Songs That I Like Listening To

Hi All,

Here are some of my songs that I always play on my IPod. The first song is Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars. It is a good song with meaningful lyrics that a guy likes his girlfriend / wife just the way she is. Glee, Jaylesslee and the Philiipine acoustic singer, Sabrina have also made covers of this song. This is definitely one of the best love songs today.



I will also embed here the Jaylesslee version of the song:



Secondly, the next song is One Direction's Little Things. Bringing almost the same message, it is also a nice song to unwind.



Listening to oldies such as Bee Gees, Air Supply, Rod Stewart, The Drifters, Carpenters, ABBA among others has a calming effect too. Christian songs are also good for my mind as well. It reminds me of God. 

Another song that I like to listen is Fun's We Are Young. Glee and 3 Youtube artists comprising Jake Coco, Corey Gray and Caitlin Hart also made covers of this song.

Animes

Hi All,

Anime is defined as a Japanese animated productions that comes in all formats including tv series and computer animation creations¹. This definition is from Longman Dictionary. It can be an original work or adapted from mangas, books and video games.

The themes for animes can range from fantasy, futuristic plot, music, love stories, alien invasion and action The characters are very colourful and appeals to all people, young and old. I have been watching animes through Animax since a few years ago on Astro. To me, animes are fun and interesting to watch. 

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood is an anime that centres to two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric to save their mother using their knowledge of alchemy. However, it ended up disastrously with Edward loses his leg and Alphonse losing his body. Edward managed to seal Alphone's soul with a huge metal armour.  Edward, the full metal alchemist has a prosthetic arms known as automail build by his friend, Winry and her grandmother. It talks about their journey to find the precious "Philosopher's Stone", the most powerful stone of all that can restore their bodies. The Philosopher's Stone, if ended up at the wrong hands will be used to kill people².



K-On meanwhile is a story of a secondary school band that comprises of 4 people namely Yui (lead singer), Mio (bass), Ritsu (drummer) and Tsumugi (keyboard). Later in the show, another team meamber, Azusa joined in. This anime is funny and hilarious. The characters are fun and happy.

Sergeant Keroro is another anime that features frog-like alien creatures who wanted to invade Earth. Sergeant Keroro, the main character and his friends / comrades that include Kururu, Giroro, Tamama among others always have a plan to invade Earth. However, they always failed miserably. Keroro, the leader can be annoying and his plans are always stupid. It is overall a hilarious and entertaining anime. The theme song is as below:



Two of the musical animes that I watched are La Corda Doro Prima Passo and Nodame Cantabile. La Corda Doro Prima Passo talks about a girl who plays a magicial violin given by her musical fairy. She plays greatly with the violin although she herself can't play any musical instruments. She joins a music school and meets a lot of musically talented friends who helped her along the way. She will eventually learn to play the violin from scratch after she broke the magical violin. Nodame Cantabile, centers on a girl, Nodame and her would be boyfriend / mentor, Chiaki. Nodame is a girl who is very talented on the piano but does not practice regularly. Chiaki meanwhile is a very talented piano player and a conductor. He would lead and guide Nodame to be a very successful pianist. All the characters are very interesting. There are some strange ones as well. Here is the official song from Nodame Cantabile:



Among some of the other animes that I have seen include Inuyasha, Blood +, Jigoku Shoujo (also known as Hell Girl), Fate Stay Night, Tears to Tiara, The Law of Ueki and Fairy Tail. 

Jigoku Shoujo tells us the story of Hell Girl. People who like seek revenge will find her to kill the persons they hate or wanted to take revenge. Hell Girl will give them a surprise visit and then will bring them to hell.

 

Fairy Tail is a story of wizards who go on adventures to defeat evil. Main characters of Fairy Tail are Natsu (with the power of fire), Gray (the power of Ice), Erza (she is an skilled fighter and can change into another character that gives her different capabilites) and Lucy (she can summon people to help her fight). Lucy has the weaker power among her friends but some of her characters she summoned can fight.  

  

Romeo and Juliet was adapted as an anime too. It is also the same for Emma.   

Cheers,

Roger TJ Koo

<sup>1 Anime - Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anime, Accessed: 30th December 2012

2 Full Metal Alchemist - Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fullmetal_Alchemist, Accessed: 30th December 2012</sup>

Social Media Is Good for You If Used Wisely

Hi Everyone,

Friendster was the pioneer of social networking. Then Hi5 and Bebo. Now, Facebook!, Twitter!, Myspace!. How about YouTube, LinkedIn and the new Google Plus? Social media include all these plus newspapers, televisions (Astro, Media Prima) and music.

