Back in Brunei!

Hello readers!

This is a quick update to just say that I'm back in home sweet home, Brunei! I reached yesterday and am still getting used to it abit (not to mention passing out this afternoon as my bed was too comfy >.>) I also passed out in the first half of the flight as I was playing LoL all night long in my little hotel room in Heathrow airport :>

Then after a 15 hour flight with a 1 hour transit in Dubai, I'm here and man I don't know but Brunei is hotttttttttttttttttttt :< I'm missing the free airconditioning in the UK already! Also missing my Shin D:... Hopefully I can Skype with her tomorrow morning as I have to wake up real early to bring my siblings to school!

All in all nothing much is up yet other than I got my driver's license renewed and am glad the rumours about if you don't renew it within 6 months of expiry, you'd have to retake the driving exam is false. They actually give you a really lenient time of 3 years of expiration before you'd have to do that!

Haven't had much of the food from here yet! Looking forward to that.

Anyways sorry for the lack of updates :< I still need to get the Madiera stuff online D:

Keep coming!

~Fox

Return from Madeira!

Hey ya readers!

I'm back on British soil after a whole week on the island of Madeira. I have to say, it went by really fast and it feels like just yesterday I was on this train to London to catch my flight there, Well they say time flies when you have fun right? So that's probably why it went by quite fast.

I might recount my time there from days 1 - 7 since I wasn't able to do that day by day update as it was outrageously expensive to use the internet at the hotel I stayed at (basically it was 5 euros for 75min of internet and it went from there :/ ) The summary of it all was it was a great time but somehow I felt it degraded over the last 2-3 days there; I don't know why but the friends I went with seemed/felt different. Madeira is a beautiful place and by that I mean the natural landscape. Though one thing I absolutely despise about it was they allowed people to smoke indoors :/ And 2 of the friends that were there smoked like a train on overdrive. I reckon them being more distant could be me complaining about the second hand smoke flying to my face every time.

Regardless, the main reason I went all the way to Madeira wasn't solely for fun; I was there to attend a conference and I must say it was the best decision I've made this year xD. I experienced many things which a normal tourist that goes there would not have. Met many nice people and made contacts makes it all the more enjoyable. Also the food there was really cheap, surprisingly! Though I came home with only 5 cents in my pocket, I have to say I didn't spend much during my time there.

That's all I can think of right now :S Really tired from the travels but look forward to more in depth stories and some pictures from this tropical island!


~Fox

Journey begins! Madeira!

Hey readers!

I'm currently on the train from Nottingham to London. I can't seem to sleep even though I'm knackered from sleeping late near to 2am and waking up at 6am 1.5 hours ago :/ Really excited going to a place called Madeira for the next week! Mainly for attending a conference which I was looking forward to since months ago and partly for a bit of a holiday. Sadly Shin is busy with work and can't accompany me :< But if it's as nice as I've heard, I'll defo bring her there one day :>

I borrowed Shin's liiiiiiiittle laptop so I can check emails and everything more conveniently. Didn't want to bring mine because it's heavier and I would probably get distracted by LoL!

Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera connector wire.. Or did I, accidentally. But it is likely you guys won't see any pictures until I get back and I plan to take loads!

All in all I shall try to update day by day as for one it'll keep my posts coming and for another this would be my first virtual diary/memoir thingie lolol.

Here's to a good journey!
Cheers!

~Fox

Hell week was hell :/

Hey guys,

Yesterday I just submitted my dissertation :/ It was reeeeeeeally under the word limit so I hope everything will be fine. I didn't sleep for the whole night, wrote as much as I can and by morning I was on autopilot. When I read back at some stuff I wrote I was like wtfffff was I writing.

Anyways due date was at 5pm, got on the train at 3 thinking I'd have enough time to get my printing done and get the stuff bound. Fell asleep on the train and woke up just as I arrived at my stop, lucky :> Then I headed to the library to get the stuff printed. Little did I know I didn't have cash for printing credits and in the end got lost looking for an ATM :/ Printing done got it bound with one of my mates then submitted it at 5.15. Fortunately they were nice enough haha.

