Thursday, September 20, 2007

A Bruised Shin for Trying to be a Hero on the Streets

As an amateur Muay Thai practitioner myself, I am aware that imitating whatever kung fu flick I see on the big screens in real life self defense situations is foolish. Countless times, my parents have been warning me to avoid fights instead of engaging in one whenever some stranger provokes me. They also reminded me not to be a hero whenever I'm being robbed or mugged. According to them, it is best to just give in as it is not worth risking your life over money that can be earned again. Although my parents are right about issues like these, it just makes me feel that my Muay Thai training all this while has been a waste of my time and my dad's money. Moreover, having to comply to the demands of jerks who can push you around or even think they can take anything they want from you is really degrading, especially if you're the kind of person who can't tolerate bullies like me. Not too long ago, my rationality in street self defense was tested and unfortunately, I failed miserably when I ended a fight with a bruised shin for trying to be a hero. I guessed I had it coming for not listening to my parents.

Last Sunday, seeing that how pleasant the evening was, I decided to end my weekend with a comedy movie. Consequently, the thought of visiting the cinema for Mr. Woodcock popped into my head. My roommate who was too busy studying decided to stay at home therefore, I went to the movies all by myself. The movie theater was a 25 minutes walk from my place. As I was walking, I then remembered my mum who just phoned me a couple of days ago reminding me not to go out late in the evening all by myself as she was worried that someone might rob me. She told me to take a cab or a bus if I ever wanted to visit the mall or the cinema in the late evening or night. Taking a cab was out of the question as I never like the expensive cab services here in Canada. On the other hand, I prefer taking the bus services seeing that it is free; however, since there were no more bus services for that day, I had no choice but to walk. Throughout my walk along the road that was illuminated by street lamp posts and the head lights of passing vehicles, I slightly panted as the road to the cinema was not only long but also upward steep. In the middle of my walk, I saw two Canadian girls who were scared by an idiot with a monster mask who was hiding in the bushes all the while. He looked as old as me and that jackass didn't even realized that Halloween hasn't even started. As he giggled sinisterly over his "triumph", he went back into the bushes waiting for his next prey which happened to be me. The second I walked pass the bush, that masqueraded dick head popped out and screamed. Unfortunately and apparently very disappointing for him, I walked passed him pretending that I never saw him coming. Fueled with disappointment and rage, he shouted at me demanding me not to turn my back on him. Like him, I was boiled in rage the moment he shouted at me for not being spooked by his pathetic act. I paused my walk, turned back and headed for that prick with my fist clenched.

He continued shouting at me in gibberish as I was walking towards him and all of a sudden he dropped into this exaggerated kung fu stance that looked like the ones from the movies. He then unmasked himself and started crying out those Karate yells. He continued mumbling in gibberish and the only word I understood from his mouth was "Bring it on". I then became a little terrified as I realized that this crazy jerk was going to attack me. Conversely, I calmed myself down by reminding myself that I'm trained for situations like this. Well I better be...all those sweat, tears and money I have invested in my Muay Thai classes. I immediately dropped into my Muay Thai weight back stance as I stared at him right in the eyes getting ready for my first street fight in a foreign land. I told him that I would like to see how long he can last against my kicks. Feeling threatened, he immediately charged at me from a distance getting ready to lay the smack down on me. I just waited and waited for him to get into the perfect range. Just close enough to check him with my leg, I heightened myself with the balls of my right rear leg and launched my left leg from outside in a circular motion. My lead round house kick missed as he was fast enough to pull back and I ended up crashing my shin into the tall lamp post that was between me and my adversary. Utter pain struck my left shin and I was in a world of hurt. I immediately went back to my fighting stance and tried to anticipate his next move which wasn't very easy with all the pain trying to deteriorate my concentration. Although I was in pain, I had to masquerade my agony or risk facing repeated attacks on my left shin. That guy stared at me with a stoned expression before looking at my shin and the dented metal of the lamp post. He then smiled at me and told me that we're done for the day before he ran off. After that jerk left, I fell to the ground and I held onto my left shin moaning in pain.