Some parents may ban their children into watching tv or listening to pop songs but social media is good if it is used in the correct manner. Balanced social media is good.

Here are some examples of how social media benefits us or help us to take a look at another perspective:

Let's start off with the Internet and the television industry. 

News

For those who are on the move, they can also read news online either through news websites or through RSS feeds and readers. One of the notable readers is Google Reader where we can add news sources from around the world such as BBC, CNN, The Star, The Age Australia, Bloomberg, CNET, Discovery News, blogs and others. It is also available for Android phones or tablets as well.  For the IPad and IPhone, we have Mobile RSS Reader and Flipboard. The functions are similar to Google Reader. Through the Internet, you can also view the news directly through web browsers. The news is updated faster through the web. The Star Online remains one of the top visited sites in Malaysia. Almost all of the newspapers and news sources have presence in the web such as New Straits Times, Malay Mail, The Age Australia, BBC, CNN, Reuters, CNET, Bloomberg, WIRED Magazine, ESPN and Discovery Channel. 

TV / Movies

It is actually depending on the individual itself that TV can be bad. I have watched various tv programmes and it is purely entertainment. The good news is that there are educational tv channels being shown such as Discovery Group channels (Discovery, Discovery Science, Animal Planet), History Channel and the National Geographic Channel. Disney Channel and Playhouse are another two educational channels for children. In Malaysia, Astro have Tutor TV and Astro TVIQ for students and children.

Some of my favourite tv shows are CSI, CSI:NY, CSI Miami, House, Alias, Glee, NCIS, The Mentalist, Bones, Chuck and American Idol. All the CSI, NCIS, The Mentalist, Bones and also Criminal Minds are crime series. After watching crime themed shows like CSI, NCIS and others, I do not have tendencies for murder / revenge at all. It is just purely entertainment. Hong Kong drama series do have themes of anger, revenge, evil but most of us do not have tendencies for anger, revenge and evil too. Therefore, there needs to be an understanding between parents and children regarding this. We should be able to use our discretion to make the right choices.

Songs

We are also introduced to the pop culture through the songs that we listen to on RedFM, Mix FM, Hitz.FM, Lite FM, Era, Fly FM, MY FM to name a few. The concern is some of the pop songs lyrics are explicit and may not be a good influence younger children. There are also good songs such as I Believe I Can Fly (R.Kelly), Because You Loved Me (Celine Dion), Man In The Mirror and Heal The World (both Michael Jackson).

More notable or good singers now are Taylor Swift, Christina Perri, Bruno Mars, Avril Lavigne, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, One Direction, Maroon 5, Jason Mraz, Josh Groban and others. For me, it is only a way of relaxation.

Yes, there are songs from Pitbull or LMFAO that are quite explicit but I do not really like these kind of songs. It is just a from of entertainment. Lady Gaga is strange with her elaborate costumes and her songs are a little out of the ordinary but it's her creativity and the tune of her songs makes her stand out. She may not be a good influence to the society but she has entertainment value. There is nothing wrong with that. It is just entertainment to me.
 

Reference / Learning

We can learn a lot through the Internet and television. Research articles and materials are published in the web for us to read and reference it.  

Wikipedia is one of the examples of good websites on the web today. It is essentially the online encyclopedia covering a wide range of topics and materials. Most of the information in Wikipedia are reviewed and confirmed that it is accurate.

Want to know how things work? Here are some useful sites. HowStuffWorks is a learning website that lets you know how stuff works from electricity to cars to computers to home improvement and quartz watches. Everything is there.

The IT community or those who are interested in IT is not left out as well. You can learn various programming languages online through W3Schools, MSDN and Java. The complete resources for the .NET libraries are also available at the MSDN Library. The complete Java API is online too. For a good and extensive HTML5 and CSS3 references, Sitepoint is a notable website to go too. Sitepoint also produces numerous books on web design principles and its related technologies. Finding a solution to IT / PC problems can also be found on the net too. Some of these websites include ITToolbox, ExpertsExchange (may need subscripton), Tech Arena, SQL Authority with Pinal Dave,  ZDNET, CNET and A Programmer's Knowledge House. Forums are another way to find out the solutions as well such as LowYat.NET and Microsoft Forums.

MayoClinic and WebMD are two of the more established health websites in the world currently. General health and diseases information are explained on these websites. It is still a point of reference and we need to get doctor's advice when we are ill.

Social

Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and Friendster all fall into the social category. You can get to know what your friends are up to, connect with school friends and colleagues and play games online with your friends. You can also interesting share articles and news to your friends. For Facebook, you can also upload photos, create photo albums and tag people that you know. 

