Archives For October 2009

Multiple Yu Aoi post day!
ending the month with 85 posts!

As you know (most people anyway) Yu pimps Kirin beverages. She’s been feature in a full series of Kirin Tea… “Afternoon Black Tea” and other tea-related beverages. One of the commercials that was released this past October was this cute one with the dancing xD

on Tudou.

Dancing and smiling Yu to make your day a happy one. xD

Bunch of other Kirin CMs below the break

To be honest, I do drink tea all day. Not Kirin, not sold locally. xD

Playlist is here.

I ran into this video, which is a fan-made video without label that made me think it was almost a real video, if I hadn’t seen the original video from which the Yu Aoi footage comes from. LOL

Ikimono-gakari‘s Sakura ~2007 version~ (single was released in 2006).

[iframe src=”https://player.56.com/v_MzI5NTkxNjc.swf” width=”480″ height=”405″]

I really like the song, so I will check out their discography~

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Once again, no subs ;P
But you can still enjoy the interview.

If I ever meet Yu-chan, I want her to introduce herself.
It’s so adorable every single time she introduces herself, something about the way she says her name with the combination of “minna-san” xD “minna-san, Aoi Yu desu~” xD

The Web to Go Non-Latin

October 30, 2009 — 2 Comments

I was watching the news last night, and they began talking about the decision of the ICANN to implement non-Latin characters on domain names. What that means? In short, for us Asian entertainment fans, it means loads of Asian groups and musicians will be dishing more money to buy those domains for themselves.

Since I’m listening to Lee Hyori’s albums at the moment, I’ll take her as example. Let’s pretend that M-Net Entertainment had bought LeeHyori.com and Lee-Hyori.com, net, co.kr, etc — which they didn’t, IDIOTS — well, now they will have to dish more cash to buy 이효리.com, 이효리.net, 이효리.co.kr, etc.

Everyone is making a big fuzz on the news, and CNN is being particularly stupid about it wondering what Latin-alphabet-users like us will do to enter those address. The ICANN representative finally told it like it is, why would a person who CAN’T read Japanese, who CAN’T read Korean, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, etc would enter a website with a non-Latin URL?

I, on the other hand, think that this decision is just to cash in some more bucks, this time on the other side of the world. After all, these other companies who already own their Latin URL will also have to buy their non-Latin version. I mean, it would be a revolution if this Non-Latin implementation would let me type 可口可乐.com and would automatically open the website of Coca Cola China, without the need to buy that domain in addition to pay for coca-cola.com.cn, right?

Big money suckers!

You know when you’re young, and you’re with your friends hanging out when your parents arrive. They try to be cool, and talk to your friends about the time when you were a kid… about the most embarrassing or bizarre things~ Or they feel it’s appropriate to tell your friends about when you were a baby, and feel the need to tell the story graphically, so they decide to take the family photo album out and show them photos of yourself probably naked and being all baby cute? xD

Well, we’re playing that role today, since we seem (at least I) to know nothing about Yu’s parents and overall family — though I’m pretty sure she has an older brother.

Anyway, Acerk found a video of Yu playing games.

I’m not sure what it is, if it’s a game show or what… but I’ve been suspecting is a clip of her work as an OHA Girl for Tokyo TV’s OHA SUTA… but that’s just a theory of mine. It just reminded me of those clips I saw of the show in search for one of Yu.

I’m pimping out…

October 29, 2009 — Leave a comment

So I added more banners. I joined the HMV Hong Kong affiliates program since I seem to talk a bit about Chinese Music, and I also joined the YesAsia.com one. I also have an Amazon.com if you haven’t noticed. So you know, if you are buying anything in any of those, just follow those links, even if you’re not buying the stuff I’m suggesting, anything you buy when following those links, will go to supporting this site out. =D

And you know, I’ll click yours if you click mine xD – I’m talking about those ads too.

So here you go, you can pre-order the new Crowd Lu album over at HMV HK only 13bucks! Actually, cheaper than YesAsia, right? xD YesAsia’s affiliate program is a bit messy, even though they’re trying not to. They work with ShareSale.com which lets you link with a whole bunch of other ads… problem is, Amazon.com Affiliates works better. They let you link to specific products… I tried using their product links, but they just show a whole bunch (over 6000 products) with no way to search for the items I want to get.

HMV HK doesn’t seem to practical either, but at least it lets me link to specific products easier than the ShareSale system. Hmm… what do YOU know, I ended up making affiliate programs reviews~~~ LOL

Amazon and Google work better, because it just takes a few minutes to understand their interface and how they work. They make it easier to grab code and link to their items. ShareSale’s interface is a mess, everything is everywhere and it’s tough to find an specific item. HMV HK makes it easy to find an item to link to, but it makes you save the graphics (or even make your own) on your own server. Not practical. Tsk Tsk. Tut Tut.

