Miscellaneous Information: Logitech USB microphones compatible with Singstar

I had previously tried using a Logitech USB microphone included with Karaoke Revolution on PS2 with Singstar on PS2 to no avail so I assumed that this was the case with the PS3; although I had a suspicion that this was not true since PS3 games like Rock Band have been patched to improve hardware compatibility. It turns out that my suspicions were correct! I tried using the standard Logitech USB microphone included with my Guitar Hero World Tour on Wii with my new copy of Singtar Motown on PS3 and it worked! No need to buy a set of Singstar microphones unless I want to stop pursuing a solo singing career! :p

Note that the Rock Band microphones should also work since those are also Logitech USB microphones.

WCCF 08-09 part III

This post is about a defender who was with Arsenal for a long time but left in the summer for Manchester City, Kolo Touré:

WCCF 08-09 part II

My second post about WCCF and this time highlighting Arsenal's main English representative, Theo Walcott:

WCCF 08-09 part I

With the release of newest incarnation of Sega's World Club Champion Football I thought put up some posts of cards from the game. First up the present captain of the best club in the world! Francesc "Cesc" Fabregas Soler:

Test Post

This is the first post from my phone!

N
Sent from my iPhone

Six Films

I used to watch films in the cinema and at home quite regularly but life has often taken precedence in the last few years so it was refreshing to have some time to spend in darkened room over the last couple of weeks! I saw five films and here are my brief reviews:

Iron Man ****
I'm a fan of the character and was looking for to the film so it was a relief that it was not a disappoint. It was your usual Marvel comic book adaptation but there was a surprisingly good amount of humour and a great turn by Robert Downey Jr.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ***
I'm also a huge fan of C.S.Lewis's books and as with the first film this was a disappointment. It is certainly better than the first film but something is clearly missing from the series or perhaps it's nostalgia that's clouding my judgement. For one thing the interpretations of Peter and Susan are different to the way I remember them with the latter being incredibly petulant; perhaps my memory is failing me. On a positive note Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes, who play Lucy and Edmund, are both fantastic and I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of them in Voyage of the Dawn Treader; a book I really loved and remember vividly having seen a stage production as a young boy.

Kung Fu Panda *****
It's a pretty simple film but perfectly executed in every way; it's clearly the most beautifully designed and animated of any of Dreamworks efforts with great slapstick humour. Perhaps one might say it doesn't have a lot there for the adults but do there always have to be knowing references for an animated film to work?

Wanted **
Another simple film, there really isn't much plot but the action is great and very, very violent.

Hancock ***
This film has an interesting premise and plays with it very well for the first half but once the major twist is revealed it starts to loose steam. It is still fun and I found the ending satisfactory but one is left feeling there should have been something more to it; I would normally expect more of a bombastic finale.

The Forbidden Kingdom ****
Jackie Chan and Jet Li face off for the first time and it's a fabulous confrontation. I really enjoyed it eventhough it was a pretty straightforward coming of age tale with an American teenager lead. There were lots of references to Hong Kong martial arts film including in the soundtrack that conjured up images of those films combined with the more theatrical "Crouching Tiger" tunes.

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can...

I've been a fan of Spider-Man for a long time; I started out buying the UK monthly publications in my tweens but they were only compilations of slightly older stories. After finding out about Forbidden Planet in my teens on Tottenham Court Road I started to collect the US publications but in recent times, aside from the films, I've not really followed him. A couple of months ago I stumbled across a clip on YouTube of a Spider-Man cartoon that I'd never before but it turned out that the series was new and had only started in in March. It's called The Spectacular Spider-Man:



In the West, cartoons and comics are seen as childish but in the East both are just another tool for artistic expression. In the East they're better known as anime and manga and they deal with a huge variety of themes for everyone of all ages. I must concede that western perceptions have changed a little over time with the advent of modern comic book movies and the greater exposure of western audiences of Japanese animation and manga.

The series is in a children's TV slot but it is well written and aimed at a very broad audience. The dialogue, ideas and themes can be appreciated by everyone. The series follows Peter Parker's career from soon after becoming Spider-Man and is based on the original comic book stories from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the creators of the character. It's fun to watch with a simplified art style but very fluid animation allowing for very dynamic and energetic action sequences.

