The Mad Ramblings of a Bear

A quickie

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 05:31:28 GMT

Erm,
So yes. Back from Hong Kong, pictures are on my facebook.
My Wife, beloved mother of my daughter is pregnant.
So yes, 1 victory lap around the store followed by 9 months of anxious waiting/medical visits.

Random Updates

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:05:13 GMT

Alright,
It has been a while since I last posted.
Busy with real life and real life issues.
Suffice to say that my life has had to undergo some radical changes of sorts.

So Change as always has to happen.

Random thought.

Singapore will be running an Anime Festival in Nov (I think)
Of which one of the special guest stars is supposed to be May'N who is the voice of Sheryl Nome from Macross Frontier.

In another day and age, I think I would be drooling and eagerly waiting for the event.

At this point in time, all I can muster is a 'meh'

My personal thoughts.

1. Macross Frontier has never been shown on any cable or public access TV station here.
2. From a purely legal point of view, it would mean that no-one would know who she is since they would not have been exposed to her.
3. But from all the rabid fans drooling online one can only surmise that everyone has watched Macross Frontier online and thus know about her. Hence the eager response.
4. So does that mean that the organizers know that everyone (read: greater fanbase) has watched Macross Frontier and they will get a better response with a someone like her of some older 'talent'.

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

Happiness?

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:25:17 GMT

I was asked a question by J the other day. How something simple like doing the gardening just made her happy.
My reply, "I cleared a blocked drain. I am happy."
So is this domestic bliss or just finding happiness in the simple things in life?

These are quite mundane items when you think about it. But hey. If it works.. why not?

SPORE AAR

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 01:39:18 GMT

Well,
We finally had a sit down with all the TOs from SPORE.
The current decision based on what was discussed and based on how SPORE was run is to cancel PIG-Con.

This is mainly due to:
1. Costs of running the event
2. Lack of enough trained people to actually pull it off

This 'trained people' being the players who would be willing to volunteer and help out during the event.
Gamers when usually asked to choose between playing and volunteering to entertain little kids will prefer to game than entertain. Something which I do not blame them either. However, it is something that we will need to overcome for next year's SPORE.

Yes, Pig-Con as a con is going to be shelved and we will be going with SPORE-Con for the foreseeable future.

I like Petunia. But given that this is a multiracial society and not everyone might accept the pun that is Pig-Con it's probably for the best to go with a more neutral sounding name for the convention.

So yes, planning will begin soon for SPORE 2009. Which is in all likelihood going to be held once more in June 2009. The only exception being that we will probably not be holding it in Chua Chu Kang CC but might be moving it around to a different location instead.

SG Toy and Comic Con

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 01:34:08 GMT

I was asked my response to it. Given that I had gone in on the industry night.

The response?

...

Make of that what you will

Post SPORE

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:46:44 GMT

Well,
SPORE has come and gone.
As Cons go. I'm going to chalk this up as a success.
We had a good turnout of about 600+ people and not all of them were gamers. So that's a good thing. We might have had more people but no-one was counting heads. :) (Something I need to remember for the next one)

Clean-up went quickly due to the number of people left after the con who were around to help.

AAR Meeting for SPORE will be this weekend and the questions will be whether to go ahead with PIG-CON in November or to just plan for next year instead.

Pre-SPORE

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:27:37 GMT

Well,
It is 1.25am. I got back from Chua Chu Kang CC at 12.45am after sending some of the guys back.
From 7pm to midnight. That's pretty much how long it took us to set up the tables and terrain for tomorrow.
Early day tomorrow. Since we have to be at the CC by 8am.

More later and hopefully with pics.

SPOR'ing We Will Go...

Mon, 26 May 2008 13:23:03 GMT

We had our last committee meeting on Sunday for SPOREcon.
The numbers for most of the events have been finalized. Now comes the bone weary task of getting all the logistics in place for the event.
Spent the day in the back of the warehouse trying to dig up (in no random order)
1. Brochures for the store
2. Posters for the store
3. Terrain for the various events (for the TOs to go through)
4. Poster Stands
5. Models to be used for Miniature Painting Demos
6. Paints for above event

Found some of the stuff. Not all.
Need to get the boards out to be fixed and retape.
Lots of things that need to be done.

