Suikoden II

Waiting time of 3 solid hours can be reduced to a mere 3 minutes by playing Suikoden II.

"Negarakuku"

I think I have to update to appease a little cute girl known as Gwendolyn ^^, and to appease her, this update must NOT related in any ways to soccer.

Have you ever imagined that your national anthem is a rap song? Well, under normal circumstances, I do not really think that anybody has ever thought of this on their respective national anthems. However, this has already happened in a very beautiful country which is located in South East Asia. This wonderful country that I am talking about is none other than Malaysia, the country which is “truly asia”, according to their tourism promotional campaigns to the people worldwide. That’s beside the point. The point for today is the alternation of the national anthem of Malaysia into a rap song. This alternation of the Malaysian national anthem is done by a Malaysian citizen of the ethnic Chinese who is studying in a university in the Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), and the world got to know about this as he posted his well-decorated video of himself singing the song into Youtube, the video sharing website. The video, besides featuring him singing with the Malaysian flag as the background, also features some clips from the Malaysian tourism promotional campaigns as well as an assortment of pictures with regards to Malaysia. The purpose of him doing this is simply to highlight to the world about the biasness in Malaysia (such as racial and religious segregation in the country) as well as to highlight about the rampant corruption within the country. The message is being conveyed through, of course, the lyrics of the song which is in a mixture of Mandarin, Chinese dialects as well as some extracts from the original version of Negaraku.

As all of us have known, the title of Malaysia’s national anthem is “Negaraku”. In the song conjured up by this Malaysian student, the title is “negarakuku”. This title is obviously derived from Negaraku.

Regarding to the reactions in his native Malaysia, there have been mixed reactions there. The government is of course upset with the act that this boy has done, however, they could not sue and penalize this student whatsoever as there is no evident of treason in his video/song. This is basically due to the fact that the student conveys his messages in the song in a careful and smart manner so that it does not suggest anything about him criticizing the country with his own opinions, however, he tried, and succeeded in creating the impression that the message is basically neutral and based on what are really happening in the country.

On the other hand, the Chinese ethnic in Malaysia have been supportive of his actions as someone who dares and has the guts to bring out these problems in Malaysia to the world in this manner has finally emerged out of nowhere. Therefore, he is being a hero and a zero at the same time here. Nevertheless, the student’s family did make an apology to the government on behalf of their son and since his video attracted overwhelming public attention, the student has since removed the video from Youtube. But, the videos are still available in the site as people have been uploading the copies of the videos into the website.

My comments on this? I have no comments on this. I am sorry… (No freedom of speech here and anywhere else^^)

New boys in their debuts

After a long and enduring wait, football has finally come back to entertain us. Yesterday marked the start of the new football season, for English Premier League and German Bundesliga at least (among the top four European football leagues). There was one interesting pattern on the first day of the new footballing season. The pattern which is valid for both leagues was that the new boys (debutants in their respective clubs) flourished.

In the German Bundesliga, Luca Toni scored in his first ever appearance for FC Bayern Munich. In that match, FC Bayern won comfortably by the scoreline 3-0.

In the English Premier League, it was more interesting. First one would be Michael Chopra, who scored the winning goal for the newly-promoted Sunderland at the very last minute against Tottenham. By scoring that goal, he became an instant hero or perhaps he is a fan favorite already, for the moment at least. At Blackburn Rovers, Roque Santa Cruz also managed to score in his first ever appearance for Blackburn. In that match, Blackburn won 2-1 against Middlesbrough. Also, not forgetting Portsmouth’s new boy John Utaka who managed to score in their thrilling 2-2 draw against the Premiership new boys Derby County.

Probably the most interesting is Manchester City. Most of the players in the squad, including the team manager was appearing on their first ever appearance for Manchester City as well as in English Premier League. However, everyone in Manchester City excelled. In the goalkeeping department, Kasper Schmeichel kept a clean sheet. He was mostly covered by the solid defensive backline led by Vedran Corluka and Javier Garrido, also debutants. In the midfield department, Stilian Petrov and Elano exceeded all expectations by zipping through West Ham defences. Finally, in the striking department. Both debutants Rolando Bianchi and Geovanni scored to condemn West Ham to a 2-0 defeat.

Even though most of the new boys excelled last night. It was not the case for some. Just look at West Ham. They do have new boys in Craig Bellamy and Fredrik Ljungberg. However, they did not meet the expectations on their shoulders. Perhaps, it is safe to say that Lady Luck was smiling at the new boys who are new in the English football, not new boys who transferred from another English club. For Michael Chopra, it was an exception, but at least he is new to the English Premier Division.

First day of EPL

Rolando Bianchi and Roque Santa Cruz do not need to take too long before scoring their maiden goals in the Premiership!

