Madoka Magica Anifone

My colleague brought this back for me from Anime Japan. :) Free Madoka Magica stickers. They were handing them out for free to advertise the Madoka Magica android app for cel phones.

I actually did get one of the apps. The app is really just a customize launcher. I got Akemi Homura. :) If you're a big fan of the series, you may find it kinda cool. I know I like it a lot. But it does take up quite a bit of ram and seems to drain my battery faster cuz Kyubey is constantly animated.

Still... it is kinda cool to see Kyubey and Homura on my phone.

The accompanying game is pretty simple and is pretty much a game of chance rather than skill. But it is kinda neat to be able to battle witches.

IMO this is pretty much strictly for fans but if you are a big fan...you might like it a lot...like I do. :)

posted from Bloggeroid

Nexus 7

And to top off this incredible day.... the Nexus 7. :)

I asked if I could leave work a little earlier today to pick up the Nexus 7 tablet from a redemption centre near the financial district. I received this for free because I decided to re-contract our broadband for another two years.

I never expected my Raspberry Pi, Kalafina's Hikaru Furu singles, Kalafina's 2013 calendar and the Nexus 7 to come into my possesion on the same day. I didn't expect my shots to clear today too.

Yeah.... it kind of feels like Christmas today. :)

K.... that's it for now.... am fading.... I don't even have time for my new toys.... now.... my bed calls... oyasumi :-)

posted from Bloggeroid

manga fu camera ~ android

This is me just testing out the relatively new Manga Fu Camera. The previous version of it was called Manga Generator but the makers of this application have stopped work on Manga Generator and took most of the tests they did on that app to create Manga Fu Camera.

Manga Fu Camera still needs some work of course but it is better than Manga Generator in one very big way. When you take a photo with Manga Generator, you just shoot and kind of hope it sort of works for the background and filter you hope to use. With Manga Fu Camera, when you turn on the camera, the words will show up on the screen but the rest of it will be clear and you can see what you're shooting. It makes it easy to compose your shot.

Kinda neat .... I hope they continue to develope this app. Hopefully in the future they will give you an option to input your own text. Meanwhile.... I should try and familiarize myself with some of the katakana "sounds" used in some of the backgrounds in case I use them incorrectly. :)

K.... time to go to get ready for work. :)

posted from Bloggeroid

nothing much

It's 630 in the morning and i am on the train on my way to the studio. In an effort to amuse myself, i decided to download and play with the instagram app for android on my Samsung Galaxy S2. I was never particularly interested in the app because i had many other cam apps that did tons of stuff which i really liked. But my interest in instagram was piqued by Facebook's billion dollar purchase of the app.

Hmmmmm... I am decidedly unimpressed by instagram. The only thing which was perhaps better than the other apps was the ease of sharing pix on twitter and fb etc. And perhaps the online album and the ability to post comments. Other than that i rather use the other apps. They quite simply offer way more options. I suppose if u want ease of use, instagram's limited options make sharing photos quick and simple but it is kind of restrictive for someone like me. Facebook must have seen the potential of something else in this app because i don't know why anyone would pay a billion for it.

My current fav is One Man With A Camera and the above is taken using that app.

And here is another one shot yesterday. I quite like this one.


K.... Am done... I would like to stone for a bit now... Storing energy for work. :)

雨水

A morning downpour has made it more difficult for me to go to work today. Nope, it has nothing to do with the trains usually running slower on rainy days. I really, really, really wish i could sleep in today. The weather is so cool now and my bed felt so comfy and warm. Unfortunately, i had already agreed to go into the studio today... so here i am... on the train to my 13th straight day at work.

It has really been a while since i worked so many days in a row. My max was 6 months but i didn't work full days on weekends then and my regular work day didn't have too many OT hours.. Of course i know people who work even longer stretches and seriously... I don't know how they do it.

I am way more relaxed today then i was yesterday. Relaxed enough to feel like mobile blogging. :) The last two days were actually quite stressful at work. We were rushing a lot of shots and i was really tired and slightly short tempered.

