ULU Kickboxing Class Review

Hey guys,

Just a quick update review thing for today. 3 weeks ago I joined the gym at ULU (University of London Union). To be honest, the gym's pretty sweet, got everything you'd need for a good workout. I was curious on whether the kickboxing's any good so decided to try it.

Firstly, the cardio is pretty good, I was sweating buckets halfway through, though the instructor made us do some pretty useless movements though, like from a wall squat into a plank when you barely can quickly wipe your nose; basically to waste your energy, achieving nothing other than possibly a minor stamina boost.

Though the cardio is good, some things I have a problem with was one, the instructor screeches like a banshee for some reason. The only reason I can think of is to wake people up or motivate you? No way it could be the latter... Secondly there must be some kind of screwed up notion that doing lots of pushups = good. Throughout the whole 1 hour session I think the others did 200 pushups; I couldn't be bothered, my muscles were aching from chest and triceps workouts from yesterday.

Then comes the "kickboxing" part. I shoulda heeded the receptionist when he says "It's not really a martial arts session, more like aerobics" but then I'm also glad that I tried out for myself. Well time to rant: There is no freaking form, basically she gets the people to do 10 - 20 kicks holding their legs up in mid air. Many movements were clunky and mine was just "lets get this over with".

There's no proper instructions on how to do it either, just show you once or twice and hope you pick it up. That I can understand, it's due to time constraint of 1 hour but the excessive leg wagging? Just a waste of energy. Well that's more for cardio I guess. Just add in some kicks and punches and you can call anything kickboxing. They should make a game called Kickboxing Mama, you have to punch into the camera to cut potatos and kick 10 times to wash the rice.Though she did explain something when I asked why just punch with the right, but then it still didn't make sense to me though the explanation was sound...ish.

All in all I would recommend you try it out if you want to do some aerobics with punches and kicks. But if you want proper training, find a proper martial arts trainer, not this class.

Final ratings from personal perspective are:
Cardio          =      5/5
Motivation    =      2/5    (down mostly due to the screech "attack drops significantly)
Martial arts   =      1/5    (Just cause there's punching and kicking)
Overall         =      2/5

Just because I didn't like it doesn't mean others won't cause I see people who came back to the class, surprisingly. Do check it out for yourself if you are free on Thursdays from 1-2pm.


~Fox

Okamiden (NDS) Review

Hey guys!

Finally another game review and this time it's Okamiden! I just finished it today and thought I might as well review it. This game is a continuation from the PS2 and Wii release called Okami. For those of you who've never played Okami or at least not know the story in it, then sad to say, many things will be new or lost to you.

First thing's first, I'll just recap what happened in Okami:

The world of Nippon is covered by darkness because of the return of the evil 8-headed serpent named Orochi. The Goddess of the Sun by the name of Amaterasu resurrects to bring peace back to the land with the help of Issun, her partner and voice (cos like, she's a wolf). As the Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu ("Ammy" as Issun calls her) has the power of the Celestial Brush, a powerful tool to remove obstacles and achieve things only a god or goddess can do. Examples of this include cutting down large rocks in one swipe, restoring items to their original quality, command the elements of fire, wind and water, cause a sunrise, cause a sunset, etc.

They travel the land to help those affected by the darkness and in this process, meet people as well as unlocking more and more of Ammy's full potential of the Celestial Brush. That is not all of her prowess! On her back she carries a weapon called a Divine Instrument beginning with a mirror but as she travels she finds a sword as well as a whip. All of them can be made more powerful. Areas Ammy visits that are cursed can be restored with a stroke of a brush but only in the presence of a Cherry tree which can repel the curse and cleanse the land. This is called a Divine Intervention.

End of recap

I thoroughly enjoyed Okami for the plot twists and amusing and fun side missions. If you still have a working PS2 or something, go play Okami before going on to Okamiden.

NOTE! DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SOME, IF ANY, SPOILERS!!!