If you're a fan of Spidey I would highly recommend checking it out! Personally I think it's much better than the series from the 90s:

Movies to look forward to...Part 1

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I would start with something simple. I'm big fan of Pixar and their new film WALL-E looks particularly good. It looks absolutely gorgeous and the characters seem incredibly likeable from the snippets in the trailers and featurettes:



It also looks like a lot of fun and oddly I feel more anticipation for this new one than I have for previous films from these talents guys and gals. It's out on the 18th of July in the UK.

The Second Coming!! maybe :P

Hey hey fffffiinnally an update!!! lol :P wwweelll I thought it was about time, it's only been like about 2 months since the last one!!! haha Ssooo what's up you ask? Life and all that jazz, I won't bore with the complete run through but I'll try a match of the day highlights like rundown (^_^) Work's been work albite a mite busier than this time last year :S A lot more full days which is good for the company bad for my beauty sleep heh

Been playing a bit of badminton but haven't for the last 3 weeks due to other arrangements. Tennis is pretty good. Almost there, but still need to work on a consistant flat serve and get myself a backhand return :) Weather is getting barmingly hot now and I'm expecting August to be an absolute killer :(

Watched some good movies recently. The first being Die hard 4.0 which was a lot better than I thought it would be (thanks Zulfi for recommending that one :)) ) The second being Harry Potter 5 which was very good I thought. Not much happens but I thought Daniel Radcliffe put in a very good performance and feel he's getting better as an actor.

On to bigger things of which there are four.
1) 1 week in The UK - If you didn't know I had a short stint back in the mother country :)) It was short but sweet. I didn't get meet everyone that I wanted to (due to a few cancellations you know who you are!!! :( ) but the friends I did meet I had a great time with :) It was nice to be home and everything was very nostalgic. I don't know what I was expecting about going home after a year away, but nothing much changed lol A few new licks of paint here and there a building knocked down and a new one put up :)and of course there was the english weather heh I managed to get two and half days of english summer sun which was a result!! the rest of days were the kind of weather that I had grown up with all my life. Grey cloudy and sometimes, not always, wet :P







2)Japanese festival - This is something I didn't get to do last summer. One because I was in Indonesia for a large part of the summer, and two because I didn't have as many friends here in Japan. A year on and I do have a few now :P and so I was able to go to a Japanese summer festival yesturday evening.
A Japanese festival means girls usually dressed up in kimonos or just dressed up, and guys in Yukatas or casual hehe The main event however is the fireworks. A strange concept, fireworks in summer when you're used to seeing them while freezing your butt off outside in the UK winter time heh, but one could get used to it :)) luckly this was one of the times I remembered my camera and remembered to use it lol I had on 'fireworks' mode and the results are quite interesting. Try to work out what the thing is in the centre of the explosions rofl. Unlike the fireworks displays in the UK which last only minutes, Japanese like to go overboard and the thing lasted over an hour amd was almost constant!! very impressed I was :) Needless to say there were a lot if people who came to watch. The roads were full of cars and streets full of people, but everyone was polite and civilised which was lovely to see. Might go to another one if time permits.

3) + 4) Nakashima Spa land and Summer Sonic - The last two titbits are small and so can grouped together. The first is a proposed trip to Nakashima Spa land next week which should be fun. It's a big water amusement park here in Aichi and will no doubt be full of bikini clad girls......not that that's the only reason I'm going :P
Will try to remember my camera for that one ;-P. The second is that I'm going to go to Osaka in August for the Summer Sonic music festival, which is the biggest music festival in Japan. Think Glastonbury but without the rain and mud and set it in the city in sweltering hot conditions lol.
Think that will warrant the bringing of a camera too :P

So that's all folks, guess it'll be another 2 months before another update lol or not.
ja ne

The other Wan :P

Hey hey!! looks who's back!! ^_^
Well not really, still haven't got internet in my new place so I've taken to using internet cafes :) a bit of a drain on the funds but it must be done!
So since I've been away you've all missed out on a few bits and bobs. First we should start with one of the symbols of Japan. Namely Sakura (read previous post for what that means :P) This time around I had some friends to spend this festive event with, and it was a lot of fun :) sitting under the Sakura trees eating food and drinking beer, lots of beer lol The weather was kinda windy which ruined it a little as we couldn't stay out too long, but on the whole a great time was had d(^O^)b
After that there were some goodbyes to say. First was because one of my companies schools closed so I had to goodbye to some students. Not all of them I will miss hehe but here's some pictures of the ones I will.




