20th L'Anniversary L'Arc-en-Ciel WORLD TOUR 2012 LONDON

Well the L'arc~en~ciel concert came and went like a flash. It was how everyone put it, "Amazing", they played to a big audience which managed to scream out every time one of the members muttered a word of English. They certainly do know how to wow a crowd of what appeared to be mostly made up of girls, which is unsurprising since their fan-base consists mostly of them. However to appeal to that their concerts never leave without the inevitable fan-service of banana throwing and gift showing, in this case Ken had bought some underwear for Tetsuya that had the London Tube map on lol

I'm not exactly sure why they didn't make the same impact on me as they did back 2008 in Paris. I guess it comes down to a lot of different things. The venue wasn't exactly the best place to hold the concert, well, only for the people on the ground floor. The balcony however was different, if you hated heights I don't think you would've enjoyed having to elevate yourself anymore just to see the band, but even still it was difficult to see the front of the stage. Hence why they made use of that giant ass screen behind them. Another thing I wanted to point out, but I'm unsure about, is that it felt like the concert went by very quickly. A lot of their songs were back to back and I'm sure when I was in Paris they spent a lot more time talking to the crowd. Either way at the end of the day I enjoyed it lots I just wish they stayed longer and had a better venue to play at.

One thing that pleased me though was they played one of my fave songs, 'Hitomi no Jyuunin', now that managed to send good tingles down my spine. God only knows what would've happened if they played 'Jyojyoushi' (叙情詩) my brain might've exploded from pure satisfaction lol

Photos are here nyan~

Anyways enough of this malarkey, it's time for bed zzz

Setlist :
01. いばらの涙 [ibara no namida]
02. CHASE -english ver-
03. GOOD LUCK MY WAY
04. HONEY
05. DRINK IT DOWN
06. REVELATION
07. 瞳の住人 [Hitomi no Juunin]
08. XXX -english ver-
09. DAYBREAK'S BELL
10. forbidden lover
11. MY HEART DRAWS A DREAM
-ken's MC-
12. SEVENTH HEAVEN
13. Driver's High
14. STAY AWAY
15. READY STEADY GO
-encore-
16. あなた[anata]
17. winter fall
18. Link
-hyde's MC-
19. 虹 [Niji]

Binary Effect

So the majority of my week has been up until, Thursday evening? Pretty damn boring to say the least. Can't really say much for work, other than I have just but one day of it tomorrow, which shouldn't be so bad since it's a short shift. Aside from the dull side of my life I have taken some time to think about what I want to do with my education, and I think I've settled on it, even though their may not be a change in the progress. Procrastination is one thing I have to deal with, but making the right choice on what path to choose for my studies, I think I have this one nailed down (for now).So, am I going back to uni? To rack up another giant tuition fee? No thanks! Have I found another online course that I'm thinking about purchasing? Nope, they seem dated and more suited for beginners. Sure that doesn't mean I'm a pro or anything like that, I just think that learning more than you should know is time wasting, and trying to finish for a qualification could be pointless. Most of the time companies will only see that as half of what they want, until they ask you of your experience in the field which you may not be able to provide. I can't say this'll get me anywhere, but it's worth a shot and I feel like I'm on the right track at the moment. Just gotta find out where to purchase some more motivation >.>;

Apart from thinking optimistically, I've squeezed in some gaming this week which is quite unlike me these days. What's on the menu? Well since Mass Effect 3 is out this month, I'd thought it was time to revive the play-through and begin playing the first game again, but this time however it'd be on my PC and not my 360. I'm aiming to barrel my way through the game in order to catch up with the latest one, and from what I'm hearing it's gotten itself some pretty good reviews. But then again when has Mass Effect ever gone wrong? Next to that I've taken the reigns to a recent title under the name of Binary Domain, which in my opinion is like Japan's take on Gears of War. Not just down to the design but also the feel and look of the gameplay. In any case the game so far has been pretty good, the cutscenes are quite amazing and the controls do what they're supposed to. However a game doesn't come without it's flaws, and I can be a picky person when it comes to that. Choose your team members? Listen I don't really care for making decisions for others in games like this, only in RPGs I suppose. Having to decide who to gear and level up can be a bit of a pain when you just want to deal with yourself and get to the end of the level as soon as possible. And that's no joke, this game has some lengthy chapters. It would be nice if they were chopped down into smaller ones so I could save more often and not feel the need to take a break every now and then. My only major frustration with the game though is of course, the A.I. And with a relationship system in place you gotta be careful where you shoot. Sometimes you just can't trust your other squad members to not stick their ass in your line of sight. Ah well, maybe this means there will be multiple endings in this game depending on who you do and don't get along with? I shouldn't really be saying so much since I've only just gotten into the game, but I will say more later as I progress through. That is until SSX arrives.... if it ever arrives... douchebag.