A follow up will be written tomorrow.

Exhaustion of Ideas

Billions are being set aside each year by people around the globe just for watching movies in the cinemas. The rationale for doing so varies. Some of them go to watch movies in the cinemas as they want to enjoy their favorite movies on a huge screen, some of them go to the cinemas as they do not have a VCD or more recently DVD-player at home. Another group of these people go to the cinemas simply because they want to socialize with friends, family members or with their loved ones. Whatever the reason is, these people are spending a huge amount of money per year.

Well, the reason why this article is written is not to blabber about people who go to the cinemas and splurge their money, making the owners of the cinemas richer and richer in the process of course. It is people’s right to spend their hard-earned money in whichever way that they like. They can even choose to throw their month’s salary into the ocean, it is their choice. Who am I to control them? That’s beside the point. So, the purpose of the writing of this article is actually to assess the quality as well as the worthiness to spend those dollars/pounds/rubles or whatever currency it may be for the movies.

First and foremost, people in many generations have witnessed lots and lots of movies. There have been any types of the movies that are produced. From love stories to violence story about war. It has been incredible to see how the media has been flourishing since the first movie was created in the world.

However, ideas that can be generated by human brains are limited. In fact, ideas for good movies have run out. This is evident in the 21^st century. We could easily see that the movies that are emerging in this century lack creativity and innovation. There is simply no new stories being created whatsoever. Every movie that comes out is either a sequel to an already existing movie (such as Spiderman 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, to infinity :P) , a movie adaptation of novels (such as the infamous Harry Potter. Infamous!), or simply a spin-off to a successful movie (such as Star Wars).

This is really disappointing as people are longing for new things, not the same thing over and over again. It is good to see Spiderman flying around with his web for once or twice, but thrice? Beat it! Furthermore, the third sequel for Spiderman was not up to standard and many people came out of the cinema frowning. This is so disappointing. It seems that Hollywood has run out of ideas to create new movies, but to generate profit and to sustain their image, movies must still be generated and as a result of this, combined with the lack of new ideas, sequels after sequels are and will be created.

Again, using Spiderman as a gage, I am not really surprised of in 10 years time, we could still see Spiderman 8, Spiderman 9, Spiderman 10 being screened in the cinemas. If this is the case, going to the cinema will no longer be an option, at least for me. This also makes me realize that everything in this world is limited, not only fossil fuels are limited. But simply everything…

Suikoden II

Another game which contributes to my learning in English language has been secured. The game is none other than Suikoden 2. This classic game not only laid a solid foundation for my English language but it also contributed to my social life.

As primary school students, my friends and I without a doubt were die-hard PSX addict and one of our favorite games was Suikoden 2. To cut the story short, Suikoden 2 catalyzed the friendship among us all.

Now that I have reached a decent level in English language, I am going to play this game for one more time. The purpose is simply to really understand the plot and storyline this time.

EPL 07-08

Tomorrow will be the start of the new English Premier League season. 20 teams in the top division of the English football will be in the contention for the much coveted trophy. (Although in reality, only 4 teams namely Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool that will really be chasing for the title, but technically, there are 20 teams fighting for the title).

The big four have completed many signings and have spent millions of pounds to bolster their already great squad to grab not only the Premier League title, but also the cups available (FA Cup and League Cup, as well as the ultimate prize in European football, if not the world, the UEFA Champions League trophy). Besides the big four, the rest of the teams have purchased many players of their own, and most of them are superstars. This will be explained below.

Looking at the transfers that have been done so far among the Premier League teams, I could see many interesting transfers going on. It is also important to note that during the off-season, there was an influx of superstars from other European top football leagues coming in to the Premier League. Despite the critics who claim that these stars won’t be able to shine in their debut season in the Premier League as they will have to adjust to the physical demand of the “toughest league in the world”, I am certain that these superstars will add another dimension to the already star-studded league. This may also mean that there will be more teams challenging for the title and the competition at the foot of the table to avoid relegation to the lower division will be interesting and entertaining as well due to the fact that the signings of the superstars from other leagues not only done by the top teams, but also the rest of the teams. Such signings include the transfer of Claudio Pizarro and Roque Santa Cruz to Chelsea and Blackburn respectively. (Both of them were from FC Bayern Munich of the German Bundesliga as well as other signings like Florent Malouda from Lyon to Chelsea). There are many others, especially in Manchester City. But there are simply too many of them to be mentioned here and for Manchester City’s signings, it will be explained in the next section.