A hill billy in a pick up truck who saw me struggled in pain on the ground then stopped by to help. He asked me a rhetorical question whether I was alright. I told him that I hurt my leg real bad and I needed him to send me back to my apartment. He folded my jeans to see the damage and to his disgust (and also mine), my left shin was swollen badly. I asked him was my shin broken and to my relief, he said it was just bruised.He told me that he's going to send me to the hospital but I insisted to be send back to the my apartment. Eventually he agreed to my request and he carried me to his pick up truck. On the way back to my apartment, he asked me what exactly happened and I briefly told him that some punk tried to harassed me. He then suggested to bring me to the police station to file a report but I told him to just get me back home as the punk didn't took any of my stuff. He defended his suggestion by reminding me that my attacker caused me a bruised shin but when I told him that I caused myself a bruised shin, he was thrown into a deep state of confusion. I exaggerated a bit by telling the hill billy that I over kicked my attacker just to avoid looking silly and all he could say in response was, "Wow". As he dropped me off at the entrance of my apartment, he volunteered to carry me back to my room but seeing that I didn't want to look awful, I told him it was okay. After thanking him for his generosity, the hill billy told me to take care of myself before driving off. Surprisingly I could still walk up to my room despite my battered left shin. During that night, I constantly rubbed heat oil to soothe the pain down.

I guessed I had it coming for not listening to my parents. Furthermore, I had it coming for trying to show off my skills. Despite my stupidity, I was fortunate enough as that jerk didn't attacked me further. I was not only thrown into pain but also into humiliation seeing that my kru would be very disappointed if he knew that I threw a lousy kick and a pathetic display of Thai boxing. That'll teach me not to show off again, to be more tolerance towards harassment and to train harder in the future.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

From "A" Directly to "Z"

"Shall we get married?"; those were the words that appeared on my Windows Live Messenger's screen. Surprised and clueless about what to answer, I paused myself for a while and took some time to figure out how to approach questions like these. "Shall we get married?"---these aren't everyday casual questions that you'll receive from your friends online.

But before that, I took a deep breath and then burst into an outrageous joy. My screams followed by my laughters in happiness then attracted my roommate to my room. "Shenji, are you watching porn again?" he asked in an annoyed manner as he couldn't tolerate the noise from my room. "No, you dick head! Come here and check this out," I said while pointing my index finger at my laptop's screen that was illuminating the "Shall we get married?" question. My roommate stared at the screen with an expressionless face and a second later, he screamed, "Whoa, what the fxxk?". I laughed further on and continued, "Yeah I know. It's crazy right? We just met each other a few days ago and now she's proposing to me." Both of us continued laughing, but I knew that my roommate was just pretending to be happy for me as I could sense his jealousy for my luck. "Shenji, what did you do to her? Did you bang her and got her pregnant? No wonder she wants to be your wife. You're carrying her child, for heaven's sake" my roommate laughed cheekily. "Get the fxxk out of here, buddy" I laughed while ushering my giggling roommate out from my room. "Well, you better figure out what to say to her, daddy" he continued giggling mischievously. After he left, I went back to my working table in my room and continued looking at the screen hoping to come out with a solution to answer this "difficult" question.

So who is this girl who daringly proposed to me? Let's rewind back to the very beginning. I happen to really know this girl (her name is classified for the sake of this girl's privacy and my security) a week ago. One of my friends introduced me to her, so that's how I got to know her. She's from Hong Kong and she's not only cute but also nice. Like me, she's a first year student here at Thompson Rivers University and she's a psychology student. She's older than me by 4 years and what's interesting about her is that, she's doing a double degree. Her first degree was law in Hong Kong and her second one's is psychology, which she is now studying it over here in Kamloops. Both of us despite our gender and age gap, we have plenty in common as we share the similar hobbies, interest, food and genre of movies. Not only that, we even experience similar events in our lives. Consequently, we have a lot to talk about together. Unfortunately for the both of us, we hardly see each other face to face as our class schedules are different. Nevertheless, we often maintain our friendship online. I guess she's the first girl who I can really get along well.

