jietao

It's been a while. I kinda miss blogging, though I don't know who still reads it after being inactive for so long lol. It'd probably be a miracle if anyone reads this at all. A lot of changes since the last time, and time really pasts pretty fast working as a nurse. Rather, you're not aware of time much anymore.

Currently, my mom's overseas, and only my siblings and myself are tenants in the house. Horrible as usual, but it's nice to "live on your own" once in a while. You get an extent of freedom, plus a lot of chores along with it. Got a new phone as well, two actually. The first one is the standard candy bar Nokia X2, compliments of Stepho, but I didn't end up using (because it was just too similar to my 7-11 Nokia phone which I don't even know the model number of, in terms of functionality). Still thinking of how I can maybe return it to him or perhaps let my siblings use it when they phones break down. 

The one I'm currently using, is my first ever smart phone. Apple? Really tempted, almost got one, but too expensive. Samsung? Too expensive, and I don't really like how their phones turn out visually. Motorola? Nah. Sony Ericsson? Didn't get good recommendations from my friends. LG? Almost got this as well, since my senior was using it and it's $0 and works pretty well for him. HTC? Heaven yeah.

Oh, how timely, just received news that it's Mother's Day today. Lol, and I'm kinda blogging about how my life is without mommy around. 

So anyway, my HTC One V is 5 days old? Really excited about it. I was in denial about not getting a smartphone because of the price issues, but I finally got one. Shoutouts to TTSH for the awesome corporate plan, making it cheaper than my original non-data plan -_-. And the discount was timely, at $48 with a contract. Hoping that my lifestyle will change because of this new addition to my gadget family, I'm going to try to blog more on my phone and surf net more on my phone so that I don't need to spend so much time at home on the internet. Phones nowadays are so important to life.

On to my main topic today. I just came back from the supermarket to get some daily groceries/rations. Bought 4L of milk, 1L soymilk, a loaf of bread, and margarine. It's cheaper than a tub of Ben & Jerry's ice-cream. Recently, I've been thinking about money. I'm literally drawing $30 almost everyday and that's no joke. Some of the cash goes to luxury items but even the normal, daily stuff like eating out, will really eat out from your pocket if you don't really notice it. And all the while, I've been thinking like hey $15 for a tub of Ben & Jerry's is pretty cheap, maybe I'll get one soon. But dude, that's a few days worth of rations. Buying groceries really set the perspective of what I think is cheap or not. 

Though I don't support the idea of scrimping, and always buying the cheapest possible item disregarding quality, I think it's good to think about economical value once in a while. Found this pretty good mixed rice stall near my house that offers quite economical pricing. 3 vegetables and a meat only costs $3.30. I think I'm going to commit to eating that quite often when my mom's not around, as compared to other luxurious choices e.g. Aston's Express, Botak Jones, Fast Food, or some fancy food place at the mall. Moreover, I'll get the necessary food balance since I can choose how much meat/vegetables I want. 

Speaking of fast food, I really miss the old McDonald's pricing. They took out the $2 Double Cheese Burger and McChicken Burger and the lunch only specials (EVMs that cost less than $5). That was my love for McDonald's, especially Double Cheeseburger. Used to eat that really often during secondary school days. I'd get a double cheese burger and a cup of plain water for the win. $2. 

I guess money is really something in this world. It's handy to know where to get the cheap stuff, and where to get the good stuff. 

Work's really taking a huge % of my life, and just about anything left over now, it's either anime or games, regrettably lol. But amidst this time, I have a goal to make a trip into gaming history, in the world of retro Japanese games. 

The way games have been marketed, I'm ever so fascinated by them. Colourful images, damage numericals, beautiful cutscenes, cute portraits, bizzare music, and fantasy world makes games so different from other kinds of media. And there's always so much more aspects of a game you can visually see. There's the visuals/promotional videos that suck you right away, and there's the battle system which most people will find the crux, the story, after story, end-game content, DLC (downloadable content, for newer games), side-games. Some games offer modes of play that let you beat the game without going through orthodox methods. 

