Ieiri Leo ~ WE ~ new album announce & some random updates fr me

Ieiri Leo has just announced the release of her fourth album. :)  YAY!!
What makes me super happy is that the Limited Edition will contain 50mins worth of live footage from her Two Colors concert at Zepp Diver City in Feb this year.  And best part about this is that I was at that live!! :)



Actually, earlier on... about a week or so, Kalafina also announced the release of their new single "Blaze" which is the new theme song for the new season of Arslan Senki.  Yes, I didn't write about it on the blog. :(

So I eat the Kalafina Christmas cookie on the 3rd day of CNY

Hahaha.... that title for this blog post is the best that I can do. :P  I have no talent for writing titles.  It must be why I don't write for a living. :)

Well, so it's the third day of Chinese New Year or the Lunar New Year as it's known in some other parts of the world, and I will have to return to work today.  It has been a relatively long and very good break from work and I would be lying if I said that I can't wait to return.  Since the restructuring at work, I think none of us who remain really feel like going to work anymore.  The trip to see Kalafina four times live and Ieiri Leo live once in Japan couldn't have come at a better time.  I really needed to escape from reality and although this trip wasn't planned at a time when I felt like I needed to run away for a while, it was timed perfectly for it.

But it's the third day of CNY and most of us will return to work today because we only get two public holidays for CNY.  So no matter how much I would like to avoid the changes and the stark reality that many of those that I have worked side by side with for years are no longer there, I must go back to it and face it head-on because one cannot escape forever.

Hence, on the third day of CNY, I decided I needed to eat something sweet and something that would cheer me up.  Unlike Keiko, who only needs a cheery "good morning" to change her mood for the day, today requires much stronger medicine than that.  So with Kalafina's music playing in the background and steaming hot coffee in my cup, I eat their Christmas cookie on the 3rd day of CNY. :)

Kalafina ~ Animax Musix at Yokohama today & other rambling thoughts

ANIMAXコラボは、なんと！！Kalafinaさんと『Light My Fire』を歌いました！！めっちゃハモってもらった〜♡最高に楽しかったでーす♪ by-KOTOKO #animaxmusix pic.twitter.com/6eZl6RF0S4
— KOTOKO (と、極まれにTマネ君。) (@KOTOKO_Mgr) November 22, 2014

Kalafina performed at Animax Musix in Yokohama this afternoon where they collaborated with KOTOKO to sing "Light My Fire".  KOTOKO posted a photo of herself and Kalafina together backstage.  :)

Ultimate Madoka & various ramblings

Sooooo tired and only just managing to keep up with my Kajiura Yuki / FictionJunction /Kalafina obsession on the trains by reading tweets that are often beyond my Japanese reading capability.  :P This, however, I have to share because the box that Ultimate Madoka came in is like HUGE!!!!!!!



Ultimate Madoka is finally in my hands. :)  To save on shipping, I had this figure shipped to my friend in Japan and it was sitting there in her home for sometime till she was ready to return to Singapore.  Then this friend hand carried Ultimate Madoka from Tokyo to Singapore where she passed it to another friend who passed it to her friend to drop it off at my place of work. And this was how this really awesome figure landed up in my hands. :)

I am really very fortunate.  This box is HUGE and for my friends to take so much effort to get her safely to me... I am really grateful and touched. :)

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.... I miss Japan.... I miss my friends... I miss going to Kajiura Yuki's and Kalafina's lives.... but I must resist... must save money.... maybe I'll make it in the 3rd quarter of the year and will be able to a live then. I almost can't bear to read any news on Kajiura Yuki's vol.10 live... sigh... there is no way I can go to that live. :(

Ah well... I have been putting in a lot of weekend work at the office so I will probably be able to put some of that money away for what I hope will be my 7th trip to Japan and what I hope will also include either Kajiura Yuki's or Kalafina's live. :)  It seems like my year isn't complete without a trip to see either one of them in concert in Japan. :D

Also on the happy side, my really difficult prep shot is looking quite good and I've began work on another prep shot and have another challenging one coming up after that.  Lots of busy days at the office coming up... but it's been good for me so far... I know that I am learning a lot and I will come out of this gruelling period stronger and better than before. :)

For now though... time for bed again... tomorrow it's another working day. :)

ps. for those of you who may want to get this figure... here is the CDJapan link... CLICK ME... it maybe a good time to take advantage of a weaken Yen to do some shopping in Japan... checking the cost of shipping carefully tho' ... this box is huge which may make shipping potentially expensive.

Ganbarimasu!!

I'm on my 23rd straight day of work and to tell you the truth, I'm being to really tire. This morning, I woke up and kind of got all moody about having to work so I think this tweet from Kajiura Yuki is kind of timely for me. :)  That's of course if I read it correctly... hahaha...  I'm completely lagging behind my entire class in Japanese now.  My brain is bursting to the seams with trying to use my currently still limited knowledge of Nuke to do my shot, as well as, trying to keep up (or rather catch up) with my Japanese studies.

Yesterday... it was not a very good day for me at work.  Nothing happened... but I'm beginning to get discouraged and beginning to think maybe I'm just not cut out for this at all.  No matter how much effort I put in... that shot I've been working on just seems riddled with problems.... sigh...