Earlier on before she popped the question, she saw me online and she decided to say "hi". We started off our conversation with the Play Station 3 topic. Because I had a personal message on my Windows Messenger that asked everyone's opinion regarding the decision to purchase the Play Station 3 now or later, she shared her opinion and started advising me. We not only talked about the Play Station but we even chat about her Nintendo DS and my PSP. From the best game in the market to our favorite video game characters, we went on and on. As we finished our conversation about our video game interest, I then remembered that she took law in Hong Kong and she's taking psychology in Thompson Rivers University. Trying to be a smart ass, I suggested that she should try working as a police negotiator based on her mixed degree. I even added that it would be fun if she could have all those SDUs (Special Duties Unit, Hong Kong's version of SWAT) backing her up during her negotiation in a hostage crisis situation. She laughed at my idea but she thank me for it as I have given her new options to her career path. Usually, most people will think that my ideas affiliated with Special Forces or counter-terrorism are the results of immature thinking and false influence (which I seriously hate it when I get that) but unlike most people I know, she respects my idea and she always appreciates my opinions. She also said that she thought about serving in her country's police force due to her interest in criminology. The second she said she like criminology, joy was written all over me as I know both of us had another common interest. The both of us are excited about learning criminology and we both thought about serving in the police force. I told her that I had a similar plan like hers but the only difference is that I thought about serving in SWAT where else she plans to serve in CID (Criminal Investigation Department). Both of us laughed and started trading high 5s "virtually" online. I then told her that both of us had a lot in common which she couldn't agree more than me. She later then popped the suggestion of whether we should get married seeing that we had a lot in common.

Minutes of brain storming on how to tackle questions like these, I finally knew how to answered it...well sort of. Initially, I wanted to ask her if she was joking since this girl has a boyfriend already (oops forget to mention that she is not single) but if I ask her that, she'll think that I'm not taking her seriously and I might hurt her feelings. But if I lied to her and say that, I'm already owned then she'll feel rejected and eventually she'll get hurt. I thought about saying "Cannot, my mummy will scold" but then again one of us is going to get our feelings hurt and it would definitely be me after she's done calling me a pussy. So I courageously said "yes" for the sake of not hurting anyone's feelings. The second I did that, I somehow sense that I'm going to regret it. Consequently, I added a few conditions stating that we'll only get married after we both graduate. She immediately objected as she believed that it will be too late. She insisted that she wants to get married as soon as possible. Thrown into a speechless situation, I just froze myself in front of my computer screen. She continued telling me to drop all my university subjects ASAP so that our marriage won't be interfered. I was so clueless about what to say and I was shivering in fear as I realized that the girl I share a lot in common is so dominating and demanding. I didn't replied anything for a while and eventually she somehow sensed I was speechless and shock. She asked me why was I so quiet, yet I didn't replied anything. The moment she told me that she was just joking about the whole thing, a gargantuan sense of relief struck me in the right spot. We eventually both laughed but I knew I laughed louder than her as I was so damn relief. For that moment, I thought I was going to become a house husband fully dominated by her once we got married. The thought of taking care of her kids at home, keeping her house clean and tidy and preparing nice dinner for her once she got back from work really petrified me. I told her that she got me good and in order to avoid anymore terrifying pranks from her, I immediately signed out from Windows Messenger after wishing her goodnight.

"Shall we get married?"---these aren't everyday casual questions that you'll receive from your friends online. Everything happened so fast between the both of us when she came up with that joke; I never had a girl friend before and now I'm going to have a wife all of a sudden. It's like from "A" directly to "Z". On the other hand, I guess I should be damn lucky that this was just a joke. Moreover, having experience this before, I knew I prove my mum wrong. I clearly remembered her saying that it would take the skies to rain fire if any girl ever proposed to me what more if any girl even dare to consider me to be their boyfriend. Well, too bad for her it just happened and the skies have already rain fire seeing that it's still hot here in Kamloops, Canada. Besides that, I shouldn't really be negative about this whole joke as I actually experienced what many boys don't: how often does a girl come to him and propose for marriage? Furthermore, this experience slightly raised my self esteem letting me know that I'm not that ugly after all and it also deafens my ears from those insulting remarks about my looks that some people have been filling my head with all this while.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

One Crazy Party

Ever since the beginning of my fall semester in Thompson Rivers University, I hardly go out for any parties or social gatherings. The only moment I get out from my room is when I need to do some grocery shopping or when there's a new interesting movie to catch in the cinema. However just recently, I somehow ended up attending another booze gathering . Surprisingly, the gathering was somehow fun and I kind of enjoyed myself back then.

