The first day was to be honest an unexpected uncontrollable headache. The university apparently decided to have an open day on the very same time and the actual venue for GACC was pushed to the nearby classrooms which was hot, small, cramped and ridiculously hot. Did I mention hot? Cause it was like HOT! The air-conditioning was futile with the large amounts of visitors packed into the small makeshift venue. The MC’s both veterans of the ACG community were however there to lighten up the mood and try to create a fun atmosphere.

Then came the usual mix of activities that one would have expect from a large ACG event such as stage performances, competition and tournaments. The second day was a relief as the GACC committee was finally allowed to use the Examhall and to the relief of the visitors as well as it was fully air-conditioned. Cosplayers and the number of visitors were well below the amount seen in previous years. I guess maybe it was just at the wrong timing and the long distance from Kuala Lumpur. In any case, it was still a memorable event with friends meeting up and enjoying themselves with the ongoing activities in and out of the hall.

Yes, I know this isn’t much of a review but I was busy manning the the Anime Depot and the Emina booth. Besides I was too damn tired anyways. My head was spinning the entire weekend I was there. Too bad for me I guess. Be cause of that I really wasn’t able to take much pictures that I would like too. Now that was dissappointing to say the least.

In other news, I’ve finally made a proper watermark for all my future picture uploads. Looks way better than the previous one. As I’ve mentioned previously, I did not have much of a chance to take pictures of cosplayers and the like during my time at GACC but take a look at some of those that I did. Did some experimental photoshop. Kinda like how it turned out. As usual, comments and constructive criticism is very much appreciated.

[View with PicLens]

Sony A350 with kit lens. I so need to get myself a flash unit for the camera…sigh.

The beginning of the year started off really bad with heartaches after heartaches. Living everyday was like a zombie living with the only purpose of eating brains. Sad. Pathetic really.

Then came the build up to Daicon. The event that I put my heart and soul in. It was all fun and dandy until politics kicked in and people who I once though as my friends became my foes. It pains me to see such an occurance but alas that is life.

My internship was a first taste of a standard salary man lifestyle. Very stable if I do say so myself but very boring as well.

Cosplayers. Geez…this was the year I finally came out of my shell and met so many great people in the cosplay community. Seeing them giving their best from making their costumes to trying their bestest in being in character really encourages me to organise more cosplay related events for them.

AFA09 was great other from me going all crazy at the end due to amassing tiredness. Apologies to my cousin Janice and Crystal if I scared you there. I feel if I was more energized it could be even more fun. My first full attempt at cosplaying as well. Not very well executed. Need more practice.

Cosplay photoshoot. I’ve been learning alot from every photoshoot I get invited too. Really happy got to meet many photographers as well like Aoshi and Linkinstreet and cosplayers alike too. Now I really need to upgrade my equipment cause I’m at my limits at what I can and cannot do with what I have. Any sponsors?

Last but not least….I’ve met someone. That certain someone was the one who lifted me up from all my deepest depression period ever. All these unexpectedly too for the both of us and I’ve never been happier in my entire miserable life…until today. Its about 2 months till the time of this writing since we’ve been together. No regrets. Thank you dear.

But what do I see in 2010? Organizing one of the biggest event I’ve ever conducted in my life, finally finishing my studies and starting my own company might be somewhere in there I guess. But anyway, Happy New Year to all my readers and all my family and friends and I wish you all a good health and great prosperity!!! Time to think of a new resolution this year. Maybe loosing weight may not be such a bad idea i think…

P/s: I wish a slow and painful death to all my enemies. XD

Dear Modern Warfare 2,

Fuck you. Why must you be so awesome? Why must you be THIS awesome? It has been years since I have place my grubby little hands on your (Call Of  Duty) series. Killing people has never been so much fun since 2001 the second World War in Nazi occupied Europe. Those were the days where pixels were still quite blocky and my limit was 20-30 minutes each time because my head will just hurt. Frame rate issue or enviromental texture maybe? But anyways, I do not have that problem anymore. Even on my computer that is 2+ years old. It is amazing how the new you can be run so smooth like a river running down an open battlefield.

