Thursday, January 31, 2008
Japan in Process
For those of you who are in the know (oooh sounds absolutely deliciously cliqueish eh?), you would have already known that I am currently planning for a trip to Japan which is likely to take place in September this year.
I'm all excited over it. Mainly because I can visit the SE Character Goods Store (yes I have posted about this store previously)
The initial plan was to only cover Tokyo, and to cover it extensively. We've got a slight change of plans now and are planning to cover Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Haven't quite got the sequence down yet as we need to plan for certain days to be at certain places, for example I have to be in Shinjuku on a weekend and it would be great if it was at the end of the trip, as it involves shopping. We think we will be in Japan for about two weeks. Hopefully the leave will get approved with no issue.
An alternative is to go early in the trip, buy the stuff and mail it back home. This also has an added advantage of having a shorter wait time for the goods when I get home. I certainly do not want to lug my purchases halfway across Japan, if I can choose not to.
Another thing to consider is whether we actually wish to hike up Mt Fuji. We will be in Japan just after the official climbing season ends so that's probably a big negative point as it is. I'm not sure I am fit enough, though I think I should be able to make it up with some luck (weather) and plenty of determination. I seriously do not think my friend can make it up Mt Fuji in her current fitness condition. However, she is very keen to hike up Mt Fuji, as such I think I will plan some local hiking and long walks to let her evaluate the plausibility of that plan.
Even if we do not hike up Mt Fuji, we will definitely be visiting Hakone.. for the Fuji shots! I'll have to work this trip into the itinerary because I want to take the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto. It's about $160 for the trip and I simply must ride on the Shinkansen at least once while I am in Japan. Will have to ponder on this.
So many places I want to go, so little time and money! Oh dearie me.
I just met my german language classmate last night and she's flying to Spain tomorrow and going to Japan in April. Dang. I need to travel more!
2 Adorations
For those of you who are in the know (oooh sounds absolutely deliciously cliqueish eh?), you would have already known that I am currently planning for a trip to Japan which is likely to take place in September this year.
I'm all excited over it. Mainly because I can visit the SE Character Goods Store (yes I have posted about this store previously)
The initial plan was to only cover Tokyo, and to cover it extensively. We've got a slight change of plans now and are planning to cover Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. Haven't quite got the sequence down yet as we need to plan for certain days to be at certain places, for example I have to be in Shinjuku on a weekend and it would be great if it was at the end of the trip, as it involves shopping. We think we will be in Japan for about two weeks. Hopefully the leave will get approved with no issue.
An alternative is to go early in the trip, buy the stuff and mail it back home. This also has an added advantage of having a shorter wait time for the goods when I get home. I certainly do not want to lug my purchases halfway across Japan, if I can choose not to.
Another thing to consider is whether we actually wish to hike up Mt Fuji. We will be in Japan just after the official climbing season ends so that's probably a big negative point as it is. I'm not sure I am fit enough, though I think I should be able to make it up with some luck (weather) and plenty of determination. I seriously do not think my friend can make it up Mt Fuji in her current fitness condition. However, she is very keen to hike up Mt Fuji, as such I think I will plan some local hiking and long walks to let her evaluate the plausibility of that plan.
Even if we do not hike up Mt Fuji, we will definitely be visiting Hakone.. for the Fuji shots! I'll have to work this trip into the itinerary because I want to take the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kyoto. It's about $160 for the trip and I simply must ride on the Shinkansen at least once while I am in Japan. Will have to ponder on this.
So many places I want to go, so little time and money! Oh dearie me.
I just met my german language classmate last night and she's flying to Spain tomorrow and going to Japan in April. Dang. I need to travel more!
Friday, January 25, 2008
And I thought It Was Me...
I still remember a couple of months back, on nice sunday lunchtime, when I stepped onto the MRT platform less than a minute after the train pulled out of the station, I was very surprised to see about 50-60 people on the platform. I was thinking it was probably a fluke that there were so many people on the platform.
I looked at the train arrival time and it said 7 minutes. Surely, I thought, this crowd is a fluke because SURELY the MRT planners would know when are the peak and off peak period and most definitely would plan train frequencies in order to match the demand.
I got onto the next train and along the way, most of the stations were crowded. I just chalked it up to an exceptionally good day to go out.
I noticed this another couple of times during supposedly off peak hours but I just thought perhaps a review just hadn't been done.
