Monday, December 31, 2012

Apocalyptic Roundup: The Best of the Year which Didn't End

I guess the world didn't end, so I've got to write this. Here's to 2012, one of the best years I've had so far!


1. The Totally Awesome Birthday Surprise
For the first time in my life I had a surprise birthday party, and it was mine. Thanks to my parents, who outsourced the idea to Xi Min, who organized it, you sly old codger you; and thanks again to everyone who came down and played hilarious Pictionary on disposable paper table tops late into the night!

2. ORD LOH
I've done my sentence, but committed no crime. After two years of learning how the world really works, I come back out into the world with this inane notion that things will be different. I am proven both right and wrong. Nevertheless, I am overjoyed to be out, and so happy that like alcohol at the airport, I'm duty-free!

3. The Japan Trip
Oh man, this is going to be one of those highlights of my life that I'll look back on when I'm 60 and tell my grandchildren about. This was such an awesome trip in an amazing and beautiful country. I saw so many new and different things, tried many new kinds of food I never would have tried back home, and met so many amazing and friendly people. I am definitely going back sometime in the near future, but I am very thankful I had the opportunity to visit a different part of the world.

4. Experience Yale-NUS Weekend
I found out that I got accepted into Yale-NUS while I was in Japan, and once I got back I immediately had a two-day stayover camp to experience Yale-NUS. And I have to say that I was completely sold by that experience. Not because of the professors, or the deans, or the admissions officers; but because of the people, the bunch of amazing and wonderful and overall human people that I met that night. I had the most enjoyable conversation through to 4am that I have ever had while I was awake.

5. The Intern Life
Working at Yale-NUS has been like, the best job I have ever had. My office is just full of wonderful people, insane in their own ways, but it makes going to work fun and exciting. My colleagues are more than colleagues; they're friends as well, and I know I'm going to be really sad come next year when I have to be a student and not an intern anymore. But in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy every day of work I have, giving tours, ordering mugs, making designs, reading articles and sitting at the coffee table, laughing and chatting.

6. Licence to Drive
I guess I'm more grateful for this than other people might be, because it took three tries and enough money for a trip around the world to get a small plastic card which society decides is the only way you can be certified of piloting a four-wheeled automobile worth a hundred times as much. I do think that I'm one of nature's pedestrians though, and considering all the traffic on the road, I'd rather take the bus.

7. Singapore Toys, Games and Comics Convention 2012
I don't recall this year's STGCC being as awesome as previous years'. Nevertheless, I had a good time wandering around the comics stands, and was quite happy to find some of the titles I was looking for. I also remember some of the best cosplays this year, including a Power Girl, a Poison Ivy, and an awesome dude who did a very simple, yet very effective Clark Kent/Superman.

8. Anime Festival Asia 2012
I enjoyed this year's AFA more than the previous years', perhaps because I knew a lot more and could recognise a lot more things. Madoka movie was excellent. Cosplays were generally really good as well, but it reminded me that there is a lot more in that world that I don't know. I think what I really enjoyed most was the concert; I knew more of the artistes performing, like fripSide and LiSA (LiSA!!!), and I even managed to get into flow's songs, even though they were at the end and I was exhausted by then. I got my dose of orange Mirai-ness, so I'm quite happy.

9. The Team Fortress Photo
If there was anything that was as exciting as it was frustrating this year, it was this. Try getting a bunch of people to come together in a virtual world, where everyone is able to kill everyone else, and get them all to stand together to take a photo, without killing anyone. What should have been a fifteen-minute shoot ended up being a two-hour ordeal (STOP KILLING THE PHOTOGRAPHER DAMMIT), but in the end it was a great screenshot at the crossroads of our lives, where we couldn't all play together at the same time.

10. The Girl in the Red Dress
Last of all, here's to that girl in the red dress who I brought on tour around RC4, whose mysterious smile sparked something in my heart; thanks for suggesting to me that maybe, sometimes, there might be such a thing as "love at first sight".