All in all work's done, ample of free time get! Games and no work weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.


~Fox

Enter, the week of hell!

Hey guys!

Lack of posts still I know! God I'm finding it hard to write systematically. The reason for my inactivity?

D

I

S

S

E

R

T

A

T

I

O

N

(and LoL)

It is truly killing me, that when I discuss it with some one, I wig out. Really wig out and then I space out. :/ The reason I'm getting stressed over this is because... well I've put it off till the last week to get it done! And yet look at me, blogging for the sake of procrastination! omg, 5th of September is looming fast....

I can tell it's not going to be as laid back as usual this week as there are so many things I have to take care of. For one, tonight I have to pack up every junk that I don't need to be with for the next 3 months to ship them back home to Brunei which the people are coming to collect tomorrow morning :/ The good thing is I don't have much stuff as I did after 3 years of staying in Kent for my undergrad. Back then I had LOOOOOOOADS of stuff including but not limited to: a 32" HDTV, XBox 360, a guitar, lots of posters, random junk and so on. Still, I went and bought some overpriced boxes that costed me 40 pounds :/ damn them taking advantage of people who wants to pack!

That's one thing, another is I'm gonna get kicked out of my hall of residence this 31st and I need to pack the remaining junk on the 30th and then move to Shin's bro's place where I can hopefully concentrate and rape the last bits of my dissertation. :/ Hand in is on the 5th and on then I'm moving in with Shin for a while :> Looking forward to that!

The good thing is, I feel that everything is actually possible in the short time which I have :/ Like just an hour or so ago I had an epiphany on writing the paper which I am VERY happy to get before it was too late! Speaking of which, I should REALLY get back to writing and figuring out wtf I'm on about.

Will update sooner or later! :S


~Fox

Captain America Movie Quick Review

Hey guys!

Reeeeaaaaaaaaaaaallly sorry for the lack of updates. Been busy with going to Nottingham, dissertation, and lazing about playing games (though the last bit is the most done)

I actually marathoned Captain America and Harry Potter 7 Part 2 on the same day which was........ maybe more than a week ago. Probably shouldn't have been lazy with my posts haha :/

Anyways Captain America centers on... well, Captain Stars and Stripes himself! It begins with a scrawny young man with a patriotic heart as well as massive amounts of courage. He got selected by a special branch of the army aiming to create super soldiers but alas, he was the only one the US produced during World War 2. The main baddies in the movie is called Hydra, a special research branch of Hitler's which turned on the Nazis after it amassed a big enough army and supporters.

The casts were pretty good. I though Chris Evans was a pretty good fit to be Steve Rogers aka Cap. He's also the guy who stars as the Human Torch in the old Fantastic Four movies as pointed out by Shin's bro. Hayley Atwell plays Rogers' love interest, Peggy Carter. And Men In Black's Tommy Lee Jones plays Colonel Chester Philips.

In short, the movie's well worth your money if you're into the Marvel universe. The 3D effects are stunning and I was pleasantly surprised by one of the shield throw scenes which flew out of the screen lol (never expected that in these new IMAX stuff) Really loved the action scenes, it felt really fulfilling seeing them fight the baddies, more so in this particular movie I don't know why. The special effects were done well but not over done (considering it is a super hero movie) The humour from the characters are sarcastic and tongue-in-cheek; just my kind of comedy :P

All in all I give it a 4.5/5 just because I enjoy superhero movies. I do recommend it but if you're not really into superheroes, I don't know if this will change your mind :/

P.S. Oh yes, like all Marvel movies, stay til after the ending, this time it's a real treat :D


~Fox

Le Quick Update

Hey guys!

Still lacking posts :/ BUT I've already seen Captain America and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last Wednesday. So expect a quick review or two :>

Nothing much is going on these days other than me picking up pace for my dissertation but not enough steam in my opinion. Been playing fewer and fewer LoL games as it just pulls me in xD one game will end up being 3 meaning a maximum of 3 hours spent on gaming. Not that I complain but it kills my productive time haha.

Thanks for checking in (b ^.') Will update soon.

~Fox

Commenting comments that a commenter comment on a commentable... thing.

