Slave to Atlus

The news.

I swear they can release the same thing over and over again, call it new, and I will still buy every single one of them.

Filed under: Games

Perk #1

One of the few, if not only perk of a 13 hours/day job (10 at work, another 3 at home) is that I get to occassionally rub shoulders with familiar people whom I have befriended on TV.

Professionalism?

More like: Must. Resist. Urge. To. Take. Pictures. With. Them

First week has been super tough, made tougher by my insane expectations. No, much tougher by a peer who is so obviously better at what he does than me. Between peer pressure, the constant stress that a novice should never put on his first ever assignment, and the overwhelming work that prides on its complexity, I am glad my first month ended on a good note.

Filed under: Life

Uplifting?

Pixar fools nobody. Its petty surface about a floating house tied to colourful balloons is a trick no one falls for. Beneath each of the skilled story teller’s colourfully pixelated film is a moving story that ease right at home with the predictable cartoon antics. In Up we get served the usual, though it’s by no means the animator’s best work.

The biggest flaw with the film is that too much of it seems ancillary. It could be the Wall.E effect, where simplicity was the rule of the game, and everything else was readily made redundant. Up seems too caught up in itself, willingly falling into the trap other animators are faulted for- trying too hard to be funny. Though the great opening was salvaged by a somewhat worthy conclusion, the journey there feels too draggy, and at times, noisy.

Still, the emotional story about dreams, told interspersely from the perspectives of a grumpy old man and a (overly) bubbly kid is worth exploring. It just wasn’t as good as it could be. [3.5]

Filed under: Review

Get drunk

Myth has it that a true hangover isn’t exactly best friends with memories. The movie encapsulates this rather well- you wouldn’t recall too much about what was going on in the theatre, but you sure remember well enough to know that it was a joy ride while lasted.

They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Waking up with a baby, a tiger, and a bad headache as an aftermath of a really wild Bachelor’s party, the group traces the steps of the previous night to find the missing groom of a wedding ceremony due in a few hours. It is easy to dismiss The Hangover as flicks like Dude, Where’s My Car and Superbad, movies that thrives on crude, unashamedly in-your-face humour. But what is different about the humour is that it’s done almost tastefully, with much of its references unlost on local audiences.

The Hangover wouldn’t surprise you one bit, and that’s probably the best compliment for it. You wouldn’t get much out of the predictable plot and charming cast that induces laughter so effortlessly, nor would you remember much of it. Not that it matters. [4.0]

Filed under: Review

First sniff of a stress

Friday was a very difficult day for me at work. Having missed 4 days of training prior to it, the bulk of it involving important stuffs on audit procedures, it was tough for me to keep my mind on anything that was taught in class. There are a lot of administrative stuffs to get a hang on, something my less than perfect condition was able to cope. But well, it was all over.

Tomorrow marks my first job at the client’s place. Having not undergone some of the audit training, I don’t feel confident at all, spending part of the weekend speculating on how diasastrous things may turn out. It didn’t help that the course mate paired with me was an ex-intern in the firm, and who seems really accustomed to how things work over here.

Being part of an organisation such as mine makes it inevitable that comparisons are rife, and people are competitive. More often than not, these are where the stress comes from. I need to remind myself that I am my own barometer of success, and to take things slow.

Filed under: Life