Vroom vroom

I have always been a fan of Formula 1 racing but Ferrari is not my favorite team. Shell Malaysia currently have this event occurring where you pump petrol at their station and if it is RM 40 and above you will get to purchase Ferrari Model in Lego for RM 12.90. There is a total of six models to collect and the promotions runs from 8th November for three cars and then 29th November for another 3 cars. I have to say the quality is not as good as the normal Lego because some parts is harder to fit together. The price point is excellent because Lego is an expensive toy here and RM 12.90 is cheap. It's fun to play with Lego again, it's one of the first toys that you could build anything in your imagination and it also brings back childhood memories. My first car of the collection is the Ferrari 150° Italia which is the car driven in the Formula 1 racing team. Below are some pictures of the model, as I get the other models gradually I will write posts and share pictures there. Have a nice day!

The packaging (front)

The back side of the packaging

Ferrari certified sticker (so fancy =P)

The Lego pieces poured out from the packet

Final product

Top view of the model

The models available in the collection

Beastie Bay : An Overview

When I saw that this game was free I had my doubts because all Kairosoft games are not free. Then I had a friend talking about it and said it was good and so I installed it on my tablet. This game is a mash up of the Kairosoft trademark and Pokemon on the gameboy. It's so addictive that I played it for more than four hours straight. The idea of the game is like Pokemon,  you rare beast which are your allies and they help you in your quest. Your mission is to unlock areas on your island and also help other islands with their monster problems. 

In Pokemon you travel around fighting Gym leaders, but this game you help people handle their monsters problem by clearing them off. The Kairosoft trademark in this game is every unknown land you discovered on your island it belongs to you. You have to build homes for your allies and they will help you in gathering resources. In your quests, you will get to save people who are trapped and they will be residents on your island hence you have more people helping out in gathering resources. Other elements of the game is your characters will have tools to help the journey and also your allies have equipment to help boost their stats.

Size 12 and Ready to Rock

It's a day off from work but Heather got a call complaining about an incident happening in Fischer Hall. So from her place she ran as fast as she could to NYU and rushed into the second floor library. The moment she got in, she was shot and she saw Gavin (one of the helpers in her department). She told Gavin to take care of her dolls. When she realize there was no pain but just paint on her clothes, she figured that people were playing paintball in the building and Gavin was the one who shot her. It was a paintball  war between the Fischer Hall  desk and RA staff versus the student paint crew. Heather was tricked to give them pizza party money because the cafeteria was closed on Sunday night but in fact it was use to fund this paintball war instead.

After some chit chat, Jamie which was in the library and part of the RA staff of Fischer Hall heard something. Gavin's last name was called and Heather heard Cooper saying nobody gets away with shooting Heather and he fire the paintball gun. It was time to shut down the party and the plan was to round up everyone but Gavin refuses. Suddenly someone burst through the library door and Gavin shot Simon Hague the director of Wasser Hall . He was on duty that night and all you could hear were complaints from him.  Slowly Heather figured the call about someone in trouble were referring to the penthouse because not long after that an ambulance stopped in front of Fischer Hall and the paramedics were headed in that direction. Heather and Cooper soon followed the paramedics to find out that Cooper's sister in law which is also a famous singer Tania Trace fainted. 

Size 12 and Ready to Rock by Meg Cabot is the sequel from Big Boned where we left Heather and Cooper in a engaged relationship. The story continues in a new adventure for Heather and it's one where more of Cooper's family is revealed to the readers. This book is slightly less "detective" and "adventurous" compared to the previous books in the series. I was slightly disappointed in Heather's role in the story but am glad about other characters that were present. One thing that I love from the book is having more of Cooper's family involved. I've always enjoyed having new characters in a book as long as there are depth and growth for those characters.

Another thing about this book for me is some parts of the story is predictable which makes it less exciting to read. I have to say this book was not an eager read for me after I have read the first chapter. It wasn't like the other books where I would read chapter after chapter non-stop. It was just an okay book for me. After reading the interview posted at the back of the book I understand some elements of this book better but it still wasn't good enough of a story to me. I hope the writer has not lost her touch in this series. Somehow I get the impression that the longer the series went on for chic lit, the characters seems to lose growth and more characters will have to be introduced.  I still look forward to the next sequel which was indicated in the interview because I'm a big fan of Meg Cabot. One book does not change my love for her stories but I hope for the best. 

Learning Japanese

Learning a new language is certainly not an easy task but it's definitely fun to do so. I've been very interested in the Japanese language because since I was a child I often watch their animation. Though what I've watched was dubbed in Cantonese, the company left the opening and ending songs as it's original and often times I would sing along without understanding. Japanese animation has good music all the time and it's so enjoyable to listen to music that are different from western culture sometimes. Japan's manga is also a big factor in why I wanted to pick up the language because I believe the translated ones will have sometimes missed how sentences are suppose to mean to an individual. Reading it in its original language would be much true to the meaning. I also have a dream that someday I will be able to visit Japan without much trouble because of having a bit of knowledge of the language.

I started with a Nintendo DS game that was available and it taught me hiragana gradually and had games to test my knowledge. I then used the internet to print out all the hiragana and bought an exercise book to practice writing in it. I also tried to memorize and identify the letters when I see them on Japanese products, and anime where the subbers will often insert the text into the opening and ending themes.  What I like about the DS game is that it gives information about Japan here and there and I love learning more. The games available are also gradually unlocked to harder ones once you proceed to more difficult levels of the game.