But I think it's good. It has been a long time since we have held an event of this size here in Singapore. As I told Peeyush, "So what happens if we get more people than the hall will hold?" His reply was, "Won't happen. The hall can hold more than 2,000 people." I'd like to prove him wrong on this. I would like to see 2,000 or more people at Chua Chu Kang CC on the 8th of June.

I want the gaming community to get a sense of community again. That yes, you may be a CCG player, a Board Gamer, a Miniature Gamer or an RPGer. But deep down, you are a GAMER. Someone who enjoys gaming. Who enjoys the mental challenge of pitting your wits against another player. Someone who has fun doing so.

I'll update more as we get closer. But here's to a great SPOREcon. :)

Random Musings

Thu, 22 May 2008 15:26:23 GMT

Well,
It seems that Starhub has taken upon itself to cap users of Bit Torrent. Essentially, you can download but you can't upload. And since BT uses a share ratio to determine speed, it screws anyone who uses it with a slow speed.

Damn. I am annoyed. Nice to know that companies like to do things without informing their users.
It would be nice to have a heads-up as opposed to having some random news article be the source of information.

-- end rant --

PIZZA NIGHT TOMORROW.
House is a disaster area. More cleaning required.

Random Musings

Mon, 19 May 2008 06:31:51 GMT

Well,
Courtesy of the in-laws, we now have a new 3 in 1 oven. It seems to work fairly well. Baked a Chocolate Cake last night with the whole family. Mental Note: Must remember to get proper baking utensils etc.
Good result. Nice n Moist.

Time to stare at the Muffins and see how they will turn out.

Public Holiday today. Vesak Day.
Spending it in the warehouse doing work. Not exactly what I had in mind. But such is life. :|
Can't say the wife was happy about it either.

Work.. Work.. Work...

Customer Service

Thu, 15 May 2008 14:24:23 GMT

Went down to Courts Megastore @ Tampines today. Wanted to look at some 3 in 1 ovens for the house.
Left Jes at the Wizkids play area so she could happily play with the other kids (Yes, it seems to follow what IKEA is doing) but hey, she enjoyed it.

Found a HP Printer which the wife wanted, so we bought it. Than went on looking at Ovens and all the other stuff. To be honest, I was quite surprised at the level of service at Courts. The sales man was attentive and came over to offer some advice on the different ovens and was able to rattle little things like where the oven was made and so forth.

From a cynical point of view, there wasn't a lot of people shopping so maybe that is why he was so attentive. From another point of view, it was a pleasant surprise and I would probably go back to Courts. Hey! I'm a sucker for good service. Yes, you may pay more for stuff, but you get what you pay for correct?

Sadly however, the HP Printer refuses to work. I think there is something wrong with the power supply as it refuses to turn on. I guess tomorrow I will be dropping by Courts to test out their return policy.

Still on the whole it was a pleasant shopping experience.

Iron Man

Tue, 06 May 2008 01:05:51 GMT

Well,
Decided to do something random and I took the wife out for a movie as we were driving home.
Checked out the new cinema as Downtown East. One thing about new cinemas is that they have nice comfortable seats.
Managed to get tickets for the 8.30pm show of Iron Man. As with most Marvel movies, I left my brain at the door.
Heck.. it has Robert Downy Jr as Tony Stark.. my original thoughts were.. what were they thinking.

Surprisingly, the movie was quite enjoyable. Robert Downy did a very good job playing the playboy industrialist. Unlike the Spiderman movies, there is less angst in the movie. It's a more straight forward kind of story which action and explosions. Less of the "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility" kind of nonsense.

It was good enough for me to want to put money down when the DVD comes out.

