sword appears, and slices the monster in half. Although Yuji survives the strange encounter, the girl informs him of a desolate truth: ” ‘You’ don’t exist anymore.”

She calls herself a Flame Haze who hunts “Guze no Tomogara”; intruders from another world. She explains to him that he is a “Torch”, a substitute of Yuji whose “existence” has already been devoured. She also told him that he is a special Torch, “Mystes”, which contains a precious item in it. When he looks at his chest, he sees within himself a faint flame, just as she said.

It is in this way that his eternal struggle alongside the girl begins.  (Source: AnimeNfo)

Yes I know. This came out around year 2005 thus it is quite late for me to write a review about this. However, seeing as to how this anime is one of my all time favorites and I have not written anything about it as of yet, I might as well write it now since I re-watched it last week. The show pretty much started as what was written in the synopsis and thereafter, it revolves around both Shana and Yuji. What makes this series great is it’s cast. Therefore this time, I will just talk about the characters as a lot of you would probably know that the art, animation and soundtrack is good from the various blog reviews. The characters I will be focusing on later will be Shana, Yuji and Yoshida since these 3 form a major part of the romance.

Character development is one of the key things in this anime but let me warned you it is very slow as it was probably intended to be developed more in the second season. Everyone has screen time, even the side characters.  It was  pretty confusing at the start when a whole chunk of new characters were introduced and the jargon they used did not help much, especially if one were to missed the explanation. It got a lot better though when the anime start showing us the history of several characters, in particular the various Flame Haze which helps us to understand the characters a lot better.

Development for Shana was great, we get to see her grow and develop feelings towards Yuji, albeit a bit slow since this is only the first season. Shana is also the defining character that introduce me to the term tsundere. Some people call her annoying but after watching a lot more animes with tsundere, I’ll say hers is very mild. She has some sort of a warrior pride and since no one can actually help her (except in theory) with emotions such as love, well, you get a little lost sheep in the form of Shana. Other’s criticise her for being ‘weak’. Well, what can you expect when you are still a (13-14 year old?) trainee and you are force to go into the battlefield due to unforeseen circumstances. It is not like she is a master of swords or a master of fire right? Thus, cut her some slack.

Yuji was all right in the first season since he did not really do much, save for having intuition and foreboding. He has shown that he can analyze the situations well and come up with strategy to turn the tide. His good trait is his kindness but sweet mother of god Yuji, your kindness can actually cause a lot of damage emotionally to other people and it clouds your judgement as well. Being a gentlemen does not equate to being kind to any girl but I forgive you since you are only 16 and you have a long road ahead of you. Aside from that, Yuji is surprisingly calm despite knowing the truth about himself. Like Shana said, he is weird in a sense the other Torches who knew the truth will either feign ignorance or go into despair. He accepts his fate willingly and after knowing why he is a special Torch, he decided to help Shana for better or for worst.

Yoshida is one character I don’t hate but I can’t seem to like either. After re-watching, I assumed that she likes Yuji when he ‘save’ her that one time from the PE teacher but seriously, I feel like she is just intruding. I apologise to those who like her but  the reason probably stemmed from that one time she called Shana a cheater. I mean seriously? Does she even know what cheating means? Just because Shana gets to spend more time with you Yuji but acts cold and ignorant towards him in front of others, that constitutes as cheating? Oh please. I have to give credit to her though for having to actually confess but no more than that, even if her cooking skills are superb. Well, that’s it for now. I shall write about season 2 next time.

I shipped these two~

This was an extremely difficult decision to make when we were purchasing tickets. At that time when they announced that LiSA was coming, I was overjoyed as she was the singer for Yui in Girls Dead Monster and thus decided to go for the Saturday one although I’ve already heard Aniki live and as for Flow, I do not really listen to them save from a few songs. May’N was also an ok for me since I only listen to a few of her songs thus it was leaning towards the Saturday concert more than the Sunday. However, they decided to drop a bomb on me.

It was soon announced that Kalafina will be performing on a Sunday and I was really dumbfounded. Kalafina has always had one of the higher priorities if I wanted to attend a concert and I was stuck between choosing either the two (Saturday or Sunday) or to go for both days. With exams the week after and with a lot of strain financially, I was lamenting for days before orders for the tickets were opened. They decided to add the final artists to the roster and along came angela for the Sunday. That sealed my decision and I chose Sunday for my concert.

Back to the the original intent, I was watching Guilty Crown when I remembered there’s an anime with the same act of drawing sword from a girl’s body, Shining Tears x Wind. Here’s two youtube videos showcasing the same act, but with different ‘kind’ of background music. For Guilty Crown, unless u really hate spoilers, don’t watch the video but we all know the main protaganist is going to do something like this due to the trailer. Not too sure if Shining Tears x Wind is going to spoil anyone. Now, let the sound do the talking.

Alright, maybe they want to portray something else in Shining Tears x Wind but even when one of the characters drew a sword at the very beginning, I just found it so-so as well. Still, for Guilty Crown at least, awesome music is awesome!

I came back from training yesterday and my younger brother told me that there is a re-released for Saber Lily. I was exhilarated at that comment and went to check Toycoin’s website and there she is, waiting for me to pre-order her at a price of $145 (Edit: She’s currently out-of stock and i managed to get the early bird deal of $125!). She IS under the “Will Buy” category in my Wishlist after all. Thank god I waited. I feel pity for the guy who bought her at a whopping $500 at last year AFA. Good things come to those who wait~