the_commuter on Xanga

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Thursday, 20 March 2008

I'm bringing Xanga back - drop a comment if you're with me!

Sunday, 07 October 2007

Ninja Girl

It's been a while since I last posted. I guess blogging just ain't my thing. I'm updating this only because I wanted to comment on my friends' latest blog entries, and I had to sign-in to do that, so I might as well do a little updating myself.
I guess it's time to explain my current avatar. She's a character from the anime Bleach, one of my most favorite series ever. Just recently, I was able to catch up to the latest episodes thanks to YouTube, and the current story arc keeps me wanting for more.
But let's go back to Soifon, the girl in my avatar. I'll let Wiki do the explaining:
"Soifon is the leader of the special forces and the captain of the 2nd Division in the Gotei 13. She is staunchly loyal, firm, and unbending in her beliefs. She is a hard worker and takes a strong moral stand — she particularly believes in following orders. She is generally reserved and not arrogant like her lieutenant. She will not hesitate in the slightest to strike down even her subordinates if they stand in her way."
Nothing really amazing in her character profile, but she is the leader of the Special Forces, the ninja group of the Gotei 13, so that automatically makes her one cool chick. Physically, she's a petite girl, but she makes up for that with excellent martial art skills and terrifying speed. She's also adept at neutralizing poisons, since she's had years of experience in using them. And I really dig her hairstyle, for some reason.
I also particularly like her zanpakutō, the term for the special weapons used by the Shinigami. If you want to find out what all of these japanese terms mean, just hit Google, hehehe.
"Soifon's zanpakutō is Suzumebachi. In its sealed form, it resembles a wakizashi with a yellow hilt reminiscent of a Chinese dao. Unlike most shinigami, she wears it horizontally on her lower back. Its shikai is triggered by the command 'Sting all enemies to death!'.
In its shikai, Suzumebachi shrinks into a stinger that is worn on the middle finger of Soifon's right hand. When Soifon stabs someone with Suzumebachi, a butterfly symbol called a hornet's crest (hōmonka) spreads from the point of contact, its abdomen acting as the center. If Soifon stabs the same location again, her opponent dies, regardless of how powerful they may be. The crests are maintained by Soifon's will and are impossible to remove unless she wills it."

As you can see, her weapon of choice complements her ninja skills really well. Her zanpakutō's initial release (shikai) is not a bigger or more powerful form of the sword, unlike most of the other Shinigamis'. Instead, it becomes a tiny stinger that completely relies on Soifon's speed and striking ability to be effective. To compensate for this, Suzumebachi can take down anyone, regardless of his/her power level, as long as the stinger strikes the same body location twice. Now that's what a real assassin is all about. Her zanpakutō's final release (bankai) hasn't been revealed yet, so Soifon has a very high ceiling in terms of character development and cooler fight scenes in the series.
Well, that ends the geek session for today. The Pacquiao-Barrera fight just finished as I was typing this post, and congratulations to the Pacman for winning via unanimous decision after 12 rounds of fight. He's no match for Soifon though. ^_^

Friday, 03 August 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows

I just finished reading book 7 of the Harry Potter series (without buying the book, go figure, hehehe). If anyone is trying to avoid spoilers, cover your eyes now while reading this.
Overall, I loved the book. Is it the best book ever? No, that would be the Holy Bible. Is it the best book in the HP series? I don't think so either. Goblet of Fire still holds a very special place in my heart for having so many good moments. But with that said, Deathly Hollows should be in the top 2, what with it being the final installation of a great and magical series.
You knew this was coming, but there's one thing I really disliked about the book: that last, final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort. Everything before it was superb. The Battle of Hogwarts will go down as the greatest fight in the series, edging out the duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort at the end of Order of the Phoenix (which was awesomely translated in the film). Most of the major and supporting characters got their share of the action, and even a few took a dose of dying for their troubles.
But that last stand-off between our boy Potter and the Dark Lord? Very underwhelming (no, underwhelming is not a Muggle word, i just transfigured it, hehehe). I can forgive the wordy exchange before the actual fighting, which is what we usually see in bad action movies. Dumbledore was no longer around to be Mr. Exposition at the end of the book (but he reprised this role near the end despite being dead already; i hear only great wizards can do that), so they had to go through the whole motion of Harry Potter explaining the last-minute details to Voldemort and everyone else.
Speaking of everyone else, what's up with the whole crowd just watching Harry and Voldy tell their dirtly little secrets while circling around and pointing wands? Every Death Eater was already down, Voldemort was using a wand that didn't really work well for him, and he was practically trapped inside the Great Hall. I know Harry said that nobody should interfere, but come on, if you were part of that crowd, the evil wizard has been terrorizing your family and friends for months! How could you not take a cheap shot behind his back and yell 'Stupefy, beeeyotch!!!'
The only explanation, of course, is that the unseen hand of J.K. Rowling was magically making everyone shut up, while making Voldemort lose his common sense in the process. I couldn't even fathom why he was trapped in the Great Hall in the first place; it was mentioned that the giants battling it out and the arrival of reinforcements pushed everyone inside the Hogwarts castle. Yeah, that's cool, except Voldemort could fly! I know he couldn't Disapparate due to the school's protection, but somehow he conveniently forgot that he could have just flown out of there and live for another day (or at least another chapter in Book 8). Even Snape had the sense to fly out of the window just a few hours before then. Geez, I'm just ranting here, but it just pisses me off that the greatest Dark Wizard ever choked in the last 2 minutes of his Game 7 Finals.
Whew.
Oh well, I suppose it was the way things had to end, but I just wish it had more flair, and made more sense. The rest of the book was great though; I even liked the epilogue, which a lot of people think was written by one of Rowling's children instead. A part of me still wanted Harry to end up with Hermione, but that's just me and I'm not ranting about who ended up with who.
So, that's my ran... er, review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Can't wait for the movie already. ^_^