The Year in Entertainment

Anime: Baka no Test no Shokanjuu, Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari, Steins;Gate, Kanon, Infinite Stratos, Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero, Carnival Phantasm, Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie

I finally finished watching both seaons of Baka Test and they were hilarious. I didn't they could build on the stupidity and running gags of season one, but they did. Both Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari were mind-melting surrealistic mythological mashups which had really, really nice animation. Steins;Gate was a good time-travel story; Suzuha obviously best character. Infinite Stratos was a waste of perfectly good technology for an international harem. Fate/Zero was AWESOME, and is totally worth being outcast as an otaku for. Carnival Phantasm was another surrealistic comedy; I got the parts which involved Fate characters but didn't understand much of the Tsukihime references (race episode is BEST EPISODE). Finally, the rewatch of Madoka in the form of the movie was undeniably brilliant.

Books: Terry Pratchett's Bromeliad trilogy, Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan trilogy, Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex, Misha Glenny's McMafia, DC's Final Crisis and Final Crisis: Aftermath

I finally cashed in on my Kinokuniya membership and bought Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan, Behemoth and Goliath, and again I marveled at a world so fantastical yet utterly believable and amazing. Deryn is a tsundere. I borrowed the latest Artemis Fowl book, and I didn't feel it was as good as the earlier books, but an interesting continuation of the Artemis saga nevertheless. I also borrowed McMafia, the only book on this list which is non-fiction, and though I haven't finished it yet and the narrative weaves in confusing and not-easy-to-follow ways, it's provides fascinating insights to the global network of organized crime. I finally finished DC Comics' Final Crisis even though I'm still missing the last Countdown to Final Crisis book (curse you, frantic apocalypse hoarding). And Terry Pratchett once again produces a brilliant story laced with satire and symbolism in the form of four-inch-tall creatures, who are perhaps more human than they appear.

Movies: The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Les Misérables

All those years of fanboying finally paid off in this year's releases of The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. Looper was a decent time travel action story, but in the end the grandfather paradoxes just messed with my brain too much. I finally watched Les Misérables in its entirety, and I must say that the music is good, Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway are awesome but Russell Crowe can't sing for nuts.

TV Shows: The Batman

I managed to get my hands on all five seasons of The Batman somehow, because I wanted to rewatch it for the epic reimagining of some of Gotham's iconic villains. Even to the end of Season 5, where I think Batman's integration to the Justice League wasn't very well done; the villains still stole center stage. The show boasts the best Joker voice behind Mark Hamill, the best Riddler and the best Mr Freeze and the best... well, all the villains, actually.

Music: Kurt Schneider mashups, Lindsey Stirling, The Sing Off, Gangnam Style, Les Misérables, Book of Mormon, Matilda the Musical

Kurt Schneider stepped up his game this year with a number of awesome mashups with other start-up artistes, most notably Victoria Justice and Max Schneider's Maroon 5 medley and that beautiful mashup of Payphone and Call Me Maybe. Lindsey Stirling wins my Pretty Musician of the Year award this year by really just producing great music, from the Skyrim theme to her African rendition of Rihanna's We Found Love. The Sing Off, the a capella American Idol, was a beautiful find near the beginning of the year, and still never ceases to amaze me. Gangnam Style gets special mention, because it's rare that a song enthralls the entire world in such a fashion. In musical news, I love Thérnardier's song Master of the House, because it's just so witty and rhymey and unserious about itself. Matilda the Musical I chanced upon because it's got lyrics written by Tim Minchin, and it's pretty good, though I don't understand the story much because I don't think I ever read Rohl Dahl's Matilda. Finally, The Book of Mormon takes centre stage as Best Hilarious-M18-Feel-Good-Religious-Satire Musical of the Year.

Games: Sid Meyer's Civilizations V, Borderlands 2, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bioshock, BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, DC Universe Online, Dungeon Defenders, Super Monday Night Combat

I think Bioshock is one of the best games ever made: excellent story, animation, immersion and gameplay. I'm about halfway through Skyrim right now and it's been excellent as well; what I love about it so much is that there's always something new to discover, and the quests are immersive and the world is richly detailed and designed. Civilizations V, I never would have imagined, is actually uncontrollably addictive; and it's very interesting and educational (though very complicated) as well. BlazBlue is probably one of the first few games I've tried to pick up properly, but I still can't play any character other than Noel Vermillion, who is so freaking adorable. I found DC Universe Online to be amazing in terms of gameplay and execution, and the fanboy in me just loves recognizing all the characters; but because of the lag I couldn't really play it well. Dungeon Defenders had a pretty interesting concept: a tower defence and first-person shooter hybrid; levels made it a grinding game though, but it was pretty fun. Super Monday Night Combat was my first foray into other online shooters after Team Fortress 2, and it was another hybrid game: a first-person shooter and Multiplay Online Battle Arena (DotA) hybrid. It was a pretty cool concept, but again, people just became noob-haters and I gave it up. Finally, Borderlands 2 is pretty awesome; the developers kept everything good about Borderlands and threw in some new stuff (like an engaging plot) to make the game just so much more awesome.