Today i am doing some volunteer work on another show which is cool. I wanted to work on that show too and i think i could learn some things by working on it. The added bonus is that today is an additional paid day. Yay!! :). More money for trips and hobbies and bills... in that order of importance. :D

The above photo was taken on a Samsung Galaxy S2 using the "one man with a camera" app. I kind of like it. :)

K... Time to go... Changing trains. :)

Japan Trip 4 - Day 1

Well... I suppose it is sort of day 1 even though i am still at the airport. I'll only reach Japan early tomorrow morning. And this time aside from the Kajiura Yuki Live Vol. 8 and Disney Sea ... I have no concrete plans.... It should be interesting. I haven't had a trip like this in a while... the kind where i kind of decide as i go along. :)

k .... Here's hoping for a safe and enjoyable trip to and back from Japan. :)

video test

I am back doing more testing of the samsung galaxy S2 capabilities. This time i'm testing the video camera and the video editing software that came pre-installed on the device.

The editing software is pretty basic but good enough for something that comes on a phone. I shot some video of my room and of the view from window. It is pretty rubbishy video. I had meant to shoot something on the way home but forgot. :-P

Anyhow, let's try and publish this post to test if i face the same problem i did this morning with the youtube link. This video is being uploaded directly from my phone's storage, so it may not be a problem, we'll see. Here goes. :)

ps. just checked this on the PC and on my phone browser and all looks fine :) ... now just left one thing to test and that's another youtube link... the first test was unsuccessful... maybe will try that tomorrow on the train ride in.

kalafina on after eden, kawaii girl japan

Usually i don't bother posting up videos etc. Too lazy, too busy. :) but today i wanted to do more testing. More samsung galaxy s2 and blogger droid testing.

I am trying to use my s2 as much as possible to blog, surf, watch videos, watch streaming video, facebook etc. So far i have been too busy at work to download any high performance games to try out on this phone.

Anyway first things.... the above video is a clip of a recent interview that kalafina did for kawaii girl japan. It's subtitled in english like the previous interview they did for the website. I think this is just part one of a series of 4 or 5 clips... am not sure as i zipped through the clip just before i left the house for work.

Interesting bits about the new album. Apparently, this time they recorded the album with a live band unlike their previous albums and singles. The girls, however, look kinda tired. Even the usually chatty Wakana and the ultra energetic & perky Keiko seem muted. Keiko  managed one moe moment in the clip and that was about it. Their schedule this year and the upcoming year looks really punishing. Hopefully they manage to get some quality rest and relax time in between gigs and events... and definitely before the live in Nov :D ... must be at optimum level for when i see them live at the concert. :)

UPDATE: (8th Sept 2011)
- according to the Kawaii Girl Japan website, they will update this clip every week in the month of Sept.  The video will change every Monday.

As for the Samsung Galaxy S2... I am still super impressed with it. The battery life is better than decent. I am just trying to run it down for the second time, so far since getting it, i have only charged it twice. And even when i use the phone for long periods of time, it doesn't feel hot and zips along nicely. Video playback is brilliant.

k. Time to go. Will be getting off the train soon. :-)

Ps.
Not sure if the video will be embedded properly. This is what i m testing on blogger droid today. If that fails, i will fix that later.

Pps.
I discovered some interesting things about blogger-droid and posting videos from youtube using the software.  Will probably do more testing later in the week just cuz I'm curious.  But suffice to say, the first time... I'm not exactly sure it was successful since I couldn't see the body of the text on my cel phone browser but could see it on PC browser...

There were other formatting problems too but that cuz I keep forgetting that blogger-droid automatically puts a line break code html code for me and I don't need to put empty lines between paragraphs.

Anyway... gotta go... at work and it's time to work. :)

my new toy :)

It's a sunday morning and i am at work but wasn't too unhappy about it till the server went down. Now i'm here with tons of work to do but no way to do it.  :( sigh...