In Okamiden you play as the son of Amaterasu, cutely named Chibiterasu. As you would expect, the Child of the Sun possesses some of his mother's talents using the Celestial Brush and Divine Instrument. Nine months after Ammy saved the land, darkness comes back and Chibi needs to find the cause but he can't do it without a partner like his mom had. After finding a partner, they set off to right the wrongs.

Graphics-wise this game is very eye-pleasing and well done; especially taking into account this is the NDS. You have vast areas to run around and explore for loot, cursed areas look unwelcoming and dark and the Divine Intervention sequences are brilliant! It feels great to see a dark gloomy area converted to a bright, peaceful place.

In normal gameplay, your bottom screen will be for maps and hotkeys. In battle, your bottom screen will be for hotkeys and shows your enemy's life bar.

By pressing the L or R button, you enter the Brush mode, allowing you to use the touchpad to do brush strokes. I'm quite happy with this feature especially when I can draw amusing faces on pieces of paper which they use as a mask haha. My only quarrel is you obviously have to keep the pen down the whole way, and I tend to have stutters and this gives you nothing. Nonetheless I do enjoy playing with brush works.

Drawing a circle on a sakura tree will make blossoms come out, not only will it look better, it also earns you "Praise" which is basically the experience points in the game. However you only level up your HP and Ink pots. Then you must be wondering, "since I can just do random nice things to level up, what's the point of looking for baddies to whallop?" Well the demons drop money as well as, with the right circumstances, materials needed to upgrade your Divine Instruments.

As you go through the game, you'll encounter constellations, which when traced, will reveal to you masters of the brush to give you new brush skills. But since you're using the Pup of Ammy, your "masters" will be their respective offspring.

And they are really cute little critters!

Other than this, gameplay starts out feeling like an errand run but picks up once you can do cooler stuff with your brush. And play doesn't get boring because you will get more than one partners, each with a special ability and thus not allowing you to get bored that fast.

You also have to solve puzzles with your partners' abilities. And I have to mention some brush techniques are changed from the ones in Okami. Among them is the "Guidance" technique which you use to guide your partners to parts of the area you both can't go to at the same time.

There is a little side quest where you look for people from around Nippon to see if anyone is interested in living in a new village called Yakushi. It is kind of nice to see the village slowly shape and transform from an empty lot to an semi-empty lot lol.

The music in Okamiden is awesome too. It stays true to Okami's japanese style music and it doesn't get boring that fast I think.

Battles get old pretty fast if you are just aimlessly looking for demons to kill. But given a proper.... incentive to work for (like they're blocking the door to the toilet or treasure chest), you'll find it's quite fun to slay them. The battles play out pretty fast and is based on a you-know-what-you're-doing-and-when-to-do-it style. And as I mentioned if you know how to "cleanse" the demon, it'll drop materials for upgrading your weapons later on.

Story is top-notch! It picks up as you go along but I seriously recommend playing it just for the story. Humour is also abundant especially the character interactions are very amusing, like each partner you find will give Chibi a name shocking him and making him grief if only for a while. The game DOES refer a lot to Okami so if you didn't play it, you won't get about a quarter to a half of the story. There's even time travel but that's all you'll get out of me. But I'll just say these parts are pretty epic.

Finally
I give it a 5 / 5 because I totally love the storyline and humour. If you are a fan of Okami, then this game is just MADE for you! (literally)

Overall this game is not stressful and it won't test your limits (at least not mine) with satisfying story and gameplay.

Oh and by the by, there's a save game plus type save file after the credits. You get to retain your HP and ink levels as well as unlocking some nice goodies.

At last, I'll leave you with my favourite quote from the game:

"You need a name... Something tough but easy to remember... I got it! I'll call you... Mutt!" - Kuni


~Fox

How to Troubleshoot Inverted Comma and Apostrophe Problem On Keyboard

Hey guys!

In addition to the problems I faced after installing Windows 7, there was a hiccup in my keyboard which I couldn't figure out what happened. The `, ~, ' and " I typed on MSN or anywhere else needed to be accompanied by a space or a successive character; i.e. nothing comes out if you just push it once.

I found out that this was a common problem in both Vista and Windows 7 and I want to share the fix for it.

