Big ass padlock

Big ass padlock, originally uploaded by pika2000.

God Hand Teru, 1st Episode Impression

First episode of God Hand Teru has been subbed by TimeLesSub (Fansub FTW!). Apparently, this dorama is based form a manga of the same name. Teru is a young new doctor/surgeon in a top hospital. His dad is a brilliant surgeon, that people call him of having the God Hand. The first episode started just like any dorama. I thought this is going to be a J-dorama version of ER. Well, the realism is completely shattered on Teru's first surgery. Here, take a look: (make sure you watch in HQ)

First of all, there are a lot of pauses of silence and self thoughts during the surgery. In real life, the patient would've been dead from the get go. You don't see doctors pausing and having deep thoughts during surgery in ER. But okay, this is a dorama after all.
And then, bam, Teru's superpower is shown. I swear I saw him saying "Henshin!" Now, that is just too much. I mean come on. In the J-dorama Voice, Daiki, the main character, has an anime-like deductive power, but the CG effect is very minimal and within the context of the situation. God Hand Teru's surgery scene is just way too overblown, contrasting the rest of the dorama. Reminded me of the Nintendo DS game Trauma Center. Oh well, hopefully they don't recycle that lengthy fanservice "Henshin" scene too often.

仮面ライダーダークカブト☆ゲッダン☆

Well, I decided to join in the Get Down meme, using a stop motion of Kamen Rider Dark Kabuto action figure. Enjoy:


This is my first attempt in making stop motion animation, and yeah, stop motion is quite tedious. Basically I took a couple pictures of the figure in different poses. At first, I tried iMovie09. Well, the meme requires the stop motion to be pretty fast. iMovie09 doesn't allow picture slideshow to be faster than 1 second per picture. The fast forward effect is not available for slideshows either. Tried iPhoto, no luck. Finally, I decided to dust up the old iMovie HD (iMovie06). Luckily I still keep a copy when Apple offered them for free. iMovie HD allows very short duration for pictures. Perfect. I created the stop motion video using iMovie HD, and did the final editing with everything else in iMovie09.

More Get Down ("ゲッダン") Internet Meme

LOL. This phenomena is more infectious that I thought. There are pretty much any anime characters you could think of doing this in Youtube. Everybody is doing it, and it's worldwide.
Let's start with George W Bush.

Even Kim Jong Il is getting down. LOL.

Get Down ("ゲッダン") Internet Meme

I can't believe I missed this. This is yet another internet video meme infecting youtube. It's started from somebody posting a glitch in the game GoldenEye for the Nintendo 64, where the characters and objects are spinning.
This is the original glitch video:

Well, somebody added a J-Pop song, Promise by Kohmi Hirose, and the result is hilarious!


Of course, knowing Japan, come the animation versions:

Oh, and don't forget the double Lockon Stratos version. I can't stop laughing.


And, typical Japanese, they have to make the real live action versions.


OMG, this is just hilarious. Oh yeah, the guy on the top left corner is naked... LOL.

Wonton soup 4 lunch

Wonton soup 4 lunch, originally uploaded by pika2000.

Sakura-con 2009 Day 1

Day 1 of Sakura-con 2009. My first 2 hours was pretty much wasted waiting in line to pick up my badge, and I pre-registered already. The regular registration line must be worse. The line was DAMN LONG! The line in 2008 wasn't this long. I even saw a lady freaking out, bitching to one of the staff that she already waited too long and wanted to cut in line. LOL. To make matter worse, they announced that their credit/debit machine broke down. I almost felt a riot was coming. After I left, the line was even longer. Not a good start.

Kamen Rider Decade Funny Clips

Natsumikan is probably Decade's most powerful enemy.