Ah well... this gives me the opportunity to do a little mobile blogging. :)  I got myself a new phone last night.  I waited till i was sure of which phone i wanted before recontracting my mobile plan.  Much as i love my tactile keyboards, i have pretty much given up on the motorola milestone 3 coming to the shores of this sunny island anytime soon.  As i have definitely outgrown the capabilities of my milestone and the old trusty phone has become quite a whiner lately, it was time to get another phone.



My new phone of choice is the Samsung Galaxy S II.  I managed to recontract it with the current comex discount and boy am i loving it.  the screen is bright and vibrant.  The touchscreen is responsive and the duo-processor keeps things zipping along.  The portrait keyboard is kind of easy to type with which makes me happy cuz it means mobile blogging is easy, although no as easy as on my milestone which has a fuller qwerty keyboard but still quite nice.

The phone cames pre-loaded with a bunch of M1 crap which I have not tried uninstalling.  There is some microsoft office type software which i know i will love. I can't remember the name of the software now and I'm too lazy to check. :P 

K, that's it for my mini review of the new phone. I wanna go off and setup this phone properly and maybe get some japanese homework done while i wait for tech. Bye. :)

Ps. As this is my first time using the samsung galaxy to blog... there might be some formatting problems. If there are any, i'll fix them later.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka & Android Froyo for Motorola Milestone

Before I go to sleep, i just wanted to do a quick update to the blog.

The new release dates for the blu-rays and dvds have been announced.  Basically, they are pushing the release dates of all volumes back by a month.  Here is the link to the announce on the official website.

Basically, here are the dates:

第1巻：3月30日→4月27日

第2巻：4月27日→5月25日

第3巻：5月25日→6月22日

第4巻：6月22日→7月27日

第5巻：7月27日→8月24日

They have yet to announce the availability of the 6th volume, but that will be a certainty and will probably be in the following month after the 5th volume is released.

This means that OST Vol. 1 by Kajiura Yuki will also be delayed by a month.  The cd will be packed with Vol.2 of the special editions and was scheduled for a April release.  We'll now have to wait to the end of May for this cd. 

The delay of Vol.1 is kind of expected, but I must say, I was a little surprised that all volumes were pushed back by a month.  :(  Ah well... although I am a little disappointed that even vol.2 has been delayed, still, given the circumstances, I'm not really that bothered by it. :)

Also, episode 11 and 12 of the anime will be postponed due to the recent events in Japan.  Although there has been no confirmed dates, according to the latest twitter message from the official website, the last episode will air in April.

From the tweet:

madoka_magica 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ

レギュラー放送とは形態が変わりますが、4月中を目途に最終話までをお届けできるように調整を進めてまいります。ご理解、ご了承のほど、よろしくお願いいたします。 #madoka_magica

It's a good thing for me actually, although other fans may be disappointed.  I'm really busy at work lately.  And had to put in some serious overtime tonight.  I'm also behind on my Japanese homework.  So a delay in the broadcast of these last two eps means less distraction for me. :D

Next.... FINALLY Android 2.2 (Froyo) is available for the Motorola Milestone.  It's not available in all regions yet but it is available in most of South East Asia.  I just upgraded my Milestone from Eclair to Froyo. Yay. :)  I've been waiting for this.  The biggest reason why I wanted it was so that I could move applications to SD card.  :)  I've not actually played with it too much yet.  Too tired.  :(

Anyway, strangely, I could not download the upgrade from Motorola's website.  BUT, you can still upgrade.  You just need to install the "Motorola Software Update" software on you computer and use that to update.  Just install the software and follow the instructions... it's pretty simple.

K... need sleep.  The shot I'm working on is really killing me.  A lot of work remains to be done and I need to deliver by end of today if possible.  So good night everyone. :) 

train rides

Last night I took the late train home, I think it was probably the last train from Jurong to Yishun. Usually the train is packed with a ton of people making their way home all around the northern end of Singapore. I hardly ever see the train this empty, quiet or peaceful. I enjoyed chilling so much on the train that all I did was listen to music and relax for the half hour ride. I did nothing, no japanese, no reading, no video games, no anime. Just music and just being happy. :) I didn't even think of taking a photo till I got off and took a photo of the bus interchange at night. :)

Each morning I take this very train line to work and I have learnt which cabin to enter and where to stand to try and make the transfer at Jurong less stressful. For the most part my strategy works and although I have to stand the entire way for the approximately 45 min journey, I am for the most part lost in my own world with Kajiura's music, FictionJunction, Kalafina and Utada Hikaru blasting in my ear as I try and revise my Japanese, read, surf the net or mobile blog. Sometimes, I would catch up on my anime viewing on my milestone too.

