Some quick things I forgot to blog about.

The Shiny-glittery cover

1. Pokemon: I asked Atsushi to buy me ten volumes of my favourite manga ポケットモンスター Special(the Japanese version) like... back in November, and I finally got it recently because I keep forgetting to get it when I go to his house, and he keeps forgetting to bring it when he comes to mine. I just like to point out that the Japanese and the Chinese version of the manga(Yes, I own both) has a really big difference. The cover of the Japanese version is a lot smoother and shinier than the Chinese version; it's like of like adding the 'glitter' feel when printing photos. The paper that the Japanese version used is a lot better, too. It's a lot softer, so it feels better when I turn the page. The Chinese version for the paper is not bad, too -- they just went for the 'sturdy' kind. You know... thick...

Since I'm talking about Manga qualities, I'm just gonna bash a little about the English manga, and when I said a little, I meant a lot. English version SUCKS. First of all, unlike the Japanese and the Chinese version, there is no protective covering for the manga. If you don't know what a protective covering is... (I really hope you do), look at the picture below. The paper the English manga uses, it's like recycled paper or something -- so ugly and rough. Don't even get me started on the translations, but good thing it's not dubbing...

The Legendary protective cover.

2. Birthday: Atsushi's birthday was last week, and I gave him a present just recently because stuff happened (blames on the birthday boy, or should I say man since he's legally an adult now). I bought him Katamari Forever on the PS3. If you don't know what Katamari is, you're missing out. It's a really popular series in Japan where the Prince of all cosmos rolls a tiny ball picking up everything it rolled through. From candy to pencils, from cats to humans, from schools to bridges, and even from stars to planets, our little prince rolls them all up! What's the objective you say? You have to roll your ball to a certain size within a time limit, and the King of all cosmos will grade you on your performance. The amount of things, the different kind of things, and such. The little ball that you rolled up will be then turned into 'something' that will let you advance into the story. Pretty addicting if you ask me. Hope you enjoy your present, Atsushi(I know you'll read this someday :P)

Katamari Forever on the PS3

3. Doctor Who: I watched Doctor Who, the animated series(two of the episodes) today, and it was quite interesting. I don't really know how to explain it, and I won't since none of my blog readers actually watch Doctor Who. Still, I want to just talk about it a little. By a little, I really mean a little, so I will end it now.

4. Youtube: I have an idea for my next youtube video, and I will start filming it soon once I finalize my plan. 'Course I'll blog about it when I upload it, so look forward to it!!

5. Music/Video of the day: Today's music of the day is the opening from Tales of Eternia the animation. It's called '空にかける端' (Sora ni kakeru hashi). It's really nothing special; it just brings back a lot of memories of when I watched the anime. The anime is not even that good, too. I still like the song and such though =]!

Video of day is by WongFuProductions, a channel on Youtube. Video's called 'Yellow Fever'. It's not really a video, but like a short film. I know it's pretty long, but it's pretty funny and has pretty good message behind it.

The corner of Treasure/Junk

By the way, this is what's happening to my bed. I am running out of room to sleep on. Haha

That's all I can think of for the moment, that's all. Bye!

~Daniel Chou

Music & Video of the day

This song called 葉子(Leaf) by 阿桑(Judy) has got to be one of the most emo songs I've ever heard. Its chorus is

我一個人吃飯　旅行　到處走走停停

也一個人看書　寫信　自己對話談心

The english Translation is...

I eat, travel and walk around all by myself

I also read books, write letters and talk to myself

Yea... that's kind of emo if you ask me. But it's still a pretty good song if you ask me.

Video of the day is Vlogcandy! It's a collaboration youtube channel, and that video explains it all. Click the link to go to the introduction video of their channel; the video will tell you what their whole channel is about. Great Stuff.

Enjoy the emo/happy stuff I recommended! :P

~Daniel Chou

Music & Video of the day

Music of the day is a song by Atsushi's favourite Chinese singer -- 孫燕姿(Stefanie Sun). The song is called 我不難過(I'm not sad). This song is about person A betraying person B to be with person C(sung in person B's point of view). On surface B is like "No, it's okay. I understand, so just don't say things like 'I'm sorry' or 'at least I loved you before' anymore.", but inside, B is really sad and blaming him/herself for not being with A when A needed the most. What I like about this song so much is that, the lyrics and the emotion put in this song doesn't only work for 'love', but also 'friendship'.