LinkedIn is another social website mainly by the corporate network. Career opportunities and networking with current and former colleagues can be found here. We can interact with companies through forums, recruitment agents and headhunters for job opportunites. We can also network with our colleagues, both current and from previous companies that we worked for. We also get to know what they are currently doing.

RapidKL is one company that utilises Facebook and Twitter to reach out to public transport users. News of any train delays will be posted here. Questions on the LRT and bus routes can be asked and answered here. They also receive feedbacks from customers to improve their service. When there are extended hours for the lrt service during concerts or special events, it will be posted here as well. 

Music / Talents

Talents can be discovered here too! Marie Digby, known for her version of Rihanna's Umbrella and her song, Avalanche was discovered on YouTube. A music producer discovered her and she made a few albums. Sabrina, a popular acoustic singer from Philippines also had videos posted online. Jaylesslee, a band featuring Korean twin sisters, Janice and Sonia based in Australia also posted vidoes online on their renditions of popular songs on radio. They sang songs such as Price Tag, I Won't Give Up and Just The Way You Are.

Blog

We can also improve our writing skills through blogging and creating our own websites. Among good blogging sites are Blogger, Wordpress and Tumblr. There are a lot of good articles through blogs.  There are a lot of good articles through the reading of blogs and websites. Examples of good blogs and websites are Yvonne Foong's Neurofibromsis, CindyTey, Writers Club KL, Belinda Chee, and Ryan Seacrest. Several of our politicians also got involved in writing on their blogs such as Lim Kit Siang and our current Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Najib Abdul Razak.

E-Payment / E-Transactions

The web also provides a platform for e-payment and e-transactions. We do not need to worry about queues at the post office anymore as most of the payments can be done via the web. Most of banks provide e-banking services such as Maybank2u, UOB and CIMB Clicks, NAB. We can pay our bills and income taxes (E-Hasil) through e-banking services. We can do E-Filing of our income taxes online too. We can also shop online through sites such as MPH, Amazon, Apple Store and  GSC. Cinema tickets can be bought online at both GSC and TGV and therefore we can avoid the queue on weekends. For Android, IPhone and IPad users, you also can make purchases on Playbook and iTunes store.
 

Conclusion

However, there are people who also used it incorrectly such as being a stalker on the web or involve in web pornography or cheating people of their money through the net. There are also cases where our personal, credit card and banking information are stolen through phishing.

Social media is good if we used it wisely. We can find a lot of resources on the web such as the examples given above. In a conclusion, we need to be careful while using the internet and avoid unnecessary hassles. We need to shop at secure payment sites and do not click on e-mails that we do not know. Last but not least. please do not use the web for unlawful purposes.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Karaoke Songs to Sing

Hi Everyone,

Do you go for karoake sessions often or occasionally? Anyway, you will need to choose the songs that you want to sing.

What are your favourite songs to sing at karaoke sessions? For myself, I sing mostly English songs. Here are some of my songs selection and songs that I sang before with my friends:

• Taylor Swift: Back to December, Love Story
• S Club 7: Never Had A Dream Come True
• Westlife: I Have A Dream, Seasons In The Sun
• Rihanna: Umbrella
• Backstreet Boys: Shape of My Heart
• Lady Gaga: Bad Romance
• Bee Gees: Words
• M2M: Don't Say You Love Me
• Linkin Park: Waiting for the End
• Bruno Mars: Just The Way You Are
• Leona Lewis: Bleeding Love

There are others but these are the ones that I listed out. How about yours? What are the songs that you must sing everytime?

 

That's all for now.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Remake of Songs

Hi Everyone, 

It is very common that new singers or bands will popularise certain songs that were well known in the past and present. 

Some of songs being remade are:

• ABBA - I Have A Dream
• Billy Joel - Uptown Girl
• Phil Collins - Against All Odds
• Andy Williams - Can't Take My Eyes Off You
• Air Supply - Without You
• Terry Jacks - Seasons In The Son
• You Raise Me Up
• Fun - We Are Young

So, are the remade songs have the same quality as the original versions? Glee, the musical television drama series also used some of the current songs such as Kelly Clarkson's My Life Would ... Without You, Fun's We Are Young, Neil Diamond's Sweet Caroline and Leona Lewis' Take A Bow.

Westlife is one of the bands that remake many of the songs. In their first album, they remade I Have A Dream and Seasons In The Sun. Against All Odds (Duet with Mariah Carey), Uptown Girl followed after that. Later, for their Face to Face album, they recorded You Raised Me Up and When You Tell Me That You Love Me. In their Love Songs album, they also sang The Rose and Total Eclipse of The Heart.