Was this announced before? Because I remember talking about Yu with Vogue for some November issue.

vogue-nippon-women-2009

From left to right – Ai Tominaga, Yu Aoi, Yukie Nakama, Shinobu Otake, Yayoi Kusama, Rie Miyazawa, Aya Ueto, Yukiko Motoya, and Ai Sugiyama

I’m not sure if it’s a women of the year, or the decade though xD
but I’m so happy for Yu (though not sure, since she didn’t have many projects out this year), and Happy Yu is so cute because you can’t help but smile when you see that smile.

vogue-women-yu-aoi-4 vogue-women-yu-aoi vogue-women-yu-aoi-2 vogue-women-yu-aoi-3

Check out the MyCom Journal Gallery [jp], Oh No They Didn’t,
and a full Yu gallery over at Walkerplus!

Is Sci-Fi Also Doomed?

October 29, 2009 — 2 Comments

I watched District 9 yesterday, and I enjoyed it a lot. Actually, I watched Moon this past weekend as well, which was also pretty great. However, I had noticed that I had previously marked both films as “not interested“. Why? Actually, because I marked most films that way, unless I’m already interested. But this also made me think about the films I’ve watched this past year, and which ones I’ve enjoyed the most.

I’ve never followed Star Trek, but I admit I enjoyed watching the film this year.

And on a similar topic, I finally finished watching Battlestar Gallactica Season 1. LOL

But why do I seem so reluctant to watch Sci-Fi? Yes, it’s the nerd tag… I guess. I think my mother puts it best — She’s not interested in aliens, in other worlds, or UFOs — I think I’ve had the notions that Sci-Fi was just escapism, and it is in some of the films, but some of my friends (some sci-fi and comic book lovers) have taught me and made me understand that Sci-Fi can be so much more. And I do love a good drama.

But in the end, people don’t really listen.

My cousin, yes… that same one that told me Love Happens was money well spent, HATED District 9. Her brief Facebook status read something like “District 9, sucks! Badly…” and it got a bunch of comments including mine asking whether to believe her or not, considering she liked Transformers 2 (So good, she said), to which she replied “aliens!? c’mon>>>> no more comments“. LOL – The fact that she thought the idea of aliens is ridiculous should have hinted that she shouldn’t have picked District 9. Actually, she told me she didn’t wanna watch Inglourious Basterds either, to which I fainted. xD

What is good sci-fi? My friend made me sit in front of my computer screen (we haven’t seen each other since we graduated) and told me I was wrong. He told me Good Sci-Fi is Good Drama, you get social commentary in the form of metaphor and you can place those stories in the real world. Good Sci-Fi is about the characters… much more than the universe created. He is the same friend who made me watch Firefly. Yes, that same sci-fi show that my sci-fi-hating mom loved to watch.

So if you’re not sure you like sci-fi, you can give Firefly a try.

Good Sci-Fi is also not about how high-end and kick-ass your special effects are. It’s not about how many explosions you can get on screen at the same time. It’s not about how cool your props look like.

As we see on Moon, it’s almost as if this sci-fi world becomes a character piece in which the main character talks to himself and re-discovers himself in the process. About his daughter, about his wife, about his work. The miniature models are far from the high-end spectrum of regular CGI effects, yet hold this charisma or perhaps it’s nostalgia.

On District 9, what could have been an alien invasion film with explosions where people save the day turns into a film where aliens live in slums among us, as big corporate heads try to find the way to use their bio-technology weapons and think they can get away with it when one of their workers begins changing. The character sort of begins a transformation worthy of Kafka, in which he starts becoming more a “monster,” but in reality human beings are the monsters. It’s sad.

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Designed in Taiwan by 25togo,
look at this cute bag. LOL The Kidult way!
Only around 28 bucks~~~
**I screwed up my math. according to their email it’s $110 per bag.
Conversion rate is around 6 or 7 Yuan per dollar.
I just emailed them to see if they ship international.

envelope-messenger-bag-25togo

Kidult is a word composed by kid and adult. It is an advertisers’ creation, for they are the ones who often invent new expressions to indicate groups of people. Kidults are adults who still take care of their child side, that is, their need to have fun, publicly and without fear.

I buy some toys, like fun stuff, watch (sometimes) Cartoon Network and keep updated with cartoons. I buy character t-shirts, and games (still no one to play MAD GAB with), and a kid all around. xD

That Was It for This Is It

October 28, 2009 — 1 Comment

I’m an MJ fan, I really am. I bought my copy of HIStory when I was around 10 — the first ever album I received as a birthday gift from my parents — and I’ve been fascinated as a kid since I saw him vanished as golden sand on the Remember the Time music video.

I was a bit hesitant to watch this because I knew tickets had been on pre-sale for a month, and I’m not the type to compete for tickets. After all, they did advertise “for two weeks only.” I checked schedule online only to find the 11pm shows listed ONLY, so I was pissed. I thought that they were not showing this for two weeks only, but also showing it on midnight shows ONLY, so I went to the theater to watch District 9 instead… to find out there were other times for This Is It — so I watched both.

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