Hey guys!

Still lacking posts day by day but hey, at least I'm writing stuff from time to time so that you know Tales is not dead :>

Something just came to mind literally a few minutes ago. I enjoy reading comments. Why did I realise it now while I have been doing it for aaaaaaages escapes me. You see, it doesn't matter if I'm reading a blog, or watching a Youtube video or ever just looking at a Facebook photo, I will almost definitely scroll down to have a look at what people are saying.

There are so many things you can realise from taking people's opinion into account. Like something funny which you wouldn't have thought otherwise. Others make good arguments. But for the most part I enjoy the lol factor from reading comments. A video on Youtube will at least be twice as funny from the comments.

The negative side of things is just that there are lots of anonymous comments which involve racism, hate and so forth. That makes me sadface :<

So how about you, dear readers? Do you just watch the video and that's it? Or do you lurk and read like me? Or are you one of those avid commenters :P


~Fox

Transformers 3 Dark of the Moon Quick Review

Hey guys!

Been a while, sorry for the lack of updates as I've been wasting away day by day without much progress on my dissertation...

A few days ago, I went to watch Transformers 3 Dark of the Moon with Shin's bro. It was 3D and overall it isn't bad. The story is still as flimsy as a piece of cling film like previous movies but that's not really what we want to see, right? What we want to see is cars and appliances that can transform into robots and beat the crap out of each other. And in that respect, the movie doesn't disappoint.

Actors from the earlier movies come back to do TF3. I was disappointed at Shia LaBeouf's role as emo kid Sam Witwicky. Seriously, it was painful to watch his performance. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Megan Fox's replacement as leading female role was some what  alright I guess... Shin did tell me she's hot from top down but not the face and I am convinced now LOL. Was funny how one of the lines in the beginning was on how the little autobots didn't like Megan xD

As I said story is not that hot. But action sort of makes up for it. It feels as if they're trying to make up for the crappy story with senseless explosions and violence.

All in all it's an alright movie... I give TF3 a 3/5... But then I wasn't able to enjoy the movie as I would've liked.

WARNING! RAGE! WARNING! RAGE!
So like while we were watching from the beginning trailers, there was this group of 4 black teenage girls that kept making as much noise as possible from talking loudly to playing with their phones to laughing like a freaking monster. Some people shushed them and they shushed back. I was appalled at the lack of respect and full-on rudeness of these kids. Many a time, I wanted to either smack them over the head or ask for my money back but I did neither...

Worst part is even when we moved towards the back seats, one of those little b**ches shone her phone torchlight towards the back. I was and still am distressed by the actions of those damn animals. I keep wondering to myself recently is it because the stereotyping is true, or they are just undereducated by their parents or are they are acting this way because their parents weren't there so they wanted to abuse this freedom. Regardless, I try to believe whole heartedly that it is the last case. These little mongrels should learn some respect otherwise they will learn the hard way that there are people that are very much less tolerant...
/End of rant




I'll try to update more, peeps. Thanks for sticking around! :>

~Fox

Cat Caught Barking!

Hey ya guys!

Just wanna share this video with you all. Basically the cat is barking and when it realised he was seen, he went "Abort mission! Abort mission!"



I've seen it multiple times and yet it still amuses me.... Probably the strength of procrastination lol. But it makes you wonder though.... What does your cat do when you're not there? Lolol.

Speaking of LoL, recently there was a championship for League of Legends held at Dreamhack in Sweden. The team that won was Fnatic and the games seen were pretty spectacular.

Nothing much recently to update sadly :< Thanks for reading all! Will post if I find anything else that's interesting :P


~Fox

Breaking Rubik's Cube World Record with Depaul UK!

Hey guys!