I managed to meet up with my Japanese friend Maaya. She realized that it has been a while since we last saw each other and because of that, she thought about inviting me out for a drink with her and her friends. Seeing that I'm not really in the mood to socialize and make new friends (as I really had some bad experience with my international friends last semester), I told her that I would consider her generous invitation just to be nice when in truth, I decided not to go. Four days ago, when I was on my way to the main campus for my Maths class, I bumped into Maaya's friend, Cindy. She's a cute girl from Hong Kong (but older than me by 4 years) and I saw her from one booze party which I got drunk (that's another reason why I didn't wanted to go out for a drink with Maaya). According to Maaya and some of my international friends, she was the girl, I tried to attacked when I was drunk. I didn't really expected her to say hi to me ever since that incident as I thought she would have been afraid of me. Shocked and slightly stunned for a moment when she smiled and said "hi" to me, I replied her greeting in a stammering manner. She asked me if I still remembered her and for that split second I was considering about lying or not as I feared if I said yes, she would replied, "Good, now die you abusive drunken motherfxxker!" before drawing out a knife (or maybe a pen) and stabbing me right between the eyes for her redemption at the booze party. Knowing that I would make things worst if I lied, therefore, I honestly replied telling her that I remembered her. Her heart melting smile informed me that she was happy as I remembered her which was a mystery to me because as far as I know, I never talked to her before and the only form of interaction that would allow her to know me was the moment I tried to attack her when I was drunk ( which I'm sure wasn't pleasant for her...unless she prefer to be attacked...ooh kinky). Cindy then tried to start a friendly conversation with me, however I had to stopped her as I was late for class. I apologized to her after explaining that I was late for class but before we said good bye and departed, I asked her for her room number (she was staying in the same residence as I am). For that split second, I knew it was a stupid move to ask for her room number since I thought I could be giving her a wrong impression of myself. I wanted to go back in time to undo what I did but it was just impossible unless I had a time machine. Conversely, she told me her room number and even her extension number without feeling reluctant. So, that wasn't really a bad move. After waving good bye to her, I strolled off to my class feeling happy for some unknown reason.

A night before the booze gathering, I saw Maaya online. Grateful to see her, I immediately asked her for Cindy's Windows Messenger's e-mail. Feeling suspicious, Maaya then "questioned" my sudden request for Cindy's e-mail ( probably you guys might be wondering too...). So I replied "innocently" saying that I thought about talking to Cindy to make up for the time when I couldn't talk to her because of my classes. Eventually, Maaya gave me her e-mail address and I added Cindy on my Messenger list. Too bad for me, she wasn't online at that moment nevertheless, I kept my computer running while I occupied myself with some books to read. A couple of minutes later, I heard the "sign in" tone from the Messenger. Thinking that it could be my frequent friends who often disconnect and reconnect their Messenger due to some connection problem, I didn't bother to check out who just signed in. My computer then channeled in the incoming message "tone" and I knew someone was trying to talk to me; to my pleasant surprise, it was Cindy. Initially she didn't know it was me seeing that she wasn't familiar with the user's e-mail that added her. I told her it was me and from then on, we started our casual conversation online. Talking to her was fun as we offered each other the opportunity to know one another better. We shared some stuff in common like video games, our interest in social science and the best of all; both of us are Muay Thai practitioners. It was also a great opportunity to show her that I'm not the drunken monster she met at the booze party 4 months ago. As it was getting late, I thought about ending our great conversation but before I did that, I asked her whether is she attending Maaya's gathering tomorrow. As she said "yes", she returned the same question and of course I said "yes" too when in truth I told myself that I didn't want to go initially. Knowing that Cindy was going for Maaya's gathering, I immediately messaged Maaya who was still online telling her that I'll be going for the party.

The next night, I prepared myself for the gathering. Although I was looking forward to the gathering, a sense of nervousness struck me. It wasn't mysterious to me as I realized that it's been a while since I went out to meet people. Consequently, I asked my roommate Robin (who's also Maaya's friend) to accompany me to the gathering. Fortunately for me, Robin agreed to accompany me after I persuaded him a couple of times. Like me, Robin isn't very fond of meeting new people. We met Maya and Cindy at the lobby of our residence apartment. After trading greetings and introducing Robin to Cindy, we headed for Heroes Pub, a university owned pub just a stone's throw from our residence apartment. As we reached the pathways to the pub, we were welcomed by the sight of the long cue to enter the pub. To make matter worst, we were greeted by Maaya's friends whom turned out to be a bunch of show off "pretty boys" from Taiwan. Just my luck!