1. Go to Control Panel and then under "Clock, Language and Region", click "Change keyboard or other input methods". If it's not there look for it in that general area.

2. On the "Keyboards and Language" tab, click on "Change keyboards..."

3. Under the "General" tab, have a look at your language, if you're like me, you'd probably have English (United States) > Keyboard > United States - International (or something else).

4. Click "Add" then go to  "English (United States) > Keyboard" and select "US (default)" and click "OK"

5. You should see you've added "US (default)". Above this box, under "Default input language" click the drop-down menu and select "US (default)"

These steps should allow you to type comfortably as normal.

This will also be a fix for people not liking the United Kingdom system of not having the @ as Shift-2.

Hope this helps!


~Fox

Sony Vaio VGN-CR353 Webcam and Mass Storage Controller Drivers

Hey guys!

Today I just formatted my computer and installed the Windows 7 Professional OS onto it. I must say I'm loving the lack of lag that was plaguing my Vista. However, Taking almost the whole afternoon, evening, night and now the unholy hours of morning, I was trying to piece my laptop back together again and problems arose.

First of all, my webcam lacked a proper driver! (It was installed as some USB webcam thing) and secondly, the Mass Storage Controller also lacked a driver thus failing to install completely!

I just want to share the fruits of my extensive internet combing and hopefully these will help you if your search landed you here! My laptop model is the Sony Vaio VGN-CR353.

This is a link to multiple driver downloads, just scroll to about 3/4 ways down and you'll see the camera driver. Installing it allowed use of my "Sony Visual Communication Camera VGP-VCC6".

http://www.laptop-driver.net/sony-vaio-vgncr363-drivers/

This is the link for the Mass Storage Controller. It comes with 32 and 64-bit installs. Just copy the link into your browser. Installed is the "Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Integrated FlashMedia Controller"

download.xanderx.com/software/windows/driver/CardReader_V.zip


Hope this helps someone somewhere who is in the same bind that I was.

Do comment and tell me if it did.


~Fox

The King's Speech Review

Hey guys!

Just watched The King's Speech with Shin and my sis and here's a quick review of it. This movie is something I have heard highly of from friends who've seen it but I was sceptical on whether it was purely good or it was just based on preference; I thought "How can a speech be all that interesting?". However, I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I know I'm a bit late for the review but I hope to coax others who have yet watched it to catch it when they can.

Synopsis: The King's Speech is a movie about Prince Albert, Duke of York, later to become King George VI of England, and is portrayed by Colin Firth. The Prince, wanting to overcome his stammer, consulted Lionel Logue, a speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush, for help. The story's core is basically the stammer from which Prince Albert is unable to make a good conversation let alone a nationwide speech.

Colin Firth's acting in this movie is so unbelievable and so well done that it is hard for me to find the words to describe it. The overall acting in this movie is brilliant! Their talking and gestures makes it seem as if you are just looking through a window as you witness and learn more about each character.

Music accompanying scenes really set the mood and there is nothing noteworthy about it other than that fact.

Humour plays a part if not a big one in this movie. Snide remarks and amusing situations amongst others make it light hearted at some parts while still being relatively serious. I did love one part with massive swearing but I'll leave you to see for yourselves on that one haha.

Scenes move as if with the emotions of the audience, it doesn't let the feeling built up to hang and get lost but carry on to shape that feeling into a different one, may it be good or bad. There was one scene where after ascending as King, Albert returns to his family with arms wide open to his daughters for a hug only to see they curtsey before him and called him "Your Majesty". That was quite a sad moment for me :(

All that said, I definitely give this movie a 5/5 and I am not surprised The King's Speech had won so many awards! A must watch but I should say, it is not for kids not because of the swearing but simply I guess they'd probably have no interest but hey, I may be wrong.


~Fox

More Food from Nottingham~

Hey all!

Sorry for lack of activity. Haven't had a smooth run on my laptop. It got hit by this malware the other day, don't ask.

Anyways as a space filler I'm just gonna update with what me and Shin made when I went there over the weekend last week! We made Sushi, Pineapple fried rice and Shin baked green tea sponge cake :D

How to make the sushi? It's simple! You need:

 Rice!