But I do have an issue with you though. Whay must you have such an engaging plotline for your single player campaign? Is this some Hollywood conspiracy? How can you do this to me? You’ll just have us the player wanting for more. Thank god I have not played the original Modern Warfare yet. Will get a copy to try that out soon. But in the meantime can you not be so freaking good? I mean, how about my studies? I have a midterm and presentation and not to mention my Final Year Project research to do all in this week alone.

Climbing a mountain with ice picks have never been more exhilarating, going on snowmobile rides have never been such a rush and fighting against waves of Russian troops has never been as crazy as this. I even had a dream last night about this. You sucK Modern Warfare 2!!!! You suck for pulling me into the zone of no return. Damn you!!!!!!

Now If you would excuse me I have a game to finish work..yes..yes work…work to be done.

With love and hate,

Clow

P/s: Damn you Ganaesh for influencing me into this!!!

I had the lunch special to see what was the real deal with the food. Logic states that if one cooks good food and its cheap then other more expensive stuff on the menu should be good. Well I guess I just decided to give this particular theory a try. Lunch set comes with a soup of the day and a salad and your choice of entree (main dish).

Bread serve with some sort of garlic butter is usually served I think but it wasn’t served when I went there the 2nd time. In this pic the soup was celery soup, the next day it was pumpkin soup. I prefer the celery soup compared to the pumpkin soup. It was too think im my opinion. Had some curry powder mixed in it I think to give it an extra flavor but to me the more I drank the more it felt like Indian Dall.

Avacado Chicken

Large pieces of grilled chicken breat with mashed potatoes sanwiched in between topped with an avacado dressing. The Avacado Chicken was tender and the avacado mix gave it a slight tang to the flavour which was quite refreshing.

Steak and Chips

The steak was pretty good. I ordered for medium and it was soft, tender and juicy but it was cooked a little too rare  in my opinion as the meat towards the center was too raw for me. Had to ask for it to be resend to the kitchen for it to be recooked. I didn’t want to take the chance to ruin my holidays with food poisoning so I had to better play safe. The fries were fresh as we could taste the softness and the crunchy-ness of the outer layer of the home made fries.

Eton Mess

Salmon Wrap

Chicken Wrap

The salmon wrap and chicken wrap were what I would just call as alright. The chicken used in the chicken wrap was tandoori chicken and the smoked salmon in the salmon wrap was just so-so in my opinion. The potato chips were good as a snack though.

Baked Chocolate Pudding

But what I felt was the best item to have during my 2 times at The Apartment was the deserts. The Eton Mess although ironically messy it was refreshingly tangy and sweet but not so sweet until it causes diabetes after consumption. The fresh strawberry chunks with strawberry jam really creates a magnificent flavor with the meringue used. The baked chocolate pudding will definitely be a wet dream of any chocolate aficionado. Soft, sweet and warm chocolate all baked in a small cup/bowl with a side of vanilla ice-cream. The cold ice cream really brings a contrast to the warm chocolate. Truly a must try if you have a sweet tooth and an insurance policy.

Nice relaxing atmosphere for a chill out session but will I go again to try the main menu this time? Definitely, yes but I’ll have to save before I go first otherwise this student writer will be eating grass and riding a cat driven cart to campus for classes. Unless somebody wanna foot the bill of course. XD

]]> http://clowonline.com/2009/10/23/lunch-in-the-apartment/feed/ 5 http://clowonline.com/2009/10/15/the-agave-experience-fronteras/ http://clowonline.com/2009/10/15/the-agave-experience-fronteras/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:27:35 +0000 clow http://clowonline.com/?p=845 I’m a guy who loves spicy food. I’m also a guy who really enjoys spicy food that will make you stop, drop and roll with your mouth thinking that it was actually on fire. I’m always up for the next burning hot challenge and then I stumbled upon a blog post by a certain local celebrity blogger by the name of Kenny Sia who tried having some Hanabero chilli peppers at a Tex-Mex restaurant in PJ.  The place was called Frontera’s and its where I had my first Agave Experience.