I wasn't really fond of hanging out with Taiwanese guys. The last Taiwanese guy I knew pissed me off. I still remember that dreadful day when this prick gave me this impression that made me look ridiculous when he found out that I'm a Chinese who's unable to speak any word of Chinese. He even told me to get "help" as if I was a terminally ill patient. What a dick head! I never thought that I would get the same shit from my Malaysian Chinese educated friends over here in Canada. Unfortunately for me, this Taiwanese guy who I was introduced to had a similar impression of me but he didn't suggested me to seek "help". The Taiwanese guy that I just knew had his friends with him; they were all those rich and spoiled "pretty boys". I didn't really like most of them seeing that they were practically showing off how cool or how muscular they were. Nevertheless, there were one or two nice ones who were friendly and humble. It was great knowing the nice ones of course. Maaya then introduced me to another friend of hers from China. Everyone calls him Edison; he's a 3rd year student studying business in TRU. The line was so long and it wasn't moving at all. We were all out here freezing our asses in the night waiting for more than 2 hours to get into the pub. Those Taiwanese pretty boys who were showing off how muscular they were earlier on decided to call it a day as they couldn't stand the cold anymore. They masqueraded their "sissyness" with the excuse of having an urgent affair to attend to. As they left, I chuckled thinking how pathetic those pretty boys were. Edison thought that waiting furthermore would be ridiculous, so he suggested another place to hang out. The next thing we knew, we were at Fox n Hound restaurant which was located in Sahali mall not too far away from our residence.

At the restaurant, we started ordering the beers and chicken wings as a supplementary to our social gathering. We were then join by a returning Taiwanese pretty boy. Out of the 5 pretty boys, he was the only one to return; I didn't really like the fact that he returned but I must say it's better than all of those 5 pretty boys to return and screw the gathering with their annoying behavior. That pretty boy wasn't all that bad when he was down to earth introducing himself to me in a friendly manner. Eric was his name; he's a final year student in TRU taking up courses in Finance and appears to be Edison's good friend. All of us had a great time talking together with beer mugs in one hand while the chicken wings in another. Eric, the Taiwanese guy made a fool out of himself by cracking lame jokes which everyone was pretending to laugh. Nevertheless, all of us amused ourselves looking at that Taiwanese joker embarrassing himself. In the middle of our party, we all decided to have a "toast" for a great night. We slammed our beer mugs against one another and somehow, a small trickle of beer spilled between Maaya's legs at the point of impact. Maaya shrieked and as she fell cold between her legs, but cold wasn't what she only fell as rage accompanied her mind. Being unreasonable, she swing her beer at everyone and the next thing I knew, there was a beer fight. I immediately evacuate myself from the alcoholic "battlefield" before I become a victim of their stupidity. Everyone in the restaurant were looking at them and at the mean time, I took refuge in the men's toilet to hide myself away from the embarrassment those dumb asses caused.

A few minutes later, I returned to our table pretending that I wasn't part of their immature behavior only to find all of them wiping the seats and table with napkins. Eventually we moved to a new table and I sat next to Cindy that night; I then realized that I didn't talk much to her that night. As we looked at each other trying to find something to chat, we just ended smiling at each other instead. It's been a while since I felt damn shy.The silence between the both of us made me feel awkward and for that moment and I just wish I could change seats. I was looking somewhere else trying hide my shyness and dispel that sense of awkwardness but the fact that Cindy kept on looking at me made me feel more awkward. Eventually she initiate a conversation that we both had in common: our Muay Thai lessons. Yes of course, I could have talked to her about Muay Thai since we're both practitioners. The both of us were trading stories regarding our experience in our Muay Thai classes. We went on talking about Muay Thai until we ventured into a related topic that spawned another similar interest of ours: martial arts movies. The both of us were talking about the latest martial art movies we saw and the fight scenes that really amazed us. We even shared a similar favorite martial arts superstar: Donnie Yen from Flashpoint. I didn't really expected the both of us to share a lot in common.

An hour later on, everyone except me ordered more beers. To add in more kick, all of them ordered several shots of vodkas. As for me I just watched them drown themselves with alcohol instead of joining them as I didn't want to experience that dreadful day again. Who knows how many people I will then attack. Eric was drunk and he was constantly swearing and talking rubbish. He insisted that I had more beer which I eventually agreed to since I didn't wanted to waste the jars of beer he ordered. I began to feel kinda tipsy at my 3rd glass of beer and for that moment, I was worried that I might relive that horrible experience again. As everyone chugged themselves with vodka, they were all drunk, including Cindy. Seeing that she was also drunk, I decided to take "advantage" of her. Knowing that drunk people won't spill lies, I decided to find out the truth regarding the night I was drunk a couple of months ago. I asked Cindy whether did I really attacked her and I then waited patiently for her response. Since she was drunk, she took a long time to reply. She was stammering her reply initially but eventually she revealed the truth: I did not attacked her the night I was drunk at that party 4 months ago. Yes! I knew I was a "beast", literally speaking but not that kind of violent savage beast. Maaya and the rest of my jerk off international friends who have been filling my head with lies all this while were trying to make me feel guilty. Well I ain't anymore. I realized that I got more than I wanted at this gathering; I did not only got to know new people but I also managed to find out the truth of what exactly happened at that dreadful night 4 months ago. A couple of hours later, we all decided to call it a day as it was way past bed time. When the bill arrived, everyone stammered in shock as they saw the price; it was $180. Huh, way to go dick heads. This is what you get for chugging yourselves with beer. There were the 6 of us including me and everyone paid more than $60 except me. Since I only had beers and seeing that someone insisted me to finish the beer, I only paid $10. After paying the bill, all of us waited outside the restaurant for a cab.