Glee recently remade Fun's We Are Young. I think that both versions are good though. For Westlife, I would like think that I Have A Dream, Seasons In The Son, When You Tell Me That You Love Me are the better remakes. The others are ok only. Most original songs are better than the remakes generally. 

Below are some videos of the orignal and the remade songs that we can compare:

The sequence is original song followed by remake.

I Have A Dream

When You Tell Me That You Love Me

 

We Are Young

Here are some of the artists that have the most original songs:

• Taylor Swift
• Leona Lewis
• Kelly Clarkson
• Daughtry
• Simple Plan
• Avril Lavigne
• David Archuleta
• David Cook
• Kris Allen

That's all for now.

Cheers, 

Rogerkoo

Radio Statiions and Current Music Preference

Hi Everyone,

Radio

Radio stations and music are part and parcel of our lives. I listened it when I am on my way to work or to church or to anywhere. I also have a collection of CDs in my car and an IPod Nano 4th Generation.

Currently, my favourite radio stations are Red FM (104.90), Mix FM (94.50) and Hitz.FM (92.9). All frequencies are for Klang Valley. Now, I listen to Red FM the most. On weekday mornings, I listened to The Breakfast Show with Rudy and Jeremy. They are funny and their show include these segments, Blankety Blanks and Rudy Oke. Red FM and Hitz.FM play the latest songs while Mix usually plays a mixed variety with the latest songs being played slightly later then Red and Hitz. Love Songs with Mynn and Linora from 10pm to 1am is also good. It is love songs and dedications this time around. The songs they played are current and easy listening. There are songs that they played that I have not heard on Mix. On Saturdays, Red FM also has the Red Fresh 40 Chart Show that plays the 40 freshest hits.

Mix FM used to be my favourite radio station. Now, in the mornings, it has the Mix FM Breakfast Show with JD and Dilly. However, I do not like Dilly's Daily Dilemma segment during the Breakfast Show. This is a segment where Dilly is trying to help people to solve their issues. There were good things to be learnt sometimes from this segment but she also touched issues on love relationships. There was one particular incident where it did not went very well. The issue instead got bigger after someone discussed his issue with Dilly. Therefore, I do not listen to Mix FM in the mornings any more. Sometimes, I do listen to Mix FM when Red FM plays certain songs which I do not really like. At night, Mix FM has the Mix Top 40 segment where it countdowns the top 40 songs that listeners voted.

I do listen to Hitz.FM occasionally but not frequent. Similar to Red FM, the played the latest songs and also more rock and hip hop songs as well. The deejays are funny too.

Songs

Here are some of my current artists / songs that I listened to and others as well:

Adam Lambert

Avril Lavigne

Backstreet Boys

Beyonce

Blue

Boyzone

Bruno Mars

Charice

Colbie Calliat

Enrique Iglesias

Far East Movement (Rocketeer)

Greyson Chance

Guy Sebastian

Hoobastank (The Reason)

Il Divo

Jennifer Lopez

Josh Groban

Justin Bieber (including the song That Should Be Me featuring Rascal Flatts)

Katherine Mcphee (Terrified)

Katy Perry (E.T, Firework...) 

Kelly Clarkson

Kris Allen

Lady Antebellum

Lady Gaga

Lee Dewyze

Maroon 5

Michael Buble

Miranda Cosgrove (Kissing You) 

Nicole Scherinzger

Pink

The Ready Set

Rihanna (certain songs)

S Club 7

Shakira

Shania Twain

Taylor Swift (one of my favourite artists)

Westlife
Wonder Girls (Nobody)

I also listen to a lot of Christian songs.

That's all for now.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Kungfu Panda 2

Hi Everyone,

I organised to watch Kungfu Panda 2 at Tropicana City Mall yesterday with my cell group and several friends including my colleague. There were 14 of us out of which 10, including myself and my sister are from my cell group.

Kungfu Panda 2 sees the return of Po (voiced by Jack Black), Shifu (voiced by Dustin Hoffman), Tigress (voiced by Angelina Jolie), Viper (voiced by Lucy Liu), Crane (voiced by David Cross), Monkey (voiced by Jackie Chan) and Mantis (voiced by Seth Rogen). They are back to battle Lord Shen to save China and kungfu. We also see the Datuk Michelle Yeoh who voices the Soothsayer, Dennis Haybert who voices Master Storming Ox,  Jean Claude Van Damme who voices Master Croc and Victor Garber (from Alias) who voices Master Thundering Rhino.

It is more action packed compared to the first movie. It brings a more serious storyline in the movie on the discovery of Po's past and the battle between the Dragon Warriors and Master Shen, the evil peacock enemy. While they were fighting against Master Shen, Po discovered what really happened to his parents and found his inner peace. There were numerous funny scenes during the movie.

