Another December

Another December just around the corner followed by the new year. Amazing how fast time goes by sometimes.

Anyways, nothing much happening these past few days. On Friday, me and Trish were supposed to go watch The Incredibles, but they didn't have it playing at a desceant time and both of us had to work early the next morning. So instead, we just had dinner then went around window shopping.
On Saturday, again nothing much doing. Watched finish and Osaka Pro Wrestling tape I had lying around and in the evening brought Trish over to watch Monsters Inc. on the Disney Channel. I hadn't watched it before, and thought it was a bit of a dissapointment compared to all the other awesome PIXAR movies. After that, we continued our couch potatoe session by watching Kangaroo Jack on HBO. Anything with Anthony Anderson in it is guaranteed to have some big laughs, and this was no exception, eventhough the movie wasn't all that good.
After that, we caught Saturday Night Live together on it's new 11PM time slot. The special guest host was Tom Greene, the ultimate weirdo. For some reason, this guy makes me want to change the channel more than laugh at his antics, and the live audience seemed to be thinking the same thing. And I don't blame Drew Barrymore for running out on him at the end of the show either.

Anyways, for your reading pleasure, posted a PS2 game review for WWE: Smackdown VS RAW. Not the best WWE game ever, but then again, SNK is running out of ideas for King of Fighters as well. I've also posted a short review for the Osaka Pro show I watched this past weekend. And for all you puroresu fans out there, with the help of a friend of mine, I've finally been able to send out orders for some new tapes which should arrive by mid-December, so stay tuned.

A Good Day

Yesterday I thought it was gonna be just another boring day. You KNOW it's a slow day at the office when the clerks are talking about what the saw on ANIMAL PLANET the previous night!
When I got home from work, I got a letter in the mail. It was return to sender from Japantapes! My payment for the order I sent out last month was sent back to me! Guess this means the guy has moved already since no one came to pick it up from the post office.
But looking on the bright side of that, at least I now have the money to send out new orders! For the past few days I've been searching every money changer in town and NONE of them had any US currency! Light at the end of the tunnel, eh?
But the best part was last night, when I completed Katamari Damacy! And Trish was by my side as I rolled up the world on my way to victory! And your not gonna believe what you get to roll up during the ending credits!

On to the blog. Lots of stuff up. Got a PS2 review of Rumble Roses, a puroresu classic tape review of AJPW Excite Series 2000, and some stuff in the puroresu blog. Enjoy.

Giving the great ones their due!

Caught a really great TV special last night on Star World: The Three Stooges 75th Anniversary Special! This special covered the entire career of the Stooges, who was very influencial in much of the comedy that goes on today in film and television, but NOBODY makes movies like those anymore, and can't even come anywhere close to matching the magic the Moe, Larry and a bevy of third partners pulled off. The same could be said for the Malaysian movie scene, cause NOBODY here makes movies as good as the great P.Ramlee did back in his day. Those Senario idiots got NOTHING on him!
Back to the topic at hand, it was great to see all the classic Stooges clips and they even revealed the recipe of your basic Stooges movie at the beginning, which was pretty interesting and you'd have to be really observant to notice it.
The Farrelly Brothers, known for "There's Something About Mary", also announced that they are in the process of making a feature film of the Three Stooges. I can already tell no matter who they get to play those immortal roles, it's not gonna come anywhere near what the originals did back in the day!

Hot Wheels!

On Saturday, Me and Trish went to watch the new Queen Latifah/Jimmy Fallon movie "Taxi". I'm not really sure if this is based on the French movie series of the same name that featured insane car chases. This movie kinda follows that line, but they added more depth to it with the story. From the teasers and trailers I thought the whole movie was gonna be one insane chase, but it wasn't. It was still a great movie though. And Gisele Bundchen is one hot supermodel!

Yesterday I went to get a haircut cause I got bored of waking up looking like Shuji Kondo with the big hair every morning. I brought Trish along also cause she needed a trim too.
After I got back, I spent the rest of the afternoon typing up a HSE Manual for my company, and I only finished it around 10:30PM!

And today was one boring day at the office. First my HAGE boss called in sick, leaving me alone with nothing to do. Doesn't sound so bad? That was before the office Streamyx line was out of order for today because there was a problem with the router! So I had to go the whole with nothing to do at the office other than planning out KOC2 cards and typing up PS2 game reviews.
I also started my new diet today. Trish bought me these special diet supplements that supposed to help me lose some weight. The downside is it I gotta drink tons of water cause it causes my body to heat up. But it's a two week program, so I'll tough it out.