Everyone was so drunk and we were all fooling around like monkeys. I was so drunk that my roommate, Robin said I dueled Cindy in a match of Muay Thai. Apparently the both of us put on a great show for the rest of them. As the taxi arrived, all of us hopped into the car except for Eric and Edison since they decided to walk home. In the taxi, I was sitting behind in between Maaya and Cindy. Robin who was sitting in front of the taxi started a joke and I finished it with a "dirty" touch to it. Stuck between 2 girls with hand bags isn't always a good thing...not when you crack a dirty joke which caused you to get bashed in the middle. The second we reached our residence apartment, we went our separate ways after wishing each other good night.

Surprisingly, the gathering was somehow fun and I kind of enjoyed myself back then. That night, I had a good night sleep and I was fortunate enough to wake up just in time for my Maths class. As for my roommate, Robin, he slept all the way through and he missed his first class the next day.



p/s: No pictures of our party were taken as everyone were too drunk to hold the camera.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (the Movie)


Just a couple of days ago, I thought about watching one of my friend's anime movies for a change to kill time. Usually, I'm not a big fan of anime series or movies but seeing how bored I was that day, I was desperate to watch something. So I thought about watching some of my friend's collection of Japanese cartoons. I didn't really watched everyone of them as I only picked those that seem interesting to me. A cool robotic picture on one of my friend's DVD casing prompted my interest; it has all these cool looking mechas so I decided to watch it since it was the coolest looking anime compared to her collection of Card Captor Sakura and Sailor Moon . The title of the anime was Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz. I've heard about it but I never actually watched any of the series before. Although I was skeptical to watch the movie at first seeing that I thought the story line would be just plain simple to allow young audiences to understand the movie, I eventually watched it when my friend informed me that there was some politics and military affairs in it. After 2 hours of the movie, all I can say that the movie was great and it was worth my time.

Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz takes place After Colony 195 (it's actually a number of a year) when the battles between earth and the colonies ended. As the leader of the Organization of Zodiac (OZ), Treize Krushenada is dead, this prompt the advent of the Earth Sphere Unified Nations and Preventers. Thinking that peace and prosperity would soon reign over the Earth Sphere Unfied Nations for eternity, the Gundams ( huge man controlled combat mobile suits) were send into the sun as they won't be needed anymore. What thought to be a warless and peace rich future turned out to back fire when a rebellion occurs on a newly completed colony called L3 X-18999. The rebellion was led by eight year old Mariemeia Khushrenada, the daughter of Treize Krushenada. Knowing that a New World Order shall be established once the Earth Sphere Unified Nations realize that their important political figures are taken hostage, the rebellion kidnaps Relena Peacecraft the Vice Foreign Minister of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation (ESUN), during a diplomatic mission to X-18999. With thorough investigation conducted, the Gundam pilots discovered that Marimeia is just a mere puppet under the manipulation of Dekin Barton, a former advisor to the Organization of Zodiac (OZ) who is using X-18999 to commence Operation Meteor in case the Earth Sphere Unified Nations doesn't comply. The Gundam pilots must now retrieve their mobile suits which are en route to the sun in order to extinguish the war flames of the rebellion or face another invasion from the Organization of Zodiac.

I never expected this movie to be that good. The story line was really good as the political and military affairs in the movie were cleverly presented. The plot was not only well arranged but the use of flashbacks enforced a better understanding on the history of the Gundam universe for those who never watched the series before. The visual quality of the anime was pretty neat despite it was presented in 2D instead of today's CGI. Besides that, the voice acting of the movie was above average as the dialogs were fully emotional although they were dubbed in English. Overall, this anime movie deserves a two thumbs up and it definitely got me interested in the Gundam universe.