Those moments on the Yishun to Jurong stretch on my way to work are moments that I enjoy and even look forward to before the busy day begins. The transfer to the East-West line at Jurong can get stressful as people do idiotic things to try and either get on the train or get a seat. Yesterday morning I had one of those moments when some idiots pushed their way to the front of the line and the pushed pass people who were trying to get off the train. I was so annoyed. Grrrrrrrrr....

It made me forget that I actually like long train rides and that the biggest reason why I walk so fast from my home to the train station is because I am very impatient to get on the train to start my Monday to Friday me time. :)

Lots have been happening both at work and in my personal life and last night's peaceful train ride was very timely. It was nice to be able to just rest and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Everyone needs rides like these from time to time I think. :)

p.s. Hmmmm... I think I will try and just do a short little thing on Mahou Shoujo Madoka tonight.  Ep7 was good.  I really don't know for sure where this anime is going to go and I like that. :)

ouch!

This has not been a great day. First I busted my thumb and cannot apply any pressure on my right thumb at all. It makes mobile blogging kind of hard and slow for me. :( my colleague gave me a lift home and stupid me closed the car door on my thumb. It is still throbbing right now even after I placed an ice pack on it.

Then, my Magia cd pre-orders did not ship even though I pre-ordered in dec way before this huge mahou shoujo madoka buzz. This is the last time I pre-order kajiura and kalafina stuff through playasia. :( I don't even know when they will ship it now since they don't even have stock to fulfil pre-orders made in dec. :( I don't know if playasia has kajiura's upcoming fiction 2 cd but I am not taking chances and pre-ordered through cdjapan this time.

Am hoping tomorrow night's mahou shoujo madoka will cheer me up. Looks like we will be heading for something dramatic with the Walpurgisnacht. The night of the witches, that would be fun. :) if only I can type better, I might even have attempted a post on madoka. :(

Oh and that photo above was shot on the milestone using the vignette software and I have no real reason as to why it is accompanying this post except that I want it to. It makes me feel a little happpier. :)

good morning

Good morning everyone. This is kind of a nothing post. I just wanted to share this photo which I shot the other day. I liked the reflections of the HDB flats in the windshields of the vehicles. :)

One of the things I wanted to try and do this year is blog more. I wanted to do it because it keeps me in touch with photography, critical thinking and the English language because i believe that if you don't use it, you lose it. :) So even if I don't have much to say at this point in time, I hope you enjoy the photo. This was shot on my SE cybershot phone, transferred via bluetooth to my milestone, treated in Photoshop Express for android phones and uploaded to the blog via Blogger-droid.

I have my Japanese language class this afternoon and immediately after class I will usually plunk myself down in a cafe and try and get a headstart on my homework which I actually enjoy doing. :) If time permits, I hope to write a post on food later tonight after I return home. Writing about food is more relaxing then writing about anime, series and movies and I shoot A LOT of photos of food. They usually just sit in my phone or in my harddrives doing nothing, so I thought it is about time some of them get a second lease of life. I also know one of my friends who reads my blog loves the food photos the most, so I'm sure she'll enjoy the planned upcoming post.

For now, 行ってきます。:)

smartq v7

Lately I have been preoccupied with one of my geeky obsessions. About a year and a half ago, I got myself a Smartq v7 to aid me in my homework. It sounds like an excuse to get myself a new toy :) but it is mostly true. I needed a device to carry my ebooks, pdfs and scans with me as reference material. I was sleeping very little then and in order to meet all my deadlines, I was doing a lot of my homework in 24 hour fast food restaurants and cafes.

