Saturday Trip

Originally planning to jump into Macritchie national park today but due to lacking of information, we would have been too late if we did continue our plan to get to the tree top walk at Macritchie, hence the plan was altered beyond spontaneity. Instead we visited the Lower Seletar Reservoir – Fishing Jetty,  Bottle Tree Park and Sembawang Shopping Center which happened to be in the vicinity of where we had “half-accidentally” been.

Lower Seletar Reservoir – Fishing Jetty: the far end of the Macritchie reservoir, nothing to be mentioned rather than it’s really fishing jetty since many people did fish for free there.

Bottle Tree Park: A really nice park, with lovely ponds and water lilies, benches, water riding ducks and utmostly “Bottle Tree” seafood restaurant. We didn’t have the chance to dine there but the price was really reasonable with nice ambience and an aircon-ed VIP room.

Sembawang Shopping Center: An very OK small shopping center reminding its location is way in the suburb. It has french toast shop called “le greenier a pain”, aston restaurant with nice price and nice spot, and splash park – water themed children park -. The shopping center is nowhere near MRT so go take free shuttle bus from Yishun/Khatib/Sembawang MRT operating in 15-20 mins interval.

Pictures to be put up later.

A man fishes at Fishing Jetty

Bottle Tree Restaurant from afar

"Ducks" on water

Yay!

The Bottle Tree - Why it's named such -

The long Weekend of Easter

Though i’m not a very good christian (if not very bad) but hey let’s start this post with a big round of Happy Easter 2008 for everyone who celebrates it . May the joy and the peace be with you.

Well, in my life I have never been a good christian at all. I go to the church very rarely (several times in a year), have never participated in the fasting month, have only several times made my sin confession ( The last time was 4 years ago perhaps, and I even deliberately skipped the chance in my last retreat), and many others very un-christian acts. It’s not like I’m proud of it, no, not in anyway I persuade you to jump into the same boat. And it’s not like I’m gonna talk about this right now. But in my very rare occasions of going to the church, I’ve always seen the same strange thing occuring over and over and missed by lots of people in the mass. The meaning of sign of peace session.

While we suppose to give the sign of peace by handshaking the fellow christian, it’s very strange to me that some people doing it only as a ritual. Have u ever eaten in Petojo, Binus? Perhaps u remember what kind of treatment you get everytime you pay, but sadly, you can enjoy the same treatment in the church nowadays . Handshakes without smile, and some people even doing it like we have heaps of bacteria in our hands that they want to let go of them as soon as possible. Then why did they bother to offer their hands in the first place? Where is the peace? – No offense to anyone, it’s the reality -.

We’re in the home of God, the same God that promotes love and peace to all living being. If some people feel smiling is too hard, at least they should give the greeting in a more respectable way. Thus, we can really feel the hands of God dwelling in our surroundings, that we have the peace together. Isn’t it very beautiful and totally beneficial for our reasons to attend the holy mass?

Excluding the prior stuff, and also the fact that I’m totally haunted by this annoying cough, lots of outstandingly good things have happened lately that it has been a very very nice weekend for me. Like the face that Meke came back from Singapore eventhough for a while, thus we can share lots of time. Also I took my first time in field in my current job as a Business Intelligence Consultant on last Thursday which I supposed I managed to do it quite well (though I know it was a very very trivial task) though as a result I had my long weekend taken one day. I also had loads of fun last evening, dining in Ta-wan with my sis, Meke, Wil, Armando, and Ko Wandy was totally splendid, and as the curtain call had been a undoubtably the best movie I had watched this year till then, “Vantage Point”.

Vantage Point was a very good movie (I know this statement will come with lots of pros and contras). It’s interesting that they gave the view of 8 different people to show one incident – the shot of US President, and followed by a very devastating bomb; issue of international terrorism-. By showing the view of the 8 persons, it gave a very wide perspective about the short 15 minutes of the horrible incident and thus could show many more factors of the occasion, humanity, cruelty, intriques, betrayal, disbelieve, faith, and lots of other things. In the end those 8 views came up in the same end point as the conclusion of the story. Very good action I should say especially the astonishing car-chase, and a very humane way to end the movie. 8.8 out of 10 from me . I really feel that the summer – the expected season of great movies – is nearing!

Thanks for reading my vantage point. Have a beautiful last day of weekend. Oh yes : Happy birthday, Armando .

Second Strike : MUST WATCH : – EUREKA SEVEN -

I’ve been under a bad mood recently. I don’t have the apetite, easily get offended, don’t enjoy my fav game anymore and even I can’t study properly. It seems that something is not right. I’ve been missing something in my life. But hey life must go on. Below I put the review of one of my most favorite anime.
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Kokyoshihen Eureka Seven (Psalms of the Planet Eureka Seven)

Studio : Bones (Full Metal Alchemist, Wolf’s Rain)
Genre : Mecha, Science-Fiction, Romance
Official Site : http://eurekaseven.bandai-ent.com/

MUST WATCH! One of the best anime I’ve ever watched. This anime also got the award for the best television series at The Tokyo Anime Awards. This title has both manga and anime version. Even BANDAI has launched the game with the title : EUREKA SEVEN : NEW WAVE (PS2 & PSP) and they’re gonna launch the sequel of the game with name EUREKA SEVEN : NEW VISION.