After 2 hours of the movie, all I can say is that the movie was great and it was worth my time. I would definitely recommend you guys to watch this movie however, seeing that it's quite an old movie ( launched in 2000), I wouldn't be surprise if you can't find it in your near by video store. Instead of underestimating the movie thinking that it's some kid's stuff, give it a shot and I'm sure you'll figure out why I find this movie great.


The Gundam pilots in the movie. (From left to right) Heero Yuy, Duo Maxwell, Trowa Barton, Quartro Rarbera Winner and Chang Wu Fei.

The Wing Zero Gundam piloted by Heero Yuy.


Death Scythe Gundam piloted by Duo Maxwell.

Heavy Arms Gundam piloted by Trowa Barton

Sandrock Custom piloted by Quartro

Shenlong Gundam piloted by Chang Wu Fei.

The cute Vice Foreign Minister of the Earth Sphere Unified Nation, Relena Peacecraft


Here's the movie's trailer. Enjoy:


Thursday, September 13, 2007

Delivering the Gospel with Guns


Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, revolves around God's utmost love for us that He decided to sacrifice His only begotten son Jesus of Nazareth (played by Jim Caviezel) to die on the cross in order to save us sinful beings from the clutches of eternal devastation. Jesus who was sent to the presence of humanity to spread His gospel was unfortunately denied. His gospel was repeatedly insulted and spat upon by many and he was declared to be crucified on the cross. Jesus went through a painful, gory and grotesque journey on to the cross in order to deliver his gospel that would save us from damnation. That was part one of Passion of the Christ and guess what? There's a sequel to it---Passion of the Christ 2.

Well, it isn't exactly a sequel, instead it is an alternate story of how the Messiah saved humanity from damnation. Directed again by Mel Gibson, Passion of the Christ 2 tells the story of the Messiah who was never discovered. Instead, Jesus (played by Jim Caviezel again) was somehow transported to the present day and similar to the original story, He was here to spread His gospel around society that is always plagued with wrong doings and crimes. This time, Jesus won't be nailed to the cross to save society from damnation. On the other hand, He will be delivering the Gospel with guns blazing, ripping every scum bag clean from the surface of the earth. Jesus won't be alone in his vigilante quest to "baptized" society, instead he will be aided by a black man (played by Chris Tucker) with a mysterious background but a mouth that never sleeps. This lock and loaded flick will guarantee to keep you at the edges of your seat with all the adrenaline packed car chases and explosive gun battles. If you're telling yourself that you can't wait for this movie to come out, you my friend are a fool that have fell into my trickery. Sorry to burst your bubble, but there isn't a sequel to the Passion of the Christ.

I happened to catch an episode of the Family Guy today and there was a spoof regarding Mel Gibson's upcoming sequel to the Passion of the Christ. So the real fact is, there isn't Passion of the Christ 2. The reason I came up with that false movie preview was because the episode of Family Guy today had an astonishing and hilarious trailer for the "so called" sequel. The trailer was well presented and it had me laughing my ass off all the way to the end of it.

Anyway, I apologize for the false heads up on what thought to be an exciting new movie by Mel Gibson. In addition to that, allow me to share the hilarious and comical trailer on the Messiah's crusade for the gun trotting justice to make it up for you all. Enjoy!




Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Fully Loaded Clip by 50 Cent


My all time favorite gangster rapper 50 Cent will be striking the hip hop industry with his latest street album entitled Curtis. Many of his fans (like me) who are impatient for his upcoming album are fortunate enough to witness several of his music videos from his upcoming album which are displayed on YouTube and BET. So far the only video I've managed to watch was "Fully Loaded Clip". It's a neat music video with great rap contents. Several familiar celebrities will be featured in the music video not performing next to 50 but becoming part of 50's lyrics for this song. So listen closely if you want to see who's the featured celebrities. The album entitled Curtis will be ushered into your nearest music stores sooner than you think. Until then, here's the music video of "Fully Loaded Clip" by the one and only Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson. Turn the volume up!

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Ghost Recon on PSP


Ever since my return to Kamloops, I've been spending most of my time staying in the room mashing buttons on my PSP. I know it doesn't really sound like me but recently I managed to get my hands on a copy of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 for the PSP. As you all know how fanatic am I about Special Forces games, I'm sure you guys wouldn't find it unusual for me to keep to myself all the time playing that kind of games. The minute I started my first mission, I just couldn't stop playing as I was so curious to know how will the game end. So 5 days of button mashing and analog stick twigging, I finally finished Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2. The game wasn't what I expected, nevertheless it wasn't that bad.