Frontera’s located at JayaOne along Jalan University in Petaling Jaya not too far from University Hospital. Situated at a cozy corner of Jaya One among all the other eateries was quite comfortable for us as we decided to sit outside dining alfresco style. Due to complete randomness and may I say boredom I took the opportunity to organize a small testosterone challenge for a guys to separate the men from the *cough*ladies*cough*. The challenge was to consume Frontera’s infamous Killer Spicy Hanabero Chicken Wings without drinking water in which the first one who do losses. Yes, we behave like little children sometimes. XP

To be perfectly frank, the Killer Spicy Hanabero Chicken Wings was spicy indeed but not as tongue melting as we expected it to be. Maybe being Malaysian consuming heavily spiced and spicy food all this years might had screwed up our taste buds. I personally quite enjoyed the chicken wings but since we were sharing I felt it wasn’t enough. But alas, I have to keep my stomach available for the main course. Sean had the Chili Con Carde and cheese enchiladas, KCLee had the chicken enchiladas, Silencers the chilli cheeseburger, while I had the beef enchiladas beef special cheese chilli beef burritos a regular beef burritos. Almost everything I wanted to order was so good they ran out of it. Fuck my life.

According to Klue Magazine Frontera was voted in having the best Margarita in town and I would have to agree with that judgment. I had the Horny Margarita. It was sweet and refreshing and it doesn’t leave a bad aftertaste in my mouth like most Margarita. It was so refreshingly good they are the only place apparently that serve in in jugs. Definitely, a hit with the ladies.

Horny Margaritas made from Hornitos Tequila

The food was good. Once Sean’s Chill Con Carne arrived the rest of us went digging into his food cause it looked so damn good and we were blown away at the very first bite by the spice and fragrance of the beef. It is a definite must have on a first try.

Chilli Con Carne

If someone ask you “Can I has cheezeburger?” just say yes and point him to what Silencers had. A huge chunk of tender beef patty topped up with cheese and chilli served together with a side of homemade fries. Simply delicious.

Frontera's chilli cheeseburger

The cheese enchiladas, chicken enchiladas, and burritos is served with some spiced Mexican rice and frijoles refritos (Refried beans). I just wished I could have tried the beef enchiladas

Cheese Enquiladas

Chicken Enquiladas

Beef Burritto

The Hanabero Chicken Wings is truly a must try. They serve the the wings with a few spicy level choices like in Nandos but if you think you can handle the heat try the KILLER type. We had it and we had a blast.

Killer Spicy Hanabero Chicken Wings

We met Larry the owner of the place after our meal to talk to him about Frontera and we had an educating night about tequila and all its intricacies. Fronters serves only pure 100% Agave Tequilla and we can clearly see and taste why. Usually when served tequilla most places have salt or lime to go with it. Its so that the crappy taste can be masked. Most tequilla served is not 100% Agave tequilla and is only about 60% pure. The other 40% is mix with anything the producer wants.

I really recommend this place should you have the urge to try some authentic Tex-Mex fare with some wonderfully good Tequila.

As a side note, we also took the manly raw hanabero chili pepper challenge among ourselves. Suffice to say it was a tie between me and KCLee. *cue evil laughter*

Everyone takes a slice each, chew 7 times or more then swallow. Last one standing wins. It was a draw between KCLee and me.

P/s: Apparently, Tequilla does not contain a certain chemical unlike all alcoholic drinks that gives a you a hangover in the morning when you drink too much of it. SALUT!!! XD

Pics courtesy of KCLee and omoshiroi.org.

The whole concept part is unique and comprising 2 stories of eating and display space it really is nice to see such design and creative works on display. It honestly had a few stuff that I find as very interesting. The pictures show for themselves.

However, what really disappointed me was the food and drinks. To sum it up in a word. SHIT. Yeaps, you heard me right. It taste like small portions of defecation arranged nicely on my plate. Not only was the portion disappointingly sad it was bloody expensive as well. I ordered the ‘Sauteed Spaghetti’ and it got mowed down in 30secs flat. Yes, I even timed myself. The girls I went with ordered Korean Noodles which was basically instant Korean noodles with 2 sausages and some vegetable cooked in it and also a Nasi Lemak Ayam Rendang. The instant Korean noodles used wasn’t even a good brand. It was a little bit spicy but tasteless and would have insulted Koreans themselves. If this was North Korea I think the cook would be placed in a concentration ‘re-education camp* for this insult. The Nasi Lemak barely survive the food test and was just ‘edible’.