YouTube: Two Ronnies, Thank God You're Here!

Thank God You're Here is an improv-type show where they throw actors into a scene they've never seen before, and they have to (to put it bluntly) bullshit their way through the performance. It's based on an existing improv-game, but of course blown up and embellished for a television audience. It's brilliant fun, but of course look for the Australian run of the show because it's hilariously better, and it ran for way more seasons. Also, I've been watching a lot of Two Ronnies sketches lately, and they're mostly side-splitting. It is sad though to see how they've aged; the fat one lost so much weight and the small guy grew fat. Nevertheless, their material is pure gold, one of the best the British comedy machine has ever produced.

-----

Well, that's it for 2012. It was such a nice number, too, for a year. Guess the Mayans long counted wrongly. Oh well, onward to lucky 2013!

Happy New Year!
The Edna Man

Friday, December 14, 2012

Intoxicating

I don’t drink. Not by a long shot.

I’ve never really enjoyed the taste of alcohol. It’s the same reason I’m not fond of chilli. How can the masochistic infliction of pain on one of the most crucial and sensitive parts of your body be considered culinary? I can see why you might want to drink it, perhaps in the coldest winters when a long pull of vodka will put fire in your belly and hair on your chest. But otherwise, you’re throwing a caustic liquid down your alimentary canal – how does that even make sense?

But let’s ignore the taste for a while. Let’s say they manage to invent an alcohol which is tasteless, or you take it intravenously. It should be fine if you ingest small quantities – I had half a glass of wine yesterday, and nothing happened. Sure, small doses of red wine are supposed to be an excellent antioxidant and help your heart and whatever.

But yesterday was my first time seeing people truly intoxicated, and it… terrified me. I saw how it really lowers your inhibitions and, perhaps, clouds your judgment. It honestly scared me.

I believe that every single human being on the planet has a tremendous capacity for evil, existentially speaking. I don’t see it as much as an “original sin” thing as much as it is a “human nature” thing. It’s just how we are, regardless of the existence of a divine presence or not. And one of the reasons we’re not rampantly killing or murdering people in the street every day is because we have a socially-constructed set of rules and regulations with enable the conscious mind to act within a generally accepted, lowest-common-denominator standard of insanity. (And it never works all the time, even when people are sober.)

And then alcohol comes in like a sneaky joker in a game of cards. The “get-out-of-jail-free” of life, but instead of jail, it’s social conventions. And you lose control one of the most important things in life: your mind. You take the backseat in your brain and put a bottle of whiskey in front of the wheel, and expect him to make it out of the inner-city maze of the social commute when that bottle knows all the theory but has never seen a car.

It’s like your consciousness is the single guardian of all the screwed up stuff in that Pandora’s box of murder, rape, pillaging and queue-cutting that we call our heads. And when you down six shots in a row, you give him a day off and tell him to come back tomorrow. How do you rationalize that kind of thing?

You can’t, because you’re drunk.

Soberly,
The Edna Man

Friday, December 07, 2012

Photogenetics

So today I had my first photo shoot.

No, I didn't go taking pictures of cosplayers with a tripod and wide-angle lens. I was the one being shot at.

I still don't know why my boss picked me to be in the shoot, since, you know, I have a face that launched a thousand ships. Away. Fleeing in terror at the sight of my horrific visage. But I was chosen, so there you go. I'll be plastered all over the official documents, student handbooks, curriculum guides...

I get why people want to be models now. You don't really have to do anything much, just act natural and listen to the photographer's instructions. Not really a very tough job. Of course, it might be different in the fashion industry or something. I don't know.

But yeah, I basically got paid to hang out with my friends for a day. And stare awkwardly into their eyes.

Developing,
The Edna Man