So what exactly is Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter? Created by Tom Clancy, Ghost Recon is a fictional squad of United States Army Special Forces which comprise special ops operatives from Company D, 1st Battalion and 5th Special Forces Group. Due to the requirement of a highly classified profile, the team is usually referred to as "ghosts". The squad was initially developed in 2008 as a response to the civil unrest in Russia where ultra nationalist have seized power in Moscow with the hope of rebuilding the Soviet Union. The ghosts were covertly dispatched to aid rebel factions in Georgia and the Balkan States. In Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, the ghosts are equipped with the Integrated Warfighter System which is based on the real Future Force Warrior program. In this installment, Captain Scott Mitchell (the leader of the ghosts) is sent to south of Panama to eliminate guerrilla forces believed to be trafficking high tech arsenal of weapons to the rebel forces.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 for the PSP takes place shortly after the events of of the first Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. Captain Scott Mitchell and his squad of ghosts were send to Columbia to deal with guerrilla forces which is believed to be trafficking weapons to the rebel forces in Mexico. In the process of their mission insertion, the helicopter that the ghosts were riding on was shot down, leaving Captain Scott Mitchell alone behind enemy territory. Regardless of his current situation, he still decides to complete the mission and the only way of doing that is to follow his attackers and the weapons he was sent for, uncovering a conspiratorial plot that might throw Mexico and Latin America into war.

So what makes Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 enjoyable to play? If you're a fan of military and political fiction, this game serves what you need. Not to mention, the unexpected and twisted plot of the story will leave your jaw hanging in amaze and shock. Besides the great storyline, an obvious aspect that makes this game great is the graphics. No one ever thought that Ubisoft (the developer of the Ghost Recon series) could fit in high detailed graphics into a video game console as small as the PSP. The environment of the maps, the enemy and player's skin are truly detailed which were totally unexpected, in a good way of course. Furthermore, the player's movement seem very natural and not stiff unlike the usual 3rd person shooter games. Like its predecessor, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 for the PSP also enable the players to navigate the UAV for reconnaissance purposes. Besides that, the ability to call in air strikes or artillery bombing adds the authenticity to the military format of the game. Basically, these are the few things that make Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 fun to play.

On the other hand, there are several features that holds the game back from getting a good rating. First of all, the ability to command your own squad of ghosts has been disabled unlike its predecessors. It is understandable since Captain Scott Mitchell is left alone to complete his mission but the fact that you can't command allied Columbian forces you bump into at certain levels of the game is just disappointing. The enemy's AI is not that smart either as most of the time the guerrillas and rebels will come running directly to you making it easy for you to gun them down. The fact that the enemy soldiers barely take cover and often group up together (which often makes grenade kills easy) makes the game easy to play. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 features a limited variety of weapons to choose from and the overwhelming provision of ammo magazine makes it almost impossible to run out of ammo in a firefight. What makes it less challenging is the ammo boxes that are scattered throughout the levels of the game which allow players to change their primary weapon and replenish their half way used ammo.
The accuracy of the firearms are just horrible. Unless you zoom into your enemies, you'll require at least a full magazine to kill them. These are the few bad sides of the game.

The game wasn't what I expected, nevertheless it wasn't that bad. If the developers of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 noticed the flaws and improved the game before launching it into the market, I'm pretty sure the game would have won the "buy or die" award. Nevertheless, there are still enough great characteristics of the game that saved it from the "trash game" list. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 gets a 6 out of 10 from me.


In Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2, you'll be engaging enemies mostly in the forests. The graphics is surprisingly stunning for a small game console like the PSP.

Your fight isn't only restricted to the green jungles but also the concrete ones.

Being Captain Scott Mitchell isn't easy as you think it is. He's not only dodging bullets from soldiers but also tank shells from armored combat vehicles.

Nevetheless, with heavy firepower at the disposal of the captian like this ZEUS rocket launcher, Captain Scott Mitchell stands a chance against the rebels. The picture above shows the aiming scope of the ZEUS rocket launcher. A lock on to the tank followed by a squeeze on the trigger, that tank becomes history.

The ammo boxes that are scattered throughout the levels of the game allows players to replenish their ammo and health. It also enable the players to change their firearms. Ammo boxes are dropped by the U.S. Air Force randomly around the positions of Captain Scott Mitchell to assist him in his mission.