This are my overall rating for the movie: 8/10.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

_{Source: 
1 DreamWorks Animation's KUNG FU PANDA 2 - May 2011}

Stieg Larsson: The Girl Series

http://www.mphonline.com/books/nsearch.aspx?do=detail&pcode=9780307743435Hi Everyone,

I have completed my reading on all the Stieg Larsson's The Girl series of three books, namely The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and the Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest a few months ago.  Now available in a set of trilogy at bookstores nationwide.

 

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo introduces us to the characters of Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist trapped by a libel conviction was asked to investigate the disappearance of Harriet Vanger, scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families 40 years ago. Her uncle continued to seek the truth all these years. Through the investigation, he met Lisbeth Salander, a personal investigator and also a hacker at Milton Security led by her boss, Dragan Armansky. Together with Lisbeth, Mikael went to investigate the mysterious circumstances that led to the disappearance of Harriet Vanger. As you read the book, we will also begin to uncover Lisbeth Salander's past. We will see more of her past in the 2nd and 3rd book of the series.

After the adventures of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Mikael Blomkvist decided to run an expose of a wide-ranging sex trafficking operation. Just before it is published, two people were brutally murdered. The fingerprints was found to be that of Lisbeth Salander. As a friend, he is convinced that Lisbeth is innocent and then plunged into an investigation onto the murder. More of Lisbeth's past is mentioned here. Her father, Alexander Zalachenko a.k.a Karl Axel Bodin made his appearance here in The Girl Who Played with Fire. We will begin to know who he really is and the hatred of Lisbeth towards her father. Lisbeth meanwhile is drawn into a murderous game and is forced to face her dark past.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Next, the 3rd and final installment of this series continued directly from the last chapter of The Girl Who Played With Fire. It starts with Lisbeth lying in a critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care of a Swedish city hospital. When she is released, she would stand trial for 3 murders. Now, her journalist friend, Mikael Blomkvist will help her to prove her innocence with the cooperation of various parties and to denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, Lisbeth herself to suffer abuse and violence. Lisbeth is also plotting a revenge against the man who tried to kill her and the corrupt government institutions that nearly destroyed her life. We can see how a division of the government also actually covers up certain things that led to the public belief that Lisbeth is a mentally ill person. We can see how corrupt these people are and how they actually took measures to protect a Russian defector and their own interests.

All the three books are very thrilling and filled with suspense that you will always want to read all the three books until the end. The main characters are mainly Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander but we also see these characters as well:

• Erika Berger (Editor-in chief of the Millenium where Blomkvist was working and Blomkvist's friend)
• Dragan Armansky
• Christer Malm
• Henry Cortez
• Holger Palmgren
• Malin Eriksson
• Anders Jonasson
• Dr. Teleborian
• Inspector Bublanksi
• Inspector Edklinth
• Annika Gianini (Blomkvist's sister)
• Monica Figuerola

There are others not mentioned here.

This is indeed one of the series of books that I enjoyed reading best. It is different from other crime / mystery novels such as those written by Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, James Patterson and Michael Connelly. I truly recommend these three books to all of you.

You can find out more at this link: 

MPH Online

Amazon doesn't have the entry the box set that are currently sold by MPH so individual titles will be displayed.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Phua Chu Kang: The Movie

Hi Everyone,

Are you a fan of Phua Chu Kang? The hit television series that starred Gurmit Singh, Irene Ang and Pierre Png is a Singaporean production. Gurmit Singh starred as Phua Chu Kang in which he is portrayed as an Ah Beng which is a Singlish slang for a stereotypical, uneducated Chinese gangster.¹ The show's sequel Phua Chu Kang Malaysia Sdn Bhd was aired  in 2009.  The show is famous with the Don't Play Play phrase.

This year, Phua Chu Kang: The Movie is coming to cinemas next month in August. In Malaysia, the movie will be released on 26th August 2010.

Below is the PCK: The Movie No-HP Teaser:

PCK: The Movie No-HP Teaser

Please visit the Phua Chu Kang: The Movie website and the Phua Chu Kang: The Movie Facebook page for more details on the movie.

<sup>1 Source: Phua Chu Kang - Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phua_Chu_Kang 

Cheers,

Rogerkoo</sup>

The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Chronicles Of Narnia 3

The 3rd installment of the Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of Dawn Treader is coming in December 9th in Malaysia. It will be shown in 3D. 

Even though this is the 3rd Narnia movie, it is actually the 4th book of 7 books in the series. The 2nd book, The Horse and The Boy is not made into a movie. Instead, Prince Caspian, the 3rd book was made as the 2nd Narnia movie.