That is until today, when someone came across this little nugget of gold...
http://onelesscar.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/well-spotted/
I'm like.... oh you mean I wasn't imagining things when it feels like MRTs are taking longer to reach? And the trains are much more crowded? So.. even after all the fare hikes, they do not have enough of a profit and must scale back on train frequencies?
What does the HRT mean in the first place? MASS RAPID TRANSIT. We sure have Mass now. Rapid, well, it sure is faster than walking!
0 Adorations
I still remember a couple of months back, on nice sunday lunchtime, when I stepped onto the MRT platform less than a minute after the train pulled out of the station, I was very surprised to see about 50-60 people on the platform. I was thinking it was probably a fluke that there were so many people on the platform.
I looked at the train arrival time and it said 7 minutes. Surely, I thought, this crowd is a fluke because SURELY the MRT planners would know when are the peak and off peak period and most definitely would plan train frequencies in order to match the demand.
I got onto the next train and along the way, most of the stations were crowded. I just chalked it up to an exceptionally good day to go out.
I noticed this another couple of times during supposedly off peak hours but I just thought perhaps a review just hadn't been done.
That is until today, when someone came across this little nugget of gold...
http://onelesscar.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/well-spotted/
I'm like.... oh you mean I wasn't imagining things when it feels like MRTs are taking longer to reach? And the trains are much more crowded? So.. even after all the fare hikes, they do not have enough of a profit and must scale back on train frequencies?
What does the HRT mean in the first place? MASS RAPID TRANSIT. We sure have Mass now. Rapid, well, it sure is faster than walking!
Sunday, January 06, 2008
College Saga SFX List
I've seen this video by Mark Leung a long time ago. It came up again recently and I decided to do my own personal list of where I think the music and SFX used in the video came from.
The video in question
The SFX list.
1) Credit, Markleung.com - Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Item obtained SFX.
2) Title Screen - FFV. Title Screen and Other CS. (Ahead on Our Way)
3) Flashing name, Mark Leung - FFVIII. Battle Victory. (The Winner)
4) Babson College (00:28) - FFV: Town Music (Tenderness in The Air)
5) All item obtained SFX from Zelda: Link to the Past.
6) Babson College (01:17) - FFV. Overworld. (Four Valiant Heroes)
7) Battle @ Babson College (01:21) - FFV : Battle Music (The Battle)
8) Battle Victory - FFVIII. Battle Victory. (The Winner)
9) Tomasso Hall (03:35) - FFXI : Sarutabaruta Zone music (Sarutabaruta)
10) Sleeping music - FFV Rest music (Good Night!)
11) Chocobo riding (04:45) - FFIV: Chocobo music (Chocobo Chocobo)
12) Wind SFX - FFXI (Airship BG SFX)
13) Cursed Structure (05:26) - FFXI : Dynamis (Shadow Lord)
14) Street (06:00) - FFV. Overworld. (Four Valiant Heroes)
15) Dormitory (06:51) - FFIV: Town music (Welcome to our town)
16) Fight with Roommate (07:44) - FFIV : Boss Fight (Boss Battle Theme)
17) Sleep Spell SFX - FFXI: Sleep spell
18) 231 Forest Street (10:09) - FFVII : Overworld.
19) Dick Cheney fight (11:04) - FFV : Battle Music (The Battle)
20) Sea Serpent Grotto (11:31) - FFVII (?)
21) Leviathan Fight (12:40) - FFIV : Boss Fight (Boss Battle Theme)
22) Annihilation (13:24) - FFXI: Unconscious Status (Blackout)
23) Scene with people comatose (14:05) - FFVII AC?
24) Warping scene at cursed structure (17:43) - FFXI : Warp SFX
25) Chocolate Tree encounter (18:12) - FVII: Battle
26) Song and dance scene (19:16) - No clue!! It's not FF!
27) Defeat of Chocolate tree, Father and son scene (21:18) - FFXI: Introduction CS (Repression (Memoro de la Stono))
28) Maria playing music on the .. mini broom? (24:55) - FFXI : Bard Flute SFX
29) Dragon flying scene (25:02) - Seiken Densetsu?
30) Wonka Chocolate Factory (25:50) - FFVII
31) Meeting with Diculous (27:58) :FFXI : Dynamis (Shadow Lord)
32) Dialogue (28:18) : Hmm. FF Orchestrated
33) Fight with Diculous (29:37) - FFVIII
34) Fight with Real Diculous (32:51) - FFXI: BCNM music (Tough Battle)
35 ) Second part of fight (35:43) - FFVIII: Battle music (Don't be afraid)
36) Escape (36:43) - FFVII AC
37) Sunrise (37:53) - FFXI : CSes (Victory scenes). Ex - Character selection screen rotation music (Pre-COP) (Vanadiel March #2)
And that's it... I got lazy and left out some minor stuff.. and repeat tracks. Probably will have some mistakes if the music music was related to FFVII AC, FFIX and FFX.