Yesterday, on the 16th June 2011, my sis and I participated in an event which attempted to gather people to solve a Rubik's cube and beat the record of "Most people solving the rubik's cube at the same time at one place". It was a charity event as well as it was organised by Depaul UK which helps troubled teenagers get back on their feet. In this event, just for turning up to try for the record (solving the cube), Rubik's Cube donates £100 per person to the organisation. There're a few catches to the challenge though, we can't start until we're told to, we can't physically help others but can provide them with information on solving and there's a one hour time limit. By 15 minutes many people were done solving! But holy crap within the first 15 seconds some people were already done! @___@

The best part was not only did the event generate a whopping £35000, we apparently also broke the Guiness World Record for having the most people solving the cube at one place and time! The number came to 330 people who solved it which broke the record of 300 which was set in India not long ago. I would say the event was a success!

On a side note, we got goodie bags which had a pen, chocolate, brochure and cardboard which you can shape into a "piggy bank". It was great to see so many people joining the event even if all they wanted to do was solve a Rubik's cube! We also got to keep the cube used in the event. Each of the face had symbols which signifies something Depaul UK was doing to help the young people in need.

 This was the area of the hall they used to set up. Though it doesn't look like it, there are over 300 Rubik's cubes set out!

 Closer view of the tables.

Cube table looks wicked xD There was actually a woman wearing a rubik's cube costume too though I didn't get a photo of her. Hahaha

 Then they told the participants to go down and grab a spot at a table. 

Didn't feel like there were 300 people when we were waiting, but wow!

The cubes were kept in boxes like these.

15 minute mark, many were done and held up their solved cubes and a photo was taken!

All in all I thought it was a very new and interesting experience and best of all, we could help a charity event achieve its goal! I was also quite impressed that for a puzzle that has been around so long, it also brought awareness of this charity organisation which I wouldn't have known otherwise!

Those interested on the faces of the cube I mentioned, I compiled it below (feel free to click to enlarge if it's uncomfortable to read). Quoted from Depaul is this which explains the use of a Rubik's cube in their event: "The Rubik’s Cube is logic and order in action. Follow the right steps, the problem is solved. It’s simple when you know how. Depaul UK works with young people who are homeless, vulnerable and disadvantaged. It’s far from easy but like solving the cube, we help them solve their problems by following a series of enabling steps and showing them the world of difference a positive move can make."

Being part of something like this, I can only describe it as... feelsgoodman.jpg :D

My favourite quote from the announcer was "You can't physically help each other.. but you can give advice and encouragement!" We lol'd at that; to me, if I can't solve a puzzle, having someone going "You can do it!" next to me won't bring me closer to the answer! XD

~Fox

X-Men First Class Movie Review

Hey guys!

A few days ago I went to watch X-Men First Class with my sis. It is one of the more anticipated movies for me apart from Green Lantern and Captain America :D

Anyway, in short:

• Great movie.
• No blood whatsoever but there is violence hence the 12A rating.
• Great action scenes.
• Story's pretty good but a little rushed at parts.
• Bring the kids. (with guidance)

Long version:
X-Men First Class is set as a prequel long before the previous X-Men movies. It follows the story of the young Professor X and Magneto before they came to be as we know them. Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) is vengeful and seeks to kill the person responsible for his tormented past at the hands of Nazis while Charles Xavier (Prof. X) is fascinated (or more like obsessed) by mutations in humans. However, there is a common enemy for the both of them: a fanatical mutant called Sebastian Shaw who wants to start World War 3 by forcing the United States and the Russians into a nuclear stand-off. How do they have common links to this person? Go watch it to find out :P

First off, the actors in the movie (to me at least) are unrecognisable though some are but I can't put my finger on it. Charles Xavier is played by James McAvoy who I found to have played the lead role in Wanted (with Angelina Jolie) as well as Mr Tumnus in The Chronicles of Narnia. Erik Lehnsherr is played by Michael Fassbender who quoting my sis is a "beautiful man". :S Sebastian Shaw is played by Kevin Bacon and he looks really familiar to me but I can't put my finger on it (I thought he looked a bit like Jim Carrey at first glance lololol) The others are even less significant though I shall tell you there is one or two cameos which was pretty cool and also amusing. :P

Though the cast are not that well known (again, to me at least) I must say their acting is pretty believable for the most part. Michael Fassbender's role as Magneto is my favourite in the movie by far as he plays the frosty cool anti-hero who, like most of us, has his own demons to fight and his own ideals. However! I did not like the rushed scene where the stereotypic "token black guy" is the stereotypic "first one to die". :< That was a very if not the most disappointing part for me in the movie.