Murder in the.... Fish Tank

Mon, 05 May 2008 01:41:37 GMT

Well,
Admittedly it has been a while since my last update.
I came back from camp and spent a hour cleaning my fish tank. (I have 11 Neon Tetras and 1 sucker fish - I call the Neon Tetras "The Apostles")
Sadly, after cleaning the fish tank and changing the water in the tank, the Tetras decided to make the great journey to the great beyond. In hindsight, maybe I should have just left the water in the tank alone...

Dismayed but undeterred, I bought 4 goldfish to replace the void in the fish tank. 2 of them have since followed the Tetras to the great beyond. And no, this wasn't a case of the fish tank being dirty, but rather the sucker fish taking it upon himself to attack the goldfish.

Realizing this, I took the sucker fish out and put him in a pail. He did not last the day.

This has been a very fishy weekend of sorts. Many fish dead. Heck, I have 1 goldfish at the moment which I am not sure if he/she is going to last the day as most of his/her scales have been removed by the attack of the sucker fish.

Oh well.
We'll see how things go.

Back to Civilian Life

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 01:36:05 GMT

Well,
2 weeks of ICT is over, including our Tech Mob.
It was a surprisingly fast 2 weeks. Everyone in the unit was motivated to get the job done as it was going to be our last field camp exercise and a good unit rating would mean a shorter high key for the next in-camp.
So, we got it done. Despite the weather (Hot/Cold), numerous injuries that we had, we somehow came through with a RedCon 2A rating which is basically a distinction. A RedCon 1 rating being a High Distinction.

My brain is still in a transition mode from NS Thinking back to Civilian Mode...
might take a while to get it restarted.

We'll see.

Random Updates

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 01:56:44 GMT

4 more days and I go back from Reservist. Supposed to be our Proficiency Test so if we do good, our next in-camp will be a lot more slack. I'm hoping that *fingers crossed* we do as well as we did in the last in-camp.
It will feel a bit different I have to admit as quite a few of the regular 'kakis' who go will not be going as they have either left the unit or been deferred.
April is going to be a quiet month of sorts. F & D will be heading to GAMA for the annual Trade show. I will be in-camp for 2 weeks. So the store will run on auto-pilot for a while. Hopefully nothing exciting will happen while I am away.

The annoying thing is that my ICT ends on the 25th and I just got a letter asking me to report back to Maju camp on the 26th for a Mobilization exercise. Damn annoying. -_-

Anyway, planning for Paradigm Infinitum Games Convention (PIG Con) is moving along. We've been having regular meetings of sorts and things are starting to come together. We will be running a mini-con in June at Chua Chu Kang CC's Multi-purpose Hall.
Lots of events being put together and I'm optimistic that the community will start to pull together.

Ah well. More later.

Losing my Otakuness

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:50:21 GMT

Right,
This is one of those random weeks when things just really seem to be weird.
One of my friends went to the Tokyo Animation Fair, which is one of the major shows for what's coming up in Japanese Animation and so forth. GAMA for me, is what TAF would be for people in the anime industry.

And so, he brings back a whole lot of loot and swag from the event, which I take a look at and go 'meh'
Nothing interesting or exciting. I think it's probably at that point in time that I realize looking at what is upcoming in the anime industry no longer excites me. What's left of the Otaku in me is numb.

Thinking about it. I've not bothered watching any of the new titles being shown. I've spent time and money just catching up on the series that I used to watch and adding them to my collection. There's nothing on my 'die die must watch' list anymore. Heck, I don't even have a list anymore.

Maybe I've gotten older and so have lost the 'itch'. Maybe it's because I'm within the same industry and can get things at wholesale prices that the thrill of collecting is lost. Could be a whole lot of other reasons. But thinking about it, nothing really comes to mind, I'm thinking personally that as I've gotten older my priorities have changed. Not by much though as I still collect manga now.