Not to mention I support the theme of the video... Boo to vegetarians!
1 Adorations
I've seen this video by Mark Leung a long time ago. It came up again recently and I decided to do my own personal list of where I think the music and SFX used in the video came from.
The video in question
The SFX list.
1) Credit, Markleung.com - Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. Item obtained SFX.
2) Title Screen - FFV. Title Screen and Other CS. (Ahead on Our Way)
3) Flashing name, Mark Leung - FFVIII. Battle Victory. (The Winner)
4) Babson College (00:28) - FFV: Town Music (Tenderness in The Air)
5) All item obtained SFX from Zelda: Link to the Past.
6) Babson College (01:17) - FFV. Overworld. (Four Valiant Heroes)
7) Battle @ Babson College (01:21) - FFV : Battle Music (The Battle)
8) Battle Victory - FFVIII. Battle Victory. (The Winner)
9) Tomasso Hall (03:35) - FFXI : Sarutabaruta Zone music (Sarutabaruta)
10) Sleeping music - FFV Rest music (Good Night!)
11) Chocobo riding (04:45) - FFIV: Chocobo music (Chocobo Chocobo)
12) Wind SFX - FFXI (Airship BG SFX)
13) Cursed Structure (05:26) - FFXI : Dynamis (Shadow Lord)
14) Street (06:00) - FFV. Overworld. (Four Valiant Heroes)
15) Dormitory (06:51) - FFIV: Town music (Welcome to our town)
16) Fight with Roommate (07:44) - FFIV : Boss Fight (Boss Battle Theme)
17) Sleep Spell SFX - FFXI: Sleep spell
18) 231 Forest Street (10:09) - FFVII : Overworld.
19) Dick Cheney fight (11:04) - FFV : Battle Music (The Battle)
20) Sea Serpent Grotto (11:31) - FFVII (?)
21) Leviathan Fight (12:40) - FFIV : Boss Fight (Boss Battle Theme)
22) Annihilation (13:24) - FFXI: Unconscious Status (Blackout)
23) Scene with people comatose (14:05) - FFVII AC?
24) Warping scene at cursed structure (17:43) - FFXI : Warp SFX
25) Chocolate Tree encounter (18:12) - FVII: Battle
26) Song and dance scene (19:16) - No clue!! It's not FF!
27) Defeat of Chocolate tree, Father and son scene (21:18) - FFXI: Introduction CS (Repression (Memoro de la Stono))
28) Maria playing music on the .. mini broom? (24:55) - FFXI : Bard Flute SFX
29) Dragon flying scene (25:02) - Seiken Densetsu?
30) Wonka Chocolate Factory (25:50) - FFVII
31) Meeting with Diculous (27:58) :FFXI : Dynamis (Shadow Lord)
32) Dialogue (28:18) : Hmm. FF Orchestrated
33) Fight with Diculous (29:37) - FFVIII
34) Fight with Real Diculous (32:51) - FFXI: BCNM music (Tough Battle)
35 ) Second part of fight (35:43) - FFVIII: Battle music (Don't be afraid)
36) Escape (36:43) - FFVII AC
37) Sunrise (37:53) - FFXI : CSes (Victory scenes). Ex - Character selection screen rotation music (Pre-COP) (Vanadiel March #2)
And that's it... I got lazy and left out some minor stuff.. and repeat tracks. Probably will have some mistakes if the music music was related to FFVII AC, FFIX and FFX.
Not to mention I support the theme of the video... Boo to vegetarians!
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Thus far Into The New Year
Been a busy couple of days for me. Went around one of the neighborhoods taking photos for about 3 hours on the 31st of December. Been a long time since I last walked so much! I can feel the bumminess creeping up! However, I must arrange to go out for more walkies, especially since I told my friend we need to walk more for the Japan trip we are planning in Aug/ Sep! It would be such a major bummer if we went there and we're tired after just half an hour of walking.
We would also need to save money... but that's another story.
1st of January. Grabbed my friend to go down to Bras Basah with me to submit photos. We wanted to go down to Beach Road market after that to look at some backpacks for her. So i went down to Bras Basah to submit photos and was told I had to make a record sheet listing the time, location and any notes for each shot. Queued for the one and only laptop available for our use and bumped people from using it for a good ten minutes.