Currently, I'm committed to try out the Final Fantasy franchise, perhaps the most well known Japanese role-playing game series. Spanning from I - XIV (in roman numerals), plus side games. I'm probably only going to try the main series, from 1-13, and find out exactly why Final Fantasy was so popular. So far this is my progress:

Final Fantasy 
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy III (completed)
Final Fantasy IV (almost completing)
Final Fantasy V 
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VII (completed)
Final Fantasy VIII (just started)
Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy X (completed)
Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII-2

I'm interested in other series as well, like Dragon Quest, Y's, Tales, SMT, but for now I'll just make do with FF. But so far, I have no idea why FF was so popular in the past. All the FFs I've played felt very indie and probably wouldn't have been that popular if it was not released in its due time. I'd give a more detailed report when I've covered more of the series. 

Until then.

Upon finishing this post, many people would probably disagree with what I've said, but I'm really wishing that Japan would step up once again in this world stage.

Recently, too many things about Japan have been bugging me. The glory of Japan has already somewhat passed, and it's no longer a 'dream' country that a lot of people think it would be. It competition's has always been about Japan and America mainly, and it's a bit sad that both countries aren't doing so well now. America, however, is still doing better than Japan in my opinion. Japan has lost it's lustre that it once had... and I'm about to explain why.

Ok, so this is almost entirely from my point of view, and it's debatable (if you wanna debate let's go offline). To me, Japan was leading in many things in the past, especially in technological advancements. It almost seems like Japan was on a tier on its own for almost everything. 

-Japan had one of the most volume of cars manufactured featuring cars from Toyota, Subaru, Honda, Nissan, Mazda etc. Though they could never compare with European high end cars, these companies were mainly for domestic use, and some even for racing use. Now companies such as Hyundai are making it big and Japanese cars are no longer exclusively dominating the market. And I heard that some of the car companies in Japan aren't doing so well now, but I'm not sure about the details.  

-Japan had insane technology for electronics and entertainment. I think this section deserves some love, because electronics/entertainment was what made Japan really famous in my opinion. We have Sony, Hitachi, Panasonic, Sharp dominating in household appliances and TVs. They made everything, from shavers to airconditioning, to fridges. And they were the best there was (in the commercial market). Sony used to be so reputable that some people I know only buys Sony products because they trusted the quality. Though these companies are still pretty good, there are rising companies such as LG and Samsung from Korea. Samsung's doing better than Sony as an overall company in recent years. And perhaps some of Samsung's appliances are even better than the Japanese branded ones. 

Another point to note are cellphones. I remembered a few years back, when we were all still getting awestruck by Nokia's first few camera and colour phones (and Nokia wasn't even that impressive then, but it was the hype). Japan had softbank, vodafone, DoCoMo...and it was breakthrough technology that no other country had. When we had VGA camera, they had 2megapix cameras? + i-mode, 3G, and crazy things. Now? iPhone has taken over. Nothing can beat iPhone at the moment, because it revolutionised how phones were made. Started the touch screen technology and apps... which beats i-mode flat. 

And of course, the next big thing about Japan, especially for the younger people are the games. Japan's not doing well man. Japan used to rule in the gaming industry during the era of Sega Saturn to Playstation 2. Japanese games were revolutionary, especially their RPGs. Titles like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Tales of 'Insert" and there were plenty of companies from Japan that made games. In the era of the new generation consoles, featuring mostly 3D Hi-Definition games. Not only do Japanese games pale in comparison to American games these days, Japanese-styled games just don't make the mark these days, because they tend to be less graphical and simple. Imagine playing a turn-based 2D game on a Hi-Definition 50" LED TV with surround sound. Sure, I'd love to do that, but most people would not. They rather have realistic, gun blasting action on their crazy-a** TVs. To me, the RPG era died when PS2 became obsolete (which is why I bought a PS2 recently).

The arcade business in Japan has also gone down pretty bad with arcades closing down everywhere. And Japanese fighting game players, which people always consider god-like, are not as god-like anymore because...with broadband technology and Web 2.0 (facebook/forum/youtube era), Americans especially have stepped up their fighting game. They can now analyse Japanese gameplay using youtube and use their technology, which would never have surfaced to the world if not for the WWW. Of course, this is a good thing, but then, like what I mentioned, Japan is taking more of a backseat role now, because they are no longer solely dominating in this area. In the newer reiterations of Street Fighter, the US and Korean players are doing really really well. 

