BLOG -- Recap of November

It seems that every month is busy these days and November was no exception. I don't even want to think about how busy December will be, with Christmas celebrations and all.

Outings/Events in November:

- Had a week-long vacation.

- Attended Ripley's Aquarium of Canada.

- Checked out the Gardiner Museum.

- Had a game day with my sister, her fiance, and a friend.

- Had a sleepover at my sister's place x2.

- Had a karaoke gathering with former co-workers.

- Hung out with friends x1.

- Attended the One of a Kind Show.

Exposures:

- (restaurant) Su & Shi Noodle Bar -- The sushi here is NOT up to my standards. I would not eat from there again.

- (person) Jenna Marbles -- Jenna Marbles is a Youtubber. Often when I'm watching Ryan Higa's videos, her videos show up as suggestions on the right side of the page. Seeing that most of her videos have over 10 million videos, I decided to try her out. She's funny, weird, and unique, and I like it! It's also nice to see that she has some similar thoughts as me for certain issues (like being yourself, and marriage).

Finished...

Watching:

- (Anime): Ouran High School Host Club -- I've watched this years ago, but decided to watch it again, but this time in English dubbing. It's good! The anime itself is very charming and pretty deep sometimes. I love it.

- (Anime): Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai -- I'm happy I finally got myself to watch it. It gave a lot of closure to many of the questions I had for the first series.

- (Anime Movie): Patlabor WXIII -- It's pretty solid, but a bit slow-paced.

- (Movie): Ender's Game -- This was nicely done. It makes me want to read the novel.

- (Movie): Gravity (3D) -- Very intense.

- (Movie): Premium Rush -- I watched this mainly 'cuz Joseph Gordon-Levitt was in it. Some scenes were neat.

- (Movie): Pirates! Band of Misfits -- This was okay.

- (Movie): Batman -- I finally got around to watching this fully. It has some charm. 

- (Movie): Batman Returns -- Ditto for this one.

- (Movie): Batman Forever -- Ditto for this one, 'cept that this was ridiculous.

- (Movie): Batman & Robin -- Ditto for this one, 'cept that this was more ridiculous.

Playing:

- (PS3): Folklore -- Finally! Even though this was a PS3 launch title, it was totally worth playing. I'm glad they kept the Japanese credit song.

Reading:

- Nothing this time.

Currently... 

Playing (not all at once):

- (PS4): Call of Duty: Ghosts
- (PS4): Resogun
- (PS3): Borderlands 2 
- (DS): Legacy of Ys: Book I & II 
- (3DS): Shin Megami Tensei IV 
- (PSP): Persona 
- (PSP): Crush
- (Wii): Fortune Street 
- (PS2): Atelier Iris 2
- (PS2): Shadow Hearts
- (PC): UnEpic
- (PC): King's Bounty: The Legend

Watching:

- (TV Show): The Walking Dead  
- (Anime): Yu Yu Hakusho 
- (Anime): Shakugan no Shana 
- (Anime): Dragon Ball
 

Reading:

- (Manga): Judge by Yoshiki Tonogai 
- (Manga): Azumanga Daioh by Kiyohiko Azuma


That's it for November. Here's a few photos from the Ripley's Aquarium of Canada and a video from this month:

One of the first exhibits you see at Ripley's Aquarium of Canada. 
This was actually one of my favourite exhibits.

Leafy seahorse!

 Can you see the fish in here?

One of Jenna Marbles' videos. It's pretty old,
but I like her commentary. I find it funny as well.

Thanks for reading! As always, feel free to comment or ask about any of my experiences / exposures :)

BLOG -- My Vacation + Brief Impressions of the PS4

So my week-long vacation is nearing an end. Once I turn in for today (in about an hour), I will be waking up to another work day. Man, does a week fly by so fast! As a follow-up to my last blog, here's how I did with my to-do list:

-Check out the Animal Stories exhibit at Gardiner Museum
-Watch Gravity in 3D in theatres with my sister and her fiance
-Check out Ripley's Aquarium of Canada
-Look into getting my passport (I still don't have one I will need / want one by the new year) 
-Karaoke for 2-3 hours straight!  
-Check out J-Town (I want to eat some melon bread again)
-Check out a couple restaurants I haven't been to before (I checked out one restaurant)  
-Get acquainted with Python (I still haven't read my 100 pages for my New Year's Resolution!)
-Some secret stuff

Then, more to remind myself, here's a list of some of the things I did each day:

MONDAY
-Checked out the Animal Stories exhibit at the Gardiner Museum
-Went to J-Town, and then remembered that it's closed on Mondays (whoops)
-Watched Batman Forever on DVD
-Played a bit of Call of Duty: Ghosts on the PS4