Description of the story (some parts are taken from AnimeNFO.com. Picture : Eureka and Nirvash):

“Don’t ask for it. Go out and win it. Do that and you will be rewarded…” (A quote from the anime)

Excessive amount of time has passed since the human beings were driven from the Earth. Looking for a place to live peacefully, they finally found the Land of the Covenant. It was a desolate planet where the surface of the planet was covered by the substance similar to the coral, and there was an unknown ion called “Trapar” in the air. They exploited the earth, and in order to use “Trapar” effectively, they built huge towers. Under the towers, countries were built, and unifying these counties, the United States of the Towers was founded.

Several hundreds years have passed since then. Renton is a boy who lives with his grand father in a Tower Country, “Belforest”. He has a complaint about his life. He was the son of the Hero, “Adrock”, who saved the world from the disaster, “Summer of Love”, at the cost of his life. It became the burden on him. Furthermore, because his grand father, Axel Thurston,  is a mechanic, he has no choice but to take over his business. Only his mental food is “Lifting” which is a sport gliding in the air using “Trapar”. He yearns for Holland who is a charismatic Lifter, and he wants to travel around gliding Lift like him believing that a big wave will come to him some day.

One day a LFO called Nirvash (a legendary mecha, the first of all LFOs; Light Finding Operation) lands on Bellforest and destructs his house and that is his first meeting with Eureka, the genius pilot of the LFO, a cute yet mysterious girl that he falls for after seeing her for the 1st time. The meeting with Eureka changes his life forever and become the starting point for the exciting yet full of tears adventure. Not long later Bellforest gets an attack from military to retrieve the Nirvash. Renton’s grandfather asks him to deliver the Amita Drive for Nirvash which will awake the “true Nirvash”. Seven swell, a phenomeon that hasn’t been seen long, appears with Eureka and Renton being on Nirvash and the Amita Drive showing the name of “EUREKA”.

Renton finds out that Eureka is a part of Gekko-State with their leader Holland that Renton has been idolizing for long. Holland asks him if he really wants to live up to his dream then he can follow the Gekko-State on their airplane Gekko-Go. Renton takes the offer to be with the Gekko-State he has yearned for and Eureka, the girl he loves. Thus, the journey begins. (Picture Left to Right : Renton, Talho, Holland, Eureka)

The animes has 50 episodes, all have been aired and so far 38 episodes
has been subbed by Nanashi-Fansub. U can download them by bittorent here. I only have watched til eps 38 (can’t
find the raw for next eps :p). SPOILER WARNING! Don’t read below if u
don’t want to know about the story!

Story : 9.5-10

The strong part of this anime is on the storyline, romance, beautiful scenes and the development of the characters. It’s really amusing to see how the characters reacts to different situation. How Renton, starting from a brat, becomes a man who can protect Eureka. (Picture; Left : Renton, Right : Eureka)

1-26 : The 1st season for this anime. This part is mainly about the characters inside, telling their pasts especially the bitter memory of Holland, Talho,
and Eureka. This part is also the main development for the character of Renton and Eureka. How Renton is getting wiser and maturer. How Eureka who lacks of human emotion in the beginning grabs more humanity after Renton being with her and changes her life though at first she doesn’t realize that she has fallen for him. Renton, like another boys on his age, easily gets angry and hurted. Driven by his conflict with Holland and uncertainty of Eureka bout her own feeling, he runs away from Gekko-State (like a boy who runs from his home on teen age) and meets more people, persons that he can call “Papa” and “Mama” to replace his dead parents and the sad ending of the meeting with them.

27-up : The 2nd season is the real deal of the conflict. Who is Eureka? What’s on the planet? What actually Coralian is? And how come in the end, goverment and the military chooses to war and exterminate the Coralians. This part is mainly about how Gekko-State and its members try to stop the war. This part also gives a lot of pressure to the relationship between Renton and Eureka who is said to be the key to save the world.

My fav scenes :
Eps 9 : When Eureka says that perhaps she has changed since she meets Renton.
Eps 10 : Talho and Holland hugging scene on the dessert.
Eps 21 : When Renton asks Eureka to talk on the infirmary especially when Eureka says “my heart rate goes everytime i see you”. (It shows that she loves Renton yet she doesn’t understand such feeling and Renton interpretes it as Eureka not wanting to be with him.)
Eps 26 : Eureka sets out to find Renton and get found by the military. Then Renton and Eureka meets again on Nirvash.
Eps 33 : Holland finally opens up his heart and the burden he hides inside to Talho. A beautiful make-up scene.
Eps 35 : Gekko-State is attacking the Capital. The heroism, humanity, love, and friendship are shown here.
Eps 36 : Eureka leans how to do make-up and ends up with failure (LOL it’s really funny) but in end Renton says that he will still love her even if she doesn’t do make-up.

Animation : 8.5-9

The animation quality actually are good, the characters are maybe not the lovely one that u’re looking for but in fact they are nicely designed! The characters are eye-catching. Personally I love the drawings. The mechs are quite good though incomparable to Gundam Series. But hey it’s not what makes this anime become so interesting.