At that time, the only ebook readers available were thing like kindle which only displayed stuff in black and white. I needed things that also displayed color because of the artbooks etc. But I also needed it to be reasonably priced and didn't want it too big so a windows tablet was out of the question. There was no iPad then too and I would not have gotten it anyway as apple products are too restrictive for my liking.

I chanced upon a category of products called MID. And there was this product called the Smartq v7 which booted in 3 different OS, android, linux and windows ce. After some consideration I decided to spend some of my government sponsorship money on it.

Man, was it a learning experience. I had never used any of those operating systems then and the v7 used the chinese language versions of the OS. Now, my chinese language skills aren't bad but navigating chinese OSs was still a challenge. Still I managed to get it to a point where I was able to get it to do what I got it for which was cool.

Still, in the end I knew I was not using the gadget to its fullest potential. This device says that it is capable of playing HD video and it even has a HDMI port for playback to TV. The gadget's software was really buggy in the beginning which was it's major flaw. I believe that this is one of the biggest things holding back chinese gadget makers right now. Remember, this was before the iPad and the major wave of smart phones. The specs on this thing is nice and even now, none of the Western gadget makers (at least to my knowledge) have come close to offering the myriad of possibilities the Asian companies, in particular the Chinese ones, have been offering.

Anyway, after some time, I found that I did not need the ebook reading capabilities of the as urgently as before and my more pc based homework kept me at my desk at home or in school most of the time so the device took a well deserved rest.

Lately, while playing with my colleague's samsung galaxy tab, I got the urge to pay my old friend a visit. And I discovered that the OSs in the v7 have updated versions available including android 2.1. Previously the device used an older android version which never worked that well for me and I was mostly using unbutu to read stuff and surf the net.

To get android 2.1 on the v7 is by no means something for the faint hearted. It requires the flashing of the device's firmware and the reinstallation of the 3 operating systems in a very specific way. Let's just say it took me several days to finally get all 3 operating systems running properly on my v7. I started messing with it on Sunday and only accomplished it last night. So yes, it takes a certain amount of patience and the willingness to troubleshoot. The results are worth it though. :)

My v7 is awesome now. Previously, the device was always a little slow and unstable but it is a lot more stable and responsive. I love using android on this device and reading comics and books on it is a real treat now.

For those who may have problems with the firmware, here is what I found out while messing with my v7. Firstly, you must install in the order described in the Unofficial SmartQ MID Board. I'll update with links later when I'm off my milestone. BUT... you must do the following if not you will find, like I did, not only did you not change to the new launch screen, also only ubuntu works. After you follow all the steps on how to write over the nand, you will come to the step where you need to install linux.

After you press the + and menu buttons and the power on button, you will be asked in chinese if you want to rewrite the system settings. At this point, hit "-" to write over the system settings. If you don't, you won't get the new purple background launch page at startup. At least, I didn't till I did it.

After you have installed linux, proceed to install android. By the way, I installed the latest chinese android update from smartq because the latest english one has a problem with the marketplace and you could find yourself stuck at "start download" forever. After many tries with the english android, I searched for a solution and someone at the awesome unofficial smartq forums suggested the chinese android firmware which works like a charm. NOW HERE IS ANOTHER IMPORTANT PART, this I learnt after a gazzillion tries. It wasn't stated in smartq's english site, although it is in their chinese site. You MUST do this to get android to work.

After you install the new android os, make sure you leave the SD card with the new android firmware rom in it before you start the new android os for the first. If you removed it and go ahead to install windows CE or if you swap cards and then started android, android will NOT launch.

After you started android for the first time, you can shut down and install windows CE. Again, you must leave the roms inside when you start it for the first time. If you don't, win CE will not start. [add: Actually, you must leave the CE firmware rom in your SD card all the time for CE to start, not just for the first time unlike the Android firmware.]

As you can tell, I was so preoccupied with my geeky problem, I didn't even have time for anime. :( so Mahou Shoujo Madoka's ep4 will have to wait. Will probably end up watching that with ep5 and movie 5 of Kara no Kyoukai.