The drinks was too sweet and my pot of peppermint tea was tasteless. It was so tasteless I had to ask for sugar which did not come together with the tea separately. Here’s the kicker, the waitress looked stumped when i requested for sugar like the concept of putting sugar in plain tea was foreign to her. Heck, she came back with a couple of small sugar packets  you find at starbucks or in hotels for me and did not even give me a teaspoon to stir it with. I mean come on! ITS PEPPERMINT TEA!!! NOT GREEN TEA OR JASMINE TEA OR YOUR STANDARD CHINESE FREAKING TEA DAMMIT!!! *Huff huff* *Ehem* This bring me to the point of this short review where I say the service pretty much sucked. It didn’t suck too much actually but its still wasn’t up to par to what I’m paying through my nose for.

This was my 2nd time eating at Fullhouse, the first being my sister’s birthday and I though my tastebuds had to be used to the taste of their sweet black pepper sauce or their sweet cream sauce on their food. Bleh. Some food goes well with others and vise-versa but this time I could clearly confirm that this place is to be avoided if you wanna have a meal. Drinks should be find if you like to acquire diabetus or have a taste for tasteless angmoh tea. Come here for the decor, take a look, take some pictures and get the fuck out. Don’t waste your money, trust me. Its not worth it.

Coming back to NiuZeXui, it really is a unique place with potential trying to establish itself within the lifestyle concept. Very interesting indeed but sadly in my opinion suffered from VERY bad location planning. Good concept, bad implementation. When I went there on a Sunday it looked completely deserted like a ghost town with all the lights off and only a few shops were open and fewer visitors to boot. It was not how it looked like the last time I was there. Scary indeed.

So, will I be going to Full house again? By myself? Not a bloody chance in hell. Unless its to go and take pictures or if they improve the quality of their food then maybe just MAYBE I’ll reconsider.

P/s: Looks like Fullhouse will be opening a branch in Sunway Pyramid. I think its gonna suck as much as the original one.

Apparently, this place also breeds semi transparent frogs for sale. Such cruelty I say.

Full review after the jump.

A(sa)-side

I took the liberty to sneak in at the end of the day event since I had no intention to pay for another ACG event not to mentioned it wasn’t worth going in after reaching at 4.30 in the bloody hot afternoon. From what I can tell and also from listening to opinions of quite a number of con goers all I can say is that it was done better than last year but not to the extend of it being completely different. It had a problem what one con goer said as ‘the Daicon syndrome’ in which the seating in front of the stage was hardly occupied when the competition was going on.

For me, I feel the arrangement of the booths and such can be arranged much better. Even though the day event was somewhat over I had to maneuver myself from one point to another between masses of tables and chairs. As usual, The Figure Mall who was present had the largest booth at the event displaying their numerous figurines. Other than the standard ACG stuff like Doujin Booths and Figurines they also had a section for cosplay photography which I greatly approve of and also a Cosplay Cafe. Although I have to admit that the cosplay photography corner was a great idea the theme, props and backdrop for certain cosplayers is just out of place. No comments for the cosplay cafe since it was already closed by the time I was there. From what I’ve heard it was so-so.

The bands who performed like Zeolite were a great addition to liven up the mood and is definitely a plus point. The air-conditioning to me was good but I can’t say the same for the sound system though. Didn’t take any pictures from the inside. Was too tired and lazy to.

B(an)-side

The night event. Oh, the night event. This was my only intention of initially showing up for TAF. With the TAF PR guy promising a spectacular event I just had to give it the benefit of the doubt. It was actually quite fun. The whole mini bon odori dance around the stage, band performances, and a stall with authentic Japanese food for sale was top points for me. Sadly, the lack of omatsuri games, stalls, and bad sound system was a minus.

HOWEVER, (yes, its in caps on purpose) for visitors to buy a RM20 coupon to purchase food and stuff from the stalls is just too much and I mean in both a figurative and literal way. Not to mentioned that not informing visitors about the coupon price earlier really pissed me off as I did not bring enough for it. Its just too pricey.