Music : 9

This anime also has good sound tracks that u will want to listen.
Song lists :
1st Opening : Days by Flow
2nd Opening : Shounen Heart
3rd Opening : Taiyou no Mannaka he
4th Opening : Sakura by Nirgilis

1st Ending : Himitsu Kichi by Kozue Takada
2nd Ending : Fly Away by Izawa Asami
3rd Ending : Tip Taps Tip by HALCALI
4th Ending : Canvas by COOLON

Insert Song : Story Writer by SUPERCAR
Insert Song : Get It By Your Hands

My personal favourites are Sakura, Tip Taps Tip and Story Writer

In closing, this is the anime that u HAVE to watch.

Point Alpha – School Rumble Nigakki -

Well.. in the end guess i created a blog huh? Used to have a homepage but in the end it’s gone neglected due to my incosistency.. we’ll see how long this one is gonna stand..

Life is going so so for me without any real aim to strive for a while.. The Chain of Mid Exams has passed which turned out to be better than Mids of the last semester.. 4 A and 2 B on the theory.. though i only managed to score 70 on the Lab exam.. have to do better on upcoming the Final Exams… Yet let’s forget bout it for a while and here goes the happy-go-go-relaxing weeks…

Currently I’m watching some animes and i find 3 titles are worth to watch : 1. School Rumble 2nd Semester, 2. BLOOD+, 3. EUREKA SEVEN.. I’ll put a review of one of them

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School Rumble 2nd Semester (Sukuran Nigakki)
Genre : Comedy, Romance, School Life

This is the continuation of the 1st season of School Rumble.. The original manga version of this anime has also been published for quite a while.. U can find the manga scan on www.stoptazmo.com.. and in Indonesia u can read the comics on shounen magz..and unlike some other animes which have both anime and manga version..Both of the anime and the manga of this title shares the same story and character (some animes and mangas sharing the same title have different story on some part of them. Usually due to the airing of the animes going faster than the publishing of the original manga; e.g : Black Cat, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Rurouni Kenshin)

Description of the story from AnimeNFO.com :

Tsukamoto Tenma is a second grader in high school who, like other girls her age, falls in love. However, she could not bring herself to confess her love to her classmate Karasumaru. She discovers that Karasumaru will transfer out next year and, with the help of her friends and her little sister Yakumo, tries to confess her love. Tenma also uses unorthodox methods such as disguising herself as a nurse or shooting arrows with a love letter attached to express her feelings for him.

On the other hand, Harima Kenji, a delinquent, has feelings for Tenma. Unfortunately, Tenma’s preoccupation with Karasumara ensures that she doesn’t notice Harima’s affection, much to Harima’s dismay. To make matters worse, one day, he sees Tenma and Karasumaru having lunch together. This causes him to skip school and embark on a journey of enlightenment.
P.S. The girl on the picture is Tsukamoto Tenma
—–

Of course this story isn’t just about the 3 characters.. Most of the characters take part in the story and play their own role.. U don’t need to think much when watching this anime since it’s only a just-for-fun anime..

*Pictures : 9 – The characters are well drawn and lovable.. The scenery is also interesting
*Music : 8.5 – I love the songs of this 2nd semester of the anime so far..
*Story : 7.5 – This anime has no real plot that makes u wonder what’s going to happen next..         But for me it’s the plus of this anime cause what u need to do is to enjoy the story and perhaps what u need to guess is only what’s going to happen to the lovey dovey relationship of the characters next…

Songs :

-Sentimental Generation – This is a lively opening song that u would want to hear and even it has the remix version as the insert song on the eps 6.. sung by Tokitou Ami
-Kono Namida ga Aru Kara – A nice ending song sung by Tokitou Ami..

And actually what i like the most are the two insert songs that up to know, so far i still can’t find the mp3, perhaps the CD hasn’t been released yet..
- Crossing Over
- Feel like a Girl
Both sung by Lia.. if anyone has the link for the song plz lemme know..I really want them

This anime is really RECOMMENDED cuz it has the acts that u can’t find on most other animes.. and it even has the parody of Battle Royale (A movie about Survival Game) on eps 2 and 3 that u don’t wanna miss..

This is my fav character in the anime Yakumo Tsukamoto. She’s a strange girl that often goes blank in the mind and loves her sister Tenma Tsukamoto (the main character) so much. She has the ability to read people’s mind except some people’s like Harima. She is the idol of the 1st grader and has a lot of admirers like Hanai who would do anything for her. And she was mistaken to have a special relationship with Harima. It’s still a mystery whether she really likes Harima or not.. A close friend of Tenma, Sawachika Eri who likes Harima a lot takes her as an opponent in love..

What’s gonna happen to the characters.. Who’s gonna be with Harima? Tenma, Yakumo, or Eri?
The options IMO would be :
1. Tenma x Karasuma
2. Tenma x Harima
3. Yakumo x Harima
4. Eri x Harima
5. Mikoto x Hanai
6. Ichijou x Imadori

What do u think it would turn out to be? Feel free to post ur comment :