Funny thing is, I think for most of my peers in my age who I knew who grew up in the VHS fansubs age have like me, gone on to other pursuits and anime is no longer as important as it used to be. Age I guess,

Still, I am intending to watch Pretty Cure Max Heart in Japanese with English Subtitles with the little one, just to let her see how Mahou Shojo shows should be watched.

Religion n Me

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:57:31 GMT

I am in general not a very religious person.
Yes, even though I am a Church going bear, it seems to me that I do so because
1. I want Jes to grow up with some Christian morale values (such as they be in this day and age)
2. I'll be disappointing my parents if I don't go.

Back in Secondary School, our bible studies teacher called us (my friends and myself) 'Outstanding Catholics' as we mainly stood outside church oblivious to what was happening within as Sunday was basically D&D Day.
So after mass, we'd go for Chicken Rice Lunch and than off to our GM's house for a full day of gaming.

Today, we went back to Holy Trinity Church. This is a church that I usually do not like attending as it is packed to the gills.
However today, managed to get seats in front so we didn't really feel the crowd as we usually do when we get to church just on time and have to sit/stand in the back half of the church.

Strangely enough, Father Johnson brought up a simple joke.
" A new priest was sent to a church and he decided to visit his parishioners and introduce himself. He walked to a house opposite the church and seeing a cross on the door, knocked and asked if the people within were Catholics and did they attend mass. A man replied, 'Father, we are Catholics, but we don't go to mass. The people who all go are hypocrites.' The priest replied, "I am one too."
Morale of the story, There is no such thing as a 'Perfect' Church.

Ever major Religious festival (Easter/Christmas etc), what I like to call 'submarine' Christians will pop out and do their annual visit to church. This usually explains why Feast Days are always more crowded than normal services. I have never liked the concept and respect people who just say, "bugger this and not even bother going to church." Hey, if you're just going to attend church twice a year, why even bother?

I'm still undecided if I want to carry on going to church. From one point of view, I have reached what I'd call my Religious Mid Life Crisis. I suppose in part it's part of a whole bunch of things that I have percolating in my head at the moment. When and how I will get this resolved I have no idea.

Not today I know for sure, but I'll take the fact that there is no such thing as a 'perfect church' as food for thought.

Radio Station Blues

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 03:03:55 GMT

Well,
Been playing around with the Radio Stations that I used to listen to.
I've realized that as much as I like listening to 91.3 in the morning, the music is just way too off for me to appreciate anymore.
93.8 still has a good selection of music on public holidays but the news focus of late hasn't been to my standard. At least from my view point of what a news Radio Station should be.
So it's been back to the BBC on 88.9 for me. More focus on foreign news (so I know what's going on around the world) and a lot more interesting programs.
Maybe I've just gotten jaded with the local news. Gah'ment say this.. yada yada yada...

Bah..

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:33:55 GMT

Well,
To be honest, I am in a general state of blahness.
Bah!

It's as I mentioned to the wife a vicious cycle where one event will impact on the rest and like a chain of dominoes, everything starts to fall apart.

Little Milestones

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:50:09 GMT

Well,
Went to HDB today. Paid off the outstanding for our mortgage. Assuming the shop is able to stay financially viable I should have enough in my CPF to at least maintain the monthly payments without any need to rely on the wife or to top up cash.
Little milestones I suppose in life.

Random Updates

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 04:45:00 GMT

It has been a while since I last updated.
Things that have happened.
Gary Gygax passed away. For those who didn't know. He was one of the original designers for Dungeons and Dragons. A system which I learnt to play in 1983 over 20 years ago.
I think it was the exposure to it that got me started into the whole gaming hobby. I wouldn't be too far off if I said that his influence has led me to where I am today.

J.I. Terrorist managed to walk out of a Detention Centre here in Singapore.
Conspiracy Theory #1.
- He's actually been taken to the US
Conspiracy Theory #2
- He's actually dead
Conspiracy Theory #3
- This is just a distraction to let people focus on something other than the shitty economy.

I could of course be wrong and he just walked out a Detention Centre with no camera's watching and no-one at the gate to stop him.