BUT it's okay... Kajiura Yuki's tweet makes me think... yeah... I'll just keep pushing on... someday I'm sure to make it even if I falter a little at times. :)

ただ、人の「成長力」ってすごいなって。それぞれのペースに差はあっても、努力を怠らなければ人は必ず進化し続ける事が出来るんだって、当たり前のようでとても尊い事を改めて学ばせて貰った気持ちでおりまする。私ももっともっと頑張らなきゃ……と思いつつ、お休みなさい！ヽ(*^^*)ノ
— 梶浦由記 Yuki Kajiura (@Fion0806) February 4, 2013

I like reading Kajiura Yuki's tweets.  A lot of times, it's way above my Japanese reading capabilities.  But I know I'm getting a lot better at it even though I have to check the dictionary and the internet a lot. :)

In short, Kajiura Yuki says here that a person's potential for growth is amazing.  And even if there is a difference in pace, if we make the effort, we can certainly keep evolving. Then I think she talks about re-learning stuff and  having to do her best.  And finally ends of with a "good night". :)

Nice tweet... we must work hard in order to realise our potential but we also must rest.  Today... I go back to work to try and learn and keep evolving.  Then tonight... I will rest. :)

No work this weekend, maybe I'll have more time for the blog too. :)  Off to work.... 行ってきます!!! :)

on the way home

This is one of those nothing posts I make occasionally. :) Am finally on my way home after a long day at work. Today was a good day in general though. Today's OT was voluntary actually, as I wasn't actually doing work.

Some time ago I had missed a huge training session on Nuke and that missing knowledge plus some very tiring days at work has kind of slowed my growth as a vfx artist, I think. I was getting somewhat concern that I was unable to progress further or faster despite my coming in on several Saturdays.

So in the end, I decided to ask one of my colleagues for help and he kindly agreed to stay behind to teach me the stuff I missed during that missed training session. This colleague is one of my seniors, hence, he was able to unravel several very confusing Nuke scripts and teach me what my supervisor was trying to do in those scripts.

It was pretty awesome and I am really happy to have learnt so much tonight. So even though I am really tired now, I wanted to just note this little milestone in my journey towards becoming a compositor. :)

Please excuse that not terribly nice photo. :) I was walking and there wasn't a lot of light, hence, the blur and the grain. But I didn't want to post without a photo, so I took a photo of my surroundings as I walked towards the train station. :)

K... time for me to relax on the train... maybe snooze a little. :)

Take That!!!

Actually, I've not been the best of moods these two days.  Kind of annoyed with all the anger all around me and social media's and the internet's role in promoting unrest and taking intolerance to another level.

I'm a moderate and extremism on either end of the spectrum is extremely distasteful to me.  Unless it's talking a lot and with great passion about the happy things in life and about things that you like etc etc. :D

Yeah, so I posted a slightly bad tempered two word post on Facebook this morning... and NO... it's not the most over used 2 words in the history of mankind. :)  I posted "hates hate".  Yes, I really dislike it that people seem to think that it's okay to hate that idiot in Norway for indiscriminatly killing so many people just cuz he was pissed with the way things are run, BUT yet at the same time, these unhappy people take every opportunity to generalize and write hateful stuff about the "FTs" in Singapore.  I really hate the use of those two letters now and how people use it the same way some racist person uses derogatory words.  This really bugs me, this increase of intolerance in Singapore and how people, even people I like, get carried away by it all and start bashing people every time the opportunity crops up.

If you ask me, I won't be surprise if someday we'll see someone like Anders Behring Breivik in Singapore.  While the Singapore "Breivik" may not be someone who hates muslims (amongst other things), he would be someone like him.  Someone who thrives on hate, someone who is so arrogant as to think of himself as the ONE who will bring about change, someone who's actually not had such a terrible life but who is unwilling and unable to see that they're the lucky ones.  Yeah, he'll be someone like Breivik, he'll hate the government no matter what they do and he'll blame the government, the foreigners and whoever does not agree with him for his own miserable existence.
 
It didn't help that while looking for news on Kalafina, cuz it usually makes me happy, I find some really annoying blogposts where people bash the separate members of Kalafina.  Wakana's and Hikaru's fans bash Keiko cuz supposedly Keiko's fans started it first.  And now, since Wakana's and Hikaru's fans have been ultra mean to Keiko, Keiko's fans will be meaner to both these singers to even things of.... blah blah blah.  Truth is, I don't know and don't care who started what first.  Since when has tit for tat been a good thing? :( [note to self: stick to youtube / tudou music videos, interviews etc - not much bitchness there]

Yeah... that didn't work... I was at work, doing a training shot, without much knowlege of what the hell I was trying to do, with too little sleep, too much junk food in my system and so much annoyance from idiot friends I feel like unfriend-ing several on FB and NOW... even my usual "kalafina-bring-me-sunshine" method was an epic fail. :(

Good thing there is still Mai Hime.... watching all those fight scenes makes me HAPPY.... hahahaha... I sound like a blood thirsty freak.  But this is a way healthier way to take out one's agression in my opinion.... watch fictional characters beat the crap out of each other... now what could be more emotionally healthier than that. :D

Here... I leave you with Natsuki vs Mikoto from Ep 1.  And may the rest of my day be a peaceful and happy one. :D

ps. And btw, I'm a tyrant... leave any messages in the comments section which I find annoying... I will delete.  This is my blogspot and there is no such thing as free speech here.