Storyline is pretty solid that doesn't tend to confuse you though there may be parts that might've been rushed a bit especially near the end. Graphically, the special effects are great as the mutant powers are visualised in such a way that it wows you but not to the point of making you think they're over the top. There is humour in the movie that is well-played in a way that it doesn't get in the way of the scene at hand, like a good chuckle and then back to business. I thought that was a pretty good strategy.

There are violence and fight scenes which basically people go for as that's when they show off their powers however I noticed there was no blood whatsoever in the casualties. It was as if their weapons and objects and such are super-fluid(blood)proof; there is literally little to no trace of blood on them. That is probably to make it more child friendly as it IS a superhero movie targeting towards the younger audience and man-children and not a gore fest but it might alienate a bit of realism from their world.

All in all First Class gets a first class 4.5/5 from me as I really enjoyed the movie and it was probably on par to the Wolverine movie from a while ago. I really do recommend this movie if you like superhero movies, if not, have a gander when you are out with some friends and have nothing to do.

One of my favourite lines in the movie is "...and this is why women should not work in the CIA" but you'll only see the humour if you saw the scene :P

P/S: Don't bother staying until after the credits. It'll only disappoint you LOL


~Fox

Updates gonna update

Hey guys!

Sorry for the massive lack of updates for the past.... AGES! I've been busy with gym and LoL amongst other things. And those things just make me tired. Oh and I'm bloody lazy to start on my dissertation :< Damn schoolworks...

Last week (or was it 2 weeks ago) I watched The Hangover 2 with my sis and haven't pulled myself to write a review on it :X

This is just a random update to say hi to you guys and thanks for coming back and check Tales once in a while :P

All the best.


~Fox

Belgium Trip 2011 - Day 3 - Basilica of the Holy Blood

 Hey guys!

D-d-d-d-d-double posts! This is just a short post about after the boat tour in Bruges, we went onwards to the Heilig-Bloedbasilie also known as Basilica of the Holy Blood. It's apparently a really small but magnificent place where they have the ritual of the holy blood or something like that.

It was before coming here that we were seemingly harassed by the musketeer hobo. That story can be found here.

The church itself it pretty nice looking, at first we were confused to where photos could not be taken. And later we found out it was in the treasure/artefact room (which costs 2 euros to enter by the way) I do NOT recommend going in there as there are just random stuffs in a small room which you can finish looking at in about 15 minutes. The explanations in English made no sense whatsoever either.

The church area was pretty nice... wait I said that already. It gives this calming feeling I guess? Though the thought that pickpockets are lurking about seeing the signs warning visitors removed the same calming feeling.

Didn't take many photographs here as I said this place is quite small and also I didn't want to bother the visitors who were praying and stuff.

After this we went onwards to go get ice cream and then go home!

All in all the trip to Belgium was great! Sure there isn't much to do there, but the sights and taste of Belgian hospitality was brilliant! But if you want excitement, this is not the place lol.

~Fox

Belgium Trip 2011 - Day 3 - Boat Tour

Hey guys!

I should definitely finish off these sets of posts lolol. Anyways, after going to the Christmas Shop in Bruges, we finally found a company which provides boat tours! It costed only 6 euros per person and the tour itself is just half an hour long. Those tour book thingies do recommend you to go for it :P

Anyways it's basically pictures of buildings which I forgot which were what as well as some sceneries.

Enjoy!

 This was an interesting sight! This dog was sunbathing and has the look of bliss on its face. Adorable!

Am proud of myself to be able to actually get such a good photo because we were just zooming through the place. Actually I'm more proud of my camera to have the shutter speed to match! LOL

 Apparently this canal leads to Brussels in the olden times. If you look at the map of Brussels, there's no rivers but there's actually one (or so, not sure) under it. Why did they seal it off? Seems that it got so polluted that the fumes were making people sick or something lols.

Gasp! Is this Hyrule Castle? Note the Triforce lols.

Well that's the pics I got from the boat trip!