On to the blog, got a new game review up and a music video review. As well as the results for my simulated KOC2 Real World Tag League. Check 'em out!

Dude looks like a Lady!

One thing I've noticed since I got back is how much the traffic situation has cleared up every morning and evening on my way to and from work now that the Ramadan month is over.

Anyways, this evening me and Trish went to watch the the comedy movie White Chicks, about two black FBI agents who go undercover as white chicks! This movie was hilariously funny, and I highly recommend checking it out!
Another reason you gotta see this flick is for the hilarious role played by former Battle Dome Warrior T-Money. He was unbelievably funny!

On to the blog with a lotta updates. Got a game review up for Shadow Hearts 2: Covenant, a music video review for Fear Factory, and some puroresu news. Enjoy and catch y'all later.

Navigate for Vacation 2004

I’m back from my KL vacation, and while it may not have been as fruitful as my past visits where I would splurge and buy a ton of stuff (I was on a tight budget this time), it was still a fun trip.

Day One
Our Air Asia flight was delayed (which seems to happen a lot with this airline) and we only reached KLIA at about 8:45PM. By the time our cab reached the hotel, it was just about 10PM, so I rushed to a nearby KFC to get a quick takeaway for dinner (They don’t serve meals on Air Asia) and rushed back to the hotel to catch Survivor on NTV7. Problem is, the hotel had all the Malaysian channels EXCEPT NTV7! So I missed an episode already!

Day Two
After breakfast, went out to Sungai Wang Plaza and looked around the arcade there. Was kinda disappointed there weren’t really any new games around. King of Fighters: Neowave was available, but like in Miri, no one was playing because of the new fight options. They don’t want to play it if they can’t use all 3 fight options at the same time like in KOF 2002, hence the reason most people would rather play that.
After a quick lunch at McDonalds, I walked over to Times Square where I was supposed to meet up with my friend, TenzanTeam2K. I hung out at the arcade while waiting for him and tried my hand at a new game from Sammy (Guilty Gear series) called Rumble Fish. What caught my eye about this game was the incredible graphics they used for the characters, kinda like a 3D style but in 2D, looked like a moving comic book where everything is animated joint by joint. I got good at this game pretty quick, and even won a few challenge fights! I couldn’t beat the boss of the game though, or I think it’s the sub-boss as it was also a selectable character.
TenzanTeam2K then showed up and we made a quick trip back to Sg. Wang Plaza cause he wanted to see if Rumble Roses for PS2 was out yet. While we walked, we of course talked about our favorite subject: PURORESU! We talked about everything from Dragon Gate’s ODG belt to the debacle that was the changes to the NJPW Osaka Dome show. We reached Sg. Wang and looked around, and unfortunately Rumble Roses wasn’t out yet. So we made a big U-turn and headed back to Times Square, then busted some ass at the arcades for a bit. Holding my own against some of KL’s finest at KOF2002, I then watched TT2K play this weird Japanese drum game, and he rocked away at Stalker Ichikawa’s Lone Ranger theme! We then played a few more games before hitting the road.
We first went to one of his friend’s house to meet up a few of them. And they were quite a colorful and happy group. They were playing this bizarre PS2 game called Kamatari Damachi (I think that’s how the name goes), where you had to roll-up everything in your path to create a “star”. It was really weird but definitely fun watching them play, and it made me want to get a copy for myself. One of TT2K’s friends also had a killer 5-string bass guitar and is himself a metal-head like me. I need to get me one of those one day.
When then headed out for TT2K and his Muslim friends to break fast. We had a little trouble finding a place cause everywhere was closed early due to Hari Raya being the next day! After two misses, we finally found a place to settle down and eat. TT2K’s friends discussed politics while he and me continued our puroresu rants and raves.
Tenzan then dropped me off at Kota Raya since he couldn’t find a proper route to drop me off at the LRT station. I thought, cool, I could look around for PS2 games while I’m there. Unfortunately both of us didn’t check our watches and it was way past 9PM when he dropped me there, so all the shops were closed. And there was a long queue at the taxi stand with NO TAXIS wanting to pick anyone up cause those greedy bastard drivers didn’t want to charge by meter. So, being the dumbass I am, I just WALKED all the way back to the hotel! Took about twenty minutes, and I was exhausted when I got back and had a blister the size of a 50cent coin on my right foot! Nice going, Brainiac!