These two are Riri and Momoko (I just called her Momo :))) ) Riri took a long while to get used to me and at first was hesitant to even come into the room. She would even cry in class occasionally :( but I won her over and after we had a lot of fun. Momo was just great, a keen learner and she had a good memory to boot. A joy to teach and I'll miss them both.

More recently saw the departure of probably my favourite student :( It's the one on the left. Her name is Takako, She's 8 years old and she was in a word perfect :D She was smart always happy and smiley, and she would do what ever you tell her do no questions asked. The perfect student ^_^ She's leaving because soon she will have to get ready for a school entrance exam, plus she has ballet as well so she just won't have any time to study English :( Her mother told me something nice, dunno if it's true, but Takako didn't like studying English before she came to our school :))) Since she's been here she has been with one other teacher than me and I think I7ve had her the longest so I played my part in that :)
From the saddness of goodbyes to the happiness of holidays!!! yeah!! (^0^)/
The week just past was a big national holiday week called Golden week. I remeber last year I didn't get up to much so this year I was determined to do as much as I could!! (with in reason lol) First up were a few parties. One was for the sorry souls... I mean new teachers who joined us this year :P Which was a lot of fun plus it was held near my home so I could walk it back in the morning :))
The second was a house party for all the teachers, new and old.
So what did I do with the rest of the week? Well apart from sleep till midday everyday ;P

I managed to visit the Aquarium!! Very cool! it was serene and peaceful.
The animals and fish were lovely and entertaining. I'll definitely make my way down there again.
And last but not least I finally did it. You know!! If there's one place you gotta go in Japan!! no not Tokyo!! no not Osaka!! :P Kyoto!!! The cultural epicentre of this country! :)) And what a place too! I have to say I wasn't too impressed with the city centre which was very gray and colourless. But once I got out of the centre I really warmed to the place. So what's there in Kyoto? temples!! temples temples temples!! and shrines too ^_^
I visited two temples in my stay. The first was Ginkakujin which is in the north east of Kyoto. The bus was packed silly (as were all buses that day) and took about 40 minutes from the main station to get there. The temple itself is quite big and overall it was pretty good as temples goes.


The second was Kiyomizu which is in the south east. The bus ride took like forever to get there!! The roads were packed to the brim with cars :( When I finally got there I had to walk up quite a long hill to get the temple, but it was worth it ^_^



This temple was a lot bigger than the first and because there was a climb to get the view was absolutely stunning. You can see over most of the city and all the way to the other side where there are some more mountains.




There are quite a few different buildings and there's a nice walk in and then around the back which allows you to get a good view of the whole place.






Overall I really liked the place even though it was packed with tourists lol Will have to make a return trip to see the other 100 temples :P


So that's my lot, back to work next week and we'll see what happens then. Take care all, ja ne.

ooohh one last thing for fans of DAI and Tomiko Ban(she's sssooo fine :D) here's a picture and video taken when she was in Nagoya for a radio interview,laaaattteerss!!


S

Review of Sunshine...

...I found a good review of Sunshine, that includes spoilers, that match my own feelings about the film:

The Register

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Wiiiiiiiii...

A predictable heading but I thought I'd mention that I finally got my hands on a new Nintendo Wii console! It's been a bit of a nightmare buying one in the UK because it's sold out everywhere, including the online stores; as soon as any new stock arrives it's sold within hours if not minutes! In the end I ordered one through Gamestation's online store and using the Wii Pre-Order website; I still have my Comet pre-order and the damned discounted vouchers I planned to use... :S

On the subject of playing the machine itself, it's a lot of fun although there are far too many short and simple games available at the moment. There aren't many titles that you can sink your teeth into aside from The Legend of Zelda (7+ hours in at the moment). Scarily the mushroom in particular appears find the boxing game in Wii Sports very satisfying...