I also bought the Eye the City books for the past three years. Actually, I only bought two, the third was free.
We went across the street to Rocky Master's and had some lunch there. The food wasn't too bad. It was nice and quiet too! We then walked to Beach Road Market for the backpack shopping. It was a pretty pleasant walk. The weather was cool and we walked past quite a number of places we always passed by on the bus but never on foot.
Looked around a couple of the stores and finally my friend decided that she liked this Deuter bag. We had actually walked out of the store, but my friend was seriously considering buying it. So I told her, we'll go ask if they have new ones. At least that means they still have stock. My friend did just that.... and bought the backpack right on the spot! $140 for the 85+10 liter pack. Well, the store owner was a pretty pleasant person so it was cool.
Then I was talking about photography and my friend mentioned that although she does not have a functioning camera at the moment, she could get one working if she could find a memory stick module for it. So we decided to walk to Sim Lim Square to get one and proceeded to Bugis Junction afterwards, having some very nice milk tea at the Wong Kok Hong Kong Cafe.
Nice walkie day.
Need to have more of these.
Need to save money too!
Ahhhhhh.......
2nd of January. Kinda started of as a slowish day as we were preparing for a ceremony at the workplace. As the time for the ceremony got close, I started getting mildly crazy as I was supposed to be the photog..... and I had to ensure the seating arrangements were done properly.... well, it got me scrambling around in a few instances and my colleague was rather shocked when I moved up the stairs with me D70 attached to my tripod and the ball head became loose and my D70 looked like it dropped. Well, I'm glad she feels for my camera! Was so busy, I didn't even have time to check my shots when I got home. Fell asleep like a couple hours after I got home. Yummy sleep.
Oh I'm currently contemplating taking up basic Japanese. Maybe conversation courses or stuff like that. Think it may be fun for going to Japan.
0 Adorations
Been a busy couple of days for me. Went around one of the neighborhoods taking photos for about 3 hours on the 31st of December. Been a long time since I last walked so much! I can feel the bumminess creeping up! However, I must arrange to go out for more walkies, especially since I told my friend we need to walk more for the Japan trip we are planning in Aug/ Sep! It would be such a major bummer if we went there and we're tired after just half an hour of walking.
We would also need to save money... but that's another story.
1st of January. Grabbed my friend to go down to Bras Basah with me to submit photos. We wanted to go down to Beach Road market after that to look at some backpacks for her. So i went down to Bras Basah to submit photos and was told I had to make a record sheet listing the time, location and any notes for each shot. Queued for the one and only laptop available for our use and bumped people from using it for a good ten minutes.
I also bought the Eye the City books for the past three years. Actually, I only bought two, the third was free.
We went across the street to Rocky Master's and had some lunch there. The food wasn't too bad. It was nice and quiet too! We then walked to Beach Road Market for the backpack shopping. It was a pretty pleasant walk. The weather was cool and we walked past quite a number of places we always passed by on the bus but never on foot.
Looked around a couple of the stores and finally my friend decided that she liked this Deuter bag. We had actually walked out of the store, but my friend was seriously considering buying it. So I told her, we'll go ask if they have new ones. At least that means they still have stock. My friend did just that.... and bought the backpack right on the spot! $140 for the 85+10 liter pack. Well, the store owner was a pretty pleasant person so it was cool.
Then I was talking about photography and my friend mentioned that although she does not have a functioning camera at the moment, she could get one working if she could find a memory stick module for it. So we decided to walk to Sim Lim Square to get one and proceeded to Bugis Junction afterwards, having some very nice milk tea at the Wong Kok Hong Kong Cafe.
Nice walkie day.
Need to have more of these.
Need to save money too!
Ahhhhhh.......
2nd of January. Kinda started of as a slowish day as we were preparing for a ceremony at the workplace. As the time for the ceremony got close, I started getting mildly crazy as I was supposed to be the photog..... and I had to ensure the seating arrangements were done properly.... well, it got me scrambling around in a few instances and my colleague was rather shocked when I moved up the stairs with me D70 attached to my tripod and the ball head became loose and my D70 looked like it dropped. Well, I'm glad she feels for my camera! Was so busy, I didn't even have time to check my shots when I got home. Fell asleep like a couple hours after I got home. Yummy sleep.
Oh I'm currently contemplating taking up basic Japanese. Maybe conversation courses or stuff like that. Think it may be fun for going to Japan.