Guess I'll just put up the rest of the day in Bruges as well. Onwards!

Note: Dagnabbit, I named the photos as Brussels when they were Bruges... Oh well... Just so you know they are definitely from Bruges xD

~Fox

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Movie) Review

Hey guys!

The other day Shin and I went to watch POTC4 but I haven't had the mood to write about it til now ha. On a side note, Shin is on her way back to Brunei :( Ronery...

Anyways!

In short!
Not too bad
Worth a watch
Jack Sparrow's humour is well played
Plot is linear but not necessarily a good thing.
Pirates!

Long story:
POTC4 continues with Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow without Orlando Bloom and Kiera Knightley. Instead they introduced some new and old characters, Penelope Cruz as Angelica; Jack's old heartthrob of sorts, Ian McShane as Blackbeard and Geoffrey Rush returns as Captain Barbossa.

This time the story revolves around seeking the Fountain of Youth. Like the previous movies you'd likely need to ponder a bit if you get lost in the scenes. I can't really detail the movie, strangely... It feels like a massive cluster-mindrape to think about.

Jack's dad tells him there are prerequisites to access the Fountain of Youth and 2 silver goblets are part of it. As the movie progresses Jack learns more about the ritual and items required, which is ironic as in the beginning they make it sounds as if he was looking for it for ages and yet he knows less than the monkey on the Black Pearl. He is abducted onto Blackbeard's ship where he is forced to lead Blackbeard to the fountain because it was foretold that he would be slain by a man with one leg.

Story-wise, it's not an innovation. Imagine playing a game where you have to do side quests in order to achieve your main objective; that's the feeling I got if you put yourself in Jack Sparrow's shoes. You get what you paid for I guess, there are pirates, in the Caribbean (somehow) and Johnny Depp. The plot is pretty linear because of that but there is a stupid thing or two in the movie which defy common sense. E.g. Jack knocks off the hat of a guard and he chases him, leaving his guns on top of a surface of some sort. Jack goes back and takes the guns. I know, wtf right?

The acting was well done though, I quite enjoyed that. Jack Sparrow's sarcastic and whimsical humour is back and it amused me quite a bit. I read somewhere that POTC4 is rated PG13 because of mild sexual content and innuendo; huzzah, Disney.

The music was pretty good however it was because of the track "He's a Pirate" dating back to the first POTC that won me over. It's just so good a classic and sets the mood for a pirate movie perfectly.

Action scenes are loud and confusing as there are many "team battle" sequences. For me, the action scenes are not really the highlight of the movie. That would likely be the fantasy and supernatural elements they implemented.

All in all this movie is worth the watch if you're a fan of the POTC series or Johnny Depp or there's nothing else to see. It won't exactly wow you but some scenes are fun though.

I give it a 3.5/5 because of the humour and at least it has a bit of impression in my mind rather than the previous movie which escaped my memory completely.

P/S: Stay until after the credits. But let me tell you now not to expect something huge haha.


~Fox

Belgium Trip 2011 - Day 3 - Eternal Christmas Shop

Hey guys!

I recently went to Nottingham to spend some time with Shin as she will return to Brunei very soon :C (which was also part of the reason why I didn't really post anything) Anyhoo, continuing from the Belgium trip posts, during Day 3 we went to Bruges.

One of the shops we encountered which I thought was pretty cool was this one which looked as if it was Christmas everyday! It was pretty cool and the items and knick knacks looked pretty well made as well! Sadly though we had a time constraint to find one of the boat tours so we didn't spend as much time looking at the stuff as I would've liked :P

One of the aisles.

 Fluffy stuffs! They were a bit pricey if I remembered correctly

 Christmas trees and ornaments!

 Dizzy just looking skimming through what they had...

 Miniature Noah's ark! It was cute and there were other stuff from the Bible I think.

 Frosty the snowman?!

 This lion statue thing was so adorable, I wanted to get it but I was flat broke.... 

!!!!!!! Miniatures! I love miniatures!

 How can you not like these things when they're nicely made like this~

 And a flock of cute sheeps~

After this shop we went on to the boat ride! More to come!

Thanks for reading~

~Fox