N

Visual Entertainment

Easter weekend was first time in a long time that I've been to see 2 films in the cinema in quick succession. There hasn't really been much on lately so the last time I'd been was when I posted last.

On Friday I watched watched Blades of Glory, a new film from Will Ferrell, and on Sunday I watched Sunshine, a new film from Danny Boyle. Both had pretty good reviews so there was some expectation when the lights went down. Luckily they were both excellent and exactly what I had envisioned. The former being a predictable and silly comedy that didn't cross the line of being just plain stupid; the latter was a very serious and slow science fiction "thriller", although the mushroom would probably question where the thrill was to be found. I've not watched 2001 properly but I would probably compare it with Sunshine in terms of style and pacing.

N

It's about time (^_^)

And so here it is FFFIINNNAALLLYYY!!! another post from yours truely :P
Well I thought it was time, since my last post was way way back when lol
I decided to wait until now to conincide with a very big event for me. Namely moving to a new flat!! wooohhooo!! :)))
Will be moving to a flat in Fushimi which is in the heart of the city. I have a friend who is kindly renting it to me for a lower than normal fee. As you can imagine living in the centre would usually cost a bomb, but not for me hehe :P
Today I've been cleaning and packing. Can't believe how much dirt you can find in a place as small as mine!! rofl :S
Anyway it's as clean as I can get the place without going at the place with a sander and sanding the whole place down!! Packing as well, really can't believe how much stuff you can accumulate in 1 year f(^_^; bemusing!!
So any news? Well there was a certain slightly big event that happened this month.
MY BIRTHDAY!! (^O^)/ which was really cool and managed to spend it with a whole lot of good people I'd met over the year.
Other than that unbelievably it will soon be my 1 year anniversery in Japan!!!
Wow doesn't time fly by heh I've decided to stay another year but will definitely be making an effort to visit the mother country sometime during the year ('_^)
Sakura (cherry blossoms for the unenlightened few :P) will soon be blooming and the sight of drunken Japanese people having picnics in parks will become common place :P Last year I only had Kwok to spend the time with, but this year I have a few groups I can go with, so I'll be able to experiance the phenomenom in its entirety
v(^_^)v
Times a wasting and I gotta have dinner before giving the place another look over. The moving people will be here early tomorrow morning so I need my beauty sleep as well (^^) When I move to my new place I won't have internet access so it'll be quiet from me for while until I do. Or I might be lucky and have an unsecure wireless network near me tum ti tum (^_^) ja ne for now.



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British Films and American TV

Wow it's been a long time since I last posted but I think I'm going to make it a regular task from now on; although the posts will probably be shorter to make the whole thing less daunting!

I saw "Notes of a Scandal" at the weekend starring Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett; an finely acted film, interesting and slightly disturbing. There is a good synopsis and review written by Roo on the British Born Chinese discussion board.

There are a lot of films out at the moment but very few that I think are worth spending £8+ to see at the cinema. One that perhaps might be worth seeing on the big screen is Hot Fuzz; a film from the makers of Shaun of the Dead. I've not the previous film although it looked pretty good; I just haven't got around to it. The new film looks like a lot of fun with some good comedy and action; so something a bit lighter than last weekend's film!

On the TV I'm watching Heroes, a serialized American show about "mutants". It's a bit like X-men, specifically the more serious and realistic storylines from the comics, but without the spandex. It's one of those shows where you are on the edge of your seat and can not wait for 7 days to pass before seeing the next instalment!