Saturday, 14 July 2007

A Game of Thrones

I marvel at people who can blog daily or at least as consistently as 3x a week. They either seem to lead very interesting lives that they can write about new experiences regularly, or are particularly intelligent/creative enough to generate thoughts and stories everyday to fill up their webpages. Sadly, it seems like I am neither interesting nor smart enough to be a super blogger, hence the gap of months in between posts. I feel sorry for my 3 or 4 blog fans, hehehe.
Now that my attempt at a reflective insight is out of the way, it's time for updates! Yay!
I've finally finished reading A Game of Thrones by George R. Martin, after years of just letting the book rest somewhere in my pile of mess of a room. The book has been recommended by many friends and acquaintances over the years, so I bought a copy a few years ago when I wandered aimlessly into a bookstore in Eastwood. But being the lazy git that I am, I never set aside the time nor found the strong desire to actually go through it, until 2 months ago. It just so happened that I was becoming bored with my project then, so I just picked up the book and started reading it, one chapter a day at the beginning.
It took me a couple of weeks to finish it, as I'm admittedly a slow reader, and my Saturdays are usually spent on VS and gaming so I really only had weeknights to do the deed. But man, I was very glad to have finally read this book. First off, I have missed the simple joy of reading, of imagining lands and characters and battles that resonate deeply with the psyche. I'm not a prolific reader, but when I do get to read, I enjoy good stories like most everyone else. And A Game of Thrones is proving to be one great saga, even from just this first installment (it's a series of 7 books, I think). Wars, strong characters, political intrigues, and a bit of magic mystique make for a great setup, and I can't wait to read the next part. In fact, I just bought A Clash of Kings, and I'm fairly sure it won't sit unread in my pile of stuff as long as the 1st book did.
I'd babble on about what I like best about the story so far, but the laziness in me is calling. I suggest to those who haven't read AGoT to give it a try; it may be considered a fantasy epic, but it's nowhere near as predictable as your standard coming-of-age hero going after a great evil adversary. It's good lah! ^_^

Friday, 04 May 2007

Graymalkin the Art Critic

A few weeks ago I stumbled across a photo exhibit in The Block. The theme was abstraction, with huge pictures showing weird combinations of colors, forms, and hints of everyday objects, places, and people. Obviously they were edited to no longer resemble their origins, and some of the pictures only 'made sense' after reading their footnotes, which told the viewer the name of the image, and a brief description which also didn't really make sense. Art can be cool like that.
So I made my dutiful round to view each and every photo, and I marveled at how these pretty pictures could both be pretty expensive and at the same time be practically useless. If civil society was suddenly destroyed, and slowly rebuilt again, I think artists would be the last to be put back again in place. The need to feed, build structures, administer order, and ensure survival would be the first instinctive concerns of humanity, not pieces of canvass to look at or good music to listen to. Only after the basic needs are addressed would the aesthetic wants be dealt with.
Ok, I'm not bashing artists here, it's just the tiny bit of anarchist in me thinking out loud. The pinnacle of a healthy civilation lies in its arts and philosophies, and I'm glad that we can appreciate beauty now, as when the first cavemen painted crude images on their walls. The abstract photo exhibit, in particular, was a pleasant experience, but not for the pictures themselves. They literally didn't make sense at first glance, but the hint of a familiar hue or shape hooked me enough to look deeper than the surface.
With their original forms gone, the images reached further into the imagination, and it was in the attempts of my brain to make sense of their essences that I enjoyed the viewing experience. The pictures became mysteries to be solved. It was in exploring the enigmatic, in probing for more than what was given, that I finally appreciated the beauty of abstraction.
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After that brief encounter with insightful thinking, as I fancied taking pictures of some of those photos for my recollection, I suddenly remembered that I lost my digital camera last year, and I can't afford one again anytime soon.
Bleh, let's bring back anarchy!