And lastly, the animation/comic industry, a very popular Japanese sub-culture. I think Japan is still leading in 2D animations and in asian-style comics, but lately, as an avid follower of animation/comics, the quality of their releases are becoming...mediocre. Content are becoming more commercial and fan-pleasing. And Koreans are rising up in this industry as well. There are so many talented Koreans that it's scary. If you watch anime and you notice the credits, you'll see a lot of Korean names. Korean comic artists also tend to be very technically skilled. Oh and China is producing very good computer graphic artists too. 

There are still some areas where I didn't address but generally this sums up about my views. It all started when the thought occurred to me that maybe I should migrate to US in the future and I didn't really understand why but after thinking through, I came up with this justification, but I'm still gonna pin my hopes of my future in Japan. I'm happy for Korea and America, but I'm still more inclined to the Japanese flavour of things. So many things affecting Japan now as a country but I know it will rise up soon though. Can't wait for that. 

Canada Cup was so hyped yesterday. I was on night shift on saturday and sunday and the first thing I wanted to do after work was to catch the live stream of  Canada Cup 2011. This year they invited top players from Europe, Japan, SIngapore, Korea, and US for an international 5v5 competition. Names like: Ryan Hart (EU), Skatan (EU), Louffy (EU), Xian (SG), Leslie (SG), Infiltration (KR), Laugh (KR), Wolfkrone (US), Mike Ross (US), FilipinoChamp (US). The complete list is here. Shoutouts to sherryjenix for this comprehensive list, and CCG for such an awesome tournament. 

The results and battlelog are also here, thanks to Eventhubs, the best fighting game information centre. The international 5v5 results were within expectations, but there were some shocking results. I was expecting the favourites to be Japan (1 and 2), US, and Korea. What really shocked me was that Korea was out pretty early, losing to Japan1 (wanted to see Korea vs US =( ) and Canada. And also, Canada outperformed almost every team. Probably because they had the most diverse team and they really played it like it was Pokemon lol. 

The game rules goes like this: 
5 players vs 5 players.
Every player gets one life, and once he is eliminated, the team can send any other player left to fight the winner.

Canada was pwning with unorthodox characters like Vega (claw), and Blanka. They beat Europe and Korea, which I think they just don't know how to deal with these characters. 

I think Europe and Singapore didn't send their best players. I would've liked to see players like:
Euro
VRyu (The best Makoto in Europe, and possibly the top 3 players in Europe)
Alioune (Best Yang in Europe, maybe the world. Hands down the top 3 players in Europe)

Singapore
Gackt (Best Feilong around town)
Sherman (Best Dictator around town)
Tetra (One of the best Yangs in SG. He plays other characters too and has a useful bank of knowledge for matchups/setups)
Tommy (Best Chun-Li in Singapore. Though I think Chun-li's rather weak in AE, no one really uses her anymore so it might've been a good ambush tactic if he went)
My brother thought Mango should've gone. He was included in the original roster but he probably couldn't go because of logistics, and same with the other players that I just mentioned.

A lot of people have been asking me why I haven't changed a phone. Most of them are recommending iPhone (duh), and as much as I'd like one, I still think that having an iPhone is pretty redundant at this point of my life. All I need in a phone is call/text/alarm/time and maybe the occasional 2do list. And out of all specifications, I think the screen (need to have some colour), battery life, and buttons (durable) are the most important. Moreover the iPhone costs more than $300 with a plan, and I don't plan to charge it everyday. Right now I have no idea what the phone model is... but it's a 'passdown' samsung slide phone from my cousin to my sister about 3-6 years ago. I'm hoping it'll last me for a while. There are still 2 LG phones stashed in the cupboard that could act as spares lol.

There's this part of me which likes to have lesser possessions but quality ones. I no longer want multiple computers or collect freebies from all over the place. When I get something new, I'll try to get rid of the item that's being replaced and I'll try to live out its lifespan to the fullest. Just changed my computer this year only because it was getting buggy, pretty proud of it, lasted 4-5 years and the condition was still pretty good.

Even my shirts these days, I keep recycling the same shirts over and over again. I don't think I'll be buying any new shirts these days. Might be changing my jeans though, because they are getting quite hole-y. I'll see if I can get them mended and start wearing them again. Bought them since around secondary 4, about 5-6 years old now.