N

The dawn of a new age....well a new year anyway (^^)

Happy new year!!
新年快樂!!
Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!! \(^O^)(^O^)/

Sssoo first post of 2007!! wwooohhooo!!! a sad face and wave goodbye to 2006, where a lot of things happened for me. Not least me moving country :P Whats it been now?
9 months going on 10!!! wow time does fly f(^_^;
So how was new years for you?
It was an okay one for me, I was on an island not so far from the one I'm on now. A mite smaller but just as lovely of the name Hong Kong you might know it :)
Was a fun time all in all, spent a lot of time with my family over there. Mainly my cousins who thank whole heartedly for putting up with me before my parents arrived.
Was great to see my parents again and to know somethings never ever ever change hehe.
Bro as well and we just fell into the groove that brothers do, not many words but we know what we're on about lol
As well as people from the same bloodline I alse spent a good amount of time with some friends who had gone over for their holiday. 2 lovely ladys who it was a joy to see again. The first was the camera shy (lol) but delectable Sara (without an 'h') who had to sneak a pic of (not a very good 1 I'll add and she'll kill me later for posting it).
Even though we only met once in 11days (!! (:_;) ) It was still great to see her and talk to her, but the larger part of the time and my phone bill was spent texting her. In proper English text style, which I miss alot since I'm quite the text fiend hehe.
The 2nd of the two ladys was the delightful Ling who I can count as quite an old friend. We spent two sunny talkative days together. The first day we went to the peak, which nearly didn't happen because of silly me going to the wrong station (>_<)
We took the tram up which you can see in the background of the picture with us both in it. The day was quite windy (hence the messed up hairdo) but it was still very popular with us having to wait in a lllllooonng queue for the tram. But it was worth it, it being a very clear day with not a cloud in the sky, we were able to get a great view of place.
After coming down from the top, we had dinner with Lings' 'loving' parents. A private matter not to be divulged on the interent but an amazing insight into another persons life other than your own. I was also able to see the Ling family house in HK which was quite the impressive abode. All white with fish under the floor and a snooker room to boot,sweeet (^^).
After a little stop we then went to find a good place to drink, it was new years eve after all :)
We went to lui yun gai which was overcrowded as expected and then to tsim sa jui (sorry cant spell :(( ) which was just as crowded. In the end new years was an underwhelming affair. Just not the same without seeing someone puking their guts out on the street :P but the atmosphere just didn't feel right, didn't feel like new years :(
The next day we went to Disneyland, which was a first ever for me v(^_^)v. A very nice day and spectuarly hot!! felt like summer!! honestly I got a little of a tan!! :P 'small' was the word used by Ling like a hundred times during out time there, compared to the other disneylands. Their were some nice rides but you got the impression the place was made purely for the younger kids. Highlight was the last show which was a live rendition of the Lion King. An all singing all dancing show which made want to go see the stage show :))The day ended late with us walking and talking into the night. Miss you lots Ling Ling :)
The rest of the days were spent with my parents and family, shopping, eating, walking ,eating some more and of course eating some more again :P So I leave you with some random pictures and some pictures of my last night in Hong Kong spent eating at the Famous floating restaurant.




My cousins (left to right-Jun Bong,Yiw Yun and Kai Hong)




The floating restaurant we ate at, then my mother brother and father in front of said restaurant. Then my ikle cousins left to right, Katie Amy and Jenny :)

Lastly the whole family bar the littleuns (because they were too tired aaww (^^) )
Have a great one!! ja ne


S

So this is Christmas and what have you done.. (^^)

Hey hey look what santas brought ya!!??
An update!!! wwwwoooohhhooo!! aren't you lucky? lol (^^)
So what to say, 9 months in a country I had never been to before.
I don't think I've done too badly :))
This year has been a year of lots of firsts, and next year I think
will be much the same.

One of those firsts being buying myself a
christmas tree, albeit a titchy one :P
There's still so much to see and do I can't even begin. But now is a time of reflection and I can say this has been a great year, I've made
a lot of new friends and had tons of fun even though most of my time spent
here has probably been spent working lol.
Tuesday I'm heading off to Hong Kong, which should be a lot fun. Looking
forward to seeing some familiar faces. I'll be there from the 26th of December
till January the 6th so if your in HK give me a bell, would be great to catch up.