TUESDAY
-Went to J-Town (yay, melon bread!)
-Did a bit of shopping
-Watched Gravity in 3D with my sister and her fiance
-Stayed over at my sister's place

WEDNESDAY
-Attended Ripley's Aquarium of Canada

THURSDAY
-Watched Batman & Robin on DVD
-Played a bit of DC Online Universe on the PS4
-Played more of Call of Duty: Ghosts on the PS4
-Played a bit of Resogun on the PS4

FRIDAY
-Cracked open my Python book (finally!)
-Started playing Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine MMORPG on the PC (I need more friends online...)
-Watched the first 11 episodes of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai anime series (sequel to Higurashi no Naku Koro ni)

SATURDAY
-Had a game day with my sister, her fiance, and a friend
-Stayed over at my sister's place

SUNDAY
-Finished watching Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai.
-Cleaned my room a bit
-Blogged this entry


Now, what am I going to do with my final hour of vacation? Hmmm... hahaha.


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BRIEF IMPRESSIONS OF THE PS4

As some of you might have noticed from my entry above, I have a PS4 now. Unfortunately, I didn't get to play with it enough during my vacation, but I'll give my brief first impressions of it. I played a bit of Resogun, DC Universe Online, and Call of Duty: Ghosts on the PS4.

THE GOOD

- It is relatively fast. After setting it up, whenever I turn on the system and select my PSN, logging in is almost instant. With the PS3, I often had to wait a while to be logged into my PSN.

- The PS4 interface looks convenient and clean. What can I say, I like the look of it.

- The graphics capabilities are nice. Some of the maps for Call of Duty: Ghosts look so beautiful, especially Stonehaven. The graphics for Resogun look really nice, too.

- Sharing content to Facebook / Twitter seem like an easy process. I haven't tried it myself, but it sounds easy (the PS4 controller has a "share" button after all). Once you press it, you are presented with options to either share a screenshot, gameplay video of the last 15 minutes, or to simply stream your gameplay experience. I may share some Call of Duty: Ghosts videos down the line.

- The slant design of PS4 is functional. I think this slant is really nice, since there is less chance of the disc slit getting covered in dust.

THE BAD

- Like with the PS3, it takes forever to get to the Playstation Store from the PS4. It's so weird. Accessing the Playstation Store is quick from the PSVita. Everything else about the PS4 is quick, but not this?

THE MEH

- The background music for the PS4 is boring-ish. It makes me sleepy, lol.

- The PS4 doesn't note the last time your PSN friends were active (the PS3 did). It's trivial, but I kinda liked knowing.

OVERALL

In short, the PS4 is a slick and nice system. But right now, it's not a must-have. Even though Assassin's Creed 4 looks like a very promising game (I don't have it), and Call of Duty: Ghosts is addictive (but not as addictive as Black Ops 2), I think I could have waited till more games came out for it before picking it up. I'm actually a bit sad that I had to unhook my Xbox360 to hook up the PS4. I still have some games to play on the Xbox360.


Thanks for reading! If you have any questions about my experience with the PS4, feel free. You all have a good week! :)

BLOG (PERSONAL) -- Vacation Mode: ON + A Couple of My Current Frustrations

Well, tomorrow starts my week-long vacation. YAY! Since all the changes that happened since the last time I went on vacation (which really wasn't all that long ago), I sorely needed another chunk of time to reflect on what's happened, think things through, and to simply enjoy myself.

Whenever I think of taking vacation, this is pretty much what goes through my head on how I would spend my time: being shut up in my room and being a massive couch-potato -- playing video games, watching anime, watching movies, reading manga, reading books. But I know I'm not really going to do that for the whole time. It's my vacation, after all!

Besides being a couch-potato, here are some other things on my to-do during my vacation. Hopefully I will be able to put a checkmark next to each one.

-Check out the Animal Stories exhibit at Gardiner Museum
-Watch Gravity in 3D in theatres with my sister and her fiance
-Check out Ripley's Aquarium of Canada
-Look into getting my passport (I still don't have one I will need / want one by the new year)
-Karaoke for 2-3 hours straight!
-Check out J-Town (I want to eat some melon bread again)
-Check out a couple restaurants I haven't been to before
-Get acquainted with Python (I still haven't read my 100 pages for my New Year's Resolution!)
-Some secret stuff

I'm also going to spend some of my vacation time thinking about various topics. Last week, I used one of my "Joy of Doing Nothing" cards, because I needed my time spent on thinking about these things instead of blogging. I'm sure I've mentioned some of these in my past blogs -- this definitely isn't the first time I've felt such frustrations. Here are a couple of what I will be contemplating about through my vacation:

My singledom: Now, I'm not frustrated about being single. After being in a relationship after relationship for about 10 years of my life (read this past blog entry if you want to know the timeline), I'm fine with this break. Even though I sometimes miss some of the little details of being in a relationship, I almost prefer to be single at this point in my life. (Hmm... maybe I'll blog about the pros and cons of being in a relationship vs. being single one day).