Just my own thoughts on this.

Managed to snag my hands on Appleseed:Ex Machina.
It's the newest Appleseed OAV, running at about 140mins it's actually quite good. The story is not one pulled out from the Manga but a whole new story. The influence of John Woo in the show is very obvious (2 Guns.. Birds flying)
I'm not going to say too much about it, since it's not been officially released. Only thing I will say is that it is GOOD.

http://www.tribalwars.net/ is what has been occupying my free time. Another browser based numbers game, it has kept me occupied for the past few months. Sad but yes. I seem to like it somehow. It has been called a geek game. So maybe yes.. I am a Geek. lol.

More stuff later.

Odex Saga III

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 06:35:49 GMT

Well,
The verdict is finally out. http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2BNews/Courts%2Band%2BCrime/STIStory_201361.html

Effectively Odex lost the case and had to pay Pacific Internet for damages. However since Pacific Internet still has to give out the list of names to the Japanese Anime companies it is still a win of sorts.

Such a ruling will pave the way for the Japanese Copyright Holders to actually take action if they so wish to. Of course this will be a lot harder as it means that they will need to engage a local law firm and basically proceed to conduct civil proceedings against the various downloaders.

From a certain point of view, given the current state of the Industry, if they are serious about taking action against Bit Torrent downloaders and cracking down on copyright infringement, than it will be seen as a necessary action that they will need to do. Which also means that should legal action here be successful, it might replicate itself across the various countries to try to crack down and get people to go for a "Pay per download" model of revenue generation.

From Odex's point of view, the ball is no longer in their court. Since the court has established that they have no authority to sue or initiate legal proceedings, it will be entirely up to their Japanese licenses to decide if action should be taken and this I think is going to make a significant change in direction should it occur.

Over the year, we have Geneon go under. ADV now looks to be on shaky ground with the pull out of a significant number of anime titles. Funanimation has conceded that Downloading has affected their revenues significantly. The Japanese companies themselves have not been spared and I think 2008 is going to be one of significant consolidation as the companies try to find a viable business model that will work for the modern generation.

P.I.G. Con

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:37:33 GMT

Well,
I've more or less kick started things. Paradigm Infinitum Games Convention (P.I.G.Con) will go ahead as planned on the 1st of Nov 2008 at Singapore Expo Seminar Rooms 1-6.

The website is up http://www.pig-con.com and I've already spoken to some of the event organizers to get everything put together.

Fingers crossed. One big step for the store. :)

More random musings - Anime IV

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:36:31 GMT

Lifted off Anime News Network
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-01-24/3-japanese-men-arrested-charged-with-uploading-anime

It's an interesting piece of news as it means that the Japanese Police are now making a public display to saw that uploading is EBIL and against the law. Which I guess seems to go hand in hand with all the action that has been taken against downloaders in most parts of the world and the fact that most anime companies are now starting to feel the impact of BT and other share programs as their DVD sales start to slide and we're starting to see a slowdown in the overall anime scene world wide.

From one point of view, cutting the source of RAWs makes fansubbing harder. But than again, it boils down to the ability of the law/enforcement agencies to actually clamp down on illegal file sharing and uploading. Which is akin to having a winter party in Hell.

It's going to take a lot of time and effort, so it'll be interesting to see how things go from here. I still like my DVDs, but seeing that a lot of the titles I want don't seem likely to end up on DVD, it looks like I'll be saving lots of money :)

Oh well.. time to find something new perhaps.

Flu'd

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:30:51 GMT

Once more I have succumbed to the dreaded Flu bug. Flu 1, Bear 0.
The planned trip to head up to Johor today has been shelved until I am feeling better.
Managed to get my hands on Legion. The latest in the Horus Heresy Series written by Dan Abnett. It's not released till March. But as they say, it's who you know that matters. So suffice to say, I have a copy in my hands. Which I managed to finish in one night due to my inability to sleep cause by a blocked nose.

More later.