Someone sell me an Asus 1015PX for a reasonable price already! I can't stand to lose another Ebay auction for one of those. Don't make me go and buy an iPad for the family! ;_;

So like....I'm.... tired

[Mmmm... Tempura Yakisoba]

One day, just one more day and I can kick my feet up and rest. I ain't gonna say anything more as I'm half asleep. Heck, what caused me to start typing up a post at this time? Enough! Here have some photos of Hyper Japan 2012: Flickr

Adios!

Technology

Yes, that my friends is my old PSU which I removed from my PC the other day. It's been about two since I built my new PC and I'm already in the process of making a new one. In my general experience with PSUs this is the second time I've had one that's gone faulty on me. Both of them kept making a loud groaning sort of sound, and when I checked them further, the fans weren't spinning at the fullest which made me think that they could've been incredibly dusty inside. As far as I can remember, the first one I cleaned but experienced further problems which would often bring my PC to restart on its own. As for the one I've had up until now, I decided to put it to rest so I could start dissecting it *evil laughter* There wasn't that much dust inside at all, so that led me to believe the issue with at the axial of the fan. If I was patient enough I would've applied some WD40 to see if they would fix it, however I was far to eager to get rid of it and start using the new Corsair PSU I've had waiting for about a month. So either way it's gone now and I'm up from 550w to a nice 850w.. can't say much about the noise level though, it's still the same :(

On a side note I got myself a new soundcard, the ASUS Xonar DG. It didn't cost me that much at all, and does the job (well sorta) I had no trouble at all when using my Senn's on it, however it did take me a short while to get the configuration right for my Astro's to be used. But I still can't seem to get my speakers to work with it, so for now they've staying plugged into my mobo. And to add another problem besides that, the mic on my Astro's isn't functioning like it's use to. Gah! These problems I'll have to sort out on my days off as I have no time when I've got work tiring me out.

Well time to get ready for another exhausting day!

Happy Fitness New Year

I can be pretty inconsistent with things and at times wish I weren't, but hey, that's me. Maybe one day I'll listen to myself and actually stick to a schedule for things that should be kept in order, or I should keep on top of. Like this blog for example, or my exercise routine! Yeah, I'm starting to get back into the swing of it and it's tough, but the reminder that helps me through is I don't have to go all out like some people say. "You should be sweating buckets!" or "50 sit ups? Just keep going until you get tired." Which is a nice train of thought... for the impatient. I can see why people come out looking like Mr. Universe in just over a month, but even they need to follow a healthy eating style for that period. And that's my current problem, saying no to sweet foods. Heck, I recently just did a small workout and then a while after ate a piece of cake. Yes I know it's not right, I shouldn't have had anything to eat after and just stuck to my bottle of Evian.

What am I gonna do with this box of beer under my bed that's going out of date in 5 days time?! Chug chug or glug glug? (The last one is it going down the drain)

Eurogamer 2011 & LCW

Seeing as I have time to scribble my thoughts down here, I thought I'd take advantage of it before little old me has to get ready for work. And also I've been nagging myself to get this out of the way. Knowing me I'd just have this feeling in the back of my mind that there's something I need to do, and speaking for everyone on this, no one would want that whilst they're at work. Well it seems work hasn't got any busier, although for me it has and I'll be needed over the coming few weeks, since London Cocktail Week will be upon us this coming Oct 7th. Sounds exciting indeed but with the amount of money we know it'll generate, it's going to be a killer of fortnight no doubt. However in the time before that I've been thinking positively about creating my own cocktail.. with some actually reasoning behind it lol. Referring to the picture above is a fruit based drink which I layered with cream. The only downside to it is my concoction is still in the early stages and may end up being a completely different drink altogether. My inspiration came from another cream layered cocktail which I like, called a White Russian. This consists of coffee liquer (Kahlua) and vodka which is built over ice in a tumbler. Sadly this idea didn't bode well with mine, so I opted to use no ice and put it in a Martini glass. My only struggle at the moment is to know what ingredients I should be using and how much cream I should put. I put far too much cream in for me to actually enjoy my concept, but as I said, it's still early days. However my friend at work who is a good bartender himself, came across the idea of mixing Midori (melon liquer) and Koko Kanu (coconut rum) to create such an amazing fluke. Wish I had the knack for coming up with stuff like that, without having to put too much thought into it. In any case... TOO MUCH WORK TALK! ARGH!