 Crabsticks!

 Thick omelette!

 Cucumber!

 Seaweed!

 And bamboo mat roller thingie! I saw another friend use aluminium foil, don't know how that works

Then you toss everything onto your counter or table and it'll look like this:

Wow! Even better than Mama! *Gold coin*

Roll it up~

Cut and serve~ mmmmmm~

This is the pineapple fried rice~ We kinda mashed 2 recipes from 2 sites and then added our own variation. It tasted like pineapple fried rice so I'll call it a success xD

Shin's Green Tea Spongecake! She said it was too moist but it tasted alright to me~ I ate more than half of it I think :X So much for trying to lose weight.

Anyhoo! I got The Sims Medieval recently along with Okamiden for the NDS. I hope to be able to review them in the near future haha. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading guys!

~Fox

L'OREAL Indestructible Sculpting Wax Review

 Hey guys,

I got a haircut recently and the stylist taught me how to style my hair with a bit of wax. So I went out and bought myself a hair wax and just wanna let you know how it is. First of all, it looks like this:

At first glance, it's nothing special and this is one of those times which you should trust your first glance.

As usual when you see it, you'll open it and what you see is.... similar to a candle-wax. Seriously, it is the hardest wax I have ever encountered. Other than that, usability is normal I guess? Just rub it in your hands and then apply.

Now the worst part! See the name? See how it says "Indestructible" ? Believe it! The damn wax stuck onto my hair for 3 days straight including day of application. Each day I tried to shampoo twice and first day it felt as if there had been no effect. Second day it felt as if 25-50% of it is gone and finally I've rid myself of this wax.

I've also gotten a refund off it, which I am happy about.
All in all, I want to say that this sculpting wax is HIGHLY NOT RECOMMENDED!

On a side note, I've bought a new product which is significantly better which I will be reviewing after a few more uses lol.


~Fox

Katamari Every Website!

Hey all!

A friend of mine showed me this amusing little titbit earlier today. It's a code which turns the website you're viewing into a katamari table, allowing you to roll up texts and cause the ball to grow, allowing to roll up bigger prizes.

Now, if you're a fan of the Katamari franchise, then you'd love it. If you never heard of it before, it's basically a game where the point is to roll up everything if you can! You start off small rolling up little things like thumb-tacks, and as you grow bigger, you move on to bigger things like cookies, pencils, eventually cups, tables, people, animals, mailboxes, lampposts, trees, buildings and even continents! It has been out and you can find it on the PS2, XBox 360 and PSP. Worth having a try if you're into the wacky games and it's addicting to boot! (though my sis had motion sickness-like effects while playing it lol)

Anyways the thing I want to share with you is here: http://kathack.com/

Just follow the instructions and you'll be able to roll over stuff on your Twitter, Facebook, BBC News, heck, even my blog! It's amusing to play with and if it sort of hangs or you get bored, just press F5 and you'll refresh your page, resetting everything!

Here's a sample!

Have fun!

~Fox

3DS Test Run First Impressions!

Hey guys!

Yesterday I went to Westfield at Shepard's Bush in London with my sis and Shin. As fate would have it I saw a closed area with 3DS written on it. On impulse I pulled my sis and Shin to the queue and once we went in, it was quite packed! at least 30 3DSes were set up for people to try them out! Sadly no photography was allowed in there so I can't show you guys how it looked.

The games I tried were:
Nintendogs + Cats - This was pretty cool! The 3D added depth to the animals, making them look more solid and adorable~ Though my sis and Shin didn't see that..
Legend of Zelda - Didn't really get to play it but the 3D element was not bad.
Steel Diver - This was a submarine commanding game. You do this by toggling forwards or backwards, up or down on a dashboard which looks pretty cool
Lego Star Wars - Also didn't get to experience this fully.
Dead or Alive - Pretty lame demo. All I did was choose a character and mashed the A button and after a few seconds I won and it was over.
Resident Evil - This was pretty sweet! I think I enjoyed this demo the most. It was basically choose a character and then score as many points as possible before the time was up.
Street Fighter 4 - First one I tried after getting in. The 3D effect added depth to the fighting but after a while my eyes felt strained lol.
Kid Icarus - Shin and I tag teamed on this, she aimed while I dodged and shot. It's a pretty good game, I'll be getting this if I got a 3DS.