Follow the adventures of Lucy, Edmund and their cousin, Eustace on a journey on board the Dawn Treader.  Lucy and Edmund met their friend, Prince Caspian back and Eustace has his first appearance here. Experience more magic and some dragon scenes in this movie.

Enjoy the trailer. For more information, please visit The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader official website.

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Inception

Inception is a movie starring Leonardo Dicaprio, Ken Watanabe, Marion Cotillard and Ellen Page. It also starts Michael Caine.

Leonardo Dicaprio stars as a skilled thief, the best in skillful art of attraction, who steals valuable secrets from people's minds. It made him a professional in corporate espionage and also a fugitive and cost him everything he loved. His skill is called Inception.

Now, it's time for redemption. Leonardo Dicaprio needs to accomplish the impossible, inception using his own ideas instead of stealing from people's minds to get his life back. The successful planning of this with his team of specialists could result in the perfect crime. However, they could expect the unexpected because of an enemy who could read their plan.

Coming soon in Malaysian cinemas on 15th July, I believe this is also a good movie to watch. Good action and entertainment are awaiting us. May plan to watch this movie on 21st July 2010.

http://wwws.warnerbros.co.uk/inception/mainsite/img/posters/01.jpg 

You can also visit Inception offical website and the Inception's page on Facebook for more details. 

Cheers,

Rogerkoo

Sergeant Keroro

Hi Everyone, Sergeant Keroro is a very funny anime that talks about 5 amphibians (frog) led by Sergeant Keroro himself to take over the world known as Pekopon. They come from the Keron country. Each attempt to take over world failed miserably. Enjoy the hilarious acts of Sergeant Keroro and the gang on Pekopon. While they were at Pekopon, they are under the care a human. Sergeant Keroro is kept busy doing house chores at the Hinata's house. Characters: Sergeant Keroro (Green) The Leader of the Keroro gang Under the care of Fuyuki Hinata The Hinata family consists of Fuyuki, his sister, Natsumi and their mum, Aki Hinata Likes to make Gundam models and watch the Admiral Geroro show He is helping out at the Hinata's with the house chores. He can be lazy sometimes. Private Tamama (Dark Blue) Cute and lovely character of the show Can throw a huge fireball from his mouth which gives a very bad damage. It is called Tamama's Impact. Under the care of Momoka Jealous of anyone who gets to Sergeant Keroro especailly Angel Mois who is an Earth Destroyer. Angel Mois is actually Keroro's cousin. Her duty is to destroy the world. Can see her in action in certain episodes. She likes Sergeant Keroro. Giroro (Purple) Skilled and trained in combat and firearms Serious in his duties to take over the world He likes Natsumi He thinks Sergeant Keroro is not serious in his duties as a leader Kururu (Yellow) He is the intelligence member of the gang He invents things and makes gadgets. He is technologically sound. He has a trademark laugh (Ke Ke Ke) His eyes are spirals Under the care of Saburo Dororo (Light Blue) The quietest member of the gang Trained in ninja Under the care of Koyuki where she saved Dororo while he was in a trap when he was separated from his platoon Sometimes got left out in the gang Below are the 2nd opening and closing theme songs of Season 2 of the show. They are quite catchy. Sergeant Keroro is currently showing on Animax, Astro Channel 715 at 1800. It is repeated at 2100 and weekends either Saturday or Sunday. Opening Theme 2 Closing Theme 5 It is a hilarious anime. The episodes could be very funny sometimes. Will have a good laugh.

No Boundaries

Hi Everyone, Kris Allen was crowned the American Idol in the beginning of the year with Adam Lambert in 2nd place. Both have cover versions of the American Idol single, No Boundaries. Here are the videos taken from YouTube. Can compare the two. Two different styles with Adam having a faster beat. Kris is good too with his version of No Boundaries. No Boundaries - Kris Allen No Boundaries - Adam Lambert Cheers, Rogerkoo

Anime Theme Songs Part 2

Hi,

Another update on anime songs. This week, I will embed the opening themes for animes which has the classical music theme. La Corda Doro Primo Passo talks about a girl, Kahoko who has no talents in music. She studied in a school that has several music talents such as :

1. Azuma (Flute)
2. Kazuki (Trumpet)
3. Shoko (Clarinet)
4. Ryotaro (Piano)
5. Len (Violin)
6. Keiichi (Cello)
7. Shinobu (Violin)

She also found a classical music fairy, Lily who is hepling her to discover her talent by giving her a magical violin. The violin enables Kahoko to play the violin really well. In the end, Kahoko felt that it was not right to cheat the other musical students in her school and chose to start practising her musical skills again. After her adventure of playing the violin which includes getting second place in the school competition, she has the passion to learn and play the violin. She loves playing it. Here is the opening theme song:

Nodame Cantabilie talks about two main characters namely Chiaki (Shinichi Chiaki) and Nodame. Chiaki is a very talented pianinst and violinst who wanted to become a conductor. With the help of Nodame, he managed to become one. He is also afraid of being in aeroplanes. Nodame (Megumi Noda) is a playful girl and likes to play the piano. She can the songs that she wants only by listening to the piece. In the anime, she also falls in love with Chiaki and tried her best to gain his attention. They were lovers later in the show. Here is the opening theme song:

That's all.