Speaking of HK I need to pack!! rofl ah well. I'll leave you all with a big MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!





and Good night (^_^)










PS miss you all xxxx




S

A Belated Return (^_^)

Hhhheeerrss Simon!! :))))
So finally an update!! and the reason for such a long hiatus? just blame it on old laziness hehe
Also I spend a little more time on these things than your average joe Blog so you feel privileged!!!! lol
Anyway not much in the way of news. So I'll give a round-up of what's been different in the last few weeks.
First thing happened a while back now, but was still
very cool. I went to Tokyo (again!! :P) to see the Tokyo Yonex Japan Open!! Very cool :D It was on a Friday so I took the night bus on Thurday night at 11 pm and got to Tokyo on Friday morning at about 6 am. Man that was a rough journey!! next time I need to bring a pillow!! Was surreal to see Tokyo so early in the morning. Was pratically empty (^^)
Anyway the hall was very nice and quite packed which was suprising, although mostly older viewers I noticed. Here some pictures and video too!!




Got to see Taufik, Lin Dan, and Cai and Yu so I was well chuffed (^-^)
Had to take the Shinkansen back due to having work the next day. Bus is like hlaf the price of the bullet train so if it was possible I would have done that :/
The next week was a busy one, because I only had the one day off. The Sunday was taken up by a spot of teaching training. A tedious affair by all accounts but some nice ideas were given and we made the time fly by with lot of inappropiate jokes :P
That night the other teachers and I spent the night downing beers on school premises haha a good night ruined only by one of the teachers misplacing his ipod video :(((
On to last week and it turned out to be and ok week.
Work was work, Friday I played some Tennis rescheduled from my usual Sunday. The reason? I got to play some Badminton!!! woohoo!! Was so good to play again. Played ok considering I haven't played in so long. Have a mean cross court round the head jump smash now, but the other way is a bit iffy and needs work :/ Also got invited to another Badminton session on Saturday nights by some of the guys, and also to a tournament in November!! Which will be fun to the max!! Playing with an old man so I'll have to play all out and cover all the court but still, fun!! :D
And that's all folks, ja ne from the land of Japan.




S

Some news is better than no news :))

Wwwwwhhaaattt another update!!!??
Yep!! :)) another!! and even though my bro is being a lazy so and so, I am trying at least a little.
So first up anything different to report? well how about a little trip to the Tokyo Game Show!! So this happened last weekend, another teacher named Scott and I ventured all the way to Tokyo for the day to see a lot of gamage and lora lora booth babes!!! Not going to post any pictures here but I've upped a lot of pictures here for your viewing pleasure ;-P http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/4050979
The show was very good and packed to max!! ssssooo many people!! you wouldn't believe!! Much to mine and Scotts' disappointment Nintendo didn't make an appearance :((( although some games were there and we were able to see the machin in action, we weren't able to get hands on it and test it out gggrr!!!
Here's a video of a Nintendo wii game called elebits, a wacky game that has you searching you surroundings for little aliens called elebits:

So though we were a little disappointed we were cheered up up by the many many many booth babes :D (see link above) All of which were absolutely gggoorgeous and kawaii as well.
Apart from that not much else to say, apart from a change in schedule this month.
I've mentioned before my problem class was a group of kids in a school in Mikawa Anjo. Well I've been booted out of that school and moved to a school closer to home.
I've been told it's because one of the mothers asked for a different teacher and my boss in the end said yes. On the one hand I'm happy not to face that class again, although it was only the one boy who was annoying, and if he wasn't there I'm sure it would have been fine. On the other hand I'm disappointed not have to have had a chance to work it out. I'm a kind of guy who likes to finish what he starts and doesn't like things half done :/ and a big blow for me is that two of my favourite classes were at that school. A kids class and a high school one both of which I enjoyed teaching immensely. So I'll finish with some pictures from my last day at Mikawa Anjo School:
- The lovely receptionist Kazuko
- Sweet highschooler Natsuki
- Funny and cute Kanako
- My favourite class, from the back Rina,Chihiro,Reo and Yugo. Cute and sweet and all smart to boot a perfect mixture and fun to teach.
- The problem class, from the front Hikari, Konamu and Rena were very nice kids just Kosuke in the back who was a pain
And finally a group of very nice housewives




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