The kimono wearing slot was interesting and the mini Bon Odori was really fun. Too bad there wasn’t enough people to complete the circle around the stage though.

Small goldfishes are small...

Conclusion

I do not know the name of this band. OTL

Pros: Band performance, mini bon odori, good air conditioning, some Japanese food albeit limited, good sound system at night.

Cons: walking 3 floors up to the hall, messy hall arrangement, lack of stalls and games at night, wtf expensive coupons, NO MORE DANGOS!!!, not really good sound system in the hall, lack of signage to toilet.

Overall, other than the usual ACG convention problems it was done rather well with both ups and downs although with major improvements from last year. Hopefully, next year would be much much better.

Me and ma girls yo!!! XD

A cute bunny welcomes visitors to GACC

Review after the jump.

This year’s Games, Anime, and Comics Circle was honestly smaller than usual. The crowd was smaller partly due to the H1N1 scare but then there were various reasons as well in which you will see later. The setup was a mess due to the last minute screw up of MMU’s mismanagement forcing the committees to only prepare the hall on the day itself because of an exam from 8am-10am. The doors were finally opened at 12pm. For the first time in 2 years there was NO seiyu appearence. Shocking, Isn’t it? Well, for me it felt much calmer and relaxed compared to when there was seiyu’s appearing though. This brings back the core purpose of what GACC was first meant to be when I was involved in 2006 which was to have fun and fun it was with Zend and Krauser literally gave a killing performance as MC for the event. The crowd was entertained and that was another plus point.

Honestly, I will have to admit that the highlight of this years GACC wasn’t the event itself but in the cosplayers that attended the event. Cosplayers were an abundance at this years GACC and the quality of their costumes really showed what the local cosplayers could do when they put their mind and energy at it. The Code Geass anime cosplay group was hueg huge literally dominating the entire day 1. I heard that the group was supposed to be bigger but due to various epidemic reasons that prevented the entire cast from forming. (Writer goes into OTL mode right here…)

The cosplay competition was well done with a spice of craziness. The first day’s group cosplay competition was started off with one of the best cosplay sketch I’ve seen to date. Kudos to the Code Geass group for a job well done. The second day of competition was ramped up a notch with the MC’s personally handling the competition with random sketches, trials and laughter to test the cosplayer’s ability to improvise and creativeness.

Photography taken within the exam hall was a breeze. Literally. With good lighting there wasn’t a need for this writer to use his non-affortable non-existant imaginary flash unit to take picutres. The air-conditioning was trying its best to accommodate the visitors but there are times where it just wasn’t powerful enough. This particular problem has nothing got to do with the committees. MMU should just really get their systems upgraded. There were complains about a lack of dustbins a.k.a rubbish disposal facilities which were again part of a normal mysterious unsolvable problem for almost all ACG events that I have been to. Its a conspiracy by the mysterious underground secret organization the Global Trash United I tell you.

The Dragonball group’s presence was clearly felt on Day 2 while Vocaloid turnout was especially high for both days. Now with that done I’m gonna start the “lets be totally frank” part of the review. The chibi omatsuri promised was so small it was an utter disappointment. People left immediately just after arriving.  There was no food vendors for which starving visitors were clearly irritated about. The middle eastern food place near the exit was a killer since it killed many wallets with its exorbitant pricing. There was only some ice drink thingy at the entrance of the hall together with EMiNA Cyber selling some awesome delicious Edo and Dai approved food for cosplay champions uber puddings which I help sell for both days. The lack of basic plain drinking water was solved by the latter on Day 2.

Some administration matters such as registration and stuff were clearly a mess. There were no announcement of the cancellation of the Taiko Drum arcade machine and the tags for the competitions were apparently missing for some unknown reason. Certain rules such as ‘no taking pictures in front of the doujin booth’ were not enforced by the security team. The extension hall was empty and under utilised. The figurine displays were in a lack of a better word ’sad’. With only a small amount of figurines on display(although of very good quality) and the terrible lighting of the extension hall it would be better if it was placed in the main hall instead. At least it wouldn’t look so empty.