Jakarta Fair PRJ Kemayoran 2009

Hi Everyone, I have visited to Jakarta Fair 2009 at PRJ Kemayoran. It is held at the Jakarta International Exhibition Centre (JI Expo) every year showcasing Indonesian various industries and products. There were great promotions ranging from sportswear, furniture, clothing, batik clothing, electrical appliances and products, IT and computer products, mobile phones, car tyres and food and beverage items. Singing and dancing performances were held at the event too. The fair is opened to all from morning to night. The MRT in Jakarta also its presence known at the fair. Jakarta will have its own MRT system soon implemented in a few stages. The MRT will be completed in 2016. I also went to the Skyway booth with my friends where we can make our own slippers free. Skyway is a company which makes slippers. There were more than 56,000 pairs of slippers made that day when we were at the booth. Might be more than 60,000 pairs after we left at 7pm. If you are not sure how to make your own pair of slippers, the company models will help you with it. There were a lot of people queuing up there in 6 or 8 lines to wait for their turn. Each line will have a model in front where they will monitor the process of making the slippers. Here is the picture below: I also bought a few cartons of Indomie Mi Goreng at the fair. It was cheaper there. Only Rp. 43000 which means it is only RM 14.33. There were also performances in the E-Joss (Extra Joss) energy drink booth where the musicians created nice drumming beats with kitchen utensils (pans) and empty containers. Several children were invited to join in as well. Loud but good music there. You can visit the Extra Joss website for more details on the energy drink. Only RM 0.36 for one pack. There are 40 packs in one carton. We can see the brands we have in Malaysia also have a presence in Jakarta together with several Indonesian home brands. The Indonesian home brands include Indofood, Extra Joss, Skyway, Bengawan Solo Coffees, Indomilk, Sampoerna and Nixxy. Nixxy is the manufacturer of keropoks there. Familiar brands include Samsung, Sharp, Elba, Fujiflim, Acer, BenQ, HP, Zebra Thailand, Dunkin Donuts, LG and KDK. I have taken quite a number of photos while I was there. You can see it at my Picasa Web Album, Picasa Web Albums - Jakarta Fair PRJ Kemayoran.

Anime Theme Songs Part 1

Hello Everybody, I like watching animes. The opening and closing themes for some of these animes can be really nice songs. Here are three of them in the latest blog entry. These are the opening and closing theme songs of Slam Dunk and the 1st closing theme from the Law of Ueki. Slam Dunk Opening Theme Slam Dunk Closing Theme The Law of Ueki Closing Theme 1

Youda Marina at Miniclip

Hi Everyone, I've played a game called Youda Marina at Miniclip.com. It is a game where you get to build your own marina and develop it to be a great travel destination.

Youda Marina Build and manage your own marina!

Play this free game now!!

Updates From Me This Week

Hi Everyone,

The books I ordered and paid through MPH Online has been delivered on Wednesday. I bought Against Medical Advice by James Patterson and I'm Not Sick, Just a Bit Unwell: Life with Neurofibromatosis.

There the books are. These are great books for reading. Both are true stories by the way. Yvonne Foong's book proceeds is for her surgeries. I didn't know that she is a Christian too until I've read the acknowledgements section in her book. Both are inspiring books. A little different from my usual mystery / detective / legal books that I read.

Yesterday was the Twenties Group and Girls Group social night at Su Anne's house at Damansara Indah Resort Homes. There was a lot of food and drinks there including KFC, Domino's Pizza, beancurds, rice, fried rice, sangria, soft drinks, water, salads, mashed potatoes, coleslaws, noodles, apple crumble, merinque and cakes. However, the cakes that I brought was not eaten because there were a lot served there. It's a time of fellowship and get to know each other better. We also updated each other about what we have been doing for the past few months / weeks since we met again as a combined group yesterday.

We also had a games session after desserts. We played two games which include a round of Charades to finish it off.