Besides transfer dealings aforementioned above, another interesting thing that occurred in English Football is of course the acquisitions of clubs by foreign billionaires. These takeovers without a doubt strengthen the teams concerned considerably, most notably in the financial area. The most recent acquisition and perhaps the most interesting one is the takeover of Manchester City by Thaksin Sinawatra, the controversial former prime minister of Thailand. Even the takeover itself was really complicated with many issues such as frozen assets and many others (too detailed to be mentioned here yet again…).

Since the takeover, Manchester City have undergone a lot of changes. (For your information, I have been supporting Manchester City from 2003 as I wanted to deviate from the norm of supporting Manchester United). First and foremost, Sven Goran Eriksson, the very famous former England manager has been installed as the manager of the club. For the players, Manchester City have finally gotten rid of the wasted talent in Joey Barton and they have bought many superstars from overseas. Most notable ones are Elano from Shakhtar Donetsk, Valeri Emilov Bojinov from Juventus, and Rolando Bianchi from Reggina. (One interesting note: These 3 players are really good in Football Manager 2007. It seems that Sven Goran Eriksson signed them based on the game. Hehe).

With the takeover, Manchester City have finally joined the league of giants in the Premier League and let’s hope that the blue side of Manchester will finally rise from the shadows of the red side of Manchester, that is Manchester United. Perhaps, they could even challenge for the title this year! My apologies for being bias, since my other favorite team in the English Premier League is Chelsea. But nevertheless, I am pretty sure that the future of the English football is really BLUE! Onwards Chelsea and Manchester City!

The biased statement aside, let us all hope that the 2007-2008 English Premier League season will be a great one and of course, the season where fair-play dominates the scene hand in hand with the swashbuckling attacking football that all of us football fans yearn every week! Onwards English football!

Xenogears

Xenogears is secured. More games to be played, and thus more time to be killed. Those 3 hour long of waiting I have to endure every Friday will be nothing more than an extra playing time. Perhaps, 3 hours is not enough when it is spent playing your favorite games.

Legend of Legaia

I have said before that my life will be filled with GBA. Not entirely true. To be exact, PSX will also be a part of my life.

I have just gotten a privilege to get hold onto and play Legend of Legaia, one of the games which I played in my childhood. This is one of the games which contribute to my learning process of English Language.

GBA

This is the follow up to the previous posting about my life with the GBA!

However, this post will be something of a bad news.

Life has not been so nice to the owner of this site and ultimately, he has yet to have a sufficient amount of time to sit down and play the GBA games. It has to be understood as the owner of this site is a very busy man whose life is packed with many interesting as well as not-so-interesting stuff.

To cap it all off, I have promised myself to set aside one day, which is the day after tomorrow (as tomorrow will be hell as well for the whole day) to play GBA and enjoy myself. I suppose, Thursday will be a well deserved rest for me.

Anyways, if you have any questions, comments, or even something to share about GBA and its games, feel free to contact me or do so in the chatbox.

Regards

Golden Sun

First and foremost, I would like to thank CK and AJ for helping me through a difficult period in my journalistic career. Whatever little support you two have given me are really appreciated. I love you guys! Muuuack!

When we are talking about nintendo nowadays, many people would say "Nintendo DS". No longer will people talk about older consoles from the company such as gameboy advance.

However, I, being the typical outdated dude have just started (for the second spell) playing Golden Sun. I have obtained the two series of Golden Sun, the first one as well as the second installment (The Lost Age).

I will get on with the games starting with the first one very soon as I am currently very busy with many works now.

I will keep you guys updated on Golden Sun in the near future. I also have a plan afoot to play pokemon fire red and emerald once again after I have finished Golden Sun. Perhaps, Tales of Phantasia and Sword of Mana will soon follow.

If you guys are playing or have played the games aforementioned above, please contact me and if possible give me some tips regarding those games.

My GBA filled life starts today!

Regards,

Alvinbeo

Dear Spammers

Spammers,

It seems that all of you have won a battle. Congratulations. I admit my defeat. Oh man... It cost me my chatbox...

But it is alright. I reckon that the spamming was done by people who know me. I am not against anybody and everybody is my friend. However, many people are against me and I assume that the reason for being against me is because they are simply jealous of me. They see something really good in me that they try to demoralize me and try to bring me down. Dream on, this spurs me to write even more. Thank you guys

For you guys, I swear in the name of Saturn's ring or whatever that you guys will develop a severe cancer. *pop*, the mutations of your proto-oncogenes have started. Congratulations.

people who are jealous of me or against me will die very soon.

People who are against me, if you hate me so much, tell me right in front of my face, I am okay with that. But please, just leave me alone and let me mind my own business. You are wasting your time and my time if you are disturbing me. It is useless, trust me.

I hope you guys enjoy your life with cancer.

I love you guys, (spammers and people who are jealous of me and try to bring me down)

Alvinbeo