"I walk towards the magical season and realise just how happy I can be."
Fans of comic books and American science fiction television and movies must make that pilgrimage to Comic-Con at least once in their lifetime. Okay, granted it should be just about comics as gleaned from the convention’s name but one just cannot deny the major screenings and previews there! I was there in San Diego this year.
This photo says it all!
Friday out with five friends to Johor Bahru, specifically Johor Bahru City Square. Friday night in with seven friends for an overnight mahjong session. All in a day’s, and night’s, efforts, all with friends from CSC. I wonder if there’s a word, a word for making good friends who get together over the years after all the fun and party that brought them together has finished and to continually construct memories together henceforth, as though that dream had never stopped.
May is the month of movies with much exciting stuff that I had been looking forward to, coming to the theatres. X-Men Origins: Wolverine, J. J. Abrams’s Star Trek, film adaptation of Dan Brown’s Angels And Demons and the set-in-the-future prequel-sequel that is Terminator Salvation. Junhui, Renhong, Joo Chuan, Yun Cai, Denise and I caught Wolverine for RM11 per person which was really not a bad deal for a movie on a public holiday.
The show was passable so long as you gloss over the various characters introduced. My personal gripe would have to be Ryan Reynold’s Deadpool. He was so much less than what I had expected. Perhaps this exemplifies an instance a comic-book character that works so well on pages breaking the fourth wall and bantering while kicking the hell out of his enemies, should just remain on the pages. Wade Wilson rocks but I don’t know if the big screen is ready for him, or will ever be for that matter. Overall, the film is passable for slightly over one-and-a-half hours of entertainment.
I would not consider my day trip to Johor to be some form of overseas travel since all we did was confine ourselves to a shopping mall, without any sightseeing of the surrounding areas. The mahjong session saw the six of us joined by Xi Qian and Yiwen for a 2-table overnight session. We played till dawn broke! I haven’t had such a draining overnight game for some time. I think I’ll need a lot more time to recharge before embarking on something like that any time soon.
This long weekend I had hoped to be at some destination away from the shores of Singapore. But I guess, so long as one is with the company of friends, anywhere is fine =)
* The title is a reference to the background theme of Justice from the game Guilty Gear XX #Reload.
It’s confession time! I have never read a single chapter from the classic manga, DRAGON BALL. Neither have I followed the Mandarin-dubbed anime when it was showing on local screens during the nineties. That didn’t stop me from catching Dragonball Evolution =)
Watchmen was a great show, compounded by the fact I had not read the visual novel prior to the watch. After the critically-acclaimed but personally-disappointing The Lord Of The Rings, I think it’s best if I start with the summary that is the movie before opening my eyes to the written work.
KTV on a Friday night is expensive. Yet the price was made worth by the company, and not forgetting the sashimi that was part of the singing and buffet package. More to work than just the 9-to-5 routine, the co-workers in our project teams. In fact the group of us all came from different departments, the common thread being we somehow knew each other from the same session of Orientation Module we attended for new-hires. If there were a cap of fortunes for work, I am indeed blessed to have been able to put quite a number of feathers in it. I don’t know about the future but as of this entry, I think the kind of people one is able to interact and hang out with at one’s workplace can really make or break one’s experience and morale. Ah, the words of a newbie to the working force.
Yet for all the triumphs listed above, what is it that has been persistently gnawing at my psyche for the past few days, forcing my thoughts?
* The title is a reference to Ending Theme 2 from the game Guilty Gear XX #Reload.
So I sit at one corner, clearing relics of old. I look at the notes tucked away neatly in a box — notes from Junior College days. "Double-science-double-maths", they call the subject combination I took. I look on at the chunks and torrents of equations that now look foreign to me. I used to solve them, and with that tinge of pride and excitement as well. I loved the topics on probability though I never let on. I remember the crushing feeling when I took my ‘A’-level Math papers and was forced to abandon the choice to do a question on probability, my pet topic because it so happened the question stumped me.
So I sit at one corner, clearing relics of old. The notes do not just speak of the past. They echo a ripple to the future. I thought I would go on to further my education and take up the course of Chemical Engineering. But Chemistry and I failed to click beyond my secondary school days. Looking at the stash of papers, one would never have guessed I would pursue a degree in Computing. Maybe I am wrong, maybe written in the Math notes are the clues and glimpses to a future that is now. Alas, it’s all a "what-if".
So I sit at one corner, clearing relics of old. It’s time to throw those pages of knowledge away. Vestiges of what I was, remembered, learned and understood now manifest like a distant memory. Just like what the author of GS美神 極楽大作戦!! mentioned in one of the chapters of the series using the analogy referring to memories as water: No matter how you cup your hands, you cannot retain the water in it but there will always be some droplets that remain. How true.
November coming… But of course some things leave too deep an impression to simply be forgotten or thrown away.
* The title is a reference to the song by Yuka.
The title is a reference to the song by R. Kelly.
One knows that comic book fandom is hitting an all-time high when he borrows Exiles Vol. 13: World Tour Book 2 trade paperback for the second time and eagerly anticipates a 2-page spread of eighteen panels depicting the fallen heroes of the Exiles getting proper funerals, and the others being sent back to their home reality. One remembers the Christian quote in the panels as well!
No, I am not a Christian. Some things still do impact regardless of their source. Strong words coupled with powerful visual. If you have been following the books, the story tells of a Marvel universe where the heroes die and stay dead, no resurrections whatsoever. It’s heart-wrenching, like when Calvin "Mimic" Rankin was put out of commission by Proteus (Damn that Proteus) and Morph got taken over by Proteus. I like Morph! Well, technically he’s still alive but with Proteus residing in his body… It’s complicated =)
"… In sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, we commend to almighty God our dearly departed brother and we commit this body to the ground. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face to shine upon us and be gracious unto us and grant us peace. Amen."