Day 3
Starting again after breakfast, I made my way to Sg. Wang Plaza again and went to Victoria Music Station, where I found a bunch of new CDs not available in my home town yet, and it will be lucky if they do turn up. I didn’t get anything new since none of them were on my priority list. I did however pick up the first Dry Kill Logic CD, The Darker Side of Nonsense in the bargain bin for 50% off!
I then went around the corner to the magazine stand there and bought the latest issue of PSM magazine, that had a duel review of Rumble Roses and WWE Smackdown! VS RAW, as well as Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, a highly anticipated game that I had forgotten about! And they gave it a perfect 10/10 rating!
I then went around the next corner as I made my way to the arcade passing the various game shops along the way, and low and behold, Rumble Roses was available! I immediately picked it up along with a few other games (see the video games blog for a list and previews of what I bought) and continued on my way to the arcade to test my KOF skills against the locals.
I thought I did pretty well against the KL players. I really surprised them at first with my Ramon skills, though they quickly figured out how to counter my offense. They used the usual combination that had to have either Yashiro, Kyo, Iori or Chris on their team for the cheap combo specials. I used my regular trios of either Ramon, Terry Bogard, Chang KoeHan, Joe Higashi, Ralf or Robert Garcia. I lost more then I won, but I still thought I did pretty good.
I then bought a takeway from Mickey D’s and headed back to the hotel for lunch and a rest. But wouldn’t you know it was raining? I got a little soaked on my way back to the hotel, but nothing serious. After lunch and a short rest, I went out and caught a cab to KLCC, hoping to get some puroresu mags and check out if there were any good affordable books at Kinokuniya.
Wouldn’t you know Isetan where the Japanese mags were sold was closed today cause of Hari Raya? Geez. But while I was at the main Kinokuniya store and browsing through the pro-wrestling/MMA books, this guy by the name of Sam asked if I had an interest in submission fighting since I was eyeing a book on submissions. Turns out he’s just getting into MMA and said that there was a small interest quickly picking up in Malaysia. He said he even heard of a class that charges about RM100+ per hour per lesson! Interesting.
I caught a cab back to the hotel, but first I went to Sg. Wang Plaza to spend more coinage on the arcades. Heck, I was awed by TT2K’s skills at the Jap drum game that I gave it a shot! After the tutorial, played the level 1 game. No prob. Level 2? Easy. Level 3? Broke a sweat, but could still keep up. Didn’t seem that tough, so on the next game I jumped straight to a level 3 game and CHOKED! I left and got a fast food takeaway before going back to the hotel to watch X-2: X-Men United on Star Movies.

Day 4
Caught a bus to Kota Raya after breakfast and bought a light gun for my PS2 along with the game Crisis Zone, which I like playing at the arcades. Of course I didn’t notice until much later that the gun I bought was supposed to come with a foot padel, and they didn’t give me one! Dammit.
I also asked Tenzan if he’d like to meet up again since I had nothing else to do for the rest of the day. We agreed to meet at KLCC and then go to his place and bust some ass on Rumble Roses and KOC2.
So I get to KLCC and wait for Tenzan, but he came a bit late since he had a prior engagement. And how’s this for a bad idea: On a busy day like that (a public holiday), the management decide to close HALF of all the public restrooms in KLCC for renovations! Dumb.
I finally meet up with Tenzan at Kinokuniya and we make our way to his place, again talking about puroresu while browsing the mags he bought. We finally get to his place and start battling it out in Rumble Roses. My first impression of the game is that it sorta does play like the early WWE Smackdown! games, but with a lot more eye-candy!
We then played 4 of the best rounds of King of Colosseum I had ever played! I lost 1-3, but I still had fun. I first loss as Takashi Sugiura to CIMA. I was still a bit blur on the controls since I hadn’t actually played the game much in the past few months other than watching the simulations I made. Next, I loss as KENTA to Koji Kanemoto, but got some sweet revenge after the match when I hit the Busaikyu Knee on Kanemoto and flipped him off after the match!
I then scored my first win as Jun Akiyma, beating Hiroshi Tanahashi with the Sterness Dust which TT2K had never seen before until then! It was a fitting way to beat Tanahashi after he kicked out of the wrist-clutch Exploder! He then took a cheap shot after the match as he dropkicked me out of the ring since KENTA did it to Kanemoto earlier.
Then came the big one: Kenta Kobashi VS Hiroyoshi Tenzan at the Tokyo Dome! I lost this one cause my timing for blocks and counters was still off, but it was still a great match we had! One fun spot being Tenzan ducking my Lariat followed by Kobashi flipping through a German Suplex attempt and connecting with a running lariat! I even put on a strong fight as I kicked out of his moonsault and at least FIVE attempts at the Anaconda Vice! I managed to hit a moonsault of my own, as well as the dreaded sleeper suplex, but he finally managed to put me away with another moonsault! We scored a 95% rating for that one!
TT2K’s friends had come over by then and they were going to go out for Raya visiting, so they dropped me at the nearest taxi stop and I caught a cab back to the hotel. I had my dinner, then went back to the arcades from some quick gaming, including once again showing how much I sucked at the Jap drum game!