Video for today is a really famous Youtuber HappySlip. She made a video called 'Slip into Bubble Wrap!'. Her videos are so creative and funny, makes people happy. (And I really like bubble wrap). There's really nothing much I need to say about it -- if you just watch the video, you'll understand what I'm talking about =].

~Daniel Chou

Best movie of 2009!!! Music & Video of the day

I suddenly thought of all the movies that I watched this summer(and I watched at least 5). Anyways, there's one movie that I thought is really good. From acting to plot, from costumes to settings, there is nothing wrong with the movie. That movie is 'Julie & Julia'. I usually don't like documentaries, but this one is so different. As the title suggested, it's the lives of Julie and Julia. The movie is about how Julia Child discovers the art of French Cooking, and Julie's attempt in French Cooking.

In more details about the movie, Julia wrote a cookbook called 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking', and Julie is going to attempt to cook everything in that book in a 365 days, while blogging about her daily process. Because the movie needs to cover the lives of two people, they can only pick out the important part, and they did that perfectly. The scene transitions from one life to another is flawless. Everything about this movie is perfect(doesn't really want to spoil a lot), except the ending. It ended kind of abruptly; there is one thing that the movie didn't explain well. BUT I am not going to say what because you all need to watch the movie if you haven't. If you did, you'll know what I am talking about!! It's seriously the best movie I've watched all year, topping the animation film Up!, Transformers, and even G.I. Joe. Just look at the awards that they won -- well Meryl Streep won. She's an amazing actress.

I noticed that when I say this song is good... ALL I am saying that it is a good song -- that's it. I never really talked about why it's good, or the lyrics behind this song... or any reason why the song is good. So starting today, I'll talk about the meaning behind the lyrics, basically analyzing it in a... non-boring way. (Or other reasons why I like it)

Today's music is by a singer 陶喆(David Tao). The song is from his first album ever, which is like 3~4 years ago called '愛很簡單'(Love is easy). The song is about how love is easy(like the title suggested). You don't really know how it started, but it just happens, and you're willing to do anything for your other half... you know those typical love song lyrics. Sure, the lyrics is nothing special, but together with the melody, it's a new feeling. The lyrics talks about how 'easy' it is to fall in love, so the melody for this song is also very simple -- a little bit of everything. Just the right amount of Piano, Percussion, Guitar.

Video for today is by a Youtuber named TheWineKone -- it's a parody video of the hit videos on youtube at that time. That video was about... a year ago. Basically you need to watch a lot of random youtube videos to get the parody, but if you don't know what he's doing the parody of, there are the links to the original video in his description. Video is called 'Viral Video Failure'. Check it out.

~Daniel Chou

Objective-C, more Rats & Music, Video of the day

I spent most of my day today reading about Objective-C -- a computer language. This book is actually not bad... gives a lot of useful information 'efficiently'. Yes, the key word is efficiently. Most textbook has a lot of good information in there, but they top it of with endless examples and bullshits -- while some textbook... are just plain useless.

So as I was reading the book, I heard a scream coming from the hall way. Turns out, there is a mouse in her room. Apparently, the mouse hole is also in her room. Maybe the mouse that was in my room was from there? Gonna hope it is.

Today's music is 五月天's DNA. 五月天 is a band in Taiwan, also known as MayDay. DNA is their newest single which came out a few months ago.

Video today is a trailer to a documentary that 4 youtubers are working on. They are davidchoimusic, HappySlip, Daxflame, and TayZonday. Just read the description of the video for more details!

~Daniel Chou

Video & Music of the day

Today's music is the ending song to the movie 'Summer Wars'. The song is called '僕らの夏の夢' (Bokura no Natsu no Yume). English translation is 'My summer's dream' -- very suitable for Summer Wars. I just watched Summer Wars for the fifth time today, still enjoy it very much!!

Video of the day is a video by gunnarolla -- a youtuber. It's titled 'what colour is slacktivist's bra?' It made me laughed pretty hard, but also made some really good points. His videos are pretty nice, you should check it out!

Go watch/listen!

~Daniel Chou

Quick Update - Video & Music of the day.

I youtube(yes, it's totally a verb) every day, so I thought I'd post a video that I think is really awesome/artistic/meaningful every day! Since I'm doing a video of the day, I might as well do a 'music of the day', too.

Starting today.

Today's video of the day is from a Youtube Channel 'WongFuProductions'.

Today's music of the day is from an artist Sam Harts, who sang the 'Mario Kart Love Song'.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. =]

~Daniel Chou