Overall, with the amount of last minute changes and problems it was done quite well looking at the circumstances. The cohesiveness of the working committees working together and having fun a the same time was truly something that I had envisioned long ago and thus very jealous at. There is still room for improvement seeing how most of the original members of GACC have already graduated *glares at a certain Edo*. I’m truly glad that I was able to attend this years GACC. It was more cheerful and relaxed for me. Although there were certain crap along the way it was certainly worth my time. I’m looking forward to next year’s GACC. but I do hope they would work harder in having it in March again.

As usual, I always get some spoils of war from GACC and this GACC is no exception. So here’s the complementary pic of what I call as a technology demonstrator. My metamo Haruhi. The bunny costume changes colour according to room temperature. Too bad we do not get below 16 degrees celcius though. I had to put it in the fridge to see it change to black then imagine your mom start asking questions when she opens the freezer to find a figurine in it. Hilarity follows. XD

For the past month or so Kadokawa has been producing short 5 min webisodes on youtube based on the Haruhi franchise called ‘The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan Suzumiya’. Using more chibified characters with a comedic story each episode(ala 4koma) that has no connection whatsoever to the main show. Voiced by the same original voice actors there’s a certain amount of quality that you can expect. Heck, its even subbed in english.

I like it. I really really do. Its so overly cute its a crime. With Asahina, Yuki and Achakura(yes, i spelled that correctly) having the highest cuteness-till-death ratio its a shame that’s its only 5 minutes long. I like the whole relationship part between Yuki ans Achakura. Hard to explain but you’ll get it once you see it.

But that’s not all though. Kadokawa has been releasing another work on youtube based on the same work. Called ‘Nyoron Churuya-san’ its a 2mins webisode based on a 4koma manga on the really minor side character Tsuruya. It was first a meme and now thanks to this I can’t help it but stop to say Nyoron~~ once in a while.

What’s next? A Haruhi Suzumiya stage production? Nyoron~

P/s: “this year” = year 2008 and not 2009. Remember, I cannot read the future nor take pictures of things that may come. XD

Comic Fiesta this year was held at the Sunway Pyramid Convention Center which was a massive venue if you compared it to the last one held at Time Square in 2007. This year I volunteered as one of Comic Fiesta’s photographer and damn it was fun. The Comic Fiesta committee this time around manage to get all 3 halls of the convention center which in all sense cost a bomb and it includes multiple arms, legs, and first born too i guess.The ticket price however was higher than last year with a 50% increase from RM10 to RM15 but I understand it is to cover up the cost lah.

There was about 80 doujin booths opened this time, 20 more than last year. The sponsor booth were many but some smaller sponsors were hidden away in the sides making it difficult to spot them. However it can be seen that the biggest sponsor was HP which obviously had the biggest booth there.

The quality of cosplayers this time was superb. Influence by Singaporean cosplayers? Well, it doesn’t really matter as this time there were many Singaporeans who came up to participate in this event. That goes to show how big this event had become after so many years. I was not there for most of day 2 of the event so I couldn’t see how the cosplay competition proceeded but I heard that the ‘cosplay battle chess’ method was removed entirely to the relieve of both cosplayers and visitors alike.

Due to legality I cannot post most of my event pictures up yet so you’ll have to be satisfy with some cosplay pictures instead. Look out for the last picture in the end. Its my best picture of the year and my favorite in more ways than one.

Pon Pon Patapon!!!

Miyavihoney and her lil’ sis. I do hope that she is not scared for life now…

My boss. Mintos-chan.

This is what you call an ‘opportunist’ in business.

This girls are from Singapore. Welcome to Malaysia!

Sieg HEIL!!!

Akiko = Seras

Miyavihoney is fast despite of her size.

Anna please don’t shoot me!!!

ElderG is ZETSUBOU DESHITA!!!!!

One thing that I’m really proud of is these pictures I took on day 1. The cloudy sky made some pretty good effects for me and Aoshi88. It might not be as good as a professionals but hey if its good for me then its good enough. Special thanks to Akiko for modeling for us.

It really was unfortunate that I could not stay for the entire day for day 2 at Comic Fiesta. It was and could be an even awesome time too if not for work. See you next year(in 2009 lah).