Day 5
A lot of rushing about today as we had to check out of the hotel by 12:30pm to catch a cab to the airport. I made a last round of Sg. Wang Plaza and managed to get the complete Season 3 DVD set of South Park. I also looked around in vein for a descent watch and finished my time again trying my hand at the Japanese drum game. I never did figure out which theme was Stalker’s though.
But wouldn’t you know our flight would be delayed AGAIN? Does Air Asia EVER take off on time??? The flight was delayed for about an hour cause they had problems with the stabilizer pressure. Needless to say when it was fixed, I was still nervous cause it’s no big secret I hate flying.
We finally touch down in Miri Airport at about 6:15 PM, and had to catch a cab home since there was no one to pick us up from there. Who would have thought it would end up as the Cab Ride from Hell?!? Seriously! This old dude driving the cab was tearing up the roads at a whooping 30-40KM PER HOUR!!! Good God, I wished the damn driver would have at least stepped on the gas just a little since it was an open road in front of us! And I could tell the other motorists behind us were more than agitated at the snail’s pace we were going! Word of advice to the driver: RETIRE ALREADY! Drivers like you are considered ROAD HAZARDS!

And thus ends the Navigate for Vacation tour 2004.

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

The Good
- I'm off tomorrow! I'll be on a short ciesta for Hari Raya. Me and My parents will be taking a trip to Kuala Lumpur for a few days and will be back on Tuesday. I'll be looking forward to meeting my buddy TenzanTeam2k, and kicking ass in the arcades! I'll also get to stock up PS2 & PC games CHEAP in KL, as well as try to get my hands on some anime DVD/VCDs, and music CDs I can't find here.

The Bad
- I'm gonna miss alot of stuff! I'll miss the TNA Anniversary Show on Star World this weekend, and WWE Survivor Series this Monday! Plus, there's also X2: X-Men United on STAR Movies this weekend! Sure I've seen it before, doesn't mean I don't want to see it again! And if the hotel I'm staying at doesn't have NTV7, I'll miss Survivor, too! Most probably it will be bad reception though. The small sacrifices I have to make for a vacation...

The Ugly
- Do you know how TORTURING it can be to be stuck in a traffic jam for over half and hour with an urgent need to go to the men's room??? I experianced that first hand this afternoon, and hope to NEVER go through that again!

Eye for Art?

I have no idea why, but I came accross this picture in the newspaper this morning and was just captivated by it. This picture is of a Princess Diana lookalike, with a bloody Mercedes logo lodged in her arm (symbolic of how she was killed in an accident). The picture was done by this weirdo photographer, Erwin Olaf, who either gets praised or cursed by critics for his bizzare range of pictures and photos spawned by his wild imagination. The above photo of Diana is from the Royal Blood series of photos, which includes Julius Cesar stabbed in the back, Jackie Kennedy smeared with blood spatter after JFK was shot, and a decapitated Marie-Antoinette.
For some reason this picture of Diana really sticks in my mind, same goes for the Jackie Kennedy picture. Maybe it's something about the way they just stare straight into your eyes?
Some of the shots he takes can be funny, while others are disturbing and graphic. He says he's satisfied with his work if it gets people talking. Is it art or just someone with a sick mind? Click the link and judge for yourself.

On to the blog, posted some stuff in the video games blog and the results for the big NWA:TNA Victory Road PPV in the puroresu blog. Enjoy.

WWF, and I don't mean animals!

Yesterday was a busy day. Started early when I had to rush to finish a VCD order after searching all week for an ink cartridge for my PC printer and finally finding it on Saturday.
After delivering the VCDs, I rush home and had to clear up my room cause the place has been a big mess for a while now. So I clear away all the thrash I don't need while the MTV2 HeadBanger's Ball Vol.2 CD is playing on the CD player.
After THAT, I had to give my Dudley Dog, Spike a bath since I forgot last week. And the little guy has a bad habit of sleeping in small dusty places, getting his white coat of fur all black!
Needless to say I was tired by the end of it all.