It's basically the size of an NDS Lite I would say. New features include the analog stick, an extra camera in front to take 3D photographs, overhauled starting interface, a 3D slider on the top half and different location for the Start, Select and Power.

First of all I am not impressed with the position of the Power switch. Thinking it was Start, I pushed it a few times sort of screwing the console for a while lol.

Now for what this console is bringing to the table, 3D and without the glasses. The effect is more noticeable in some games than others. But all in all they add depth. But there's one thing I noticed. Shin and my sis said they got dizzy after playing once. I felt alright because I was absorbed into it. But after stopping and moving on I felt strange, a bit disorientated. So I guess the rumours about getting crosseyed from the game isn't that far off. The good thing is you can turn the 3D effects halfway or even off, giving you the traditional gaming experience without sacrificing your eyes.

Here's a part of the brochure they gave. It opens up to be a 3DS I found that quite cool ahaha.


~Fox

Tiger Dog In China! Pink Cat in England!

Hey all!

A friend showed me something yesterday which I found amusing and cute and thought I should share it. I know it's a bit old but what the hey, it still amused me.



It is basically a news report about a guy who loved tigers but thought it was too dangerous to keep so he dyed his labrador with stripes. Also it says that people for animal rights are unimpressed as it could harm the dog's skin.

To be honest I would do the same if it doesn't harm the dog in any way. Just look at it! It's so cute and badass at the same time!

That being said I wouldn't want a pink cat though lol!



This was in the UK in September last year. There was a quite a bit of media coverage on it and its owner finally came up to the RSPCA and asked for her cat back. She said she loved pink so she used food colouring on her beloved cat named "oi! Kitty". "I had seen this programme on TV where two white dogs were dyed pink and as I was bathing her it just clicked."

She also said it eats better food than most people. Finally it was agreed that she can have the cat back as it was healthy and no offence was committed.


~Fox

3 Comedy Series Fox Recommends

Hey guys,

I'm a bit busy with uni work recently and apologise for not updating as much as I used to. It's a vicious cycle this one: No time, Don't find anything interesting, Nothing to blog about. I also started going to the gym in order to sort my unhealthy lifestyle out.

In this post I'm gonna recommend some comedy series which I found very entertaining when I was bored and they definitely kill time faster than you can realise.

First is Community! This show is about a lawyer named Jeff Winger who, after being found his degree was less than legit, ended in a community college called Greendale. There he starts a study group in order to get with a blonde named Britta from his Spanish class but it ends up as a group of 7 people.

Why I like this series is because of the sarcasm and irony they use to make fun of one another. The first season is the bomb, very funny and light hearted. Second season seems like they want to pick up on more action but also I got very annoyed by half of the characters in the second season.

All in all, it's definitely worth a watch, you'll see what I mean if you get the jokes!

Another favourite of mine is Big Bang Theory! The story revolves around four nerdy men (Leonard, Sheldon, Raj and Howard) and one not so nerdy blonde (Penny). They usually hang out at Leonard and Sheldon's apartment playing video games, having pizza night, Thai food night, Indian food night etc.

The jokes they make have a hint of sarcasm but the overall humour might require you to be a bit of a nerd yourself ahaha! It's an awesome series and their jokes have not run dry yet!

Last but not least is Modern Family which..................... I've only seen the first two episodes and suggest you guys to watch it with me!


LoL so technically there's only 2 series I really recommend. Those 2 are definitely not to be missed!


~Fox

SD Gundam G Generation World Review

Heeeey all!

Sorry for the lack of posts for the past week or so.. Last week I went to Norwich which was fun! But caught a flu and now am at the final phase of recovery. During the week though, I've been busy with some uni stuff but mostly with this game! I was camping it ever since I posted about it. And sure enough, on the 24th February 2011, it was released and Hallelujah! Gundam madness!