To be honest, I'm getting disappointed with Decade.
1. In the 1st episode, Seto Koji appeared, reprising his role as Wataru. As a fan, that makes me think they might bring the main casts form the previous series, making Decade like a reunion series, like the annual Super Sentai versus where new casts meet the old casts. Alas, that's not the case. So far, all the other Rider's world are alternate universe, and no cameos at all. Even Kiva's world episodes didn't have Seto Koji in it. Forget about Mizushima Hiro returning as Kabuto then, he's probably too busy with his new marriage and movie. Also, no Takeru Sato in the Super Den-O and Decade movie either. No Kento Handa in the Faiz world either (even though he appeared in Go-Onger).
2. Kamen Rider Decade started with a bang, the Rider War. All the special effects and CG you can think of is in the 1st episode. Fast forward, now they have to use a freakin in-animated toy for Kivala. It was so obvious that it's just a toy with a string. Very embarrassing for a show that have been using CGs heavily, especially for the Final From Ride transformations.
3. Decade can use a Final Form Ride card, and "transform" any of the riders into a weapon or some sort. WTF? It's just weird. This is not Transformers. This is obviously a ploy to sell toys.

The belt is very neat though, but you have to buy the other toys to get more cards.
Good thing that Shinkenger seems to be a better show.

A Walk in the Park

Couple days ago, I went to a local park to test drive my Fuji F200EXR digicam. Here's two quick slideshow I did with iPhoto09 & iMovie 09. Make sure to go to youtube and watch the HD versions of the slideshow.
HD links: Slideshow 1, Slideshow 2.


On the second slideshow, I also put in videos taken with my Samsung MX20 camcorder. iMovie09 is simply awesome. It can produce pretty high quality videos with only a couple of clicks. For example, the picture-in-picture feature, something that I thought is only available in pro software.


Notes:
I created the slideshow with iPhoto09 first. However, iPhoto09 doesn't do the music very well. It cannot fade-out the music at the end of the slideshow, resulting in an abrupt end. So I exported the slideshow as a 720p quicktime video without music, and then used iMovie09 to add the music. iMovie09 itself has different themes for slideshow, but I like the once in iPhoto09.

Pocky Dessert

Filipino food for lunch

Too much pork! But the flan was awesome.

Yet another J-dorama, Voice

Still in J-dorama addiction mode. Another one I found to be really great is Voice.

It's a story about 5 med students, studying forensic medicine. You would think CSI, but this is still dorama (although one of the students is a fan of CSI, having posters and DVD boxsets at his place). The premise of the show is that forensic science can convey the last word, the "voice," of the dead, hence the title "Voice." Aside from Daiki's anime-like power of deduction, it is actually a pretty touching drama. Each forensic case has very emotional meaning and touching story. Episode 3 even made me cry. LOL. Yeah, forensic is not about solving a fancy murder case, but it's about finding closure for the family members of the dead.

But hey, why am I watching this? Yup, of course there's a Kamen Rider connection here. One of the students, Hanei Akira, is played by Sato Tomohito, which is also Kagami Arata, aka Kamen Rider Gattack in Kamen Rider Kabuto. (he's also in Hotelier, as son of the hotel owner).


Another great J-dorama. Very touching stories. Another reason that J-dorama is very addictive.

Love Shuffle

More addictive J-dorama. Love Shuffle, starring Tamaki Hiroshi, aka Chiaki senpai, now as Usa-tan... LOL

Storywise, basically they're rotating their partners. This diagram from dramawiki explains it better.

So, why does it interest me? Tamaki is hilarious. The screenshots below speak for themselves.


Yeah, LOL. Thank God for fansub! Usa-tan, がんばって.

Everybody's a butler

Browsing throughout various J-dorama, I found this, "Happy Boys."

Guess what, Seto Koji, the middle one, is Kamen Rider Kiva. Kato Keisuke, the one on the right with glasses, is Kamen Rider IXA. LOL. It's official, the last 3 Kamen Riders are butlers!
First, we have Mizushima Hiro who's Kamen Rider Kabuto, and also an S-rank butler in Mei-chan no Shitsuji.


Then we have Takeru Sato who's Kamen Rider Den-O, and also Rihito's brother butler-in-training (picture in my Bloody Monday post).
Then, we have Seto Koji who's Kamen Rider Kiva, and also Segawa Kyoichi, butler in training in Happy Boys.


And, the record holder, Kato Keisuke, who's Kamen Rider IXA. He's a cool quite butler-in-training Kitamura Kosuke in Happy Boys, and also a butler in Mei-chan no Shitsuji.