Eurogamer 2011, you came and you went! You were such a delightful exhibition to be at but sadly at the same time, you came to be quite a disappointment for me. Surprisingly the games that I didn't really have my eye on all the much, did actually turn out to be very good. Counter Strike GO was difficultly.. fun? I don't think it's quite suited for a console as we were playing it on the PS3, but since that was my first time in a long time to play a CS game, I knew I would get my ass handed to me in no time. Although I did feel compelled enough to want to reinstall Source and give that another go.

Sonic Generations was such an enjoyable demo, I tried out both the classic and modern Sonic and saw no reason not to like this game at all. My only concern is that the game will be far too linear for me to want it on release, but at least I know I'll have a quality title waiting for me once it hits the bargain bin. Damn you SEGA for releasing a collectors edition that I want but can't afford!

The first title I got to try though which I didn't intend on, was Skyrim. Being someone who has never played an Elder Scrolls game, I felt really immersed in the vast open world, as the orchestral music struck my ears like a beautiful girl whispering into your ear lol For a game of it's magnitude I was really impressed by how well it played on the Xbox 360, although there were some notable flaws such as the occasional freezing and graphical textures, but then again I was playing on a huge screen with my face not even one metre away. Truthfully I was sold on it and I may actually decide to get it upon release.

Scheiße! I gotta get ready for work! I'll update the rest later!

[8 hours later]

So freaking tired...

Anyways as for the disappointments concerning Eurogamer, um I was rather let down by the one game I had my sights on, which was SSX. Having not played an SSX game in ages I completely guessed what the controls might be upon picking the pad up. Sadly they weren't to my liking as I assumed the trick buttons would be at the top rather then on the side, and to make things worse the course I was on didn't even last me a minute. But during that short minute I did notice something else, and that is crashing in the game is quite hard to do. Every snowy path you take, whether it be ceiling or wall is pretty much landable. Anyhow I'm hoping that I get another go before the games released in January.

To add to that, I wasn't able to try out the PS Vita in time. With the lines stretching out far I thought I'd leave it until later on, which was a bad mistake as I lost track of time. And as I approached the line we were kindly dismissed as they had stopped allowing people to line up around 10 minutes before. Just my luck aye?

I'm also sad that there weren't enough t-shirts or goodie bags to go around. But that was due to me not getting my ass there on time to get them! Lesson learned, if you want free stuff, be the early bird.

And that pretty much wraps up the most of Eurogamer 2011. See you in a years time!

Missing out on something?

Tonight is a very lonely and quiet night, as your man in London sits here sipping on his Evian water bottle whilst his friends are out at a local buffet, chowing down to meaty good times and jajaja'ing over how a certain noodle-poodle isn't there to join them. *twitches in rage* But no, in all seriousness if I were to rage about anything my dear friends, it would be THIS. How can you not market that enough and expect to tell people at the VERY-LAST-MOMENT?! Hell, my friend who seems to be more aware about these events only managed to come across it through one measly Facebook ad, as no where else even had a clue about it! Surely it's nothing to get your feathers all ruffled up for, as the playlist is nothing spectacular, but even still I wouldn't be sitting here blogging about how I missed it! sigh. Oh well, it's not like I'm missing out on any other concerts this year. Derp.

Not long to go now until Eurogamer Expo breaks down my door, kidnaps me and holds me hostage at Earls Court. I'm going to love every single moment of it and there's nothing no one can do to stop me! In any case I know this is pretty short of an entry, but I'd rather not have to talk about the past couple of months of procrastinating, filled with personal and worldly events which half the world is already aware of. But yeah, IN ANY CASE, time to lavish myself with some Deus Ex~