I think commercialism and advertising is overrated. And the way people compare products, it's getting overboard. For example for TVs, you'd want to compare the functions, the size, the resolution (hd ready or full hd), colour reproduction etc, but in the end, after you buy the TV, most likely all these comparisons will not matter anymore. You'll just use it as a TV. I like my Philips 32" LCD TV. I don't know how it fares against other TVs but it doesn't matter because the TV works and everything I need is being fulfilled by the TV. I'd say just go for the old school way, if you like the product, get it and live with it. Reading too many guides and product comparisons sometimes will just make you regret what you buy. 

Trying to revive my journal for a bit. Not in the mood to do anything at the moment so I thought I'll write in some stuff here. Probably the most productive thing I'd have done today. Nowadays I've just been getting challenged into fighting games by my brother every time I have free time, or I'll just end up watching too much anime.

Well I survived 11 days of working consecutively, praise God. And it wasn't as tiring as I thought it would be. I was practically on yoyo shifts (afternoon, morning, afternoon, morning, repeat). Then a day off, and night shift. But it doesn't sound as bad as it seems, because it's almost 2 days off (night shift starts pretty late at night, so you get a lot of hours to do your things before). 

There are so many things I want to do these days but it's really hard to partition your time properly, to me. I want to get on with digital painting and paint like this > http://www.zerochan.net/240498 . I want to continue leveling up my Japanese. I want to create stories and characters. I want to experiment new hobbies/past-times. I want to catch up and reflect on my work and become a better nurse. And I'll be able to do this tomorrow and the next day because I'm on off. But only one thing is needful.

On a side note, I've just received another comment from a friend that I look like another korean dude he saw. Soon more people will start thinking I look Korean maybe (not being obnoxious or anything). I always thought I had somewhat a korean look, probably because of my hair. But everyone's saying I look like I'm from China. Over the years I've had people saying they saw other people that look like me, it's pretty freaky. I'd imagine if I combined all of them together, maybe...if I did a composite photo in photoshop, I'd be able to see my face or something. 

Ok that's that, I'm going to end it here. A little warm up before I continue with my journals again. The random/disorganised writing today may be subtly influenced by Seto no Hanayome, something I'm watching now. So many things I want to share but I'll leave it for next time!

Street Fighter is one of those really classic and established fighting games. What I love about it is that it's not only a universally accepted tournament fighting game, the intricacies of the game is really amazing. For most fighting games, when you just start it, it'll seem really mechanical and stiff, but the more you read about it/find out about the game mechanics and how each punch or kick or special ability works, the more versatile it becomes. And there are so many possibilities and potential in the game. 

The latest patch is going to come out probably at the end of the year, or maybe early next year, and it's going to change a lot of the player rankings imo. I've been thinking about the top players for each character and I'll list them out. There may be a little bias as it is my sole opinion. If you think someone else may be a better player, please share your views. This will be based on the videos I've watched so far (I've watched pretty extensively I believe). Most players are from Japan/US/Europe because the videos are mainly from these places.