Anyways today I'm gonna do a sort of quick review for those of you who are on the fence about it. First of all, it is in JAPANESE only. That's right, the Generation series have never been translated and ported into the west. I find that quite sad as the series is a pretty solid title.

Secondly, it is a TACTICS game so you're not actually piloting one mobile suit (MS) and killing oodles of enemies, we've got Dynasty Warriors Gundam for that lol.

The gameplay for the Generation series is basically, move unit closer to enemy on a grid like format, you can end turn there or attack (obvious much). There are different types of attack with different ranges; melee with the beam saber obviously requires you to face the enemy head on, but there are exceptions such as God Gundam who is mostly melee based can do some in 2 squares. Anyways it's better you experience the map and battle yourself as one press of a button will let you know more than some boring text lol.

On the grid, there's nothing really special though I was surprised how big some of the Gundam were. Speaking of Gundam, the name Generation should hint that you'll get to play MS from all the universe up til currently. The game includes recent Gundam like the 00 Quanta and Unicorn! And where are MS there are pilots, and I have to say, I can't recognise at least half of them as they include the crew from warships (WS) as well.

Every map has a condition e.g. Destroy Char with Amuro. and if you satisfy this condition, a Generation Break occurs. Basically this causes more enemies to spawn but they're from different universes each break and there are 2 breaks per map. And there's a challenge for the condition i.e. "Can you defeat Char using Amuro in 1 turn?" and if you do this, a secret MS will pop out for you to earn extra points.

As you destroy the enemy MS, your pilots gain ACE points and experience and so does your MS. As your pilot levels up, they get increased stats but when your MS levels, you gain skill points to allocate on the spot to attack, defence or movement. At a certain level (normally 3 - 5) your MS is able to proceed on to it's next tech tree form. For example Exia (Basic) > Exia > 00 Gundam. I've personally maxed Exia's tree and I have to say, it is imba beyond all reason.

You can hear music from the generations, I've only remembered SEED and 00 tunes lol. And graphics wise... Well, lets just say it's jizz in your pants material! You can turn on cinematics when attacking or getting attacked. It is very satisfying to see your hits land on the enemy as well as dodging what seems to be an impossible situation (like massive beams hitting and causing an explosion but you're unscratched)

It is also the little things that make Generation World a treat. When you destroy a certain amount of enemies and/or dodge their attacks, your "Tension" increases and at a certain level, you become High Tension. At this point some MS change form and/or get a very powerful attack (Like Unicorn Gundam becomes Destroy mode at High Tension), you also see changes in the Pilots, Setsuna gets his Innovator eyes and Kira goes into SEED mode with clouded eyes; oh and all your attacks become criticals. If you destroy one more unit at High Tension you go into Critical Tension where all your attacks become Super Criticals! I'll say if you reach this point, you're probably gonna destroy everything if your energy and steps hold out.

Enough words, time for lots of screenshots!

00 Quanta starting his attack

 His side swords spinning and he goes into Trans AM

Forms his.... Cannon thing?

 SHOOP DA WHOOOOOOP

 Red Frame dramatic sword unsheathing 

 Dramatic pose!

 "TRANS AM"

 Cherudim shield and sniping bits launch all out!

Sniping target!

 Freedom's beam sword attack 

Our fave attack from Freedom!

 Arios Trans AM

 Finish with the claw!

 Potemayo (I like to call it that :X It just means potato-mayonnaise) attack sequence.

 FIRE!

 Unicorn firing!

 Very nice hit animation!

 Destroy mode hitting a critical area of a WS causing Pinpoint attack as well as having Super Critical!

Strike Freedom sending out his Funnels!

I give this game a 4.5/5, I love it to bits, but there are some parts I don't really fancy such as some animations where you see a direct piercing attack into the cockpit would normally kill someone, just sends his HP down by half. I know it's nitpicking but I would've like it better if it the damages were more solid. 

Thanks as always guys! Subscribe if you haven't (b ^.')

~Fox