Wow, is this a continuing pattern? It would be perfect if in the next Kamen Rider series, the main character's real job is a butler. LOL.

Bloody Monday

Currently I'm watching Bloody Monday, a J-dorama. It's actually based on a manga by the same name, about a young hacker, Fujimaru Takagi, being involved into a terrorist plot, and all the suspense, twists, and turns. It's so addictive because every single episode leaves you with yet another cliffhanger, just after a major confrontation/plot resolved, leaving you in suspense and thirst for more. Luckily the fansub are complete, so I can enjoy it at my pace without having to anxiously waiting for the next episode (like Gundam 00).
First thing first, I got interested on this dorama because one of the actor is the same one playing Kamen Rider Den-O, Takeru Sato. LOL.

He's playing as Otoya, Fujimaru's friend. Here's him in Kamen Rider Den-O, and also Mei-chan no Shitsuji (as Kento, Rihito's brother).

Oh, and he's also in Princess Princess D, as one of the Princesses. Man, he's like all over the place. Kids, teenage girls, and adults all ages will probably recognize this guy now. The cool part is that his characters are all different. Ryotaro Nogami (Kamen Rider Den-O) is a clumsy person that actually doesn't really know how to fight, while Kento (Mei-chan no Shitsuji) is a very outspoken character, while Otoya (Blody Monday) is a cool yet caring friend.

Okay, putting that aside, I find Bloody Monday to be very captivating. It constantly put you in suspense, and like I said, after a conflict resolved, by the end of the episode, you are presented with yet another cliffhanger. Betrayal and death are the common theme here. The good people are turning bad one by one, and then characters are dying one by one too. When you think things are getting better, don't worry, it's J-dorama, so things will turn back for worse. LOL. Really. I can't believe that terrorist group managed to convince so many people to join them, despite them killing their own members for a punishment of failure.

Even better, the hacking part of the dorama is actually pretty realistic compared to most American TV series and Hollywood movies. Falcon, Fujimaru's hacker nickname, actually brings a Linux bootable flash drive with him all the time. Everytime he wants to do some hacking, he booted from the USB drive, into a Linux command line. And he's not running a fancy graphical program either, all the hacking are done via terminal, with Falcon typing command lines. Sure, not as exciting as some Hollywood movies with "hacking programs" magically built-in into the computers with a big "Hack" button, but it's more realistic. Also, when Falcon is hacking into a system, they show him making a VNC connection via terminal command line, a real protocol to remotely connect to another PC. Falcon also managed to hack into a system running Vista using his Linux bootable flash drive. Very geeky stuff!

Alas, there are still some silly things that a real hacker won't do. Falcon put a file into Windows' Recycle Bin to "delete" it and removed his trace. This is the last thing anybody would do in real life to "remove" their trace since files in Recycle Bin in Windows are not actually deleted and can be recovered easily. Also, some of the command lines that Falcon uses when he's "hacking" are actually simple DOS commands. Sure, today most people won't recognize DOS, but I just chuckled when I saw those. Lastly, Falcon is always taking his pretty large HP laptop with him, and for whatever reason never runs out of battery, even when he's hacking wirelessly. In some cases, he doesn't even have time to turn off his laptop, so presumably the laptop is running all the time. HP must have given him some fancy super battery there. LOL. Oh yeah, all the computers are HP, even the ones in the internet cafes. Oh, and Sandisk also participate in the dorama by supplying SD cards. Yeah, brand recognition man. It would've been cooler if Falcon is using the tiny Sony Vaio TT or the tiny Vaio P. Oh, and I don't see Apple. Usually the good guys use Apple stuff, like L in Death Note.

A very exciting dorama full of suspense! It also brings a point that regardless of policies, tools, technology, and whatnot, humans have emotions, and one can manipulate others by playing with their emotion. Example is one of the jail guards, convinced to kill his own co-worker, and this all because his wife cheated on him with another man. Oh, and don't forget the constant betrayal of people that you think would never turn bad, and they all have their reasons. Very thought provoking!