Last night I also caught the Rock on Saturday Night Live. This was Rocky's first appearance on the show, and Mick Foley, Big Show, Triple H & Vince McMahon even made cameos. I also think this was the first show where the special guest was in EVERY segment of the show, save for one mock ad Will Ferrell did for horse glue.
Fun show, and at some points I thought Big Show was funnier than Rock!
Something I did notice about the show was that they still mentioned it as WWF back then. They didn't beep it out of the WWF logo on Triple H's World Title belt either. Incidentally, THE WWF is again suing WWE about the name rights cause NOBODY in the USA knows or even gives a rats monkey about THE WWF.

Onto the blog, finally posted a long overdue new puroresu tape review for the All Japan Battle Banquet show. Also posted a new PS2 game review for Def Jam: Fight For New York. Check 'em out and enjoy.

Water World

I managed to skip off work for a while on Friday as there wasn't anyone in the office. Everyone was outstation, or in the case of the company director, he had a golf tournament to attend XP
I decided to take the chance to finally go get my IC upgraded. It took less than 10 minutes to get it done! SO, on my way back to the office, I decided to surprise Trish and get her off work so she could get her's done too. So I dropped by the pharmacy where she worked, approached her boss, and asked if I could take her out of work for a few minutes to get her IC done, which of course surprised both him and Trish! He thought it over and agreed, so we rushed back to the government office to get her IC done, but just as we get there they CLOSE! Dumb luck!
We laughed about how we managed to get her to skimp off work for a few moments on the way back to her office!

That night me and Trish went to watch the 3D animated movie Shark Tale. This was really fun with a lot of big laughs, as is to be expected. As good as this was with all the fancy CG where they made everything as bright and as shiny as possible, I still thought that Finding Nemo was "leagues" above this! Heh, get it? Whatever.

Due to a stupid change in government rules for this week, I had to go to work yesterday morning. Usually we get the first and third Saturdays off, but not this week. Nope, the government thought that since next week is already a public holiday, why not drag everybody to work THIS week? WHO wants two weeks off in a row right? Stupid government. And people wonder why I don't vote.

On to the blog, check out the KOC blog, as I've kicked off my Real World Tag League and the results for the first 3 days are up. Also got a few short video game previews up.

Where were you on 9/11?

I was watching Third Watch on Star World last night. This was a drama show about paramedics, firemen and cops in New York. This show quickly became a favourite of mine a while back, and last night it got REALLY interesting as they were about to face 9/11!
Watching the way things unfolded for the characters on the show kinda reminded me about where I was when it all went down.
I remember clearly that I was at home watching TV and channel surfing till I caught a news flash on TV3, the image on the screen was the one of the World Trade Centre buildings on fire. At first I thought it was merely on fire, then I switched over the CNN and they said a plane had crashed into the building, which was shocking to say the least. Then the second plane hit, and it was an unbelieveable sight!
And when the buildings collapsed one-by-one, the only thought running through my head was, "Aren't there people still in there?!?"
I remember staying up until about 3AM following the live coverage. And the next afternoon when I reported for work at the hotel I used to work at, there were alot of upset American guests walking around. I found out they even kept the bar open later than usual the night just so everyone could follow the news.
I'm definately not gonna miss next week's episode of Third Watch, that's for sure. And I recommend everyone else to check it out too.

Wheres Ramon???

Bit of a surprise yesterday when I visited an arcade I don't usually go to, and they had King Of Fighters: Neowave! And no one was playing it either! I quickly bought some tokens and immediately hit the machine, hoping it was better than the dissapointment that was KOF 2003 (which is out on PS2 now btw).
So I insert my token, hit start and decide to assemble my A-Team, when it suddenly hit me that my ace, Ramon, wasn't in the game (he was absent in KOF2K3 too)! That in itself was a big disspointment since they included the Orochi team of Yashiro, Chris and Shermie again. Then again, long time Korean Team leader Kim Kaphwan is missing his first KOF too and the team is instead captained by the returning Jhun.
At least they got rid of the crappy game engine of 2003 and are back to 2002 system, but with a few changes to the gameplay.
I also thought the graphics were a bit dissapointing since they just pasted the characters on to the new backgrounds rather then touching them up abit.
And it's also kinda obvious SNK are running out of boss ideas since (SPOILER ALERT!!!) Geese Howard from Art of Fighting 2 is the boss this time round.
It's still a great game though, and I'll be looking forward for a PS2 version of it, as well as the upcoming KOF'94 Re-Bout game.