A Couple of Final Fantasy Type 0 Tracks

Love these two tracks ...

Some Toe Exercising

Don't get me wrong, I don't really have a fetish for toes ;o)- but they have been a subject of fascination lately because of my inability to fan or spread them out. Actually, having practised yoga for close to five years now I'm able to fan out my toes on my right foot a bit more while it's still close to impossible on my left foot. Thanks to the Internet, I found someone else (an author named Bruce Black) who shares my exact "problem":

http://journalpractice.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/spreading-my-toes/

I've always noticed my older brother could spread out his toes really wide but when I try to do it, nothing happens. At one point I was wondering whether that has anything to do with my (dumb) brain but it turns out I'm just not aware of some muscles that are linked to the movements (flexion/curling, extension, abduction and  adduction) of the toes. According to Black, I just need to keep exercising them to, eventually, be able to feel and gain control of the muscles. This guy actually went through some similar (yoga) experiences as me so have just downloaded his book Writing Yoga onto my Kindle. Can't wait to read it!  

A Serious Practice

It's known as the Primary Series, which is a fixed set of sequence practised by Ashtanga yogis. Tonight, I attended a full series (hence, 90 mins) class, which is a real challenge for me given some of the poses require a) flexibility in the hips and hamstrings b) strong core/ bandha:

While this lifting body off the ground (and jumping through) looks effortless (video), trust me, it's NOT. It requires a lot of core power!

But the first hurdle of tonight's session was to put aside one's ego especially when I was surrounded by yogis who have already mastered the various skills and techniques in Ashtanga. Normally I would just take my glasses off so I wouldn't be able see what was going on around me and to focus more on the Self. But tonight I had to look at what other people were doing (I am not familiar with the sequence) so it was hard not to compare and get annoyed with Self. 

But despite the difficulties in getting into some of the poses and the frustration, the practice was really worth it cos I felt, physically, great afterwards. And I am going back fore more this weekend ...

48 hours Later ... Body feels "re-born" though triceps a bit sore because of all the up and down dog (and lack of exercise!)... so I'm certainly taking more classes this week

Meteor-ite

So, that was pretty scary what happened over in Russia a couple of days ago ~>

And it, somehow, reminds me of Terra in Final Fantasy Dissidia who has this move called ... Meteor ~>

Best Wishes

恭喜發財，蛇年精神行好運!!

Happy & Healthy Year of the Snake! 

On the first day of a new Lunar Calendar, I've been thinking about, and marveling, the miracle of Life again. Isn't it amazing that human life/civilisation has evolved to/become what it is today? This "miracle" is something that I don't take for granted ~ even though we live it everyday.

Millions of years ago our "ancestors", the dinosaurs,  were practically wiped off by an asteroid (though scientific evidence now suggests their extinction probably started long before that) ... but against all odds, over the past god knows how many year, the homo sapiens has evolved to become, like, us today. And here I am, sitting here blogging using the latest technology, which is the direct result of human intelligence. It's totally fascinating. In fact, we could be alien forms, i.e. not native to this earth, that landed here millions of years ago through some cosmic chance ~ who knows.

The coming year, I shall continue to appreciate this miracle -- and video games, yoga and my other hobbies -- every day.

Agito Tower

Uh-OH! It's Palace of the Dead (Tactics Ogre) all over again!!! Just realised that in Final Fantasy Type-0, there is this massive dungeon that has, like, six floors, with 100 monsters on EACH floor (!!); but if defeated, I'd get some really, really cool equipment/accessories (like gives me 0 MP cost!!!). I can see myself going through this video game Hell -- just as I did with PotD -- I'm now looking at at least 200 hours of play time!!!

Game Fever

Regular followers of this blog (err, me) have commented (verbally) that I've been writing too much about the games I play lately (where is all the tech and yoga stuff?) In truth, am going through a video-game-craze phase right now (ed: the past 18 months?). There were days, no, Years, when I left my PSP console (I used to have a second generation Japanese-made edition until it got pickpocket-ed) gathering dust inside some cardboard box and let all the Final Fantasy titles passed me by. 

Then came Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, which got me back into playing my PSP quite obsessively (the last time I played for a longer period of time was probably Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core and the two Dissidia titles; oh, and maybe Gravity Rush (for PSVita), which got kinda boring after the novelty wears out). My friend is still playing TO: LUCT, which I might return to later ... 

That was followed by Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention (which was okay), Persona 4: the Golden (very good but kinda short) and Uncharted the card game, which I enjoyed but is to be played with Uncharted: the Golden Abyss RPG, which I have no interest in starting (the graphics look so ugly). There were other unmemorable games (including Dynasty Warriors: Next and Hatsune Miku Project Diva f, which were fun for, like, a couple of weeks). 

Final Fantasy: Type-0 is the latest, which I'm really into it right now despite not understanding a single word. It started to get interesting (gameplay-wise) towards the end of my first playthrough and now second playthru. Despite it being in Japanese (with no English or Chinese translation), it's gripping enough to have kept me up until 2am the other night/morning (for the finale of first playthru).  There is much to explore (and I haven't even started messing around with those Summons yet) ... my next target is to get Machina this super-duper ability (which means some heavy grinding for APs) ...

The thing is, I don't think there are any interesting PSP/PSVita releases (for me, anyway) at least first half of this year (I've been monitoring their new releases table!)... and the console is quickly losing popularity (there was once a time when I saw people playing it everywhere; today, app games have taken over and people  do prefer more exciting games, like, pushing-the-cookies ...) It's a vicious circle: gamers stop playing PSP games, PSP game producers make fewer games, and more gamers desert the console.

Which is pretty sad. But for now, I will seek console (is that a pun?) in Type0 ... only I am stuck in one mission that I canNOT complete ... where are those YouTube walkthroughs when you need one?  

Final Fantasy Type-0 (Report 4)

Am half way through the last "dungeon" (Cid's Trial/Judgement) in final chapter. Once this is done, then I can begin second playthrough, which I'd read is A LOT more fun than first playthru ... so am really looking forward to that. The thing is I think there are better ways to play my characters (so much to explore with Ace, for instance) and I wanna try them out. And I will start doing those requests/special quests and extra missions to get better (much better) items ... Mwahahaha ....

Otherwise known as the Boobie Woman

Baddie or not?

Attended two Hot Yoga classes this week (Ashtanga style) and really enjoyed them. I totally LOVE any session that opens the hips. I can see why people say a lot of emotions are locked up in that area ... it does feel liberating once those hips are "opened and unlocked" ...