Meanwhile, I wil still need to mess around with the smartq but most of the kinks have been ironed out. After that it is anime time, in between feasting for chinese new year. :)

K, gotta go. Back to work, lunch is over. :)

One last test.

This will most likely be my last test for the android ap blogger-droid. I want to see if i can change the default way blogger-droid places multiple images on the page. I liked it that it handled so many photos so well in the "Ministry of Food" post but i didn't like it that it placed them all with paragraph breaks, hence stretching out that post unnecessarily.

For this test i'll try and place 3 randomly chosen images and use the advance editor function and see if i can figure this out by myself first before searching the net to see if there are any instructions or sugestions.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Ministry of Food

Today we had lunch at a Japanese Izakaya styled retaurant called MOF at the new shopping mall Nex. I'm pretty sure the name Ministry of Food was inspired by the dance club Ministry of Sound.

Previous to this visit, we thought that MOF's food wasn't very good or interesting and the only thing worth eating there were their deserts. However, we were wrong because the menu at Nex is quite extensive and different now . They must have expanded or modified their menu as i don't remember it being so interesting at the Bugis Junction branch. The food was actually quite tasty too. Thank you HT for the treat. :)

One more thing, i'm going to post all the photos of food taken at lunch today. I'm still testing the software and i'm interested in how well it handles lots of attached photos. :)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

p.s. I couldn't stand it that my earlier test with blogger-droid laid out all the photos in one vertical row, making this post really long and ugly. Hence, I returned to this post on my comp and made changes to the html so that it's laid out better. :)

テスト 二回 and "magia"

I've just returned home right now and hence have some more time to test out this blogger-droid software a little more. So far it seems to be working better than blogaway which has problems publishing my posts more often than i like.

I have discovered that blogger-droid doesn't like it when i try and edit the post. But this is still better than blogaway which would allow me to edit the post but would destroy the formatting in the process.

Anyway, i thought that since i would like to test how well this software works so that i can decide if i want to purchase it, i might as well change some of the preference settings and write a proper post. :)

So... attached to this post is a scan of an A4 size leaflet announcing the soon to be released anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica. My major interest in this anime is the participation of Kajiura Yuki and Kalafina. Kajiura is the soundtrack composer and Kalafina will sing the end theme of this anime. The title of this track is called "Magia" and i was one of the lucky ones to have heard the song already. This song has not been released to my knowledge and it has only been sung at the lives held in Dec 2010. I received this leaflet at the concert in Dec.

To tell you the truth, i don't remember the song in detail because i was too busy just listening to it. Hahaha... it may sound strange but that's the way i listen to any song, i just listen to it first to see what my general reaction is and then listen to it again if i like it. My first impression of "magia" is that i rather like it. If i remember correctly, it begins with a rousing drum sequence and the song seems particularly suited for Keiko's deeper and more powerful vocals a la Joan Jett, one of my favourite rockers from the 80s. The song seems to be a rock song closer in spirit to Kalafina's song Ongaku which is nice since Ongaku was one of my favourite songs performed at the live. Although "magia" has a heavier beat like Ongaku and some of Kajiura's heavier songs, i do remember thinking that it was still relatively different from most of Kajiura's music with the soaring operatic vocals etc and this was a nice change of pace. Still i will need to hear the song again since once is certainly not enough for me to say anything in detail especially since i was also caught up in the atmosphere in the concert hall and the excitment of being at the live.

I'm not sure how well "magia" will fit as an end theme song for a magical girl anime but it the anime is closer in spirit to Mai Hime, then it may work very well. I am totally looking forward to the release of the song regardless. :)

K, that's it for now. Let's publish to see how well this software works. :)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

テスト

おはいよ！ 今日は新しいsoftwareをテストです。I've been having some trouble with the previous software that i was using to update this blog when updating via android on my motorola milestone. So I have decided to try this new software called blogger-droid and see if it works better.