Abel   -  Nekojita
Adon  -  gamerbee
Akuma  -  Tokido / Infiltration (Haven't seen extensive videos of Infiltration against other Japanese players, but I think Tokido has a lot more setups and has a more technical Akuma. Infiltration has a better sense of battle instincts/footsies imo, kind of like Momochi's playstyle in Vanilla)
Boxer   -  PR Balrog / R (PR has only been playing in U.S. and R has only been playing in Japan. Definitely the best of each country. I think PR Rog may perform better in fights)
Blanka  -  TSRAI
Cammy  -  OdinSIN / Justin Wong (OdinSIN is the best Cammy. Most flexible and technical Cammy I've seen. Justin Wong, however, has picked up Cammy again. Very basic, footsie based, but he kills everyone pretty much. OdinSIN is based in Japan though, would hope to see him fight in the international stage. JWong's probably a better player overall)
Chun-li  -  Y24  
Cody  -  Momochi / Sasaki (Furansujin has the highest Cody BP in Japan, but I've never seen any of his matches. Been watching a lot of Sasaki's matches though, and he is very good. Momochi is probably still better but he hasn't been using much of Cody)
C.Viper  -  Latif
Dan  -  ?
Dee Jay  -  Akimo
Dhalsim  -  FilipinoChamp
Dudley  -  Kuroken / Nissi (Kuroken is the highest BP Dudley. His plays are pretty good, probably one of the best. Nissi has a low BP but I think his performance is really outstanding. Can't really tell who is the better Dudley. Seems like Japan has the best Dudleys. If Marn still plays Dudley, he'd probably be the best. Really liked his Dudley.)
E.Honda  -  Mike Ross / Akimo (Akimo's mainly playing Dee Jay now so I think Mike Ross is the best Honda. Most dedicated at least.)
El Fuerte  -  ?
Evil Ryu  -  ?
Fei Long  -  Mago / Fuudo (Mago is very textbook-styled, and Fuudo is more reaction-based. 2 very different Fei Longs and they are good against different opponents. Can't really say who's better. There are other good Feis around but I don't think they can be compared with these two.)
Gen  -  Amiyu
Gouken  -  ?
Guile  -  GameOuttt
Guy  -  ?
Hakan  -  Wildcat
Ibuki  -  Sakonoko / Iyo (Iyo's the highest BP Japanese Ibuki but I've never seen him play in recent tournaments. Sako is no doubt the best though, just that he doesn't do very well in single elimination tournaments.)
Juri  -  @Miya / Soramiso (Miya is also known as goodtime01. Best Juri probably but I think Soramiso is really good as well, and different styled Juri. Never seen them head on. Would love to see both compete in international stage. Hopefully Australia will invite them to Shadowloo Showdown. I hope Infiltration joins in the Juri gang too, his Juri is quite godlike.)
Ken  -  ?MOV/Michaeltan/wao (Ken is really hard to decide. There are so many good Ken players all around the same level and different playstyles. Ken is probably the most interesting Shoto.)
Makoto  -  Haitani/VRyu (Never seen VRyu fight internationally but I think he'd probably be the best or well at least second to Haitani.)
Dictator  - ShungokuNeurosis / Ikomadevil (I think Japan has the best Vegas, hands down.)
Oni  -  ?
Rose  -  ?ArturoSanchez
Rufus  -  Ricky Ortiz
Ryu  -  Alex Valle
Sagat  -  RF / Bonchan / Hishou (Sagat is also pretty hard to determine who's better. Statistically RF is the best but I prefer Bonchan and Hishou.)
Sakura  -  Uryo
Seth  -  Poongko
T. Hawk  -  KOG
Claw  -  ?
Yang  -  Sakonoko
Yun  -  Momochi / Kazunoko
Zangief  -  Itabashi / Mahoushoujo (I always thought Itabashi was better, but Mahoushoujo always has better statistics. And actually American Zangiefs are very good as well like Vangief and FlashMetroid. Would like to see them head-on.)

The Top 3 Executionists are (not in order):

1. Sakonoko
2. Poongko
3. Latif

They make SF look like child's play. @_@.

I still remember the time when I went to stay at my holiday house at holland village during secondary holidays. I ate subway for the first night, and I told myself that if I was rich enough or if subway is cheap enough, I'll eat it everyday. And now I'm eating it almost everyday, whenever I have work, because of the nifty 20% off staff discount at TTSH Subway. Eating subway once in a while and everyday is quite different I'd say. I've almost tried everything. I'll just cover the breads today. 

Breads:

Italian -
Think of it as fragrant plain bread. I actually liken it to those white loaf bread you get from sunshine/bonjour/gardenia. The taste is not particularly strong, good if you want a plain tasting bread and want to have a better feel of the ingredients inside the bread instead of the bread itself. Nutrition-wise I don't think it is that nutritious. Italian has probably the least mass of all breads, making it really light. 

Hearty Italian -
As the name suggests, it's a heartier version of Italian, and more chewy in my opinion. Lots of powdery things on top of the bread (not exactly sure what it is) that's like what Wendy's uses for their buns. Similar to Italian but it is chewy-er, making you bite the bread a bit more than Italian. If you're looking for a plain bread, it's either Italian or Hearty Italian. I figure most people will go for hearty italian though. I hardly pick hearty italian these days because a heart italian subway gives me a feeling that it's a light snack. 

Wheat - 
It took me a while to actually pluck the courage to pick wheat, because it's like picking wholemeal bread and my mom ALWAYS buys wholemeal at home last time. But wheat's actually not that bad. The taste kinda resembles wholemeal, but a lot smoother because there aren't any whole grains inside the bread. It doesn't taste as sweet at the other breads, and you know it's nutritious when you bite it. The thing I like about wheat is that it is more filling than all the breads. Unless you like to eat 1 Footers, a 6" wheat subway will fill your tummy pretty nicely.