What frustrates me is the slack I get for being single. I am often told that if I don't get a boyfriend now, then it will be harder for me to get one when I'm older. Then I am often reminded that I am old. Sheesh... It gets pretty annoying sometimes. Here's the thing I'll be thinking about: if it really is harder for me to get a boyfriend when I'm older, can I accept being single for the rest of my life? And if that path is really before me, what sort of things can I do now to prepare for a comfortable, manageable, affordable single future?

With that said, I don't think I will ever seek out a boyfriend for the sake of having a boyfriend. My hopeless romantic side could never accept it. I would feel downright horrible, especially if I had no romantic feelings for the guy.

My hobby priorities: Now this has come up multiple times in past blogs. And I still don't know what to do. I have multiple interests; I have this deep-seeded thirst to learn what interests me; I don't have enough time to learn and indulge all of my interests. It's coming to a point where I feel I'll have to choose what interests to develop, and what interests to leave behind. And I don't want to leave any interests behind.

Sometimes -- just sometimes -- I wonder if it would be worth my while to live in a less busy environment, so that that sort of free time would come more naturally. But that would mean leaving EVERYTHING and EVERYONE I know and care about behind, and that's a scary thought for me.

My thoughts about priorities then turn into other thoughts like: Do I want to change my living environment? And if I do, where would I go? What do I really want to do in the end? My current work is tough, but I still find aspects of it fascinating.

Then I have other thoughts, mainly about the future, and what sort of things I should do now to ensure a better future for myself.

I know I won't find definite answers to these issues during my vacation, but I hope by thinking things through, I'll get closer to what I really want, and how I really feel about these things.


Thanks for reading! I have a couple more work-related things to do, and then my vacation will BEGIN!! You all have a good week! :)

BLOG -- Using my "Joy of Doing Nothing" Cards

Hi everybody! This is the first blog after my 2-year anniversary and I am already using one of my "Joy of Doing Nothing" cards. Haha, sorry, I really need some time to relax and think about things. I'm currently going through a few personal struggles, and I'm not ready to or sure about sharing them here. I feel like I gotta sort through them myself.

If you still came by despite my blog title, here's a Youtube link to a couple of episodes from Ouran High School Host Club, an anime series I was listening to yesterday while working from home. It's a pretty old series, but I'm gonna blog about it one day -- because I love it!

Episode 1 in English dub -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_9T9nDgpY8

Episode 24 in Japanese (with English subs) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Zq7l_81Z8A
This is one of my favourite episodes, but I have many favourite episodes here, especially the last one.

You all have a good week! :)

BLOG -- Happy 2nd Year...!

So in 3 days (Nov. 6), it will be the 2nd year anniversary of me blogging! Woot! It doesn't really sound like an accomplishment, but it is. It's about the only chance I get to write these days, so despite the blogger-blocks that I sometimes get, I always get some kind of enjoyment every time I blog (especially if I blog well).

And just like last year, here are some of the entries I either took extra pride in or deeply enjoyed writing.


Wreck-It Ralph movie review
I totally loved that movie, and thought I did a pretty swell job of reviewing it.

The Joy of Doing "Nothing" blog
It's a short blog, but it's a frequent reminder for me to still take those moments.

Warm Bodies movie review
I am super proud of this entry. All of my feelings and impressions were expressed properly, I think.

999 video game review
I think this was the most researched blog entry I ever did so far.

Idolm@ster Shiny Festa rant
I'm still so disappointed with Namco's end decision, and I think I did a good job of taking my stance and explaining why it was such a bad decision. I also just found this out recently: in Japan, Idolm@ster Shiny Festa is also available as a PSP digital game -- and it is compatible for the PSVita. That could have been brought here.

Fan Expo Canada 2013 blog
I'm pretty proud of myself that even after the original entry for this was accidentally deleted, I kept on blogging and I think I came out with a better version in the end.

Condolences to William Sleator
This entry is very dear to me. And I think I did a good job of expressing that here.


Thanks for reading! And, for, you know -- sticking by me for all these years (If you did). Here's to possibly another year of weekly blogs (with a couple "The Joy of Doing Nothing" entries thrown in.

Have a great week! :)