The first game was to get to know interesting facts about us which was known to anyone. A few of us were chosen. We are told to write interesting events that everyone did not know about. Pauline was the game master for the first game yesterday. Then, we put it into a box where Pauline then picked a few random papers being thrown into it. She then selected 3 people to sit down on 3 chairs in front of everyone. Next, Pauline then reads out to everyone about it. The objective and aim of this game are to guess who among the three sitting in front actually performed or did the thing being read out by Pauline. It's very fun to know what some of us actually did when we were younger. Others will start asking questions and there were some funny answers coming from everyone. The persons selected who did not do the things read by Pauline also need to make up a story as it that he or she has done it before.

Thanks to Su Anne and her family for opening their house for all of us yesterday night. Also thanks to Kelvin who fetched me back home yesterday after that. Thank you very much to all who attended too. We had a great fellowship together.

Updates from Rogerkoo

Yo, What's up, Everybody? Is everyone in the pink of health? I am fine here and in the pink of health. 

It's been long since I have updated this blog. I was in overseas for the past few weeks.

Tears To Tiara¹, adapted from the video game on PS3 and PC and Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood² (the most anticipated anime of the 2009) animes are now shown on Animax. I have watched the first few episodes and excited to follow these animes. These are two of the best animes that I have seen. I also like La Corda Doro Prima Passo and Nodame Cantabile too, both talking about classical music.

I've watched the previous CSI episode where Gil Grissom (William Petersen) told his team he is leaving CSI. What's the reason behind his decision? Is it because of Sara? It seems Catherine (Marg Helgenberger) knows about it. Lawrence Fishburne will join the CSI team later. Grissom has a case last week where the killer has killed a lot of people. The killer was part of a criminal research programme at a university where Lawrence Fishburne is the professor there. At the end of the episode, he told them to find a body at a site somewhere and they found the bones of another person too. Grissom can't leave CSI yet! He'll need to solve this first together with his team members. Find out this Wednesday.

I went to Ancol - Taman Impian at Ancol last week with my friends. We went to Sea World and Gelanggang Samudra. Have a look at the pictures that I took at Picasa Web - Ancol - Taman Impian. Had fun there. Came back around 5 and cooked dinner for some of my friends later. Had a good meal.

On Saturday, I've bought James Patterson's Against Medical Advice and Yvonne Foong: I'm Not Sick, Just a Bit Unwell: Life with Neurofibromatosis. If you have not noticed, my blog linked to her blog. Yvonne is suffering from Neurofibromatosis Type 2, a genetic disorder that makes tumours grow in her brain, spine and along peripheral nerves at 16³. which left here to live in silence. It talks about how she manage to cope with it and won numerous awards including Most Outstanding Youth of the Year 2005 and Her World Young Women Achiever of the Year 2008⁴

Against Medical Advice talks about Cory Friedman, who woke up one day with the uncontrollable urge to shake his head. He has gone through medications for 15 years that had side effects on him. It is a true story. It talks about he manage to fight for his life and survive them with the support of his family and teachers and medical professionals.⁵

The next few good books that I am looking forward to buy this year are The Associate written by John Grisham and James Patterson's Cross Country. I was planning to buy The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson but found that it is under the teen category so I decided not to buy. Is it meant for both adults and teens though? Hehe. Maybe should have bought it. Haha.

Will update again later. 

¹ Wikipedia: Tears to Tiara, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tears_to_Tiara

²Full Metal Alchemist Official Website, http://www.fullmetalalchemist.com/

³ MPH Online, http://www.mphonline.com/i/charity.jpg ⁴ The Star Online, http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/4/16/nation/3700470&sec=nation ⁵ James Patterson: The Offical Website, Against Medical Advice, http://www.jamespatterson.com/books_againstMedicalAdvice.html

Rogerkoo

Some Results from Astro Wah Lai Toi 2008 Awards Yesterday

Hi, These are several of the results of the awards yesterday: Favourite Drama Series: The Heart of Greed (Tung Sam Fung Po) I agree on this Favourite Actor in a Drama Series: Moses Chan (Chan Ho) in Tung Sam Fung Po Favourite Actress in a Drama Series: Louise Lee Sze Kei in Tung Sam Fung Po Favourite Couple: Sheung Joy Sum (Linda Chung Ka Yan) and Ching Leung (Lam Fung) in Tung Sam Fung Po Favourite Bizarre Character: Fei Tin (Myolie Wu - Wu Hang Yee) in To Grow with Love Favourite Theme Song: The Heart of Greed (Kwan Kuk Ying) for Tung Sam Fung Po Favaurite On Screen Kiss: Charmaine Shieh and Lam Fung (The Drive of Life) Thats' all, Rogerkoo