Yeah, this is pretty much a nothing post. :) I will be posting some photos shot on the milestone using the vignette software to acompany this test post. They were shot in mind for a post on the vignette photo software but i never got around to writing that post. So here they are now. :)

If blogger-droid works well , i may purchase it from the android market to both support the software and get rid of the ads. Let's see how this goes. :)

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

Vignette

For the last month or two, I've been having quite a bit of fun playing with my Android OS Motorola Miletstone phones camera.  Lately, I have been so busy lately with work that I haven't even turned on the Milestone and I only just discovered that the Paid Apps Android Market is now available to Singapore.  Yay.  I promptly bought the full version of the camera application "Vignette" because I use it a lot and I would like to support aps that I use a lot.  I would most likely also get more paid versions of more camera aps and dictionary apps because those are the two categories of apps I use the most on the Milestone.  Now if only Froyo would come to the Milestone in Singapore.  Once that happens and I can move apps to the SD card, I would probably also start getting more apps.

Anyway, this is post is basically just me me sharing my happiness that paid apps are now available in Singapore. =) Also, I crashed out all afternoon on the living room couch and only just got up so am still a little groggy and not ready to begin work.  All those late nights are finally caught up with me. =(

Here are some photos taken on the Milestone using the free version of the Vignette camera application on the Milestone.  When those photos were taken, I had not bought the Vignette app yet.  Actually there are more photos but for some reason blogspot is a little fussy for me today and also I need some time to figure out some issues with blogspot's new way of posting things and placing photos.  It used to be more flexible previous or at the very least, I understood it better. Anyway, maybe next time.

Marina Bay Sands

Marina Bay Sand with the Helix Bridge in the foreground.
(MM -default camera)

I'm a little bored of animating moving pieces of "paper" right now, so I thought I would just post up a couple of pictures of the Marina Bay Sands.  The Marina Bay Sands is one of two recently opened integrated resorts in Singapore.  By the way, even though the wiki article on the "integrated resorts" made some mention that "the opposition took the opportunity to state that he (Lee Hsien Loong) had overruled consensus", I actually remember it being more split right now the middle than "consensus" against the resorts. 

My personal opinion is that if people want to gamble, and people do gamble a lot in Singapore, they don't need the resorts at all.  Tens of thousands travel to Genting, Macau, take the cruises to nowhere, go to the turf club etc etc everyday before the resorts were built and I really don't think that people who did not gamble previously will suddenly want to gamble now because the resorts were built.


(MM - Vignette camera software)

 Whatever your view is of the integrated resorts is, one can't deny that the Marina Bay Sands does look pretty cool.  And I really really really want to swim in that pool up in that boat looking thing because from the advertisements, it really does seem like it'll feel like you're swimming in the sky.

Today, my family made a short trip to check out the walk across the Helix Bridge and check out the Sands.  The Helix Bridge is kind of cool although on a hot day, it could get kind of uncomfortable for those who don't really like the sun.  You also get a great view of Singapore's city skyline from the bridge.  Previously, to get a similar view like that one would have to be on the Benjamin Sheares Bridge or on a bumboat on the river.

We've already been to Resorts World Sentosa which I kind of like, except for the casino part since I didn't enter the casino and don't particularly like casinos.  I want to one day go to Universal Singapore and if I'm lucky, a friend of mine who said he maybe able to score us some free tickets may really be able to get them for us, and that would be way cool.  Resorts World Sentosa kind of reminds me of US strip malls and I like it.

MBS - inside the mall
(MM - Vignette camera software)

Both the Sands and RWS aren't fully opened yet.  Both IRs are staggering the opening of various attractions and shops.  Right now, a good proportion of the shops at the Sands aren't open.  When I went to RWS 2-3 months ago, maybe 1/3 of the shops weren't opened yet and Universal Studios still has at least one ride, I think, that isn't currently open too.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the photos of Marina Bay Sands.  They were shot on the Motorola Milestone using the default camera, Retro Camera software, FX camera software and Vignette camera software.  I have few shots in the Sony Ericsson phone which I might put up later along with shots of Resorts World Sentosa.  This is suppose to be a relatively quick post to break the monotony of doing my homework so I don't really want to spend too much time on the post. :-)

Here are the rest of the photos: